Birds & Views

I was out behind the barn washing the leafy green veggies and herbs this morning watching the barn swallows swoop over the pond getting bugs and bringing them back to their babies in the barn. It was a nice sight. The swallows were a bit perturbed that I was standing kind of in front of their doorway but would make it in to feed their progeny. We did not have barn swallows at the Crubaugh Rd farm because we had no barns. Farming without a barn is not an easy task and I don't know how we got along for over 10 years. I guess we just didn't know what we were missing and made do with what we had. Namely a house stuffed full of farming paraphernalia and no good place to do the cleaning and packing chores. We also had 2 Small sheds stuffed to the rafters with tillers, crates, row covers, irrigation tape, a forge, tools, hoes, chicken feed, fire wood, mowers, seed starting flats, compost, peat moss, flower pots, chicken crates, plastic sheeting for hoophouses, hoophouse supports, wire row cover hoops and many other items. Enough items to pretty much fill up a large bank barn. I do not know how we managed to cram all that stuff into the limited space we had but we did. I am so glad we now have enough space to do what we do for a living.

I am glad we own our own land and that we have such a pretty piece of land, at that. We have one of the most beautiful views I have ever encountered. We are on a high point (the top of the 40' pitch) and see our pond, our hillside covered with wildflowers, day lilies (we brought them from the old place) and waving grass. Beyond that is undulating terrain and large trees. It is simply spectacular and it changes constantly with the seasons and time of day.

And this varied terrain brings in a wide variety of birds. We have a bluebird family, chimney swifts, a kingfisher, many humming birds, several kinds of sparrows, grackles, turkey and black vultures, robins, blue jays, crows, many kinds of hawks, peregrines, chickens (oh wait, those are not wild), tree swallows, chickadees, cardinals, nuthatches, etc.. I suspect we will get ever more birds as they figure out we do not use poisons on our land and we leave areas tall and wild so there is a food supply for the wild life

Nature Babies

We put up a bluebird box earlier this spring and within 2 weeks we had a pair of bluebirds living in it and brooding a clutch of eggs. Today I went out with camera in hand and got this shot of the babies

A praying Mantis egg case in the process of hatching out mini mantises. If you look closely at the bottom right of the case you can see one of the mini mantises (sort of). Unfortunately for the mantises there are several spiders in the winter savory where this case is located and have already gotten one of them.

Harbingers of Spring

The harbingers of spring have started to return. In the past 3 days I have seen 2 killdeer, a soaring black vulture (I have seen this bird every day around 11am flying over the farm) and hundreds of robins taking advantage of the plowed garden beds (our soils are jammed packed with many kinds of earthworms). I have yet to see any redwinged blackbirds yet but they like to wait until it is a bit warmer.

The maple tree in back of the house is just beginning to get swollen leaf buds. I was at a friend's house just north of Oxford yesterday and the trees at her house looked like they would be leafing out in 10 days or so-the leaf buds were BIG and she said the ephemeral green haze that appears in late winter was already there. But the green haze has not yet come up this far north and probably won't for another couple of weeks.

But spring will be here soon enough and than we start to get really busy with planting-both seeds started indoors and seedlings that will need to be transplanted into garden beds. We have started a few things already, heirloom lettuces, a variety of onions and leeks and soon I will get on the early tomatoes. I was going to do them the 1st of the month but it was a new moon, a bad time for planting things that grow above ground so I am now waiting for the 1st quarter and warmer weather (which luckily may well coincide if the local weather people are at all on the ball. Of course they have been covering their asses a lot lately with new forecasts every 12 hours or less)