Farm News 10-01-06
Farm News
Sunday morning, after chores, 64°
Sunday in the Country
Last Sunday morning, after chores and sending out Farm News, Paula looked out the kitchen window and said, “There is a horse with two kids on it in the yard.”
Sure enough, it was Cassie and Rian riding Caitlyn's horse, Brandy. Cassie and Ryan were visiting Caitlyn, who lives next door, and they had all come over to see the bunnies. Finally, we obtained an accurate count of the bunnies; there are six: two white with black spots, one black with dark brown spots, one black, and two gunmetal gray, a fine looking bunch of bunnies. And, being bunnies, they were doing their job and attracting young girls.
Before the first three took their horse and left, my niece showed up with Harry and George, her three year old twin daughters. Their real names are not Harry and George, but I can't tell them apart, so, if I couldn't always get their names right, then I figured they would probably prefer that I call them Harry or George over being called by their sister's name. While the twins were still here one of their friends, Willa, also three years old, showed up to see the bunnies.
The sky was blue, dappled with small white clouds, the breeze gentle, and the air cool. The children were running around in the yard, gleefully exploring the world. Ahh!
Quick, Ride for Headquarters
J., an unemployed friend, and I took a ride down to the Hawthorne Ranch in the Flint Hills. There are several trails one may use for that trip, and the one we used going down was pleasant. We took the turnpike to Cassoday and stopped for lunch in the Cassoday Cafe. They are open from 7:30 am until 3:00 pm and offer a buffet of all you can eat for $7.50. It's all good enough to eat and appreciate.
From Cassoday we went east for six or seven miles of gravel road, running up on the top of the long ridge until the road drops into the Fall River Valley. We turned south and went along the west bank of Fall River for a while, and then turned east, crossing Fall River on a low water bridge. (A low water bridge is concrete ford across the river. When the water is low one can splash across without floating down stream.) We then turned south again on the east side of the river, traveling south a short distance to the ranch house.
Two old men live there: scruffy, rough around the edges, untidy, and not too clean. One of them has an occasional job and the other has been unemployed for years. The old men have three dogs: scruffy, rough around the edges, untidy, but probably cleaner than the old men. Whenever a strange vehicle drives by the dogs start barking and howling, exploding a profound silence that normally blankets the place. Other than the mail carrier, who the dogs have learned to tolerate, no other vehicles pass the place for days at a time. In the spring, after a heavy rain, the house is generally not accessible by wheeled vehicles for several days. There are only two TV channels available unless they install a satellite receiver, something they refuse to do because they think it might open a path for invasion by space aliens. Like their bodies, their environs, and their dogs, their minds, not surprisingly, are scruffy, rough around the edges, untidy, and not too clean.
A half dozen Barn Swallow nests are plastered up on the front porch, occupied by swallows that have learned to ignore the human residents of the house. A quarter of a mile north a pair of Bald Eagles have a huge nest threatening to break down the tree in which it is situated. Trumpet vine and honeysuckle abound, helping support a large population of hummingbirds. Wild turkeys feed in the front yard and deer browse in the back. Butterflies chase each other around the native flowers. It might be a bit scruffy, but it will do.
Honeysuckle and trumpet vine both have a way of getting out of control. Both are woody perennials here, losing their leaves in the winter and growing new ones in the spring. Hummingbirds have no problem with honeysuckle and trumpet vine getting out of control, instead considering as a richening of the habitat.
Several years ago I purchased a yellow flowering variety of trumpet vine and planted it on the south wall of the rabbitry. The wall consists of two layers of used railroad ties topped with 6' high 2"x4" welded wire fencing. I put rocks around the spot where I planted the vine and moved the duck water next to it. Seemed like a good setting for that vine to me.
Since then I have dug out a shoot that was coming out too far from where I wanted it go grow and gave that shoot to a dental hygienist. Her vine from that shoot bloomed this year, but my vine, growing in what appears to be an ideal spot, has yet to show any sign of blooming.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the common orange trumpet vine has finished blooming and is setting seedpods. There are two hummingbird feeders on the porch to help the hummingbirds survive. Hummers are so pugnacious that if there is only one feeder the dominant male will keep all the others away; two or more feeders will give them all a chance. It's getting close to migration time and they'll need the food to prepare for the trip south.
This has been a good year for Maximilian's Sunflower, Helianthus maximiliani, which is blooming along the roadsides now. It often grows as a single stalk with a lot of 2-3" yellow flowers attached to the stalk and long, thin leaves. Maximilian's Sunflower is a perennial, unlike most Helianthus species, which are annuals.
Time, like the sky, seems immense in the Flint Hills. How long can a plant live? Are some of the plants we see over 500 years old? The grass-covered hills seem eternal, but Heraclites had it right, everything is undergoing change. It is hard to perceive that change when standing on a hill beyond sight or hearing of any road, immersed in wind, grass, and sky.
E-mail Subscribers: To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.
Sunday morning, after chores, 64°
Sunday in the Country
Last Sunday morning, after chores and sending out Farm News, Paula looked out the kitchen window and said, “There is a horse with two kids on it in the yard.”
Sure enough, it was Cassie and Rian riding Caitlyn's horse, Brandy. Cassie and Ryan were visiting Caitlyn, who lives next door, and they had all come over to see the bunnies. Finally, we obtained an accurate count of the bunnies; there are six: two white with black spots, one black with dark brown spots, one black, and two gunmetal gray, a fine looking bunch of bunnies. And, being bunnies, they were doing their job and attracting young girls.
Before the first three took their horse and left, my niece showed up with Harry and George, her three year old twin daughters. Their real names are not Harry and George, but I can't tell them apart, so, if I couldn't always get their names right, then I figured they would probably prefer that I call them Harry or George over being called by their sister's name. While the twins were still here one of their friends, Willa, also three years old, showed up to see the bunnies.
The sky was blue, dappled with small white clouds, the breeze gentle, and the air cool. The children were running around in the yard, gleefully exploring the world. Ahh!
Quick, Ride for Headquarters
J., an unemployed friend, and I took a ride down to the Hawthorne Ranch in the Flint Hills. There are several trails one may use for that trip, and the one we used going down was pleasant. We took the turnpike to Cassoday and stopped for lunch in the Cassoday Cafe. They are open from 7:30 am until 3:00 pm and offer a buffet of all you can eat for $7.50. It's all good enough to eat and appreciate.
From Cassoday we went east for six or seven miles of gravel road, running up on the top of the long ridge until the road drops into the Fall River Valley. We turned south and went along the west bank of Fall River for a while, and then turned east, crossing Fall River on a low water bridge. (A low water bridge is concrete ford across the river. When the water is low one can splash across without floating down stream.) We then turned south again on the east side of the river, traveling south a short distance to the ranch house.
Two old men live there: scruffy, rough around the edges, untidy, and not too clean. One of them has an occasional job and the other has been unemployed for years. The old men have three dogs: scruffy, rough around the edges, untidy, but probably cleaner than the old men. Whenever a strange vehicle drives by the dogs start barking and howling, exploding a profound silence that normally blankets the place. Other than the mail carrier, who the dogs have learned to tolerate, no other vehicles pass the place for days at a time. In the spring, after a heavy rain, the house is generally not accessible by wheeled vehicles for several days. There are only two TV channels available unless they install a satellite receiver, something they refuse to do because they think it might open a path for invasion by space aliens. Like their bodies, their environs, and their dogs, their minds, not surprisingly, are scruffy, rough around the edges, untidy, and not too clean.
A half dozen Barn Swallow nests are plastered up on the front porch, occupied by swallows that have learned to ignore the human residents of the house. A quarter of a mile north a pair of Bald Eagles have a huge nest threatening to break down the tree in which it is situated. Trumpet vine and honeysuckle abound, helping support a large population of hummingbirds. Wild turkeys feed in the front yard and deer browse in the back. Butterflies chase each other around the native flowers. It might be a bit scruffy, but it will do.
Honeysuckle and trumpet vine both have a way of getting out of control. Both are woody perennials here, losing their leaves in the winter and growing new ones in the spring. Hummingbirds have no problem with honeysuckle and trumpet vine getting out of control, instead considering as a richening of the habitat.
Several years ago I purchased a yellow flowering variety of trumpet vine and planted it on the south wall of the rabbitry. The wall consists of two layers of used railroad ties topped with 6' high 2"x4" welded wire fencing. I put rocks around the spot where I planted the vine and moved the duck water next to it. Seemed like a good setting for that vine to me.
Since then I have dug out a shoot that was coming out too far from where I wanted it go grow and gave that shoot to a dental hygienist. Her vine from that shoot bloomed this year, but my vine, growing in what appears to be an ideal spot, has yet to show any sign of blooming.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the common orange trumpet vine has finished blooming and is setting seedpods. There are two hummingbird feeders on the porch to help the hummingbirds survive. Hummers are so pugnacious that if there is only one feeder the dominant male will keep all the others away; two or more feeders will give them all a chance. It's getting close to migration time and they'll need the food to prepare for the trip south.
This has been a good year for Maximilian's Sunflower, Helianthus maximiliani, which is blooming along the roadsides now. It often grows as a single stalk with a lot of 2-3" yellow flowers attached to the stalk and long, thin leaves. Maximilian's Sunflower is a perennial, unlike most Helianthus species, which are annuals.
Time, like the sky, seems immense in the Flint Hills. How long can a plant live? Are some of the plants we see over 500 years old? The grass-covered hills seem eternal, but Heraclites had it right, everything is undergoing change. It is hard to perceive that change when standing on a hill beyond sight or hearing of any road, immersed in wind, grass, and sky.
E-mail Subscribers: To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.
posted by The Geezer at 9:34 AM
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