Monday Moms - Twins

 We usually have set of twins every two years and this is the year:

A little evening grazing before calling it a night.

Legacy Trees - Catalpa

We planted catalpa seeds eight years ago and had about 100 seedlings but our local rabbits took care of almost all of them. What remains are just two with one slightly bigger than the other.

The seeds came from good friends of ours from a tree on their property and unfortunately, both he and his wife passed away.

It seems fitting that the two remaining catalpa trees should be in their honor.

 

Seedling from 2013

From that seedling we now have a tree measuring 10 1/2 feet tall and 3 1/2 inches diameter (March 2021).

Catalpa, June 2021

It has hundreds of flowers this year which may produce their seed pods with thousands of seeds. If so, this would be our first legacy tree that carries on to the next generations. 

 Which is what a legacy should be.

Catalpa trees are not native to Iowa but at one time the state was encouraging the planting for their use for fence posts. Publication from 1910: The hardy Catalpa in Iowa

My father was able to get a few hundred board feet of its hardy dark wood before he passed away. My brother bought it from the estate but I'm sure I could get a few boards from him, if he still has any left.

For a little more information and a few more pictures

Monday Moms - evening stroll

 We have two mothers on the acreage now, one has twins and the other has a single energetic fawn:

It's much easier to walk now that I mowed the weeds around the garden area and the fruit trees. 

Most of May brought us rain nearly every day which caused nothing but weeds to grow. The last three weeks of dry days was broken on Friday with about an inch of needed rain and this year's plantings look better (and the weeds took off as well.) 

We still have dry days ahead and hauling water (along with cutting weeds) will be on the chore list.