Apple Blossoms

Hello my dear friends, 

At this time of year it seems that our gardens are changing by the day!  It has been a very cool wet spring but we are now starting to see life bursting forth in our trees and gardens.

We have many apple trees at the farm. We planted some but most of them are very old trees that have been here forever or are trees that have seeded themselves and have been maturing.

We have a pasture that we call Crab Apple Grove.  I love to name things!!  This is a small pasture in front of our barn and several years ago we purchased 8 small end-of-season crab apple trees.  Of course sheep and young trees are not a good combination so once we planted them we protected them with wooden enclosures.  The trees have honestly not had any coddling from us but they have all survived and are now about 6 or 7 feet tall.  We have long since lost the tags but the trees have either pink or white flowers.

The pink crab apple trees are all blossoming but the white ones are not.

This poor old tree has been in Crab Apple Grove forever.  It is broken and if you look carefully you can see tufts of sheeps' wool on many of the branches.  These trees are incredibly resilient and even though it has seen better days it is leafing out for another year!

I love

I love the intense pink of this crab apple.

This old tree has lovely white flowers with just a hint of pink.

We call this area Apple Lane.  It was here when we bought the farm almost 25 years ago.  A double row of mature apple trees that go no where!  We often wonder about it.  Was it a laneway once upon a time and if so where was it supposed to go?  It ends at our property line.  It starts in the midde of our property.  It is a mystery.  I wanted to take a photo from the end of the lane as it is quite pretty but the mosquitoes are impossible this evening and I abandoned the idea of making the trekk to get a better photo.

This lamb wondered what was happening.  Sheep love to eat apples!  We often say that a sheep can hear an apple falling from a mile away.  Apples are one of their favourite food groups.

I dont have a name for this area but should come up with one.  This row of old apple trees separates Crab Apple Grove from the neighbouring pasture.  The fence that separated these two areas has long since fallen into disrepair and we have not gotten around to repairing it.  It is however on the list of things to do as I would like to be able to properly fence off Crab Apple Grove so that we can reseed the pasture.  The sheep are often found lounging under these apple trees, and in the heat of the summer these trees provide much needed shade.

This old apple tree is in an area we call The Grove.  I have photographed it many times over the years as it is astonishing that this shell of a tree remains standing.

It is really just a skeleton of a tree but each tree is produces leaves and flowers!

This crab apple tree is in a shrub border in what we call Bailey's Garden.  Bailey was one of our German Shepherds.  He unexpectedly and tragically passed away after developing gastric torsion.  He was only 3 years old.   All of our departed and much loved pets are buried here at the farm in their own gardens and this crab apple is in Bailey's Garden.  I was happy to see this bumble bee flitting from blossom to blossom!

These lovely white cascading blossoms are on a crab apple tree that is close to our veranda.   The tree is currently covered in white blossoms and has an intensely sweet fragrance.  The blossoms only last for a couple of days before covering the decks and flagstone landing with its' petals.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog!  Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Dining Terrace Pergola

Hello dear friends, 

We have had a very productive week at the farm!  Many of you will recall that we have spent the last 4 years working on an addition for our old farmhouse.  I can assure you that what seems possible at the energetic age of 30 something becomes a little more challenging 25 years later!

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The grade around our house was an issue during construction and we decided to use large stones as a retaining wall to create a sort of sunken terrace.  This area is adjacent to our new dining room so have called it the dining area terrace.  We were quite happy with the area but it needed a finishing base.  The gravel you can see in this picture is large and is really meant as a foundation for something else.  We just hadnt managed to get around to the something else but thought we would like to ultimately have limestone screenings in this area.  So we agreed that this would be our outdoor project for this year.

My husband and I love to look at pinterest and unfortunately we somehow decided that a pergola over the seating area would be quite nice.   We thought it could give us a bit of dappled shade at noon and then later in the afternoon.

Of course that means construction.  If you are wondering the plastic wading pool is for the dogs.

For anyone interested in techie bits the posts were 16 feet tall and are sunk in 4 foot deep holes.  We have had a very wet spring and there is a lot of clay in this area so it could also be described as 4 foot holes with water.

We tend to improvise as we go and my husband decided that this would be the design of the end pieces.  If we had more time he would have liked to design something much more elaborate but the goal was to start and end the pergola project in one week.  This is a concept we have often discussed but have had trouble executing.  We are of course quite smug about this. 😃

We noticed a big difference in the trees from the beginning of the week to the end.  We had alternately very warm then quite cool weather.  And of course rain.

And here it is!  You may notice that our dogs photo-bomb many pictures.  This is Abby and Willow.

Here is a view from the opposite angle.

Lucy is one of the building inspectors.

Some detail to show the roof.

We have decided an adult beverage in this area at the end of the day is lovely.  And our darling Willow apparently agrees.  At the ripe old age of 13 Willow has free choice of any furniture and enjoys sitting at the table with us.

One final view before wrapping up the vacation and going back to work.  Our next vacation starts in a few weeks and we will be sure to have another project to work on along with looking forward to a visit from my sister-in-law who plans on staying for a few days.

Thank you for visiting and have a great week!

Mid May Evening Stroll

Hello dear friends, it has been a while since I last shared an update on our farm activities.  Our spring has so far been one of very cool temperatures and significant rainfall.  Although we have not suffered through the flooding conditions that those in Eastern Ontario and Eastern Canada have experienced we have nonetheless had far more rain than usual.  We have some areas of the farm under water while most areas are just waterlogged.  We will need some sun and drying winds to help dry the hayfields and pastures.

At this time of year it is always a race to get a head start on the gardens.  If I start too early the gardens are still too wet and it is too easy to spear some late showing perennials with my garden fork.  If I wait too long the weeds get ahead of me and the soil loses that perfect level of moisture which makes weeding so gratifying!  I am sure other hard core gardeners sympathize with me!  This area is already starting to take off on me.  The statue in this photo is the resting spot of Bailey, one of the many German Shepherds we have had on the farm.  

Yesterday was mostly dry and reasonably warm  so I thought I would share some photos.  With all of the rain and bits of sun and warmth the lawns are growing like mad!  For many years we have contracted out the cutting of our lawns but this year we have decided to do it ourselves.  Last year my husband bought me a new John Deere riding mower and I treated myself to a Stihl battery operated push mower.  I actually quite enjoy mowing the lawns-it is great exercise and the chickens love scratching through the grass clippings.   

Our two lonely chickens are looking forward to their new companions!  We have day old chicks arriving in a couple of weeks and we are waiting to be able to buy some ready to lay hens.  Once we get our flock back up to about 20 hens they will make very quick work of all of the grass clippings and weeds that I deliver to the chicken run for them.

Here is a view down our sideroad.  We live in a very pretty area with rolling hills.  This is a rural area although we have some large residences in the area.  The sideroad is reasonably quiet with not too much traffic.  We move the sheep across the road regularly although on occasion a passing motorist needs to stop to wait for the road to clear.   Our experience has been that anyone trapped in a vehicle surrounded by sheep finds it very amusing,

We use this field to pasture our sheep for a few hours daily.  This field is across the road from our farm.  The owners of the property love to have the sheep graze the grass and enjoy being pretend-sheep farmers.  There are other farms visible in the distance.  There is a river in the valley just beyond the crest of the hill.  This area also provides cover to predators so we can only leave the sheep here for a few hours at a time.

I am not sure what this is.  It is a small tree or large shrub growing in one of the ditches.  I love the way the new growth looks like bristles.

We grow as much of our own hay as possible.  Having to purchase hay makes raising sheep a very costly hobby!  This hayfield is already lush and green.  The hedgerows provide cover and a corridor for all kinds of birds and wildlife.  Unfortunately the hedgerows also provide cover for the coyotes that try to prey on our sheep.

The ground is so waterlogged that the ditches are not draining.  While walking earlier in the day I noticed that this cedar tree is actually tipping over.  We will need to do something about that.

Hello, moon!

This is our largest single hay field.  We reseeded it a few short years ago and it produces very nice hay for us.  We have a smaller hay field that also produces great hay and we also cut hay on a neighbour's field.  Depending on the weather that year we may or may not be able to take a second cut.  Weather has such a big impact on the quantity and the quality of the hay.

Another pastoral view across the road.  While taking in this view I was texting with my sister-in-law over her dreadful commute.  We both have long commutes to the city as well so having these views to look forward to helps to keep us sane!

This is a view down our road in the opposite direction.  Just visible in the distance is Lake Belwood.  Once the trees start to leaf out we will no longer be able to see the water.  When we first moved here the lake was visible from the upstairs windows of our house.

We have noticed that over the years we have been experiencing more wind with higher gusts and for longer periods of time.  The poor greenhouse has taken quite a beating in the winds so far this year.  One of the panels ended up across the road.  We have hopefully found all of the parts and will need to do some repairs to it this year.

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Yes we are!

Daffodils have always been my favourite spring bulb.  This year several will need division and this fall I will order some new varieties.

Lake Ophelia is just behind this ewe.  The water level is very high.  Lake Ophelia is actually a pond that we had dug to help dry some of the area around the barn.  It needs some renovation which is one of many future projects.  

At lambing time we use marking paint to mark the ewe and her lamb(s).  This allows us to quickly identify which lamb belongs to which Mom.  

One more quick view of some of the sheep before heading into the house to feed the dogs.  Next week we are on vacation and are very excited about our latest outdoor project which I hope to share soon!

Thank you for visiting!