Out and about with Charlie boy

Late spring highlights around the farm

The audio version of this post is available –> here. Enjoy a listen today!

My dog Charlie and I just came back out to my studio after taking a bit of a walk about (and run about) on the farm.  Our farmhouse and barn sit on about 3 acres of the homey part of the property.  There is an area I refer to as “the Back, Back” that is about 1 acre of lawn with a few trees but no structures.  The Back, Back looks out over what is now pastures although when I first moved here it was arable land (arable: “fit for or used for the growing of crops” ~ Merriam-Webster dictionary) we rented out to a neighboring farmer.

We transformed the farm land to pasture when we tried our hand at raising Black Angus cows about ten years ago.  Back then the land was in pretty rough shape, having been used often for corn and sprayed annually with fertilizers and weed and pest control.  We joined a conversation program because our property is close to a river and the idea was to prevent seepage of chemicals from farming into the ground and river water.

We raised cows and calves for seven or eight years and then sold our entire herd and hung up our cattle ranching hats.  Now we lease the land to a local couple who raise Black Angus.  They are young, strong, able bodied farmers who know what they are doing and I love seeing the land being put to good use.  Over the years, beginning with our own efforts, the pastures have improved steadily because of the inevitable land improvement that occurs when cattle are grazed correctly.  Now when I look out I see tall green pasture grasses gently swaying in the wind and a return of song birds in large flocks. 

In fact, when we went out this morning I took my binoculars out and found, much to my delight, gorgeous black and orange orioles flying all over out in the pasture, diving into the grasses and gliding up to the trees.  In previous years I only saw one or two orioles here and there, and usually around the house.  This is the first year I have ever seen a large number of them flying all around in the pastures.  That is 100% the result of ten years of cows grazing both free range and rotational, helping to spread seeds, fertilizing the land naturally, and doing all the things cows do that improve the land and the environment.

If you would be interested in learning more about how cows contribute to and are actually vital to the environment, I can think of three resources:

A feature length documentary film, “The Biggest Little Farm” “a testament to the complexity of nature and an epic odyssey to attempt to farm within a reawakening ecosystem”.  I will include a link in my show notes to that farm’s website.

There is also the book, “Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat: Why Well-Raised Meat Is Good for You and Good for the Planet” by authors Diana Rogers and Robb Wolf in which the author, “explore the quandaries we face in raising and eating animals—focusing on the largest (and most maligned) of farmed animals, the cow”.

I first learned of that book on Joe Rogan’s podcast (The Joe Rogan Experience) when he interviewed the two authors back in 2022.  If you are interested in listening to that interview it is available on Spotify and probably also on YouTube.

Oddly enough, I have some woodpeckers to thank for the opportunity I had to see the orioles this morning.  You see, recently I have been hearing woodpeckers pecking away at our grand old willow tree, our giant mulberry trees, and a gigantic sycamore tree as well.  I have loved woodpeckers since I was a little kid because we had them in North Carolina and I would not only hear them but sometimes I caught sight of them as well.

Hearing the woodpeckers working so diligently over the past couple of weeks I tried to catch sight of one and never could.  I ended up ordering some decent bird watching binoculars and wouldn’t you know that the very morning after they were delivered … no more woodpeckers. 

That’s what led to me taking binoculars out when Charlie and I were having our “out and about”, hopeful I would hear a woodpecker somewhere and finally get to see him at work.  No luck with woodpeckers, but boy did I luck out with the orioles!  And, that is what led to me seeing tangible evidence of just how much we have contributed to improving our environment over the past ten years by grazing cattle on our land.  A large number of song birds being active in our pasture means the top soil is alive and well with insects and worms … thanks to grazing cows and the circle of life.

Not only is the healthy pasture beautiful to behold, but everything around the farm is waking up and coming to life now that the sun is shining and the ground is warming up. 

There is an old over grown, somewhat broken down lilac tree out back behind our barn.  It is such a strange place to have planted it because you have to go out there to see the flowers rather than being able to see them from closer to or even inside the house. 

Another way to look at it is that the lilacs being out back behind the barn encourage venturing out for a walk about to get a chance to see them.

We also planted two lilacs in a side yard between the house and where my barn studio now stands.  I regret the placement of one of them because it is too close to some cedars I thought we were removing, and so the dear lilac tree is having to grow at an odd angle.  I think I’m going to prune it down and keep it small so that it can grow without bending that way.

The lilacs are gorgeous, with pale to medium lilac accented with bright pink lilac centers and highlighted with the palest lilac gray.  Oh and the scent is heavenly.

You have to enjoy them quickly while they are around, else you are likely to miss them all together.

Then there is my antique tree peony.  That poor plant had been beaten and abused by my husband each time he mowed the lawn.  He would whack the branches off crudely whenever they encroached on his mower’s path (and his power was a smallish Kubota tractor so it was not adept at nuanced lawn care, nor was he.

Whack, whack whack until I came along and saw the enormous, 12” diameter divine blossoms my first Memorial Day weekend on the farm.  I was astounded by their beauty and the size seemed miraculous to me.

I recall vividly the first time I caught sight of them — I was actually facing away from them taking photographs of the river and then, turning I suddenly saw the gigantic blossoms glowing and beaconing to me … come forth and see my glory!

Oh.  My.  Goodness!

I shot so many photographs of the peonies that morning, even while being attacked by mosquitoes.  That summer was when I first started painting blossoms from her — I named her Rhoada because my husband erroneously told me it was a Rhododendron shrub.  When I showed photos of her on my blog and said it was a Rhododendron, readers corrected me and that’s when I started learning about tree peonies.

Here is my 24” x 48” oil painting, “Antique Tree Peony”, painted in khaki hue monochrome. 

For the first 15 years I lived here, that tree peony bloomed on Memorial Day weekend like clockwork, never varying.  Then, three years ago it started blooming about twelve days earlier, again … like clockwork.  Why the change. I have no idea, the change in blooming schedule was a abrupt as the predictability of the bloom time had been before.

Regardless of when it blooms, the thing is … it is grand.  It is breathtaking even though it is just the one tree peony.  And, I am forever smitten.

Just as nature is waking up in celebration of sunshine and warmth, so do the people around here jump on any opportunity for warm, sunshiny days to get outside and be active.  I love seeing and hearing that activity too.  Everywhere, people are outside being productive, celebrating life anew as if there is a narrow opportunity to do so.  And actually, up this way, there is.

I hope you will take a listen to my audio podcast, “firefly’s Hatful of Yarns” where I will not only give a reading of this blog post, but I will continue the conversation to share some of my creative adventures as well.

Hope to “see” you there!

Until next time, this is …  ~firefly, out.