Not Bad for a Monday

At long last, a day without rain or the prospect thereof. Even the humidity was down to a tolerable level. I got a in a good round of scything early enough in the morning that the hay was dry by suppertime. Now it's all safely stored in the corn crib which, by the way, is filling up nicely (I've already got more hay put up than I did for all of last summer). The garden didn't need watering, so all I had to do was grab the last of the sugar snaps and spray neem oil on the kale which is covered in caterpillar poop. Yuck, but manageable yuck. Last year it was the chard that the caterpillars attacked in this very location. Just proving the value of crop rotation. The chard in its new bed looks great.

The buffs were having a good day, too. All three came over to lick the dogs when we took our walk this morning and Bru licked back. Buddy even poked her head through the gate to explore briefly. Later when I cut through the pasture to head up to do some clearing for the new fence, I spent a little time playing with the buffs. Audrey flopped over for her belly rub as usual, this time using Eschol as a head rest. Awfully cute. Eschol seems to be the jogger in the group--always running from wherever he is to come greet me at the gate or to check out what machinery I'm using (he's fascinated by the lawn tractor and the truck--maybe it's because I move faster when I'm in/on them).  Effie continues to offer her subtler affections with gentle licks and snuffles.

Over the weekend, Jim uncovered some more mature crabapple trees just over the fence line where our property meets up with a large conservation area. When I went to check it out for myself yesterday, I also found great mushroom hunting grounds nearby with several interesting varieties fruiting at the moment. After attending a great beginner's class Saturday on how to identify mushrooms (courtesy of the Asheville Mushroom Club), I feel inspired to look here more often and work on identifying what I find. Maybe someday I'll be proficient enough that I can harvest some to eat without fear of poisoning myself or others (and, man, can some of these fungi mess you up--in the sense of truly, deeply deadly). Also, there were some other interesting plants that I need to identify. We're going to change our proposed fence line to protect this lovely little ecosystem from the buffalo.

On the way back, I found some black raspberries that have just started to ripen. So tasty!

In addition to the discoveries on the flora side of things, it was a good day for fauna. I saw one of our large rat snakes in the workshop basking in the window and I found a tiny box turtle in the field while I was scything. Ah, these are the things that make for a great Monday.