The swallow’s favorite vantage point. Every morning they land here on the shop roof, to warm up and plan their day. The recent rains have caused a flush of insects, so they have been busy. We counted 120+ of barn swallows and violet-green swallows. It’s not unusual to see 50 or so swooping around the [...]
Archive for the ‘wildlife’ Category
I guess it’s summer…
Posted in agriculture, biodynamic farming, cattle, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, recipes, scratch cooking, sustainability, vegetables, wildlife, zero mile foodshed, tagged farm life, recipes, scratch cooking, wildlife on August 23, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Making do
Posted in farm life, lost skills, recipes, scratch cooking, vegetables, wildlife, zero mile foodshed, tagged farm and forest, farm life, lost skills, recipes, scratch cooking, vegetables, zero mile foodshed on August 14, 2008 | 8 Comments »
I grew up eating out of our garden and orchard. Store bought didn’t happen very often. So, I don’t have any qualms about eating less than perfect looking food. With food prices on the rise and more people gardening, people will have to get used to blemished food. (Pesticides aren’t good for you, and sometimes it is easier to just [...]
The garden is late, and the deer are early!
Posted in Belly Acres (rant), agriculture, cattle, farm life, wildlife, tagged Add new tag, agriculture, Belly Acres (rant), farm life, wildlife on July 31, 2008 | 21 Comments »
WARNING !! RANTING AND A DISTURBING PHOTO OF FARM LIFE AHEAD, PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
When we went up to the garden Monday to pick the shell peas, and pull the garlic, this is what we found - what was left of our 90′ strawberry row. We now have 75 plants that look just like this. My daughter had [...]
I promise not to post until…
Posted in agriculture, cattle, family cow, farm as desired, farm life, milk cow, wildlife, tagged family cow, cattle, farm life, agriculture, poultry on July 29, 2008 | 8 Comments »
I properly answer all my comments for the last few days. I’m canning apricot jam tonight and probably tomorrow. It’s actually raining. Yeah! Those cigarette butts the tourists toss out are making me nervous.
I have plenty to say about the garden etc, but that can wait. Here are a few pics until then.
Napping turkeys - [...]
When art imitates life or Nothin’ better to do
Posted in easily amused, farm life, lost skills, personal, quilting, wildlife, tagged embroidery, farm life, lost skills, personal, quilting, wildlife on July 9, 2008 | 13 Comments »
When I take note of my surroundings I usually have a ulterior motive…
Juvenile Pileated woodpecker
Wild Ginger
Commom Mullien
Cleavers
Damsel fly
Rare Maninja flower ( I made this one up)
Embroidery is the first needlework skill I learned as a child. I made this quilt as a gift for a friend to mark her graduation from medical school. To make [...]
Biting off more than I can …
Posted in farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, greenhouse, sustainability, vegetable gardening, vegetables, wildlife, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, farm life, greenhouse, grow your own food, self-sufficiency, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed on June 5, 2008 | 11 Comments »
chew, weed, can, freeze - fill in the blank.
About this time of year, I get impatient. When I’m on the tractor tilling the garden, it looks too small. When I’m planting seeds, or weeding it looks way TOO big. I change my mind about things about 10 times a day at least. It always gets [...]
Trying not to be wasteful
Posted in agriculture, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, greenhouse, lost skills, pastured poultry, seed saving, sustainability, vegetable gardening, vegetables, wildlife, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged Australian Shepherds, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, greenhouse, locavore, pastured poultry, seed saving, self-sufficiency, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed on June 3, 2008 | 10 Comments »
I always feel guilty if I waste food. Whether from over planting, or being over zealous in my harvesting. I try to ask myself, “Is this better on the vine, in the ground, … , OR in the refrigerator?” The refrigerator is usually the most wasteful place for me, it costs money to run, and [...]
Jetta is going into therapy
Posted in agriculture, cattle, easily amused, family cow, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, greenhouse, milk cow, sustainability, vegetable gardening, vegetables, wildlife, zero mile foodshed, tagged Australian Shepherds, family cow, farm dogs, farm life, greenhouse, pastured poultry, vegetable gardening, wildlife, zero mile foodshed on May 23, 2008 | 6 Comments »
She has to - she can’t deal with her owner anymore! I broke down and called the vet yesterday, and he gave me several reasons that I shouldn’t worry about the calf.
• The first baby can come at anytime.
• The bull, (whom we only know as Willy) may throw late calves.
• The owner can’t [...]
Meat and potatoes
Posted in agriculture, early days, easily amused, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, lost skills, seed saving, sustainability, vegetable gardening, wildlife, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, early farm life, family cow, farm life, frugality, grow your own food, over-winter vegetables, seed saving, self-sufficiency, vegetable gardening on May 21, 2008 | 6 Comments »
That is what our garden is - just your basic old vegetable garden. Full of workhorses and not too many gourmet delicacies. It feeds us year-round though, but you won’t find low performers in our garden more than a year, or two at most.
Before the rain on Tuesday, we planted 50# of potatoes. I plant the [...]
Insurance for when you assume…
Posted in cattle, family cow, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, milk cow, wildlife, tagged cattle, family cow, farm life, frugal living, homeopathy, sustainability on May 18, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Calf story - but nothing to do with Jetta. Sorry…
Remember that frozen colostrum I showed last week? I have frozen colostrum every year since getting my first milk cow, and have rarely needed it. After calving season, it becomes part of the pig treats that we find in the freezer. We have loaned colostrum to neighbors [...]
I’m worried
Posted in Belly Acres (rant), farm as desired, farm life, greenhouse, sustainability, wildlife, zero mile foodshed, tagged farm life, greenhouse, pollution, self-sufficiency, wildlife on May 16, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Not about Jetta, just about the world we live in, in general.
Last night, while working in the greenhouse, this was the only bee in there! We couldn’t keep our honey bees safe from black bears, so we quit trying to raise them, thinking native pollinators would do enough.
Living in a maritime climate, we have many cloudy, overcast [...]
May 5
Posted in easily amused, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, vegetables, wildlife, zero mile foodshed, tagged Australian Shepherds, farm life, over-winter vegetables, vegetables, wildlife on May 5, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Still waiting on Jetta…
I’m in the garden…
Frog eggs, and one salamander egg cluster.
Pacific Tree frog tadpoles and Douglas Fir seed.
Trace, weedy garlic and potato onions.
Moron of Husbandry, vindicated!
Posted in cattle, farm as desired, farm life, wildlife, tagged cattle, farm life, rotational grazing on April 28, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Do you ever make decisions that you think just maybe, you might regret? Most of these lapses in judgement have to do with coming clean with DH if something goes wrong, because if I get in a pickle, sometimes I need his help. I absolutely hate it when he changes from hubby to (my)mother in 60 seconds flat. Lots of [...]
The “treatment”
Posted in cattle, farm life, wildlife, tagged cattle, grazing on April 3, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I’ve been working on posts all day. Literally. I mean fencing, not blog stuff. But blog posts I have on the back burner are: an update on some of our laying hens who went on to fame in the big city, and what the “hay queen” thinks about hay. Hay Queen is a derogatory name [...]
Everybody has Cabin Fever!
Posted in compost, easily amused, farm life, wildlife, tagged Australian Shepherds, compost, weather on April 1, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Still snowing as of yesterday - today is clear with a temp of 23 deg F. But, once the sun is out I think it will warm considerably.
No Comment! Boys…
I’m outta here!
Add this to the What??
What a Master Gardener haughtily said to us after seeing our compost piles.
“You will HAVE to buy worms, you can’t [...]
Boop diggy po pap sappa happa doodud boodud
Posted in easily amused, farm life, greenhouse, hydraulic ram, wildlife, tagged Australian Shepherds, easily amused, farm dogs, farm life, greenhouse on March 27, 2008 | 8 Comments »
WARNING
If you don’t get silly over your dogs and your kids, you won’t find this even mildly interesting.
The title of this post is the name my daughter, (at age 4) gave our dog Belle. Other names, she went by where: Bikkie, Crapper Treek Belle, Boop Diggy, and Dog Bags. My husband and I could never remember how to say that [...]
What??
Posted in Belly Acres (rant), easily amused, farm life, redneck moments, wildlife, tagged easily amused, farm life, redneck moments on March 26, 2008 | 8 Comments »
I started out writing a post about firewood, since that’s what I concentrated on yesterday. But, the outside world can creep up on us in a flash. After reading my mail and listening to a message on our phone recorder, I lost my concentration.
Received in the mail: a newsletter from our health insurance co. with [...]
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Cinnabar moth larvae eating Tansy Ragwort Categories
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