Around The Farm: An Opportune Observation Of Orgyia

What, pray tell, is that?

Sometimes, you just have to be at the right place at the right time to witness the amazing. For me, it was a recent experience of seeing a mysterious insect on the goose coop as I was preparing to perform daily maintenance. I’m now familiar with many of the bugs and insects that live here on the farm, but this one was strange…and I like the strange because it means an opportunity to learn. And I am, if nothing else, a voracious learner.

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Around the Farm: Who’s Looking at Whom?

It happened in a bucket just like this one…

One morning, as I filled one of several five gallon buckets for the geese, I noticed a sunflower seed spinning around and around in the eddy created by the water. We feed black oil sunflower seeds as treats to the poultry, so seeing one in a bucket is not usually cause for alarm. Until you realize that it’s not a seed at all.

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Daily Wonder: A Perplexing Pod

A seed pod?

The universe – or Mother Nature? – has an incredible way of snapping us out of our own self-absorbed reveries and grounding us in the present. Today, as I finished the morning chores and was hosing off my boots, I looked down and noticed that there was some kind of pod nestled in the grass. It was the same color as the grass, but the oblong shape drew my attention. I needed to find out more about this strange object.

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Daily Wonder: Fairy Fly-By

The natural world is full of wonders. If you’re like me, you can’t help but notice – and revel – in these amazing moments that demand your full attention. One hot summer morning, as I was loading up my Gorilla Cart with 5-gallon buckets of fermented feed to begin the animal chores outside (there are “inside” animal chores, too, of course), something caught my eye. It looked like a floating bit of cottony matter. I watched it for a bit, soon realizing that it wasn’t merely drifting on the breeze – it was flying. It invited a closer look.

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Musings: The Wisdom of Wild Snails (Post #1,000!)

For this momentous post, I decided that I would focus on a creature that is often maligned (mostly by gardeners), but that I find immensely fascinating. It’s an animal that reminds me of two important things: that (1) there is an absolutely amazing world of tiny plants, animals, and other matter that is overlooked by people and (2) sometimes, we need to slow down and enjoy the wonders of the world around us – or even our own inner world – at a snail’s pace.

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