Morrel Mushrooms Found on Our Farm
Mushroom hunting season here in central Indiana has come and gone, and we seem to find fewer and fewer of the tasty morrels with each passing year. We did find one nice patch, enough for appetizers one evening. And no, I cannot disclose the location of this prime spot!
This spring has been a wild one here in central Indiana; the average temperature in March was the same as January! April finally gave us some really nice spring days, but we had a lot of cold weather too. The gardens are late, and a frost in early May killed a lot of bedding plants set out with optimism that the 80+ degree days were here to stay. I waited until this week to put out my flowers, new hostas, vegetable plants and blueberries, and thought I was safe, but…
Hostas Before
Hostas After
The temps hit 88 on Wednesday, giving me cause for concern about the two mama’s due with babies. One was particularly hot and enjoyed a nice cool down with the garden hose, and then dinner in front of the fan. By sunset, a cold front was moving through, and with it, storms. We were in town having dinner, where we only had rain and lightening. Upon returning home, our “hill” was clothed in ground fog and the road was covered in tree leaves! By the time we reached our house, the road was covered with over an inch of hail! The alarm had gone off on Fred’s car, but it was not damaged. However, my hostas were ruined! I have not looked at the blueberry plants that I put in just the night before, but I am sure they are cut to pieces.
Here are two photos of my gorgeous Frances Williams hosta; I’ve had a fit finding the right place for this plant, and this year it seemed to be in hosta heaven…until the hail hit and ripped it to shreds! I am just sick about it!
The only saving grace is that my mama llamas are happily outside eating in the cool air, and nothing could have compared to the piles of icy hail that they can enjoy all evening! After checking for damage and downed trees, we left the pasture as all the llamas were walking around taking in the strange “summer snow.” They are truly as curious about this as we are!
After the hail and a brief respite from the rain, the main front moved through and a close ligtening strike damaged our network to YW West. Fred was downstairs near the main networking hubs, and saw a spark fly from one of the boards, so we knew we had damage. Toes, our big Maine Coon Cat, was uncharacteristically spooked by the weather. No amount of comforting him would shrink those large pupils, and it was not until the last storm passed that he calmed down!
Llama Loafing Shed After Snow
Just when Spring was hinting it was nearly here, Old Man Winter reminded us that it will be a few more weeks before we can expect the snow and cold weather to be over for the season. The weather station on the farm was showing 25 F a few minutes ago, and as you can see there is snow on the pasture.
This has been a very unusual winter for us. Winter roared in like a lion days for before Christmas by dumping nearly 18 inches of snow in two days. Within a week it had warmed up enough to melt most of the snow and we moved into nearly two months of alternating warm and cool spells punctuated with lots of rain.
The mud has been unbelievable. At times the mud has been so bad it could suck the boots off your feet. The llamas are very disgusted by the whole thing! Convincing them to walk from the barn to the feeding shed draws looks of “you want me to walk through this?” from the moms and crias alike.
