Deer and a fallen Robin

Mid June and it's Dry, Dry, Dry

June 18th 2020 and it is hot! Supposed to be right around 90 degrees the next 4-5 days. They are starting to talk drought, really? my grass has been brown for weeks.  The dogs are still digging holes here and there to try to expose the cool soil below, but there is no cool soil below, the soil is bone dry even 6" down. Maybe some rain coming our way next Monday-Thursday next week, let's hope. We'll be keeping a close watch on this to ensure our well doesn't go dry, if this continues we may have to sacrifice the vegetable garden.
 

No fawn pics yet, we have 3 deer coming in every evening to the deer-yard.  Rose thinks all 3 have fawns parked out along the borders of the field, time will tell. I need to pull the trail cam and replace the batteries.

This Whitetail doe came in last night at 7pm, early enough to avoid the rush that arrives at later in the evening. 

Robin - This wayward guy (Robin chick) was under the maple trees Wednesday morning, sitting in one of the holes the dogs dug.  He must have fallen out of the nest above that we couldn't reach even with a ladder. Luckily for him the dogs couldn't figure out what he was, and we're standing over him smelling him/ her when Rose suspected something wasn't right, she scooped him up, I assembled s bird cage and we're now the proud caretakers of a Robin chick that eats every 30-45 minutes.

We went to the hardware store to buy some worms to feed it and they had no worms available, all they had were Dillies and night-crawlers so we got the Dillies. He/she is eating 3-4 worms every 45 minutes to an hour now so the dillies being larger than worms are working out for us.

The little guy survived the night, when I removed the cover we put over his cage at 7AM  he opened his eyes and woke up, I was hoping he wouldn't be an early bird like some around here that start chirping at 5:00AM in the morning.

 

Stay Cool Folks!

June 2020 Covid-19 and the Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl
The dry weather is taking it's toll on plants around the farm,  while our 2020 vegetable garden is in and growing, I do have concerns about keeping it watered long term if we don't get some serious rain soon.  Every day we see the weather reports talking about rain those reports soon disappear before it arrives.

Chipmunks, our latest plague here in New Boston, I've never seen so many, the dogs have caught at least 3 in the past couple weeks, and I've caught 4 going on 5 shortly in the Havahart trap. We drive them up the street on the other side of the river and release them at least two a day since I started trapping them hoping they can't find their way back. Chocking it up to the dry spell, they're digging holes all over the place in the yard.



Woodchuck and her kids, our next eradication project, they cause all kinds on havoc on the farm.  Digging huge holes all over the place.  I'd be OK if they just had the one burrow, but we now have 4-5 burrows that must be filled in.   hmm, Groundhog stew might just fit the bill.

 

The Deer, Rose thinks that we have a fawn already, one of the does is coming in very regular now.


 

The weekend and a day out at the range

A Day Out Shooting

I took the day off Friday to make a long weekend.

Fun Stuff!  Rose and I took a drive up to Hillsborough and went shooting with Jarrod, Crystal and the boys today. Jarrod had invited a couple of friends along too. We all had a blast, shot on Saturday were a nice pair of .22 cal revolvers everyone had fun shooting, 9mm pistol, .30-06 rifle, .32 Win Special, .38 pistol, .380 pistol, a .223 AR rifle, and a Mosin-Nagant rifle.  Jarrod and the boys got to shoot their great grandfather's Lever Action .32 Winchester Special rifle with a peep sight, the rifle still easily hits pie plates at 100 yards.

L to R Justin, Me, Jason, Jarrod, and James

L to R Justin, Me, Jason, and Jarrod

Jason shooting the Ol' .32 Winchester 

James Reloading magazines amongst the boxes and boxes of ammo ready for the day

The Strawberry Moon

Friday Skies off towards Monadnock

Poppies are Poppin'

Rose saw a doe with a fawn out in the field yesterday, she called me but I wasn't fast enough getting the camera... next time I promise.

Was a cool night tonight with a light breeze, so we lit the fireplace in the back yard and had some smores. 

Several Does came out while we were sitting around the fire. Three does in all came out  tonight, they chased each other around. Two of the does were spending a lot of time with their tails up peeing, Rose says that's usually a precursor to calving.

 Overall a great weekend I'd say!

The Rush is Real

The Spring Rush is Real

So much to do, so little time to do it all...



We did get the Cabana up a couple a weeks early for Mothers day, we normally wait 'till a couple weeks after as we've had some wicked winds go through about that time that have taken down cabana's in the past. As it was we had to fold over the cushions and put bricks on them to prevent fly-away cushions and pillows.


Victory Garden 2020
Clearing the unused garden plot was quite the chore Rose did a great job and tore though the vines, roots, etc., We had to use the car to pull some of the rogue plum trees out of the ground. Chainsawed several of the larger trees and some old 6' dead ornamental shrubs, 6+ trailer loads of debris and branches, etc. later we had tillable ground.

Rose's dad's 50+ year old Troybuilt rototiller, we replaced the engine 5 years ago. I filled it up with high test and It started up on the first pull. I think the best thing to happen to small engines is a fuel shutoff valve. That is until you forget to turn it on first...  Once I figured out the tiller controls, the control markings were gone long ago, it moved forward the tines turned and the tilling commenced.  The 20'x75' garden took about 2 hours to finish up.  Several years of leaves and grass clippings were raked over the beds and tilled in.  Lime, peat-moss, and fertilizer went down all tilled into the loose soil. Rose cleaned up a smaller 3'x75' foot bed for flowers along the back edge. Tiller ran great, my understanding of exactly what the various controls and plethora of adjustments is getting better as I go, go figure...  We did finally burn through adrive belt I'll have to replace before we put the tiller away for the summer.

Tilling in the leaves and grass clippings

Rose tilling with her dads 50 year old Troybuilt tiller. (Look how much fun she's having)  "I could do this all day she quipped"!

Rhubarb on the left from the homes original owner, Grassy area on the left are blueberry plants

I hoed, "is that a word" up the raised beds 3' wide and 20' long, Rose will start planting everything tomorrow, and putting in poles for the pole beans, we're only a day late this year from our yearly goal of Memorial day.  We're putting in 3 varieties of Tomatoes, Brandy-wine, Mr Stripey, and a black cherry tomato we love, pole beans, a wax bush bean, peas, potatoes, parsnips, summer and winter squash, kale and Swiss chard.

Garden Fencing went in on Sunday, we've several woodchucks this year, we used all but 3 or 4 of the pig panels we'd accumulated over the years, framed 4'x10' panels of heavy wire, and 3 gates were erected, 6' fence posts were pounded in at each panel junction.  Looks way better than I thought it would.

 

Rose planting flower seed Monday

Funny we thought we were weeks ahead with the yard work earlier this spring... We cleared a couple areas of the yard that were neglected then covid-19 came and priorities changed. During the brush clearing we managed to pull Nana's glider out of the Raspberries, we'll sandblast it, have the broken frame welded, and repaint it, hopefully be good for another 75 years.

The bees seem to be back, I'm amazed at the qty of honeybees and even numerous bumblebees that alight the flowering trees, bushes, and low growing flowers in the yard. I ducked under a Russian Olive tree branch and all I heard was the buzzing above. More bees than I' saw the entire year the last two years.

The yellow-jackets that we ran into last fall don't seem to be back this year, good riddance.

Put in some grass seed, the dogs have made a bloody mess of the yard. $40 worth of grass seed and no rain since the day I put it down.

We went for a drive to the hardware store Saturday and I swear Covid-19 was over, thousands of motorcycles, boats, campers etc. all on the roads going somewhere.
There's always hope I guess.

And the beat goes on.

Zombieland

Zombieland

I was driving around Manchester on Sunday, even though I'm seeing it I still can't believe how few cars there are on the road. Everywhere I went the roads are largely empty, the town feels like a scene out of the Zombieland movie.  Up the street around 2pm I saw where all the cars were on a Sunday afternoon, there were easily 60 cars in line for Starbucks, lined up and around the bend and down in front of the other stores, really? We're all doomed!

I got the DR Field and Brush mower running, mice in the engine cowl, suckers chewed nearly through the spark plugs wire and built a two story house in there. Once running I mowed a bunch of raspberries and honeysuckle vines.  Went to the NB town dump with a trailer load of construction debris and was told Green bagged trash only.  Now what? Great, now my trailer needs to be unloaded before I can use it for anything else.

Planning the 2020 Victory Garden out, end of May is coming fast. 

Brought the dogs out tonight Sunday in the rain pulled my pocket light out and took a quick walk around the front yard looking for night-crawlers, spotting and pulling them by the dozen it's a blast and cuts down on the fishing costs. Fishing licenses are $47 ea. again this year. Pulled the boat out from under cover and got the trolling motor battery charged up. Took a drive to Mt William pond and saw a couple trout on a stringer aside a canoe beached there.  I heard NH Fish & Game are not announcing where they are stocking this year just to help with the social distancing, probably a good idea. Gorham Pond I saw a couple guys skipping stones that's about all was going on there. We'll get licenses next week if all goes well.

Sunday is looking to be 70 degrees. Maybe we'll take the boat out

FOX IN THE FIELD April 27, 2020

FOX IN THE FIELD
April 27, 2020


Had a fox visit tonight at 7:30pm, Rose has seen her a couple times now.

She? Looked huge when at the back of the field, poor light through the door window

 Looking at Rose on the steps

In front of the brush pile, new coat coming in.

A Family Loss

We lost a family friend yesterday - Linda Upham on 4/23/2020.

A great friend to my wife and our family passed in the night. We lost touch for a while but Rose and Linda rekindled their friendship and were the best of friends over the past year often talking for hours catching up on each others lives. Linda was there when Rose and I got married all those years ago in Pepperell.

She flew to NH and stayed with us for a time last summer, we enjoyed her company and friendship. We are saddened greatly with the loss of your friendship.  You will be dearly missed Linda!

Linda and Rose

Linda and Rose

Rose and Linda

L-R Don, Rose, James Linda, Crystal and Jason

Crazy Spring - Covid, Power, and a Fire...

Crazy Spring - Covid-19, Power, and a Fire...

Covid 19 stuck my place of work on Wednesday, a worker tested positive for the virus, (I am working from home the last couple of weeks)  the plant is now shut down for 4 days now to deep clean the facility before anyone can go back to the plant.  Hopefully no more employees will be impacted by the event.  I sent my guys home for the remainder of the week, they can work from home.  We'll see what next week brings.

Rose and I were talking about a generator I was thinking about for the Camper, a unit smaller than the 6000/7000 watt unit we have for the house earlier today.  The 3500 watt unit would run the camper with ease, had electric start and was remote controlled.

Then we're sitting in the living room a couple hours later watching the news and without warning the house power goes out.  It was 6pm Wednesday night, within 20 minutes Eversource called and texted us to let us know they were aware we had no power.  Initially the messages said that by 7:15pm we'd have power back, we decided around 7pm to get the generator running just in case. It was a good thing we did, a little while later they said we wouldn't have power until after 9:30pm, then they pushed it out to 4:40AM due to downed trees they said.  Our generator will run about 10 hours on a tank on a medium load plugged in, so we should be all set until power is restored I thought.  We have to have the generator to power the fridge, freezers, etc. as we lose power a couple times per year, overnight generally, and one year for 10 days before we had power  restored.

Oddly enough after the power went out we went for a drive it smelled like someone was burning brush, thought it was our neighbor who frequently has his firepit going, a large ash fell by me as I walked out the door, Rose stepped on it as it hit the ground just in case. Rose thought maybe it was a house fire, I said it smelled like burning brush or a firepit. We thought nothing more about it until later.

Rose went out with the dogs for their last run of the evening about 8pm, I heard her talking to someone out front, turns out it was a fireman asking if we called the fire dept. No "we didn't", he said he was looking for Simon Farms Rd., that is our neighbor up the road Tony's place.  firetrucks and police cars were now driving by, flashing lights lit up the house in red and blue.  They all pulled up to Tony's house. appears it was a chimney fire they brought a ladder truck up.  We couldn't really go up there as its a one lane road that only services his house.  

Power came back on a 5AM this morning I'd turned the bedroom light switch on before I turned in so I'd know when the power was restored.  I threw on my slippers, and robe and went downstairs, opened the back door to go out and shut off the Generator and low and behold 1/2" of snow had fallen...  I shut down the generator, and proceeded to plug the Fridge and Freezer back into the wall outlets.  We don't have a generator disconnect so we power the house when needed with some extension cords, it works fine.

What a crazy night I thought as I poured a cup of coffee.

EASTER SUNDAY

Happy Easter

It'll be an odd Easter this year, churches are shuttered, family distant and holed up. Oddly quiet on the roadways, few cars driving by. Rose picked up a small spiral ham and my fav scalloped potatoes that will be great for dinner.

The governor of Maine concluded, "friendly magical creatures" including the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are essential workers and may continue traveling throughout the state.  Whew, and I was worried...

Spring chores are in full swing now, fields getting mowed, getting ahead of all the puckerbrush and raspberries, they grow up so fast along with all the wild roses, and the nasty vines, poison ivy, and poison sumac. The birds spread the seeds of several pain in the ass vines around here, Bittersweet the worst of them can be seen climbing 20-30 feet up trees choking them out, we cut the vines where we see them at the base.

Back side of the brush pile... Freshly mowed and ready to grow, (Needs a cow)... lots of milkweed fluff the birds will be picking up for nesting.

Zebulon is getting big.  He's enjoying the good weather, and shedding his weight in fur weekly

The greenhouse before, falling down and being overtaken by brambles

The remains of the Greenhouse, benches, etc. Time to go to the dump.

We picked up and moved a bunch of bricks, Rose figures $1000 worth of bricks that we'd piled in several places over the years.

Several dead trees fell down over the winter, these all needed to be cut up and put into the burn pile. My Stihl chainsaw I picked up two years ago is still running great, it does need a good sharpening, maybe later today I'll take a file to the chain and get her ready for the next big thing.

Rose is happy, Easter Sunday her barn swallows arrived, she saw a lone scout that usually arrives a couple days before the main group of them, they normally arrive April 8th - 12th.  I was surprised to see a bluebird up in a tree in the field yesterday.  We have several birdhouses to repair and rehang before mating season starts up shortly. 

We lost a big elm by the driveway we'll have to get a tree service in to take it out, seemed healthy right through June last summer then the leaves started falling off and today most of the bark is missing and branches frequently fall in the driveway, we won't park there anymore due to the trees rapid decay.

COVID 19 continues to run rampant throughout the area, we're pretty much hunkered down at the house now. The new normal... it's funny I used to complain about long lines INSIDE the grocery store... this is the grocery store in Bedford.  

Hannaford in Bedford

I'm hearing about farm feed shortages, probably a good time to buy a heifer, oh and garden seeds being in short supply in some areas, seed suppliers have orders at 800% of normal, lots of scared or very bored folks out there. I do think we'll put in a garden this year.

Yard work, & Covid 19

Second Week in April 

Rumor has it the sun may come out, that'd be nice.  Dogs are going stir crazy being cooped up in the house, we are still squarely in the midst of mud season here.

Yard work is tougher the older you get, and it seems to take longer every year to get to the point it no longer hurts to do yard work.  Rose and I re-stacked and cut up a bunch of the Apple wood from several apple trees that came down a few years ago. We hang onto this apple for camping as it burns for a long time doesn't pop and crack like pine and it smells great when burning.

Managed to get the lawn tractor started up, unfortunately the DR Field and brush mower needs a new battery, I think I made a mistake when I bought this one, there is no pull start on this 14.5 HP mower only electric start so if the battery is dead, you can't use it. I'll have to get a battery on order...

We took down the old greenhouse frame, the area looks nice now.

Snow's all gone, seems like just a week ago we had 8+" on the ground.

Called Mom to wish her a happy B'day and see how they were doing, they're itching to get out of the house... 

I read an article from a Wuhan China survivor who was talking about being prepared to shelter at home for 4 months. This'll get ugly if that's the case.


They're saying stay away from the grocery and pharmacy over the next couple of weeks when we're expected to peak around here.  NH has 819 Covid 19 cases active, while Mass has 18,941 as of this morning...

T Shirts I want to produce...

• Out on an abundance of caution!
• Flatten the curve!

 Stay safe, now go wash your hands...

Early Spring Mud season and more

Early Spring in New Hampshire

We're doing our best here with Mud Season in full swing, we have three dogs that just love digging and splashing in any puddles they can find or make themselves.  They'll come in the house and shake that mud all over everything. I'm sure I'll have to get couple yards of loam just to fill in the holes they've dug in the yard.

Although Spring officially started just a couple days ago on March 19th, The Robins came in on Friday the 20th, we had 20 or so patrolling the field in the morning.  We'd heard them, but this is the first we'd seen them in large groups.  No worm droppings showing up in the front yard yet, probably still a little cold underground but we're close.

With the buds on the Maples opening in Manchester and the Pussy Willow buds opening here in New Boston, I'm thinking about going fishing already.  Time to get the rods ready and the boat out of the field from under the covers.

They've been talking about early spring, and from what I'm seeing they are right.  What little snow 1" or so we got on Thursday was gone the next day as we hit 66 degrees F.  The piles in the yard from the snow plow are almost gone. Rose has already commenced in clearing the garden beds & deadheading everywhere they're not snow covered.

The COVID-19 pandemic...
Still spreading like wildfire, 56 in New Hampshire as of this writing. I'm still working as of this posting, many states are telling folks to shelter in place shuttering all non-essential businesses (Essential workers Hospitals, Fire, Police, supermarkets, pharmacies, etc. will stay open).  CA, NY, IL, have all given the order to shelter in place.

Coworker asked me if we'd seen any ticks yet, and although I heard on the news that ticks were out already I hadn't seen any yet on us, or the dogs and we've been walking the fields.  So Zebulon came in today and I saw something on his cheek, sure enough it was a tick, looking further another tick on the top of his head, and so it began, tick checks on all the dogs.  Hannah was next and sure enough she had one on the top of her head too.  One by one we tweezered them off the dogs they don't seem to mind much we tell them about the "bad buggy" and show them the tick(s) when we remove them. All of the dogs  rec'd their Lyme shots over the last few weeks. Though VERY EARLY this year we'll start Flea and Tick meds for the dogs that normally commences around April 10th when the tree swallows come in, we're trying a chewable "Nexgard" our Vet recommended over the Frontline Plus+ we normally use. I think I have a bag of the Ortho BUG B Gone granules left over from last year we'll put it down tomorrow, that stuff works wonders at keeping the ticks at bay here on the farm, we put on all the areas that we walk, and everywhere the dogs can get to as well and it pretty much stops them dead for 3 months or so.


Stay Healthy!