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The Old Farm...
By Dorothy MacFarlane
Posted Monday, July 23, 2007
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Well, another old Kingston farm is being chewed on. The place I live on and write about is smaller by another lot. My house and lot was carved out earlier, and now the lot next to me has been sold, and, if you have been by lately, you can see it is already being built on.
I have great fears that the end is coming for this old farm land. Regardless of the beauty, the history, the ecologic significance, it will go the way of a good deal of the rest of Kingston; chewed up and built up.
The dust and noise next door has not scared away the hawks, at least. I can still hear the young one calling in the woods, and the field on the other side is still full of rabbits and mice for prey. I also found out that noise and dust next door does not deter yellow jackets. I recently accidentally cut some brush containing a nest. I got away OK, and just let them be. But I wasn't the only one who knew where they were.
A skunk tore up the nest one night, which I didn't know. When I took my dog for her morning walk, she followed the skunk scent right into the nest!
You can guess what happened. The yellow jackets were still riled up from the night before, and they immediately attacked my poor dog. I pulled her away and we ran for the house, yellow jackets swarming after us all the way to the back door. She was still being stung, and I had to get the bees off of her, but I am allergic, and I couldn't take the chance of getting stung. (How I had avoided that so far, I will never know.) I grabbed a small rake and pulled them off her, and we rushed into the house, one of them coming in with us.
I have nearly died from bee stings, so this was no light thing for me. I called the vet, and made arrangements for Polly to be seen and watched for a few hours, killing the bee as I made the phone call. Then I called an exterminator.
Polly got some benadryl, and she was OK. She has one huge sting on her belly that turned fiery red with a white core. She has more stings all over her, and she must have been in agony. If you have been stung, you know how just one hurts. Nature on the old farm can be good or bad, beautiful or ugly. There is a cycle that I am sure will continue, one way or another.
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Oh Deer![Jan. 29, 2008] This was a good month for nature watching, both here and at work. First, I saw an odd animal in my field. At first glance, it looked like a coyote, but it seemed too small. It looked more like a fox, but it had the wrong coloring for a red, and was too big for a gray. I can only assume it was a small coyote. Coyotes often cross the field, looking for mice and other animals to eat. They scare me a little, but usually they stay away from the house.
Cast Offs[Dec. 23, 2007] I found a remarkable rug recently, hanging on a stack of cement blocks behind the barn. The rug is an old, long discarded braided rug, and it has been completely overgrown by a deep emerald moss. The moss follows the braids, so the original pattern is still shows. It is still a beautiful rug, though now not very practical. Mosses are one of my favorite plants. When all the larger plants shut down for winter, mosses keep on growing. If the temperature is above freezing, even if the moss is covered by snow, photosynthesis goes on.
The Mulberry Tree Revisited[Nov. 27, 2007] I have written about our mulberry trees before. While in fruit, they are a riot of life, and during the summer months, I collect leaves to grow silk worms at work. When fall comes, the leaves turn a sort of yellow. It is not the color that is so spectacular; it is the way they fall. Early in the morning, after some signal only the trees know, the leaves start to fall.
All’s Quiet[Oct. 30, 2007] It’s been very quiet on the old farm lately. Summer is winding down, and fall is starting up. The young hawks haven’t been around for a while, and even the insects have stopped singing. I haven’t seen many animals going by, no foxes, skunks, or coyotes, but I know they are there. It is the same with deer; you have to be in the right place at the right time to see them. Or maybe it is not the right place. Deer are easily startled, and can be quite dangerous.
The Dry Summer...[Sep. 28, 2007] I've been through dry summers before, but I have never seen so many mature trees in trouble. Swamp maples, sugar maples, dogwoods, and birches have all started to dry up and drop their leaves. Some of them are turning intensely red or yellow first, but this is not normal fall color; this is a tree is severe distress. It is quite possible that some of these trees will not leaf out next year.
Woodchucks...[Aug. 27, 2007] Did you know woodchucks can climb trees? I know they can, because I saw one coming down out of my mulberry tree! There is a bumper crop of the little devils this year, and they eat everything, including my marigolds. The quantity of food available might be why the hawks raised two babies this year, a male and a female.
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