Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Summertime on the farm

Sunday, June 21 ushered in the longest day of the year and the start of summer.

The things I love best about summer are varied.

I love the fireflies - they go about their nightly display as if on queue and greeted me Sunday evening with a dazzling display in the waning sunset and shortly there after flitting and twinkling about in the grass, my holyhocks, the wheat, the trees, everywhere.

I love sunset after 9:30 p.m. because even though I only get to see the very end, sometimes that last bit of twilight is the most beautiful as the stars in the skies start to show but the sun is still adding its glow on the horizon.  I was able to enjoy both edges of night time this way.

I love the night sky.  My most favorite night in the summer is August 12 when the Perseid meteor shower comes through and I can sit outside in the middle of the farm yard where I have no light pollution and watch the meteors fall for an hour or 2 before I make myself go to bed.

I love sun tea.  I always have some on hand and use a very old recipe that is tried and true.

I love my birthday so near the 4th of July so I can have sparklers to celebrate with.  The downside is that I can't do fireworks on my birthday if the wheat is still in the field because it might catch fire and I surely could not blow those candles out.

I love watching the wind dance through the wheat fields as it ripens and dries out the heads just before harvest.

I love the song of the summer night chorus when the crickets and birds and other bugs sing their songs together in one beautiful serenade.

I love to watch my garden grow.

I love to go to the cabin in the Rocky Mountains and unplug from the hectic daily grind, reconnect with mother nature there and find my inner peace in the sound of the wind blowing through the pines and rustling the aspen leaves in my favorite aspen grove.

The last thing I love about summer is that when it comes to a quiet close my most favorite season starts and that means pumpkins, Halloween, cool, crisp air and football games on Saturdays.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Daisy the Cattle Dog - farm work

This past weekend was supposed to be tree removal day but due to all the rain we have had in the past week to 10 days it got rescheduled because it was just not deemed dirt stable enough for a tractor and a big bucket truck required to drop a whole elm tree and manuvering to trim other trees around what will be the house location.

So instead of tree work, we continued to work on the clearing the build site.  That includes 2 more border fences that have to be removed so we worked on the longer of the two.  First was the 2 rows of barbed wire.  This was easy enough until it got to be time to roll the stuff up.  I failed barbed wire rolling and Larry took over that task as I continued to pull staples holding the fence to the posts.

 Now this is a story about Daisy - she was my supervisor the whole day as I was working on this task.  She would lay down next to the fence and watch me.  I never could get her to dig at the base of the fence post where the dirt had actually buried the bottom row of staples, but she was encouraging with lots of loving licks and shaking my hand for a job well done.  She also was busy doing border patrol to make sure no stinky varmints bothered me while I worked.  We had seen a skunk run across the county road that goes through the farm the night before.  The long fence is now rolled up and all that is left to do is pull the posts.  So progress is being made.

Daisy would also help me check on the garden growth by walking through the garden with me.  Of course, she was not as careful about where she stepped and I am sure there was more than one plant that got a paw push.  Her new responsibility is keeping rabbits out of the gardens so the plants can grow big and strong.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Serial Miller Moth Murder now. . . .

I have to admit that I am officially a serial murderer of miller moths.  Actually I have been for a long time, but I am finally ready to admit such.



They showed up the last week of May and every night I am armed with my weapon of choice - the fly swatter - and I kill every single miller moth in the house that I can find.  In the mornings I open the french doors to let cats out and there is always a cloud of millers trying to escape the safety of the door jamb where they have nestled into for the night.  Morning murders are especially fun because I have help - the meadowlarks (Kansas' official state bird) will swoop down and pick them out of the air for a tasty morning treat.

Just the other night before I went to bed there were no less than 6 in my bedroom and that is a sacred room where no miller moths are allowed to live for any length of time.  I killed 5 almost immediately as they were gathered around the door.  Easy targets really, hardly any sport in the murder spree.

Then last night it was another onslaught in my bedroom but this time I was ready for them.  I had finally found my backup fly swatter and was armed as I entered the room.  I used the bathroom light to lure them away from my bed.



They have also invaded the office and so I have a secondary murder location with dead miller moth bodies strew about.  I think it is almost time for a clean up and that will require enlisting the help of the vacuum cleaner to help me dispose of the bodies and leave no trace of them behind or the murderous carnage that I bestowed upon them.

There will be window washing and possibly curtain washing as well before the cleanup is all finished but for now I fondly look forward to the end of this season because I am just getting to old for all of this.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Farm Bureau Financial Services official pink pumpkin

Just a quick portrait update on the official FBFS pink pumpkin plant in the planter box at the office.  Just like kids they grow so fast and so I will be adding updates through the growing season here so check back on this post to watch "Pinkie's" progress.  The early baby pictures are on the other post about the gardens.  So we will watch Pinkie grow from this post from this point forward.

June 2, 2015 - friends are fun to grow with.


June 10, 2015 - Pinkie is really growing but so are his friends and it looks like we will have some more flowers soon.

June 23, almost 2 weeks later.  Pinkie has really taken over the flower planter and is spilling over onto the sidewalk.  Now comes the challenge of keeping the vine from reaching out and tripping small children.