When in Rome...! Ya gotta admire the gull's adaptability. Thanks for the smile Bob.

Funny! I've been noticing more gulls inland over the past couple of weeks. Maybe the noreaster drove them in. They sure are big birds.

We get an assortment of white birds out here this time of year because of the water. The gulls flock to the farmers' newly fertilized ground. I don't want to think about what they find tasty there. Its pig waste and all the famers (mostly Amish) are spreading it now. Next month the plowing begins in earnest. We will have the field stench floating around here next month for a few days.

It sounds funny for an ex-city boy but there is a certain joy in keeping track of the seasons by watching the Amish farmers. Last year was my first full year here watching the changing of the fields and seasons. Right now we have strips of green and brown fields with fresh pig waste, cow waste, horse waste, and cornstalk mulch, on them. Next month, regardless of the temperature, the Amish men, their horses, and their plows will be out in the fields and the fields will turn a rich plowed brown.

I saw my first groundhog in the back yard too this past week. He/she was lean and hungry and ran back into the woods. No clover yet to eat. They really get the munchies for clover. I hope to get my new soil mixture and start filling my new rose terrace with dirt this week. In two weeks, pruning time for roses, and in three weeks, its rose planting season. I have 10 new plants coming and am thinking of buying more.

Is it really only two weeks untill pruning time ?? I've been really anxious to get rid of some of the dead canes I see. I hope to see your rose pictures in JUne.
Don't you just love that healthy smell when they spread the manure !!!

Florence

Florence:

I am going to prune as soon as we get into the 50s after mid-March. I have buds on the canes from last month that are anxious to grow. Maybe 2.5 weeks. I'm ready to go.

When I drove by farms in the past, I smelled farm smells. However, down here, we get the real thing. The first time I smelled the serious stuff, I couldn't believe it. I don't know how to describe aged pig waste.

I have 10 HTs and English roses coming in March. I think I am going to buy about 10 minis for the front of the house. I had planted pelargonium there but I think I will put them somewhere else. I have about 20 of those plants growing inside the house now.

So that's what I smelled when I went to my stepdaughter's house last year. I thought her husband might have over fertilized their yard since he's in the landscaping business.