Our spring vegetable "garden"

We escaped the house this morning and ran out to the Arnoskys' Blue Barn. Pamela and Frank are THE BEST! They are very special people, and we're honored to call them our friends. We bought some Pure Luck goat  cheese and Farmer Doug's Maple Syrup along with a cherry tomato and pepper plant. Let the growing begin!

Finally first hummer!

Black-chinned male. He's LATE this year!

Monarchs?

Two spotted this afternoon among our peach blossoms!

Cleaning the stock tank

It's March. Time to tackle our stock tank pond. First, James lifted out the dwarf water lily and lemon bacopa from the bottom, where they overwintered. Then he pulled out the horsetail rush. Alas, the parrotfeather did not survive. Using a fish net, I mucked out the bottom but not completely.

Look what I found in the muck...a dragonfly nymph. (I felt so bad for disturbing it, which is a big reason why I quit mucking.) I know you can't tell from the photo what it is. So click on this link to see a similar nymph. I set it in the water lily pot and covered it back up.

I've got my fingers crossed the leopard frogs and other wildlife critters don't disturb my plants like they did last summer. Please let me keep my stock tank pond, y'all!

Another milestone

In October 2018, I posted when I hit 500 species in our yard using iNaturalist for documentation. This past week, I've surpassed 900 species! My goal is to reach 1,000 by year's end.

New owl box

In March 2008, we hung up our first owl nesting box for eastern screech owls on an abandoned utility pole in our back yard. It's an Owl Shack built by ornithologist Cliff Shackelford. The following September, we hung up this one in the Meadow (another Owl Shack). As you'll see in the photos, it has held up well through 12 years of wear and tear. Yesterday, James took it down and replaced with a new Owl Shack that we'd originally bought for my parents. We never got around to hanging it up for them (bad me) so it came back to us. James plans to repair the original one.  

Maybe we'll get baby owls again like we did in 2009! Stay tuned!

Peach blossoms!