Winter Planting
Sometimes we have to strew a few seeds in the winter in order to have some summer flowers. Some seeds benefit from the extreme cold found in a snowbank, in the spring they will be watered by the snow as it melts and hopefully they will grow! I took this photo last summer, can you tell what it is?
Far Guy had collected some of this plants seed heads last fall, he put them in a paper bag. One evening he got his collection out and began to clean seeds..it is putzy work..but he enjoys it. He separates the seeds from the chaff. I think he just likes the feel of the seeds falling out of the flower heads onto his collection paper..and watching his seed bag fill up!
He had a plan, he wanted to strew some seeds out in the snowbanks between snowfalls. He would like the whole area near the sauna and my garage filled with wildflowers. He gave me a spiel about a quaint little split rock walkway meandering out to the sauna..with wildflowers growing on both sides. He painted a pretty picture.
Here it is blooming, it is a Grey Headed Coneflower or Ratibida pinnata. It is a prairie flower and grows in dry woods and prairies. It likes the sun, and usually grows about four feet tall and the deer don't eat it! It is not fussy about soil or moisture. The only thing I dislike about it is that it is hard to photograph on windy days...because the plants are so tall they sway in the breeze. It is a plant native to Minnesota:)
Posted by: farsideoffifty on 2/09/2010 at 9:25 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: native plants, planting in the winter
Chance : A Disgruntled Model
I really should get union scale for as much time as her camera is focused on me. I finally decided to go on strike. I hid behind a huge mountain of snow. I knew she wouldn't climb the snow mountain..
Rats..it must be that zoom lens..there is no escape.
Here is my "Wolf " look..take that!! Watch out who you are messing with lady..
I can frown, she doesn't care..she says a frown is just an smile upside down. She is one tough cookie. No matter what feeling I come up with..she declares it brilliant.
I guess I might need an agent, you know a go between. Between Me and Far Side..I think I should demand a cut. Then I heard she just takes these photos for fun.. foiled again, for fun she says..who does that sort of thing, is she nuts? ..do you suppose I should ask for homemade treats..she has the recipe hung on the fridge..it has been there a long time. It would be a stretch of everyone's imagination to think that she would bake.
I know, I will just keep my eyes almost closed:)
Posted by: farsideoffifty on 2/08/2010 at 10:24 AM | Comments (6) | Permalink
Tags: chance, chance bloggs again
Turkeys Everywhere
We are getting snow, the fine powdery kind. We are all snuggled in for a snowy couple of days. Yesterday we went looking for the Turkeys. We found them everywhere.
In the road...
In the corn field..
In the trees..
This was quite a large rafter of Meleagris gallopavo or Wild Turkeys. They can fly if they are not too fat, and roost in the trees at night. They eat acorns, seeds, small insects none available at the moment in Minnesota and berries..I think all the berries are history too. The small corn field that they are in is a wildlife planting..more to attract deer during the deer hunting season..but the turkeys seem to be enjoying the abundance of food and protection found there.
Chance was able to keep his vocalizations to a low growl while I took photos..then Far Guy rolled down Chances window. We keep the windows on lock..cause he has been known to roll down his own window! When the turkeys were out of sight..we told him he could bark.. poor dog.
Chance loves these little adventures..I do too..these four walls are getting a little old. Perhaps I have a "spot" of cabin fever. I do have enough things to keep me occupied indoors.. it is just nice to get out with my camera and look at something different. I figure we still have another nine or ten weeks of snow, no matter what the ground hog said last week:)
Posted by: farsideoffifty on 2/07/2010 at 12:21 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink
Tags: wild turkeys
Wood Pile
When you heat your home and your hot water with wood you occasionally have to cut wood or buy some. The woods that surround our house are mainly Burr Oak. We only cut the dead, down or hazard trees. Far Guy will probably order a semi-load of wood that will be a mixture of oak and pine..it gets stacked next to the road and Far Guy cuts it into lengths and hauls it into the wood shed.
This week a load of slabs was delivered, they are pine slabs from a sawmill that saws lumber. They will eventually be stacked in the woodshed.
In the meantime, a squirrel or a chipmunk will move in. Chance will guard this stack of slabs valiantly, it will occupy him for many afternoons. He is all about the watch and wait, although occasionally he will be victorious and chase something up a tree. The really dumb chipmunks will be dealt with but we won't talk about that. It is his territory after all, the truck delivers the slabs, he is sent to the house because he prefers to be inside when the earth shakes..but after that..the slab pile is his.
We used to use the wood-stove to heat the largest greenhouse. You could practically stand outside and shove wood in the stove all night long.
My sore shoulder has gotten me out of heaving heavy pieces of wood in the wood-stove this winter. Far Guy adds wood to the wood-stove once a day, the house is kept a very comfortable 74 degrees. I can wear shorts in the winter..and I do!
Having an outdoor stove has advantages. The wood mess is kept out of doors. The fire hazard is out doors also..although an occasional chimney fire sometimes just happens.
This one was real pretty. it wasn't dramatic enough to be a problem. Far Guy just watched it..this was last November. It is just the creosote burning off the walls of the chimney. In the spring if it is dry we will shut down the wood stove, although there is a certain amount of safety living in the oaks..a small fire in the oaks doesn't travel like a small fire in the pines. I sometimes worry about a bug or disease coming through and wiping out all the deep shade that the oaks give us in the summer..this spring we will plant a few pines. Not a forest full, not in rows that can be a fire trail ..just here and there throughout the woods:)
Posted by: farsideoffifty on 2/06/2010 at 11:24 AM | Comments (5) | Permalink
Tags: outdoor woodstoves, reforestation, warmth of wood heat
Stuck in the headlights look
The other day we were going "through the woods." It was fairly icy, Far Guy said "Well this was dumb, I should have gone the other way." I like the road through the woods, it is one I have travelled ever since I can remember. Sometimes we see turkeys or deer..that day we saw a herd of deer. How many are in a herd anyway..more than two..? All photos were taken through the windshield.
There are four of them, Far Guy slowed down on top of a hill. Chance is a good look out, he was poised to bark. I told him to "be still"..he was except for his body that began to quiver with excitement. He began to invade my space..putting his feet on my leg..plastering his nose against the windshield. Sometimes he tries to hog my space. Far Guy lets him ride in front when I am not along..of course I do the same thing.
I wonder if Chance remembers the time in Indiana, some where very near Paoli..a deer came out of the woods and ran right down the road towards us. That deer was really hoofing it too, I wondered if he had a death wish. We must have had our deer stuck in the headlights look that day. Eventually he veered off of the road. Far Guy and I were greatly relieved, we have never seen anything like it ever again. Minnesota deer usually just go across roads..hardly ever using them for travel. Perhaps they are smarter than Indiana deer.
These deer must have caught Chances scent, they stomped their feet at us. One by one they jumped off of the road onto a deer trail. They looked to be in pretty good shape. From what I have seen, we have an over abundance of deer in the woods. Just my opinion.
One of the widower silver hairs down on the lake, who shall remain nameless, but he is short and has a sinister looking moustache and is cavorting with a lonely widow..feeds the deer all winter..then in the spring when they eat all his flowers he complains. I saw him the other day..he likes to kiss all the women..he thinks he is a real ladies man, a Casanova. YUCK..I avoid him at all costs..but this time he had me trapped between a wall and a very large potted plant ( imagine a deer stuck in the headlights look), I extended my left hand..and wouldn't you know it he grabbed it, but slugged me in the right shoulder..I nearly passed out..and he still tried to kiss me..luckily I turned my head really fast and his kiss landed on my cheek...YEWWW.. I wanted to immediately disinfect my entire face.
I have never felt the need to accept kisses from anyone other than my husband and Chance, oh and of course from my children and grands when they were little.
What do you do when a strange man or woman attempts to kiss you? Besides just having a deer stuck in the headlights look on your face? :)
Posted by: farsideoffifty on 2/05/2010 at 11:59 AM | Comments (6) | Permalink
