Paths on the farm #1 181231

      These wild daisies grew en-mass along the paths and in the woods. They were so beautiful, far beyond anything I could just plant on my own. They were always a joy to see as I went along on my daily walks through the woods. The one thing I miss on the farm was those walks. Just being out in the total quiet and serenity of the woods was a healing experience for whatever was troubling me.

      These black-eyed Susans were were another flower that only grew where they wanted and never where I wanted to have them. I always wanted them where I could see them from the front porch, but wherever I planted them, they refused to grow. These were mostly on the south side or the north side of the farm and in full sunshine.

      This picture is from the east side of the farm near the bottom of a hill. The farm was not really so big as it may appear and the paths were cleared and maintained with a lot of twists and turns rather than straight lines so there was always a mystery about what might be just around a corner.

      This is another wild flower that I had no name for. It only grew in the woods and it was a magnet for butterflies. In our 27 years there, the butterfly population went from massive to few, largely because many farmers cleared more wooded areas for pasture and wiped out much of these plants and milk weeds which the butterflies seemed to feed from. One of the early years when the butterflies were plentiful, the Monarchs passed through our place on their annual migration back to Mexico. The group spent the night in an elm tree right beside the house. There were thousands of them, enough so they blanketed the tree. That only happened one time and there I was without a camera available. That was the last time I was ever without a camera even to this day.

      Thorns were the bane of me on the farm. The black locust trees had thorns that were up to 4 inches long and sharp as a needle. The Osage orange trees had very sharp thorns that were about 1/2 inch long. Sometimes when I was cutting them down and littering the ground with branches I would have 30 or more of them that broke off and were embedded in my boots when I went back to the house. This particular vine grew everywhere and they would climb up 30-40 feet in the air as they grew along the trunks of trees. They were so nasty to handle and would cut into my gloves.

      This picture was from the south-west corner where the woods grew so thick mid-summer that it was kind of a scary place. You can see that the trees, weeds and scrub grew all the way down to the ground level, partly because it was dark and they needed all the leaves they could produce to catch what sunlight was available. When we raised our sheep I could see all the way through this area because the sheep and goats ate everything from ground level to as high as they could reach leaning against tree trunks.

      
Copyright Bill Weber 2018 and beyond.