Thank God I’m a Country Boy

With thanks to John Denver, his tune has been running in my head this weekend.  I’ve been on call, an easy one so far, so GaiaGarden and I decided to stay close to the homestead for the duration.  It has afforded us a chance to catch up on some things, but for me, it let me appreciate the place I live.

Saturday, we woke to the sound of the birds in the yard.  With all the feeding we do, there are always birds here.  The standouts, as the sun comes up, are the robins and cardinals.  The dove soon join them and we now have both mourning dove and ring necks dove to serenade us.

After a leisurely wake up, shower and food, we headed to the farmers market.  Flower garden plants and meat were the targets.  A new booth had both lamb and goat available, some a little of each was procured.  The organic chicken was purchased and last a stop at the new pasture fed beef operator.  If you are not up on the many advantages of pasture fed beef, I invite you to look here.  There were also sweet potato starts to be had and we did!

After we got home, we began to work in the yard.  I built a new raised bed for additional room to plant things.  While outside, the ring neck pheasant were sounding off and several quail called all day long.  The temperate weather and blue sky’s must have been infectious as down by the stream 2-3 barred owls were talking to each other through out the day.  Earlier this spring, we had a tom turkey gobbling just across the road for a couple of evenings. 

Today, much the same happened, but I watched the purple martins feeding above the house for some time.  Just can’t attract them to the house I set up for them, but in time, I still have hopes they’ll move in.  The blue birds were in the dead cottonwood tonight, feeding on insects in the front prairie.

I could have been on a golf course or a beach with 2000 of my closest friends.  Instead, I got to spend the whole weekend on our piece of prairie and enjoy what it has to offer.  Thank God I’m a Country Boy!