November Hill farm journal, 209

 I’m still doing daily gardening, mostly weeding the various beds/areas of non-natives and some of the more aggressive natives that will take over if allowed. It’s working well for me to take it a couple of trugs at a time, and I am working hard to think of it as a daily practice rather than a to do list check off of a task. 

Today I watered the viburnums along the front fence and they’re all doing quite well. Most of the southern bayberries continue to grow and thrive; there are two small strips where they just won’t grow and I don’t really know why. Since my larger plan is to create a native hedgerow along the front fencing, I’m going to do some research and see if I can find something new and of course native to fill these gaps. By the time fall comes around again I’ll have that figured out. 

I noticed today that the live stake elderberries we pounded in along several areas of perimeter fence line are also doing well. I focused on sloped areas where they will provide some screening but even more importantly erosion control. 

I’m really happy with what I call the “shady strip.” It’s taken a couple of years to get it looking more like the vision I had, but it’s finally starting to, and I took some photos today to try and capture that. I remember when it was a huge tangle of poison ivy and smilax and also a lot of interesting things trying hard to grow. It’s an area where water from the crow forest tends to join with drainage pipes coming from one side of the driveway down from the barnyard that feed into a larger drainage pipe that goes further down the driveway and across to the front pasture. That confluence of stormwater combined with shade at the edge of forest creates an interesting opportunity for some really nice natives. 

There are a lot of plants volunteering around and mixed in with the things I’ve put in, some native and some not, and I’m working on removing the nonnatives and making decisions about the natives, but also not wanting to take all the roots out of the ground until I can replace them with what I want to be there. In some instances I’m moving the native volunteers to other places. It’s so nice when good things pop up!

It’s lovely seeing that the things I planted settling in and spreading. If I can keep the things I don’t want from taking over, this visioned space will continue coming into reality. 

There used to be one gigantic brush pile in this area, but now there are two where I put things I pull out of all the various beds. Brown bunnies and birds love these brushy areas at the edge of the forest and I have come to love the patterns of the discarded stems and foliage. 

We have a lot of stone to continue lining the drainage area and I may make a border along the front edge to create a hardscape boundary to this long and winding bed. 

Across the driveway at the corner of the fencing where the drainage pipe comes out to the front pasture, I made the bluebird bed a few years ago and have continued adding to it. I started weeding there today and it too is coming into its own now. The bluebirds are nesting in their box and I really loved seeing the Indian physic at the bottom of the post, which was tiny when I put it in two years ago, really thriving this spring. 

I’d like to outline this bed with some stone too, and give it some definition. 

Across the front pasture, down to the far corner, the bird haven absolutely feels that way now. It turned a corner this year, it seems, though that area too needs some very focused weeding to keep a few things from taking over. I’ll be working on that over the next week or so. 

The place I never get to is Poplar Folly, where I still have the plan to make an actual woodland pathway that winds in a sort of figure 8 pattern down there. We’ve gotten the apiary organized for the season, and thanks to my husband, the two colonies that made it through winter (out of 4) are now split and we had a swarm come into the Hegemone hive (I actually think they came back!) for a total now of 5 thriving colonies. We plan to split Hegemone as they are building up very quickly, and that will be 6. I have one more hive box and a lovely wooden nuc box I may set up down there to see if we lure any more swarms with them. 8 would be a sort of magic number and I’d rather see the boxes being used than sitting in my beekeeping storage room!

The potager is also booming and needs to be weed-eated and tidied for the summer season. I’ll get around to it as I continue rotating around the farm. 

It’s a busy and rich springtime here. I am loving the privacy that comes with the leafing out of all our trees. The cicadas are emerging, the swallows are back, and we have a nest of eastern phoebes this year too. Chickadees in one bluebird box, bluebirds in the other. My owl box ready and waiting from an owl family to move in. There have been some hard things this year but as usual, November Hill is holding things together. 

November Hill farm journal, 208

 The front garden bed is doing its amazing first wave of spring show right now:

My viburnums are all leafed out!

We’ve had a swarm move into our empty honeybee hive.

We’re planting the vegetable beds.

Someone dear is learning to love our other dear ones.

Life is being challenging in a lot of ways right now, but the farm and its routines, its joys and beauties, keeps us going. 

And might I note that we looked at a farm we wanted to make an offer on and then learned that its HOA did not allow donkeys! Never mind, we said, noting that they are missing out to prohibit such gentle, loving creatures. 

November Hill farm journal, 207

 We are in the midst of three days of rain and today a new washing machine is arriving which means the delivery folks will be slogging through the soggy path into our back yard. I’m grateful I found this replacement machine - the exact same machine that has bearings wearing out at age 4 - in a very good deal online. The repair was going to cost $1300+ and the new machine was much much less than that. However, on this rainy day with animals sequestered during a two-hour window, and a washing machine that technically still works, I’m wishing I had a magic wand that would just keep it running instead of the hullabaloo of people tromping in and out with a new one. 

Cody and Rafer Johnson pushed through the un-electrified HorseGuard tape last night through the arena to get to the big barnyard grass, so that repair is on the docket for sometime today. Ready for sunshine and blue skies and drying out. It’s on my list to replace the tape at that end of the arena and on around to the barnyard gate with wood fencing, but that isn’t near the top of my list yet and they have lived with it undisturbed for 20 years! The boredom of rainy days in the barn, the lure of spring grass. 

Last weekend I went to a local pop-up native plant sale to get short-toothed mountain mint, which I’ve been looking for the past couple of years. I got there early and nabbed 5 beautiful plants, plus Wherry’s foamflower, woodland phlox, and Virginia mountain mint. We had two nights of frost warning so I kept the new haul in the garage until yesterday when things warmed up enough that I could put them outside. I managed to get one mountain mint in the ground during a break in the rain. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the rest in the ground and complete the prepping of the upper terrace for spring. 

I’m about 1/3 through the lower terrace removing some invasive non-natives but I’ve done enough to have uncovered the downy wood mint, curlyheads, and asters coming up. The patch of wild bergamot has grown larger and should be pretty spectacular when it blooms! Also pruned the beauty berry and button bush at the end of the terraced beds. I’m glad to be giving that whole area a needed sprucing up this year. 

On the other side of the driveway that bed awaits - all I’ve done over there is a little weeding and pruning of the very large button bush. 

All the viburnums I planted are leafing out, and in general, things are looking good, though I know at some point I’ll lose control of how fast things are growing and at that point I’ll sit back and just enjoy the jungle. 

Otherwise, life is busy but I am persisting in my effort to, as Cal Newport prescribes in his newest book Slow Productivity:

Do fewer things.

Work at a natural pace.

Obsess over quality.

It’s funny because I’ve been looking at my longtime goal to focus on three things in a day. He recommends this in the book, and it’s definitely fueled my motivation to adhere to this plan. The addition of working at a natural pace is helping too - just moving normally and not racing ahead to try to get more done. The book is good; if you’re like me and need some encouragement to slow down, I recommend it!

The delivery guy just called and they’re on the way so I’m going to meditate on that being almost done. The rain seems to have stopped so maybe this won’t be the big deal it feels like. I’m hoping their truck is not huge, as the last time they had to wheel the machines down the entire driveway! 

***

Had to add this in. Washer installed by two super competent young men this morning. And I just posted the following to my horsekeeping group. 

Today I was tending Keil Bay’s and Salina’s gravesites, after doing winter planting of some rarer native plants that seemed to be a suitable match for these two horses. I’ve been keeping the spring weeds that are popping up pulled on and around the graves and had the final plants in hand to put in for this spring. After getting them in the ground, and pulling the weeds, I walked over to the part of the grave where Keil’s head is and leaned down to say something to him. There was a Red Bird peppermint wrapper lying there on the soil, exactly where his muzzle is. 

For the past 20 years we have never been without Red Bird peppermints because they were his favorite treat. The night he died I fed him every single peppermint we had on hand, which was about half of a large bag. I never reordered because the remaining herd members do not really need those peppermints. We haven’t had any since October 25th.

I’m not sure where that wrapper came from but it sure made me smile to think that Keil Bay is at least in some way still getting his peppermints on this was rainy/now sunny spring day. :)

Dreaming About Keil Bay

 For the past month or so I’ve been having exquisitely detailed dreams about the Big Bay. In one dream we took him to a nearby pond for a therapeutic soak. When I unhooked his lead rope, he bypassed the “safe” pond and power walked to a further pond that was deep and steep and rock lined, and jumped into it. While I fretted about how we would get him out safely, he tried backing up the steep slope, couldn’t manage it, and soared out in a giant magnificent leap that defied all expectations. He was fine. He was happy. This woke me up smiling because it is so Keil Bay.

In another dream I brought him to live inside the house for total safety. Within about an hour he was jumping up on the kitchen island and countertops just like our cats do. Thankfully in the dream world the ceilings and square footage magically grew to accommodate him. 

Last night I dreamed that a repair person showed up unscheduled, managed to open our farm gate, and Keil Bay and Cody trotted down the driveway and out onto the gravel lane, where they began to gallop up and down. In a panic, I ran with halters and lead ropes to get them. Once they galloped back to me, I saw they had tacked themselves up and were fully ready for riding. However, they were still having fun galloping so off they went again. As Keil galloped past me for the third time I called out to him and he turned to look at me, then slid to a stop, going onto his side and skidding for what seemed like many minutes. I was sure he would be injured but he wasn’t, and we finally got them back to the confines of the farm.

I also dreamed I brought Keil Bay into the house again, for another round of safekeeping, and this time I made him a huge comfortable bed of blankets and pillows in the corner of our dream world’s huge living room. It was a holiday of some kind, and we had guests stop by. Keil Bay loved lying snug in his bed while people oohed and aahhed over him. 

Later after everyone left I was in the kitchen bemoaning all the dirty dishes. Keil appeared in the doorway and said “I’ll do the dishes!” And so he did. 

I’m not sure what it means that he’s becoming ever more human and that I am trying to keep him safe in my dreams. I’ve long had dreams of keeping our animals and farm safe from intruders, but these safekeeping dreams are about his comfort, not his safety so much. 

In any case, I welcome them. In every dream he is 100% Keil Bay, in body and in spirit and personality. It’s a joy to have him in a house that magically grows to accommodate him. I’m grateful for these moments of whimsy and time with him. 

In an extra note, we hung the owl box my daughter gave us for Christmas and I am waiting for an owl to move in. With several big owl meetings at Keil’s passing I think the appearance of an owl in the box will be a huge comfort, not to mention generally exciting! 

November Hill farm journal, 206

 We’ve had a rainy off and on week which has been helpful in keeping all the viburnums and other newly put in plants watered. I did some pruning today of one of the button bushes and the beauty berry that is just in front of it, on the lower native bed tier. 

The invasive mock strawberry (Potentilla indica) still needs to be removed from the two beds I started working on and doing that is how I got hold of poison ivy. I’m going to wait for some of my natives to come up and once I can see them and where they are, I’ll use a weeding hoe and clear out the nonnative things. 

There are a few larger invaders who I’ll dig out and remove individually. I really look forward to seeing these beds this spring, summer, and fall with this good clearing out done early on. 

In other news, the saddle fitter arrived today as scheduled and I cannot tell you how excited I was as she made the tracings of Cody’s back and then took me to her mobile fitting very large van where she set out a work table, three saddle racks, and a model “horse” for me to try saddles on. She brought out saddle after saddle and all I had to do was hop on, say yay or neigh (ha), and save the ones I liked. In the end the one that I liked best of all turned out to be a very good fit on Cody, in the reasonable middle range cost-wise, and oh, the comfort. We didn’t saddle Cody up today for the trial ride in the saddle I picked, mainly because he has dental care scheduled for March 11 and I’d like to get him on the other side of that before putting a bridle on. The saddle fitter agreed that was a good plan. 

I don’t even know how to describe how it felt to be sitting in saddles. I feel very ready for this new journey with Cody. He was cooperative and very curious about the saddle being put on his back. 

Of course the rest of the herd were clustered by the barn whinnying and braying for their own saddle fittings. 

The rain held off until the very end of the fitting, and I remembered days when rain came just as it did today during rides with Keil Bay, who always put on his best movement as the rain began, knowing that I would want to end on a very good note. Today he was absolutely with us as we went through this big step. 

My daughter captured this photo on my birthday and I love it. It felt like the perfect image for that day. 

The whole wide world pours down, as William Stafford wrote in his amazing poem:

Assurance

By William Stafford

You will never be alone, you hear so deep
a sound when autumn comes. Yellow
pulls across the hills and thrums,
or the silence after lightning before it says
its names – and then the clouds’ wide-mouthed
apologies. You were aimed from birth:
you will never be alone. Rain
will come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
long aisles – you never heard so deep a sound,
moss on rock, and years. You turn your head –
that’s what the silence meant: you’re not alone.
The whole wide world pours down.