Monday, April 13, 2020

My sourdough starter overflowed pushing up the lid of its tiny crock and bumbling and spilling down the sides.  I'd overfilled it. It's nice and healthy now, and strong enough to put in the refrigerator, so I only need to feed it once per week.  Sourdough is not as hard as most people make it out to be.  In fact, its really easy.  I figure if the California gold miners made it in the dirty conditions they lived in, basically camping in pop-up cities of 10's of 1000's of people, I can handle it too.

Mosquito likes weeding with Sara.  She pulls the plants and Sara searches the roots for goodies, like grubs and bugs.  They work together every day.

There is no hay for the rabbit litter or the hen house, but luckily my neighbor, Farmer Hummingbird just rebuild his fence.  He has given me 2 huge garbage bags of redwood flakes. They are fine and dark reddish brown.  Wood is not my preferred bedding because it contains so much lignin and cellulose, woven together in a tough carbon matrix that make tree trunks, houses and fences so strong.  It doesn't break down quickly enough in the garden to be used by plants and can even smother and kill them.  It is indigestible to most animals (termites can handle it) and plants and needs strong helpers like fungi to decompose it.  That means the rabbit's dirty litter has to sit for much longer before its usable by the plants.  Still, I am grateful for these beautiful flakes.  They make for a pretty hen coop.

We now have 3 bees hives in the yard.  Mosquito and Cob-weaver are not happy.  They say the bumblebees are gone now.  As I was taking out the compost, I saw the strangest interaction: a honeybee and a bumblebee face off.  They were flying face to face, little legs outstretched offensively circling.  They were so absorbed in their battle, they didn't seem to notice me. Finally they came together, grappling and tumbling to the ground, rolling and disappearing into the grass.  I tried to part the grass to find them, but ended up disturbing the battle.  They both flew off in different directions.  I wonder who has a more powerful sting?  I know that both kinds of stings can kill their insect predators, like preying mantids.  I also know that honeybees only have 1 sting in their ammunition, then they die.  They use this sacrifice judiciously  I like to believe honeybees only use their sting if they feel they have to for the protection of their hive.  Still, honeybees are European, non-native interlopers.  The gentle bumblebees were here first.

I've been putting cleaned, crushed egg shells out for the chickens and seem to have solved the alligator egg problem.  We finally decided they were coming from Isabella because of their color. Isabella pecks me gently on the back of my legs every morning.  She is a sweet chicken.  This is her story, as best as I know it.

Isabella's Story

I know very little about Isabella.  I do not know when she was born. I cannot tell what breed she is. She came to the school midway through the fall last year, just after our school chicken Speckles died.  A girl in 5th grade came in carrying her and said, "Please take my hen, Speckles. She is the last one left of our flock.  The raccoons have eaten all of them.  They come into our yard night and day.  We cannot keep her safe."   And, so, we adopted her and she moved in with Popcorn and Diamond (Penny).  I have never heard of raccoons coming out in the daytime to eat chickens.  I often think how terrible it must have been for Isabella to live through that, and how wily and smart she must be to have escaped.

What breed do you think Isabella is?  Find her picture on the Cast of Characters page.

Farmer Ladybug🐞