New Fire Site

Took several hours to construct our new fire site. The heat from the pit was killing the underlying grass. Now if the ground is wet, it won't make any difference. The heat should dry the rock quickly. And hopefully, the rock will radiate some of the heat back toward our feet.

Our 1st Egg

Our very first egg, delivered between noon and 4pm on Dec.17, 2012. I believe that it was from one of the Welsummers, as I caught one sitting in a box when I went out to let them out at lunchtime. Found this one about 4:00.

She did a good job on producing her first egg. Not a crack, and about medium size. The color isn't really brown, but more of a light lavender. As you can see, this one was really fresh.

I'm Dreaming of a Red Christmas

We have Welsummers, and possibly one Rhode Island Red, and Red Sex Links in a red coop with a Christmas tree decorated with red lights.

Chickens 'R Us

We are in the egg business!

4 Red Sex Links (lighter) and 5 Welsummers (darker)

The Reds will eat out of your hand. They come gather at your feet looking for a handout.

Cupola at Sunset

Our cupola at sunset.

Chicken Coop DeVille

Not much longer and we will have chickens.

Oh, there's a chicken now. It is a Benjamin Bantam

Chickens 'R Us

Still some painting to do.

The color is Tomato Red, which is truer to its actual color in the first photo.

Soggy Day

We've had 4 inches of rain today! Has looked like a hurricane blowing through.

The river birch is living up to its name today.

If only the camper converted to a boat.

Whisperwood Farm Eye Full Tower

We should never run out of electricity. If I could just figure out how to plug into it.

Build It And They Will Come

Found a great cedar tree to hang bird feeders on. Lots of perches.

Once word gets out that there's free food here, those branches will be loaded with birds.




Our first goldfinch, 2 days after putting out the feeder.

Garage Improvement

Before photo, taken last week.

Shutters are a big improvement.

Took about 1 hour to install the shutters.

Finished the master bath at the same time the backsplash was done. Walls were originally the drab cream color every other wall in the house was painted. The upper green is called Balsaam. The lower green is Birch Forest. Benjamin picked out Graceful Gray for the stripe, which is much better than the gold or silver I had thought of using. The picture is a blowup of a photo I took on Bear Island during one of my fulgurite hunting trips. 

Latest Project - Tile Backsplash

Day 1 - Tiles adhered to the wall behind the stove.



Day 2 - Grout applied.



Day 2, 30 minutes later - Looking good.

Our Galaxy Bamboo tile backsplash.  Not bad for the first time working with tile. Maybe I'll do the bathroom next?



Looks so good that we decided we would not use the stove, for fear of getting grease on the tile.

Guard Duty

Our well cover.

Whisperwood Farm Shooting Gallery

It's a shooting gallery out here.

Saw the fox out hunting in the back of the horse pasture this evening. He was pouncing on something, probably a mouse. Shot at him several times. He was at least 100 yards away, so when the pellet hit him he just jumped. He didn't know what was going on. Hit him 3 times. Doubt it did any harm. Probably won't keep him from coming back.

Have not seen the groundhogs by the garden since hitting 1 or 2 of them the other day. Hit them from the front porch too. About 100 yards. And the deer hasn't returned either, since hitting it in the rump, same distance. Need more fire power.

View from Above

Two Views

View of our scarecrow with neighbor's horse barn.

In a breeze, the pant legs flap, the pie tins clang, and it looks like he's dancing.

Critters in the Country Eat Well

As I was leaving the property this morning, a dozen or so vultures were on the ground surrounding one of the groundhogs James shot on Saturday. They had just started to feast. When I returned 3 hours later, nothing was left except a skeleton and some skin.

Earlier, when I opened the back door, I startled a fox that was eating a chicken. It dropped the chicken, ran a short distance, stopped and looked back, then ran off to the woods. Ten minutes later, I looked out and the chicken was gone. I think the neighbors behind us must have chickens. Their home is in the direction I see the foxes coming and going. We will need a guard dog.

Long Weekend

This was a very productive weekend. James was out with his pellet gun and shot 3 groundhogs. One was even bold enough to come up to the house, and hid under the back door steps. There are still at least several in the thicket near the garden. James needs to get back out here and get to work. There are some recipes online for groundhog. But I don't think that we will be hungry enough to try them, since we usually have steak, chicken, hamburgers, and hotdogs on hand.

Got another plum tree (Damson) and fig tree planted. Mama and I put up video tape fencing around the figs, the new plum, and the main garden. Also got the garden hoed and some fertilizer spread on the veggies. Now we need some rain.

When I opened the garage door this morning, a 3-foot long black snake was outside the door. I prodded it to move into the shrubs. Hope it gets some moles, voles, and/or mice.

Saw a fox run across the horse pasture this morning while I was hoeing. Yesterday, we saw a racoon. I believe that it was at the horses' salt lick. Usually, a racoon out in the open in the middle of the day is rabid. Let's hope not.

Two bluebirds are building a nest in the house on the grape arbor end post. It was fun watching them defend their home from 2 mockingbirds that have a nest in the crepe myrtle in front of the living room window.

I ordered 3 grape vines: Darlene (bronze, 22% sugar), Late Fry (bronze, 20% sugar), and a Black Beauty (23% sugar). They should be shipped sometime in November. And they will be old enough that we might have a few grapes next year, if I get them planted this Fall. According to the county soil survey, we have good soils for grapes. But muscadines can grow just about anywhere.

Video Tape Fence

Here at Whisperwood Farm, we use the latest technology to increase and protect our crops. Most people have heard of barbed wire and electric fences, but have you heard of a video tape fence? The tape from an old VHS cassette was used to protect our fig trees, as shown in the photo. You should see it in action! The tape flickers and hums in the slightest breeze. It should be quite effective in deterring the deer. A convenience store in Burlington has hundreds of old movies for $1 each. So this could be the cheapest fencing material available. We plan to try it around the larger garden and raised beds too. Notice the clover in the unmowed areas. We need to get our bee hives.

Hardwood Floor

Our hardwood floor was installed by Romanoff Flooring, who works for Home Depot, which is where we got our Bruce 3 and 3/4 inch wide planks. The guy did the whole floor in one day! And he did a nice job of framing our marble hearth.

Critter Control & Photos

Here on Whisperwood Farm, critters are abundant. Deer are plentiful, leaving ticks everywhere you walk. So, farmhand Mark has sprayed insecticide all around the house, the gardens, and the fruit trees. That seemed to help tremendously, but if you get off of the paths that he's sprayed, you'll pick up some hitch hikers.

A mother fox and at least two kits live in the thicket by the larger garden plot. Mark saw a vulture the other day sitting on a fence post by the garden. Upon closer examination of what the bird was picking at, a tiny fawn leg was found. Obviously something the fox had caught. And a lot of bird feathers have been seen near the garden, too. Some of the feathers looked like they were from a vulture. Maybe the fox is baiting the larger birds with leftovers?

Groundhogs also reside on the Farm. We will have to do something about them, before they find the vegetables just recently sprouting through the crust of the garden soil.

To control the pests that will surely find the fruit trees, Mark put up three bluebird houses. Bluebirds have been seen, almost every morning, fluttering around the fruit trees, so we should have more permanent residents soon. I read that bluebirds will have 2 or 3 broods over the summer, and may even winter over in a bird house. I haven't seen any pests on the fruit trees yet, so the ones in the area must be doing a good job for us so far.

One birdhouse was put on the grape arbor.

To keep the deer out of the corn and beans, our farmhand constructed a scarecrow and planted it in the garden. It seems to be working very well. No deer, fox, groundhogs, or crows have been seen near the garden. And there have not been any fresh footprints in the soil either. The tinfoil hands wave madly in the wind, and the scowl face on the jarhead lets the critters know that they are unwelcome. He also makes a good target for Jame's bb gun.

To protect our potted garden, deer netting was placed on the ground around the plants. You may be able to see some of the yellow, dandelion-like weeds surrounding the pots. We read that the deer will not step on fence material. This has worked very well. As the grass and weeds beneath the netting grows taller, the netting rises up off the ground, making a more formidable barricade. We used 7 foot steel fence posts to hang the netting around the fruit trees. But even a few leaves were nibbled on, so we may have to put more on the ground. Or put up  another scarecrow. To keep deer away, should we call it a scaredeer?

Welcome to Whisperwood Farm

Welcome to Carolyn's retreat, affectionately known as "Whisperwood Farm." Well, it isn't really a farm, yet, but we do hope to have a large vegetable garden, fruit and nut trees, a grape arbor, figs, chickens and guinea hens, rabbits, honey bees, and maybe some ducks and goats. There's a lot of work to be done.

Farmhand Mark has been busy on the farm. He put together a dog house, insultated it, and it now houses the water supply wellhead. Still some shingles to put on it. Mark chlorinated the well a few weeks ago, and the county tested it and found it to be free of bacteria. But it does have a high iron content. We will probably need a water treatment system, eventually.

One of the first purchases was a lawn tractor, since we have nearly 4 acres of lawn to mow. Mostly weeds, but at least they are green. And the dandelion-like weeds have yellow flowers that open up in the morning and close when the sun gets a bit higher in the sky. Some daisies also add a little color to the yard.

Mark put up the posts for the grape arbor last weekend. Now we have to prepare the soil for the grape vines. He plans to put in an Early Fry, Fry, and Doreen. They are his favorite muscadines.

He has also planted two peach trees, a nectarine, a plum, two pear, and Fugi and Granny Smith apple trees. We have just harvested our first yellow squash, which were planted in 5 to 8 gallon potting containers with tomatoes, zucchini, bell pepper, Swiss chard, and cucumbers. These vegetables will be grown closer to the house, next year, in raised beds. The corn, beans, peas, okra, pumpkin, and watermelons are growing down in the larger plot on the front 1.

Our floor installer is about finished with putting the hardwood floor in the living room and hallway. He framed out the marble hearth, and it really looks good.

Mark has been pressure-washing the house, with the intent of changing the color. The original stain was brown and had faded such that all the knots in the wood siding had turned white. The house looked spotted. Still a lot of work to do after washing. Some of the boards will need replacing, and all the carpenter bee holes will need plugging. 

The whole family, and then some, were out to the Farm on Memorial Day for a cookout. If you weren't here, then you missed some of the best grilled hot dogs, burgers, stuffed pablano peppers, chicken salad, steak, cole slaw, and I can't remember what else. There must have been several desserts. The kids played corn hole. Susan and Lloyd dug up monkey grass for transplanting and edged the walkway. They also helped plant corn and beans. Bob found an old shovel (I wonder if he knew it was buried in poison ivy?). Can't wait for the next holiday! And we probably won't, either!