Tuesday, March 31, 2020

This morning we made hot cross buns, hot times buns, hot division buns, hot minus buns, and hot equal buns with the sourdough starter.  They were good.

My husband, Beekeeper Ant, then filled the kitchen with a large tub of honey from a wild hive.  Processing honey is relatively easy from box hives.  The frames from the super (a fancy word for beehive) fit into the hand spinner and centrifugal force extracts the honey.  Wild hives are different because the combs are disorganized, fitting to whatever space the bees found.  They are removed in large chunks.  These big chunks of comb have to be squeezed by hand and extracted by gravity.  That means a lot of strainers and bowls all over the kitchen.  This honey is from eucalyptus. Eucalyptus honey is thick, heavy and bitter.  Ant says it is not his favorite kind of honey.  Did you know that the flavor, quality, thickness, and medicinal properties of honey depend on the flowers the bees forage on?

We have honeybees from outside coming to visit all our honey bowls in the kitchen because they smell the honey.  I wonder where this bee came from?  Honeybees can travel up to 3 miles from their hives in search of nectar. Mosquito and Cob-weaver's fingers are often visiting the honey bowls too.

We mostly get honey from wild hives that people don't want to live with anymore.  Ant moves these unwanted honeybees into supers and takes them to a better life on a farm. We don't keep bees at our house because our neighbors don't like them and Mosquito and Cob-weaver can't walk barefoot when we have a hive in the yard.

After Ant finishes in the kitchen (minus all the bowls everywhere that will take several days to process), he puts the dirty honey and old comb outside to attract a wild swarm to the empty supers.  It's a good time of year to catch a swarm, the swarm season is just starting.

In the afternoon, myself, Beekeeper Ant, Mosquito, and Cob-weaver went to the school garden to check the rain gauge, water, weed the lazy bed and the greenhouse and keep on building the sundial beds for planting the fall harvest.  The rain gauge read 6.2 inches of rain! We finished planting the blackberry bushes and took the rest home to better tend to them.  Its funny because until now, I have always brought things from my home garden to put at school, now I am bringing it all home.  We plan to work there every Tuesday afternoon.  The fava beans, cabbages, kale, and garlic look great, but it will be a few weeks still until harvest.  The artichokes are ready but who will eat them?  The compost looks perfect and full of worms.  It's ready for spreading.  Now I must do it myself.  I really miss all the farmers.

Garden Math: Check the Rainfall Page.  What is the largest rain measurement?  What is the smallest rain measurement? What is the total rainfall so far this school year?  What is the average rainfall (=total rainfall/# of records)?

Cob-weaver and Ant make cookies again tonight.  Cob-weaver divides them equally.  We each get 3.

Garden Math: If there are 4 people and we each get 3, how many total oatmeal cookies do Cob-weaver and Ant make?

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Makes 4 dozen
From the Quaker Oatmeal box top

1/2 pound butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
3 cups oats
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350°F
2. Beat butter and sugars
3. Add eggs and vanilla
4. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix well.
5. Stir in oats, raisins, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well
6. Drop tablespoon fulls onto ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes

Farmer Ladybug 🐞

Monday, March 30, 2020

I may be too lazy for sourdough starter.  I am supposed to feed it every day, but have only managed to do it two times in 5 days.  Another problems is that I don't like throwing away the spent dough, but am too lazy to make bread every day.  But this morning, I fed the sourdough and made biscuits with the old dough.  It looks fine, even though, as usual, I haven't followed directions perfectly.  The dough is bubbly and the biscuits tasted sour and chewy.  I don't think its strong enough to rise a loaf of bread yet, but making biscuits was easy. I can manage that every day..... I think.

Farmer Hummingbird brought over lots more romaine lettuce heads today.  I'll need to clear some space and cut back the hedge that is shading my garden to plant them.

It's been 6 days since I planted the marigold seeds.  Still no sign of green....

Sara needed help again roosting. Maybe I'll stop writing about it, and just tell you the days she does roost properly.

There was a ladybug on my pillow tonight when I went to bed.  I thanked her and helped her go outside.

Everyday Biscuits

From Lean, Luscious and Meatleass by Bobbie Hinman and Millie Snyder
I put in the starter and added flour to it to get the right quantity.

1-1/2 cups of flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp oil or butter
1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 450F
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and if desired, other herbs you might like (eg. dill, marjaram, thyme, garlic)
3. Add oil with fork until crumbly
4. Add milk so that you have a dough you can handle, not too sticky
5. Press out on a floured board to desired thickness and cut with round cutters, or make drop biscuits by placing handfuls and pressing directly onto your ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned

🐞Farmer Ladybug

Sunday, March 29, 2020

I made 4, 5 gallon buckets of yard waste, clearing and cleaning my flower beds.  I barely made a dent in all the volunteers in my flower garden.  I put those four buckets in the chicken yard to let the chickens spread around and cover up their poop.  I think it may take 6, 5-gallon buckets of yard waste to cover the whole chicken yard.  I gave the bunnies a big bunch of grass too.

I saw a lot of garden animals while I was digging and pulling out volunteers: a chrysalis of an underwing moth buried in the soil, 3 Jerusalem crickets clinging to plant roots, ladybugs, rollie pollies, cabbage white butterflies, hummingbirds, earthworms and orb-weaver spiders.

I planted my medicine and food plants that I'd collected from the hike yesterday.

As I was working a Red-shouldered Hawk flew over carrying a small rodent.  It was getting dive-bombed by crows.  Because of this it flew really, really low and I could see it well.  They wanted it to drop its food.  It kept flying southeast.  It flew in the direction that I saw a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks the other day feeding each other.  Maybe it was one of the pair?

I also saw 2 Red-tailed Hawks fly over. They are very unusual for my yard.  What are they doing here?

When I went to close up the rabbits they had dug a big hole and escaped again.  This is the first hole that they have dug since they escaped that first day.  I wonder why they dug another hole today?  Was it something to do with the weather?  This time, we were ready.  We had a plan to corral them and it worked!  I noticed that their digging was great in turning and fluffing up the soil in the chicken yard deeply.  Also, they succeeded in burying 1/3rd of the yard with their digging, meaning I didn't have to rake the chicken poop.  Thank you, bunnies!  I wonder if I can use the bunnies to clean the chicken yard every day?

The chickens only ate 3 cups of food again today, so adding yard waste and kitchen scraps to the chicken yard seems as if it will save me from needing to buy so much chicken food.

Tonight I put Sara on the roost to sleep.  Now Popcorn is on the floor.  Why are they not going to roost with the other chickens?  Are they getting pecked?

Garden Math: If yard waste could be measured in gallons, and today I put 4, 5-gallon buckets of yard waste in the chicken yard, solve how many total gallons of yard waste I put on the chicken yard today.  If I need to do 6, 5-gallon buckets a day to cover the whole yard, how many total gallons is that?

🐞Farmer Ladybug

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Oh boy, we have a fly problem.  These flies are called stable flies.  They are tiny and fly in a small circle around and around and around in the same spot.  I've learned these are the males displaying for females.  When they are in our home, we name them Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe, Tiny, Teeny and so on.  It is one of the reasons we don't usually have more than 4 chickens. More chickens mean more poop and flies live on poop.  My neighbors also don't like flies. So in order to manage for the flies, I must know about flies and know what they like.  I know that they like poop and they like still, clean air.  A farmer must know all the animals on their farm and know what they like, so that the farm can stay balance

Fly Reduction Strategies

1. Manage the chicken poop by raking the chicken yard daily, cleaning the coop daily and covering the chicken yard with yard waste
2. Smoking out the chicken yard
3. Running a fan in the chicken yard
4. Any more ideas?

Strategies 2 and 3 do not solve the problem, they simply move the flies elsewhere (possibly to my neighbors, which is not good).  I must prevent the flies from being born in the first place.  I must manage the poop.  Put your ideas in the comments.  Remember- I don't kill garden animals because all animals are my helpers.  They indicate to me what is out of balance and what needs managing.

Yesterday I gave the chickens food scraps from the kitchen.  They only ate 3 cups of food instead of 4.

As usual, there are American crows in the chicken yard.  They act like chickens too except they fly away when I come in.  They also eat the chicken food.

Today we went to one of our favorite hiking spots.  It has lots of volunteer plants from Europe (some people call these types of plants weeds).  I brought some back home with me to plant in my garden:  roman chamomile also called pineapple weed (Chamomilla suaveolens), sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella), curly dock (Rumex crispus), plantain (Plantago lanceolata) and watercress (Rorippa nasturtuium-aquaticum).

Sara tried to sleep on the coop floor again so I moved her again.  Popcorn and Isabella slept in the nesting boxes.  Everyone else uses the perches.

Ant and Cob-weaver are cooking again but there are not more chocolate chips.  Tonight they make sugar cookies.

Easy Sugar Cookies

2-3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter softened
1-1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. Mix flour, baking soda and baking powder
3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Gradually mix in dry ingredients.
4. Put in fridge to cool for 15-30 minutes (although you can skip this part if you just can't wait)
5. Roll and shape cookies.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes

🐞Farmer Ladybug

Friday, March 27, 2020

Someone is laying turtle eggs.  The shells are soft and leathery.  It is the second egg we have found like this this week.  The problem is that today the eggs broke on Popcorn's chest and her white feathers are covered with dried egg yolk.  We don't think it's Popcorn's egg because they are large and not white, but why was it all over Popcorn?

I'll add more calcium to their diet.  I don't have oyster shells right now, but can feed them washed, crushed egg shells and I have lots of sourgrass, which is high in calcium.  I also have lots of comfrey, but our patch is just coming up (it dies back in winter).  It won't be ready to harvest for a few weeks.

I found Isabella in the street this morning, so its time to clip her wings too.  I decide I will do it and also bathe Popcorn, Sara and Coco.  Sara and Coco have dried poop clumped up around their vents.  It's a yucky job and I've been putting it off.  Cob-weaver assists.  I put my gloves on and start with Sara.  Then I clip Isabella's wings, then bathe Popcorn.  Last is Coco.  I'm glad the sun came out after I was done.

I gave the chickens a lot of kitchen scraps today and a whole bucket of weeds.  I've been trying to do a bucket each day to keep down the flies. I noticed the bunnies eyeing the grass and put some in with them and they were crazy for it.  Even Founds came out of the pen to eat.  They definitely need more fresh greens.

The bunnies are using their run and not digging holes.  I wonder if they only dig holes to lay in cool soil under ground.  Are they not digging because the ground is so wet?

Farmer Ladybug 🐞

Thursday, March 26, 2020

We made the third and fourth videos today.  We planted 1 celery, 4 beets, 4 romaine lettuce heads, and 4 onions from our kitchen scraps.

Luckily, my neighbors, Farmer Hummingbird and his wife, City Planner Rat, are not lazy farmers.  They have too much romaine lettuce and they also love to share. We are happy to help.  We eat the tops and plant the bottoms again in our garden.

Because of the storms last night, and we are worried the bunnies are hardly moving, I decided to try again making a larger area for the bunnies.  I secured the fence tightly.  It seems to be working.

Our chicken food bin is almost empty.  I need to supplement with yard waste and kitchen scraps.

Garden math: Each chicken needs ½ cup of food a day.  There are 8 chickens.  How many cups of food does Farmer Ladybug use each day?

Sara tried to roost on the floor again.

At night there were 3 big storms.

Farmer Ladybug 🐞

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

We made the second video today. We worked more clearing the sundial/ medicine wheel for the video.

Since I am out of yeast and not going to the store, I finally make sourdough starter. I usually make bread for pizza once a week.  Years ago before I let my sourdough starter die, I would make all the bread- loaf bread, arabic bread, english muffins, biscuits, pizzas, etc.  I made bread for 5 years running at least! I even had the kids grind the grain when Mosquito was in 3rd grade.  My new starter will take 10 days to be mature enough to stop daily feeding.  Since I am lazy, I don't measure anything. I simply mix flour (rye and white) with water to a pancake batter consistency, put in a small crock and place on the back of my stove.  I am not lazy about the water for my starter.  Chlorine will kill the wild yeast, so I take the time to let the tap water sit out overnight to off gas chlorine before mixing it to make the starter.  Cob-weaver is amazed that yeast are floating all around us to be captured just by stirring flour and water.

Sara tried to roost on the floor of the coop. I moved her onto a stick.  I don't want her to get pooped on.

At night there is a hailstorm.  I'm worried about the bunnies but glad the school chickens are here instead of the drafty school coop.

Sourdough Starter

Mix flour and water into a thick pancake batter consistency with chlorine-free water to make about 1 cup.  Cover and set in a warm place.  To feed, make 1/2 cup fresh batter daily and add to it 1/2 cup of starter.  Discard spent starter or use for making breads.  Continue daily for 10 days.  After 10 days, and if your starter seems healthy, you may keep it in the fridge and feed only once per week.


Farmer Ladybug 🐞

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

We made the first video for the gardening class.  In the video, I planted my marigold seeds.  I am to expect them to germinate in 5-10 days.  I plant them 1/8" deep.  They need to be 8" apart when I transplant them in the garden.

Garden math: Today is March 25. My marigold seeds will germinate in 5-10 days.  What is the earliest date that I may see the marigold seedlings?

Cob-weaver and Mosquito go to their sit spots and journal while I am in Zoom meetings all day.  Cob-weaver sees two hummingbirds fighting and says the gulls are displaying again this year on the neighbors rooftop.  It looks like they want to nest there again this year.  Mosquito says the sparrows came right up to her.  We also see the light-colored deer again.  We name her Faline.

We've been finally getting to know the personalities of the bunnies.  I can finally tell them apart. Founds sleeps a lot.

I heard from the county bird compiler yesterday.  They bulbul has been seen again in another part of town.

Farmer Ladybug 🐞

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Sara likes warm hugs.

Mosquito and Cob-weaver started to clear the medicine wheel.  They want to make it into a garden with corn.  We have not ever grown corn at our house.  They clear about 1/4 of the circle by hand and we feed it to the chickens.  We find these wild plants growing in the medicine wheel: grass, sourgrass  (Oxalis pes-caprae), burr clover (Medicago polymorpha), chickweed (Stellaria media) and stork's bill (Erodium cicutarium).  We see these wild animals as we dig and work: California slender salamander (Batrachoseps attenuatus), ladybug, slug, earthworm, spider eggs, ant colony, orb-weaver spider, funnel weaver spider, painted-lady butterfly, cabbage white butterfly, American crow, Western gull, and Golden-crowned sparrow.

Cob-weaver collects all the bulbs of the sourgrass.  These are the tear-dropped shaped tuberous parts on the roots.  They look like little nuts. She wants to eat them and snacks on some raw. We peel and roast them for dinner.  I like them but Beekeeper Ant says they poke in the throat.

Garden Math: If we clear 1/4 of the medicine wheel a day, how many days will it take to clear all the wild plants from the medicine wheel?

Beekeeper Ant and Mei Mei Cob-weaver decide to make chocolate chip cookies after dinner.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 7 dozen, from Guittard chocolate chip package

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In separate bowl, cream butter, sugars, then add eggs and vanilla until smooth.  Gradually add flour mixture until combined.  Stir in chips and walnuts.
4. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. 
5. Bake 8-10 minutes.
6. Freeze leftover dough for another day.

Farmer Ladybug 🐞

Friday, March 20, 2020

The school hens are pecking back.  Popcorn and Diamond stick together.  Sara is still hiding.  The bunnies are still in their small cage.  Mosquito is worried because it looks as if they don't move around at all.

I hear loudly then see a Red-whiskered Bulbul in the yard!!!!  This is a bird is native to tropical regions of Asia, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and the south China coast.  I wonder if the big storms have blown it here off course. I report it to the county bird compiler and he tells me it may be an escaped pet or may be moving in our county from established populations in southern California.  What a beautiful song!  I would love to have bulbuls in my yard more.

Farmer Ladybug 🐞

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Sara is still solitary and hiding all day.  She stands next to any human in the yard.  I think this is mostly for companionship, but it also affords her protection.  It seems she thinks she is more human than chicken.  When we are not there she stands in her camouflage spot under the mallow hibiscus.  She stands very, very still.  That night she tries to roost outside again, so I move her inside again.

We plant a apple tree sapling in the chicken yard.

I took away the run for Founds and Mackenzie.  I don't want them to escape again.

Farmer Ladybug 🐞

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Sara escaped in the morning so I clipped her wings.

Sara tries to be very still so no one will see her.  She has found the darkest part of the chicken yard and stands still in it all day.  It is covered with mallow hibiscus and next to the palm.  She is pecked by everyone.  Definitely at the bottom of the pecking order.  I set up a separate bowl for her food because she won't eat next to anyone else.  She stands very still if another chicken comes.  I think she thinks she is invisible.

The school hens are getting pecked.  Everyone is so noisy all day.  Since we already have a chicken named Penny, we renamed school Penny, Diamond.  Diamond is a Silver-Laced Wyandotte like Coco.  We decided to rename Speckles too, because of the school Speckles that died last year.  We named her Isabella after her benefactor.

We made a run for the bunnies because their cage is really small, but they escaped.  It was really hard to catch them and it took a long time.  We were all tired and dirty after.  We renamed the bunnies, formerly Tara Bunny and Chen Rabbit.  I could never remember their names or tell them apart.  They are now Founds (black nose and ears) and MacKenzie (gray nose and ears).

Shei Shei Mosquito and Mei Mei (Younger Sister) Cob-weaver Spider rake the whole chicken yard.

Sara roosted outside on top of the coop.  I moved her in the coop.

I started clipping Coco's toe nails after the chickens went to roost. They are really long and curled.  I can only cut a little at a time, otherwise I will cut into the quick of the nail and it will bleed a lot.

Garden Math Problem: I have to cut 1 inch from Coco's nails.  I can cut 1/16th inch per day. How many days will it take to cut and inch from Coco's nails?

Farmer Ladybug 🐞

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Shelter-in-place starts.

In the early afternoon we moved the bunnies home.  We took some time setting up the old dog kennel for them.  It seemed so small compared to their regular home and without shelter- even with a board on top.  I'm worried about raccoons.  Shei Shei (Elder Sister) Mosquito, who is my main helper in all of this, suggests using the small chicken house we used as a brooder for Roxy last year.  Mosquito cut a ramp with dad, Beekeeper Ant, and voila, shelter.  I hope I can still brood baby chicks this year.  I guess we will have to find another way.

We prep the coop by cleaning it out and adding more roosting sticks. We go to pick up the chickens after nightfall because everyone has already gone to roost.  They are much easier than the bunnies.  We just slip the school chickens in with our sleeping hens.

Garden Math: There are 4 school chickens and we have 4 chickens already at our house.  How many chickens do we have in total?

Happy St. Patrick's Day,
Farmer Ladybug 🐞