I goofed.  This strange mismatch is completely my fault. A few weeks ago, I swiped all the eggs from beneath the nesting turkey hens.  Why?  Our turkeys have a terrible track record as parents.   They’re dedicated nesters and brooders, and they’ll defend their brood with surprising ferocity.  They just can’t seem to raise them to
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A sunny day after so much rain, after so many gray days, is a gift that shouldn’t be wasted.   A dozen chores awaited, but so did the sunshine.  There were skies to watch, clouds to study, reflections to ponder.    So I played hooky for a while in the back pasture. I watched feathers and leaves float
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Now that they’re big enough to keep up, the goslings spend their days wandering outdoors with the flock.  The flock has, of course, slowed its pace to accommodate the little ones, and they rest frequently. The goslings are growing quickly and beginning to lose their baby fluff.  Soon they’ll have feathers and look like mini-geese. All that
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Sometimes the chickens roost on the tall stacks of rabbit cages in the barn.   The top of that cage is about six feet off the ground, so it’s not surprising that I didn’t notice that one of the banty hens wasn’t just roosting at night.  She’d made herself a nest on top of the empty
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This spring a swarm of honeybees showed up and took over this aging hive in the edge of the woods at my neighbor’s farm.   It’s been several years since the previous inhabitants abandoned it.  They left for no clear reason that could be seen.  Bees do that sometimes, when the queen dies or is weak, or some
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Now blooming out here in the boonies . . . Jackamanii clematis (above)  in the perennial garden, transplanted in 2005 from its spot by the
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I’ve know of two Bald Eagle nesting spots in our area, and I had a few private landowners tell me of other locations along local rivers where eagles are frequently spotted.  This is, however, the first time I’ve spotted one loitering in a plowed field. There I was, driving along the blacktop road, smack dab
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The Missouri Evening Primrose (Oenthera macrocarpa) is my current favorite wildflower, partly because the blossoms are large, showy, and just plain beautiful.  The other reason is I’m just excited about finding a nice sized plot of these primroses and having the opportunity to snap a few photos there.  Plus I was able to purchase a
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Out here in the boonies, it’s common to see box turtles crossing the road.  Now and then I happen upon a damp, dirty snapping turtle crossing ground in search of a different water hole — hopefully not one where my ducks like to swim.  Usually these snappers take a direct route, but a couple days ago
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Mother Nature apparently thinks we haven’t had enough rain lately, so she sent us more.   Day two of the driveway flooding scoured knee-deep holes.  Another night-time storm brought more flash flooding.  This time the big garden was well swept, and floodwaters gushed into the greenhouse through an open door.   About half the potted seedlings are salvageable, though some are pretty battered.  Flats
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