Bringing Down the Silos

For over a year now I've been blessed with a wonderful Americana farmland scene next door.  It's been a focal point of many of my favorite pictures...  The farm belonging to the neighbors across the highway.

Because it is East of our place, it makes for some

extraordinary sunrise pictures.

Another sunrise

My favorite sunrise picture.

DH actually took this one!!  :-)

In the storms.

Beautiful contrast with the clouds.

The view from my garden area.

Beautiful pre-dawn conjunction.

A little grainy but still very beautiful!

(If I had my picture editing program on this computer

I would edit those wires off!)

You can imagine how freaked out I was when DH came in one morning last week and told me that he hoped I had taken all the pictures of the neighbors silos that I wanted--because they were taking them down.  Yikes.  I went out and took as many pictures as I could of the whole process.  I wasn't able to be home the whole day but here's what I did get...

DH said that he had noticed the dome tops had been taken off the

day before but had forgotten to tell me.

Those men (probably Amish men) just tossed those concrete slabs

off like they were nothing!

A close up of them loosening the slabs.

Men on the ground waiting to pick up the fallen slabs and load

them onto the tractor-trailer bed.

I had to leave--and when I got home the first silo was down and

they were working on the second one.

Down it goes.

They worked very fast.

We weren't sure if they would be able to get both of them down by the days

end but...

In the pink light of sunset, they were wrapping it all up.

DH had walked over to talk to the men and learn more about what was going on.  Turns out that this group of men (we don't know for sure whether they were Amish or Mennonite--but we're leaning toward Amish) were dismantling the silos and taking them to one of their farms for their own use.  It was comforting to know that the silos, which are 50+ years old, were going to a nice home and that they weren't just being torn down and thrown away. 

My new view.  Not so scenic but not horrible either.

It's just gonna take some time getting used to.

Fall Is Around The Corner

Happy September everybody!! 

We've been having some rain lately.  Our tally from Isaac was almost 3 inches.  So that was nice.  And not a single gully washer!!  ;-)  There's talk of more rain in the forceast tonight and tomorrow.  Yay!

Everything is greening up nicely again.  Seems odd that normally, at this time of year, everything is turning brown and getting ready for fall.  What's "normal" anymore anyway?  :-P

For DH's birthday and our 31st anniversary this past week we were gifted with some money from DH's parents--and I have gleefully already spent my share of the booty!!  I was wanting to put in some fruits and ornamentals in a few of the limited spots that need some TLC around our place.  We miss our blackberries, raspberries, apples and peaches from the old place and wanted to try to stuff a few things in here at the new place.  I was searching for a small, disease resistant apple tree and discovered a new source of admiration and desire!!...

I bought (pictures are all from their website)...

Liberty Apple Tree

Small tree

Disease resistant

Crisp, sweet and tart.

Self pollinating!!

Perfect!

Elderberry Combo

2 different types for pollination.

Not only are the berries my heart's desire but

the leaves can be dried and crushed to put on

squash plants to repel Squash Bugs!  Yippee!!

Ours at the old place would have bore properly this year.

Dwarf Sand Cherry

Interesting history: A treat for the Westward

Pioneer as they crossed the Prairies.

Pink Rosa Rugosa

I've been wanting some of these for a long time

for those large, edible hips.  :-)

Mixed Butterfly Bush

Sadly, the one that Son #3 bought me for Mother's

Day a few years ago died after I dug it up when we

moved.  :-(

Chinese Wisteria

I've been wanting one of these vines for awhile but

have been afraid of how they can run wild.

I'll have to give it a go and hopefully it'll be

spectacular!

The prices were fantastic!!!  I'm going to go bonkers waiting for them to ship in November though!  :-)  My order qualified for 2 free trees so I'm hoping we'll get something wonderful!!  We shall see.  I'm excited!

Aside from this I am trying to figure out where to plant my fall garden and WHAT to plant.  I saw a neat idea on Pinterest for using an old trampoline frame for a garden coldframe/greenhouse.

The tutorial was at HowDoesShe but I didn't have any luck

getting to it.  I'm surethat DH can figure out how to design it 

easily--It's what he does.  :-)

(when he's having a good

day and isn't doing something else!)

But isn't this cool?!?!

If we decide to do this I will certainly post about it!

Fall is my most absolute favorite time of year!!  So much to do!  How about you?  Do you have any fall dreams or projects in mind?

Destructive Little Buggers

I'm sorry that I've been slacking off of blogging lately.  There's just been so much of nothing going on that I can't seem to focus.  I hate posting drivel just for the sake of posting--so I choose not to post at all.  :-)

We have a new enemy to contend with here at this new homestead...

The Japanese Beetle

On a wild grape leaf

On my lime basil!!!

I've read that they love basil.  :-(

On my catnip!!!

On the Elm tree.

Can you see all the holes in the leaves?

They can skeletonize leaves in no time!

We noticed them last year when we first moved here, but since we didn't have a garden at the time we didn't pay much attention.  We were too busy trying to move everything, getting settled into the new place and trying to recover emotionally. 

We did not have these back at the old homestead!!

Honestly though, these guys are beautiful.  My pictures don't capture their iridescence properly at all.  Their wings are a beautiful metallic copper color and they have a green iridescent body and head.  When I first saw them my brain immediately popped out the word "scarab" (my brain has a habit of filing away names for things so that they just pop into my thoughts when I look at things.  Many times I'll drive down the road and notice flowers and my brain pops out the name for them--sometimes even their Latin names!--because I've browsed so many flower catalogs!!  It's rather weird.  So somewhere along the line I've seen this bug or something similar.).  Sure enough this is a scarab type of beetle (who's seen The Mummy?). 

They are an agricultural pest and enjoy munching on... well, just about everything.  Sigh.  For now I am picking them off by hand and tossing them into a gallon size ice cream bucket filled with soapy water.  It's brutal, but I don't want to lose my beloved plants!!  The long term goal is to buy some Milky Spore powder to spread all over the property (our side and DH's parent's side too) at the optimal time in August or so.  It kills the larval grubs and is effective for many years!!  It's harmless safe for everyone/everything--except Japanese Beetles.  Yes!!

This morning when I was out and about fairly early I could hear what almost sounded like rain falling all around me.  Almost.  It was a little different because it had more of a "tink"ing noise to it.  And sometimes there were little plunking sounds like something hitting the ground that was bigger.  Upon investigation I discovered a bunch of the Japanese Beetles laying all around (the "plunk"ing sound--of them falling) and also a whole lot of little black "pellets" the size of large grains of sand (the "tink"ing sound) .  The more I looked around, the more I saw.  Especially under the Elm tree.  Wow!!  The Japanese Beetles were mostly laying on their backs and flailing their legs about.  Later on I went out with my camera but the beetles were gone.  The little black pellets were still there of course...

(A piece of old white panelling laying under the elm tree)

I'm guessing beetle poo! 

Last summer I did notice the "tink"ing sound but it was under the Sycamore trees as we walked down the driveway--especially early in the morning.  I remember making a mental note of this.  Also I found a few dead Japanese Beetles and kept them because they were so pretty.  Oh the irony.  ;-)

My "Me" Day (picture heavy!!)

Yesterday I had a "me" day. I spent the day just doing whatever I felt like doing.  Mostly I just kind of walked around with my camera and took pictures of whatever caught my fancy.  (The kiddos were having their own "me" day inside where it was cool and out of camera's reach!)

My Moonshadow Hyacinth is coming along nicely.  All of that "green" on the ground is weeds.  It's trimmed but definitely weeds.  Green is my goal--not weed free.  :-)

The young tendrils are climbing the trellis that I made for them.  I love seeing them reaching out.  I guide them up the strings and watch them grow as they are stimulated by touching those strings.

I make my own Hummingbird nectar without food coloring which is better for the birds.  I prefer to have roosts on my feeders so that they can have a bit of a rest while sipping the nectar.  This feeder has an "ant moat" on top that I fill with water to keep the ants out..

Beautiful Ruby Throated Hummingbird.

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe:
It's an easy 4:1 ratio of water and sugar.  For this size feeder I used...
Measure 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 cups of water into a small pot. 
Boil for 2 minutes (no more than that as it will make the solution too
strong and attract pests).  Let it cool and pour into the feeder.
Easy peasy!  :-)

More Critters...

Honeybee.

I'm seeing quite a few of these this year.  Yay!

I went chasing after flutterbys.  :-)

This little winged flower has a chunk missing from it's wing.

Pretty little pale yellow butterfly

Beautiful!

Here is one of our garden areas.  We discovered that there was just too much shade in some of the area that we had previously planned to use for our garden.  So we looked around and found some other small sections to work with here and there that gets as much sun as possible.

I've "hilled" the tomato plants.  DH drove the T posts and put on the cages.

There are 13 plants/cages.  I've planted 21 pickling cucumbers (one on each side of the cages--except for one, of course)

to vine up the cage.

There are 2 1/2 more cages for more vining plants here.

I will also find room for some sunflowers too. 

In the next few days I'll be putting down the mulch--newspaper with grass clippings on top.

Fluffy frolicking in the dirt.  She almost laid on one of the baby cucumber plants!!

She's such a unique kitty.

The girls!  I love my chickens!!  The are just the sweetest things and give me the best eggs ever!!

We have this everywhere!!  False strawberries.  They are watery and pretty much tasteless (and tiny!).  I hear that they have medicinal qualities and the leaves make a tea that's very high in vitamin C.  Perhaps someday I'll do something more hands on with them.

A beautiful bloom from my memorial rose bush for our daughter Jessica whom we lost in 1993 at birth.  I can't believe how pretty and dainty even the weeds look in this picture alongside the rose and leaves.  :-)

What do you think of this colorful guy?  Beautiful irredescent colors!!! 

Six Spotted Tiger Beetle.

Bunny Rabbit!!  I hope he stays on THAT side of the fence!!!

This critter sure looks surprised, don't you think.

We found this old bowling ball in an old shed we cleaned out. 

I thought he had such a cute little face!!  :-)

There's fungus amongus!!!

And more fungus...

DH "blading" the driveway.

A nice "bird on a wire" silhouette.

Late afternoon.  Partly cloudy skies but Venus is visable.

The Supermoon emerging from the clouds.

And it disappears again...

It wasn't really this dark but I had to use the manual setting to get a clear picture.   Cloud cover is nearly gone.

Just a few wisps of clouds now.

The beautiful Supermoon!!!

In October (or so) 1993 I was shopping with the children one evening.  All of a sudden, over the treetops emerges a HUGE moon.  Like you see in the pictures.  It's called a "moon illusion".  It was stunning!!  I don't know how many people ever actually get to witness such a thing but I am blessed to have seen such a sight!!  The only thing is...  I want to see another one!!  Gosh I'm greedy!!  :-)

Image: Wikimedia