Peach Tree Chilling

I love peaches and have wanted to have a peach tree for years.  There was not room for one in our tiny yard in town.   So when we move here to the farm, I had high hopes of planting one.  The first year we were here, we were too busy just trying to cope with tending 5 acres to worry about planting trees.  The second year, we sort of had things under control, but got busy and, before we knew it, it was much too late to plant trees.  But, last spring we had our act together enough that when we noticed our local Atwoods store had fruit trees for sale, we bought a couple of them.


Unfortunately, if you've read this blog this past year, you know that it was the hottest, driest and worst summer on record since the 1930s!   But, knowing how much I loved peaches and wanted those trees to survive, my wonderful husband kept them watered for me.  If it had been up to me, I'm sure they would have died.  They are planted a good ways from the nearest water hydrant.  So, watering them entailed stringing a hose out there to them or carrying water to them.  In either case, not a fun job in 100 degree weather.


Today I noticed they seem very much alive and even have buds that are beginning to swell.

Here is a closer look at the buds I mentioned.

I'm somewhat concerned that it is going to bloom before our last frost this year.  I doubt that I will have many, if any, peaches this year since the trees are so small, but I sure won't have any if the blooms are all killed by a frost.


So, I did a little research about what makes trees bloom early like this.  What I found is very interesting.   Apparently, all fruit trees need to go through a certain number of hours below 45 degrees and above 32 degrees in order to produce a successful crop.  This period is called the "chilling hours" for that species of tree.  If the chilling hour requirement is not met, then the tree is likely to bloom too early and a late frost will kills the blossoms.


The best source I found on this topic is the following link: 


http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/chillingreq.html


Hopefully, my trees will receive the right number of chilling hours and reward me with luscious peaches......if not this year, then maybe next.

Warning Signs

You have probably noticed the warning signs on practically everything you buy these days.   They have become so prevalent that we are somewhat calloused to their meanings and to the reasons they are present on objects in the first place.

That is not so much the case with the warning signs on the machinery we have here at the farm.  In fact, most of these signs are downright eye-catching and in some cases humorous.  Our tractor has three such warning signs.  Take this one for example:

This is cautioning you to not raise the front-end-loader bucket too high if you have a heavy load.  Otherwise, it could fall back on you.  That is a scary thought!  And, even though the meaning is clear without reading the fine print, it still looks as if the guy on the tractor is trying to catch whatever that is that is falling on him and I have to laugh a little every time I see this one.

Here is another one.

Again, the meaning is clear.  DO NOT drive on steep slopes.  The fine print on this warning sign adds some other information.  (You can read the words if you click on the picture to make it bigger.)  For example, it says that if you have to use the tractor on a slope, then you can move the wheels farther apart to lower the center of gravity and make it less likely to tip over.  It also says to use the seat belt.  I am embarrassed to say that I was not aware the tractor had a seat belt until I read this sign closely.  Finally, it mentions the ROPS.  That stands for Roll-Over Prevention System.  This is a curved bar that can be mounted on top of the tractor to protect you in case of a roll-over.

Finally, there is this sign.

Of the three signs, this one is the most sobering for me.  Perhaps it is because I've heard news stories of people being electrocuted when a ladder or piece of machinery they are holding onto touches an electric wire.  Fortunately, I don't think any of our electric wires are low enough for this to happen.  But, it is good to have the reminder.

Ever Alert

I've posted many pictures from our wildlife camera and quite a few deer photos were among them.  Today I was going through the pictures from the last few nights and was struck by how vigilant the deer always are.  Here are some pictures of a group of three.

Notice that at least one of them is always on the alert, head up, ears pointing toward whatever danger they think may be lurking in the darkness.  It is rare to see them all eating at one time.


There seems to be this group of three that come together.  And, there is a pair that appear to hang out together.  Here they are.

Again, it is the same story, one or both of them is always on the look-out for danger.  If I scroll through the pictures on the camera fast, then the deer appear to move in a jerky manner as if they are actors in an old movie.   It is really quite comical.

But, then I got to thinking about why these deer seem to be so on guard.  There are really no predators for them to fear around here.  The major predators of deer are wolves and mountain lions, and these animals vanished from this part of the country many years ago.  Of course, we hear about the occasional mountain lion sighting.  But, naturalists generally agree that these animals are just passing through and not here to stay.

It seems that, even though their natural predators are gone from the scene, the deer still retain that innate instinct of survival that makes them alert to danger, even though it may only be imaginary.  Humans possessed that instinct at one time and I suppose we still do to a small extent.  But, thinking along these lines made me wonder what it would have been like to have lived in this country 500 years ago when large predators still walked these parts.  Certainly, humans were one of the predators, but they had to be ever alert, like these deer, in order to not fall prey to one of the others.  I imagine it was pretty difficult to get a good night's sleep in those times!

Compost Ingredients

We save all our kitchen scraps for our compost pile.  We have a plastic container which holds about a gallon that we keep in the cabinet under the kitchen sink.  You can see a picture of it if you look at my post from July 9, 2010.  Here is a link to it:


http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2010/07/kitchen-compost-bucket.html

When the bucket gets full, we take it out and dump it in our compost pile.  The other day I took the bucket out to dump it and was struck by the variety of materials in it.

On the surface this looks pretty gross, but these are all great ingredients for compost.  There  are old rotten bananas here, broccoli that has been in the frig too long, radishes, potato peelings, coffee filters along with coffee grounds, a couple of cherry tomatoes, kale that is past its prime and house plant trimmings. 


After I dumped these onto the top of the compost pile, I grabbed a bag of leaves and dumped on top.  This creates a series of layers of different materials.  If you were doing this for a home garden, you would want to turn the pile using a pitchfork every 2-3 weeks to mix these layers together.  However, since we just use this small compost bin as a holding place until we can mix them into the larger pile we have out in the field, I don't worry about turning it.


Composting is a wonderful way to recycle your kitchen scraps.   If you don't have room for a compost pile, then just try burying your scraps in your garden.  They will eventually decompose and add nutrients to the soil.

Trees From My Present

My blog entry yesterday was supposed to be about some of the trees that we have here on our farm, but it somehow morphed into trees of my past.  I started out by saying "I love trees" and felt compelled to explain why, which got me to talking about the big old trees that were in my yard when I was growing up and how these made such an indelible impression on me as a child.


So, today I will try to get back on track.  Our five acres is long and narrow.  Our house sits in the middle.  There is a 5-car garage with a small office at one end and a metal shop building on the property as well.  These are located near the house.  Tom uses the land to the east of these for his gardens and I have a few raised beds between the garage and the shop.  (Please note that we do not have 5 cars!  Most of the garage is used for storage of equipment, potting soil and other odds and ends.)


There are very few trees on the 5 acres.  But, there are several large oak and pecan trees just west of the house.  These are wonderful to provide much needed shade in the summer time and provide a great place for our grandkids to play when they come visit.  Here is a picture of them.

Last year we noticed that a limb on one of the trees looked like it was dying.  It was not unusual to find pieces of bark or branches from that limb on the ground after a windy day.  One day we even saw a Pileated Woodpecker pecking on the limb.  These are very large woodpeckers that we usually do not see around here.  Here is a good link to read about them.   

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/id/ac

This link indicates that Stillwater is on the edge of their normal range.  So, I think we were very fortunate to have been able to see this bird in action.   At any rate, the Pileated was literally attacking this dead limb causing huge chunks of wood to fall to the ground!   And,we became concerned that the limb might break and fall on one of the grandkids while they were playing under the trees.  Since our chainsaw is on the blink, we asked our son-in-law if he could bring his up and cut the limb off for us.  Here is what it looked like after it was cut from the tree.  

You can see that about half the limb was rotten while the other half was still in good shape.  So, it might have been a good while before the limb was weakened sufficiently to fall on its own.  But, it is a relief to have it gone and not have to worry about it falling on someone.

Trees From My Past

I love trees.  I've mentioned in previous posts that I grew up in southern Arkansas.  Needless to say, there are a LOT of trees in that part of the country.  In the front yard of the house where I grew up were four large trees - a pine tree, a sweetgum tree, a sassafras tree and some sort of oak tree.  From what I can find on the internet, it appears to have been a water oak.

My parents are both deceased and the old home place was sold years ago. The house where I grew up burned not many years after it was sold. So, the property has been left for mother nature to reclaim as her own. In some ways this is sad, but it also gives me a sense of peace. My sister and I try to make a trip once a year down there to visit the cemetery and we always drive out to the home place.  We call this annual trip our "pilgrimage".

In the picture below, the pine tree that I mentioned is to the right of the car and the sweetgum tree is in front of it.  This picture was taken this past summer when my sister and I were on our pilgrimage. 

Beyond the trees, you can see the top of an old shed.  My parents used to call this the "crib".  I think this name came from the fact that it was probably used as a corn crib in early years when the land was farmed (probably with mule and plow).  Here is a better picture of the crib.  The sweetgum tree is on the left of this picture.

My father inherited the land from his parents and by the time we moved there in the 1950s it was no longer farmed.  However, my dad kept the crib in good repair and even had a small wood burning stove in it so he could work in it during the winter.  I'm not sure what sort of wood is on the outside of this building, but it has not rotted even after all these years.

I didn't take any pictures of the other trees this summer, but I was astonished by the size of the crepe myrtle bush below. 

This "bush" must be 15-20 feet tall.  That is a lot bigger than they grow in this part of Oklahoma!  I remember this bush only being maybe 8 feet tall at the most when I was a child.  I don't know how many more years we'll be able to make the long trip to southern Arkansas to visit these memories.  But, I hope to take my grandchildren on this pilgrimage some day and share with them some of the stories from my childhood.

Pathway Mystery Solved

Across the fence to our south on our neighbor's property lies a creek that meanders around and flows in a generally southeast direction.   At one point it is about 30 feet from our property line.  During the spring, this area is usually pretty wet and during the summer it grows up in Johnson grass that is over my head in some places.  


In the warmer months, I don't normally venture into this area for fear of snakes, ticks, chiggers and other loathsome creatures.  But in the winter, I occasionally walk over to the creek.  At this time of year, the Johnson grass has died and there are a multitude of "paths" through the grass made by deer and small animals.   Here are some pictures of the area that I took today.

In the above picture, the creek is to the left.

The above picture shows one of the paths I mentioned.  It runs right down the center.

At one point, two of these paths converge (see above) at the fence and come out near our deer feeder.  I've always wondered what uses these little trails through the grass and moved our wildlife camera to a point where I could focus it on this path.  However, since there was no fence post or tree to attach it to, I had to rig up something to hang it on.  Here is what I came up with.

I think the deer are scared of this new camera setup because there are nights when they don't eat all the corn Tom puts out for them.  However, I was able to solve the mystery of what used the pathway under the fence.  The first picture shows two eyes shining in the darkness.  See them on the right hand side of the picture.

Then, out of the grass, came a family of raccoon.  They seem to have noticed the different placement of the camera as well.

One of them, in particular, seems to have been curious enough to wander over to check it out.

Smile!  You're on Candid Camera!