The mysteries of farm life

(The bees need some weed-eating around the hives, but I can't get any volunteers to do that.  Guess that means I'll be suiting up!)

Who knows what our weird Sadie is thinking there?  I certainly don't.  I'm guessing she was scouting for a mouse under the blackberry canes or maybe watching a bird stealing some berries. She sat there for a long time, in the drizzling rain and then just got down and walked away.

Sure enough

(There's no one home.)

Yes, they've gone....sometime early Saturday.  I missed the actually departure scene, but I knew within a very short time that they had headed south.  I'll miss them chattering over me while I work in the garden and seeing them glide about the fields, catching bugs as they go.  The actual departure date is on the calendar for the first time ever.  I can't help wondering how far they've traveled and how many of them will survive the long journey. 

Bye-bye birdies

They've not gone yet, but I can tell they'd be packing their suitcases, if they did such things.  The Purple Martins are preparing for their long journey to South America.  The fledglings came out of the nest boxes a few weeks ago and are building up their flying skills to make the long flight.   Several years ago, I gave Mike a Martin house for Valentine's Day and, if I do say so myself, it's been a most enjoyed gift.  We put it up early in the spring close to the date written on the calendar (from the previous year's notes) and wait for the scouts to show up before uncovering the openings to the nest boxes. (The openings are covered to keep the sparrows and blasted starlings from moving in.)  Once we see the scouts, the coverings come off and the rest of the flock shows up in a day or so.  I love the fact that those returning birds are coming home, back to where they were hatched, to build their nests and have their own babies.

This was a good year for the Martins, I think because we've had a mostly pleasant summer, without the heat and dryness of the last several years.  Right now there's a bumper crop of young birds practicing swooping and gliding around over the farm.  The nest box sits high above my garden and I love to hear them chirping and chattering up there and often, in the evenings when I'm coming back from the last barn check, when I walk past the nest box, I can hear them shuffling around inside their cozy rooms.  I'm trying to pay extra close attention this year.  Usually, because I'm so accustomed to seeing and hearing them, I don't notice the exact day they aren't there anymore.  This year I'm going do my best to have a departure date to write on the calendar.

Garden daze

I have finally figured out what my gardening problem has been for the last several years.  It's heat - pure and simple.  I can't stand the heat, so I just don't go out there and spend much time working at maintaining order.  Okay, to be honest, I already knew that.  I have boundless enthusiasm for the garden in early spring and in the fall, and can hardly stand to walk through it in the middle of summer.  I realized this anew last Sunday when I was out there in the lovely 70-ish degree temperature, weeding, pulling out spent plants and preparing some beds for fall planting.  I spent hours toiling away and was so happy to be doing it.  At least for this very moment, the weeds have been beaten into submission.  I'm not delusional enough to think it will last long, but I'm just so pleased to have accomplished it.

Besides the weeding and bed preparation, I've been in the kitchen making pickles (bread and butter and dill), pesto from my basil and several batches of blackberry jam.  Maybe another post on that later.   We are still waiting on the first tomatoes to ripen, so there is much work ahead with freezing those.  Though the peacock has done some unauthorized harvesting and the Japanese beetles are now thick in the blackberries, I'm feeling more successful than I have in many years.