The Barn Collective

An old, apple farm, barn collection. I kind of wonder if the cinder block structures ever had board walls... or maybe they were late additions to the farm... It's a beautiful little piece of property. Just imagine a few children running through the grass, a dog or two barking, and Mom out on the ride on mower trying to help Dad keep up with the place. Maybe there could be a flock of chickens running about with a nasty rooster to chase strangers... or Mom when she goes to let them out of the coop for the day... Maybe there's an old tractor tire swing out back and a couple of Naughty cats lazing about.. and on long, holiday weekends plenty of parking for friends and family come for a barbecue in the yard... Yeah. That sounds good.

The Barn Collective

November

Gorgeous! The word for today. Had I known to plan ahead, I'd have tracked down a friend and gone gallivanting. Instead, I responded to an email from my boss and got a flu shot while out running errands. (I hate flu shots.) After bringing my groceries home, I took my camera for a walk around the back yard.

Our crab apple tree is covered with wrinkled, red fruits.

Wild grapes in the old hedgerow.

Apples on the ground. They're falling off the trees.

One of my followers.

Coq au Vin letting me know the yard belongs to him,

 Um, I don't think it will be safe to jump in the leaves this year...

Covered in gold. Money really does grow on trees.

The other follower. He jumped out when I opened the window to take chicken photos.

A Tree Felled

The tree was dead. Only the vines, creeping ever upward over the trunk, showed any sign of life. The Lumberjack gazed upward, surveying the task before him. It was a big tree once he was standing underneath it, with two trunks. He knew which direction he wanted to drop it but could only hope for the tree's cooperation.





His chainsaw buzzed loud, and louder still as it chewed through the bark and into the wood underneath. Notches, wedges, and a close eye all helped drop the towering giant in the proper place. With a earsplitting crack and an earthshaking thud Goliath fell to the ground. (I am imagining as I wasn't actually here to witness the terrible spectacle...)





The easy part is over for the Barefoot Lumber- jack. Soon the time consuming, back- breaking task of cutting, splitting, carting, and stacking will begin. Perhaps there will be help, maybe even a party with hotdogs and macaroni salad... Oh, the possibilities!

Around Home

I stayed home for once and actually did something. Mom's room had turned into a catch-all the past few months and today I decided to do take action. Fixing Mom's room necessitated changing things up in our "empty" upstairs bedroom, and so things were kind of upside down. for a little while I wasn't sure quite how to get things back together again. Thankfully, Hannah was here to help me out a little (and add in some mess of her own as she cleaned out her closet). The job isn't totally done, I still have lots of stuff to go through and sort out, but it has been started and that is something.

Last night James and I took a walk in the orchard behind the house. (Sometimes we walk across the street instead.) It's been a while since I've walked past the pond and into the farther trees, but it was a good night for walking.My legs don't walk quite as fast as his do and sometimes I fall behind. He takes that opportunity to hide in the trees and make me wonder where he disappeared to. He tried to sneak up on me from behind but was not very successful because I have eyes in the back of my head.

Out in Back

I took a walk about the yard this evening...

1. I caught a bit of late afternoon sun on my milkweed blossoms. They are still fragrant and the bees are still buzzing.
2. My elderberry bushes are covered with blossoms. Perhaps there are some pies in our future.
3. Oreo is recovering and feeling friendly once again.
4. I have a nice little collection of plants adorning that wire wheel on my back porch.
5. The blueberry bushes are almost ready to present their harvest. Another week or so and maybe there will be enough to fill up a basket.

Step On It

My Darling is getting a few outside projects done before winter sets in. It's late in the season, getting cold fast, and threatening rain, but they're tasks he had on his to-do list this year and we're running out of time. Yesterday he tore apart the railing on our front steps. Today he replaced it and it's looking pretty spiffy.

It would be really great if we had a few weekdays of unexpected warmth and dry weather so he could work on the back roof, and a buddy or two to help might be good also. Last week's forecast called for a lot more rain than it actually delivered. Maybe this next one will be the same.

Blackberry Bramble

It feels like summer again; hot, humid, and sticky. It's blackberry season. Though I often prefer to venture off to pick berries alone, soaking in the sunny solitude, this afternoon I decided to take three little girls along to the back edge of our property where the  blackberry brambles grow thick and prickly.

Each small girl carried a green berry box in which to gather the treasured fruit. Warned of the vine's vicious ways, they cautiously braved the thorny old hedgerow, plucking fat fruits and dropping them into their boxes. The littlest girl was started to find her hair tangled in a sharp toothed overhanging branch. "It pulled my hair!" she exclaimed.

As I sat on the back porch just a half hour earlier, plucking tiny elderberries from gigantic clusters, I had thought how mothers of days gone by would have given the job of elderberry plucking to rambunctious young children, and yet there I sat doing it myself. My mind wandered to the patch of wild canes full of dark, sweet blackberries rotting in the summer sun and I wondered how many of today's children will one day look back with fond memories of braving blackberry prickers. After all, how many children now wander far enough from a mother's watching eye to even find a patch of wild berries?

"Naughty! Naughty! Naughty!" she shouted into the brambles, and yet the smallest girl reached in again to pull a juicy fruit from the vine full of stickers. There were squeals of pain and laughter from the other two as they too discovered the joy of blackberry bushes and the sweet reward of fresh picked berries.

Raining on my Window

I woke up early this morning. It would have been a great day to sleep in, but since my brain wouldn't cooperate, I climbed out of bed and into the shower. Since getting up, the day has gotten even better for sleeping. It's darker and the rain is falling...






You know, I sat here in the house listening to the rain fall and decided I shouldn't waste the opportunity. I found my Scooby Doo umbrella instead, put on my favorite flip flops, and went for a jaunt about the yard. The dog thought I was a little off my rocker, but it felt good to walk through the wet grass and it wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be.



Enjoy the photos. I can't find my camera battery charger so when I run out of juice, there might not be any pictures for a while...

Rolling in the Grass

There is a reason I did not add "Mow the whole yard in one day" to my list of fancy schmancy summertime things to do. In spite of that little fact, I made a valiant attempt to cut as much grass today as humanly possible. My efforts were thwarted several times, once by a ride on mower that first ran out of gas, and then, after I'd dumped all the remaining gasoline in the little red gas can into its tank, the crazy machine decided not to run at all. I went to the barn and picked out a walk behind mower instead, pulled the string, and started off.

The thing about springtime grass is that it grows at an alarming rate. With three and a half acres of grass to our names, you might say that it often "gets away from us". We could probably run all of our mowers nonstop and just about keep up with the growth. Anyhow, it was still early in the day and I was feeling motivated, so back and forth I went across a small section of lawn with my whirring machine. Then, wouldn't you know it? My push mower ran out of gas too, and off I went to the gas station.

I started the day collecting large amounts of grass in the handy-dandy bag that hangs on the back of the push mower, emptying it into a large wheelbarrow every two or three minutes (literally). On my way to dump the first of my clippings behind the barn, I discovered one of my two wheelbarrow tires was flat. Who made that law that says, "If anything can go wrong, it will" anyway? Good thing this wheelbarrow has two tires.

Did I tell you we have a BIG yard? Well, thankfully I had someone who also decided to pull a walk behind mower out of the barn and help me out a bit. Together James and I managed to mow a large portion of this "sprawling estate" and I am happy to report it is looking much tamer, though not thoroughly domesticated. I am totally exhausted. Is it bedtime yet?

Wishy Washy Weather

The weather has been nothing short of wishy washy. I'll take the wishy, but really could do without the washy. It's a good thing for bright, sunny windowsills and green, growing things. With some background sunshine (the wishy part) and a little green on the shelf, I can almost make believe it's warm outside. I know warm weather is coming, it almost always does, but in the meantime we have to put up with the rain (washy).


The seeds I planted a couple weeks back have sprouted and are as eager for sunshine as the rest of us. The are quite happy with the shelf James installed in my laundry room, but are eager to have a better look out the window. I keep having to turn them around.

I wasn't quick enough with my garlic and some of the cloves have started to sprout so I found them a home in a soggy spot along with my Romaine. It's another experiment. I've never grown garlic, but since it's still too cold outside for starting a garden, I did the next best thing. Too bad I don't have more spots for them. I certainly have enough windows.


In my kitchen window is a small Elfin child. She holds a ladybug on her lap and keeps guard over a tiny garden of marigold seedlings. It's a quiet, relaxing kind of job which she rather enjoys. I've not heard her utter one complaint as she sits in silence, staring at the sprouting seeds. In fact, I think she's smiling.

Today

The day started dark and overcast, with pouring rain. I closed my eyes and wished for sleep's return. This happens on rainy mornings, especially when there is no reason to climb out of bed other than my cognizance of daylight, or what should be daylight. Light sprinkles blew in the open window on my cheeks and I snuggled deeper into the pillow and pulled up the covers.

The sky remained hidden behind a veil of cloud when Hannah and I finally headed out for the morning, but the rain, for the most part, did not return. We made a visit to the Webster Farmer's Market where folks from the country (where we live) gather to sell their goods. We picked up half a gallon of maple syrup, some sweet potatoes, and six ears of corn that I could have purchased down the street and around the corner.
 After some meaning- less chitchat with the vendors, and the realization that there were no chile peppers to be found, we headed off to the bank and two grocery stores. The kitchen cabinets and refrigerator are full once again.

The afternoon sky gave no hint of this morning's dreary attitude and a warm sun beckoned me out to the orchard. I was about to take a walk when the phone rang and I changed the order of my plans. Instead of hiking into the back forty, I took a short drive to meet a friend's new baby. Sweet little girl with a head full of dark hair. She came into this world on Monday and left the hospital before I managed to get back there Wednesday morning.

My venture into the orchard came late this afternoon complete with two cats for company. We didn't go far, just back to where some of the ancient trees remain, the ones I love. Old and gnarled into contorted positions, their bent toward nostalgia brings back days now long gone. They are the few still standing in the midst of new dwarf varieties grotesquely carrying loads that leave them broken.

I snapped a few pictures and headed back toward the house, my cats meowing as the followed behind.

The Grass Grows Long

Keeping up is tough. The grass just keeps growing. We have enough lawn mowers, we just don't have enough lawn mowers, if you know what I mean.

I think the neighbor needs more of both kinds of lawn mower... Or maybe he likes trails and stripes.

Teal Lake?

It rained this week, but Teal Lake did not make a grand appearance. Instead of a large backyard puddle, like previous years, we have a slow trickle of water miraculously draining away into the tiles we laid last year and making the underground journey to the drainage ditch. It isn't pretty back there yet, but perhaps by the end of the summer it will be beautifully landscaped (I can dream...), or maybe I will bring home a few nice lake rocks every once in a while and strategically intermingle them with tall ornamental grasses and wildflowers.

The apple orchards directly around our house seem to have fared okay in spite of the early warm temperatures and late snows. Though some of the blossoms have appeared sickly, others are bright and cheery. The bees were buzzing about in yesterday afternoon's warm sunshine and tractors have been running in and out the orchard roads in a constant hum of activity.


I have a few "favorite" apple trees behind the house. They actually sit just inside our property line, or very close to it. They are the old apple trees, Rhode Island Greenings, good for cooking but not the best eating apple. I love the gnarly way these old trees grow. This one reminds me of the tree from the movie "A Bug's Life".

Oreo decided to keep us company in the backyard yesterday. It is highly unusual to wander the yard without a cat  on my heels. He is kind enough to say hello to each of us as we stop to snap pictures or dig in the dirt.

Today it is cold enough for a small fire in the wood stove, just to "take off the chill," of course. We've decided to stay inside and play Duplos and marble chute.

Whew!

Wednesday already? Where did the last couple of days go anyway?

Monday- laundry, vacuum, take Mom back to ortho- pedics, bank, supper, play with my Fairy Garden, put sheets back on my bed...

Tuesday- early morning kitchen clean up, new "flower" potted, Vinnie visit, Grandma shower, play outside in the sunshine, naps, more playing outside, make supper, go to caretaker support group, stop at grocery store, arrive home hungry

Today is Pi Day (3.14). Do you really think I can get a pie into the oven? What kind shall I make? Hannah will say lemon meringue, but I still have a freezer full of berries.