Larry's Blog — Farm Journal RSS

I had a great morning sitting on the deck and watching the birds as it got light today. Amazed by the activity and variety of birds within sight of the deck, I decided it would be fun to make a summer project of observing, photographing, and painting the birds in the immediate area. Here are early observations: A pair of wrens are nesting in the box right off the deck. While one wren carried sticks to the nest, the other spent considerable energy trying to drive off a red-bellied woodpecker that wanted to feed in the area. The fact that the woodpecker seemed to totally ignore the racket and diving attacks didn't seem to hinder the enthusiasm nor the persistence...

Here's a quick update from the farm -- a 240-acre piece of land I manage for wildlife in southeastern Iowa. I got a lot of work done at the farm earlier this week. I took some soybeans with me for planting food plots. Unfortunately... the tractor wouldn't start. We worked on it much of the day and finally got it going. I tilled and disc-ed until about 9:30pm because of the rain forecast. Good thing I did, because it started raining about dawn the next day. I'll see if I can get some spraying done between rains. I also worked up 5 spots for fruit trees in the orchard to replace trees killed by rabbits and mice. Planting corn and...