Gone to seed

Out of the Blue

Grapevine Curtain

Tulips and Shadows

Last fall, I planted about one hundred tulip bulbs, but only got a handful of blooms this spring. Judging from the tunneling under the flower beds, it appears the moles have eaten most of the bulbs. They haven't touched any of the daffodils or grape hyacinths, though.

I was looking back over my archived photos of last spring. I'm shaking my head in disbelief over how far ahead most of the flowers are this year, even though it has been a cool spring. Most of the daffodils have already faded, apple trees are in full bloom, and the lilacs are starting to bloom. The few tulips I have left are in their peak bloom right now.

Last year, the tulips where in their peak in mid May. The following series of photographs were taken on May 18th. I planted these tulips in the fall of 2008 in front of the house we used to live in town. (I planted several hundred bulbs the fall before we moved, hopefully the new owner is enjoying them this spring!)

Raindrops

Robin Egg Blue

Amazingly the mother robin came back to her nest even after being thoroughly disturbed by us brush hogging around her and was sitting there peacefully when I peeked in on her this morning.

Shy Little Violet

Lightly Frosted

Starting the garden--and a fox update

I've gotten a very slow start to the vegetable garden this year. Normally by now I would have all kinds of greens in, as well as peas, carrots, beets, and broccoli. Partly, it is because I feel a bit overwhelmed. There is so much to do, I don't know where to start! Besides the garden, the woods have been calling for attention and Terry and I have spend a good amount of time tending to that, brush hogging, hauling out fallen trees, and branches, and pulling out garlic mustard. We are trying to beat the poison ivy, since once that leafs out, we won't be able to wander freely in the woods.


Last weekend, we did plow and disk the garden. Today I finally got out there and staked out and put down mulch for the strawberry bed. I have a order of strawberries, raspberries, currants, and about a dozen fruit trees coming next week, so I need to have a place ready to put them. I have an want ad on Craig's List looking for mulch hay or straw to buy. I think the only way I am going to be able to manage the garden this year is mulch everything very heavily.


I'm not setting very high standards for myself this year. My goal is to get the raspberries and strawberries off to a good start and grow enough tomatoes to can to last until next summer. I will put in a little bit of everything else, and if the rest of garden just gets mulched or planted in a green manure crop, that is fine with me. It will be better prepared for next year.

We think the fox kits probably went off with their dad. I spoke with the fox expert today to try to figure out if I should keep leaving food out for them. I haven't seen any new sign of them in the den entrances for about four days now. There have been no new fox droppings. The food keeps getting eaten, but it is being eaten by some thing that is coming from outside of the den. She said it is possible the kits and the father are coming back to eat the food, even though they are not using the den. She suggested smoothing out and wetting down the sand around the entrance where I put the food, so that I will be able to read the animal tracks in the sand. I'm planning on doing that tomorrow. She said the father will hunt for the kits and will not eat until they have eaten. She assured me that I did not need to worry about them, that if they are with the dad, they will be well taken care off. The only concern about continuing to put out food is that I would really like to know who is eating it. I would rather not be feeding raccoons or opossums or rats.

Patiently Waiting

Our resident sand hill crane and Canadian goose are still waiting for eggs to hatch. If you look closely you can see both bird nests in the third photo. The goose in on the right.

Tangled Web

Details from the four corners of a complex spider web.

Bumble Bee

Plum Blossoms

This fall I think I am going to plant daffodils under the plum trees since they bloom at the same time. White plum blossoms and golden daffodils will be the perfect combination...

Sunny Faces

Fox Update

I've gotten a few requests for an update on the fox kits. Truth to be told, I have held off giving an update, because I am not sure exactly what is going on with them.

I have not seen them for a week (the day the last photo was taken). I've been putting food out in the morning before I go to work, and in the evening when I get home from work. Generally the food is gone when I go out to replace it. However, over the weekend the food was not touched at all, and even though the weather was beautiful on Sunday there was no sign of the little foxes. (I went out and checked the den at least ten times on Sunday.) This is so different from the first week that I started feeding them, they would enthusiastically appear anytime I brought out food.

No more dead animals have showed up by the den, but the rabbit that I mentioned in my last fox post, got moved around a lot, then a few days ago disappeared. There appears to be fresh digging at some of the den openings every few days. Also, I have noticed animal droppings around the entrances of the den. This morning when I went out the food I had put out yesterday was gone and there was a new pile of droppings outside the den.

I called the fox expert when I got home from work today to see what her thoughts are on why the foxes haven't been seen. She confirmed that the animal dropping that I have been seeing sound very like droppings from fox kits. She said the babies will go out of the den to relieve themselves. She thought it was very strange that we haven't seen the kits for a week. She said it was possible that something could have frightened them badly and they are hiding and only coming out for very briefly. She did suggest only leaving them food in the morning to deter coons and skunks from eating it at night.

From Bush to Basket

Rainy Day Daffodil

Spiderweb sunrise

Nesting in the Swamp--and a fox update

A Sandhill crane and a Canadian goose have decided nest only a few dozen feet apart in the neighbor's pond and are silhouetted against the dawn.

The gander stands guard next to his mate's nest.

Our little foxes seem to doing okay. They are eating the food I put out and are active and playing together. I am going to continue to feed them in place. This evening I picked up the formula and a nutritional supplement for them from the fox expert. I will be mixing the powdered formula in with the canned puppy food. It will give them extra calcium and other needed nutrients. It was fascinating to meet the fox expert and watch her bottle feed the 2 week old kit she is currently rehabbing. (A couple found the baby along the side of the road several days ago and thought it was puppy. They decided to adopt the little lost dog and took it the vet for shots--he was like, "this is not what you think it is"...)


The father seems to have reappeared. This morning when I went out to feed the kits, there was a dead rabbit and a dead vole at the opening of the hole. We are not sure what to make of this. Normally the mother stays in the den and feeds the babies, she does not go out to hunt until the babies are no longer nursing. The father brings her food. When the babies are old enough to eat some solid food, the mother regurgitates food that she has swallowed and partially digested for them to eat. They don't go from milk to eating meat straight off the animal. Other then bringing food home for the mother and babies, the father is not involved in the actual care of the kits. What happened to the mother is a mystery and why the father disappeared for over a week is also a mystery. But we are happy to have him back.

I did find a dead red fox along the side of the road not far from out home that appeared to have been hit by a car. However it had been dead for at least several weeks--the body was pretty disintegrated. So he may not be related to my kits.

Pyxie Cups

One of my favorite blogs featured these lichens recently, I had never seen them before and was delighted when I found my own patch today.

Alleluia is Our Song

"We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song." St. Augustine

Easter morning when I was growing up meant getting out of bed while it was cold and dark, trying to find boots and coats and getting dressed in the dark, then going out to wait in the chilly air for the sun to rise while my father read scripture and we sang psalms. I hated it at the time. But afterwards we would have a big Easter Egg hunt and my father would cook a huge breakfast of friend potatoes and eggs and rolls. Easter breakfast was always very special and it made the wait in cold morning for the sun to rise worth it.

We went to the early Mass this morning, but I did manage to run out for a short walk, hoping to watch the sun rise over the neighbor's pond. I had to turn around before the sun actually appeared, but did get to watch a sandhill crane feeding in the shallow water.


The sun rose just as we were getting into the car to leave for church.


When we got home, I picked a few daffodils for the breakfast table and made fried potatoes and eggs for breakfast. No Easter egg hunt today, though we had a small one yesterday when Terry's grandsons came out for a visit.


And a quick fox update. I saw the kits very briefly yesterday morning, but they didn't touch any of the food I put out and I did not see any sign of them during the day. It was cold and wet and really windy, so I suppect they were just hunkered down inside. This morning when I went out with scrambled eggs for breakfast, both were out playing and they eaten last nights dinner. I sent the link to this blog to the fox expert at the wild life rescue so she could see photos of how they are doing, and it turns out the kits are probably much younger then I thought they were. She thinks they are about three weeks old and said she is really torn between leaving them in place or bringing them into a safer, stable environment. I'm going to go pick up some formula for them (to mix in with the wet puppy food) on Monday. We will see what happens.

Happy Easter to all!

After the Storm

Brush Hog

Terry got a brush hog a few days ago (a Craig's List special for only $250). This has got to be the best $250 we have ever spent. This attachment is amazing. Our fields and wood were quickly being taken over by Autumn olives and wild roses. I wasn't looking forward to cleaning everything out by hand. Especially those vicious rose bushes. Parts of the woods are so full of them you can't walk through without being torn to shreds. Terry made short work of all the brush in the meadows today. (I marked the few trees and bushes I wanted saved.) Not only does it cut the smalls trees and bushes down, it also shreds them into little bits, as well as mows the grass and weeds. Looking forward to having him clean out the woods with it. I just need to mark the wild blueberry bushes, so they don't get destroyed.

Terry's grandsons came to visit today and 6 year old Liam had a blast driving the tractor around.

Fox Update

Posing for the camera and looking all cute.

Today I heard back from the wildlife rescue. The recommendation was to leave them in place and continue to feed them. Their fox expert gave me helpful advice on what to feed them and assured me that they will instinctively learn to hunt even without the having parents to learn from. I'm happy that I will be be able to watch them grow up.

She told me they love scrambled eggs, so that is what they got for lunch. No doubt about it, these babies love scrambled eggs.


One of the little guys gave me a scare when I went out to check on them first thing in the morning. He as all huddled up about 10 feet away from the den entrance looking all cold and miserable. Upon closer inspection, he was cuddled up against a piece of rabbit skin that was laying on the ground. The babies seemed very attached to the dead rabbit that had been in front of the burrow and seemed upset after I removed it. They would snuggle up to it and nuzzle it as if looking for milk. Terry remarked that they seemed to think it was their mother. It obviously had given them a sense of security and I regretted getting rid of it.

Obviously rabbit fur means something to them, because this baby had left the warmth and security of the den to be by a bit of fur. He didn't even move when I picked him up and and put him back in the den. I put the fur by him in the den as well and he went back to snuggling it. Hopefully with it in the den with him, he will not be tempted to go looking for security out side the den. (By noon he was back to normal self and seemed none the worse for having spent the night out in the cold.)

First Daffodil and Other News

First and most importantly, our first daffodil bloomed today! I snapped a photo before I went to work. By the time I got home, three more were blooming. I planted about 500 bulbs last fall and am looking forward to watching them bloom for the first time. I haven't found many bulbs planted by previous owners. There is one clump of daffodils by the upstairs front door, and a few crocuses and hyacinths. I do know there are several lilies as well because they were blooming when we moved in last summer. I deliberately did not touch the established flower garden last fall because I wanted to see what would come up this spring before I started digging around and destroying things.


I've confirmed that the fox kits are red foxes. According to this website red fox babies are distinguished from gray fox babies by the white tip on the tail. These kits have the white tail tip. They seem to be doing okay. At the advice of several people I switched to feeding them canned puppy food. I have not yet heard back from of the wildlife rescue despite another phone call.

I will admit that in the corner of my heart I'm still hoping their mom is alive and will come back to them. Very unlikely I know, though. Terry suggested that the mother might be coming back at night. If that is the case, why would she have let three of her babies die in the rain? I did clean up the dead animals in front of the den today (a rabbit, muskrat, and the three dead babies). If new dead animals appear then we will know the parents are still around.

(Note the white tip on the tail.)

(As a side note, picking up dead animals is about my least favorite thing in the whole wide world. Even though I wore gloves and used a shovel for most of the task I still felt totally soiled after the the task was done. I couldn't help wonder why I'm so repulsed by by animal corpses, but not human corpses. When I worked in the hospital, I didn't mind preparing patients' bodies for the family to say goodbye to, then wrapping them for the morgue, the few times we had patients die. It was a quiet, reverent task, a final way to show kindness and respect to the patient. I never felt repulsion, just sadness and respect for the empty body. Even when I had to bury Blackberry and when I buried my chicken a few days ago, the the feeling toward the corpse was one of repulsion--I couldn't touch them with bare hands. I loved both our little kitty and my chicken, but it was hard to take care of them after they died. I don't understand why I have such different emotions... )

We will not be getting the goats after all. This is a sad thing for us, but a happy thing for the owner. The reason she was looking for a new home for them is because her house with five acres is being foreclosed on and she though she would not be able to keep them when she had to move. Happily for her she has found a way to keep them.

Last of all, I start a new job on Monday. Today was my last day of work at my current job (I work for a home care company). While for the most part I liked the job I just left, I was frustrated by the amount of driving I had to do and by the paper charting system. My new job is also in home care, but it is much closer to home and they have a very user friendly computer charting system that will make my life so much easier. I was able to shadow one of their nurses for a day and was very impressed with her ability to get her paper work done. Paperwork is the bane and the downfall of visiting nurses and with the new health care reforms that are coming, I sure the amount of paperwork we will have to do will get larger.