When the cold checks out early

Jan29

A rainy afternoon made the lake ice into a splash pond resembling mid-March instead of midwinter. This month the cold was like a guest you prepared the house and cooked for who then departed prematurely – days earlier than expected. The snowshoes, long underwear and mittens are collecting dust but at least the refrigerator isn’t full of leftover food.

Squirrels recovering buried treasure where there was a foot of snow last week look delighted while all cross-country ski tracks around the BlueCircle are either icy or washed away. The greenhouse lettuce succumbed to persistent clouds and freezing temperatures so gardening season is finally over.

I prefer a snow-covered dog to a wet and muddy one and she would rather delve into snow piles then almost anything else so maybe the next puff of Winter will bring at least enough for that. Meanwhile there’s time to catch up on indoor projects and plan for Spring.

Santa brings a little more BlueCircle to the tree farm

Dec26

The season brought a small addition at one corner of the BlueCircle acreage. The owner finally decided to sell out leaving the foundation and front steps of an old cottage, a rusty furnace and smashed sink, and lots of briars and vines. Once the dead ash and dying cottonwoods are cleared out knows what other “treasures” might be found. Tonight the rare Christmas full moon shines through this scruffy woods promising colder weather and at least a little snowfall before work can begin on this project.
New trees will need to join the scattered maples, birch and black locust that surround the old building site. Lots on the Fairview plat were small and the original cottages were often built only a few feet from lot edges. Two and possibly three cottages may have occupied these lots in the past. Today groundhog burrows and dumped construction debris have replaced them, at least for now.

A still Winter lake

Dec16

Even in an unseasonably warm year the dimmed December sun sits low above the horizon. The garden still yields carrots and surprisingly good leaf lettuce, this time the “volunteer” variety that reseeded itself when we tilled that part of the garden in August. The mower deck is off the garden tractor to be cleaned and greased; at least the grass knows this is a season of short days and rest. The year-end accounting of tree seedlings that survived and those that will need replaced is underway and encouraging. Most of next year’s planting will be in a recently cleared area replacing brambles, dead black locust and weeds.

An arborist’s nightmare

Oct6

In the tail-end of a hurricane wind the saw-wielding climber was roped high in one of the “old trees” of Smith’s Landing a.k.a. the Fairview Beach neighborhood. At first view the towering Maple looked sound, and despite the obvious skill (and courage) of the suspended man it seemed cruel that this tree had been selected for removal. Of the dozens of Ash trees lost here in the last 3 years many still stand as leafless skeletons. Last year extensive removal of mature shade trees and old pines that had the misfortune to grow within “a threatening distance” of power lines further depleted our green space.
Sadly, this tall old Maple had now begun to split between its two main trunks and become unsafe.

Trees on sunny fields and shady hills

Sep30

The mowing season is nearly over and as the last weed blossoms fade the dark green of healthy conifers shines through. Although the volume of rainfall in late summer was less than ideal, seedlings from one and two years ago show substantial growth. A warm September may have stretched another inch or two of growth in some rows. The marking flags so critical to locating seedlings in their first year have torn and faded. Their rusted remnants will be pulled in the Spring.

Two rows of sycamore, a future shady lane, are rising between hybrid poplars that grow even more rapidly. Walking/biking trails were not in the original Bluecircle plan but as more and more of the acreage is filled with trees they become a possibility.

Future sycamore lane

Some of the tulip poplar, maple and oak seedlings planted this year have been growing in tree shelters that stand like tall white straws on the downslope to N. Watervliet Rd. This was a pilot project since the shelters cost substantially more than seedlings, but so far survival and growth in the ventilated plastic tubes is encouraging. The shelters should discourage browsing deer as well.

Time for a change in the weather

Sep25

On windy days the shore of the “big lake” gently erodes into the dunes. The water is still warm enough for wading but a series of crisp, clear nights will soon encourage boots on the feet. The calendar shows the Equinox has passed and the hours of darkness are again in the majority. For a while longer the grass will still need mown. A few red raspberries are scattered on their canes although the “berry patch” has grown wildly and today is a briar thicket. Pruning, thinning, and restoring order there will wait until frost clears away the weeds and yellow jackets.

Recovering vines and a dusty bicycle

Aug19

A vine with battle scars

After a short bike ride on a sultry evening it’s time for an update on the vineyard. Two rows of grape vines won “official” status by gaining their own trellis wires, and two more short rows are ready to make this step next year. Frequent spraying apparently left a discouraging taint on the vines since by mid-July the beetles were mostly feeding on nearby weeds and more distant wild grape vines. The new leaves that emerge after the onslaught of beetle savagery are always small and pale, but vine growth has resumed. A nearby organic gardner blogged that the thumb and forefinger pinch of their well-gloved hand was the favorite weapon in the bug battle. I felt overwhelmed by the number of targets and resorted to a pump sprayer and non-organic “perfumes”.

Growth on the new trellis

So cautious optimism is the tone for the outcome of this year’s war on the beetle and also for my long-delayed return to a touring bicycle. Wiping the dust off the neglected bike was prompted by the sale of a well-loved motorcycle, hanging its gloves and helmet on the “used to do this” hooks in the garage. Now 2-wheeled cruises down the country road and the circle home will be shorter, leisurely, and provoke less anxiety from loved ones. A once-fantasized solo tour of Michigan by motorcycle has been forgotten before it was planned, but cycling opportunities from various campgrounds can substitute so long as there’s air in the wheels and wind on the road.

First gregarious bees, then berries and now the onslaught of Japanese beetles

Jul8

The entry of Summer in the garden was a-buzzin’ with docile, but abundant ground-nesting bees known as Colletes inaequalis. Hundreds of females built their sand castle nests in villages in and around the corn patch and adjacent field while males buzzed and swarmed and circled above them through most of June. Then the first few quarts of Bluecircle black raspberries ripened and were enjoyed immediately – only a cup or two found their way to the freezer. The swarms of mosquitos that usually pester the picker of wild raspberries were absent from these trellised bushes at first, but as the 4th of July weekend approached an army or two arrived to celebrate the arrival of Chicago visitors to the lake. At least this year poison ivy, the other hallmark of wild berry patches, has not made its way into the rows. Fireworks frenzy, as the 4th has now become, appeared to wake the Japanese beetles from their pupae and they marched straight for the succulent new growth leaves of the grape vines. A precautionary spraying of the vines diverted the first wave to other targets like flowering weeds but today a counterattack with the pesticide sprayer was required.

A quiet evening at East Paw Paw Lake

Jun11

After strong winds this morning the day turned hot and calm, an early taste of Summer. It’s been a busy week for “nature events” at the Bluecircle, ranging from a midnight visit from a bullfrog to the little snake who stared down my string trimmer.
Spawning carp are noisily churning the shallow water in the channel as dozens of turtles sun themselves and look on silently.
The new weather station “East Paw Paw Lake” has been viewed 2200 times since June 1. The rain gauge briefly fell victim to a large beetle blocking water flow – a second layer of screening may be needed here. This image from the station webcam shows the sunset reflected by windows on Bowe’s Landing.

Watching the winds and counting the raindrops (updated with weather cam link)

May24

Cedar and spruce seedlings are thirsty their first few months, so keeping track of local rainfall is a requirement this time of year. When Nature doesn’t provide the only alternative is the “water wagon”, a 30 gal. tank and dispensing hose strapped to the bed of our Gator. The Gator is the Bluecircle’s all-purpose “go-fer cart” (my wive wanted a golf cart & I misunderstood ), tool carrier and coffee holder.
Perhaps carrying this weather-watching to extreme, the Bluecircle now has its own weather station “East Paw Paw Lake” posting to the Wunderground family of web sites. Since just graphing the rainfall and wind speed wasn’t quite enough we added a webcam view of Paw Paw Lake. An updated link to the cam brings up a 24-hr recording of its images. The camera location looks west above Fairview Beach and shows parts of Bowe’s Landing and the south shore of the main body of the lake. The changing wind conditions from day to day are reflected by the waves, or lack thereof when there’s no wind to watch.

bluecirclefarmdotcom

Views from a reborn farm