Farm flora

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve been having fun watching all of the flowers coming up around the farm this spring. It’s been a process of discovery as I figure out what that green shoot is and what’s planted over there.

I believe this is Solomon’s Seal

Orange lilies behind the house

Snow on the mountain. This plant grows like crazy at my in-laws’ place, but I couldn’t get it to take at our old house. It turns out that the farm is home to a very robust crop.

Red Japanese maple and bright green ferns at the corner of the house

Beautiful lily of the valley. Another plant that I couldn’t get to grow at the old house.

Forget me nots (and maybe a some strawberry blossoms at the top)

Purple iris at the south side of the house

Our most common flower at the farm: the dandelion

What’s your favourite spring flower? Anyone else have a successful dandelion plantation?

Snapshot

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Reeds at the pond

New green shoots are starting to stretch up around the shore of the pond, but last year’s reeds still tower high above, their feathery tops fluttering in the wind.

An afternoon hike

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Bring your boots (and your balance)

Buds on a pink wild honeysuckle bush at the edge of the back field

A turtle covered in moss

A grassy grove at the entrance to the trail

The only frog that would hold still for a picture

An old stone wall back in the woods

A pinecone stuck to its branch

Deer tracks in the mud

A deep spot in the marsh where the stream flows through

It’s pretty cool to go for an hour and a half walk, all on my own property. There were a few moments where I wasn’t entirely sure how to get back to the house.

What did you do with your weekend? Any wildlife sightings in your neighbourhood?

Apple blossom time

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This beautiful big old apple tree sits in the middle of the west meadow, just between the house and the pond.

I’ve been watching and waiting all spring for it to blossom. And it finally has.

As I was taking the pictures, I realized that the air was full of the sound of bees as they buzzed from blossom to blossom, pollinating the blooms.

One was kind enough to oblige me by pausing long enough for a photo, although I could not convince him to pose nicely.

My grandparents owned an apple orchard and farmed it for many years. My grandmother would often talk about driving the loads of apples to the market, and Dad still tells stories of working in the orchard with my grandfather.

Someday, I’d like to have a small orchard, just for ourselves. I’d grow apples, of course, and also peaches, pears, cherries, plums and maybe even some grapes.

For now, this tree will do just fine.

Pond paddler indentified?

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We’ve not seen our furry pond paddler since the last sighting, but we now have more evidence as to what species he might be.

Felled trees by the pond

The consensus from the comments on the last post was ‘beaver,’ and the signs seem to say commenters are right.

Bite mark analysis, anyone?

Given the size of some of these trees, he’s ambitious. So far, there’s no sign of a dam or a lodge, but about half the property is wetland, so it could be anywhere really.

The farmer who’s rented our fields has started to clear out some of the horse paddocks, as we’re not going to be using them. Perhaps we should put this busy beaver (sorry) to work on our fence posts.

Putting down roots

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We inherited many, many things from previous owners when we took possession of the farm (I haven’t shown you pictures of our personal Hoarders episode yet, but I may some day).

A number of those things were plants. Sometime last year, the people we bought the farm from went out and got many, many plants, but they never planted them! Bushes, flowers, trees, shrubs, all of them were still in their plastic pots sitting on the ground in and around the areas where the front flower gardens would be if they weren’t completely overgrown with weeds.

The stockpile included 5 trees.

Our inherited trees

I have no idea how long they’d been there, but when we saw the property for the first time at the beginning of January, they were all laying on their sides, frozen into a kiddie pool (I guess an attempt to keep them alive?), and they were still there, just like that, when we took possession in March.

When the ice in the pool melted enough, Matt and I stood them upright, but they were so curvy and bent from laying down that they easily tipped over again. We propped them up with concrete blocks and checked them frequently searching for any signs of life.

A few weeks ago, we noticed buds. Finally on Sunday (fittingly, Earth Day), we made some time to plant them.

I love a tree-lined driveway, and we’re already in pretty good shape, but there are a few blank spots, so that’s where we focused our plantings.

One of our new trees. He's a little spindly right now, but the inspiration of what he can become is right behind him.

According to the tags that were tied to the trees, we have an Autumn Radiance Maple, two Unique Littleleaf Lindens, and an Autumn Blaze Maple. The fifth tree wasn’t labelled, but it looks like some kind of maple.

It's alive!

The trees make a nice addition to the farm, and planting was a very nice way to acknowledge Earth Day.

What about you? Did you do anything for Earth Day?

Snapshot

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Mossy stump on a damp morning

The idea and the title for the snapshot post comes from Joan at For the Love of a House, a beautiful blog that chronicles an inspirational and exceptionally thoughtful renovation of an antique farmhouse in New Hampshire.

Joan also has an affection for tree fungi, or, as she calls them, “conks.”

Evening at the pond

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The other night after work, I walked down to the pond. The sun was low in the sky, the shadows were long.

I saw a mallard, a fish (an honest to goodness fish, 6-8 inches long) and a red winged blackbird.

And then I saw this, and I was so excited I nearly fell into the pond.

Do you see what I see?

I managed to recover my balance and only ended up with a wet boot, which was fortunate because 1) I’m pretty sure me falling into the pond would have spooked this guy and caused him to move to another watershed, and 2) the camera would have gotten wet and then I wouldn’t have been able to take the dozen other pictures I shot.

Hello there!

My new friend was a little suspicious of the statue (once I found my stability, I wasn’t moving!) that had turned up on the shore of his pond, and he swam big ‘S’ patterns across the water as he eyed me. Eventually he decided I wasn’t that interesting and he went back to paddling and diving. I was able to track him swimming under the water by following his bubbles. At one point he climbed out of the water onto the opposite shore and I got a better look at him.

He’s a big guy! Almost 3 feet long, nice and round and very, very sleek.

I’m not sure exactly what species he is. My best guess is some kind of muskrat, although I guess beaver or otter could be a possibility. I never saw his tail clearly, so that doesn’t give me a clue.

Over the course of our farm search, the pond came on and off the must-have list. I really, really wanted a pond, but at times I was ready to sacrifice it in order to just get a farm. Now, I’m so glad we have the pond. It’s one of my favourite spots on the property. I love walking down to the water and just watching the sun glisten over the ripples, the reeds waft in the breeze and the bugs dance across the surface. Seeing this guy enjoying the pond was a complete bonus–a really special moment for me.

For the weekend, I leave you with this video of our new pond paddler.

All of you naturalists out there let me know in the comments what you think he is.

Our first deer

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Deer in the back field. Can you see them? I promise they are actually there.

One of the nice things about a holiday weekend is that you’re around to see things you wouldn’t normally see.

Last Friday morning, eagle eyes Matt spotted two deer in the back field. We walked back to get a closer look and we were actually able to get near enough to see it was a small doe and yearling.

We’ve been waiting to see deer on the property. Up to now, all we’ve seen is tracks.

I didn’t have the camera with me, so I wasn’t able to get a picture of them.

However, a trio of deer showed up in the same field on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, this group was a lot more skittish and as soon as we started to walk towards the field they took off. The photo above shows their white tails as they bounded away. If you squint really hard at the circled areas and use your imagination, you might be able to envision them there.

We’ll keep an eye out this weekend and try to get actual photo proof that deer pass through our property. What’s on your weekend wish list?

Wishing everyone a great one.

This

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Sunday morning, this arrived at the farm.

And with it came these.

Soon, there was lots of this.

And a whole bunch of this.

By Monday evening (yes, that means this exercise in lumberjacking went on for a full two days), we had this.

Hello, crackling fires on cold winter nights

A huge thanks to Matt’s Dad for all of his work, time, equipment and expertise. He took down the tree on our first weekend and then came back to help us finish the job–and do battle with two huge stumps. End result is three rows of wood, each about 16 feet long, 5 feet high, and all of it cut, split and stacked.

I love my father-in-law’s wood splitter. You might say we cheated and didn’t do it the way a real farmer would. I say it’s magic. The best invention ever.