Repurposing

Humans are far from the first animals to use a thing for other than the purpose it originally came to be. Birds at the least have been doing it probably ever since Archaeopteryx first swiped some dinosaur's nest for her own purposes. It's no different today, they just do it to humans!

This first photo as you can see is my nail pouch. It's hanging in my workshop where I usually keep it. A month or so ago I went into the shop to get the pouch so I could use it to work on the chicken tractor I detailed in the previous post only to have Mrs. Wren fly out in my face! She'd done it to me again. Happens every Spring. The homesteading urge comes upon them and they appropriate whatever space looks good to them. I let her be and put my nails in yogurt cups waiting on her to finish up with her reproductive business. She originally laid four eggs, every nest I've seen has always had four eggs, with two hatching. The chicks have since fledged and flown the nest so now I can reclaim my nail pouch, but I thought I'd get a photo first. I wasn't sure what would happen if I took a photo of the chicks so I waited until now.


This second photo is a much newer nest. It is situated inside of the bleach jug that we keep our clothes pins in for the line in the backyard. What makes this one odd is that the jug is directly outside and next to the back door of the house that we go through at least a dozen times a day! Doesn't seem to bother Mrs. Wren in the least. We all know the nest is there and we don't molest her other than taking a photo and allowing the kids to see (but not touch). We all know she's there but she make us jump every time she bursts out of there at a hundred miles an hour whenever we walk up to the backdoor. We use the dryer a lot more than the clothes line so not being able to get to the pins won't be much of a hardship for a while. At least she didn't make me knock over a stack of material on the workbench the way she did the year she put the nest inside of an open bag of ground oyster shell that I keep for the hens. I bent over to get a scoop full, stuck my hand in and she exploded out into my face startling me so that I fell backwards and cleaned half the workbench in the process.

It's like this every Spring. Never know where I'm going to find the nests...

I got sort of a late start this morning for fixing a real breakfast for the family (french toast) but there were still some nice blossoms in the garden. We've received only two inches of rain in over three months so the garden sprinkler has to meet the need. Seems to be doing the job so far as I can tell with the summer squash (C. pepo). I expect to pick the first of them tomorrow evening or the morning of the day after. Fresh summer squash is one of my favorite vegetables.



The Butternut squash (C. moschata) has really begun to hit its stride as well. The vines are vining as they should though they seem to be reluctant to climb the fence I planted them next to so that I have to tie them on. Hopefully the eight inch long tendrils they're putting out will get the idea soon. The hen house litter I tilled into the garden a month or so before planting seems to be doing right by them. So far it appears I'm going to get a good fruit set.


There's more color than just squash blossoms out there. As I mentioned in an earlier post I like to plant marigolds among the vegetables. I could not honestly tell you if they repel noxious insects or not, but they do seem to attract plenty of pollination insects as you can see with the butterfly. He (she?) led me a chase all over the garden trying to get one decent shot. This one still isn't the best but it'll have to do. There are both yellow and orange marigolds out there and they're all going to town putting out the blossoms. I had intended to put some cosmos in as well but didn't get to it. Maybe the Fall garden.


If you recall from the Dun Hagan Wildflowers post I put up a little while ago there was a nice Pinewoods Milkweed (Asclepias humistrata) in the series. This is that same plant now on the verge of opening its seed pods. Some of the others on the property are already open. I never have seen any caterpillars on them so I suspect the Monarch butterfly doesn't find them toothsome, but while the flowers were open there were plenty of other flutter bugs that helped themselves.



With it being later in the season now we're starting to see some new wild flower species showing themselves. This one is the Eastern Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron annuus). Until I start mowing it's a common late spring/early summer wildflower here. My daughters often pick big boquets of the blossoms.







This one as you can see is the Eastern Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa) which is unfortunately common on the property and one of my nemesis plants. It's actually a little past their blossoming season here, but I found this one growing under one of my oak trees where it is partially shaded during the day so I suppose it's a bit behind schedule. They're a real chore to elimate out of the yard, orchard and garden but I have to admit for the brief time of the year they're in blossom they are pretty.


Here's another well adapted sand-ridge species, the Sensitive Briar (Mimosa quadrivalvis). I don't find very many pink flowers around here but this is one of the few. Kids love the things because the leaves really do fold up if you stroke them with your finger. The plant is not without its defenses though as the stems are covered in fine thorns so care must be used when weed pulling.






This one has always puzzled me. It is Spiderwort which if I have identified it properly is Tradescantia ohiensis. There are a couple of species that look very similar to me and there is a degree of variability in the plants themselves, but I believe this one is correct. What puzzles me about the plant is that it grows here at all. Most places were you find it thriving are lower and wetter than here at Dun Hagan which is best characterized as droughty sand. Still, there it is in the pasture, yard, and garden. Not a lot of it and it doesn't make tall standing clumps the way it's often seen elsewhere. Most of the time it stays fairly low to the ground in almost a running fashion and puts out only a few blossoms at a time. If it should happen to be near to something that I irrigate regularly it behaves more like it does in lower places. It can be a nuisiance in areas that it likes, but here it makes a striking blue flower that really stands out when I come upon it.

The next four are unknown to me so perhaps one of you readers can turn me onto what their names are. This one here is past its blossoming prime. The odd cob-shaped blossoms are all milky white when they first open. These are about two days past their best, but you can see the little one in the bottom that is closer to their usual color.




This one tends to sparse running clumps. You have to bend over to really see how pretty the blossoms are. The plants don't usually grow more than six inches tall here.









This one is somewhat annoying in that at one time I did know what it was because I looked it up, but lately I can't recall anything about what it's called. It's a striking plant though. They'll stand a foot to eighteen inches high and you can see those bright orange blossoms for quite a ways. The butterflys really like them as well. I just missed getting a shot of this blossom when it had two of these flutter bugs on it. I've seen as many as four on at one time before.






This final one never occurs in terribly great numbers here, but it stands out where it does because it is so tall. They're just getting started good here and will blossom across the summer. My eldest daughter likes to ride the mower with me and she is always reminding me "don't run over the flowers, daddy!" My mowing often looks pretty ragged out there in the pasture and it's largely because of these blossoms as I mow around them to keep the child happy.







Because they are so tall I could not get the base of the plant in the same photo as the blossoms while retaining any close up detail so here it is in this one.


The vegetable garden is coming along well. The first blossoms on the okra should open in another week or so and the sweet potatos are starting to run. Still haven't gotten it mulched in yet so I spent a fair part of today hoeing and weeding to get it presentable again. Tomorrow I'll do some fertilizing and a bit of spraying for a very persistent white fly infestation on some of my peppers. I've seen ladybugs on the plants, but they don't seem to be able to keep up so I'm going to have to deal with them soon as they're beginning to stunt the plants.

Sure could use some rain around here, but at least (for today anyway) we're not choking on smoke for days on end like we were earlier.

.....Alan.