The chamomile, ducks, chickens, dogs and me

[Cindi]

This post involves a little of each of the above and a little of the bees.  First, Chamomile, lovely and beautiful little flower, but bet contained in a pot.  My Sister planted a few chamomile plants for my bees, the bees ignore it, the chamomile spreads it little seeds everywhere like there is no tomorrow.  I have spent two days digging out a patch that is about 20 feet long by about 10 feet wide.  I don't want it in this particular part of my bee garden in front of my apiary.  I have better plants to be growing in there, hee, hee.

The ducks, chickens, dogs and me have been having a blast in there.  The fowls eat the worms, the one pittbull, the older gal, Kobie, just lays and keeps watch on the weeds and things, she is 14 and has done her time working with me, landclearing.  Now the younger pittbull, Titan, is my partner in crime.  He spends all day waiting for me to throw stuff for him to chase, diligent and hard working, never more than 5 feet by my side.  All the dogs around here ignore the chickens, ducks and turkeys.  They are one, they are all friends and pay no heed to each other.  Titan is still a little leary of these fowls, especially after getting crap for almost getting into it with Richard (my turkey) a couple of weeks ago.  Richard began to stalk him and Titan looked like he was going to give Richard a run for his money.  He was reprimanded and now ignores Richard, who still likes to stalk Titan.  Titan is the smartest and most obedient dog I have ever met, and I have no worries about him in attack mode, of children or anything, he loves kids to pieces and he is respectful of the fowls.

So they both do their jobs while I am digging and throwing.  The ducks hang around waiting for the bugs and worms, Titan will sit down if they get too close to them, and looks rather sheepish.  I can read his mind, his mind is thinking "oh man, I hope that those ducks don't want to take a peck at my toes", so he sits and waits for them to move on elsewhere before he takes up his stance of waiting for that beautiful weed that he knows will come flyin' his way so he can get it, or even better, that piece of wood that he knows I will unearth for him to chase.  My pals outside in the workyards.....

Chamomile, caution to the wind on this pretty little plant!!!!



Kobi and Titan (Kobi the white one, Titan the tan one) waiting, hanging out, the ducks and chickens having the time of their lives.  The small plants that you see infront of the wheelbarrow are the Sea Holly, they will be about 6 feet tall soon and covered with electric blue small thistle flowers that the bees love and so do other beneficials.



Titan, sitting, waiting for the coast to clear from the ducks so he can chase the weeds and sticks thrown to the wind



Still waiting, a little nervous



Today, where I have cleared the chamomile to plant more bee plants I will be sowing Bachelor's buttons, a few more borage and phacelia, sowing some anise anistata (I didn't start any in the greenhouse this year, so I am sowing seed).  Along this fence line is one of the places that I am setting in the dahlias that DayValleyDahlias sent me the seeds for.  I am going to plant the ones that the bees are particularly fond of here, the ones with the open face, the other, more specialty types have other places that I am planting them in.  They are all growing like hot dams (where did that expression originate anyways, it never made any sense to me).

Enjoy the pictures, enjoy the day, have the best day in these days, and love life.  Cindi

[JP]

Hey, is that our beloved Whoppo in the last pic????  Cindi, I like your little farm and all of your creatures, is that a red bud blooming in the background, rear left? I just love those.

Well, I'll let you get back to making mudpies, have a great, superb, fastastic, sunshining, glorious day!


...JP

[Cindi]

JP, thank you for loving my little farm, I do too, hee, hee.  Nope that is not a redbud (whatever that is, hee, hee).  It is a Japanese plum tree.  It has been through the wringers, let me tell you.  This poor tree is about 12 years old, it has been moved I would say about 6 times over its life.  It is not in a permanent spot.  The last time I moved it was in 2006, the fellow that was doing so much of the landclearing dug it up with his bucket and put it up beside the apiary.  I had pruned it back to just nubs the following winter.  Last year it barely even got any leaves.  This year it is starting to grow like crazy, is now in bloom and may provide some of those delicious little burgundy plums that are so sweet on the outside and near the pit so ding dang sour, but I love sweet and sour, hee, hee.

Yep, that is Whoppo.   And his three young girlfriends.  The two older ducks are not there in the picture, one is broody sitting on eggs and the other one is hanging out in the chickenyard, waiting for her pal to get off the eggs, she is very devoted to her broody friend.

Whoppo has now become my friend. He and I have a great relationship and he is truly getting a neat personality.  He always greets me happily (his happiness is that Muscovey hissing that drakes do). He finally figured out that I am not a threat to any of his girls and he loves me.  He always does his thing where he puts his head on the ground, shakes his body and nibbles on my bumboots or my pantlegs.  If I am bending over near to his face to pick out a rock or weed, he even nibbles on my arm or clothing, nothing threatening at all.  I love that, because he has earned that right to be a great part of our lives here.  He is so cool.  He is one great big dude.  I think he is even bigger than his daddy, Big Boy.  Big Boy was a beauty too, so sad that he got killed that night along with so many other ducks.

This is my old friend, Big Boy.  I miss him terribly, he was even more friendly that his son.  Beautiful and wonderful day in this great life. Cindi

[JP]

Try not to get too attached to Whoppo, ok. :-D

Hey, I like your new signature!!!


...JP

[poka-bee]

Cindi I love seeing your feathered family!  Big Boy was a handsome guy!  Whoppo is also, Mr. Muscovy was the color of Whoppo's back all over with white feathering on his face & head after he was 5 or so. By the time he was 11 his face was mostly white.  It's so cool how they keep changing colors as they mature.  The long hissing w/the little hahahahaha at the end when they see you the jerky head & crested feathers close to the ground, I do miss that!!  My hens would go into the horse trough & eat the goldfish...fly up to the roof of the barn to get away from Mr. Muscovy..they are randy dudes!!  They were so prolific, I think one hen had 21 hatch out one time..ducklings everywhere! :)  Your dog looks very patient! The fowl are so nosy, always "ooohhh, lookie, a bug!" They really are good company!

[Brian D. Bray]

The bane in my garden is Comfrey.  My younger brother planted some a few years ago and it get into an area about 15 feet in diameter.  I made him dig it up.  This year it's coming back almost as bad as before he dug it up.  That stuff is like Dandilions for resilliancy--1/4 inch of root and you have a new plant.

[Cindi]

Brian, oh yes, I know about comfrey, and man oh man, it can be horribly invasive too.  When we first moved to our place about 18 years ago, the woman had comfrey growing everywhere by the greenhouse, it was like a forest.  In those days I used roundup and I killed almost all of it.  I saved one tiny little area and have kept it under control since that time.  When it begins to spread I dig those new plant shoots up, with as much of the root as I possibly can, knowing full well that there are still tons of the tap roots still there.  I throw the dug up stuff in my unused compost/weed pile and it grows happily there, I don't bother to remove it there.  So it is OK. 

The bumblebees love the comfrey, the honeybees don't touch it.  But is is a wonderful plant for the bombus and they love it to pieces.  Yep, I know about comfrey, hee, hee....beautiful and most wonderful day, lovin' life.  Cindi