Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
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Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
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Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
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Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
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Thursday, September 1. 2011

Photos of the Farm

I took a few photos at the farm in the Berkshires. Last year, a nor'easter took out our foot bridge over the stream. This week, the storm destroyed the big tractor bridge, steel I-beams, cement posts, and all. This is not good at all.


We saw this big male Eastern Box Turtle in the woods on the edge of the field, near the beaver marsh. My favorite reptile except for maybe the Black Snake, even though this was a cranky old guy:



Here's the old well:



And here's the old hitching post:



More photos on continuation page below -

The swimmin' hole in the trout stream:



The Hemlock forest:



Some of our meadows:



Downstream:



One of the back hillside fields that I still need to mow sometime this year, as soon as the tractor bridge gets fixed. I have tractors, but a busted bridge. Full of Goldenrod, Meadow Fern, Wild Thyme, and Milkweed, without any useable hay. Do bears poop in the woods? No, they seem to poop in this field, but I'll spare you the photos of that:



 

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays at 12:17 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

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How do you tell the male turtles form the females?
#1 Steve on 2008-08-20 06:41 (Reply)
Check their driver's license. Har.
#1.1 JC Loophole on 2008-08-20 08:47 (Reply)
The males tend to have red eyes, a concave plastron, shorter hind claws and longer tails. You can't always be 100% certain, though.
#2 Bird Dog on 2008-08-20 06:59 (Reply)
how is the fishing? may have to buy a place around there instead of the keys.lol
#3 opie109 on 2008-08-20 07:56 (Reply)
If you get a chance, perhaps you might post a few pictures of the plants you mention. Would give us an idea of what you are referring to. Many areas have different "laymen" names for plants than other areas. Great looking place. The kind where you can lay in bed at night and hear all the crickets and grasshoppers without traffic :) Thanks for sharing.
#4 sdprice on 2008-08-20 08:45 (Reply)
What a beautiful place! Thank you for posting these photos, Bird Dog. Just looking at them is a little oasis of peace with my morning coffee.
#5 Elizabeth on 2008-08-20 11:08 (Reply)
Yes, an oasis it is.
#5.1 BD on 2008-08-20 12:52 (Reply)
Nice pics BD. Not an oasis, but paradise! A great place to hold Maggie's Farm Convention to nominate Buddy, and Luther, plus the WIFE. Where is everyboddie!!!!
#6 jappy on 2008-08-20 19:27 (Reply)
It's August.
#6.1 Bird Dog on 2008-08-20 19:57 (Reply)
On your farm pictures -

Thank you, Bird Dog.

Makes me hear 'My country, 'tis of thee'. . .

http://www.britsattheirbest.com/
#6.1.1 Cat (Link) on 2008-08-20 20:34 (Reply)
That's a mighty bold hitching post. Any further info on that?
#7 Hohenheim on 2008-08-21 03:18 (Reply)
Probably about 1820. All the stone here is marble. Never figured out what the lower hole drilled into this thing was for. Hitching a rabbit?
#7.1 Bird Dog on 2008-08-21 09:01 (Reply)
Bird Dog, a very nice spread there.

Oh, and thanks for including yourself in the pictures, finally get a good look at you in that hitching post shot.

Though I have to admit my shorthair pointer is a bit handsomer than you, and probably better suited to the birds and other wildlife in my area. New England has different requirements, I guess.
#8 Seppo on 2008-08-21 11:22 (Reply)
It's an allergy issue, for my kids. Don't knock Poodles, though. They are smarter than humans.
#8.1 Bird Dog on 2008-08-21 13:37 (Reply)
Mow? You need to get yourself some goats. They're sustainable!
#9 lordsomber (Link) on 2011-09-01 14:08 (Reply)
Love the photos! My family has history in the Berkshires stretching back to the 1600's and I love these kinds of displays. (Recognizing of course, from the comfort and safety of high desert Colorado, that all that "green" means wet weather and high humidity.)

As for turtles, they are ALL curmudgeonly and cranky. You wouldn't want them any other way, would you? A "cuddly" turtle? Ha!
#10 Earl T on 2011-09-01 23:09 (Reply)

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