Barn swallows!

This is a short clip from a longer video; the long one shows the parents feeding large insects to the babies as well as the babies turning around to use the bathroom over the edge of the nest so it falls to the stall floor below. How smart is that?!

They’re starting to fledge now, but have had to be put back in the nest a few times because they’re falling out but not flying. Hopefully they finish up today so we can stop fretting over them. The nest is sheltered and safe from wind, rain, snakes, but obviously a stall floor in a horse barn is not the best landing pad for young birds. Soft but not safe.

Editing, writing consult, coaching reminder

I posted about this a week ago but wanted to remind folks that I’ve signed on with Authors Against Border Abuse to provide up to 3 hours ($100/hour fee) of editing, developmental editing, consultation about your writing, and/or creative coaching regarding writing practice or other creative issues, in exchange for a paid receipt for your donation to organizations like RAICES, which help with legal counsel and fees for families and children at our border.

This can be done for local folks in person, or folks at a distance via telephone, Skype or FaceTime, or telephone, and you can make your donation now and schedule the actual consult for the fall if summer is not the best time for you.

Please comment with your telephone number or email if interested - all comments are moderated by me, so any with contact info will remain private. Thanks for considering and I’d love to assist with a writing project while also helping families and children at the border.

Holiday weekend, a mother’s pride

Last Thursday, the morning of the 4th, I had an email from a neighbor saying her adult children were coming to visit and bringing fireworks to set off for the holiday. I could go on about that, but the most important result of a night of sitting outside with horses and donkeys while warfare was simulated next door was a reminder of how amazing my own two young adult children are.

My son and daughter-in-law arrived from New York for the holiday weekend, bearing no fireworks, but a bag of extremely good coffee beans. Along with my daughter, they brought keen minds excited to talk about real issues in the world, loving souls happy to snuggle dogs and cats and comfort as needed while the warfare simulation was happening, and values that guide them to consider the environment, wildlife, all animals, and other people when celebrating and simply living on this planet.

I’ll never have to worry about any of them bringing fireworks home to frighten animals, trigger combat veterans, or pollute the air and neighborhood with toxic smoke.

I consider myself lucky and I hope I’ve modeled that consideration to them and in that way played a role in helping them develop into the people they are. And they will model the same to their own children, moving us collectively toward a country where July 4th means something other than exploding sound and flashing light and toxicity.

We celebrated with good food - made veggie burgers, homemade fries (thanks to my son for that!), and drank good wine on the 5th. On the 6th we had our favorite fresh summer pasta (sauce made with local tomatoes, garlic, and basil, plus olive oil, a little salt and pepper, and a round of Brie) with handmade linguine thanks again to my son. I made my mom’s old-fashioned lemon pie filling but served it with local blueberries and a few raspberries instead of in a crust. It was wonderful. Even more wonderful than the food was the conversation we had while preparing it. What a gift it is to sit with my entire brood together!

Thanks to Mother Earth for the rainfall that evening and to the cicadas for providing a giant white noise machine. And the trees for processing that horrid toxic smoke. By the time I went inside for the night, I could see the stars again, and hear the soft snorts of a calmer herd.

#AuthorsAgainstBorderAbuse

I’ve added my name to Jessica Keener’s list of authors who are against the abusive policies being enacted at the Mexican border. She’s compiled a list of authors offering our editorial services in exchange for donations to organizations actively fighting the abuse that is happening. If you have writing that you’d like a consult on, make a donation to a legitimate organization, show me (or anyone on the list you choose to work with) the receipt, and we’ll schedule the consult.

Jessica has laid out the ground rules clearly on HER BLOG - read it and let me know if you’d like a writing consult with me.

Thanks!

November Hill farm journal, 79

We’re back into a higher heat spell here, but the humidity has been lower than usual so it’s not been too bad. Our upstairs HVAC unit had some trouble this week and I worried it was going to be the time they said we had to replace it, but alas, it was a dead capacitor which was replaced and we were back up and running in half an hour upstairs!

The horses and pony and donkeys are hanging in there. Biting flies are definitely out but we also have a good number of dragonflies this year and they seem to keep the numbers down some. Regular baths with tea tree shampoo and hosings on the other days have kept them comfortable and happy. Rafer Johnson and Redford both go to their dust circles while the horses are getting baths. The dust rises in clouds and is a good sign that the donka boys are doing their version of bath and fly control.

They were all extremely happy on Wednesday this week, when the new cutting of hay from Canada rolled in. Keil Bay and Cody were in the barnyard and they ran to the truck and sampled the new bales before they were even unloaded. 8 hooves up and that grew to 20 once the pony and donkeys had their say.

Nights are getting quite loud here with cicadas in full song, just in time for July 4th, when I’ll fret about fireworks and sit outside with the herd, only to realize that the cicadas are like a giant white noise machine, muting the fireworks enough to make them not quite so scary. If we’re lucky a big thunderstorm will thwart the entire thing.

MY ANNUAL PSA WITH REGARDS TO FIREWORKS:
They frighten wildlife, horses and livestock, dogs, cats, and sometimes people. They can trigger symptoms of PTSD for our veterans. There are so many other more considerate ways to celebrate. Shooting loud bright things off into the sky isn’t one of them. The smell, the debris, the risk of fire - I can’t think of anything good about it. If you MUST experience them, go to the nearest city putting on a firework show. Give your neighbors, including humans and wildlife and animals, a break.

Speaking of wildlife, we have goldfinches flying madly about the property all day long right now. The pollinator beds are buzzing with pollinators. Here are a few shots of what I captured in about 5 minutes this morning while weeding.

Monarch caterpillar seeking shade on a large weed, which I left intact. The milkweed is in full bloom just to the right of this. I’m so happy to see this caterpillar!!

Dragonfly on baptisia:

Bumblebee on coneflower:

Carpenter bee on rattlesnake master:

Honeybee on narrow leaf mountain mint:

Overall, a busy summer’s day here.