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Creating a Wildlife Habitat in Our Yard

We recently attended a wild bird workshop that discussed creating and certifying a property such as our yard as a wildlife habitat through the National Wildlife Federation. The intention of the wildlife habitat certification program is to encourage people to make adjustments to their yards to benefit not only wild birds but also many other creatures, such as frogs, toads, bees, and butterflies. The program also results in increased species biodiversity and the support of native plants.  We've seen all kinds of wildlife on our property, but some are not visible during the full spring-to-fall growing season, and when they are present, they are not in great numbers. So, we're looking forward to adding a few elements to our property to attract and keep more wildlife around. I'm especially interested in how we can make our yard, fields, and garden more attractive to frogs, toads, and gardener snakes. As you may recall, we had a mama gardener snake and her babies hanging around o...
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Fostering More Kittens

About a month ago, we were contacted by someone with PAIR (Pawsitive Animal Impact Rescue) about two kittens that needed fostering. We quickly said "YES!" and the kitties came to stay with us. Meet Crumble (the orange kitty) and Cookie (the black and white kitty). The kitties stayed in the Corral, a big TV/game room in our house with its name etched into the interior door window (the original owners did that back in the 1950s). The photo above is taken from outside the house, and as you can see, the kitties loved to sit in the Corral's big front windows. Crumble is a very lovable kitty who seeks affection, and so he was quickly ready to go on to a forever home. Even though we knew he'd find a great home, we were still sad to let go of him. Cookie, meanwhile, is timid. His ears go down if you go near him, and he runs away if you get too close or if he's startled. So, shy little Cookie is still with us. Meanwhile, we now have another kitty joining Cookie in the Corr...

A Photo of Our Apple Harvest

After picking most of the apples from our heritage apple tree (I picked all the ones I could reach with our pole picker), I realized there were not as many as we originally thought. But we still had a good harvest! This was enough apples to put four little pies into the freezer for enjoying this fall and winter, and can 8 pint-sized jars of apple cider along with 12 half-pints of applesauce. The scraps went to the deer this year since we didn't eat the apple-cinnamon jelly and apple-pepper jelly I made in previous years well enough to bother with making jelly again.

We rescued a toad from a gardener snake

What is with the gardener snakes this year? We've seen them all over our property; some are pretty large. There is a mama gardener snake living in our flowerbeds. We first spotted her in the early spring and were startled when we saw her then (and every time since), as she is at least 4 feet long. She is the largest gardener snake I've ever seen! She's pretty thick in girth as well. Maybe a dozen other smaller snakes (probably her babies) are hanging around, too. Well, the snakes are not just plentiful here on our property. We were walking this evening and encountered the strangest thing on the road. Just up ahead of us, we saw what looked like a snake slithering across the road, and its head appeared to be bouncing as it went! As we walked closer, we realized the strange sight was a toad trying to escape from a snake. The snake had ahold of the toad's back foot, biting down hard to hang onto it as it hopped along. I broke a long stem from a hedge and whacked at the sna...

Is that a dead duck? And other misfortunes on the farm...

This has been one of our most challenging years when it comes to caring for our ducks, bees, and the garden on our little farm. First, Barney, the beloved community barn cat, passed away, and since then, the critters he used to keep in check have taken over the garden and eaten everything in sight. Those critters are voles, a destructive rodent, and we have watched as they've eaten all of our corn and green bean plants before they even had a chance to bear fruit. They also knocked over multiple fava bean plants, snipped the pea plants at their base so the whole plant died, and ate the tops off the onions. I had no idea rodents ate onion greens, but they sure did! They ate the potato plants (the green part that appears above ground), so there I was a week ago, digging up the potatoes growing in the ground to see if any were left. It was hard to find them without a plant above ground to mark the way. Blessedly, we do have many nice potatoes to enjoy. Currently, they're wreaking h...

Our Honeybees Died and New Honeybees Moved In

The strangest thing happened this spring. Both of our hives of honeybees, which had survived the extreme cold this past winter (it got down to 9 degrees F, the coldest it's ever been here), died when spring came. I think their numbers just grew too small to keep warm with our cold weather in the spring. After discovering that the first hive of bees had died, we went into the second hive, which seemed like it was still going. But, what I discovered in the second hive was a dead cluster of the original bees surrounding the lower frames and a new cluster of living bees in the top box of the hive. The cluster of living bees in the top of the hive look different from the original bees. They are slightly darker, larger, and more robust-looking. I think they moved in during warmer weather in the middle of spring. I believe they were actually robbing the other hive, too, as the first hive was empty of honey but had bees coming in and out when we discovered the dead colony inside. The reaso...

We Visited Japan

At the end of May, we visited Japan. Since our visit was only for 6 days, we decided to stay within the Tokyo area. We had a wonderful time. Paul opted out of going, not really enjoying large crowds. We appreciated that he took care of the farm while we were away, and he did a great job keeping up with everything. Below are a few photos from our trip. There were huge crowds in Shibuya. We walked across Shibuya Crossing several times. It's one of the largest intersections in the world. When it's time for the crosswalks to open, all the lights turn red so that the entire intersection opens up to pedestrians. People can walk diagonally across the intersection if they want. We visited the Inokashira Park Zoo and Aquarium, along with several nearby parks, while waiting to go to the Studio Ghibli Museum. While wandering around near the zoo, we came across a sculpture museum with many enormous sculptures both inside and outside. In Harajuku, we went to a cat cafe. Every evening, we st...