My Pet Sunflower

A month or so ago I was pulling some weeds (well, unwanted weeds that is ;-) from the B Garden and accidentally pulled up a small sunflower.  She came up with very few roots and it was hot as the blazes and I knew if I tried to put her back in the ground she'd never make it.  

I stuck her in a leftover pot of old dirt I had stashed behind the Wool House and tucked her rapidly wilting body into the shade.  She lay collapsed, leaning on the side of my horse trailer for a couple of days, but I kept giving her a drink every time I walked past and she began to slowly perk up.

I staked her up using a dowel rod and some soft yarn and gradually moved her back into the hot sun.  Being a sunflower, she was happy to be back near her friends and she eventually began to grow again and one day I noticed a small bud forming on the top of her head.  

And then she bloomed :-).

 

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Watch a beautiful (and big!) orb weaver spin and knit/weave a large web between the garage roof and the zinnia garden. ❤️ 🕷 ❤️

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Sep 3, 2020 at 7:46pm PDT

 

Instagram followers may remember this video of the spider spinning the web from the corner of the garage roof down to a zinnias.

The sweet sunflower took over when she got big enough :-).

And look at all the pollen she's made for her bee friends.  They've been having quite a party!  

Her big golden petals are starting to fall off, but she has some new buds coming on so the party will continue a little while longer.  And once her blooms are all dried up, she'll have plenty of seeds to feed the birds this winter...but I'll save a few to stick in her old pot next spring :-).

If You Build It They Will Come...Or Not

 

After the milkweed took off like...a weed...this spring I had high hopes for a record number of monarch butterflies this summer.  I've only seen four so far and none of them stayed more than a couple minutes and I can't find any evidence of egg laying, much less caterpillars.  

I can only guess that maybe the cold spring caused problems?  Or maybe I should say I hope that is just the problem.  I'd hate to think the loss of habitat and too many pesticides have pushed them to the point where it might be too late to help them.

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Biggest swallowtail I’ve ever seen! Hopefully it’s a female and she’s getting ready to head to The B Garden to deposit a bunch of eggs 🤞. . #pollinatorgarden #butterflies #swallowtail

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Aug 2, 2020 at 12:45pm PDT

I have seen a few more swallowtail butterflies than normal this year, but interestingly they have all been in pretty rough shape.  Even this one has a tattered "tail".

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The B (birds, bees, butterflies and blooms) Garden just gets better and better. Only one or maybe two Monarchs, but several Swallowtails this year. Tons of bees from tiny to huge and even a hummingbird working the flowers. The sunflowers and buckwheat are a big hit with several different types of birds. The Goldfinches are moving in now. ❤️❤️❤️

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Aug 7, 2020 at 7:45am PDT

Here's a short video tour of the B Garden.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this messy place full of blooming and seeded out buckwheat, sunflowers, milkweed and all sorts of bright colors, shapes and sizes tucked here and there.  So have tons of wild bees, some smaller moths and butterflies, lots of birds and even a couple bunnies :-).

Monarchs!

Well, one. One monarch. But more are surely coming!  

How could they resist this buffet :-D. 

Last year I planted milkweed seeds in two of the raised beds and my cousin and I transplanted 10 plants from the back field into the lavender garden.  Nine of the 10 plants came back this year with extras on the side and one of the raised beds is so packed with milkweed plants that I haven't even had to weed it all summer.

I've also planted buckwheat and scattered several packets of seed mixes for butterflies, bees and birds.  There are still a few lavender plants left after three years of way too wet winters and a few volunteer sunflowers have popped up as well.  I'm just now seeing some mixed flowers and I can't wait until the whole garden is blooming!

This picture shows how many milkweeds are packed in the raised bed just outside the lavender, now butterflies, birds and bees garden.

This picture maybe better shows how tall they are.

I tried (once again) to plant some vegetables this spring, Victory Garden style, and (once again) in the event of a zombie apocalypse, we're going to be some of the first folks out.  But we'll have lots of pretty flowers ;-).

Here's a new puzzle that ought to keep you busy for awhile.  Enjoy!

Early Foggy Morning

Or Early, Foggy Morning ;-).

We woke to heavy fog this morning.  A complete white out.  As I walked around the yard with Early while he did a little early morning grazing with Willard, I snapped some pictures with my phone...and thought to myself, "Sigh, I wish I had my big camera."  

Um, the big camera is just inside the house.  So I trekked All The Long Way Back In...which I can do without upsetting Early because he's just that good, and took some pretty pictures this morning.  I have a nice horse shot that I'll post tomorrow. 

I've been wanting to do a blog all week, but thought I didn't have any new pictures to share and I feel a bit weird reposting Instagram pictures over here because I figure if anyone wanted to see Instagram pictures...they'd be following or at least watching the Instagram feed already.  Maybe that's not the case.  Let me know.

Anyway, as I was scrolling back through my phone last night looking for something, I found a whole series of pictures I took of a bee swarm Stella and I picked up a week or so ago and had already even forwarded them to my computer specifically for a blog post.  I can't get out of my own way sometimes.

Sorry for the long break in blog posts.  This is my diary.  I'm going to regret the missing posts.  I already do. 

How One Little Bee Saved Her Entire Hive

The greenhouse pansies are still going strong.  No surprise as the winter has been fairly warm other than a few odd days here and there like the last two nights when it went down into the mid teens.  The sun came out this morning, so I cracked the door open about 3/4" for some ventilation.  

As I headed to the house for lunch I stopped in to see how the blooms had weathered the cold snap and check to see is anyone needed some water.  I was completely surprised to see one of Stella's honey bees in there working!  It was 40 degrees and pretty breezy.  Way too cold in my mind for a bee to be out and that far from home.  

It's not unusual for bees to break their cluster on warm winter days and fly out to do some house cleaning and early foraging.  I worried though, as the winter weather has been so crazy, that maybe they had used up their winter stores and decided to run up and check.

While you should never open a hive under 50 degrees, you can lift up the intact hive and check the weight.  I knew heading into winter that I could barely lift it.  It should still be pretty heavy.  If not, they might be running low on honey and appreciate some sugar syrup.

As I approached the hive though I found an even bigger problem.  The over saturated ground had given way under one of the concrete blocks and the hive was in immediate danger of toppling over.  Even with a ratchet strap around the hive bodies, a fall would surely have cracked open the hive, exposing the bees to cold, wet weather, surely killing them.

It took some doing, but Stella's son and grandson helped me get it reset on two new stable blocks.  By the time we got that accomplished I decided not to disturb them any further by checking their weight.  Stella's going to cook some syrup to set out in the morning and if they don't actually need it, maybe they'll appreciate a little treat.  

I'm not sure if the greenhouse bee made it back up the hill.  I sure hope she did.  I wish I'd thought to capture her in a cup and carry her home just to make sure.  She's a pretty clever bee though and while she was most likely just down here looking for flowers, there's a little part of me that believes she came down to tell me I needed to go fix her hive.

Blooms

It's been a week (since I last posted) and it's been a week.  We're all okay, basically, but the summer has taken a toll on everyone around here...except maybe Saint Tim...who's a summer loving freak...and that's all I'm saying about that...freak ;-).

Hank has had issues with the heat and also has an ulcerated lesion on one elbow that doesn't want to heal.  Salt ended up with an abscess on a foot that is slowly healing.  Tilly still has her ongoing band aid butt.  Renny got an infected hair follicle that had to be lanced.  Big Moose got a cough that needed doctoring and now Frankie's got a hitch in his get-along.  I'm getting a hitch in my get-along just trying to doctor on everyone :-o.

So it's raining AND pouring...but not actually rain...which we could use.  So how about some pictures of some of my birds, bees and butterfly plants?

Sunflowers.

Pink buckwheat.

White buckwheat - flowers and grains.

Milkweed mixed in with the white and pink buckwheat.

These are the short sunflowers.  Somehow I got some packets that were supposed to 12' and 15' feet tall.  These are the 12's, but they are probably only 10' tall. 

The 15's are probably 12' but still a pretty darn tall plant and kind of fun.

I planted milkweed, dill and parsley for monarchs and swallowtails.  The birds and the wasps are getting them all :-(.

I guess I should start bringing them in to the safety of the porch when I find them, but honestly...I'm maxed out right now...and I feel bad about that...on top of everything else.  Maybe things will settle down this week.

A friend posted on IG that every day there is "one less day of summer".  We (except Saint Tim) are feebly counting it down to ZERO.

A Little More Lavender

I think technically this is not a white, but a very pale pink or purple that fades to white. I need to check my original list though to make sure.  The bees like it regardless of the color :-).

But Tilly tends to gravitate to the purples ;-).

Ten More

Random horse shot as they randomly decided to gallop back to the barn.  Hank loves when they do this ;-).

Early this spring I caught a tiny flash of brown dart out of one of the bigger lavender plants.  I quietly walked over to see and sure enough, a tiny baby bird in a teeny tiny nest.  I quietly told the little bird to always be very quiet, especially when there might be a stupid cat around.  

I'd stroll through every day, never doing anything that might attract a cat's attention and watched.  And worried.  And one day I saw a tiny fledgling in the nearby dye garden and the nest was empty.  A tiny success story!

Well, part of a tiny success story.  There remained an unhatched egg.  It's still there, tiny blue in a tiny horse hair lined nest.  So pretty.

There are actually three new puzzles - two with lavender and one with the horses.  I worked the horse puzzle last night and it was a fun one with lots going on.  Click the puzzle to get to my folder of puzzles.  There may be others you haven't worked yet.

Enjoy!

Take Your Dog To Work Day

Also known as Every Day, so even though it was technically last Friday...

The lavender garden is in almost full bloom.  Once again I am unable to bring myself to cut even a small bouquet, so the "let's plant a huge lavender garden and harvest it for wool sachets" plan is a complete bust.  Luckily Saint Tim is a good sport.

I can't take a picture that really shows what the real garden looks or feels like.  I thought maybe putting something in for perspective would help.  I called in the trusty border collie sitting right outside the garden gate.

Kate took one look and was overwhelmed by the beauty of the garden the piles of little sticks (mulch) that were everywhere, just waiting for her to come play with them!

"This is the best playground ever!"

So I called in the trusty corgi ;-).

I took a bunch of pictures and picked out a bunch of that bunch that I liked...and then couldn't narrow them down and I need to go feed Biscuit and Muffin so I decided to just post the first 10 favorites and tomorrow post 10 more.

You really can't have too many pictures of lavender.  

And bees.

And another surprise.

Tomorrow!

In the meantime...

Enjoy!

Busy As Bees

I spent most of the beautiful weekend inside, working hard trying to get the new Farm Shop updated. Luckily I needed to take pictures of the new calendars, new mugs, new bags, new wreaths... and conveniently the light outside was perfect.  Actually, it was probably a little too bright, but it was a good excuse regardless ;-).

We've had several frosts now and a hard freeze last night.  It dropped down to 25 last night and I lost all the marigolds in the dye garden, but the early morning sun out front helped carry the blanket flowers through.  That was a huge blessing not only because I am still enjoying all the blooms, but Iso are all the bees.  

A bee for every flower! And see the orange on the flying bee? That's the pollen they are gathering from the flowers.  Covering everything with sheets at night has given them a few extra days to load up their pantry.  I'm glad to help!

Bees of all shapes and sizes enjoying the warm sun and a late fall flower treat. #bees #flowers #fallflowers #pollinators #ilovefall

A video posted by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Nov 11, 2016 at 9:22am PST

Frost On The Pumpkins

We've had a couple frosts now. That's the only part of fall I don't like. All the flowers are going gang busters...and then a couple cold nights...which inevitably turn back warm for many more days...so you don't want to let the flowers die off too soon.  I love my flowers.

I cover as much as I can around the house and Wool House.  I use the shearing sheets (which are now so easy to get to :-).  In the morning, as soon as the sun hits the front of the Wool House, I pull the sheets off and the Blanket Flowers get right back to work.

Bees of all sorts work the Gaillardia all fall.  Big bees, tiny bees, green bees, honey bees...  I'd love to know what they are thinking when they fly in for breakfast and find everything covered up.  There are always a few already climbing around under the sheets, probably complaining.

Or maybe they are relieved to see the blooms still safe and sound.

Some puzzle fun for you :-).  I'll try to get a picture of bee rush hour this afternoon.  Almost everyone was headed home last night by the time I thought about it.