Good, simple things...

 Sage Grouse grazing in the flower gardens.

 A pop-up afternoon thunderstorm brought us a good rain, a half inch.

There was a lightning strike and another fire north of us, 

but it was short lived and rained out.

 

 Just before the storm, I ran out and picked a big head of lettuce.

This is a Butterhead.

 

 My new Birkenstocks.  

Hippie Flower.

Playing in the kiddie pool with the grands.

 Sunflowers blooming inside and outside the fence.

 

The subtitle of this blog post was going to be "Oh Poop!"  Can you guess why?  The septic backed up.  Joe Dirt (that's his business name) came and pumped the septic tank but there was digging that needed to be done to fix the problem.  Thanks be to God for good men who know how to do this kind of work.  Our men rented a backhoe from town and had the problem fixed in an afternoon.  Gotta love 'em!  The backyard's a little messy for now, the bathroom still stinks, but I can flush and wash up the dishes!   You know what Erma Bombeck said, "The grass is always greener over the septic tank."  It was, and it will be again!

We had a nice family gathering yesterday with twenty of us here.  I made Indian Tacos and all the womenfolk brought things to help out with the meal.    The littles had fun in the spa (pool) while the grown-ups talked and while observing all the splashing and screaming.  I made that really delicious Basil Lemonade,  and everyone enjoyed it.  JJo wondered if we could do something with all the lemon & lime leftovers, and I remembered citrus-infused vinegar.  I had an extra gallon so we scooped all that goodness into a mason jar and poured white vinegar over it.  It already smells good and will be nice for homemade cleaning products.  Ever tried it?

Addendum on Lemonade:
If you don't have sweetened condensed milk, you can add another 1/4 cup of sugar (or to your taste) to the simple syrup and proceed with the instructions.  I have also used a combination of lemons & limes for a different twist.  The limes definitely give it a really fun flavor.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'....

 Keep those bales a-rollin'

Theme musica here.

More grasses for you to look at.  We don't bale these types.

 Prairie cordgrass or sloughgrass is common in low wet soils, 4-6' tall.

 Foxtail barley, a weedy native that is nasty to animals.  
The awns can stick into livestock and produce sores in their throats, eyes, noses.  Grows on low wet soils.

Garden flowers for you too!

 Black-eyed Susan or Rudbeckia

 

 Purple Conflower

OnlyDaughter sent me this pic of the sidewalk art she creates in her driveway and sidewalks along with her little girls.  She writes, "Purple Conflowers make me think of you!"  (Melts my heart.)

These summer days have been filled with cutting, raking, and baling hay, and at the moment, we are just a day or so from being all done with haying.  We've made a good, productive go of it, and we're thankful for every blade of grass that was rolled into each bale.  The cows and sheep will thank us when winter rolls around.  (Do you notice a rolling theme here?)

I've been pouring the water on the flower gardens and the veggie patch, and I'm trying to keep the lawn reasonably green, but it's the season when things start turning brown-ish in these parts.  We were lucky to have an inch and a half of rain last week when some thunderstorms rolled through.  The bad part about it is that the lightning touched off a prairie fire north of us.  The men took off in the rangefire truck and went to snuff it out.  In a couple hours they had it contained and it didn't amount to much, thankfully.  Most of the ranchers in our area have firefighting sprayers and when someone's place is on fire, everyone goes.  We have so much tall clover in the country that is dry as can be, and it has become a big fire danger here.  Everyone's watching the sky and the horizon when thunderstorms pop up this time of year.

We worked the sheep today and sorted the wether lambs off to take them to the sale barn.  They looked so good and the markets are very favorable right now too so we're hoping for good prices on our lambs.  We kept the ewe lambs back on their mothers and will sell them later at a special ewe lamb sale in September.

The yearling steers are closer to home in the North Pastures eating grass and getting fat.  Soon they'll be gathered and brought home to take to the sale too.  The mother cows and their calves are happily grazing in summer pasture and the bulls are still in for another cycle.

Tomorrow this Gram is going along with the Mommies and their children to the Water Park to play in the pools.  The Littles are very excited about that.  It should be a fun time for all of us.  Peach, Toodles, Bee, and Rootie Toot are going but Little Boy Blue must stay behind with Daddy.  We think he'll play out too soon and ruin the fun for the big kids.

I hope your summer is rollin' along  -- not too quickly, not too slowly.

Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer’s year — it brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul. ~Author Unknown

Hen and chicks...

 

 

These are the hens of the northern prairies, the Greater sage-grouse.  The photo above is a Sage hen with her young.  NumberOneSon swathed the area around our houses today and guess who had been hiding in the tall, tall grass?  This hen and her four chicks.  Every year about this time, sage-grouse show up around our yard and in a nearby alfalfa field.  Sage-grouse nest in sage brush areas and brood their chicks there, but when the chicks are old enough, they travel from the dry sagebrush areas and come down near us and eat whatever they like -- soft, green alfalfa seeds and other forbs.  The main diet of the sage-grouse is sage brush seeds, but they will also forage on other types of seeds, plants, and insects.  Today  JJo and I watched them walking through the yard nibbling from the ground. The grouse fly, but prefer to walk like chickens.  At one point the chicks got separated from their mother when the guys drove by.  It startled some of them and they flew, but the sweet low cluck of the nearby mother and the higher pitched  muffles of the chicks brought them all back together again.  The breeding ground of the sage-grouse is called a lek.  We really don't have any leks that I know of on our ranch, but I have seen the Greater Sage-grouse strut-dance one time.  I was far off, but it was amazing to see and hear.  Below is the mating dance of the male during breeding time.

We love our prairie hens and chicks.

Spell me...

 

(backyard garden)

Hubby radio'd me this afternoon to see if I could go rake some hay for him.  Yes, I could.  I took the Ranger out to the hay field and proceeded to turn hay over.  We had had a lovely rain the day before and so only the thin hay was going to be baled today.  The heavy, wetter stuff would have to wait.  Anyway, as I was working on the second hour of raking, NumberOneSon called me on the radio.

"Mom, would you like me to spell you?"

"No, I'm ok," I said.

"I'm going to give you a break anyway," he insisted.

As I waited for his arrival, I thought about what a lovely phrase it is:  "Can I spell you?"  I don't think it's a phrase often used these days, is it?  Just like the phrase, "Sit a spell."  How often do you hear those words out of anyone's mouth who's under 60?  I like the old-fashioned phrases and words.  They make me think of simple days, of my grandparents and even my own parents who aren't so very old, and I wonder if one day my grandchildren will remember words and phrases that I used?

That reminds me.  Yesterday JLo (first-DIL) and I were working in the kitchen on some plantain infused oil.  I had gathered a basketful of it from below the backyard and was washing it up and spinning it dry.  The grandkids were here too and they just love to mess around in the kitchen at whatever I'm doing.  We were packing the plantain leaves into mason jars and pouring oil over them.  I remembered that I had some mini glass roll-on containers that I thought might be nice to put some of the oil in for carrying in a purse or diaper bag when the need arises.  As I was fishing them out of the plastic, Peach and Toodles thought that they would each like a "potion jar" as they call them to take outside.  They proceeded out the screen door with their jars in hand and collected a few rose petals in them, determined to make their own potions.  It thrills my heart to see them creating things from nature, whether real or pretend.  They see us and they want to do it too.  JLo said we may need to make a recipe book of Gram's potions one day for wedding gifts.

If you are curious about making plantain infused oil or salve, click on these links:  Wellness Mama or Mommypotomus.  Plantain oil or salve is great for relieving bug bits, poison ivy or oak, for healing scrapes, burns or nasty diaper rashes.  Check out MK's posts about it too!  Sit a spell and enjoy the reading!

His 'n' Hers boots...

 

His 'n' Hers boots, clean and oiled

 

Hen & Chicks blooming

Ewes and lambs

 A few cows & calves

 Prickly pear cactus blooms

Buffalo grass

By popular request, the dirty boots are now cleaned and oiled.  They don't look beautiful, but they are clean(ish).  The oil makes our boot leather turn very dark which is not the most attractive, but it does saturate the leather and conditions it.  These are our work boots so they aren't meant to be "pretty" but rather, functional.

Have you ever seen Hen & Chicks blooming?  I don't think I ever have.  I wonder what will happen next?  Do you suppose it will send out seed?  Or will it just die?  I wonder.  There are some "chicks" below it so I'm sure they will establish themselves in the soil there.  I hope so.  I think I may take a few chicks and start them in a pot.  I love succulents.

Hubs and I went for a Sunday drive to check on the sheep.  The lambs that were born in February are nearly as tall as their mothers.  We found three longtails (late lambs born after we docked). We will likely wean them all in a couple weeks and then sell them in August.  They are so healthy and FAT.  Beautiful sheeps.  I love my sheeps.

We drove by a small bunch of cows and calves that are in the cull bunch.  They look good too.  All the cows are now out in their summer pastures, happily grazing on green grass and clover.  It's a huge clover year here.  I should have some bee hives, but I don't.

I took some pictures for you of the buffalo grass that is a native of our prairie.  It is not the dominate grass here, but in various areas on our ranch it grows with vigor.  It's a low-growing, tight sod.  I honestly wish I had it growing in my yard around the house.  I'd never have to mow!  It is possible to plug buffalo grass into yards.  It's sold by xeric plant catalogs like High Country Gardens, but I think it would take a ton of money and a century before it would be totally established in a yard.  Some things just work better naturally out on the prairie.  

Did you see the prickly pear cactus blooms?  I can't help but love them -- the blooms, that is.  Nasty, hurtful plant, growing in hard, dry ground, undesirable, and yet -- BEAUTIFUL.

We've had very cool days lately.  Low 70s for high temps.  It's nice.  It feels more like fall than mid-summer, but we know it's not going to last.  It'll turn hot once again in just a few days.  My tomato plants and cukes WANT heat.  Everything underground in the garden is doing great -- potatoes, carrots, onions.  And the cool season stuff -- peas and lettuce and kale -- are happy.  The rest is just so-so.  Oh, but wait!  The pumpkins are really vining like crazy.  We'll see if they produce.

Haying is in full swing.  We are going to have more hay than we thought.  Much in the hay fields has come back.  I spent part of Sunday afternoon raking hay.  I like to do that.  Now that our CarpenterSon is here working on the ranch, I do less of it, but I still like to make hay and take my turn at it now and then.

I hope your summer is going well.  I'm enjoying it.  I sometimes have to pinch myself when I see the green grass and flowers and birds.  It's hard to believe I'm in the same place that had feet of snow and sub-zero temps just a few short months ago.  But it is.  Enjoy each day!

Addendum:
I read up on the hen & chicks (sempervivum) and found that blooming is the beginning of their death.  What a beautiful way to say good bye.  Check it out here: Flowers on Hens & Chicks

Cleaning boots and growing grass...

One of the disadvantages of wearing leather boots to do barn work is that you have to clean them once in a while.  We've been in the fresh, green poop a lot lately with AI-ing cows, and so our boots have been really suffering for it.  These boots, although still dirty, were washed up and scrubbed with a brush once already.  This evening I took my jack knife to the edges and got the rest of the manure scraped off before I oiled them.  This can of Nor-V-Gen leather oil has been in our house for 32 years and it still hasn't run out.  It reminds me of the Bible story of the widow woman who's flask of oil never ran out (2 Kings 4).  We bought the oil from a local cobbler, Mr. Didier, who used to fix boots and mend shoes, but died of a heart attack shortly after we bought it from him.   I think of the fella every time I get it out to oil our boots and shoes.  Manure is just like acid on leather so it's pretty important to clean and oil our work boots regularly.  Sad to say, these boots have been sorely neglected, but tonight they'll be revived.

The last bunch of cows has been run through the corrals and worked this week, and on Sunday they will be the last bunch of cows to be AI-ed.  Then they will be turned out to summer pasture with the  bulls who will get to finish up the job.  I really think it should be totally up to the bulls to do the breeding, but I'm the "naturalist" in the family.  I prefer the old fashioned methods of breeding cows among other things.

The weather has turned hotter lately so that means our grass is maturing and drying up.  It is July after all, and that's the natural way of things on the prairie.  Since the wind usually blows along with the hot sun, it can get dry in a hurry.  There's a chance of some rain tomorrow which would be really nice to keep the un-cut hay green until we can get to it.  The pasture grass that the cows and sheep are grazing is so good right now and a rain would be just dandy for it too, plus it would settle the dust.  I do hope we get a nice rain.

 

Smooth bromegrass (the tall) and some Crested wheatgrass (shorter)

Grass is what the prairie is all about.  It's not a great place to grow trees, shrubs, or fancy flowers. We do grow a few of these with some nurturing, but the conditions are not the best for tree-growing and such.  It is ideal for growing grass though, and I've heard it said that our northern prairie grass is the best there is.  It's called "hard grass" because it grows under mainly dry conditions and it's not full of water like some grasses grown in wetter areas.  When it dries, the protein levels are said to be far superior to "washy grass" as our men call it, so the livestock does really well on it.  I took some pictures of some of the grasses that are mature right now on our place.  Some of the grasses that I've pictured are transplanted in the rock garden in my backyard.  There are a few late season grasses that I hope to share with you later on.

 

Crested wheatgrass pollinating

Timothy grass.  A rare and desireable grass for us.  

Usually found in wet, low areas.

Timothy grass, flowering & pollinating. 

 

In the rock garden:

Western wheatgrass (tall), salt sage (short gray), 

prairie sage (gray tall), and blue flax.

Gretchen Joanna shared a wonderful poem about grass that I really like.  I thought you might enjoy it here too.



The Grass 

The grass so little has to do,—
A sphere of simple green,
With only butterflies to brood,
And bees to entertain,
And stir all day to pretty tunes
The breezes fetch along,
And hold the sunshine in its lap
And bow to everything;
And thread the dews all night, like pearls,
And make itself so fine,—
A duchess were too common
For such a noticing.
And even when it dies, to pass
In odours so divine,
As lowly spices gone to sleep,
Or amulets of pine.
And then to dwell in sovereign barns,
And dream the days away,—
The grass so little has to do,
I wish I were the hay!
~Emily Dickinson

I say potato, and you say potato...

I say tomato, and you say tomato...

Seeing soft purply potato blossoms in the garden make me smile.  They are so healthy, I've picked only a handful of potato beetles off the plants so far.  When the kids were at home, I'd send them out to the potato patch with a little gasoline in a tin can.  They were to pick off the bugs and toss them into the can of gas.  It worked well, but why didn't I put alcohol or something else in the can instead of gasoline? 

Potatoes, thickly mulched with straw.  They're growing with great vigor.  This is their second mulching.  My hope is that as the potatoes push up, they'll stay covered by the straw and be easy to harvest.

Problems with the tomatoes:  I think it's curly leaf virus, but I'm not sure.  It's like the leaves are shriveled and won't unfurl as they should.  I've pulled off several nasty looking leaves that are yellow and spotted and pulled off some of the curled up leaves and tossed them into the burning barrel.  I mulched the plants  and hope that keeping the water off the leaves will help.  There are other tomato plants that look really healthy, but about four of the eight look ugly.  I hope they'll come out of it.  I've read that humid, wet conditions can cause this.  Usually, this is not a problem in our neck of the woods where summers usually are hot and dry, but this year it's been wet and cool.

We're eating gobs of fresh lettuce and radishes so far.  We're a long way off from homegrown tomatoes.  Maybe the cherry tomato plant will set soon.  We had a good, hot day today -- 98*.  A good day for making hay!

"From Spring through Fall, Thomas Jefferson planted a teaspoon of lettuce seeds every Monday at Monticello so they'd have lettuce all summer long."

~Growing Lettuce Organically

From spring through fall, Thomas Jefferson planted a teaspoon of lettuce seeds every Monday at Monticello, so they’d have lettuce all summer long. - See more at: http://www.grow-it-organically.com/growing-lettuce.html#sthash.HZi41TRO.dpuf

From spring through fall, Thomas Jefferson planted a teaspoon of lettuce seeds every Monday at Monticello, so they’d have lettuce all summer long. - See more at: http://www.grow-it-organically.com/growing-lettuce.html#sthash.HZi41TRO.dpuf

Happy 4th of July!

 

 

Hometown, USA 4th of July Parade.
Sunny and HOT -- 94* F

Summer is here....

 

 

I think summer has finally arrived on the northern plains.  Today we should reach nearly 80 degrees and we're going to get hotter as the week goes on.  So this heat-up means it's time to start cutting hay!  Thankfully, with all the rains and cool weather we've had, much of our hay is coming back.  The field pictured was one that did not get hit by the early June hail.  The hay is terrific.  Probably the best it's ever been.  The other fields are looking better and we're excited that we might actually get to cut those once hailed-out fields!  I'm anxious to get on the tractor to rake the hay.  I love that job -- riding in the open-air through the fields turning hay.

It's also the time of year when we are breeding cows.  The fellas have an AI (artificial insemination) program that they are following and so we've been working cows through the corrals quite a bit.  We've also been vaccinating calves against pink-eye and pouring insecticide on all the livestock to keep flies and parasites away.  Everything is looking so good right now.  The cows and calves are shiny and fat and this is a perfect recipe for a good breeding season.  The bulls are out doing their job too.

I've been fiddling around with a few sewing projects.  I made a maxi skirt with a fold-over yoga waistband for myself and I really love it.  I'd like to make a short version of it next.  I have also been dipping into the watercolor paints lately.  I saw a cool idea on Pinterest about lettering with watercolors so I made a few post cards.  I need more practice, but it was fun and simple to do.  I like to use the Pentel Waterbrush for this because the lettering can be made more sharp and clear. 

It's almost the 4th of July and that means our Hometown, USA will have a parade with horses and cowboys and rodeo queens.  There will be barbeques at home and fireworks too!  Yay!  We also have quite a few family birthdays this month.  The two youngest sons have their 22nd and 24th birthdays on the 2nd and 3rd.  Wahoo!

In the garden...

 

(the first poppy blooms)

 (tomatoes, pruned and staked)

 (lettuce, kale, peas, carrots)

 (cucumbers and onions)

(pumpkins and zucchini in front, potatoes in back)

In the garden..... I decided to stake the tomatoes.  I always put an ice cream bucket around them when I first set them out to protect them from our strong prairie winds, but there comes a point when they must stand on their own.  I stake them so they don't fall over as they grow heavy with tomatoes, and I regularly prune the leaves so most of the energy of the plant goes into producing tomatoes and not leaves.  I tried this process last year and it worked very well, plus it conserves space in my raised bed gardens.  I planted some carrot seed and lettuce seed around the tomato plants for the first time so we'll see how that works out.

It seems that most of my garden things are a little slow, but it's probably because we've had such cool weather.  The peppers really want HOT days and I think the tomatoes do too.  The potatoes are really looking good and need another layer of straw mulch.  I did a version of the "no dig method," but I did dig in a little bit.  NumberOneSon tilled my spot and I pressed the spuds into the soil about 3" before covering them up with a thick layer of straw.  The idea is to get more potatoes growing up in the straw and not have to dig them too much.  The pumpkins and squash are looking healthy and the herbs are doing well.  I planted lots of parsley, basil, cilantro, and thyme by seed, and I'm excited to use them all fresh.   I planted sage and rosemary transplants out in the beds too. The dill volunteers all over the garden beds, even in the flowers beds.  Did you see Susan Branch's Basil Lemonade recipe?  Oh boy, that one is on my summer drink list!  And I love fresh basil and garlic with tomatoes over pasta.  I can't wait for homegrown tomatoes, but for now, I'll be satisfied with the small sprouts and remain hopeful for a bountiful garden by summer's end. 

Happy Birthday to CarpenterSon today!  He's 26 years old!

Happy Summer Solstice to you tomorrow!