back forty

Dog Heaven

/ handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

130427 (3)

 

As I’m sitting at the computer writing this Chester is curled up in his bed beside me.  This is typical for a Monday, we refer to it as the hangover.

Brush was burned this past Saturday with our three dogs and Malcolm all there to make the most of the greening grass and sunshine.  There is nothing they like more than to be in the back forty doing whatever they find to do.  It is always more fun if their people are out their with them. There’s always the chance there will be a game of fetch.

It wasn’t so long ago that none of these dogs got along.  We were always on alert for the next sign of a fight.  The fights were ugly, blood was always drawn, always over a stick or toy.  The blood didn’t necessarily belong to a dog either.  This past weekend was one of those weekends where everyone got along.  There is nothing they love more than being free to go anywhere without a leash. They just ran and ran and ran. They all took a dip in the swamp – Chester more than once.  Malcolm had to have a bath  and the burdock picked out of his fur before he could get into the car to head back to Boston.

A lot was accomplished – we are all feeling it today.  Unfortunately Chester is the only one who gets to sleep it off.

 

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120828 Back Forty Sunset (1)

 

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God.  Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be.  And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.

Anne Frank wrote those words when she was 14 years old.  She must have been an old soul, so much wisdom, so young.

It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve been to Rowe.  I need to see the stars and get away from traffic, take a walk in the woods.

The pear tree needs trimming although it’s later to do it than it should be, it still needs to be done.  The raspberries need trimming, the beds need to be semi cleaned out, mulched.  There are brush piles to be burned, wood to be split, gardens to be spruced up.  I need to check into what I have for seed potatoes and get some onion sets.  The Ball jars need to be inventoried.  Just the beginning of the busiest time of the year – now until October.  Always too much to do and just enough.  I love having an outdoor to do list.  There’s always an excuse to be out there.

So even though I will be working I will also be alone with the heavens, nature and God.  I will return to my work week renewed and refreshed.

Thrive Where You’re Planted

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100426 (6)

 

During the Blizzard of ’78 my sister was in the hospital for some emergency surgery.  Her later to be mother-in-law sent her a pot of daffodils – there were a dozen in the pot as I recall.  Once they had died back they were planted in a border garden around the patio.  Over the years they have naturalized to the point of hundreds.  They are all over New England at this point.  Everywhere I have had a garden they are now too numerous to count.  They have been given away to friends and family in  MA, VT, NH and CT.  They are now in full bloom in Enfield, around the front of the house, along the driveway, in the perennial garden in the back yard.  They are scattered all down the bank going into the back forty in Rowe.  These amuse me most of all.  For years my mother’s mulch pile was over that bank.  There was a stone wall there many years ago and it was completely grown in with trees.  She would dig up things that she no longer wanted or bulbs were perhaps pulled along with the weeds – over the bank they would all go.

I have planted many plants in a perennial garden only to watch them migrate to where they really want to be.  They will self seed in a sunnier or wetter spot and the original will die back.  It’s no use trying to get them to grow where you want them to, they just grow where they are happy.  That’s how I feel at times about being caught between Enfield and Rowe, suburban and rural, noisy and quiet.  I just want to be where it’s sunny and quiet.  Then I think about those daffodils. They speak volumes about thriving where you are.  It doesn’t mattered the soil type, the sunlight, the moisture – they all seem to like where they are and continue to multiply year after year.  In my head I know that’s how it should be – thrive where you are – but some days (especially sunny spring ones) I just want to be in a quiet spot.  Maybe transplanting daffodils.

Happy Earth Day – go dig in the dirt!

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Going, going, gone.

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130411 (1)Sue messaged me on Tuesday to say I wouldn’t believe how much of the snow was gone.  Sunday when we left there was just one bare spot next to the patio.  This morning all of the gardens are exposed.  Things are popping out of the earth everywhere.  God I love this time of year.  The birds were all singing.  The back forty was very, very wet but walkable.  The water is rushing through the little brook that exits Hoover Damn (I guess I should write about Hoover Damn sometime).

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The garlic is up!  That’s very exciting.

130411 (2)And this looks like what will be on the agenda this weekend – burning brush.  It seems like this is a never ending chore.  It piles up all year waiting for burn season to open in January.  Of course in January there is usually too much snow and half the pile is buried so we have to wait . . . and wait . . . and wait.  Burn season ends on May 1st so we just finish sugaring and it’s a mad couple of weekends trying to get everything burned.  There is also a large pile of logs that needs to be cut and split.  And of course Chester has photo bombed another shot.  That’s his purpose in life.

 

 

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Sunrise 130327

 

6:30 this morning this is how it looked toward the back forty.  The only place where you can see bare ground is the driveway.  The difference is how it sounds.  Spring is here, the birds know it, they are all singing their spring songs.  The woodpeckers are all around rapping away at the dead trees. They have all returned from some warmer climate to sing spring in.

Bill doesn’t understand why I sleep with the window cracked open this time of year.  I’m a very light sleeper and there is nothing that compares to having the birds sing me awake at dawn.  As the sun is coming up their songs build to a crescendo.  By the time it’s 10:00 they’ve settled into whatever they do for the day but there’s nothing like dawn in a quiet country meadow.  When I was a kid I used to love to sleep in a tent out in the yard just so I could hear that.  The sun would come up and heat up the canvas (yes, before nylon) with the birds singing away.  I’d open the flap to see the dew rising over the grass and smell that sweet smell of morning.  Then I would just sit and listen to the birds.

While there’s too much snow to sleep outdoors right now each morning you can walk out early and just be quiet and listen.

Bitter, Bitter Cold

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130116 (6)

 

I have to admit I took this photograph a few weeks ago when there was less snow and was warm enough to walk out to the back forty.  This past weekend it was so cold the farthest I ventured was the doorway of the shed.  There is still a lot of snow with a crust of ice on the top of it so I wasn’t that interested in snowshoeing.  The dogs didn’t even stay outdoors for long.  Chester made his usual rounds to see what was up with his peeps on either side of us but he spent most of his time in front of the fireplace.

Yesterday the wind was howling and it got up to 17 degrees.  Mid afternoon with the wind chill is was -4.  By last night they were saying -18.  There’s a big difference between having the temperature below zero on a still, cloudless evening and when it’s there because you are having 30 mile per hour winds.  I rather like those still evenings with the snow crunching beneath your feet and it’s so quiet you can hear your electric meter running.  With yesterday’s wind you couldn’t cover up enough.

This is when I start thinking “enough”, I’m ready for spring.  The seed order will be placed this week and I will plot out the garden on graph paper (a few more times).  Sometimes just thinking about the garden makes it feel like spring is almost here!

Bunny Tracks

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IMAG0312

There is a lot of snow in Rowe.  Bill plows out paths all over the property with the tractor.  I think he does it for something to do more than anything else.  This morning when I went out with the dogs there were rabbit tracks everywhere.  I started following some of their little trails around and found it amusing that they use Bill’s plowed out roads more than anything else.  They will go over the banks to get under something but it appears they’ve turned Bill’s roads into quite the highway.

I love seeing their tracks everywhere, I rarely see one in the winter.  It makes me feel a little more secure about have the little dogs running around everywhere, especially in the evening.  There were a number of years when we had coyotes in the back forty almost every night.  There wasn’t a small critter to be found anywhere on that property.  We found the carnage of a deer kill over the bank near the new perennial garden one spring as well.  Friends lost their cats.  They are quite scary, especially when you know they are there, you hear them but you never see them.

About two years ago I stopped hearing them barking at night.  Then the critters started coming back.  The rabbits are new to us here.  As long as I can remember there were never rabbits in the back behind the barn.  Now you see them when you drive in the driveway or go out early in the morning with your coffee and in the winter you see evidence of them everywhere.