We finally got a Baltimore Oriole

After weeks of waiting, we were finally rewarded by seeing a Baltimore Oriole in a birch tree off of our deck. He tried to drink from our hummingbird feeder with no results. He flew off a ways and I quickly took grape jelly out and spooned out some on the railing of our porch and moved one of the nectar feeders for orioles onto a shepherd’s hook near the hummingbird feeder.

It was only a few minutes later when he came back and immediately hopped to the jelly and started eating. Then, later, he was at the oriole feeder in the back yard and ate grape jelly from that one, too. We’re hoping that he’ll bring a lady friend back to nest nearby.

One thing that was interesting is that chickadees were drinking/eating the grape jelly and rose breasted grosbeaks were eating the oranges we put out for the orioles! Strange, but what the heck.

It’s been real busy around here now that the “rainy season” seems to have let off some. Will finally got Old Yeller back together. It seemed like for the last week or so it was, “oops, one more part to order. Oops, another one!” Then, yesterday, Bill and our grandson, Mason, brought his tractor and 3-point rototiller up and tilled not only our garden but a few isolated spots for squash and corn AND most of the pig pasture. The tiller digs quite a bit deeper than does our Troy-Bilt Horse tiller. We’re butchering our two pigs soon so Will plans on planting the sweet corn he’s breeding back from hybrid to open pollinated in the old pig pasture. This is the third generation and last year’s corn was very nice and we’re hoping to be able to save some seed to sell this fall.

As Bill was coming with the tiller, I had to move one of our big rhubarb plants. After digging it up, I ended up with a dozen big roots. I gave two to my friend, Carolyn and two to Bill, then transplanted the rest into various new spots around the homestead. Some of those roots were huge. In fact, Bill saw the remaining old roots and thought it was a tree stump!

Because the goats had eaten bark from the small popple trees in their pasture and the trees died, Will pushed them over a week ago and has been working at tossing them over the fence in a pile. We’ll saw them up for kitchen wood with the table saw he calls his “mini-cordwood” saw with its Briggs engine. With the dead trees gone it looks much nicer and the grass and clover will grow a lot better.

Will staked out the spots for our two larger, better hoop houses and this afternoon I’ll be out planting onion sets past the east hoop house spot. This time of the year, it’s run, run, run! So much to do. And our June seminar is only three weeks away! (If anyone is interested, we still do have some spots for you, if you’d like to come.) — Jackie