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!

Neighbors, friends and pomegranates

Fresh homemade bread and oranges right off the tree!

Recently, I drove through a cold January rain to visit a dear friend in Houston that I had not seen in quite a while. Veta was my next door neighbor when I was growing up, and I have always thought of her as my second mother.  She and her husband, Rob, were just starting their family when they moved into our neighborhood in 1957, and my youngest brother, David, and I  were completely fascinated by our new neighbors!

You see, Veta is Italian, second generation from Sicily, and that meant that there were all sorts of relatives and get-togethers going on at the house next door.  David and I, brimming with curiosity, would peek through the slats of the redwood fence that separated our backyard from theirs, and marvel at all the activity, laughter, food, and people that overflowed from her home.  It appeared that her family and friends celebrated EVERYTHING!  The grass definitely seemed much greener on the other side of our fence.

Not only all of that, but they had a television set (black & white, of course!), a huge refrigerator in the kitchen and a "deep freeze" in the laundry area at the back of the carport, TWO cars (and one was a Nash Rambler station wagon!), AND an aquarium in one of the den walls!  Plus, they were growing strange vegetable in their backyard, like Swiss chard and a very long green squash that they called a "gugutza."  And in the brick planter of the carport was a cute little bush called a "pomegranate."

David and I would often sneak over and watch television through the window on their backdoor.  No sound, of course, but we could figure out what was happening on the "Shirley Temple Show" or the "Walt Disney Show" well enough for us.  When we were spotted by someone in the house, we were always invited in and a phone call made to our house (on a party line, of course!) to let my parents know where we were.  My grandparents in Mississippi had a television, too, and to us it was pure magic!

We were neighbors for almost ten years, and as I grew up, Veta would take me here and there with her, let me babysit with her four children, and welcome me with an open heart and arms whenever I needed to escape my own home, no questions asked.

She is 20 years my senior, but we have always had a very special friendship and connection, even though we have rarely visited in the past 40 something years.  It is amazing how friends can just pick up where they left off, as if no time has passed at all.  And that is exactly what happened that recent Saturday morning, from the moment I rang her doorbell, to the moment I made myself get back into my car for the return trip to HeartSong Farm!  

My second mother and dear friend, Veta, in mid-sentence!

I arrived a tad bit before one o'clock in the the afternoon and greeted with a wonderful welcoming hug (ahhhh!), and then two more!  Then we began to talk.  And we talked non-stop for twelve hours!!!!  In between, we sat down for some of her freshly baked bread (she let me have the end slice!) and some homemade jams and jellies.  We talked while she made us meatballs and spaghetti, roasted eggplant, and a berry cobbler for dinner and I sat on a stool at the counter.  Kitchens are wonderful places to share and visit.  Don't you agree?!

We finally crashed just before 2 am Sunday morning, then got up and started talking again at 8 am until I finally had to drag myself away at noon in order to get home to wash the weekly clothes and rest up for the work week ahead.

As is her way, Veta had packed me a "goody bag" to take home. Inside was a loaf of that freshly baked bread, a plastic bag full of pecan pieces from her neighbor's yard, some of the leftover spaghetti and meatballs, a jar of homemade chicken chili, jasmine teabags, a  pound of ground meat, and two rib eye steaks!  And a bag full of oranges from the tree in her backyard.  Wow!

Rain was dripping off the roof, but I just had to get a photo of the orange
tree in Veta's back yard!  She has gotten over 200 oranges already this year!

When I told her thanks and what a surprise it was, she said:  "I just did what I would do for one of my children."  Wow, again! I am so blessed with this wonderful friendship.

During the week prior to my visit with Veta, I received an interesting package in the mail from a fiber friend that contained a tiny pomegranate and a photo of her grandparents.  There was also a very sweet card asking me if I would please plant the seeds of this pomegranate on HeartSong Farm in memory of her grandmother, Sofia.  My friend had wonderful memories of the pomegranate tree and fruit that had grown in her grandmother's yard.  The house was being sold and there was no way that she could bring the big tree to her house, but she could pass the seeds on to me to plant for her here on HeartSong Farm!  She had recognized one of the aspects of my farm, and I felt such a rush of Joy to have the privilege of doing this for her and the memory of her grandmother.

The pomegranate and a photo of my friend's grandparents.

The seeds are in the process of drying out, and soon I will plant several small pots and wait for some sprouts to appear.  Another reason why this is so special to me is the memory of that small pomegranate bush that grew in that brick planter at the house next door growing up.  I find the timing for the arrival of that package and my trip to visit Veta rather interesting!  

Pomegranates are considered a super food these days, and are quite expensive in the grocery.  But, pomegranates have other uses than food.  For instance, a red dye can be extracted for the pretty flowers, a yellow dye from the fruit's skin, and a black dye from the roots.  You can bet that I will be trying this out on some fibers at some future date!

My research tells me that pomegranates are very east to grow, have lovely flowers, and are well suited to hot, dry conditions, although plenty of water is necessary for larger fruit.  The Spanish brought them to Mexico, California, and Arizona in the 16th century.  My friend's grandparents lived in Laredo, Texas, and were originally from Mexico.  Maybe, just maybe, these seeds came from seeds from a family tree that started out, long ago, in Spain!  Wow!

It will take 3 - 5 years to produce fruit, so I can't wait to get started.  I am also going to be trying my hand at rooting some fig twigs from my two trees this February.  My own grandmother grew figs in her Mississippi back yard, which is one reason I have fig trees on HeartSong Farm.  The bees and the butterflies really love the figs, and I hope they like the pomegranates, too!

Meanwhile, the 50 garlic cloves that I planted in October are doing very well.  Looks like I will have quite a nice harvest come May.

Garlic rows doing quite nicely in the garden!

Remember the leopard frog tadpoles I found this past Fall in one of my wheelbarrows?  Well, they are still alive and are slowly growing even in this cold weather.  I had feared that they would not make it through the freezing temps we have had this Fall and Winter, but apparently they just slow down their metabolisms, and go dormant in the cold water, even under a bit of ice.  After all, they are cold blooded creatures.  Well, duh!  We just always had them in the hot summer time when I was a kid, and I guess I didn't think past that.  Silly me!

A video of my cute little tadpoles!  My first attempt at movie
making with my new camera.  Not sure if I have done it right.

It has been a lot of fun keeping an eye on the tadpoles in their plastic container on the back porch.  I have tried to share some of them with friends and co-workers, but no one except me wants them.  I can't wait for them to become tiny froggies!  I have named them all "George, " so that I can tell them apart.

This week at HeartSong Farm, I am getting ready for the Chix Packin Stix Winter Retreat up in Gainesville, Texas.  My friend, Wanda, and I will be traveling together on Friday, and it is looking to be a lot of fun.  Photos will definitely follow as soon as possible!

I have been hearing the orchard oriole's call this last week, seen flashes of blue in the pastures, and this morning came the drumming of the red-bellied woodpecker in the Bradford pear tree near my bathroom window.  With all the cold and rain and mud the last few weeks, I am beginning to look forward to Springtime here on HeartSong Farm.

All creatures, great & small

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures, great and small.

These timeless words by Cecil Frances Alexander, published in her book, Hymns For Little Children (1848), have spoken to me ever since I was a little girl.  The past two weeks have brought a number of creatures to my farm's door, porch and wheelbarrow, and I wanted to share them with you!

Female cardinal feeling somewhat woozy after a slam-bang into my bedroom

window.

Sunday afternoon, November 1, the cats and I heard a very loud bang on my bedroom window that overlooks the back porch.  It sounded like a gun shot, louder than a bird hitting it, but it turned out that is exactly what it was.  I went outside, and huddling under the porch swing, was a very dazed and confused female cardinal.  She not only a had a really bad headache, her beak could not close, one eye was half-closed, and a dark fluid was coming out of one side of her beak!  Look closely above.  Poor dear thing!

Feeling somewhat better

After about 10 minutes of my stroking her feathers and talking to her, she was able to grip my index finger with more strength and stand straighter, although her left eye was still half-closed.  A few minutes more, and her beak (jaw?) could close and the fluid (saliva?) stopped flowing from her mouth.  She looked at me when I spoke and seemed to enjoy the stroking of her feathers.  I was able to admire up close and personal all her lovely shades of brown and red.

Feeling better and almost ready to fly again!

As I continued to stroke her back and to speak soothingly to her, her balance improved, and her beak was able to finally close properly.  As her grip on my finger-perch grew tighter, I gently tossed my hand, palm upwards, into the air a few times.  She kept her balance by spreading her wings, but she was not quite ready to leave my protection.  I decided that I would take her to the arbor between the backyard and the vegetable garden where I felt she would be safe from Max the Outside Cat.  Fortunately, he was nowhere to be seen at the moment.

I left the safety of my back porch and started toward the arbor.  A few feet from my destination, Ms. Cardinal took flight and landed near the top of the crepe myrtle nearby.  She was back on her own!

Tadpoles in the wheelbarrow full of rain water!  Several hundred of them, at least!

The weekend that I was planting my garlic and winter greens, I passed by my wheelbarrow and saw a very interesting, unexpected sight ....  tadpoles swimming around in the rainwater from a recent heavy downpour.  It brought back memories of scooping up ditch water full of tadpoles in mason jars, and watching them grow into frogs or toads!  I think that it has gotten too cold for the little fellas to survive to be frogs, but I will be keeping an eye on them, for sure.  It has been in the low 30's, or lower even, for several nights here this week.

A leopard frog, probably one of the parents of the tadpoles in the wheelbarrow.

Leopard frogs are really quite lovely with their spots and sleek, moist skin.  They can make almost as much noise as a bullfrog sometimes.  BURRUMPH, BURRUMPH!  Sometimes I find them in one of the llama water troughs in the pasture. I remember finding one several weeks ago, after a lighter rainfall, in this same wheelbarrow!

A yellow jacket (left) and honey bee (right) on a tassel of goldenrod near the wheelbarrow.

My little green (sometimes brown) back porch friend in a bucket of rainwater.

This little guy (a green anole) is the one who lives behind my door-facing on the back porch.  He has startled me a number of times this Fall when I reached to open the door and he jumped out.  I swear he said "Boo!" once! It is unclear to me as to whether he was intentionally swimming or he fell into the bucket accidentally.  But, he looked pretty water-logged to me.  I think he appreciated my helping him get out of the water when I did!

I put him on one of the vines that covers the arbor off the back porch.

Soon he was relaxing and enjoying the sunshine on his back.  I love these little creatures!

I grew up calling these cuties "chameleons" because they could turn from bright green to brown, depending on what they were perched on.  We loved to watch them run along the top of our redwood slat fence, and we loved to try and catch them, too.  Sometimes, we would grab them by their tails and we would be left holding only the tail as the lizard scrambled away!  You could always tell the ones who had lost their tails at some point because, when the tail grew back, it never quite matched the original.

The opossum on the back porch of HeartSong Farm.

Not a great photo, and although that is Max's food bowl, that is definitely NOT Max! What it is, is a
very plump opossum that has been regularly visiting my back porch the last few weeks.  So far, I have not been able to get it's face in a photo.  It is very wary, this 'possum!  And it has lots of tiny sharp teeth that I would not want to mess with!  It tends to "grin" at me, and then go back to munching on the kibble.

Now this is an adorable little fellow, don't you think?!

About a week after the opossum started coming around, a young raccoon began coming around about 30 minutes later than that early diner.  I guess word had gotten around that food was available on my back porch?! 

This is the second raccoon that we have had as a visitor over the years here at HeartSong Farm.  I think we will name this one Bandit.  The first one, Rocky, has not been seen for two or three years, and this is a young one, probably coming into its second winter.  When he stands he is about 24 inches tall, and is only slightly leery of me.  I can get within two feet of him, with no problem.  He has growled at me only once, and since then seems to have accepted my presence as non-confrontational.

I have always wanted a pet raccoon, for real.  My daddy's mother had one when he was growing up, in St. Petersburg, FL.  I am so tempted to try to catch this one, but I know it is really not a good idea.  So, I make sure there is always a bit of dry cat food on the back porch at night, and that way I get to observe it up close and to enjoy it in that way.

One night this week, I felt a pair of eyes staring at me as I sat reading in my den chair by the window overlooking the back porch.  I turned to look, and there was Bandit, front paws on the window ledge, watching me through the screen! Well, turnabout is fair play, I guess!

Ben says that he has seen this youngster climbing high in the pine tree near his "man cave," so it must have found Rocky's old nest.

A Hispid Cotton Rat.  Isn't he (I checked!) adorable?!  Looks similar to a hamster to me.

Last Sunday, I was at my computer in the dining room, when something caught my eye outside by the clothesline. It was Max the Outdoor Cat tossing something in the air.  Oh no!  I could see that it was a rodent of some kind, bigger than a mouse, but smaller than a gopher.  And, strangely, it seemed like it was playing a game with Max.  It was not even trying to get away, but would run around to his backside, then around him again, then leap up in the air on his own, and then crouch in the grass right next to him.  This was strange.  Strange, indeed!

I grabbed my camera and an old towel and went outside, intrigued.  Max walked off, but the little critter was hidden in the grass, crouched down and really quite hard to see.  After several attempts to locate it, and then capture it with the towel, I was at last successful.  What I discovered was that it was neither a mouse or a gopher, nor was it the kind of rat that I would have expected.  It's coat was rough, like a nutria, but he was way too small to be one.

He has a very coarse coat of dark brown and golden brown, and is about the size of my hand.

He was nervous at first, but, in no time at all, was relaxed enough for me to examine him and to release my tight grip on him.  He even felt comfortable enough to perch on the towel in my hand.  I had seen his sharp, yellow rodent teeth and I was not taking his calm acceptance of me for granted!  As you can see from the photo above, however, that Max had, indeed, injured him on his tail.

Eventually, I put him back in the grass near the clothesline, and he scooted off towards the back pasture fence.  I immediately went inside and grabbed my Peterson's Field Guide to Mammals of North America.  I discovered that he was a Hispid Cotton Rat, and are known for making runways and tunnels in high grassy areas.  I wonder how many are out there in my back pasture?!

And then there was this on the kitchen floor!

What the ..... ??!!!  This sure isn't one of the typical Dust Bunnies found in my home!  I have the feeling that Godfrey had something to do with this, whatcha wanta bet?!

Axl (aka The Big Guy) enjoys watching creatures, both great and small, from his perch at the dining room window. There is absolutely no way he could fit on the window sill like an "ordinary" cat.  He is, after all, a Maine Coon cat!

With the very cold temperatures here this week, out in the pastures the llamas have been looking like smoke-breathing dragons in the early mornings!  Steam rises off their woolly backs from their body heat.  I have been trying to get a photo of that, but I am having trouble pressing the buttons with my gloves on.  It is almost time to buy a new camera, I think.  The buttons on this one keep getting stuck!

There are a lot of interesting creatures here on HeartSong Farm!