Tag Archives: Country Life

What To Do With Serviceberries?

Cooking, Country Life, , ,

This afternoon was baking time. Pie and bread.

I picked serviceberries over the past few days, saving them until I had enough to make a pie. Well, the birds were faster than me. I fell short on the amount of berries I needed so had to round it out with a few blueberries. I also made it a fruit and custard pie. It was delicious nonetheless. I made a butter crust.

I also baked bread. I wanted to make tuna melts and didn’t have enough bread. And the oven was already warm. I only have one full size loaf pan, so made the rest as mini loaves. These are perfect for making garlic toast or having with butter and jelly.

Oh, and I also weeded the snow peas this morning, and drove the tractor this afternoon to help with bringing down an old mulberry tree. Hubby did all the heavy lifting and skilled work. All in a day’s work around here.

Day of the Skunk

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, ,

This morning got off to an exciting start. Way too exciting.

We have many chipmunks and squirrels around here. They live in various inappropriate places and get in our vegetable garden and flower gardens and eat our plants. So hubby set two live traps last evening. The smaller one on the front porch caught a mouse. He now lives on a nearby, remote, wooded roadside.

The larger trap turned out to be more problematic. We trapped a young skunk. I don’t think an adult skunk would fit, but this youngster did. He was probably an adolescent, judging by his size. Much discussion about what to do ensued. We opted not to relocate him because we didn’t want either of our vehicles to smell like skunk. We nixed a few other ideas and finally decided to just release him.

So how do you release a skunk from a live trap? We retreated to the house and googled it. First, put on old clothes that you won’t mind throwing away. Just in case. Turns out you very slowly approach the trap with a garbage bag or towel to cover the trap. This provides a bit of a barrier and the skunk can’t see you as well. Apparently, skunks have poor eyesight as well. But you don’t want to surprise him, so talk softly while you do this. You should be approaching so slowly that it takes you a couple minutes. Don’t spook the skunk! Once the cover is in place, give the skunk a minute to adjust. Then open the door to the trap. Hold it open with vice grips if needed. Slowly back away.

Our skunk did not come running out. We waited for a while. Nothing. Hubby and I went in the house. Mr. Skunk remained in the cage. In fact, he was laying down. Our dogs were still in their crates from when they ate breakfast. I didn’t want to let them outside in case they spooked Mr. Skunk and he ran. I was afraid our dog Baxter would jump the fence and go after him. Baxter did jump the fence one other time to chase an opossum that was in the yard. After waiting some more, we decided that maybe we should have removed the towel that covered the trap. Maybe this made it seem like a den.

So I slowly crept up to the trap, taking a few minutes as advised. Then I gingerly and slowly lifted the towel from the trap. Mr. Skunk was was curled up having a nap. Minutes went by. I spoke, hoping to wake him up so he would leave. Nothing. We walked around the trap. I could see the little skunk’s chest rising and falling. I went into the house to get my phone to take pictures of this apparently exhausted skunk as the sun shone on him. He kept the white stripe on his head tucked under himself.

This was when hubby decided to take the mouse from the other trap on a road trip to his new home. I continued watching the skunk for a while, but it got pretty boring watching a skunk sleep so I eventually went inside. Hubby came home a bit later and said the skunk was gone. I suppose he eventually got too warm lying in the sun. Or maybe without his audience, the thrill was gone and he went home.

A Typical Day

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, ,

This morning, I took time to enjoy a cup of coffee and some patio time with the dogs. I soaked in the beauty of the flowers and greenery. The dogs enjoyed it too. Zekie found the plastic whale from the top of the old pool thermometer and thought it made a fine toy. He followed me around and put the whale at my feet, then snatched it away, saying “see what I have!”

After a lunch of homemade pizza, I put the dogs out in the fenced pasture to play and enjoy the sunshine. Then it was work time for me. I pruned the old fashioned lilac that grows beside the kitchen window. The original lilac died. The one that is there now was moved here as a young rootling. It came from grandma’s house in town. It is old enough to have some dead branches so I gave it a good trim.

I also pruned the ancient scarlett azalea outside the living room window. It has a beautiful color. I have not seen another in this shade of red-orange-peach. The base of the bush is enormous and gnarly giving it an ancient feel. The house was built in 1830 so I have no idea how old the azalea is. I didn’t trim the bush back nearly as far as I felt it should be. Parts of it are not in the best of health and I didn’t think it would survive a drastic trimming. I hope this makes it stronger next year, then I can prune it again.

Then I moved on to more mundane chores. I pulled the dried out vines from last year’s morning glories off the fence, picked up grass clumps from the weed eater, and weeded around newly sprouted plants in the vegetable garden.

All the prunings and weeds, I took to the pile at the back of our woods where we dump such things. Eventually we get some nice compost at the bottom of the pile. The walk through the woods is always interesting. Halfway back on the left is our pet cemetery. It elicits memories each time I pass. The neighbor’s yellow marsh irises are visible around her pond. There are always plants of interest to notice along the way. Jack-in-the-pulpits. Solomon’s seal. It is a pleasant walk if your load is not too heavy.

After the work was done, I took three of the dogs for a walk to the township park and back. Zekie was a good boy. He only barked at one car, even though 7 or 8 cars passed us. We crossed to the other side of the road when we passed a house with two dogs behind a slat fence. Zekie looked at them but didn’t bark! I was so proud.

This is a typical day for me as a retired person living in the country.

Scents of Spring

Country Life, Gardens, ,

Walking around the yard yesterday evening just before it was time to come inside for the day, I encountered several flowers that smelled divine. The lily-of-the-valley is lovely. It reminds me of a perfume stick I had as a young girl, Muguet.

I also came across honeysuckle. Our bush has never had as many flowers as it does this year.

And this is our first iris to bloom for the year. It has that faint scent of grapes. The first of our three types of lilacs is in bloom as well. I just had to bring some of inside to enjoy.

A Plethora of Birds

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, ,

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.

Woods Walk

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, ,

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 are going 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

Property Walk

Country Life, Gardens, , ,
Viburnum

I did a walk around our flowerbeds this afternoon to see what was in bloom. The viburnum beside the house is still in full bloom. The flowers are holding on a long time this year because of the unseasonably cool weather. The drift of scent every time we go near it is delightful.

Bleeding heart (Dicentra)

The bleeding hearts are just starting to bloom. Soon there will be a huge mound of them flowering. Their ferny foliage is an added bonus.

Dogwood bloom

The dogwood in front of our house is nearing the end of its flowering phase for this year although it is still beautiful.

Trillium
The trillium is at its peak right now. I would love to split it and have more, but they are so particular that I don’t dare.
Honeysuckle?

We have a few of these bushes. I believe they are wild honeysuckle, but I’m not sure.

Myrtle bed
Dogwood in full bloom
Corner of yard

The above three areas are from the yard in front of our house.

Rhododendron
Side yard

This side of the yard has plum bushes, river birches, and a redbud tree. The green bushes in the background are royal lilacs that will bloom in a few weeks.

Narcissus

The narcissus are still in fully bloom. They are staying around a long time because of the cool temperatures.

Flowering almost tree
Flowering almond

And last, but not least of our flowering plants is this flowering almond tree. It is tiny, but oh so beautiful!

A Day in My Life

Cooking, Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, , , ,

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!

Just a day in my life.

Not Today

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals,

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.”

What a smart boy!

Spring Plantings

Country Life, Gardens, , ,

The weather was sunny and relatively warm, so we got back to gardening and working outside today.

I transplanted blue flag irises, Solomon’s seal, a fern, and a columbine into our new raised beds. I also dig up narcissus bulbs that had multiplied so much that they didn’t bloom anymore from being so crowded, and planted them in various locations.

Then I sat on the patio and read, followed by a walk around the yard. The photos above are of my plum tree in bloom. We have yet to eat any plums from it. Despite being covered in blooms, it only yields two or three plums and the birds beat us to those.

The row of serviceberries is blooming too.

The redbuds are nearly ready to burst forth with their glorious pinky-purple blooms.

The hostas are well on their way for the season.

Even the oriental lilies are off to a good start.

I like to get lots of gardening done early in the season. It really seems to pay off. The weeds are still small and the garden is damp and soft so they come loose with an easy tug. And any plants that are moved when small, grow to be enjoyed later in the summer. Plus, it is not hot yet!