The Farm From Above and Swarm

Miiko Sage, photographer extraordinaire, has a drone.  He has taken this drone video of the farm, starting at the garden in the northern part of the farm.  I didn’t know he was doing this until I saw the drone flying across the pasture toward me.  You can see that I was sitting in my front yard with Oscar if you look closely.  Notice the tops of the juniper and cedar trees.  These trees were almost dead when I moved in a year ago due to invasives, especially bittersweet and multiflora rose.  One of the first things I did when I moved in was to clear this off of the trees.  We cut their lower branches so we can keep it mowed, so as to prevent the invasives from growing up again.

This video was taken on June 12.

The next one will show the garden just brimming with food.  It is completely different now.  As soon as we have the next drone video, I’ll post it.

Here is a picture of our first swarm.  You can see this mass of bees hanging from one of our peach trees.  It looks like a huge wasp’s nest but it is made completely of bees.  They create a new queen and split to make a new hive.  Zoe and George put it in a box and extended our hives to make room for it.  

 

Elka!

Elka!

Meet our new arrival in this menagerie!  Elka is a border collie puppy who came to us at eight weeks old.  She’s now 9 1/2 weeks.  My god she is so smart.  She learns everything quickly and eagerly, with a look in her eyes that seems to say, “what now mom?”  She follows me around, having more interest in me than the other dogs or animals.  However, she has already shown herding instincts, following behind the goats, watching them intensely and crouching in the border collie way when they stop.  On her third day here, I took her to the Quabbin.  When I waded in up to my knees, she dove into the water and swam out to herd me back in.  This bravery was on her eight-week birthday!

We love her dearly already.  Oscar clearly enjoys her.  His back legs are not functioning well due to a congenital cruciate ligament issue, for which he is getting surgery next week.  But he can stay laying down while she jumps all over him.  They can play for an hour this way.  Pumpkin, of course, hates her just like she hates everything, but the fact that she can sleep on the bed while Elka has to sleep in a crate makes up for the insult.

Oscar

Oscar will have his second knee done in about a month and will spend the entire summer recovering.  However, by Halloween, he will be able to be the young, vibrant dog he is in his heart.  It will be so good to have him back as my hiking and riding companion.