November Hill farm journal, 98

Time for a whole farm update. We had a huge rain this week and everything is growing like mad as a result. The grass in the backyard is close to 2 feet tall! Unfortunately when we created the cat-safe fencing, we made it impossible to let the equines in, which we used to do instead of proper mowing. They loved it. One day we’ll fix the gates so they can come in again, but for now, the mower is going to come in and tame the jungle.

The mower! It came home from getting a new starter and already mowed the buttercup patches in the big barnyard. Today I’m taking it to the patch in the back pasture, and then I desperately need to harrow the arena.

That will still leave the front pasture and Salina’s Paddock with their buttercup patches, but we’ll get to it probably tomorrow.

We also need to open up Echo hive and see how much room they have and if they need a super with empty frames on top.

The pieces of hive #3 arrived this week and I have to make the final decision where to place both Artemis hive and this new yet unnamed one. I’ve decided to move Artemis due to dampness in its vicinity after large rainfall. We’re still pondering putting the new hive in the potager. It will be in closer proximity to us and to the horses, but given what we see down at Arcadia, I don’t think it will be a problem.

In other news, we had a birthday this week. The cake was spectacular! Our local bakery has curbside service and we were able to get this raspberry-lemonade cake home perfectly intact thanks to their method of packaging and prep. That’s a lemur on top!

Yesterday while taking the dogs on a romp, I snapped a few photos of some of the wildflowers growing in our side strip. Years back I sowed a package of wildflower seed. It’s possible they are not all native to NC, but since I do see pollinators foraging them, I’ll leave them for now. They are very pretty and we don’t mow that strip until everything is done blooming.

That’s it for this week on November Hill. I started a remote writing workshop on Thursday that runs for six weeks, called Writing In The Dark, and already have a new mini-essay to show for it. Elephant Rock Retreats is a wonderful resource for serious writers. I can’t say enough good things about Jeannine Ouellette’s teaching. Gift yourself one of her workshops. I promise you won’t regret it!