May 2013
I am going to try and post more pictures rather than content. So sometimes a post will just be a bunch of photos. This blog actually serves as an album for our family to remember what the farm looked like over the years. And so I need to be taking more pictures! I know my photos are not that great. But they are the best with the technology I have. So hope you enjoy the views. In other news:
We are busy planning summer camping trips. The kids with their school are going on a camping trip to Monterey in August. We are also going on a family vacation to San Diego. The main focus of this trip is Legoland for the kids and the beautiful beaches. We are looking into renting a cabin this year in the Trinity National Forest.
We have a pair of Say's Phoebes nesting in our eave on the southwest side. Last year and the year before it was a pair of Purple Finches. I must say I miss the beautiful song of the finches. It really made me feel like Spring. The Phoebes are more quiet and secretive. They have a sad falling call. They were nesting on the other side of the house but they changed for some reason. Last year I put hardware cloth around the post beneath this nesting site because the cats were climbing the post and taking swipes at the babies. They dislodged two which was terribly sad. Now with the pokey wire they just watch the Phoebes come and go. The Phoebes are devoted parents. If you are very still you can hear the tiny peeps of the chicks when the parents come round. These Phoebes belong to the same family as the Western King Birds and look similar but are not as aggressive, not as loud and instead of bright yellow marking on their stomach they have a light apricot and instead of a black accents they have dark grey. They are also smaller. They eat mainly insects where the finches eat mainly seeds. I also saw a new bird which I could not id. It kind of had the beak of a finch but was much larger and had a speckled head with a white stripe above the eye and black tail feather. It was almost as big as a Meadow Lark. I wonder if I will see it again.
We found one of the chicken bodies yesterday. The predator had buried it in a pile of saw dust. And then either came to retrieve it and was interrupted or the cats uncovered it. It was mostly just wings and feet and the head. But it was sad to see it. We have finished putting up the 6 foot fence which we think will keep the predator from jumping in over the electric fence.
We planted several Mulberries this year and have found that 50% of the time the top half of the bare-root tree dies. We don't know why. We think drying winds have something to do with it. And I wish we could find Siberian Elm in commerce around here. The tree I planted on the northeast is doing so well. The peaches continue to defy my preconceived notions with their toughness. This year they will have fruit again where the apples will have none and even the good performers from last year, the plums will have very little fruit.
We are busy planning summer camping trips. The kids with their school are going on a camping trip to Monterey in August. We are also going on a family vacation to San Diego. The main focus of this trip is Legoland for the kids and the beautiful beaches. We are looking into renting a cabin this year in the Trinity National Forest.
We have a pair of Say's Phoebes nesting in our eave on the southwest side. Last year and the year before it was a pair of Purple Finches. I must say I miss the beautiful song of the finches. It really made me feel like Spring. The Phoebes are more quiet and secretive. They have a sad falling call. They were nesting on the other side of the house but they changed for some reason. Last year I put hardware cloth around the post beneath this nesting site because the cats were climbing the post and taking swipes at the babies. They dislodged two which was terribly sad. Now with the pokey wire they just watch the Phoebes come and go. The Phoebes are devoted parents. If you are very still you can hear the tiny peeps of the chicks when the parents come round. These Phoebes belong to the same family as the Western King Birds and look similar but are not as aggressive, not as loud and instead of bright yellow marking on their stomach they have a light apricot and instead of a black accents they have dark grey. They are also smaller. They eat mainly insects where the finches eat mainly seeds. I also saw a new bird which I could not id. It kind of had the beak of a finch but was much larger and had a speckled head with a white stripe above the eye and black tail feather. It was almost as big as a Meadow Lark. I wonder if I will see it again.
We found one of the chicken bodies yesterday. The predator had buried it in a pile of saw dust. And then either came to retrieve it and was interrupted or the cats uncovered it. It was mostly just wings and feet and the head. But it was sad to see it. We have finished putting up the 6 foot fence which we think will keep the predator from jumping in over the electric fence.
We planted several Mulberries this year and have found that 50% of the time the top half of the bare-root tree dies. We don't know why. We think drying winds have something to do with it. And I wish we could find Siberian Elm in commerce around here. The tree I planted on the northeast is doing so well. The peaches continue to defy my preconceived notions with their toughness. This year they will have fruit again where the apples will have none and even the good performers from last year, the plums will have very little fruit.
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