Nature Photos - Thistles

We've had some gorgeous thistles blooming at the farm this year.
The flowers look like sea anemones.  The goats love eating them.  Some of the sow thistle stalks got to be taller than I am.  They bite them off at the bottom and crunch them down until they get to the buds.  It's funny to watch.  I can't believe they don't mind the thorns!

Nature Photo - Paw Paws

The paw paws are blooming now.  They have such a striking presence in the pastures.  When I was a kid my parents would go to the Ordway-Swisher Preserve for my mom's Masters research on Opuntia pollination, and the first little way along the road was covered with pawpaws - quite a sight when they were in bloom, but even better, I thought, when the fruit was ripe.
Paw paws are actually toxic to grazing animals, but since we have a lot of other plants and we don't pressure the pastures so much, we haven't had any problems with them.  I think they might be beetle pollinated, because they are always covered with different beetles.

Nature Photo - sunset

This was a beautiful sunset we saw while going to get another load of manure for the garden.

You may have noticed that I've changed the blog title.  This is because I have been wanting to write more about other aspects of my life other than farming, but it felt strange having it be called Fox Grape Farm.

Monday Nature Photos

Ethan found a tiny gopher tortoise.  He must have been newly hatched.  He was in danger of being squished, so of course he was relocated to a safe spot some yards away.

No more now - we have a busy day ahead of us, as Nougat had a touch of mastitis, and we've got to go out and milk her extra today to make sure it doesn't get worse!