Welcome to
The Maple Hill Hop.
This is a hop for folks who love the outdoors.
Feel free to post about anything that's going on
OUTSIDE
in your neck of the woods,
no matter the season.
no matter the season.
(Please share only outdoor posts.)
*Grab the button above to link back to Maple Hill 101.*
*******
Although our "Farm School" posts ended a while back,
I've still been frequenting the farm to help out each weekend.
It's been a wonderful experience,
and there's still so much to learn.
Here are a few snippets from my visit last Sunday.
The weather's been less than predictable here,
pretty much like everywhere else in the country.
This peat had gotten downright swampy.
(Peat is one of the ingredients that Lynn uses in his special soil mix.)
So he placed it in these pots to be dried by the sun.
Notice how they are tilted to get the best exposure.
Every so often he'd turn the peat over with a cultivator.
Why not let Mother Nature do some of the work?
Brilliant!
Lynn wanted to show me how to properly identify a coral snake.
Have no fear, it's dead.
He found this fellow slithering among the pots in part of the garden.
Its head was promptly taken off so that it could cause no harm.
These snakes are just plain deadly.
One bite can kill within hours.
The coloring is similar to the King snake, which is harmless.
The King snake's snout is red but has a similar ring pattern.
The snout of the coral snake is black.
This rhyme can be used to remember the difference:
"Red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow."
The best way to deal with them is to see them before they see you.
Here's another "Lynnovation".
He has a pipe with a piece of nylon twine inside.
The end of the twine is looped around within the pipe.
The other end can be pulled up after the loop is placed on the neck of the snake.
Eh, voila!
You can pick that puppy up so he can't hurt anyone.
We had some free time,
so Faye took me for a field trip across the street.
She drove me around her neighbor's house in the golf cart
and we checked out his vintage trailer.
Isn't it just adorable?
*******
Although our "Farm School" posts ended a while back,
I've still been frequenting the farm to help out each weekend.
It's been a wonderful experience,
and there's still so much to learn.
Here are a few snippets from my visit last Sunday.
The weather's been less than predictable here,
pretty much like everywhere else in the country.
This peat had gotten downright swampy.
(Peat is one of the ingredients that Lynn uses in his special soil mix.)
So he placed it in these pots to be dried by the sun.
Notice how they are tilted to get the best exposure.
Every so often he'd turn the peat over with a cultivator.
Why not let Mother Nature do some of the work?
Brilliant!
Lynn wanted to show me how to properly identify a coral snake.
Have no fear, it's dead.
He found this fellow slithering among the pots in part of the garden.
Its head was promptly taken off so that it could cause no harm.
These snakes are just plain deadly.
One bite can kill within hours.
The coloring is similar to the King snake, which is harmless.
The King snake's snout is red but has a similar ring pattern.
The snout of the coral snake is black.
This rhyme can be used to remember the difference:
"Red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow."
The best way to deal with them is to see them before they see you.
Here's another "Lynnovation".
He has a pipe with a piece of nylon twine inside.
The end of the twine is looped around within the pipe.
The other end can be pulled up after the loop is placed on the neck of the snake.
Eh, voila!
You can pick that puppy up so he can't hurt anyone.
We had some free time,
so Faye took me for a field trip across the street.
She drove me around her neighbor's house in the golf cart
and we checked out his vintage trailer.
Isn't it just adorable?
He recently sold his larger Airstream
to downsize to something more practical for he and his wife.
It was a good move.
Faye and I just love our field trips!
What's been going on outside where you are?
HOP on!
