Recent Sights

It's been a busy week at this little place here.  Not much time for blogging.  Instead, I'll post a few pics of what's been going on recently.

Tall, dark and handsome

An enormous tom turkey was sighted one morning back by the woods.  This picture is zoomed in from about 250 yards, so not the sharpest. But in it you can see that his beard extends all the way into the weeds growing in the field.  From the house, he looked black, in fact, DD1 spotted him first and for a brief second thought he was a young bear, he was so big.  Then she realized we don't have bears here (they are a few hours north at the cabin near Mother-in-Law's place) and that it must be a turkey.

new strawberry bed

I have been working on transplanting my strawberries from their neglected and out of control bed into a new area of the garden.  I now have about 250 row feet of weed- and grass-free strawberry bed.  The challenge will be keeping it that way!  (Need mulch, lots and lots of mulch. . .)

telltale black pillar of smoke

zoomed in to show more of size of area

The neighbor two properties to the north of us--1/2 mile away and across the road--did his annual burning of his field.  He owns about 40 acres, 2/3 to 3/4 of which is in field, that he keeps mainly as wildlife area.  He plants switch grass as cover for the deer, turkey, and pheasants, so each spring burns off the old dead growth from the previous year.  Seeing the big pillar of smoke rising from his place is an annual sign of spring.  It's really interesting to watch; the flames get higher than his pine trees, but the fire never gets out of control due to his careful attention to firebreaks, wind, and ground conditions.

All the trees in my small orchard are in bloom.  And of course we've had 4 consecutive nights of frost this week, so not sure if I'll actually get any fruit. But they sure look pretty right now.

peach blossoms

apple blossoms

pear blossoms

cherry blossoms

Last weekend I moved the chicken coop from it's winter spot east of the barn (closer to house for hauling water, and blocked from prevailing winds) to behind the barn where there's more air flow and pasturage.  The chickens are loving eating the tender grass and clover.

happy chickens

Late this afternoon while the chickens were out ranging, I happened to look out of the kitchen window and spotted a visitor coming to join them.  It was a wild turkey, a tom, who crossed the road and was making a beeline for the chickens.  Unfortunately my turkey calling (solely by impersonation, we don't have a "real" turkey call) in an attempt to get a good picture scared him off.

visitor

more free lumber

Our friend with the junk hauling business who brought us an old deck aka free recycled lumber last fall called up yesterday morning.  He had another load of lumber he thought we might be interested in.  We sure were!  This load has lots of long boards in it, 2x4, 2x6, even some 2x12, and several 4x6s also.  Looks like that woodshed DH has been wanting to build might get erected this summer, with all free lumber.