It's Flower Time

The Master Gardeners of Wyandotte County (Kansas) 
take care of the perennial gardens at the 
National Agricultural Center, where I volunteer. 

There are so many beautiful blooms right now... 

I have rarely been able to grow clematis, which requires cool roots and 
its' head in the sun. 

I had some here at this big house when I moved in, but I managed 
to kill it! 

Spirea "Anthony Waterer", one of my favorites. 

So, there are a few blooming here at the house, too...

Why I have ONE iris blooming in June, I don't know!!!   Monarda is about to cut 
loose around it.  (and yes, I'm pulling those weeds and re-mulching next week) . 

But the daylilies have begun their annual display. 

I guess I better do some digging, too! 

These are at the farmhouse... 

And look!  The pasture at the farm has been cut! 

There goes Brandon on his tractor.  Brandon, of Odin's Lawncare, has been 
doing the yard at the farmhouse.  He drove his old tractor four miles down 
24/40 highway with his bush hog (called "brush hog" here in our town), and cut 
it for me last night.  

My own John Deere X320 is being hauled out there on Friday, and 
I'll be able to keep the pasture down.  Brandon will continue doing the yard and the weed eating, every ten days.  

What a relief to see the grass down. 

However, this is my goat yard.  It's HORRIBLE.  

I can't even get the gate open. 

I'm buying a corn knife tomorrow and 
next week, I'm going to town on this mess. 

Somewhere, in the middle, is the pile of stones 
Chris gathered and built for the goats. 
They were scattered by the hogs the tenants kept 
in the pen.   I'm going to get the huge weeds cut, 
and then gather the stones again, and a friend is 
going to put some goats in there. 

I'll be busy next week! 

I took this tonight when I went over to take care of the chicks 
at the Ag. 

This is the younger of the two gosling clutches. 

The older clutch is now looking like miniature geese! 

You see the older bunch are really feathering out. 
They are used to me watching them. 

All of the sudden, heads came up and everyone turned as one towards the pond, hurrying down quickly. 

I leaned forward from my bench, because whatever scared them came from my 
left, or east side.  I never did see anything. 

It was not this guy... they see him all the time... I suspect a fox in the trees along the dam. 

I have had Nathan and Chris here for two days, up from 
Garnett... we go back in the morning, and then the 
dogs and cat and I will be back to our normal routine for 
a while! 

Gardening with the Grands, and some Goose Gaggle Pics

Our day started out really early this morning.  Jax and Paiton are coming to my house daily this week,, as this is the "gap week" between school being dismissed and day camp (which they love) starting.  

Grandma usually doesn't get up at six, so you can see that everyone was tired, and Jester 

did not want to go outside, just sleep with his kids. 

Pardon the bins, you will be seeing a lot of them, I am in full packing mode. 

Okay, so despite the unseasonably cool weather, we went to the farm 

and worked on the garden.  Paiton complained at first and then REALLY pitched in. 

She had on flip flops, which made it doubly hard.  She is bringing tennis shoes tomorrow. 

Why yes, those ARE huge cutters Jax is carrying.  He did awesome work with them. 

We found lots of interesting things, a big toad, lots of spiders, and 

lots of ladybugs.  I reminded them all these creatures were helpful to us. 

There was one bit of bristly greenbriar in this bed, and I showed it to 

both of them and told them to stay away from it. 

Jax cut and cut. 

Paiton dug and dug. 

She also pulled weeds by hand, and shook the dirt back into the bed. 

As you can see, we uncovered two more beds, and started on a third.  There are eight all together. 

Jax is checking out that clump I left in the bed he is looking down into, because there was a big toad in it. 

So, before we left, we watched the birds for a few minutes. 

We saw an indigo bunting, a goldfinch (male), and a 

Baltimore oriole.  We are going to buy some oranges tomorrow, 

and put the slices on the bird feeder.  I'm going to hang a nyger seed 

feeder out for the finches, and we can watch them. 

No pictures of them today, though. 

The birds are getting used to us working near them. 

Here's a pert little female Red-Winged blackbird. 

And one of the ubiquitous blue jays... they are all over the deck as soon as we leave. 

We started out our day at the Ag Hall, though, taking care of these: 

Those are 24 new 5 day old cochin chicks, in five different color varieties.  I'm changing out that poopy paper daily, btw. 

But we have more babies at the Ag: 

After we did the chores, we went down to see the babies. 

Saturday, I drove the train for a birthday party, and the babies kept coming 

up the hill to the train tracks, scaring me to death.  The horn is no longer working on our engine. 

So... I was waving my arms like a psycho. 

Today, there were lots of little heads down in the grass, and mom and dad watching them. 

(There is a second batch to the right, who are about a week older). 

All of the sudden, the older goslings sprang up! 

And then the little heads came up. 

Paiton and Jax were being VERY quiet so as not to scare them. 

Mama was watching the mallards in the background. 

These. 

The older babies are getting quite big. 

Tonight, on my way home from the library, I saw some just 

a bit older than these by a local small lake... their heads look like 

Canadian geese now.  It won't be long until these do. 

You can see how big the earlier batch is.  

And I just realized I did not get pictures of the little ones eating! 

Just one. 

We are expecting rain again tomorrow, but we 

are hoping to get out to the "farm" and work some 

more on the garden beds, then I'll put fresh dirt in them 

and we will plant some tomatoes that the kids can enjoy this summer. 

Wednesday, we're going to the zoo after we do chores!  YAYYY! 

Last, but Definitely Not Least....

Samantha, our African goose, former mate of Timmy the Gander, has decided finally to set her eggs. An estimated thirty are under her, but some are more than a month old, and were laid before Tim was killed by the coyotes. Will they hatch? Were they fertile? I have never been sure, never having seen Tim breed her.... but have seen the Ship the Toulouse breeding the Toulouse geese. I'll let her set the next three weeks and we will see what happens in the pasture... will we get a gaggle of goslings? Some would be sure to be Tim's, making our big gander live on. We shall see... but for right now, she is tucked into the high grass, covering her eggs as best as she can. Not even Beau's presence in the pasture got her up... so I know she is serious about her job.