On her way home, our Marketing Director, Caroline, encountered a pretty tough bird. It’s a good thing it didn’t have a flock, or this might have gotten ugly…

There’s one house on the way to the farm, that I always slow to a crawl when I past. The Raniers. In the mornings, their motley crew of dogs, comprised of two labs, one black and one yellow; a stout little beagle, and a bug eyed chihuahua bask in the warm sun in the middle of the one lane country road, or explore the ditches and field adjoining the road’s worn pavement. They’ve become kind of like friends, as I pass them each morning and think “good dogs” to myself and while struggling to get that last drop of coffee out of my travel mug.

The afternoons are a bit of a different story. Replacing my familiar furry friends is a flock of nervous barnyard fowl, ranging from roosters to chickens in various and sundry breeds, and a wild turkey. Yes, I said wild. Apparently, Jamie and Lori, the owners of this tiny ranch, raised this turkey from an egg their son Hunter found. The turkey has grown to assimilate to its  much smaller family of chickens without even noticing that its giant stature makes it so different.

On my way home, like any other day, I slowed as I approached the birds while they meandered across the road, scratching and pecking in the dirt that surrounds the blacktop. The only thing different about this encounter was that the turkey stood firmly in the middle of the road, refusing to budge. As I nudged my car closer, it began walking toward me, never breaking its defiant gaze. I finally put the car in park when I realized that I wasn’t going to win this game of “chicken” (pun intended), and stared back. It looked at me as if to say “this is my turf” without caring in the least that I was in a Jeep, and that it was outweighed and out horse powered. I jumped out and shooed it out of the road, and to my surprise as it slightly side stepped my path, it pecked at me! I jumped into my car and looked in the rear view as I began to pull away: the turkey was there. As if from some nightmarish Hitchcock movie, I was now being stalked mercilessly…by an evil turkey. I sped up, and he sped up. It wasn’t until I’d hit almost 25 MPH that he gave up his chase for an easier pursuit.

I got a good laugh from my friends when I told them about my day and my face off with the ornery bird, and still cautiously drive past the Ranier’s in the afternoon, always looking back for fear of that crazy turkey!

There are three varieties of Hummingbirds that frequent our area in Virginia, the Rufous, Allen’s and the Ruby Throated hummingbird. Our favorite is the last but not least in that list, for its brilliant hues and and signature ruby-red colored throat.

Highly curious and very attracted to feeders, the Ruby Throat is one of the most common and recognizable hummingbirds in the eastern half of North America. Living up to their name, males have vibrant green feathers, white stomachs and a red “ruby” throat, while females are larger and resemble males in coloring, but lack that namesake red throat. Hummingbirds often become so adapted to people that they may even dive closer to explore your red wardrobe, and seem indifferent to being watched closely while feeding near windows or patios. Hanging a hummingbird feeder near a large window is one of the most relaxing ways to pass time, as many males become territorial over their feeder and spend a lot of time chasing others away. (If hanging a feeder is difficult, we also have a great Staked Hummingbird Feeder that includes a stake for easy placement.) These fast, feathered air battles are more dramatic than your favorite soap opera and more entertaining than most sporting events! It’s best to place multiple hummingbird feeders throughout your yard, out of sight of each other, so that territorial lines aren’t crossed as often and everyone gets a chance to feed. Placing your feeders in the shade will also help give these hardworking hummers a respite from the hot summer sun!

Most of these hummers migrate to the deep south and Caribbean to wait out the cold winters, but tend to show back up with the blooming of spring flowers in late April and early June, here on the east coast. Beautiful and entertaining, these quick, little birds are terrific pollinators in your garden and drink half to eight times their body weight in nectar, and frequently dine on small, soft insects. During the sweltering  summer months, make sure to change the sugary “nectar” in each of your feeders once a week, regardless of whether the birds have been feeding or not. This keeps the sugar-water fresh, as it will actually spoil in the summer heat. Though they love red, tubular shaped flowers, they will visit other sweetly-scented blossoms and blooming aromatic herbs as well. Try planting Asclepias ‘Tuberosa’, Bergamot and Lobelia to create a hummingbird habitat in your garden. Doing so will increase the health of your garden and give you a great, natural hive of activity to study!

Welcome to the New Year! I cannot wait until temperatures in this new year rise above freezing. Life on the farm gets tough: keeping the greenhouse going, feeding and watering the horses, cows, and dogs. On these frigid days, water is not such a simple thing, hoses don’t work and bowls and tanks freeze solid. Water must be delivered several times each day to insure everyone gets enough.

I keep telling myself: this is a Southern state, it has to get warm sometime soon? But I hear on the radio that it is cold almost everywhere, and the truth be told we are not near as cold as some places. All I know for sure is that every thing here is frozen and has been for days. We keep saying all this freezing is good for cleaning out insect and disease pest; they must be dead by now and we are ready for some more moderate weather