It was a week of comings and goings at our house and it began on Monday. That afternoon as I was doing the chores, I went into the barn to collect eggs. My two broody hens were on their nests. I have to check under them every day because the other hens lay eggs in the broody hens’ nests and I have to take out the new eggs. When I reached under Lola, I felt something fuzzy. I lifted Lola’s wing and there was a chick! I’ve been keeping chickens for over 30 years and after all those years, new chicks still thrill me. Lola was sitting on six eggs, so every day after that I checked hoping to find more chicks. By Wednesday Lola and her chick were off the nest and none of the other eggs had hatched, so I had to dispose of them. The other broody hen abandoned her nest and I had to throw her eggs away too. So out of eleven eggs, one hatched. I hope this chick is not a rooster.
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| Lola and her new chick. |
On Monday evening Miriam and Hannah arrived home after their weekend visit with the Thayns and the Fosters. They brought back more new arrivals – three peafowl chicks! The family that Stacey, Miriam, and Hannah works for wants to raise peafowl and they asked Miriam to locate some for them. Miriam found some for sale and on their way home on Monday she and Hannah stopped and bought three. Two of them will go to her employers, but Miriam loves peacocks and she’s keeping one for herself. They are all here for the time being. They are pretty little chicks. They remind me of turkey poults, but a bit more elegant.
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| The peafowl chicks. |
The big arrival last week was Josiah. He returned from serving his two year mission in the Arcadia California Spanish Speaking Mission on Tuesday. He flew in to the Rochester Airport at 9:30 P.M. and we were there waiting to welcome him home. It’s so great having him home. Except that he’s not home right now. After being here just one day, he and Hannah left on a little trip. On Thursday they drove down to the Thayn’s house and spent the night. Hazel and June got to reacquaint themselves with Uncle Jose and Mabel got to meet him for the first time. On Friday morning Hannah and Josiah left the Thayn’s and drove west. They spent the night at Fort Madison, Iowa. On Saturday they attended a wedding at the Nauvoo Temple. Their Uncle John and some of their Shillig cousins were also at the wedding. Hannah’s roommate who got married lives in the Shillig's ward. After the wedding they took a quick tour of Nauvoo and then headed back to Uncle John’s. Tomorrow Hannah and Josiah will pick up my parents and head east again. They should arrive here on Wednesday.
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| Welcome home Elder Howe! |
On Wednesday it was warm, hot even. Hot enough to actually entice me to go swimming. I hadn’t been swimming in twelve years. We usually go swimming in Erway’s pond and the water there is cold and the weather is never hot enough for me to want to get into that cold water. But this time it was hot and we went to Stacey’s employer’s pool. It’s a heated pool. It was nice. Maybe I’ll go swimming again sometime in the next decade.
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| Swimming. |
I noticed the other day while I was working in the garden that most of the late summer flowers are “hot” colors – yellow, red, and orange. In my garden there are sunflowers, nasturtiums, calendulas, and marigolds, all of them bright and hot. Many of the wild flowers are hot colors too. The predominant wild flower now is goldenrod. Its bright yellow flowers make the fields glow, especially in the evenings. The only cool colored wild flowers now are the asters. There are two kinds of asters blooming now, the smaller, paler New York aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii) and the larger more vibrant New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae). They are both lovely wild flowers.
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| Sunflowers. |
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| Nasturtiums. |
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| Calendulas and marigolds. |
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| Goldenrod. |
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| New York asters, |
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| New England asters. |
Several years ago I planted sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes – Helianthus tuberosus) in my vegetable garden. I’d read about how nutritious and delicious they were. When we tried to eat them, we didn’t like them. They tasted like dirt. So I ended up digging them up and dumping them in my compost pile. That was a big mistake. Everywhere I used that compost, sunchokes came up. They have spread throughout my yard and I spend a lot of time pulling them up. Fortunately, they are an attractive plant with pretty bright yellow flowers. I let them grow in some of the wild spots in my yard. They are blooming right now. I have two kinds, a single flowered type and a double flowered type. If a famine ever comes we have enough sunchokes that we won’t starve. But it will take a famine to get me to choke them down.
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| Sunchokes - single and double. |
Right now I have some special plants blooming. A late poppy came up. I’ve never had one bloom at this time of year before. It makes me miss June and all the early summer flowers. My dainty white anemones are flowering. I have a potted angel’s trumpet plant (Brugmansia – given to me by my friend Nancy Jones last year) that I’ve been waiting to see flower. Last week it began blooming with huge pink trumpets. They are fragrant in the evenings.
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| One late poppy. |
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| White anemones. |
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| Anemone flower. |
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| My angel's trumpet. |
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| My angel's trumpet. |
Another much anticipated botanical event is underway too. My night-blooming cereus cactus (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) has buds! It bloomed last year with one gorgeous flower. This year there are two buds. I’m hoping they will open while my parents are here.
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| A bud on my cereus. |
We had an orchard tragedy last week. One of my best apple trees fell over. It always gave me a big crop of nice red, crunchy apples every year. It was loaded with fruit again this year. I went out on Tuesday and found it laying on its side with the trunk snapped down at the graft line. When this tree was small, it was attacked by borers. I thought it had recovered completely, but apparently that damage from all those years ago weakened the trunk. The weight of the apples and a windy day brought the tree down. There is enough bark intact to allow the fruit to ripen, but after we’ve harvested the apples, I will remove the tree. That makes me sad. I’ll have to plant a replacement next spring.
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| An orchard tragedy. |
After such nice heat earlier in the week, the weather has turned cool and autumnal. It was 44° when I went do the chores this morning. I had to put on a jacket. When I got to the barn there was a situation in progress. I heard Lola’s chick peeping in a panic and Lola was squawking. I looked around and couldn’t find the chick, but Lola was scratching by the big barn door. I looked closer and found the chick trapped under the post of the door frame where there was a slight depression in the dirt floor. I had to move a support stone and dig it out with my fingers. The whole time I was digging, Lola was there scratching beside me. The chick wasn’t hurt and as soon as I released it, mother and child were happily running and scratching in the straw.
After church today Kurt came over to show us something he found by his back porch steps. Our friend the snake shed its skin right by the porch. We measured it and it is three feet long. We like having this snake around. I hope it got that big by eating voles and mice.
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| The snake skin. |
This week there will be more arrivals and departures. Miriam is leaving tomorrow afternoon go down to the Thayn’s house for the week. Hannah, Josiah, and my parents will arrive on Wednesday. The Thayns and Miriam will arrive on Friday. It looks like we have some fun times just ahead.
