A place where all the tedium of normal every day life meets the magic that you make of it. We live on this run down old plot of ground that has been lived on by a dozen or so families over the last hundred and forty years. Our goal is to make it ours for the next hundred or so more. We've come across a lot of challenges over the last year and a half, as we've restored most of the home and just started on the land. Some of them more pleasant than others! We've had infestations of snakes, voles, spiders, and most recently bats!. We've had misses and near hits with wasps, skunks and racoons.
But hey! lets not focus on the negative. I am a grower of things and a watcher. We've also had roosts of starlings, morning doves, perching owls and armies of bees in our trees. But to me the most majestic have been the hummingbirds that visit our window. We first started seeing them as we looked out our window in the morning in the spring and summer. They came more and more but each time looked in the reflection in the window, as if to say "Hello!' We hung a humming bird feeder on the porch. They came. One, found the nectar and stayed, watching the bottle, hung dangerously for all to see. Two, the first fending off competition for a food source. More every day until we observed at least half a dozen all at once, buzzing in for a perch being chased away until eventually he gave up the fight and 4 drank at a time, flitting away faster than you could see.
Sadly they may have moved on for the winter with the waves of cold we've had in Chester. When the garden is asleep is the perfect time to plan for spring. As I mull over the garden this winter I'll be planning my gardens and flower plantings. In the very center of the state, Sanpete is a dry county. As a horticulturist, I want to the Holding post to be an example of good landscaping with the reality of natural resources. We have plenty of trees that need pollinating. Apples don't grow without bees and we want to attract as many bees, dragonflies, pollinators and beneficial organisms as possible and we want it to be a haven for hummingbirds because they're the most fun!
But hey! lets not focus on the negative. I am a grower of things and a watcher. We've also had roosts of starlings, morning doves, perching owls and armies of bees in our trees. But to me the most majestic have been the hummingbirds that visit our window. We first started seeing them as we looked out our window in the morning in the spring and summer. They came more and more but each time looked in the reflection in the window, as if to say "Hello!' We hung a humming bird feeder on the porch. They came. One, found the nectar and stayed, watching the bottle, hung dangerously for all to see. Two, the first fending off competition for a food source. More every day until we observed at least half a dozen all at once, buzzing in for a perch being chased away until eventually he gave up the fight and 4 drank at a time, flitting away faster than you could see.
Sadly they may have moved on for the winter with the waves of cold we've had in Chester. When the garden is asleep is the perfect time to plan for spring. As I mull over the garden this winter I'll be planning my gardens and flower plantings. In the very center of the state, Sanpete is a dry county. As a horticulturist, I want to the Holding post to be an example of good landscaping with the reality of natural resources. We have plenty of trees that need pollinating. Apples don't grow without bees and we want to attract as many bees, dragonflies, pollinators and beneficial organisms as possible and we want it to be a haven for hummingbirds because they're the most fun!
