Embroidered Crib Quilt

The embroidery has gone fast on this small project and is completed. I’ll work on the applique when I’m tired of quilting.

See those bunnies? I don’t like them and I’m going to applique hearts over them.

I worked in my garden last week. I’ve planted green beans, carrots and 1 row of early red potatoes. I’ll take a picture when everything is up.

An update on the fox. We watched the fox run around the pasture last week, then the heifers (who had been at the other end of the field) spotted him. They came running up to play but unfortunately the game they wanted to play was ‘Chase the Fox Around the Field’. He soon scooted under the fence and must have moved the kit(s) during the night because they are no longer under the porch.

They’re still around though, we’ve seen them several times playing in the cow pasture. There is one kit for sure. We hope they stay around, they are very interesting to watch.

The Fox

We often see various wildlife here on the farm. Over the years we have seen fox running through the hay fields searching for mice to snack on. This year we have a fox that we have seen many times in the heifer pasture on the south side of the house. I have decided that it has a den under our porch. I saw it running in the pasture last evening. He or she caught something and ran up to the house with it, scooted under the fence and under the porch it went.

Then he or she came back out and sat on the other side of the fence and just looked around.

I’ve never seen a fox this close before!!!

 

Spring is Slowly Coming

Spring is slowly making her way into northern Indiana. The neighbors have buckets hanging on the maple trees to collect sap.

The white pails are hard to see against the snow background.

Most of the snow has melted and I can see the roadside trash that needs to be picked up. Daffodils have started emerging from the ground and the skunks have emerged too!

When I walk down to the road in the early morning to get the newspaper out of the box, I often hear the male cardinal singing to his mate, if I’m lucky, I’ll see him too. The other morning I could hear a killdeer in the bottom pasture field calling and another bird from the neighbors farm, crying in return. We’ve had bluebirds sitting on the fence and the other day in town I saw robins hopping around in a yard.

The garlic is waiting for a little more warmth before completely waking up. I’m glad I decided not to plant peas this year, the garden isn’t fit for planting.

I have taken the time to sew the buttons in the center of my pincushions. Don’t they look better? I just used regular buttons from my button tin.

I’m still working on my Red Radiance embroidery project too. I’ve completed 3 of the 4 borders. I hope to get the embroidery completed before we start field work this spring.

Lake Pleasant

One day we drove an hour to the mountains and did some hiking. This is what the desert actually looks like. See the saguaro cactus?

 

The trail wound around the mountains. First we saw this little creek.

 

 

 

 

 

And then we saw a lake! Can you believe it? A lake in the middle of the desert, pretty good size too.

 

I was too bushed to climb to the top of this mountain to see the whole lake. After we walked back to the parking lot, we drove to the marina. I didn’t take a picture of all the boats. I can see boats here at home.

While we were hiking we spotted this little Arizona poppy. This was the only one we saw in bloom. In several weeks the mountains will probably be filled with their beauty.

 

 

 

I also spotted this bush that had some flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

The highway we drove on most of the way had decorative design on the sides of the road right before we would go under an overpass. I wasn’t able to get the whole design in one picture especially while driving at 70 mph! This is the best I could do. Maybe the next time I’m there I can convince her to stop and let me take pictures.

 

Desert Botanical Garden

What do you imagine when you think of a desert? I think of sand dunes and rattlesnakes. That is not what I found in Tempe. There are 4 deserts in the United States. Phoenix (and the surrounding cities) are a part of the Sonoran desert which extends south into Mexico. Of the 4, the Sonoran receives the most rain, 6 – 8 inches a year. How do I know this wonderful information? It’s because we spent a day at the Desert  Botanical Garden and I was educated about deserts!

I hope you don’t get bored with all the pictures in this post. I’ll tell you straight out that I don’t remember most of the names of the cactus’ and plants.

 

The native Americans called the Mesquite tree, the Tree of Life. They used every part of it. The ground up the seed pods and used it for flour. They were selling Mesquite flour in the gift shop, but we didn’t want to spend $14 for a pound of it, so I can’t tell  you how it really tastes.

 

 

 

I think this is an Aloe Vera but I don’t guarantee it. Aloe Vera is NOT a member of the Agave family.

 

 

 

I think this is an Agave, but that definitely is a prickly pear cactus on the right side and in the background are more mesquite trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know what this little guy is called. He had long “hair”. My daughter felt the “hair” and said it was coarse, like the switch of a cow tail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plant on the right is blooming and the left plant has already bloomed and formed fruit. Again, I don’t know what they are. I guess I should have taken notes, but I was supposed to be on vacation!

 

 

There are several varieties of prickly pear cacti. The one on the right is a red variety.

 

They had this cute sun-dial too. It was noon when we were there.

I’m not a rock climber. If I were, I would have tried to climb this sandstone thing. It is not as close as it looks.

 

I pretty sure this was called a “Christmas Cactus”. It looks nothing like my Christmas Cactus. The thorns on this thing were at least 3 inches long!

 

 

 

Cyclamen are not a native southwestern flower, at least I don’t think they are. Around here they are a house plant, but at the entrance to the garden they had them growing in flower beds.

 

Saguaro cactus take a long time to grow but can live for 200 – 300 years. They start as a tiny black seed. When they are 10 years, they are the size of a little finger. Not all Saguaro’s develop arms, but if they do, they won’t grow before they are 75 years old. I thought I had a picture of one from the botanical garden, but I don’t.

Just a couple more plants that I don’t know the name of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m going to close with this picture of a road runner that was sitting in a tree. He must have been used to people because he just sat there and let everyone take his picture.

Thankfully I never saw any snakes!

 

November Garden & the Maple Trees

There isn’t much happening in the garden this time of year. The garlic is sprouted up through the sawdust mulch.

The carrots taste delicious. I’ll wait until later in the month before I pull them to store for winter.

I didn’t get the tomatoes picked before the killing frost, such a waste. I won’t taste delicious tomatoes again until next summer. Those things they sell in the grocery store don’t taste like real tomatoes! I think they are colored baseballs.

The maple trees have been especially beautiful this year. We don’t always have the orangey/red color but this year we had color in an abundance.

Those are soybeans at the bottom of this picture. They are ready to be harvested.

Last spring my forsythia didn’t bloom, then I noticed this several weeks ago. Does forsythia often bloom in the fall? Maybe it does and I never noticed it before.

I took the pictures of the trees earlier in October. The leaves have steadily fallen from the trees and it snowed on Friday, October 31. I’m so not ready for winter!

The Swallows

Do you know what this is? It doesn’t look like much does it?

Two days later it looked like this.

If you guessed it was a barn swallow nest, you were correct. We have a lot of barn swallows and they make their nests in our barns. This nest is from the west barn. The swallows that nest in the west barn startle more easy and I can’t get a picture of them in their nest. However, the swallows in the east barn are more tolerant of us. We milk in that barn and they are used to people.

This female is setting on eggs and in several weeks there will be baby birds peeking over the sides of the nest.

Sorry it’s blurry. The reason the nest is white is because we are required by the Indiana Board of Animal Health to white wash the walls and ceiling every fall. This bird is reusing a nest from last year.

The swallows like to sit on the pipe line and chitter-chatter at us.

We also have 2 cliff swallow nests. They make mud nest outside high underneath the roof line of the barn.

You can see the swallows head peeking out of the nest entrance.

Spring Flowers; Some Wild, Some Tame

Dutchman’s Breeches

 

I think these are called Jack in the Pulpit, but I don’t know for sure.

And some creeping myrtle.

These are the “tame flowers”. I bought some violas and planted some in a planter. I see them every time I come in the house.

I’m not a flower expert, I just enjoy looking at them and I think they are pretty.

Once in a Lifetime

My husband will be 62 this fall and he has lived his entire life on our farm.  It is not unusual to have Canada geese fly over the farm or make a stop at the pond, but he never has seen them land on top of the silo.

They just stood there awhile and looked around, finally they flew away. Maybe they were looking for a good nesting site.