IT'S  HOT!

Humidity is crazy and so are the temps... A/Cs are struggling to keep up with the heat.

But we had our 1st local corn of the year yesterday and it was amazing! Butter and Sugar from Hollis NH! Ears were small but tasty! Now if I could just get my hands on some local heirloom tomatoes, soon I know...

Boat issue with the trailer lights, I got a tester that ruled ou the Car wiring, definitely a trailer side issue.  I spent 30 minutes messing with them last weekend, it's too hot to be clamoring on the lawn rewiring the trailer, next week I hope, we're dying to try out some new water we found. It's too hot to be on the lake this weekend. 



Filling the dog pools is becoming a twice daily routine they enjoy them in the shade but are smart enough to know the water heats up in the sun.

Zebulon, (Zeb, Zebber, for short)  is getting big, he's 4 months old now.  We took him to Ace Hardware on Saturday he loved it, the cutest 1 1/2 year old girl asked to pat him, he was loving it, and was a perfect gentlemen, he was hoovering the hardware store floor of all the dropped popcorn (is there a better reason to go?). Everyone that walked by had to pat him, he picked out a toy to take back to the car, got a drink from the dog bowl the leave out for dogs daily. We spent a few minutes under the misters rigged to an instant up tarp in the parking lot. Zeb quickly got the hang of getting in and out of the car too, he's in training trip for his vet visit next week for more puppy shots. Shh...

"Zebulon"

Hanna our Lab is a bird dog, notice the feather stuck to her nose, she has caught a couple birds in the past week alone.  Rose is not happy.

Hannah Belle has taken to Zeb, making sure he's being good, rounding him up when asked to, barking at him when he's misbehaving.
 
 This little Silver Spotted Skipper landed on Roses finger.

Stay cool folks!

The Dog Days are here!

It's official, the Dog Days of summer have arrived, we're in the 90s every afternoon now.

Bring on the dog days...

Summer at Last!

It's been cool, cloudy, and raining here, seems like forever since we had some nice weather, a couple days in the 80s but that's about it.  That all changed this weekend, Friday was nice, Saturday was great, and Sunday (today) it's supposed to get HOT!

Yesterday was a yard cleanup day, mowing, clipping, cutting, car washing, etc. 

Hannah @ 13 months, and Zeb @ 11 weeks old.

The dogs Hanna and Zebulon (Zeb) are getting along great, Hannah is taking Zeb under her wing showing him the ropes, she really is trying to be a good little Mom to little Zeb.  We may get to take Hannah swimming at Glen Lake today if it gets warm enough, Zeb's not a big fan of the lake, we took him down last weekend.

"Zebulon"

We tried them out in the newly erected kennel this weekend, they did just fine.  We don't need to worry about a dog getting wrapped up in a cable as with the overhead run where the two dogs are inseparable.

Hannah giving her best "please let me out" face...

The Bugs, mostly Gnats and Black Flies are out in force, seeing bunches of mosquitoes now.  Quite the swarm of gnats this morning.

 

Our newest Pup arrived this weekend...

We picked up "Zebulon "Zeb" for short, this weekend, he's pretty smart already at 9 weeks, he's a purebred German Shepherd we got from our favorite Vet over in Hillsborough at Fox Bend Kennels, quite the fur-ball, he loves playing with his older sister Hannah... oh and hoses too.

If we both stare at it long enough it'll turn on...       Hannah & Zeb

 

 

 

Looks like we have some great weather to get the grill going, and maybe even do some fishing on Monday!

Busy time on the farm, Spring is upon us...



Happy Easter!

Spring always seems endless to me, Rose on the other hand is always saying we have 3 weeks till we need to mow, and two weeks before the bugs come out... Perspective...
 


This is weekend four of yard cleanup, with Poop patrol, bed cleanup, planting new Rose bushes, and phlox, fixing mud season reminders, (places we sunk in the mud when driving on the lawn) raking, filling holes that appeared in the lawn, mowing overgrown field areas, pruning dead apple tree branches, raking up the gravel the plow pushed 30 feet up onto the lawn, seeding the lawn bare spots (really, grass seed is now $68 per bag, WTH?). We still have to mulch 6 or so of the smaller beds, we need to get the mulch down before the grass and weeds come up!  Hurry, Hurry...

We've been tested...
We nearly lost the entire workshop roof several weeks back doe to some 50-70 mph winds that came through. It was wicked dangerous up on the roof with the panels catching every wind gust and folding the panels back on themselves and slamming them onto the roof.  We got 'er done though.  We saved the roofing panels but there will be more work to do to repair all the damage done.

Yeah, it's an old building, we did not expect to lose the roof though.
Dogs...
We've been working with the dogs, Hannah is just on the radio fence for the past two weeks, she's a smart one, she's doing great on the radio fence.  She's also out of the crate at night now.  We still have her on two collars one for the radio fence the other is a training collar vibration only as a reminder to cool it when she sometimes gets rambunctious with Gordon who's 9 now, or jumping up on people.  Gordon's been sick, he's starting to feel better and is eating once again.

Hannah 11 months

Hannah,  Hunting Robins in the back yard

 

Gordon "Gordo"

 Puppies...

Our Vet had a litter of German Shepherd puppies, these are the Sables, when we brought the dogs in for their yearly shots and boosters, lime, we found out they had a litter of Nine little fur-balls, four weeks old.  These in the video were just the five boys from the litter, we decided on a male pup.

Guess how many we're taking home...   Nope just one ;-)


This guy is coming home with us in four weeks... he's the only bi-color in the litter of nine pups.

No name yet, we're listing out potential names now, got a good one?  Let me know.

Mulching, Mulching, and then Mulching some more...
We're bark mulching all the beds, we recalculated the amount needed, and ended up with 12 yards instead of the 20+ we thought we'd need.  Whew!  Still 12 yards is a bunch of bark mulch!  We're probably half done mulching,  Rose has been weeding and trenching the edges of the beds, I help with the mulch deployments on the weekends, our 3 largest main beds are covered in 3-4" of nice brown mulch now.  The Pile of Mulch finally appears to be diminishing. 

The mulched bed...   two weeks ago look at that brown grass...

We picked up James and Jason Friday evening to spend the weekend.  The boys at 13 now and are an unbelievable help when doing chores on the weekend.  They helped with the birdhouses, scratching up the areas for seeding, the seeding and mulching on the big bed down at the driveway.  They're making money for Mothers Day coming up...

Crocuses and Daffodils are blooming, the Forsythia just started blooming.

The fields are greening up to fast. We'll be mowing before you know it.  I just ordered the tune up kit for the DR Field and brush mower, I threw a belt in the fall running down some 2" saplings that were in the way.

The Birds
Jarrod gave Rose this beautiful Martin house for Christmas, the ground is finally thawed enough that we were able to dig a 3 foot deep hole to set the post into. Phoebe arrived on Thursday, twenty two years using the same shelf on the barn for her nest. Bluebirds showed up Saturday, and then the Swallows on Friday this week, the swallows spent the day fighting the sparrows for the birdhouses...

BUGS are a coming
Yeah, the Ticks are here... found one crawling on the couch last night, most likely came in on one of the dogs .  Rosie's been warning me for several weeks, "the ticks are coming", due any day, we always do a tick check when showering and in the evening before bed too.  I'll probably put the Ortho MAX down this morning, this stuff really seems to work well for us, within a couple weeks, we don't see any more ticks after application.


Black Flies were out Saturday evening at Dimitri's in Weare when we picked up the subs for dinner...  they looked hungry bouncing off the windows on the car.


Opening Day of Fishing Season 2019  next Saturday 4/27 the 4th Saturday in April!  

Boys, Get your rods ready!

Spring? The Snow Moon

I'm hoping Winter is almost done with us, it'll be spring in 3 weeks.  The buds are swelling on a lot of the Maples and poplars in the area.  Spring officially begins on Wednesday, March 20, 5:58 P.M. EDT.  I'm so ready!




I managed to get a couple pics of the Snow Moon this month.  

 

Our owl has apparently decided this is a great place, he is generally were now several days a week, especially before a storm.  He enjoys the birdhouses, (Not sure the swallows and sparrows will be happy about that this spring) generally flying between 3-4 different houses during the day while hunting for mice, moles, voles, (he does not seem to be interested in the squirrels, sparrows or mourning doves that frequent the area.)

January 2019 Storm, the Deer, our Owl, and the Hawk

January 2019 Storm, the Deer, our Owl, and the Hawk

 So far the winter here occurred mostly in November 2018, we had several good storms in November the snow still lingers from those here.  

 Sunday night January 19th (Hope we don't lose power for the Pats game tonight...) we're going to get hit with a Nor'easter Saturday evening into Sunday they're already calling it "Snowmageddon". I'm still hearing 18" to 2 feet of snow from what they are calling Winter Storm Harper, when did we start naming every snow storm that comes through?  At least it's hitting on the weekend.

We had some interesting critters show up this past week.

 The Deer herd is expanding again, we see three to four deer most evenings stopping by the deer yard, we had a group of 12 show up at 4:30pm this week after being away during the coldest days in January.

 A couple of larger birds stopped by looking for an easy meal no doubt with the morning doves out at the feeders and some overly portly squirrels too.

First was a young Barred Owl who stopped by for a nap, and a quick attempt at a vole on the ground below.

Then this beautiful Red Tailed Hawk hawk showed up on our Martin house hunting the local mouse/vole population.  Funny the birdhouses in winter seem to see more use as Hunting stands than as bird houses.

Good luck in the storm.

Hope you had a Great Christmas!

Hope you have a great New Year Too.!

Here's to the Best Ever 2019!

 

The New Wild Turkeys

Turkeys...

We're torn now, we tried for years to get some local turkeys around the farm, figuring they would help with the local tick population.  Well we finally have them, about 15 or so birds, one monstrous Tom and a few yearlings, and a bunch of hens.

You can generally hear them coming chipping and popping as they go across the road, down the driveway, up the brick walkway, across the front lawn, to the side yard and finally down to the deer yard.

Now The Problem...
The problem is they're like having geese, they are always hanging around, and "they poop everywhere"  all over the walkway leading to the house, the front lawn, the back yard, side yard, you name it they crap on it.  We have to be especially careful now as the newest pup Hannah loves frozen turkey poop and eagerly digs and quickly swallows the turkey delights. I have to be careful walking the the car in the morning to avoid the piles that are seemingly everywhere.

It is amazing to watch birds this big, I imagine 10-20 pounds go from the ground "without a running start" fly at a 45ᣞ+ degree angle up into nearly the tops of the tallest pines on the property.  

 The herd

 Amazing colors when the light strikes them

 Even the hens would provide some fine fly tying material...  did I say that out loud?


Hannah Belle hunting turkeys through the back windows...

 

Labor day 2018, labor is right...

LABOR DAY WEEKEND 2018

 

We've been clearing up some of the many projects we just never seem to be able to get done this weekend.

Installed the 100' Dog run for "Hannah" in the front yard making modifications along the way.

 

Took the new Lab "Hannah" for a swim Sunday got real hot for a couple hours here.  Took her half a dozen times before she decided hey this is a blast and was ready to start swimming for the opposite shore of the lake.  It appears I have a new boat motor...

We took several trailer loads of Common Pokeweed out to the burn pile, the stuff is everywhere this year.  It's easy to cut out, just a lot of work hauling it all.

Bear for the second time took out the Deer feeder, didn't knock it over this time, she ( I assume a she bear) simply knocked the motor off the bottom of the feeder so all the feed fell out onto the ground we woke up this morning to 20 lbs of whole corn dumped all over underneath the feeder.

Feeder before... Roses fawn

Red-tail hawk with Squirrel on Deer Feeder

These pics of the incoming bear are from last night .

 What the heck is with all the Squirrel's, everywhere you go there are so many dead ones in the streets, must have been a bumper year last year for acorns or something, I've never seen so many in the roads like that.

Hope you had a great weekend!

We lost a Great Dog, and Best Friend last night

We lost a Great Dog, 

and 

Best Friend last night

 We love you Harley!

 Harley "Bugs"

 Our best friend, our protector, Rose's knight in shining armor, guardian of boys.

Harley loved "His Boys" he was never happier than when he knew James and Jason were coming over to see him, 

Don't get in his way, he had boys to see!

Our Lab/Shepherd mix, we rescued him, maybe he rescued us, 

he certainly taught us a lot.

Harley was just 8 1/2 year old to the day, not nearly old enough.

My heart aches, I take solace in knowing you're with Magic, Coop, and Chloe now chasing those chippies till we see you again!

"Harley", "Harley Brown" just "H", and "Bugs", 

he answered to all of those names, they all fit him.

Harley was always there, always, ever watchful, that was his job! He did it well.

Harley loved paying the piles of leaves, his tail wagged as soon as you picked up the rake in anticipation.

Ready to play ball with his boys

 

Harley was the Pool boy he loved his pool, the Hose, and sprinklers were his fav's.

Harley with his boys...

He was a chaser of snowflakes, not for a particular reason other than he knew we loved to watch him do it.  

His favorite spots won't be the same, by mom on the couch where he knew he would get the best back scratch that felt so good he just has to do somersaults, by my chair, or on his love seat, or maybe the hole he dug out every year in the side yard or in my office on the floor by my side every morning.

Harley Hugs, I will miss them dearly.

Harley with new sister Hannah

He was working hard teaching his new little sister Hannah the ropes, he was teaching her the important stuff, not to bite, to slow down some, and how to bark for your dinner announcing to the whole world that 

"Dinner was on it's way"!

Somehow it just doesn't seem fair.

God I miss him so much...