Morning quartet

These ladies showed up on the camera this past week just before sunrise

Early morning quartet

Spring planting 2020, April update

If the weather holds, we should have a good couple of days planting this coming weekend. Popcorn for our cash crop and we'll have the ground ready for beans in mid-May.

We've already planted some hazelnut trees, peach, apricot and a couple of variety of sweet cherries. So far, so good as they are all caged to keep rabbits and deer away.

Our hickory nuts and both red and white oak acorns that we collected last fall are set in planter "tubes" and we'll keep those protected until planting next year.

We have some pin and white oak ready to plant this year along with sugar maple seedlings and a larger sugar maple that will be planted near the cabin.

After last year's spring of rain from March to July, this year is hopeful.

Morning daffodil

Keep your spirits up with a morning daffodil growing at the homestead.

From a single acorn, a forest

As the acorn sprouts to open sky
one of many to be planted on the hill.
Some day this one will be added
with a chance to reach towards heaven.

Red oak in the makeshift greenhouse

 Last fall we had a good harvest from my sources of acorns of white and red oak. The neighbor's pin oak was not short of it's yield and squirrels had their fill and more. I'm sure I'll find acorns sprouting throughout the yard as a result of their hard labor.

But this is a red oak - and that means it's special. Among the oak species, the red oak was the one most prized by my father for his carpentry work and our kitchen table he made was from red oak.

Also, this seedling is a cousin to the Stranded Tree.

Red oak seedling a few inches tall

This year, we continue to experiment in our planting times, fertilizer, etc. to collect additional data for future plantings.

I also have something special planned for this year (if only spring will cooperate) and I hope to reveal it soon.

In the mean time, I'd like to share from a song from David Gray, The Sapling:

Gonna lay down in the grass
And watch that acorn
Split in two
Slowly take root

Linked at Poets and Storytellers United:Weekly Scribblings #13: All The Small Things

Tuesday Triumph - Spring 2020 arrival

Our three-legged deer decided to return for her first visit this year. It's been nearly three months and, once again, we feared that she met her demise. She survived deer season to give us another visit and she did not disappoint. Standing here with a companion at nearby, she gives a profile of her wounded leg that looks well.

Find more pictures of Triumph on earlier postings.

We hope to see more of her this year.

The blackbirds returned

My brothers have returned home this week
the blackbird with the red wing.
To give notice that our spring arrived
while singing songs from past memories.

I ignore the Vernal equinox
that's not truly true spring around here.
It is the day of the red-winged arrival
to summer fields they now call home.

From a previous year.

We look each year for the red-winged blackbird arrival as the mark of spring. This year, on March 2nd, we saw the first birds on our morning commute along the roadways perched on the fences and old weeds in the ditch. It doesn't mean that we won't see significant snow yet this season but planting time is near.

Memories of listening to the call of the red-winged blackbird filled each summer that we spent at my maternal grandparent's farm. The humid and hot July and August days were filled with the cocaphony of the males calling while perched like pictured above.

Here is an example of their call (unfortunately, I don't have a video available of my own):



Linked at Poets and Storytellers United: Writers' Pantry #10: March is a month of considerable contemplation

Friday's flowers

Some color to brighten up your weekend. Enjoy!

Silent tree of winter

That silent tree on winter hill
will it speak again come spring?
I cannot hear while winter's breath
is driven away from it still.

Soon we hope for that spring day
when new growth can be shown
to the world around in green glory
in the Creator's time and say.

It is ours to keep this tree
in the care that it deserves
from time of planting to this day
and the future days to be.

This is our Kentucky Coffeetree, one of many different trees that are set aside as what we call Legacy Trees. These are planted in remembrance of someone and to honor them. It looks nearly dead in February but it will look like this in the summer:

Linked to Poets and Storytellers United: Writers’ Pantry #8: We Like Multiples of Three

Wildflowers for the winter weekend

A white flower to remind us of the snow that has been falling for the past three days:

Tuesday Triumph - still with us

I'm still catching up with December. Here's one from the 11th: