"Barkeep, make mine a double."

With temperatures in the mid-90s daily and no rain in sight, I don't have much motivation to work outside.  But, while the indoor cats do keep me entertained...

"Whiskey.  Neat."

...outdoor chores have to be done.  Weeding, in particular, has fallen behind, so I picked the coolest day of the week (a mere 89 degrees), got up early, and started working.  It can be extraordinarily difficult to weed when your cat thinks that your weed bag is a giant pillow.

Once I got her situated, though, I could enjoy the morning.  This tiny soybean beetle (colaspis brunnea) landed on my leg for a brief moment.  I've noticed a lot of insects that prey on soybeans lately, which is odd, since there are no soybeans nearby!

This mottled sand grasshopper (spharagemon collare) stayed one step ahead of me.  Like the soybean beetle, this type of grasshopper isn't considered a serious pest...and I think that their speckled camouflage is so interesting.

I've often seen these "gnat plumes" outside, but I started watching them with great interest while working last week.  Why do they congregate like this?

Well, it turns out that to gnats, this plume is a perfect singles bar.  It's easier for gnats to find mates in groups, so the males will form a cluster - usually against a contrasting color, like this tree -  and will circulate.  Female gnats can easily see the cluster and slip in for a quick mating. 

The most interesting find of the morning, though, was this female wolf spider.  Now, if you don't like spiders, you should skip ahead - but I encourage you to peek!  I used to hate spiders, but now I think they're fascinating.  This female wolf spider was dragging her egg sac behind her.

I pushed her away with a stick, because I didn't want to accidentally squish her as I worked.  To my surprise, she shrunk up...

...and rolled her egg case to the front.  Apparently the sacs are attached to her abdomen with silk thread, enabling some flexibility.  Wolf spiders carry their egg sacs because they are ground hunters and don't make webs, so they need to cart the eggs along when they travel. 

I suppose she moved her egg sac to the front because she felt threatened and better able to protect it there.  Once this hatches, the tiny spiders will cling to her back for about a week before dispersing.  I really hope I can see this in action soon!

From my ground vantage point, I could also see the many pollinators on the flowers, like this sweat bee...

Just seeing the flowers themselves was nice.

Some much-needed work happened around here this week - we finally had the back fields mown!

The barnyard, which was such a horrible mess when we moved in (abandoned tractors, huge piles of wire, 5 years' worth of weeds) is finally coming together.

Before:

It's a winter pic, but you can still see the weeds, the junk surrounding the barn, and the decrepit chicken coop.  So much better now!

I love having better access to the back pond.

Being outside is really rough right now, but at least when we go out, we've got beautiful views.

Have a great week!

mite makes right

I noticed something a little unusual on one of my coneflowers this week.  It was sprouting a bushy green crown, and the surrounding petals seemed a little pale and puny.

It turns out that this is the work of the eriophyid mite, which only bothers coneflowers.  They make a meal of the soft tissue at the base of the flower, which causes the distortion seen above.  The mites are far too small to be picked off...the only thing that can be done is to cut off the diseased flower head and keep an eye on the rest of the plant. 

Some good news in the garden, though.  A local gardener gave me several fading columbines from her garden in the hope that although the bloom was over, the flower might live long enough to produce seeds.  Columbines are famous self-seeders, so I was thrilled to see a drift of green all around the dead plant.

Columbine seedlings look almost exactly like wood sorrel, a lemony-tasting edible weed that I'm forever pulling out of the garden.  I had so many columbines at our old place in Indianapolis, though, that I can see at a glance what I'm dealing with (columbine on the left, wood sorrel on the right).

Once the seedlings mature a bit, they're even easier to distinguish from wood sorrel.

In about two weeks I'll thin these seedlings out to give the strongest seedlings the best chance at survival.  It will be quite a show next year!  I'm building up my shade garden, with columbines, foam flowers, hostas, and coral bells.  Coral bells with light-colored leaves can tolerate full sun, but those with darker leaves prefer the shade.  They make a gorgeous pop of color when they flower!

The plants are a nice distraction from our chaotic construction.  The frame for the addition is built, although we're waiting on several windows and doors.  Shop lighting has been installed in the barn, and a concrete floor poured.  Insulation and HVAC is coming soon...I think.

The fields finally got a mow, although they remain stubbly and bordered by weeds, because of our rickety fences.  We're hoping that next year's livestock will take care of that little problem for us.

It's a nice view back there.

We ALL enjoy it!  :)

As I write, I can see a variety of birds, a woodchuck, and two rabbits in the barn yard.  I see the rabbits nearly every day, and I'm always adding new birds to my backyard bird list, too.  Just yesterday I saw a male American goldfinch. Score!

We're still enjoying fresh wild blackberries...for a while, almost a pound a day!  I've made crisp, pie, pancakes, quick bread, and muffins. 

It's probably not a cost-effective way of getting berries, of course.  I go out in the early mornings, about every two days.  I'm buzzed by horse flies and mosquitoes.  I prick my fingers again, and again, and again.  I've ripped my shirt.  It takes at least 30 minutes to visit all the bushes, and I know I could get a couple of pints at the grocery store for a few dollars.  I really enjoy the experience, though, thorns notwithstanding! 

One thing that I'm always trying to be careful about is ticks.  They carry more than Lyme Disease - all sorts of fever diseases, encephalitis, and many other nasty-sounding things.  They don't climb in trees and fall down from above, like I used to think.  They climb grass - short or tall - and wave their front set of legs.  They are masters at grabbing on if you brush past.  It usually takes them about 24 hours after attaching to you to transmit their bacteria, so if you catch them fast, you're probably going to be all right.  But they're awfully sneaky.  We've pulled ticks off of Claudia and Borga.  I've caught three ticks crawling on me, but thankfully they hadn't yet bitten.  Todd had a tick embedded in his side a few weeks ago, and I've found them crawling on his clothing, my outdoor hat, and even the ceiling of Todd's car after a hike.  TICKS ARE EVERYWHERE, and my homemade essential oil spray does absolutely nothing.  So we will just try to stay vigilant...enjoy the flowers, but watch out for the ticks that might be lurking nearby.  Eek!

Have a great week!

[red wing black] bird is the word

We're in!  Now, I don't mean that we're living in the house...not for another couple of weeks, I think.  We still have to paint and pull up/replace carpet.  But the lawn is mowed, the front beds are weeded, and our daily trips there are taking on a pleasing regularity as we settle into some sort of a schedule.

I've spent nearly as much time working outside in the beds as inside, painting.  I filled 4 garbage bags with weeds from the front beds, clipped the shrubs, and took lots of pictures. 

There's a lilac blooming!  It smells amazing.

There aren't a lot of perennials, just a shabby rose bush (red...shudder), some hostas, a nice spread of creeping thyme, and one of the largest bleeding heart plants I've seen!

You can see why they're called bleeding hearts...see the shape of the tiny flowers?

There's a gorgeous apple tree blooming in the side yard, too. 

The former (!!) homeowner told us that the tree in the front yard was a pear tree, but I knew that it was some sort of maple.  But I'd never seen one this color...and she said that the leaves stayed maroon.

I did a little research and discovered that it's a Royal Red Norway, and that the leaves will turn a deep red in the fall.  I can't wait! 

It's not all manicured lawns and pretty beds, though.  The barnyard is a mess.

The grass is mowed every 2 weeks, so at least that is tidy, but the chicken coop is an absolute disaster.  I asked Todd if we should just tear it down and build a new one, but he said that the foundation is great and the current coop can be repaired.  He's an optimist!  :)  It's a nice size, though, and I'm willing to do it if it can be done.  

The fences are in need of repair all over the property, and after our recent survey showed that they don't even follow the property line, have decided to just replace them next year.  This year, they're going to look tatty and weed-lined, unfortunately.  

I found a nice picture of the animal barn online recently...

But it does not look like that now!  

It's structurally sound, but has not been used for years.  This photo is from March, but it's even worse now, with huge weeds growing up all around it.  Big rusty coils of wire are scattered around...old doghouses and coolers...brush from a fallen tree in a haphazard pile...it's kind of a mess.  The pastures, too, are already overgrown with weeds, so much so that I'm afraid to walk through them for fear of stepping on a snake.  We have to have it bush-hogged later this summer, but unfortunately, it's going to remain a mess until we tackle this whole area next year.  So for now, I'm trying to look OVER the barns at the nice rolling hills behind them...

...or in FRONT of the barns, in the fenced pasture where I'm planning some fruit/nut trees and a large flower and vegetable garden...

...instead of directly at the big mess behind them.  A weed trimmer will take care of some of the fence jumble, but I'm already planning a trip to our new neighbors' house to apologize for the temporary eyesore!  Our lawn mower guy had a great recommendation for the fields:  "Get some goats."  We can't wait!  

Meanwhile, we're enjoying the undisputed leader of the bird cacophony at the property...the red-wing blackbird.  They're so pretty and have a beautiful call that has apparently been translated into conk-la-reeee!  ;)  They are EVERYWHERE.

It takes me a long time to attach to things and places, but I had a funny urge this morning to drive over to the property with a book to enjoy the sunrise on the front porch with a steaming cup of tea (note to self:  MUST learn to like tea!).  It's a great space to sit...

...and I've already added the first bouquet, all with flowers from the property...in a red Solo cup!  :)

It's not "home" yet...but it's a great start.

Have a nice week!