Edward Gibbon

"The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators." - Edward Gibbon

Jane Austen

"To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment." - Jane Austen

Khalil Gibran

"Sadness is but a wall between two gardens." - Khalil Gibran

Alfred Austin

"Tears are the summer showers to the soul." - Alfred Austin

Mahatma Gandhi

"The good man is the friend of all living things." - Mahatma Gandhi

Josiah Gilbert Holland

"Nature is the master of talents; genius is the master of nature." - Josiah Gilbert Holland

Luigi Pirandello

"Nature uses human imagination to lift her work of creation to even higher levels." - Luigi Pirandello

Michael Pollan

"A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule." - Michael Pollan

Rabbit Sausage

I spent the day grinding up rabbit meat to give me a few months of minced meat.

Minced meat is one of those things that I love to have around. From one type of meat, you can produce so many different meals. The fact that we eat rabbit almost all the time (with an occasional pork interlude) means that variety of recipes is important. There are so many delicious rabbit recipes, but the ones with ground meat are often quickest and easiest.

So, when Abe butchered this week, I spent the rest of the day cutting up and mincing the whole lot (9 rabbits). I now have 9 bags of minced meat, each about 1.5 lbs. Should last a while.

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Rabbit Sausage

Tree Nursery

We have some trees coming up from seeds.

In preparation for future orchard terraces, we have been starting some trees from seed. There are various techniques to help that process along, like nicking the seed cover or putting them in almost boiling water or acid for a while to break the seed cover. We've also been taking cuttings from some trees and starting them that way. All in all, we have been experiencing a pretty good amount of success and had a mini orchard growing.

[flickr set=72157640991263495 photo=6 shift=72]

Unfortunately, we had a minor tragedy occur. We had the nursery set up on a greenhouse shelf unit that we won in an Instructables contest. The shelf is great and has served us well for trees, vegetables, etc. A couple of weeks ago, however, we had a strong wind come up from a very unusual direction (the shelf is protected from all our usual winds) and blew the whole thing down. We lost everything and nearly broke Abe's heart.

But, we started over and now have several Honey Locusts and Mimosas (both nitrogen fixers, which are so important to have in an orchard) coming up. We also have lots of cuttings started again in some Willow tea (for the rooting hormone).

On a similar subject, we have set up an irrigation system for around the barn and corral. We want to grow trees that will provide shade and food for the animals. So far, we have a couple of mulberries and mesquite planted, along with a Honeysuckle vine. We have had to put protection around the ones that are small, as the chickens and guineas are already after them!

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Tree Nursery

Tent House

The north storage room is finally stuccoed and has already been taken over.

I started stuccoing the outside of the north storage right after finishing the inside (after the room was finished). However, something more important came up and I had to stop doing it to deal with that. Because the wall is always shaded, it never seemed important enough to go to the top of the list. And somehow, I never got back around to it.

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So, this past week, the guys that come up and help out when we need them finished off the job. It's now stuccoed and painted and all looks great. In fact, it looks good enough to be a house for some little creatures...

Leo and Nicky have been suggesting that it's time that they get their own house. I told them to look around and find a good site and we would figure something out. They decided on the spot in between the buttresses of the north storage room. Perfect.

The other day, we strung up a few old tent pieces and move in some "furniture" from the junkyard. They have a bed, TV, fridge, chair, table. They head off to their house in the morning and come back to the "shop" or "restaurant" for food or snacks. It's still very new to them, so I'm sure the novelty will wear off after a while, but for the moment our house is extremely peaceful.

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Tent House

Graduation

We had a wonderful graduation party for Leo and his friends.

A traditional graduation isn't always fun or meaningful for 6 year olds (or their moms?!), so instead we decided to just throw a party. We all got together, had food and cake, a bouncy castle, goodie bags and a gift for the graduating class (all 5 of them). It was a really fun day.

[flickr set=72157645735665143 photo=6 shift=6]

The kids, of course, had a blast. We've been on vacation, so it was nice for them just to all play together. Add to that a giant, inflatable, bouncy wonder, and the day is pretty much guaranteed to go well. All of them bounced from beginning to end, stopping only when forced to come in for food and presents.

[flickr set=72157645735665143 photo=14683335202 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

Leo and the other 4 going into primary school each got a backpack with school supplies in it, ready for the new school year. Then there were goody bags for all the kids.

We also gave a gift and speech to the teacher, who won't be coming back next year. It's a shame to be losing her in the class room, especially as Nicky really liked her. However, she's still all of our neighbor, so won't be losing her company.

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Graduation

Baby birds

We have had some guineas and quail born ,and it seems like our whole property is chirping.

With wild baby birds in almost every tree and bush, it was hard to tell that the latest chirp came from our own birds. In fact it was Leo that first saw the baby quail. He noticed one of the females off her nest and acting peculiar (he checks on all the nests several times a day). When he went up to her, he saw two little yellow specks following her around. They are adorable.

[flickr set=72157635204510436 photo=14676533073 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

Apparently, it's a big deal that our quail are hatching babies. It seems that the broodiness has been almost completely bred out of quail, and just about every domestic quail out there is hatched in an incubator. So, the fact that three of our females have nests, one of which has already had a couple of the eggs hatch, seems to be a major breakthrough. They never showed signs of this when we had them in a cage, but as soon as we put them in the garden, with lots of space and cover, they all went broody. Awesome.

[flickr set=72157627532956200 photo=14496937089 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

As for the guineas, we had eggs under two ducks and now a guinea is also setting. One of the ducks was due and when Abe checked on her, there was a dead baby guinea in the nest. We're not sure if she stepped on him by mistake or whether she saw that it wasn't a duck and intentionally kicked out the cuckoo. Whatever happened, we removed all the eggs and set them up in a home-made incubator in the power house. We put bottles of hot water inside an ice-chest with a tray of eggs in the center. We then added a little 12 volt heater and a thermostat. We had three hatch, but no more followed. So we candled the rest, and none of them had anything in them (we were taking them out of a guinea nest we'd found while it was super hot, so maybe they cooked a little too much before we got them). Still, we are very happy with our three babies, who are all doing great. There are more due on Saturday.

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Baby birds

First Honey

Abe and Leo opened up the bees again yesterday.

I thought Leo might be scared after getting stung last time, but he did great. He was a little nervous, but his excitement easily overcame the fear. He did exactly what Abe told him to, passed his dad different tools and even operated the smoker for most of it. Abe did occasionally have to tell him to get out of the way, as he spent most of the time with his head inside the hive!

[flickr set=72157623795483634 photo=6 shift=21]

So how is our new hive doing? Extremely well. They have now filled half of the barrel hive (see Honey Cow howto). They have a lot of brood and a decent amount of honey. We didn't rob the honey as the rain season hasn't really kicked off yet, which means the wild flowers haven't started. However, we did take just a little bit, so that we could all have a taste - delicious, dark, oak and acacia blossom.

[flickr set=72157623795483634 photo=14496954919 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

The bees remained super calm throughout the whole thing. Most of them were out working, as they did it in the middle of the day. When Abe started getting into the brood comb, the bees started to hum a pretty obvious warning, but said no more when he left their babies alone.

All in all a great check-up. So pleased to see the hive is strong and healthy.

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First Honey

Arthur Young

"God sleeps in the minerals, awakens in plants, walks in animals, and thinks in man." - Arthur Young

Robert Smithson

"Nature is never finished." - Robert Smithson

Bhumibol Adulyadej

"Nature is something outside our body, but the mind is within us." - Bhumibol Adulyadej

Judy Garland

"Behind every cloud is another cloud." - Judy Garland

Rabbit Sausage

I spent the day grinding up rabbit meat to give me a few months of minced meat.

Minced meat is one of those things that I love to have around. From one type of meat, you can produce so many different meals. The fact that we eat rabbit almost all the time (with an occasional pork interlude) means that variety of recipes is important. There are so many delicious rabbit recipes, but the ones with ground meat are often quickest and easiest.

So, when Abe butchered this week, I spent the rest of the day cutting up and mincing the whole lot (9 rabbits). I now have 9 bags of minced meat, each about 1.5 lbs. Should last a while.

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Rabbit Sausage

John Dryden

"Self-defence is Nature's eldest law." - John Dryden

Tree Nursery

We have some trees coming up from seeds.

In preparation for future orchard terraces, we have been starting some trees from seed. There are various techniques to help that process along, like nicking the seed cover or putting them in almost boiling water or acid for a while to break the seed cover. We've also been taking cuttings from some trees and starting them that way. All in all, we have been experiencing a pretty good amount of success and had a mini orchard growing.

[flickr set=72157640991263495 photo=6 shift=72]

Unfortunately, we had a minor tragedy occur. We had the nursery set up on a greenhouse shelf unit that we won in an Instructables contest. The shelf is great and has served us well for trees, vegetables, etc. A couple of weeks ago, however, we had a strong wind come up from a very unusual direction (the shelf is protected from all our usual winds) and blew the whole thing down. We lost everything and nearly broke Abe's heart.

But, we started over and now have several Honey Locusts and Mimosas (both nitrogen fixers, which are so important to have in an orchard) coming up. We also have lots of cuttings started again in some Willow tea (for the rooting hormone).

On a similar subject, we have set up an irrigation system for around the barn and corral. We want to grow trees that will provide shade and food for the animals. So far, we have a couple of mulberries and mesquite planted, along with a Honeysuckle vine. We have had to put protection around the ones that are small, as the chickens and guineas are already after them!

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Tree Nursery

Walt Disney

"You can't just let nature run wild." - Walt Disney

Tent House

The north storage room is finally stuccoed and has already been taken over.

I started stuccoing the outside of the north storage right after finishing the inside (after the room was finished). However, something more important came up and I had to stop doing it to deal with that. Because the wall is always shaded, it never seemed important enough to go to the top of the list. And somehow, I never got back around to it.

{loadposition adsense}

So, this past week, the guys that come up and help out when we need them finished off the job. It's now stuccoed and painted and all looks great. In fact, it looks good enough to be a house for some little creatures...

Leo and Nicky have been suggesting that it's time that they get their own house. I told them to look around and find a good site and we would figure something out. They decided on the spot in between the buttresses of the north storage room. Perfect.

The other day, we strung up a few old tent pieces and move in some "furniture" from the junkyard. They have a bed, TV, fridge, chair, table. They head off to their house in the morning and come back to the "shop" or "restaurant" for food or snacks. It's still very new to them, so I'm sure the novelty will wear off after a while, but for the moment our house is extremely peaceful.

{loadposition adsense}

Tent House

Graduation

We had a wonderful graduation party for Leo and his friends.

A traditional graduation isn't always fun or meaningful for 6 year olds (or their moms?!), so instead we decided to just throw a party. We all got together, had food and cake, a bouncy castle, goodie bags and a gift for the graduating class (all 5 of them). It was a really fun day.

[flickr set=72157645735665143 photo=6 shift=6]

The kids, of course, had a blast. We've been on vacation, so it was nice for them just to all play together. Add to that a giant, inflatable, bouncy wonder, and the day is pretty much guaranteed to go well. All of them bounced from beginning to end, stopping only when forced to come in for food and presents.

[flickr set=72157645735665143 photo=14683335202 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

Leo and the other 4 going into primary school each got a backpack with school supplies in it, ready for the new school year. Then there were goody bags for all the kids.

We also gave a gift and speech to the teacher, who won't be coming back next year. It's a shame to be losing her in the class room, especially as Nicky really liked her. However, she's still all of our neighbor, so won't be losing her company.

{loadposition adsense}

Graduation

Baby birds

We have had some guineas and quail born ,and it seems like our whole property is chirping.

With wild baby birds in almost every tree and bush, it was hard to tell that the latest chirp came from our own birds. In fact it was Leo that first saw the baby quail. He noticed one of the females off her nest and acting peculiar (he checks on all the nests several times a day). When he went up to her, he saw two little yellow specks following her around. They are adorable.

[flickr set=72157635204510436 photo=14676533073 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

Apparently, it's a big deal that our quail are hatching babies. It seems that the broodiness has been almost completely bred out of quail, and just about every domestic quail out there is hatched in an incubator. So, the fact that three of our females have nests, one of which has already had a couple of the eggs hatch, seems to be a major breakthrough. They never showed signs of this when we had them in a cage, but as soon as we put them in the garden, with lots of space and cover, they all went broody. Awesome.

[flickr set=72157627532956200 photo=14496937089 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

As for the guineas, we had eggs under two ducks and now a guinea is also setting. One of the ducks was due and when Abe checked on her, there was a dead baby guinea in the nest. We're not sure if she stepped on him by mistake or whether she saw that it wasn't a duck and intentionally kicked out the cuckoo. Whatever happened, we removed all the eggs and set them up in a home-made incubator in the power house. We put bottles of hot water inside an ice-chest with a tray of eggs in the center. We then added a little 12 volt heater and a thermostat. We had three hatch, but no more followed. So we candled the rest, and none of them had anything in them (we were taking them out of a guinea nest we'd found while it was super hot, so maybe they cooked a little too much before we got them). Still, we are very happy with our three babies, who are all doing great. There are more due on Saturday.

{loadposition adsense}

Baby birds

First Honey

Abe and Leo opened up the bees again yesterday.

I thought Leo might be scared after getting stung last time, but he did great. He was a little nervous, but his excitement easily overcame the fear. He did exactly what Abe told him to, passed his dad different tools and even operated the smoker for most of it. Abe did occasionally have to tell him to get out of the way, as he spent most of the time with his head inside the hive!

[flickr set=72157623795483634 photo=6 shift=21]

So how is our new hive doing? Extremely well. They have now filled half of the barrel hive (see Honey Cow howto). They have a lot of brood and a decent amount of honey. We didn't rob the honey as the rain season hasn't really kicked off yet, which means the wild flowers haven't started. However, we did take just a little bit, so that we could all have a taste - delicious, dark, oak and acacia blossom.

[flickr set=72157623795483634 photo=14496954919 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

The bees remained super calm throughout the whole thing. Most of them were out working, as they did it in the middle of the day. When Abe started getting into the brood comb, the bees started to hum a pretty obvious warning, but said no more when he left their babies alone.

All in all a great check-up. So pleased to see the hive is strong and healthy.

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First Honey

Luis Barragan

"A garden must combine the poetic and he mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy." - Luis Barragan

Don Van Vliet

"The wind is a very difficult sound to get. It's always changing." - Don Van Vliet

Ugo Betti

"There is no forgiveness in nature." - Ugo Betti

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"A weed is but an unloved flower." - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

July'14

July'14 -

Norman MacCaig

"I'm very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own." - Norman MacCaig

Gertrude Jekyll

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies." - Gertrude Jekyll

Anne Bronte

"A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine." - Anne Bronte

Emily Carr

"Trees love to toss and sway; they make such happy noises." - Emily Carr

John Clare

"He could not die when trees were green, for he loved the time too well." - John Clare

Blaise Pascal

"The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble." - Blaise Pascal

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

"The Amen of nature is always a flower." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Kurt Vonnegut

"If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy." - Kurt Vonnegut

Margaret Fuller

"Nature provides exceptions to every rule." - Margaret Fuller

Cyril Connolly

"It is only in the country that we can get to know a person or a book." - Cyril Connolly

Chief Joseph

"The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it." - Chief Joseph

Composters

The chickens have also moved out of the barn. They are currently being employed in the new terraces of the orchard.

We have three more terraces started in the forest garden. We've put in the rock retaining walls, backfilled with branches and manure (high organic matter makes for great water storage as well as fertile soil). We are now in the process of improving the soil.

[flickr set=72157621923274024 photo=6 shift=35]

[flickr set=72157621923274024 photo=14367850598 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

We have set up cages made out of lathing. We fill them with the manure that we clean out of the barn, as well as any scraps, viscera and so on. We also add hay and other carbon materials to balance out the nitrogen. We then leave each cage to compost a little. The chickens get on top and around the sides to catch any bugs fleeing the rising heat of the compost. Once it cools down a little, more insects will breed and we will then open the cage up. The chickens will then spread the wonderful soil around the terraces as they dig for bugs.

We've only just started this compost and bug tractor, so we can't really say how it works yet, but we'll keep you posted as we get results.

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Composters

Muscovy Drake

We found a drake for our Muscovy ducks.

If you recall, we got a trio in April, thinking they were two females and a male. It turns out they were all female. We also got some eggs to hatch out, but none of them made it. However, we didn't give up, and after much searching, it seems like we finally have a breeding set of Muscovies. The only slight hitch is that our drake is very young (the Muscovy mask only just starting), so he can't yet do his job.

[flickr set=72157644099597556 photo=6 shift=8]

While we wait for him to come of age, the two oldest females were getting broody, so we started putting some Guinea eggs in a nest. Guineas are notoriously bad at setting their own nests, so we figured we might as well use the ducks' strong motherly instincts as a natural incubator. Both of them are now setting their own nests, one with 11 eggs, the other with 9. We're excited to see if it'll work.

[flickr set=72157644099597556 photo=14367798840 size=small align=right hspace=10 vspace=10]

Meanwhile the other, youngest female has become best friends with the drake. The two of them are inseparable and spend most of their time splashing around in their pool. They are a joy to watch. Of all the poultry we've had, Muscovy Ducks have by far the most relaxed and endearing characters. Plus they're prolific layers during season and great setters. The meat is also supposed to be delicious, but we can't yet confirm that.

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Muscovy Drake

Mattie Stepanek

"Sunset is still my favorite color, and rainbow is second." - Mattie Stepanek

Wallace Stevens

"Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake." - Wallace Stevens