I split my comfrey plant in two this year. This is the split that I move to a new location. Aside, from not being quite as tall as the half left in place, it is doing great.
This is a plant that I grow not for it’s great beauty, but for the variety of pollinators that it draws. It does draw assorted types of bees. Even better, the hummingbirds love it.
But the main reason I grow comfrey is because it draws hummingbird moths like nothing I’ve ever seen!
I can’t get enough of watching them. They are a moth that moves like a hummingbird and they have antennae. I find them fascinating. The one above was in my garden last year, feeding on one of our butterfly bushes, of which they are also quite fond. Keep an eye out for them. They are worth the effort.
Can you tell which of the four dogs above is leash reactive?
Leash reactivity, at least in the case of my dog, causes him to lunge, growl, and bark excessively at other dogs, people, or fast moving objects like cars, bicycles, or motorcycles. He is fine walking with any of our dogs. He is fine if people or dogs come in our house or gated dog yard to visit, be they known or unknown to us.
And this prompts my apology to the person we encountered at the intersection up the hill near the fire station of our township. I was walking four of our dogs this morning and a car approached the intersection where I was getting ready to cross the street. I waved the car on. The driver of the car waved me on, and kept waving, insistent that I should go ahead. This left me with no choice but to proceed. Very thoughtful, right? Indeed it was. The only problem was, this left me trying to walk with two calm dogs, one dog that was barking, lunging, and jumping at the car in an attempt to reach it and no doubt scratch it’s paint job, plus one dog who was barking because the reactive dog was going into freak out mode. So, I apologize to the kind driver, if the expression on my face was not warm and appreciative. I had my hands full and was doing my best. Oh, I was also carrying two bags of poop on my way to the nearby dumpster at the time.
The reactive dog has shown improvement. It is just slow and ongoing. I have learned that if I go into the grass about four feet off the road, cars can pass without incident. Usually. This sometimes puts me in people’s front yards. I hope they don’t mind. It requires keeping a vigilant eye out for approaching vehicles in front of and behind us. I need to have ample time to get the required distance off the road, and must remain calm while doing so as not to insight a reaction
This is the kind of dog that is not for the first time dog owner, the physically weak, or the faint of heart. This is a labor of love. Ironically, if I kept the dog at home all the time, he would be friendly 100% of the time. Even with visitors. But, I want more for him, so we walk and try different training techniques. A work in progress.
By the way, the leash reactive dog is Zekie in the upper right hand corner.
We have seen a plethora of birds around our house lately. Varied species.
We have a little family in this birdhouse in our red maple. The birdhouse was built by my husband and has seen one or two broods of young fledged every year. Usually it is sparrows. This year I think it is house finches.
We ran out of seed for our bird feeder two or three weeks ago. I usually stop feeding in the spring. I figure the birds can easily find their own food by then. This year I was going to continue feeding since we are staying at home isolating, and enjoy watching the birds. But my mail order sources have been out of seed. Everyone else must be thinking the same.
Even so, we are graced with many beautiful birds. The woodpeckers of course. I feel like they are special friends since they are here with us year round.
And we have been seeing the eastern bluebirds many times each day. We see them all over our property. We’re not sure if we have several pairs of bluebirds or one pair that is very active.
There are numerous goldfinches. They often flit by as I look out the kitchen window. I have seen them sitting on the lawn munching on dandelion blooms.
We have a pair of rose breasted grosbeaks that we see once or twice each day. This is the first year I have ever noticed them here.
And today, for the first time, we saw an oriole. I have seen pictures, but they do not do the bird justice. The orange is so brilliant that it is striking.
We see these birds in various areas of our yard, but they especially like to sit on our power line and jump from branch to branch in our trumpet vine. We hear the sounds of chainsaws, and trees being felled in the small valley down the hill from us, and hope that we are not seeing this increase in birds because they are being displaced.
We hope the birds are increasing in number and that the trend will continue. They are jewels of nature and we take joy in their presence.
Our pups have such fun playing. It makes us happy just to watch them. This is from an afternoon a few days ago when it was nice out. May they give you as much joy as they did me.
A couple days ago, before the May 9 snow, we went for a walk through our woods. I love this old tree stump with roots that marks the entrance to our campfire pit in the woods.
The woods are full of jack-in-the-pulpit right now. I look forward to finding them again later when the seed pods are ready to pop. The way they slowly open when you squeeze them is always fun.
We have woodland violets in white, purple, and a combination like these.
Euonymus on fence post by our shop.
Heading back inside after our walk. Shelby and Zekie came along.
Shelby needed the exercise. She doesn’t want to go outside much anymore unless we aregoing for a car ride or a walk. She says just dogs hang out in the pasture!
And Zekie must be involved in everything that his people do. Right down to following me to the wood crib to bring in a load of wood for the wood burner. It makes him happy to have a job
Today was one of those days where I got a lot of necessary things done. Those things that you don’t like to do, but it feels good to have them done.
Our township provides a dumpster that is at the township garage for one weekend each year for spring cleanup. Anyone in the township can use it to dispose of large items, until it is full. And you need to get there quick, before it gets full. Today was the start of that weekend. I hauled two loads up to the dumpster for disposal, consisting of an old, musty Christmas tree, a couple pieces of decomposing wicker furniture, and various odds and ends.
This afternoon, I spent a few hours doing various forms of paperwork for our dog rescue group. I worked on some financial paperwork, some filing, and some educational material. Not fun, but things that are necessary.
And since I was on a roll doing dog stuff, I decided to give three of our dogs their annual DHLPPP-type shots that were in the refrigerator. Followed by cleaning litter boxes and picking up poop outside. I clean up our dog yard every time the dogs go outside now, because we have two who apparently consider themselves to be connoisseurs of poop. Even so, I sometimes run around with the scoop yelling “drop it” while chasing the offender. It’s a fine line between following the defecating dog around closely enough to get there before one of the other dogs grabs the result, but not so closely as to interrupt the dog doing his business. Such is my life.
As a reward for a productive day, I made Indonesian stir fried noodles for supper. Noodles, vegetables, and fish. Yum!
Zekie is sometimes an amazing dog. (Other times he’s just annoying. )
I recently shared how he did such a good job of chasing away geese for our neighbor’s pond. Well, we were sitting on the patio a couple days ago and we heard geese flying overhead and honking. Zekie looked at us. My hubby asked Zekie, “are you going to get those geese?” Zekie ran to the back chain link patio gate and stared at our neighbor’s pond!
The geese never landed so we had to tell him, “not today, Zekie.”
The last couple days have been filled with gardening.
Yesterday we split enough hostas to fill the back of last year’s new raised bed. We also started lining the English ivy bed behind it with hosta.
Hubby used the tractor to haul decomposed wood chips to the vegetable garden. I split one of our smaller groups of daffodils and ended up planting 51 bulbs. I also split my comfrey plant in two. I like the comfrey because it draws hummingbird moths like nothing I’ve ever seen.
Today we tilled a smaller, new flower bed to prepare it for planting. I also transplanted a columbine, and planted a lily that I overwintered on the side porch. Hubby transplanted a volunteer cedar seedling.
Then, I sat on the patio with the dogs and read. To be honest, I am kind of hoping for rain tomorrow so I can have a break.
I moved our bird feeder to the front yard this year, so we can watch the birds from the living room. Actually my main motivation was so that the cats could see the bird feeder.
In an effort to get the cats to be more active, rather than like this.
The woodpecker is named Woodrow. There is probably more than one, but we call them all Woodrow. Except for the time when it was obvious that a male and female came to feed. She was known as Mrs. Woodrow.
And yes, the cats did take an interest in birdwatching. So did Zekie!
Preparing the Gardens
Sanctuary Acres 