a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • The Cows I Love

    CowsOnPasture

    Biking to the post office this afternoon I saw that the cows I love were back in the main pasture. After disappearing early this year, I learned that the farmer has cancer and that the cows were at his brother’s place. They returned in June and have been grazing the pasture on the other side of the barn. Today they are back on the main pasture near the road.

    I stopped to enjoy them and the calves were curious as to what or who I was. Cows are very aware of their surroundings. You can’t sneak up on a cow. And as peaceful as they seem, cows are very strong and deserve respect. On Monday, a herd of 20 cows in Austria killed a German hiker. Evidently the cows were upset at her dog and rushed her.

    Just like a mother hen, a mother cow will do most anything to protect her calves if she feels they are threatened.

  • Butterball Mothers

    Mother hens fluff their feathers when they sense danger. They can appear to be twice their normal size. When they fan out their tail feathers, they look like turkeys. This behavior begins before the chicks are hatched. A sure sign a hen is sitting on eggs to hatch, is when she goes around fluffing her feathers.

    ButterBall1
    ButterBall2
    ButterBall3

    The whole brood takes a break when mother takes a dust bath. A chick’s day is punctuated with frequent breaks: dust baths with mom, warm naps in her feathers, lazy time in the sun.

    ButterBall4
    ButterBall5

  • Fetching Lunch

    Eggs laid within the hour, sweet tomatoes, fresh chard, all the makings for a summer lunch.

    FetchingLunch

    On the way back inside, I spot what I thought was some paper by an apple tree, and it turned out to be a very late blooming iris. Iris and apples, not two things you usually think of together.

    ApplesAndIris

    The apples are a long way from being ripe, but the summer sun is turning them red.

    ApplesRipening140727

  • Morning Flowers

    MorningPotatoFlowes

    Early morning is the time to make my rounds through the fields, checking on how things are growing. The many flowers make it a wonderful time. Potato flowers tend to close at night. They pop open at first light.

    Every day now there are more and more white flower beans in bloom. Their soft, white petals dance gently in the morning breeze. The joy of growing food, is that you get to enjoy the blossoms many fruit and vegetable plants have. Every bean you eat at one time was a beautiful flower. Eat a handful of beans and you’re enjoying the results of a huge bouquet of white, orange, pink, purple, and red flowers. Bean flowers come in so many colors.

    WhiteFlowerMorningA
    WhiteFlowerMorningB

  • Attentive Mother

    With their wide field of vision, mother hens can see most anything that might threaten their chicks. The chicks are very aware they have someone looking out for them. As long as their mother is nearby, they are relaxed and run about freely. If they can’t see or hear her, they panic and chirp frantically until she shows up.

    NewMotherA
    NewMotherB