It's a jungle out there!

The front yard at HeartSong Farm was a jungle, recently.  You can barely see the metal roof of the house from this angle!

I started writing this post a month ago and am just now having the time to finish.  When I began, we were still being deluged with rain, rain and more rain, with cloudy, rainy days in the forecast.  In fact,  27.25 inches of rain officially fell in my town center between 1/1/2015 and  4/16/2015, and by now it is close to 40".  I think that probably even more fell on HeartSong Farm.  I bought myself a cute brass and glass rain gauge several years ago, but a week after Ben installed it on the backyard fence, a windstorm toppled the big maple tree over on top of it, and I have not replaced it.  For the time being, I must rely on a co-worker to relay the rain amounts that her husband keeps excellent track of in town.  Good enough.

By mid-April,  the scissor-tail flycatchers had arrived, the first batch of Eastern phoebes had fledged from the clay nest on the front porch, and the grass was as high as an elephant's eye.  When I was much younger, I wanted to live in the jungle for a few weeks, and now, it seems I have gotten my wish.  But, I also wished for a baby elephant and a pet monkey.  I haven't seen those yet! I actually do have algae growing on parts of my car.

All the mud has been appreciated by the barn swallows and phoebes for refurbishing their nests from last year, and for supplying materials for those that need to start brand new.  One afternoon, Ben showed me how some small orange-brown butterflies were landing in the mud in the driveway, taking on moisture before taking off again.  And, for sure, Gloria is loving all the excessive rain. 

Gloria, the bald cypress, flourishing in her modified bog. 

In mid-March, the front yard was coming to life with the warmer temperatures
and all the rain.

Just a few weeks later and we had a jungle of high grass and weeds growing with no 

way to control it without getting stuck in the muddy ground.  Yep, we could actually see 

and hear it growing!

The back yard was the same.  The pastures were lush and the llamas were 
enjoying all the high green stuff.  Quite a salad bar, I suppose.

The vegetable garden area quickly became overgrown with weeds from all the rain.

Looks lush, doesn't it?!  Sadly, the only thing actually planted in the garden on purpose is the garlic.

It appears that I have a big job ahead of  me in the next few weeks.  Luckily, this was not to be a 

year for serious gardening, anyway.  (This is the year of finishing projects already started!)

The old rose garden in the front yard was overgrown like everything else.

The old rose garden is made up of rogusa roses now. The tea roses that were here when I bought
the farm became neglected those first years, and all but Mr. Lincoln have returned to their root 
base, rogusa.  I rather love them, though! 

Taking a walk down the driveway towards the mailbox and highway, I stroll under the shady

canopy of several huge hackberry trees.  Not my favorite specie of tree, but they sure do provide

some nice shade in the heat and humidity of the East Texas summers.

Along the way, I pass the English dogwood that has also enjoyed all the

 extra rains early this year.

The lovely blossoms of the English dogwood, which also goes by the name
"mock orange."

One of the old hackberry trees along the driveway. There are lots of iris
growing around its base, but they need to be dug up and replanted where

there is more sun as they have not bloomed for several years.  Will put 
that on my "To  Do List".

Out front by the highway stands the largest of my two fig trees.  Last year, it produced 

the best crop ever after getting lots of rain in the Spring.  Hopefully, the rain of this Spring 

will give me an even more abundance of figs.  Yum!

Of course, with all the rain, fire ant hills have popped up all over the place

and you really have to watch your step.  I appreciate how these little varmints 

aerate the soil when building their mounds, but it really isn't enough to forgive 

those stinging bites they are so quick to deliver!

Hidden in the tall grasses, some purple bearded irises do have enough sunshine 
to bloom.  I want to dig them up, though, and place them in a garden where
they will be able to get more sun and much more attention in the future.

This perky little flower is a Japanese iris that I brought with me from my 
home in Connecticut.  

The water continues to stand and accumulate in the front and back yards, making it difficult to get

the grass cut with our lawn tractor for way too long.  

At the driveway entrance to the house, the two Lady Banks roses that we
had to severely prune in February are coming back with lots of vigor!  Way
to grow, Kate and Bess!

The climbing rose at the entrance to the back yard across from the veggie
garden has bloomed more profusely than it ever has with the abundant rain.

In fact, there were blooms way up into the crepe myrtle tree and lots of new growth for future blooms!

On the back porch, the question was when will the tadpoles become frogs?!  It's a Big Mystery!

There is one little fella who has gotten his hind legs!

The rains stopped, eventually, and we were finally able to fix the lawn tractor and get the majority of the front and back yards mowed.  All it took was a bit of duct tape! Well, duh!  Isn't that usually the case?!

After so many weeks of rain, things were finally beginning to dry up here.  And then, right this very moment, it is raining once again for the next several days.  With all the storm damage and tornadoes just north of us, we really must be grateful here on HeartSong Farm!

Spring 2014 has sprung?

Spring 2014 is trying so hard to spring, but Old Mother Winter keeps showing back up at the door this year! It is like the weather is on a roller coaster and the jet stream is to blame, and something called the Arctic vortex.  This past weekend we had a glorious 70° Saturday again, giving me a chance to putter in my garden and walk around and take photos of some of the blooms showing up in my yard before I went inside and finished doing my taxes.

Forsythia, a favorite of mine, along the drive to the house

Pear tree blooms near front pasture.  Moonshadow and Armando curious as to what I am doing!

The temperature dropped throughout the day on Sunday until, by dark, we began to have rain, then freezing rain, and finally sleet.  I woke up Monday morning to 23° and ice in the water troughs.....again!  What is the deal?! About two hours north of my farm there was lots of ice and thousands lost power.  I feel sorry for all the birds, wildlife, and flowering bushes and trees that are as confused, if not more so, than we humans are with this shift in normal weather patterns that has been occurring all over the country, bringing severe cold weather with it.  Do the flora and fauna of the earth know about the Arctic vortex? 

In town, the red buds were already budding out, as were the salmon-colored quince bushes and perky yellow jonquils. Everything in town always blooms about one week ahead of those on my farm because I am a bit north and east of there. It is amazing to me what a difference those four miles can make.  It also makes it nice for me, who gets to see everything bloom, essentially, twice as long as those who live, work and stay in town.

I found these precious little johnny-jump-ups in the front yard.  Aren't they adorable?  Like tiny, elfin faces in the grass, smiling up at anyone who looks down!

Johnny-Jump-Ups

One morning this week, going to work and about 1 mile from the outskirts of town, I spotted a full grown coyote trotting out of the woods on the right hand side of the highway.  It paused and let me and the truck behind me pass, and then, in my rear view mirror, I watched him trot across the two lane road, duck under the fence, and continue into the pasture beyond.  What a privilege to see "him" or "her" going about their business!  Coyotes are a favorite of mine, and it is such a thrill for me to see one, "alive and in person".  I feel blessed to live where I can hear them yip-yipping and howling to each other long into the night.  I don't even have to have my windows open to hear them, they are that close, and loud!

A typical East Texas coyote

On my walkabout on Saturday, taking photos, I saw honey bees already out, busy and a-buzzing.  It worries me when I read that they are losing many of their habitats.  Our earth needs them so much to help propagate our fruits and vegetables, not to mention the yummy honey they produce all by themselves!  I try to do my part by planting things that will attract them, and I enjoy seeing them active on my farm.  One year, they built a huge nest and comb in a tree out front, away from the house, and we couldn't mow around that tree without getting attacked. Needless to say, we left them alone to do their thing until freezing winter temps sent them on their way. When they did not return for two years, I finally decided it was safe to "harvest" the bee's nest last fall, and I plan to hang it on the back porch this spring as a special "prize"!

Bee's nest plucked from tree out front

I noticed quite a few fire ant hills scattered around in the yard and in some of the pastures, but no activity going on above ground.  Maybe fire ants are smarter than all of us and know not to take some warm late February and early March days as a sign that Spring has sprung.  I am sure that fire ants serve some purpose in the Big Scheme of Things, but the next warm weekend that comes around, I am going to sprinkle some granules of poison on their hills to greet them whenever they do decide it is time to come out.  Surprise!  Take that, you mean-spirited little so-and-so's!

Fire ant hill in my back yard.....ARGHH!

I have finished my income taxes and have ordered my seeds for spring planting from Southern Seed Exchange. Now a trip to Lowe's is in order for purchasing lots of peat pots and some potting soil, several large plastic pots, and some fertilizer for my backyard lawn.  My Wildflower Fiber Retreat takes place this weekend, so I will have to wait until next week to get these needed items.  

I have decided that I will try growing my squash varieties in large pots this year and see if being up off the ground will keep the mildew and that yucky white mold off of them.  I will also go back to planting my eggplant (my favorite!) in large pots because I can put them under cover easier when and if there is an early frost.  I am really not one for container gardening of vegetables, but I have found that some types actually do better in a large pot, and for me, at least, eggplant is one of those.  I am interested to see how the squashes do in pots, and if it will help to extend their season for me.  I could eat squash, eggplant and tomatoes every single day!  One thing that pots do have going for them in my estimation ..... they are a whole lot easier to weed!

I will leave you with a photo of a dandelion and a "wish" from my yard to yours.  May Spring find her way soon.

Dandelion and "Wish"

Wishes come true, sometimes, at HeartSong Farm!

Going for the Gold!

Yes, I am going for the gold this week!  That is to say, I have finished spinning and plying all of my pretty fibers into beautiful 2-ply yarn in 11 lovely colors, and now I am starting on the knitting part.  So far I have qualified for at least the bronze medal, and if I finish the knitting completely, I will earn the gold medal in creativity!  I will give myself a silver if I get at least halfway finished with the knitting.  These happen to be my very own rules, but hey, I am the one that decided I wanted a challenge.  I needed something special to focus on right now and this was just perfect for that. 

I did try to engage a spinning and knitting buddy of mine to take up my challenge but she had a challenge of her own already, and besides she is not big on sports or watching TV.  (You know who you are .... Patty!) But when I threw down the gauntlet, she already had a more challenging project on her knitting needles, and I know that she is ready to complete it.  She had previously set herself the goal of knitting a Guernsey frock in a dark blue yarn, without a pattern to follow, for her hubby who is a Mountain Man reenactor!  How cool is that?!  She did, however, promise me that she would knit on it while watching figure skating, which she does enjoy.

As this blog site gets more established, there will be other challenges that will be thrown out to you, my readers, so don't despair.  This is all just a Great Experiment at this point.

Before the unveiling of the yarns that were made since last I wrote, I must relate that Spring is trying to peek through the cold down here and some aspects of Nature are working as they should.  Amber showed me her tulips peeking through the garden soil yesterday, I have seen the bluebirds house hunting, and yesterday the eastern phoebes returned to check out my front porch light to see if last year's clay nest just needed a bit of simple refurbishing or if they will have to rebuild from scratch.  My forsythia and tulip magnolia are forming buds, and tiny fragrant bunches of narcissus are already blooming in yards and along the highway at long-abandoned farmsteads. Spring definitely wants to burst forth.  I am excited that She does.

And today I hung out the year's first batch of laundry on my clothesline to dry along with the skeins of yarn I spun during the past week.  Hanging clothes outside is one of my very favorite things to do!  I love the activity, the sight of the fabrics blowing in the breeze, the fresh smell of sunshine and laundry soap, and gathering them in my arms once they are dry and ready to fold!  Do you know what I am talking about?  Ah, delicious! Not to mention saving energy, which is another of my favorite things to do.

Not that hanging clothes on the line is a true sign of Spring.  When I lived in the Midwest, I was able to have a clothesline (you know some subdivisions outlaw them!) and I would hang clothes out even in the winter to let them "freeze dry."  That was truly weird, but also quite effective!

Yes, that is my "Johnny afghan" and no, you can not borrow it!

And yes, I am digressing from the main topic of this post....my newly spun yarns!  As you can see from the photos, the change from the fiber into yarn is truly magical.  One's creative mind can picture ahead of time what a particular fiber will probably look like when it is spun up this way or that, but it is not until the actual spinning and then plying takes place that the truth is finally told.  And, for me, that is one of the places where Joy resides!  See for yourself, below. I especially love the way the blues came out.

The chosen fiber before spinning

All of the yarns from the chosen fiber

All 4 yarns made from plying with same color, called self-plying

Yarns made from plying with the gold

Yarns made from plying with the brown alpaca

Godfrey asks:  Are these for me?!

The yarns are now dry and ready to turn into small center-pull balls in readiness for my knitting.  I am still undecided about what to knit, but I definitely still want to experiment with entrelac, so I will look through my book to see what I can find that makes me smile.... maybe a hat or scarf or cowl, something small.  I have thought about knitting a simple length of the entrelac that could be used as a side panel on a purse.  Hmmm, now where's my entrelac book...


Got to get a-knitting here on HeartSong Farm!