Wordless Wednesday: Another Daylily

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Wordless Wednesday: A Daylily

Wordless Wednesday at Comedy Plus

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Some Random Shots of Summer

One of our day lilies

I am fascinated by the stigma

A geometer moth

Another, different, brown geometer moth

Bumblebee on red clover

Five-toed raccoon track and tiny, round Zorro the Cat
tracks in the mud after a flash flood.

Dwarf zinnia that Ironman successfully planted

They bloomed continuously until the first heavy frost in September.

A Carolina grasshopper

Yellow woolly bear caterpillar

An unidentified warbler

Question Mark Butterfly

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How to Landscape Your Driveway and Find 8 Tons of Steam Boiler

This photograph shows a partially landscaped driveway. Messy, but a work in progress. We have a lot of telephone poles in the woods (nobody knows why) and a lot of day lilies. So John dragged the poles out of the woods to line one side of the driveway and then we planted the lilies behind the new edge. We had all but one pole in place.
One week before the wedding, I decided I wanted the last pole in place and the last of the lilies planted, so John fired up the tractor to do the job. This should have been a 15 minute job — dig a small trench, haul in the pole, shovel the dirt back in to secure the pole and then I could plant.
It didn’t work out like that.

Our first clue that something wrong was under the earth.

John knew that the H. B. Smith Company made steam boilers. Huge ones. He became worried about what he would find.

The little trench needed for the telephone pole edging was growing bigger.

One of the first sections of the steam boiler to be uncovered.

And more pieces were pulled out from underneath.

Above, I like the movement of the earth as it falls off of this huge pipe as it is being pulled out from under the driveway.

Above: John explained the function of each piece as he pulled them out. But, of course, I have forgotten now.

Above: This piece was so close to the top of the soil that grass grew on it. John said it explained the hard bump he felt whenever he drove his truck over this area. If he had not excavated the steam boiler, the winter freezes would have gradually pushed more of the boiler up and made it hazardous.

Above and below: representative other sections of the boiler. Each of the knobs on the long pipe was attached to more pipe to a radiator in a room. There were many of these knobby pipes, so we know that this boiler came from a big building like a school.

Above: Ironically, the face plate was one of the last sections to be pulled out of the depths of the driveway. This steam boiler created at least one billion BTUs of heat!

Above: the final pile of what John excavated from the ten foot pit he had to dig in the driveway. It was about 8 tons (16,000 lbs or 7,257 kg) of scrap cast iron.

Above: The scrap metal dealer showed up about a week later with a huge truck to haul it away. It took two trips.

Above: The last load is ready to go.

Steam Boiler in the Driveway Set

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Hens in the Lilies (Again)

John and I were preparing to finish the landscaping for the driveway and the day lily beds when I looked up and saw the girls eating the ones we had already planted. Again. I shooed them out. Again. I don’t know why I expend the energy to shoo them out of the flowers when they only return as soon as I am gone.

So, the 10 minute culminating chore that John and I attempted to finisih on the driveway ended up being a three day frustration (more on that in another post). As I waited for John to work on the problem that arose in the driveway, I took these photos. I love photographing chickens because of the way they run. I can’t get enough of them!

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Bad Chickens!

The chickens continue to get into the day lilies. You can see how poorly the lilies are growing in this section after being pecked nearly to death. I caught a couple of the girls the other day (before it began snowing again!) and chased them out. But we had a bit of attitude problem . . .

They thought they would just walk down the lily bed to a section that I wouldn’t chase them out of.

They were defiant as they took their time leaving the lilies!

Finally they got some speed up and went back to the coop.

Defiant chickens are worse then pecked lilies!

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The Day Lilies

Using the telephone poles that were in the woods, John made a border for the high side of the driveway to prevent erosion (which is why the driveway is much narrower than when I bought the house). We then planted some of our day lilies behind the telephone poles and created a nice border. You can tell that we still have work to do on the far end of the drive.

It then rained and snowed for five days after we planted the lilies. They did just fine.

But then the chickens found the lily garden. They scratch in the soil, as I suspected they would. But they also take their little, no longer cute, dust baths there. And when the bath is done, they finish with nibbles of the lilies. Above you can see a large chicken dust bowl in the lily garden. Below you can see a chicken hiding behind a black tub while she makes a dust bowl. She knows she isn't supposed to be there. We run them off every time we catch them messing with the lilies.

Now I know why chickens do not usually have free range on a farm but are confined to a pen. I wish these chickens were confined.

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