Owl Pellet

Another great time had by all at the barn party. While walking in the field helping Lola Bea look for snakes (she was on a mission to find a snake), I noticed this sitting on top of one of the hay bales in the field. I knew it was some kind of animal digestion by-product, and wondered if it was from an owl perhaps. After doing some reading online, and some input from Rachel (Lola Bea's mom) I am sure that is what this is. Owls cough these big hairballs up after they've eaten something. It's all the undigestible stuff--hair / bones etc. I didn't take it from its place, though maybe I should have. I saw online that many people like to dissect these owl pellets because they have all the little critter bones in them. I even saw a site that sells them ($6 a piece). I'm thinking this pellet might be from a Great Horned Owl, but I'm not sure. It looks like Great Horned Owl pellet pictures I found online. Maybe that Snowy Owl my Dad saw last year is back hanging around. It would be a bigger rather than a smaller owl. You can see the little grasshopper in the left of this picture which gives some perspective. This pellet is ~3" long I bet.

If anyone is heading up there soon (Dennis and Marilyn next weekend?), it may still be there, you could put it in a ziploc bag and save it if you think of it. Not critical though. As you head out for the woods straight through the field, the second row of bales you come to as you are walking out, the first bale in that group is the one w. this owl pellet on it, and it's on the near end of that bale. I wonder how quickly the rain would disintegrate this, or if they stay pretty intact.

Owls are quite fascinating. I'm glad that in our eating habits, we humans are not required to cough up these massive hairballs as part of our digestion regimen.

Gardening

Hi all

Hope I have this right,and will try a report of my farm visit June 19th-20th.When I arrived at about 2pm sat., John Marlenga was there positioning a dumpster to hold the shingles that he will remove from the house and sheds. He said the materials will cost $3000. I will send him a check this week sometime. He helped me carry a small freezer downstairs. My friend Jane gave it to me. It is a bit smaller than I would chose, but it is free, and pretty knew.

The garden looks good. After I mowed both lawns, I work out there for a few hours. The "bun buns" have not been around as far as I can tell. I replanted a few flower seeds in places where the zinnias and Mexican Sunflowers didn't come up. I also planted another serving of dill, as we will have cukes for all of Price county if they produce. All that I planted have grown. also planted some parsley.

A few spears of asparagus have come up, and the pumpkins in the plot of ground that Norb plowed, are doing well. I went through there with the rototiller after I had done the garden. I threw out some of the big clods as I went. It is real nice dirt. Good thinking Mariann.

I saw a spotted fawn at the new place, so tried not to make to much of a stir over there. Also saw a turkey with a bunch of little turkeys on J. I can't remember just where I was when I saw them.

Hope this posts.

Love, Barb

Connected to the earth and our farm

From May 19 - May 28, 2010, six of us visited our Czech cousins in Prague and south Bohemia. Today, when I worked out, I listened to Writers Almanac, March 15, 2010. Garrison Keillor read a poem, 'Fields,' that reminded me of our farm and our visit to where Grandma and Grandpa Vlach came from.

Grandpa Vlach's birthplace - Kunicek, Bohemia. Old building in the background was there before Grandpa left the farm.

Grandma Vlach's birthplace, Prestineca, Bohemia

When Garrison Keillor read

these lines from a poem,

"Fields' by Faith Shearin, he

touched on experiences that I

have when I'm at our farm.

"I have taken root in my grandfather's
fields:

I may walk streets

of this century and make my living in an office
but my blood is old farming blood and my true

self is underground like a potato. At the opera
I will think of rainfall and vines. In my dreams
all my corn may grow short but the ears will be
full...

"I have taken root in my grandfather's

fields:....

June 8-10

To avoid having to spend two days mowing the lawn again, I made a trip up to take care of the lawn and do a couple of other projects. It has been raining and the temperature has been warm so most of the garden is up. The potatoes are still waiting to peak out. We may have a problem with the recently planted asparagus as the rain washed the soil over the plants. Time will tell.

It appears we have a lack of rabbits this year which is a good thing. As I drove in the driveway on Tuesday night there was a large owl sitting by the yard light pole. He may have something to do the eliminating the herd. The Sandhill Cranes are also back but there seems to be a lack of deer, another good thing for gardening. As I was mowing the lawn I almost ran over a fawn that was laying at the NE corner of the barn. Unfortunately it was dead, probably still born as it was really small. Other sightings, a blue bird, an eagle sitting on the field down the road eating something (I assume it was little birds or eggs as some birds were dive bombing it which had little effect on scaring it away) and a large pine snake crawling under the grainery. It's probably the same one Norb came face to face with when looking in the attic of the chicken house.

Work Weekend

Mariann and Lou, Barb, Norb and Marilyn and I made the trip to the farm for Memorial Day weekend. When we arrived late Friday evening, Barb had the deck mower on the tractor and was cutting the lawn that was knee deep. I took two days, three mowings and a lot of raking to get it to look like a lawn. The same can be said of the Maris residence down the road. In addition to the lawn we also got the garden and potatoes in, did a lot of weeding, weed whipping and general maintenance on the equipment.

Peter and Sylvia Scholarship presented June 2, 2010

On Wednesday evening, June 2, I presented two $1,000 scholarships at Phillips High School. Rebecca Senn and Evan Jasurda received the Peter and Sylvia Tennessen Scholarships. As you know, in our home, the conversation was never IF you go to college. The conversation was WHEN you go to college.

Sylvia Vlach graduated from a one room country school, Martin's Mill. She wanted to go to high school and did not. Because there was no transportation from County J to Phillips High School (no yellow school buses), any rural individual who wanted to go to high school had to rent an apartment in Phillips. Mom did not do that.

Before I named the scholarship recipients at the June 2 awards event, I told that story.

New Page for Barn Again 2010

I added a page for the Barn Again 2010. You can see it to the left, under Pages. Home is the blog. I will also add a Page named "Our Story". Pages are static, meaning they do not change. Home (the Blog) changes as we post.

The Barn Again invite shows up very small, actually unreadable, on my tiny netbook screen. How does it look to you? Any suggestions as to how to make it readable? If you click on it, it makes the image larger. I can manually change things around using html to make it more readable, but it won't have a similar format, just similar content.

Any suggestions as to what you would like changed or added, like the blog colors?

Love,
Kristin

Mothers Day week-end at the farm

Hi All,

Lou and I plan to drive up to the farm after my last class on Thursday, May 6 - that is if all goes will with the routine colonoscopy I'm having on Wednesday, May 5. Anyone else able to join us?

We'll leave sometime on Sunday and celebrate mother's day with Peter and Taylor in Madison - probably dinner in Madison.

Look for Barn Again photos to be attached to this blog by me after I finish grading all of my papers and packing for our trip to the Czech Republich.

Love you all

MA

From Dennis, until he figures out how to post

We spent the weekend of April 17th with the Pages, Jacobsons, and Lambertys. The big event of the weekend was going into Phillips for breakfast and shopping at Northerm Mer. As usual the breakfast at the Phillips Cafe was good and cheap. The ladies spent a good part of the weekend chatting while playing Rummikub while Mary and the boys played some sheepshead. The amount of alcohol consumed for the weekend was about as much as we used to consume during the first hour on a Friday night after class at the "Library".

Mary Prohaska stopped over and wanted to know if we were planting potatoes in the same spot this year. Danny has seeded the eest half of our land and the west half of Kevins. The area is all tilled so it should be an easy plant this year. Mart spread some manure on the garden so with a little work that should be ready for the normal Memorial Days weekend planting.

Hi All

Just trying this sight to see if I can post something. I sent some of you an email stating that I had contacted John Marlenga regarding reshingling the house and out buildings at the farm. He responded and said the house need shingles, and he has some ideas. He will talk with us when he sees us at the farm.

Also, I order sweet corn seeds, and 20 asparagus plants a few days ago. I have seeds for pumpkins, squash, carrots, beets, and some flowers. Also have dill and parsley seeds.

Is anyone available to do the Sylvia/Peter Tennessen Scholarships on June 2nd. at 7pm. ?

Barb

Welcome to the Tennessen Farm

Hopefully this blog will be used to track work done at the farm, as well as store the wonderful memories and photos that are captured there.