Meanwhile

The Yard Superintendent watches from his comfy spot...

The shaded part of the yard puts on a show.

Another Clearwing Hummingbird Moth.

Pink
 

Pinks...

More Pink!

Beautiful shade and light on a Poppy Flower.

More pretty 'stuff'...

A Pink Poppy...

I am enjoying the variety of flowers that the wildflower [shady mixture] has given me this year. On the other side of these flowers there is a riot of Nasturtiums.

I'm really happy I planted these this year and kept up with watering them. Each day the variety and colors change which delights me and the bees to no end!

Today is a stay home and read a book day. It looks like the weather is going to turn hot and terribly muggy.

It means my routine of doing chore things will be dawn and dusk again. With the second rainfall in a week, it looks like the grass is greening and could need a mowing!

Interesting! 

The last time we mowed was July 1st and it was just to chop weeds. I have half a notion to let my mule girls do the job for me.

Craaaazzzy!

Photos above. Rich moving waste from Sven's pen and smoothing a path out in the Winter Pasture.

I attached a milk crate on the front of the 4 wheeler and set Charlie in it. He likes to ride there and supervise while I am hauling stuff with the 4 wheeler. I GO super slow with him on board. It is better that he ride there than scrambling around on my lap.

Spring is such a busy time of the year. Everyone is catching up with yard work or planting flowers or a garden.

Mowing the grass is a fun change over plowing and shoveling.

Mornings are glorious and the weather keeps changing so we are kept on our toes.

Most early mornings find me wandering up the road checking out the trees and brush leafing out. I'm still trying to figure out which bush is what. I may be getting a handle on a few trees also. I'm taking a lot of photos, but just leaving them in a file to look at later...

I've been morel hunting without great success but I've found enough to give us a taste. I scored some Golden Oyster Mushrooms and may dry them for soups later. 

Deep Woods Morel
Hunting with chaps on to protect

my legs:

Morels are getting hard to spot if they are small:

The neighbor's woods are 

becoming overgrown with Garlic

Mustard!

Golden Oyster Mushroom

I found yet another newborn fawn while hiking. I just get all mushy inside when I find them. They are beyond adorable.

I am ditching the idea of raising a garden. But I am cobbling together a container garden and dropping it in a section of the yard that is too hard to mow. 

It was never really smoothed out after they made a mess while remodeling the house. Each year I ask to hire someone to come in and re grade it or at least fill the bumps and lumps in to make it a nice section of yard. Each year HE says NO, he'll do it. 

Creative gardening can really help. Years ago there was a huge mess of stumps, rocks, and weeds alongside the little Red Shed. I asked if I could re-purpose it into a shade garden. HE said yes. The garden is pictured below. The area around it is very hard to mow, but I'm working on it!

I'm still not sure what to do with my 'containers'. But I placed them here on the west side of the house and then decided that I want the works to be place on the bumpy place which gets a lot of sun but has nothing but lumpy bumpy sand and clay from the construction on it. 

I plan on putting tomatoes in one or two containers and then filling the pallets with dirt and tossing in wildflower mixes along with sunflowers. Basically just toss in the seeds and see what craziness occurs.

The green container is an old mineral lick tub, I may add a second one. The others are washtubs and the buckets are from Rich's Grandfather's farm. They were used in gathering maple syrup.

I know it is ugly, but with the price of wood or even the price of containers for raised beds being what they are, who really cares??? I think I'll go out and see what goodies our old farm has. 

I even found wagon wheels in the Red Shed! Hmmmm!  I love new projects. I never sit down and draw it out, I just get the pieces and experiment. 

This morning I have a Mobility and Flexibilty Class. I like it a lot since I am constantly on the move and need to keep up my mobility, flexibility, and balance. After all...I wouldn't be able to do what I do if I just sat in a chair and watched TV.

From last week's hike. Photo by Wild Bill:

 Have a grrrreat Saturday.

End of the day

I told Siera to 'stay' and she did. Obviously she is getting plenty to eat out in the forest pasture. She didn't go for any yard grass.

I had to walk over and grab her bridle and a bucket. Yes, a bucket. When I ride bareback I use a bucket to get on my steeds. 

I thought a ride up and out on the ridge would be nice to see the evening light on the croplands. Hmmm, I was disappointed that the guys that are doing another farmer's fields did not rotate to soybeans. I saw field corn coming up. 

The ride was so pleasant. I stopped and talked to the neighbor kids who were on their swingset. They waved and I continued. Instead of going by the 'new' neighbor who lets his dog run loose I decided to ride up the dead end road and just soak in some quiet ride time. 

Siera was super cooperative, she didn't hesitate and refuse to leave home, it used to be a real issue when she was younger. Perhaps she is confident that I am not going to get her lost?

I knew that Rich was waiting for me to return so he could sit and watch more TV until his bed time. 

I'd worked in the pasture with the small scythe from early morning until noon. The we mowed. Rich with the rider and I used the self propelled mower. Uffdah! Rich ran over a tarp. I heard the snap and the mower quit. He waved me off and finished up which I thought was not a smart thing to do. 
Cleaning the rider is on Sunday's schedule. 

After the mowing was done, I worked on the shade garden pulling Bedstraw aka Sticky Weed and several other names. It is an icky plant. So that project started another project of cleaning up that much neglected little garden.

I used Sven to glean up weeds and he ate the tops of from several iris plants while doing his work. The iris plants will come back and he did a pretty good job on that sticky weed.

So for the end of the day, I relaxed as we walked down the road, clippity clop, and out to the far end of the ridge. 

I didn't take pictures. I was just enjoying the moments with Siera and her nice warm body under my legs.

Once home, I gave her some grain and led her back out to her mates.

Happy content mule. Happy content rider. 

We watched some obscure program and hit the sack. I was exhausted. My summer mornings start at 5 or sooner, as soon as the birds start to chirp.

Enjoy your Sunday, whatever you are doing. I hope to get in another evening ride on one of my girls.