A treasure at the farm: the native miner-bee colony
When we were buying this farm one of the owners walked us around to a red clay patch of bare dirt on the east side of the house. It’s an area under an addition that juts out over a steep slope. A series of tiny arched entrances the size of your fingertip covered the slope like an adobe village in miniature. This was the first time I had ever seen a colony of miner bees or chimney bees…
Read MoreThe banty in the shed vs the blog post…
If you happen to have a little farmstead with chickens, ducks, dogs, gardens and bee hives you can find some fairly odd sounding to-do notes lying about in the kitchen. This one was from our place back in Arkansas. We had one banty hen who flew out of the chicken yard regularly…
Read MoreStarting again, somewhat afresh…
When we returned home to the Blue Ridge last year, I knew I’d be starting a homestead all over again. That was challenging in every way, but I’m happy to say it’s starting to feel like home again. I was not thinking I’d have to start anew with the blog. But hey, when it rains…and it has been raining.
So shortly after getting back to blogging in the spring, it all melted down.
Read MoreLove this plant! Panicle Hydrangea
Any plant that attracts this kind of beauty on a daily basis is going to win points with me!
Read MoreThe August Babies! (Baby Chicks…)
New Chicks! This is from my accumulated material from early August that I haven’t had time to post. They arrived on the 8th of August as day old chicks. The good news is that three weeks later, they are all still with us. Only bigger, and now in the gangly teenager stage, so let’s stick with the cute pics for now!
The black ones are Black Australorps. I think a glossy black chicken walking around on green grass is lovely to look at (I feel the same about black cows on a green hillside…but we don’t have that much room!) The yellow ones will grow up to be deep red-brown. They are Buckeyes, a rare heritage breed – and the only American chicken developed by a woman back in the late 1800s, in Ohio as you may have guessed. (And these are my new farm project — more about that later…)
Press the play button to see just how cute these little gals are just walking around in their warm box.
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