Tenants, Perhaps...

Grey Squirrel - 

Red Squirrel -

Darn Cat -

Blue Bird - 

Critters sure do like our condo bird house. We've had all kinds stopping by and visiting.  Some welcome and some not.

Let The Noise Begin!

I've noticed that it's been unusually quite come night time lately.

Usually there's all kind of insects singing and talking but not so much this year.  However, I suspect this is going to change pretty soon!

The following photos show that the Cicadas are starting to make an appearance:  the first two are the casings left behind after emerging from the ground.  The second is what emerges...

Chaplin, CT Ride

Road to Chaplin Connecticut this past Sunday and enjoyed a $3.00 roast beef dinner will all the fix'ns.

A ride out Rt 44 and Rt 198 - beautiful once we crossed into Rhode Island.  Very rural will rolling hills and fields.

Put another ~175 miles on the bike!

Common Name Frangipani

It doesn't take long for our Plumera plant (tree) to bloom once it's been moved outside onto our deck. It flourishes in full sun, particularly when it's hot and humid too.

The flowers are awesome and smell fantastic!

Cuc's Are Coming In!

First two cucumbers of the season, yummy!

Looks like we're going to be having cuc's coming out of our ears soon!

Stop on by if you're in the area!

Pool Jumper

It's been awfully hot and humid here the last couple of days.  Perhaps that's why this little Garter snake decided to take a dip in our pool.

HBD Son

Happy Birthday Christopher!

HBDB!

Another year older!

Greedy Son-of-a-guns NO More

***  WARNING  ***

The following image by be offensive and upsetting to some.  Non-farmers of course!

Having a terrible time this Spring/Summer with Chipmunks.  They're doing a number on our Strawberries.  Eating many, most not even fully ripe.

Along with the assistance of a 20' x 40' inground pool, which has claimed two of these pests to date, I've instituted other means of control.  This picture is just one.

To "Victor" goes the spoils...

Broccoli Insect Damage...

This is what our Broccoli plants look like today, alas.

Thankfully these plants produced several nice, tasty heads of broccoli before the damaging insects arrived.  We've had them for many years now too.  Typically, I'll hand pick the worms when they begin to appear, feeding them to our chickens.  However, this year it seems like overnight they appeared and this damage set in.  When the plants are this badly eaten and covered in caterpillar droppings even our rabbits tend to refuse to eat them.

There are two pests here: the Cabbage worm and the Cross-Stripped Cabbage worm.  The later was formally restricted to the South, however, this insect is now a serious problem in southeastern New England of which I can attest to.

Bumper Squash Crop 2014

Zucchini -

 Summer -

Planting this seasons Zucchini and Summer squash in a different location than years past is turning out to be a terrific idea!  The plants, although slow to take off, are BIG, full and beautiful with oodles and oodles of squash on each.

Bark, Bark, Bark, Bark, Bark, etc...

I made this 1:30 minute video this afternoon.  The video piece is not what I was after, rather the audio piece, so take a listen!

It appears that the neighbors are not home and the dog is locked on their back deck.  The dog has been barking, at essentially nothing, for well over 2 hours now!!  

It's a beautiful day today.  The humidity has fallen and there's a nice breeze, so all the windows are open. I'm working from home today, however, the incessant barking is awful and non-stop, which has forced me to close a number of windows.

This is nothing new.  This took place last year also.  "Those" particular neighbors are simple inconsiderate and have virtually no regard for anything but themselves.

Swallowtail and Parsley

I noticed that we have our first Black Swallowtail caterpillar of the season!  He's contently taken up residence in one of our Parsley plants.  Seems a tad early to me.  Also, the Parsley plants are still awfully small but he's growing like a weed and seems to be bigger each day I check on him.

Ironically, we still have several Black Swallowtail chrysalis that we wintered over inside and have yet to hatch.

Either way they're all welcome and hope more and more appear.

Apiculture, But Not Really...

A cantaloupe sized yellow jacket nest was found under the neighbor's pool bench and boy-o-boy was there a flurry of activity in and around it!

Of course it couldn't be in a worse location.  These dudes are a mean bunch on a good day when they're not being bothered.  Stir them up, even by accident, and watch out!  To boot the neighbor is allergic to bees SO this dude had to go.

Once night-fall set in and the bees went to bed, and we finished our beer, we put our plan in motion.  After everyone was moved off to a safe distance, two of us went over; one with a black plastic bad and one with a light, and simply put the bag around the hive, while the other knocked it off into the bag.  A nice tight knot and we had ourselves a stirred up bag-o-bees a buzzing away!

Success!  Beers all around!

Homestead Yarrow

Achillea millefolium, known commonly as yarrow /ˈjæroʊ/ or common yarrow

Yellow -

White - 

Red- 

Here are the color's of Yarrow that we have here at the ole homestead!  They're all doing great, flowering away and lookin fantastic!

Other common names for this species include gordaldo, nosebleed plant, old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's woundwort, thousand-leaf, and thousand-seal.

Happy (Belated) Fourth!

Fourth of July cookout at the neighbors.

Food, Beer, Swimming, Beer, Frisbee, Beer, Fire, Beer, Marshmallow Roasting, Beer, Weenie Roasting, Beer , Good Friends and a lot of Laughs...oh and Beer!

Critter Riddle

So, a Grey Squirrel, Chipmunk and a Catbird all go into the woods together...

Mom's Poppy

This picture was taken about 3-weeks ago - early June

This beautiful Poppy plant was my mothers back in Westwood!

It's a long story on how this plant ended up here in Franklin, perhaps for another time, but I'm SO happy it's here and it survived!  It had close to a dozen big beautiful flowers.  Not too bad for the first time flowering here in Franklin.

It's simple things like this that bring me back.

BBQ Ride North!

Rode to the Pit Stop Smokehouse BBQ Restaurant in Westmoreland, NH this past Sunday for a delicious pulled pork sandwich, seasoned fried, coleslaw and a sweet tea, YUMMY!

A 221 mile round trip ride!

Up on Rt 140 to Rt 12 and back on Rt 12 to Rt 119.

I've put approximately 855 miles on the bike already and the Summer just began.