Pretty Things To Look At

I'll be the first to admit:  I'm not a flower guy.  We overwhelmingly plant things that we can eat.  I take that back - I primarily plant edible things.  Tricia plants flowering plants.  As I walk around in the yard on a nice spring day before it gets too hot, I begin to take in the pretty view.  First thing I notice is one of our many azalea bushes.  Most of the others' blooms have long since faded.  Azaleas are short lived.  They explode in awesome blooms and then just like that, they are gone.  There is one bush that has some nice azalea blooms on it:

I call this one our "watermelon" azalea.  The black anther of the flower and the reddish color of the bloom remind me of what it looks like to cut open a cold Charleston Gray on a hot summer's day.  I think of cutting pieces off of the wedge of watermelon with a butter knife, sprinkling salt on the melon with a salt shaker, and then popping the cold, sweet watermelon in my mouth.  

As i continue to walk, there is a blanket of white Dutch clover covering most of the backyard.  It's nearing the end now, as the days warm to the upper 80's already, but the honeybees are still doing their job on the clover as you can see by the busy bee in the direct center of the photo below.

Speaking of clover, I planted a couple of pounds of Crimson clover in the backyard for the bees.  It's starting to bloom all over.  I'll try to get some photos of all of the crimson blooms.  It's really a sight to see.  I certainly hope the crimson clover seeds and comes up again next year and the years following.

Finally, the first of the Louisiana iris bloomed this morning.  What a regal flower!  As with the crimson clover, I'll share more photos when all the Louisiana iris is in bloom.

Again, I'm not a flower guy, but those flowers I noticed inspired me to stop and take notice of the truly beautiful things around me that I might otherwise ignore.  I hope you have an enjoyable day, taking in and savoring the things of beauty that surround you in your life!

Clover Everywhere!

After running the cows through the side yard and the front yard, I finally mowed everything but the back.  The back yard, near our bees, is our unofficial wildflower area.  Although the cows and goats would love to get in there and eat to their heart's content, it's off limits to them.  This area is for the bees.  If you walk around in what I now like to call our "meadow," it is abuzz, literally, with honeybees flying from flower to flower.  The White Dutch clover is abundant and thick this year.

Looking from west to east

The White Dutch Clover reaches in a belt right up to the beehives.  They don't have to go very far to get the nectar they need to begin making honey.

Looking from south to northwest

Here's one of our busy bees right now.  

But what I wanted to show in in the midst of the White Dutch Clover is something that I didn't think I'd see - Crimson Clover.  This past fall, I purchased a couple pounds of Crimson Clover seeds from our local feed store.  I think it is pretty and that the bees would like it.  I simply hand-scattered the seed several months ago in the fall/winter.  I didn't work up any soil, but I did make sure that the seeds made contact with bare ground.

And then...  It didn't rain for over a month.  I thought to myself, "Well, the seed isn't going to germinate.  Maybe birds will eat it.  It will never grow."  But this week, I saw clover foliage that was a lighter green color than white dutch.  It also grows taller than white dutch.  Yep, the crimson clover is popping up all over the meadow.

I see it all over the place!  It is just starting to bloom and boy, is it pretty!

I'm not going to mow back here in order that the clover can go to seed.  It would be nice if we could get this established so that it comes back year after year.  It is a high value source of pollen and nectar for our honeybees.

A Manicured Lawn

Someone showed me a funny meme the other day that showed a manicured lawn as compared to a beekeeper's lawn.  The manicured lawn was immaculate - not a blade of grass out of place, cut short.  Then the beekeeper's yard showed tall weeds and wildflowers.  So true!  We put off mowing our yard for a plethora of reasons.  First, the white dutch clover is flowering along with many other wildflowers, and the bees love them.  Second, our bees don't like the sound and vibration of the lawnmower.  They chase me and sting me.  Third, my lawnmower is broken and I need to try and figure out the electrical issue that won't let the mower blades engage.  Finally, we always like to wait and rotate the cows through the yard and eat the spring grass.  I think the record-setting year was one year when we didn't mow the grass until May!

For some of our long-time readers, I apologize.  This is a redundant post as we seem to make this post each and every year.  We have a Gallagher solar fence charger with some temporary step-in posts.  I break up the yard into different paddocks and unroll the poly wire using a ratchet reel.  Over the years, the cows have learned the sound of the reel clicking and, like Pavlov's dogs, they begin mooing LOUDLY when they hear the clicking of the ratchet reel unrolling the poly wire.

 And so it begins...  I moved Rosie and LuLu into the first paddock.  They excitedly run around, scoping out the various types of grasses, like you and I might scope out a buffet table.  They settle for the white Dutch clover first.  It's a favorite of theirs.

The cows have learned to have a healthy respect of the one strand of wire.  The solar powered charger pulses electricity through the line.  You only have to be stung by it once and you learn to avoid it.  I trust the charger, but I'd never leave the house with the cows in the yard.  I've learned to keep checking on the cows every few minutes.  One time after church, we were having pot roast and rice & gravy when someone came knocking on our front door to warn us that the cows were out!  Not good.  

We generally leave the cows in the paddock in the yard for a full day.  At the end of the day, they have the yard clipped down pretty good.  They we'll put them back in the permanent pasture, roll up the fencing, pick up the posts and set up another paddock right next to it.  Over the course of a week, the grass will be all eaten throughout the entire yard.  It won't look like the putting green on a golf course, but much better than before the cows grazed all day on it.

The First Lawn Mowing of 2017

On March 4th it warmed up to 80 degrees.  Like clockwork I heard the neighbors, one by one, cranking up their lawnmowers and then weedeaters to get their lawns looking nice.  It takes a little work to get the winter grass and clover cut back.  Not to mention the leaves.  The live oaks are dropping the old growth leaves while putting on new leaves and tassels.

Pulling the lawnmowers out of the garage after the winter hibernation takes a little work.  Of course the tires must be aired up to the proper pressure level.  The changing temperatures always affects the air level in the tires.  I read that for every 10 degree Fahrenheit change in air temperature outside the tire, results in a 2% change in air pressure inside the tire, either up or down, depending on air temperature increase or decrease.

I'll clean the battery posts and connections with a wire brush after I loosen the connections to scrape away the corrosion.  I'll jump start 'Ol Betsy and run some Sea Foam fuel treatment through her until she purrs like a kitten.  Then she's ready to go.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First I "pre-mow."  I'm not going to just chop down all that white dutch clover growing in the yard without letting Daisy and Rosie eat it.  But first that takes some preparation by stringing up our solar charged portable electric fence.  During the off-season when the grass doesn't grow, I take down the cross-fencing paddocks in the pasture that I rotate the cows through.  Toward the end of the season I noticed that our old solar charger wasn't 'hot' enough.  The cows were going right through it without being shocked.

When I pulled it down, I had it shipped off to the manufacturer to see what the issue might be.  I learned, to my dismay, that it was more economical to buy a new solar fence charger than pay for the repairs needed to refurbish it.  The old fence charger had done its job over the years, but finally petered out.  I purchased a new one for a little over $154.  I sat it out in the yard and let it charge up for a while and then I strung the portable fence up, hammered in a ground rod, hooked up the wires, and went and got the cows.

Harnessing the Power of the Sun

Funny thing is, like Pavlov's salivating dogs, the sound of me unrolling the poly-wire rope on the reel, captured the cow's attention.  They remember that sound equates to fresh grass and they start lining up at the fence and mooing loudly.  One at a time I walked over, opened the gate and got the matriarch of our little herd, Daisy...

Followed closely by Rosie.  Poor Clarabelle, Luna, and Chuck have to stay in the pasture.  Daisy and Rosie are still in milk and we give them the best grass so that they'll produce the best milk for us.  If you notice both above and below, they both made a beeline for their favorite item on the salad bar - white dutch clover.  I left them in the side yard for about three hours and they manicured it nicely. Meanwhile, if you look below to the right of the live oak, you can see the John Deere lawn tractor warming up, ready for duty.

With the "pre-mowing" done, I put the cows back in the pasture, roll the poly-rope back on the reel, pull up the temporary step-in posts and get on the John Deere lawn tractor.  Nothing runs like a Deere - or our Jersey cows to white dutch clover.

Our Lawnmowers

We put our little John Deere lawn tractor in the garage back in late October after we mowed the last of the summer grass and leaves.  I'll crank it up every once in a while to make sure it still starts for when we need it, but we try to delay using the John Deere to mow until we absolutely have to.  It is officially Spring right now but the nights are still pretty cool, so the grass hasn't started growing vigorously yet.  I'll hear the neighbors firing up their lawnmowers to mow the white dutch clover that fills their yards.


White Dutch Clover in the yard

We fire up our mowers as well, but we use a different type lawn mower to trim our clover - Rosie and Daisy.  Unlike my boys, they show excitement about being asked to mow.  They also don't need to be filled with fuel.  Aside from the cow patties that they leave scattered on the front lawn which some people find unappealing, I can't really think of any downside to letting the cows do the mowing for me.  I'm sure if we lived in the suburbs, the Home owner's Association would likely frown upon this lowbrow practice.

Rosie & Daisy chowing down in the yard

So oblivious to deed restrictions, Rosie and Daisy set out to mow a section of our yard.  They don't have harmful emissions that harm the environment, unless of course you count...  Well, you know.


The Jersey Zero Turn Radius Lawn Mowers at work

They run excitedly from one clover patch to the next, noses to the ground, skillfully pulling out each piece of clover and devouring it. 

Clover for Daisy Lou

Cows are not emotional creatures.  You will never see them smile.  They are very even keeled and the only time you really see them show enthusiasm is on that first cool, crisp day of the fall.   They'll kick up their heels and run around.  Looking down at this platter of clover, I'll bet she's smiling on the inside in her own cow kind of way. 

Do cows smile?

She's nose deep in the clover now, but she has that twinkle in her eye to let you know that she's happy.  

Daisy's favorite meal - white dutch clover

It's kind of rude to stand over someone while they're eating, so I'll move on down the road.  Enjoy your luncheon, Miss Daisy.

Finally, here's how we keep our lawnmowers from mowing our neighbor's property or getting out on the road.  I have some temporary electric wire fencing on a reel that I unroll and affix it to some step-in fiberglass posts.  To be honest, I don't even hook it up to the charger.  The cows have been shocked before, so they respect the fence and don't go near it.  We don't leave the house while the girls are mowing, though.  We keep a close eye on them.  Once we see them sit down, they're done and we walk out and lead them back to the pasture. 

Cows inside the temporary fencing mowing down the clover

Tomorrow, I'll simply pull up the temporary fence and move it to another part of the yard where there's more clover.  Clover provides the girls with lots of protein, digestible nutrients and calcium, phosphorus and magnesium.  This, in turn, enables them to produce the most delicious, nutritious, milk on God's green earth. 

Daisy and Rosie - Mowin' the grass & puttin' milk in the glass.  Thanks girls!