Bruce's Log

A rafter of turkeys

2008-02-06T13:31:00.000-05:00

We had a rare treat the other morning - We looked out in the horse field and there was a large flock (sometimes known as a rafter) of wild turkeys walking across to the woods. The weather has been very wet and, although I’m not 100 percent sure, I believe that they, like some other birds, enjoy the rain and wet soil to bring out insects and worms. We counted 36, four times the most we’ve ever seen on once.

I've written about wild turkeys on our farm before, but it was especially mesmerizing to watch this rafter … they walked calmly across the field for the most part, looking around, picking at the ground, but occasionally one would get excited and run ahead, then several others would join in. I felt like I was seeing something very old … almost as if I were looking at a group of dinosaurs instead of birds.

A Rout of Coyotes (Canis latrans)

2008-01-25T13:48:00.000-05:00

We usually only hear them at night. One howls out in the darkness and for a moment you think that a child is laughing or screaming, then several more add their yips, yelps, and barks and their calls fill the night, somehow eerie and lonely at the same time.

This morning three coyotes came trotting across our horse field, they were not going to down a horse, but they may have been eying our sheep. These animals are omnivores eating small mammals (mice, voles, rabbits, squirrels, and domestic pets) birds, snakes, deer, livestock, insects, and fruit and vegetables. The part about livestock is why we have a Great Pyrenees – a dog bred to protect sheep and goats from such predators.

There are 19 subspecies of coyote ranging in various sizes, the ones in our area tend to be small, going around 50 pounds. They roam in small single-sexed groups called a band, a pack, or a rout. Since they are primarily nocturnal, it is a rare gift to see one during daylight hours.

The Highwayman's moon

2008-01-23T18:13:00.000-05:00

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas,

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,

And the highwayman came riding, riding, riding,

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

From The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes.

Billy Bob

2008-01-11T16:52:00.000-05:00

Our farm is full of animals: two horses, five sheep, a couple of cats, and two rabbits. And not just our animals, nooo..., we seem to be a repository. This Christmas I found myself taking care of three extra dogs ... we’ve come to be known as the doggy spa – they love the walks on the farm. We also have a pet cemetery - dogs, cats, rabbits – our friends and family come to us and say “can we bury Spot on your farm?” How could we say no.

Lots of animals, living and dead, but to me there is no more curious character than the bunny Billy Bob. He is an indoor rabbit; a little velveteen bunny that my wife dearly loves ... but I call him “the little monster.” She takes him out of his cage in the morning and the evening and lets him hop around the house. He is - in part - very good, never leaving droppings or making a mess anywhere. Typically, he hops around; bothers the cats, sometimes does sideways jumps and flips when he feels good. But he is a monster ... he likes to bite things, like ankles, rugs (which he digs on first) electrical wires, and baseboards. I guess I should count myself lucky – considering how enthusiastic my wife is about animals - that he is not a miniature pony or a pot-bellied pig!

Jaeger's Jean

2007-10-02T21:07:00.000-04:00

To live on a farm is to know the lives, and deaths, of many small souls.

Today Jaeger’s Jean, our old Morgan horse, died of colic. She was a descendent of Justin Morgan’s horse and a brood mare that birthed eleven foals. After Jean stopped baring the lady that owned her couldn't really afford to keep her, so we adopted her.

The colic that killed her was indirectly brought on by her weight problem. Jean always put on weight in the spring, and sometime in the fall, which made her tend to founder. It’s a painful condition of the hoof (usually the front) that is most often caused by diet (too much grain or an over lush pasture). Jean only had one bad bout of founder – in that case she often simply lay down most of the day. The answer to this condition was to use a muzzle to cut her back on grazing – she hated it. The change in her eating routine very likely caused the colic.

When Jean first came to live with us she was alone, she lived on our farm for over a year without seeing another horse. Horses are herd animals and they hate to be alone. She could hear other horses in the distance, and would call to them from time to time, but could never see them.

I didn’t realize the depth of her loneliness until Moses came to live with us. The horse trailer he arrived in wouldn’t fit around the hairpin turn on our hill, so we had to unload and walk him down to the farm. The moment Jean saw Moses she went wild. She was calling to him and running around the field as if she were 10 instead of 25. Moses, an old school horse, didn’t care; he was sizing up the menu – our field.

When we got Moses to the field gate, Jean was so worked up that we were hesitant to put them together. We gave them a few minutes and then let Moses in. He slowly trotted to the center of the field. Jean, on the other hand, was so excited that she ran wildly after him, slipped on a patch of wet grass and actually fell on her face – the only time I’ve ever seen a horse do that. Moses started eating and she calmed down right away. They were fast friends for many years.

Floating teeth

2007-08-22T21:34:00.000-04:00

The other day my daughter walked up from the barn with an object in her hand. I knew what it was right away - roughly a cubic inch of bone - and was a little saddened to see it. The object was a horse tooth. Our old quarter horse Moses had lost it in his stall. Moses is thirty something and his teeth are going bad. He can’t bite hard food like apples or carrots anymore, and really doesn’t do all that well with grass, so each morning and evening we feed him about half a bucket of ground up grain that comes in pellets. On top of this we include a couple of hands full of alfalfa cubes and a cup of water to soften everything – basically its mush or oatmeal. He does very well with these meals.

We have a local large animal veterinarian check our horses over about every six months. When Moses was younger (before we owned him) he often had his teeth “floated.” That’s a process of rasping the teeth smooth – many horse develop sharp points on their teeth which causes them to be uneven – that makes grinding grain or grass rather difficult.

We’d had Moses about a year the first time our vet came out to float his teeth. Now, in the old days vets actually use a big hand rasp or file to float teeth, but now-a-days many of them use a drill with a special bit that has a grinder on the end. That’s what our vet intended to use. He told us, however, that the sound of the drill often spooks horses, so it was his practice to give them a mild sedative – kind of the equivalent of Valium. The sedative tends to make a horse want to drop his head and fall a sleep, but its very difficult to pick up a horse’s head – they are heavy - so the vet had a special harness to hold the head up. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it. So here’s the picture…

Moses is on Valium, half asleep. His head is in this harness that’s held up by a rope over a pulley that I’m holding with one hand. The vet has a drill going with a six to eight inch bit stuck in Moses’ mouth... and says, “his tongue is in the way, hold it to the side.” I looked at him like he was crazy, but knew I had to do it so I grabbed this giant slimy tongue and held it to the side of the horse's mouth, all they while thinking, “I’m paying big bucks to do this.” The vet worked on Moses’ teeth for a while and his head kept getting heavier. The vet kept saying, “hold his head up,” and I’d pull on the rope a little more. All the time I’m noticing that Moses is swaying on his legs, but I didn’t say anything because I was thinking, "the vet has done this dozens of times, I'm being paranoid, he knows what he's doing." All of a sudden Moses’ legs buckle on one side and he falls over in slow motion. Surprised the hell out of him, I could see it in his eyes, but he couldn’t get up. And the vet says, “huh, that never happened before.” Moses was fine, but it ends up, because he was an older horse, he couldn’t take the usual dose of the sedative. The vet somehow never bothered to float his teeth again.

The sound of Linden trees (Tilia americana)

2007-06-17T15:01:00.000-04:00

Each year I look forward to the two sounds on our farm. The first is spring peepers – tree frogs in mating season. The second is the sound of Linden trees. We have a good number of Linden trees on our farm. The most prominent stands in our horse field, a robust adult tree about 40 feet tall.

Lindens (also known as Basswood trees in North America) are ornamentals that grow thick foliage and are very good for deep shade. When they flower in the late spring they produce a mass of fragrant flowers. The blooms produce a medicinal herb lime blossom that’s sometimes used in tea and offering nectar that is a favorite of bees.

As you walk toward a blooming linden, you’ll start to notice a low, content humming – it’s the wings of thousands of bees. A blooming linden is covered with so many flowers that it is essentially one gigantic bloom and so is covered with bees of all kinds. That humming, and the thick scent of the blossoms, always gives me the impression that the tree is meditating or welcoming the bees by softly singing to them.

Killdeer chicks

2007-05-28T20:10:00.000-04:00

The Killdeer chicks hatched this weekend - two of them. They are very small – only about an inch and a half from beak to tail – much smaller than a chicken's chicks. It’s easy to miss the fluffy chicks scurrying along the road. They are fast and lively, but a little clumsy on their long legs.

Killdeer (Charadrius wilsonia)

2007-05-24T22:42:00.000-04:00

The gravel road that leads to our farm is paralleled by a ditch for run-off water. In one section of the ditch water runs so fast that we had to fill it with rocks as big as your fist, to prevent erosion. Strange, but female Killdeer consider this the perfect place to lay eggs.

Killdeer are tall, slight birds that are related to Plovers – you can distinguish a Killdeer by its double black neck bands and golden-tawny tail feathers. Each spring the Killdeer come back to our area from wherever they’ve been during the winter (some range as far south as the West Indies and costal Peru) and look for a nesting site. We always have one or two along our ditch. The eggs are a dark speckled gray and blend in well with rocks.

Killdeer have a special behavior that’s pretty amazing to see. When you approach a nest the female will – very obviously - run a short distance away. As you get closer the bird will develop a broken wing, and struggle as if it is helpless (as in the photo). If you try to catch the bird it will continue to display and move just out of your reach - it’s all an attempt to draw you away from the nest. Killdeer are tireless at this game - they think our car is a threat and go into this display amost every time we drive down the road.

Shearing day

2007-05-16T22:13:00.000-04:00

Once a year, in the spring, the shearer passes through to Oldham County, stopping at a few farms that keep sheep and goats. We usually get a call the day before, and then scramble to get ready. The first task is always the same, get the sheep put up – it’s a precarious operation.

We have Merino sheep, a very skittish breed, but to our luck they are also creatures of habit. Each evening we feed them a little grain in their shed and the habit is set. They know when we enter the field gate with a bucket in hand that it’s time to eat. Usually they go in the shed and we simply lock the gate, but last evening something broke the rhythm of the routine and they would not go near their shed. So we went with plan B, which involves three people and six walking sticks. My wife, daughter and I went into the sheep field, strategically placed ourselves like wolves, and then with a walking stick in each hand, held at arms length, starting chasing the sheep around trying to herd them into their shed. To the sheep the walking sticks make us look very big. It’s a silly thing to see, three people running around chasing sheep – which can run very fast when they want to. We succeeded, one or two sheep at a time, and made ready for shearing.

The shearer shows up in an old van, a farmer in bibbed overalls, weathered face, massive hands and just a few teeth in his head. He could walk into the 1930s and no one would think him out of place.

Shearing usually goes like this: I go into the shed and pull a sheep out. That steps sounds simple, doesn’t it? But you have to remember, these sheep weigh about 130 or 140 pounds, they are scared, they are strong and they have a very low center of gravity. It’s a struggle during which I say many bad words in my mind. Next, we take off the old coats (see my previous article on Merino sheep for why they wear coats). Of course it’s difficult. Then the shearer goes to work.

There is a phrase, “like sheep to the slaughter.” The transformation is surprising – in the hands of the shearer the sheep no longer struggle. Our shearer takes about five minutes to shear the wool into a fleece. It’s difficult to explain the process – the shearer practically peels the wool off the sheep, strategically leaving the belly wool on the outside. When he is done, we fit the sheep with a new coat, and then my wife “skirts” the fleece, that is, she picks around the outside edges removing the dirty belly wool – it is where the term “Skirting the issue” came from.

Next, four more sheep…it’s a good job to have over.

Derby garden tradition

2007-05-07T21:59:00.000-04:00

Each year on Derby day, while everyone else is at Churchill Downs or getting ready for a party, we rework our flower garden. Eric, a friend of ours who was born with great garden Karma, leads us through the process. He brings plants, designs the layout and assigns our jobs – dig, weed, hoe, etc. My job is always the same – I haul compost (horse manure) for Michelangelo, 16 wheelbarrows this year.

There’s no way to show a garden in a single photo. Eric chooses colors, textures, delicacies, and boldness. I can’t show the whole picture, so I’ll show just one flower.

Any good garden attracts life, but a thistle seed feeder helps - one of our feeder's most common visitors are American Goldfinchs - (Carduelis tristis). They are small birds - only about 5 inches long – sometimes known as the Wild Canary. The males are a stunning yellow and black.

Spring Peepers

2007-05-05T08:49:00.000-04:00

In the spring there are two sounds of the farm that I anticipate with relish. The first sound comes with the early spring rains, which in the evening bring an ancient and magical sound. The sound celebrates, in it’s purest sense, life. It is the mating calls of hundreds, if not thousands, of frogs. Most of the frogs we hear on these nights are tiny tree frogs, like the Cope's Gray tree frog. They fill the night with their love songs, as they have for perhaps 125 million years. Listen.

The song is amazing, but it is endangered. Today biologist believe that 120 species of frogs have gone extinct just since the 1980s and that a third of current species are endangered. Enjoy their song, think about how ancient it is, and use a little less so they can keep singing.

And what is the other sound that I look forward to? You’ll have to wait a couple of weeks to hear the sound of a Lindon tree.

Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

2007-05-01T19:30:00.000-04:00

We woke to the sound of a wild turkey in our woods this morning. In early spring male turkeys (gobblers or toms) gobble to announce their presence to females and competing males. Supposedly you can hear them from up to a mile away. It’s a very rare treat to see a male in display, but we have a few times.

We often see wild turkeys on our property in the spring and fall – females for the most part – sometimes alone and sometimes in groups.

Wild turkeys aren’t as large as there domesticated cousins - the average adult male only goes about 18 lbs.

There’s an interesting characteristic of domestic turkeys that my daughter and I discovered with the flock in Shakertown. If you whistle the right note they will gobble in response – they just can’t help themselves!

The Fall

2007-01-20T20:43:00.000-05:00

A small stream runs through part of our farm and at one place there is a fall. The fall is laced with tree roots and dead leaves and branches that have made their way to this natural damn. The stream drops about three feet and beyond the fall makes a small pool. Many small pebbles and fossils that have been washed down stream are deposited here and create small gravel bar. Small animals visit this place, perhaps for the water, and leave their mark.

On days such as this, when the weather is cold and the stream is running, ice forms on the tree roots that frame the fall and the mud around the pool and gravel bar stiffens. The sound of the fall is simple and beguiling.

Frosty Lamb’s ears

2006-12-24T16:25:00.000-05:00

Frost is a lot more common on our farm than it is in the city. There’s more moisture in the air (city’s are basically deserts – lots of concrete, little ground water, and fewer plants) and the nights are generally cooler.

This Lamb’s ear plant is in our garden – about the only green plant left. The frost was heavy the morning I took this photo – but most of it burned off in less than an hour after the sun came up. The close shot shows the crystals that form to make a frost.

Frost forms when a solid surface in contact with the atmosphere is chilled below the deposition point causing spicules of ice to grow from the solid surface – the formation of frost is affected by elevation, and differences in absorptivity and specific heat of the ground the superincumbent air. Say that three times real fast.

The life and death of two old goats

2006-12-15T12:18:00.000-05:00

Robert and Felicity were two of our first farm animals. I remember the day we brought them to the home. We put the two of them in their pasture and within five minutes Felicity had tested, and been shocked by, the electric fence. That was her wont. She was a smart goat, always watching, always calculating. Her nephew, Robert, was just a kid then, not even a year old. Felicity always kept him in his place, even when he grew to outweigh her by half. Perhaps that’s why Robert had such a nasty attitude – from being hen-pecked by his aunt all his life.

Robert and Felicity were living enigmas. Robert would try to hook you with his horns, or bite you if he had a chance. When he was about six months old he butted Meggy (about one and half then) right in the chest. They killed trees (eating the bark until they ringed them), bullied sheep so bad that we had to put them in a separate pasture, and always looked at us with those strange eyes as if to say – I’ll get you good if I get the chance. At the same time they would eat out of your hand every so sweetly and gently and if you put a halter on them they would quietly go anywhere with you.

After 13 years of living at our farm, Robert and Felicity were put to sleep today. They had contracted a parasite during the summer and despite all her efforts, Maureen lost the battle to save them. Because of their age and condition, she decided to have then euthanized before the nasty cold winter came. I cannot fault her on this decision. The life expectancy of an angora goat is 8-12 years. Robert was 13 and Felicity was 15.

Fungi

2006-12-03T22:44:00.000-05:00

In an acre of meadow it’s estimated that you can find about 2,500 pounds of fungi. Among the wealth of life on Earth there are somewhere between 70 to 100 thousand types of fungi. That number includes mushrooms, molds, mildews, yeast, and puffballs, which we class as botanical. But fungi don’t really don’t fit. Fungi don’t photosynthesize (no chlorophyll so they aren’t green) but take their energy directly from a food source.

One of my biology teaches once explained why it’s a good idea to keep a Petri dishes covered – the fungi we culture in them are sometimes dangerous. For example, black mold can be deadly. But fungi can be helpful too. Penicillin and its derivatives are useful in the treatment of bacterial infections, yeast helps bread rise, and fungi also help us make cultured food such as yogurt, cheese, and beer.

Biologists estimate that there are from 3 to 200 million species living on Earth, ninety-seven percent of which have yet to be discovered. So every time you run across a mushroom, mold, or other fungi stop and think - you may be the first person ever to have clapped eyes on its like.

Sheep care

2006-11-19T12:17:00.000-05:00

First, we trim their hooves. A sheep’s hooves are rather like fingernails and continue to grow unless worn down or broken off. I suppose that where sheep originated – somewhere in Asia – the land was rocky and their hooves wore down, but this doesn’t happen in Kentucky meadows so the hooves grow too long and cause problems.

Next, we change their coats. Each spring we shear the sheep and put coats on them to protect their wool from dirt and sun bleaching. The sheep’s wool grows during the year the coats get tight, so we switch to larger coats. We can’t simply put larger coats on them in the spring because the sheep would “step out” of them.

Finally we give each sheep worming medicine and a general look over to make sure they are healthy. One way to tell health (as well as get an idea about its age) is to look at its teeth. This sheep – Josephine – is about eight and her clean teeth show that she is healthy.

Fall gossamers

2006-11-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I see life on the farm, not by what it is, but by what is has left behind. On fall and spring days I look to the fields when the sun is low in the sky. Occasionally I'll catch a site that's difficult for the camera to distinguish - a lace of gossamers over the fields. They are spider silk left by hatchling spiders that have ballooned onto the wind. The spiderlings hatch from silky cocoons (egg cases) by the hundreds. Competition is fearsome and spiderling actually try to eat each other. To avoid this fate, the spiderlings disperse using an interesting strategy. They climb to a high point, tilt their abdomens upward, release silk lines and, since they are so light, simply float off on the wind. On some days you can see these silk gossamers practically covering a field.

Last of the breed

2006-11-03T22:52:00.000-05:00

A friend once said I have a hair ranch. I suppose it’s true. The first animals on our farm were angora goats. Maureen is a spinner and angora goats have wool that’s very similar to a sheep. The angora rabbits were next.

This is Harvey, our angora rabbit. Maureen has a habit of naming our animals after Beatrix Potter characters, but by the time we got to Harvey the character names had run out. Angora rabbits are a domestic rabbit bred for their long, soft hair. They are thought to have originally come out of Turkey and are prized for the quality and softness of their wool.

An interesting point: Angora rabbits are the only animals, I’ve ever heard of, that have entered a symbiotic relationship with humans (that is besides the bacteria in our bodies). Angoras have been bred for two traits: wool quality and a tendency to loose their full coat of wool every eight weeks or so. It just falls out and some angoras can even be plucked. This second trait is a deadly problem for the rabbits – they tend to lick their fur, get wool block and die. So we gain from angora’s wool, and they depend upon us to relieve them of it. Angoras can no longer live on their own or in the wild.

A true story: Maureen was once spinning at a fair and had one of our angoras with her. A woman came up and ask; “What is that?” Maureen told her it was an angora rabbit. The lady then ask; “What kind of cat did you breed your rabbits with to get it like that!”

We once had six angoras, but rabbits aren’t made of very good stuff and they start getting sick after three or four years – Maureen couldn’t stand the pain of their short life-spans or the vet bills, so Harvey is our last angora.

White tail

2006-10-23T19:39:00.000-04:00

We see white-tailed deer quite often on our farm. They appear out of the woods around dusk or dawn, when they feel most safe. But it’s the does we usually see, traveling in groups of two to four -typically an adult female and one or two fawns.

The bucks are much shyer – we almost never see them and then only when the light is so weak that it’s difficult to tell if you’re seeing something or not.

Once, on a January day, after an unusually heavy snowfall, we were treated to the rare site of a group of eight bucks traveling together. We’d left our backfield uncut that winter and the bucks were grazing and butting heads, practicing for rutting season. The scene was so classical, mythic, that I could almost hear Beethoven’s pastoral symphony playing.

White-tailed deer are actually more plentiful today that they were when Europeans first came to Kentucky. These deer exploit tree lines, moving among them and using them for cover and quick escape from open pastures. The more tree lines, the better for the deer, and there are many more tree lines and pastures in Kentucky today than 200 years ago.

A voice in the silence

2006-10-18T21:19:00.000-04:00

On certain days, when the wind is out of the northwest, our farm falls silent to the noise of the outside world. There is no drone of traffic, no siren, nor background city noise, only an uncanny silence that we of the modern world find so unfamiliar that it is, at first, unsettling.

Sit by a calm lake on such a fall day and open your senses to the natural world. Listen to the leaves rustling in the trees. There is a voice there like no other. Open your eyes to the detail and in a short time you’ll realize that there is more life around you than your everyday eyes can see. Take in the scent of the lake and its surroundings. Your senses become clearer, your mind quiet, and you have time to realize that you are alive and, for a moment, part of the Earth - not a machine. It is not a feeling of loneliness, it is a feeling of belonging, and there is none more satisfying.

I have felt triumph, pride, love, hate, sadness, jealousy, wonder, and frustration in my life. All the moments I’ve lived have brought me feelings, but most of those experiences swirl together in a frantic, blurred, muddle. They all fade, pale and irrelevant, when compared to the sensation of serenity I have experienced in those moments of natural silence.

Shagbark

2006-10-14T20:24:00.000-04:00

You can recognize a mature Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata) by its flaking bark. I’d never seen a Shagbark before we moved to our farm. These hardwood trees use to be very common in Kentucky, which is part of the Central U.S. Hardwood forests. When the Europeans first came to the Americas the old growth forests they found astounded them. They has never see forest so abundant and deep. The Central Hardwood oak-hickory forests consist of white and red oak, shagbark hickory, locus, poplar, flowering dogwood, sassafras and hop hornbeam.

If you ever visit Pleasant Hill (Shakertown) in Mercer county Kentucky make sure to stop by the cistern house. There you can see beams supporting the cistern reservoir that are four inches thick, twenty-five inches plus wide, and fifteen feet long. “Boards” of these dimensions were once common. The oak-hickory forest the boards came from were so vast that it was said “a squirrel could travel from the East Coast to the Mississippi River without touching the ground,” but no more. An amazing ninety-nine percent of the Central Hardwood Forests was destroyed by development and agriculture.

The Fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) is just one of the squirrels that populate the Central hardwood forest. They are larger than the Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) that you see in towns and cities. The Fox squirrel also has a reddish color and stubby ears and they are very shy. When we first moved to our farm we couldn’t get within a hundred yards of one – the are now more tolerant, letting us get fifty yards away before they run for the safety of a tree. They love Shagbark Hickory nuts, which taste good but take too much work for me to bother. The nut has two layers – the outer later is inedible, and the hartnut is hard containing only a little meat.

The last blooms of Fall

2006-10-11T20:28:00.000-04:00

Autumn is close at hand and the animals and insects on our farm know that the cold days of winter are upon us. The squirrels are working hard to put up winter stores of nuts and when the days are warm the bees are scrambling to gather nectar. They will collect flower nectar and convert it to honey for their overwinter. It is very important that they have sufficient honey to keep the colony large enough for winter – a hive must cluster together in winter in order to maintain the temperature (9 degrees Celsius - 48 degrees Fahrenheit) required for their survival.

A couple of weeks ago the Sedum in our garden was still blooming and humming with honey, bumble and sweat bees. The Sedum is withered now and the bees have moved on to other flowers that are still blooming.

It is good to see the Honey bees so hard at work. In 1991 Honey bees in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky were hit with Varroa mites – a parasite that attacks adults and the brood. This parasite often kills entire honeybee colonies and greatly reduced their numbers in Kentucky for more than a decade.

Cotton or Scottish thistle (Onopordum acanthium) does not seem to be much loved by bees. Perhaps it’s the thorns – which, legend tells us, are so bothersome that they helped protect Scotland from the Vikings.

Praying Mantis (Mantodea)

2006-10-09T22:50:00.000-04:00

It’s mating season for the praying mantis in right now. The females are working extra hard in our garden eating insects to build up enough energy to produce eggs. A gravid female praying mantis – like the green one shown - will produce an ootheca (large foamy mass that can contain up to 300 eggs). The ootheca sack helps protect the eggs.

Mating season is not an easy season for male praying mantis. They don’t need to feed as much as the females, but the mating ritual is risky for them. About 20 percent of the time a female praying mantis practices cannibalism with their mates. They bite the males head off during the act and, surprisingly, he keeps mating. The reason for the cannibalism is not entirely clear. It could be their aggressive nature or just the need for additional nutrition to produce eggs.

Praying mantis are exceptional hunters. They have excellent vision and hunt by stealth and a rapid striking attacks. They usually hunt other insects but some have been known to go after small vertebrates. The praying mantis has the distinction of being one of the few insects that can turn their heads.

Heritage

2006-10-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

I shall not leave these prisoning hills
Though they topple their barren heads to level earth
And the forests slide uprooted out of the sky.
Though the waters of Troublesome, of the Track Fork,
Of Sand Lick rise in a single body to clean the valleys,
To drown lush pennyroyal, to unravel rail fences;
Though the sun-ball breaks the ridges into dust
And burns its strength into the blistered rock
I cannot leave. I cannot go away.

From The Wolfpen Poems by Kentucky writer James Still

Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)

2006-10-03T20:49:00.000-04:00

In our sheep field, on the top of a fencepost, we have a Bluebird house. This dwelling hosts about two broods of chicks per year. Bluebirds are magnificent songbirds, medium-sized thrushes really, that love open woodlands, farmlands and orchards. Bluebirds have a white belly, blue wings, and a reddish brown throat and breast. They range east of the Rockies from southern Canada to the Gulf States and as far south as Nicaragua. Bluebirds are very territorial and this evening four or five males were trying to claim the ground over the house as their own.

Bluebirds like to nest in old Woodpecker holes, natural cavities, or nesting boxes. Bluebirds are particular about their houses. This birdhouse sits about five feet off the ground, has an eight inch tall cavity, with the entrance that’s 1.5 inches in diameter and six inches above the door. As I said, they are particular.

We see all kinds of birds on our farm including Yellow Finches, Blue Jays, Red birds, Crows, Turkey Vultures, Red Tailed Hawks, Wild Turkeys, Killdeer, Great Blue Heron, ducks, Canada Geese, Meadowlarks, Swifts, Humming Birds, and occasionally Pileated Woodpeckers, Red-Headed Woodpeckers, and American Kestrels. Some times at night we hear Whip-Poor-Wills, Barn Owls, and Mocking Birds. We usually leave a field uncut in winter – the birds pick off the grass seeds all the way through spring.

Goliath

2006-09-25T20:38:00.000-04:00

This is our guard dog. I know, he looks like a slacker, sleeping in the middle of the day, but that’s really part of what makes him an excellent guard dog. His name is Goliath, but we call him Golly. He is a Great Pyrenees, also known as a Pyrenean Mountain Dog. Golly does spend most of his days sleeping, but then at night he wakes and patrols the borders of his field all night long, often sending out territorial warnings (booming barks) to predators.

The Great Pyrenees is a very old breed, used for a thousand years by the Basque in the Pyrenees Mountains of southern France. These dogs are usually employed in protecting livestock (especially sheep) in pastures. A Pyrenees pup is taken from its mother a couple of weeks earlier than normal and then put in with sheep – this causes the pup to imprint on the sheep so that it thinks the flock is its pack. When Golly sees a threat, he puts himself in-between it and the sheep and warns of the predator. All this behavior is instinctual and very strong – Pyrenees are fiercely loyal. I once saw Golly’s predecessor – Gabriel – stand his ground to a thousand pound horse with not a hint of hesitation.

Most Pyrenees males weigh in at 100-130 pounds, but Golly is a bit bigger at 140. Gabriel was even larger at 150. Golly is a working dog, protecting our five Marino sheep, but he really has an easy life. His father and mother live in southern Indiana where they guard a flock of over 100 sheep - they have fought off and even killed stray dogs and coyotes. Golly's favorite trick is to try and walk between your legs – doesn’t work even with me, I’m six foot tall and he picks me up off the ground.

The Great Pyrenees have one feature that distinguishes them from all other dogs - a double dewclaw on each of the hind legs - a sixth toe if you will.

Northern Walking Stick (Diapheromera femorata)

2006-09-20T20:52:00.000-04:00

It’s rare to see a walking stick, even on our farm. They seem to turn up in the fall most often. I remember the first time I ever saw one. I was about seven and it seemed so alien that I got scared. But I didn’t have anything to worry about. Walking sticks are basically insect pacifist, that’s why they work so hard at camouflage. About the only defense a Walking Stick has is to release a bad-smelling liquid when attacked.

Walking sticks are nocturnal vegetarians that feed on berry, cherry and other leaves. They spend most of their days in camouflage mode – motionlessly hanging from a leaf or branch. When you see one during the day it may appear to have only four legs – but look closer and you’ll see the fore legs are held out in front (with the antenna) so it looks more like a stick. Walking sticks have an unusual ability … if they lose or damage a leg they can regenerate it after molting sever times.

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

2006-09-17T17:14:00.000-04:00

In our garden we have a Buddleja (also Buddleia), often know as a Butterfly bush. The bush is about seven feet tall and attracts all sorts of butterflies, bees, and even hummingbirds. I took this photo of a Monarch butterfly out of our kitchen window.

Monarchs are known for their long annual migration and their ability to find the same overwinter location each fall. From August through October they travel southward – Monarchs east of the Rockies migrate all the way to Michoacán, Mexico. The trip takes several generations - Monarchs born as the migration begins only live about seven weeks but the annual migration takes longer.

Aesculus trees

2006-09-15T23:04:00.000-04:00

We have lots of Aesculus trees on our farm - probably too many. In North American we know the Aesculus as Buckeyes, in Eurasian they are called Horse-chestnuts (the word "horse" meaning strength or inedibility). “Buckeye” comes from the similarity to the brown eyes of male deer.

Buckeye nuts contain a concentrated saponin-class toxin called Aesculin (which destroys red blood cells). Only a few animals, such as deer and squirrels are resistant to this toxin and can eat the nuts.

A Kentucky arborist once told me that buckeyes were totally useless trees, but in the past they did have uses. Native American tribes knew how to make a wholesome starchy porridge out of the nuts by leaching and pulverized them in boiling water – which neutralized the saponin toxin. In addition, Horse-chestnut seeds were used in France and Switzerland to make a soap for whitening hemp, flax, silk and wool fibers. And of course because of their size and beauty, most kids love buckeyes. Perhaps that’s why children in Britain and Ireland use them in the game conkers.

Allegheny mound ants (Formica exsectoides)

2006-09-13T21:41:00.000-04:00

We have ant mounds on our farm – this one stands almost three feet tall. I think they are Allegheny Mound Ants – which range from Nova Scotia to Georgia. They don’t cause us problems since they are out on the far edges of our fields, but they can be damaging – these ants inject formic acid into plants and vegetation to clear the area near the mound. A mound this size can support a colony of up to 6,000 ants.

Ants are one of Earth’s most successful insects and are found in all types of climates including deserts, rainforests, mountains, valleys, and even the Arctic Circle. Estimates suggest that there are more than 20,000 species of ants on Earth.

This little ant is carrying the world on his shoulders…don’t believe me? I once heard a noted entomologist explain how ants are more important to the Earth’s ecosystems than perhaps any other living creature. Ants, by their digging and foraging, aerate the soil, putting them at the foundation of all advanced land animals. Without aerated soil, plant life is very poor, so there is little food for grazers, and so on up the food chain. Think of it this way: if human beings went suddenly extinct, Earth’s ecosystem would actually improve. If ants went extinct, the entire ecosystem would collapse resulting in a mass extinction – perhaps the largest ever.

Box turtles (Terrapene)

2006-09-12T20:27:00.000-04:00

Turtles have lived on earth, in one form or another, for 230 million years. Box turtles have been documented to live over 100 years. The turtle is about two inches long (note the nail head at the bottom right), so she is very young, perhaps less than a year.

In North America we often call them box turtles, but Terrapene is a better name since “box turtle” also refers to two types of Asian turtles (Cuora and Pyxidea). You can usually tell males from females by the eye color – males have red eyes, females yellowish-brown eyes.

Box Turtles are omnivorous, eating everything from slugs, earthworms and insects to blackberries and mushroom to carrion.

A turtle's shell is made keratin (like your fingernails) but beneath the bony plates you’ll find the ribs and vertebrae (backbones). You can see the backbone in this shell which is about five inches long.

In cold climates many turtles “hibernate” during winter – that’s really not the right word, mammals hibernate, reptiles “brumate.” This process is very interesting with water turtles, which snuggle down into mud and leaves at the bottom of ponds. As their bodies cool, their hearts slow down and they stop normal breathing – they absorb the oxygen they need from the water through the skin of their tails.

Green Stink Bug (Acrosternum hilare) aka Green Soldier Bug

2006-09-10T20:50:00.000-04:00

This is a Green Stink Bug … really! Stink Bugs are so named because they discharge a foul-smelling fluid when disturbed. These bugs are found in crop fields, orchards, and gardens throughout North America. They love juices of foliage, flowers, and fruit and are considered pests because they damage apples, cherry, orange, and peach trees, eggplant, tomato, bean, pea, cotton, corn, and soybean crops. I found this stink bug on our tractor shed - it is an immature nymph (so it’s not green yet) and is about half an inch long. Who would think that a "Stink Bug" could be so beautiful?

Merino sheep

2006-09-09T09:21:00.000-04:00

Maureen is a spinner and so we have five Merino sheep.

Merinos are the world’s most numerous sheep breed – millions populate Australia and New Zealand. The breed is prized for its wool, which is considered the finest and softest wool of any sheep. The merino breed originated in Spain during the 14th and 15th centuries with the crossing of local breeds and Berber sheep. Merinos are a skittish breed – almost wild – which makes them very difficult to work with. Just my luck.

Merino sheep have lots of Lanolin in their wool – also known as "wool fat" or grease, it is chemically akin to wax. The greasy qualities of Lanolin attract dirt and dust. To keep a sheep’s fleece clean we put “coats” on them. A coated sheep can look light brown or gray on unprotected areas but black under the coat. In the photo, there are two black and two white sheep. Can you tell the difference?

Cope's Gray tree frog (Hyla chrysoscelis)

2006-09-08T19:23:00.000-04:00

Each Spring we eagerly await a new generation of tree frogs on our farm. They fill the night with calls that sound very much like the cheeping of baby chicks. This is a Cope's Gray tree frog and his call is a bit more traditional - hear a sound file of his call (University of Kentucky). The pink pole this frog is sitting on happens to be the base of my ring finder.

Sleepy Bumbles

2006-09-08T13:46:00.001-04:00

In the fall as clear, cool evenings become the norm something special happens in our garden. Bees of all sorts - Bumblebees (Bombus), honeybees, sweat bees – work furiously in the garden during the day gathering nectar from fall flowers. As the evening falls, they all return to their hives, except the Bumblebees. For some reason, they are compelled to continue working – they just can’t pull themselves away. As the temperature drops they move slower and slower until they go torpid (fall into a deep sleep). And there they stay, all night, exactly where they stopped work. As the morning sun raises and warms them, the Bumbles resume work right where they left off. These photos are of Bumblebees I found this morning in gourd flowers. In the spring, we see the same thing happen on Lambs Ears (Stachys lanata) flowers and the Bumbles are often so sleepy we can pet them.

Snake!

2006-09-06T21:33:00.000-04:00

I had a surprise this evening when I was changing the sheep’s water – under the bucket I found what I believe was a rat or garter snake. It was definitely not poisonous but very aggressive.

We use to see lots of snakes on our properly before we started regularly cutting our fields. Snakes love tall grass and thatch to hide in. I once stepped on a black rat snake hidden in thatch – big surprise. Snakes like tall grass because it helps them hide form their prey and from hawks. I once saw a hawk flying over our farm with a live snake in it’s claws – if only Eden had had hawks.

Consider the lichen

2006-09-06T12:45:00.000-04:00

“Lichens are just about the hardiest visible organisms on Earth, but among the least ambitious. They will grow happily enough in a sunny churchyard, but they particularly thrive in environments where no other organism would go – on blowy mountaintops and arctic wastes, wherever there is little but rock and rain and cold, and almost no competition. In areas of Antarctica where virtually nothing else will grow, you can find vast expanses of lichen-four hundred types of them-adhering devotedly to every wind-whipped rock.”

Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, p. 335.

There are more than 20,000 species of lichens. People use to think they were stones turning into plants, or as Dr. Homschuch noted in 1819, “Spontaneously, inorganic stone becomes living plant!”

In reality, lichens are a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae. Fungi acids dissolve rock and free minerals - the algae convert the minerals into food that sustains both. Beatrix Potter, a naturalist and author of the Peter Rabbit children’s books, first proposed this symbiotic relationship.

Aphids (Aphidoidea) aka greenfly/blackfly or plant lice

2006-09-02T14:41:00.000-04:00

This little plant is supporting life, there on the stalk below the flower - aphids and more.

Aphids live in colonies and most gardeners considered them pests. Aphids feed on the sap from plants - in this case a flower in our garden - which causes leaves to wilt or turn yellow.

Some interesting facts:

•There are about 4,000 species of aphids
• Aphids are born pregnant
• Aphids give birth to live offspring - see photo
• The basic species has been on earth for about 280 million years
• Common predators: ladybugs (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and hoverfly larvae (Diptera: Syrphidae)

As I was watching these aphids I realized that my timing was rather lucky. There on the flower stem was a female giving birth to a “baby” aphid. Aphids produce continuous generations rapidly through live birth. The mother and baby stayed close together after the event. Click the photo for a larger view.

Now, aphids are phloem-feeders (phloem is living, sappy plant tissue that is full of organic nutrients, especially sucrose). Aphids ingest food in excess and secrete "honeydew” which is rich in carbohydrates and which some ants love. So, long ago, ants and aphids formed a symbiotic relation- ship. Ants "farm" aphids, protecting them from predators and eating the honeydew that the aphids secrete. Some ants even move aphid herds into their nests for the winter.

There near the bottom of the photo is the proof... an ant feeding on sweet honeydew from an aphid’s posterior. Click the image for a magnified view.

Oreo (Felis catus)

2006-09-02T11:36:00.000-04:00

This is Oreo. Isn’t she sweet? You wouldn’t know it to look at her but Oreo is a serial killer.

We have three cats: Oreo, Ginger, and Genji (named after the Japanese novel). Ginger and Genji are indoor cats. They are both mentally unstable.

Ginger is nervous and paranoid – scared of people, noise, shadows, and the outside world. She spends her days either sleeping or sitting on a stool in our sunroom, staring out the window. When she sees a bird, she chatters. She threw up in my shoe once.

At 15, Genji is a cat Blanche DuBois. She believes the world should adore her – maybe that’s normal for a cat. Genji tends to caterwaul late at night, mournfully, while carrying around socks or stuffed toys. We figure she is reflecting on the kitten she never had.

But what of Oreo, the serials killer? Well, it’s not entirely her fault. I taught her. Oreo is an outside cat, a barn cat. We got her to keep down the mice around the barn. Unlike Ginger and Genji, Oreo has a full set of front claws and knows how to use them. We use to catch mice in a humane trap, take them far away from the barn and release them. A couple of times I let mice go in close proximity of Oreo. It’s a hunting technique many predators practice with offspring. Oreo caught on quickly. She now hunts birds, moles, mice, and other small creatures. She sometimes shows us affection by leaving her catch on the front doorstep. One morning she left us something very special – the body of an adolescent rabbit, no head. Isn’t strange that a serial killer is our most mentally balanced cat?

Zoom, Zoom!

2006-08-31T21:01:00.000-04:00

Sometimes when I shoot photos of small objects I can see detail on my computer that’s difficult to see on a Web page. Here are a couple of examples.

French marigolds: These flowers were first cultivated in France but the species is not native to the country. They are of the genus Tagetes – which includes about sixty species of the daisy family (Asteraceae). For a zoomed look, click on the image.

Blue Salvia also Blue Sage (Salvia azurea)

Salvia is a genus in the mint family (Lamiaceae) - which includes shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals. This particular flower is about the size of your index finger – almost three inches tall an half an inch at it’s widest. This Blue Salvia has a secret of a type that I've found on several plant photos. Look at this image closely and then click it to see the flower's secret.

Goat house

2006-08-30T19:14:00.000-04:00

This is Robert Wethersby, a male Angora goat. It’s a very dignified name for a goat and he doesn’t deserve it, but his name has a secret meaning. A “wether” is a male goat or sheep that has been castrated. That’s right, Robert can never have kids. In my mind there is really only one word to describe Robert, “nasty.” He is mean in his soul. When we work with him (for example, trimming his hooves) he often speaks to us in tongues. Maureen swears that she heard him once say “I am possessed by the Devil!”

This is the house that Robert lives in, along with his ancient aunt, Felicity, who bullies him. I built it a few years ago – lots of work. It is “cord-wood” construction with cedar shingles. Each of those logs is about five inches thick, so they are really like bricks in mortar.

Angora goats are like sheep - you can shear their wool and spin it. Actually, there are few steps missing there. Wool must be sheared, washed, carded, often made into roving, and then you can spin it.

Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera)

2006-08-29T18:59:00.000-04:00

There are several Osage-orange trees on our farm. The tree is part of the mulberry family and has a lot of nicknames, but the one I’ve heard most often is hedge-apple. Native Americans often used the wood of this tree to make bows. The tree's fruit, sometimes known as "monkey-brain" fruit, is sticky and has a pleasant odor, but not edible by most animals. Squirrels sometimes dig into the heart for the seeds, horses love the fruit, and it’s been speculated it may have been a favorite of giant sloths (an extinct animal of North American - related to modern day slots - which reached more than five tons).

Moses (Hailstorm Socks)

2006-08-27T10:26:00.000-04:00

Moses is one of our two horses. He was once a champion hunter- jumper, competing in stadium and cross-country events. After that career he became a school-horse, carrying hundreds of young people on his back and, in his own special way, teaching them what horses like and don’t like, and how to ride with grace and skill. He is retired now and at plus 29 years, his overwhelming focus is food. He loves to eat apples, grain, alfalfa cubes, carrots, grass, all in large quantities. This is the way Moses usually waits for his morning meal - head in the barn door, mooching.

Ironweed (Vernonia altissima)

2006-08-27T09:59:00.000-04:00

Ironweed is a herbaceous plant that loves moist fields or open woods. This perennial can reach a height of three Meters. We have a fair amount of Ironweed on our farm. You can usually see it from a distance because of its deep purple flowers. The first blooms of Ironweed first appear in mid summer and continue into mid fall. Medical Uses: Native Americans may have used the Ironweed root to relieve pain after childbirth. Some species of Ironweed have been used to treat stomach problems and as a mouth wash to make loose teeth firm.

Giant Swallowtail caterpillar (Papilio cresphontes Cramer) also known as the Orange dog

2006-08-26T12:46:00.000-04:00

I shot photos of this caterpillar on Saturday morning and then spent about 20 minutes online identifying it.

Giant Swallowtail caterpillars are generally brown and white (about two and a half inches long) and resemble a bird dropping, although this one reminded me of a snake. The swollen head and two large eye spots give the appearance of ferocious quarry to scare away predators. When disturbed, these catepillars project a pair of horn-like, orange-red glands called osmeteria – looking very much like a forked tongue - which are suppose to give off a foul odor that acts as a strong deterrent to birds (I didn’t smell anything – I was too shocked). The adult butterfly is one of the largest swallowtail species, with a wingspan of up to six inches. Wings are black with yellow markings near wing margins and spots forming a diagonal band across the fore wings.

Life Cycle: Adult females lay yellow-green eggs singly on host plants. Caterpillars hatch and develop through several stages before forming a chrysalis or pupa, which is attached to the host plant by the back end and held in an upright position by a silk thread around the middle.

Habitat and Food Sources: Feeds on leaves of host plants including citrus; gas plant, Dictamnus; prickly ash, Xanthoxylum sp.; and rue, Ruta graveolens.

Barn Spider (Araneus cavaticus)

2006-08-26T09:34:00.000-04:00

Female barn spiders have dark brown cephalothorax and legs with a pale yellowish line along their abdomen. They love to spin their webs in barns, cave openings, and overhanging cliffs. This one has set up a web under our back deck. She spins her web as evening falls and then waits for what the night brings her. In the morning she tears down her web and retreats to a safe corner. She will do this for weeks with her abdomen growing a little each day. Then she'll lay her egg mass in some nearby corner. When Meggy was in grade school, one of these spiders took over our back porch. We stopped going in and out the back door at night and watch her for weeks. She was nicknamed Charlotte, of course. Barn Spiders are a widespread species.

A shawl of beaded pearls

2006-08-25T08:26:00.000-04:00

I walk into the misty morning that engulfs me with cold welcome and elusive gray white nebulas of streaming smoke.

In among the purple top there are witch’s brooms that only show themselves on these morning hours, when their magic is most potent.

The fox tail has gone white with the hunt of the night, and there is a thip, thip, thip, as droplets of dew tumble from leaf to leaf of a nearby ash.

The cold on my cheek reminds me that fall is at summer’s heels, and that this mist will soon transform into frost.

This mist, which now reveals a shawl of beaded pearls draped between two towering stalks of grease grass.

How can I describe this wonder of the weaver and the morning, hanging there as if tossed by a fisherman upon the waters.

There is one strand strung in perfect measure, dipping in splendor as if laid on the neck of some beautiful young girl.

Each bead along the strand, a faultless sphere that reflects the sky, the earth, myself.

How can I describe this perfect strand, among a hundred perfect strands.

And there in the corner of the shawl rest the weaver, waiting for the morning sun to find her.

How is it my lady, that you weave this shawl in the first dark of evening, and then string it with pearls in the passing of such a night?

How is it that these pearls, of such value to my heart, slip from your shawl in the morning’s light, as surely and illusively as the mist that made them?

How is it that we go about our lives every day among the machines, and miss the elegance of this miracle that you and your sisters have made a million times over?

I wrote this poem several years ago after a morning walk on the farm. I took the photo at the same time.

Pluto (Greek: Πλούτων)

2006-08-24T19:38:00.000-04:00

Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet today. How is it that the planet named for the Greek god Hades goes from mingling with titans like Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Neptune (god of the seas), and Uranus (god of night)to a ... dwarf planet? Well, it's not the first time. Ceres (now rated as an asteroid) was classified as the eight planet when it was first discovered in 1801 by Giovanni Piazzi and retained that status for nearly half a century. So maybe there's a reason. Maybe it's because Pluto is smaller than seven of the solar system's moons (the Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan and Triton). Maybe it's because Pluto's only moon, Charon, doesn't really even orbit it - Pluto and Charon orbit each other. Maybe, just maybe, since it's only 2274 km (1413 miles) in diameter, it doesn't deserv the same standing as a planet like Jupiter, which is 342,273 times larger than Pluto. Maybe, it's just a large rock, far, far, away.