Crow has a partner. There are now always two who come.
We finally got an egg from Popcorn today. The first in two weeks. I hope this means the comfrey is helping.
Farmer Ladybug π
Showing posts with label Sara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sara. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
It has become a routine for us to have Sara out playing in the front yard while we enjoy the morning sun. She stays very close by. We never worry. Even when I'm in the chicken yard, she is so constantly underfoot that I have to be careful not to step or trip over her. If I am standing next to the hen house, she will get up higher so she can be at eye level with me. It is both endearing and annoying. What was funny today, was as we were basking about pulling weeds in the front yard, our neighbor who walks by daily with her old black lab, Samantha, was standing and staring. It took me some time to notice. She finally said, "Do you see something strange, Samantha?" Samantha was staring intently at Sara, not blinking, with drool dripping out of her mouth. She was as still as a statue. It was then that it finally occurred to me how strange a sight it is to see a chicken freely walking around in a yard. Samantha stayed staring and drooling for quite some time before her owner gently urged her on with her walk.
Crow has a partner. There are now always two who come.
We finally got an egg from Popcorn today. The first in two weeks. I hope this means the comfrey is helping.
Farmer Ladybug π
Crow has a partner. There are now always two who come.
We finally got an egg from Popcorn today. The first in two weeks. I hope this means the comfrey is helping.
Farmer Ladybug π
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.
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 Ladybugπ
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 Ladybugπ
Friday, April 10, 2020
While we were doing our afternoon lesson, Mosquito saw a swarm. It was surrounding our tiny house. I ran out the front door to see it better. There's nothing so wonderful as standing in the middle of a swarm of bees. It's like standing in a hurricane, only safer. Swarming bees are not protecting anything, so they don't sting. They are only interested in staying with their queen. I also have the special ability to not get stung by bees, even though for the last 20 years we've always had bees nearby. When you stand in a swarm, you can feel the wind of all of their tiny bodies, thousands of bees swirling and whirling. The buzzing sound vibrates you. And as quick as it forms, it is gone. If you aren't watching for it, you wouldn't see it happen. My neighbor across the street was weeding, his back turned to me. He never saw it. The bees moved into our backyard, into an open super. We are happy to give them a home.
In the morning, I worked more on the new sundial medicine wheel garden. I finished weeding and then moved onto the dirty work: compost. We have two composters. One is supposed to sit and break down while the other gets filled. When one gets filled after 3-6 months, we empty the finished one into the garden beds. Somehow, this time, there was confusion about which one to add to, so it turned out that both had raw compost. That was why the work is dirty. Raw compost stinks and the smell gets into your skin. It takes many, many washings to remove. Also, its wet, gloppy, sticky and hard to spread. You also cannot spread it on top of your garden, not only because it stinks, but it can attract unwanted visitors, like rats and possum, but it will burn your plants. You have to bury it. To make it easier to work with, I decide to make compost tea. I empty the composter into a wheelbarrow, add water and mix. It's like a witches brew, stirring it with my shovel, and the smell! Mosquito and Cob-weaver don't come near. They stay indoors and close all the windows to the house. After mixing all the composts chunks into a tea to make a slurry, I pour this over the new bed, then turn it in. I then take the wheelbarrow to the vegetable garden and side dress all of the rows. While I work, a looper moth lands on my leg. She stays with me the whole time I work in the garden. After, I have to change my clothes. Cob-weaver comes outside to take care of the looper moth. Then I scrub and scrub my hands and shower. I use a wonderful lemon sugar scrub Mosquito made for me in last year's gardening class. It leaves my hands and arms soft and clean. Still it takes the rest of the day for Cob-weaver to come close to me. The smell finally left after I washed the dinner dishes. When I walked outside in the setting sun, the whole yard smelled like a cow pasture, fresh and fertile.
As I work, I see lots of animals. Bisbis has caught another gopher from the garden. This was the one that had been eating my parsley. Skipper butterflies dance together on the grass. One sits on the ground, flapping, while the other flips and spins and performs above it. We have several kinds of skippers that use our lawn. These are woodland skippers. I dig up a Jerusalem cricket. I carry him gently and bury him in another part of the yard. Cabbage-white and Painted Lady butterfly float by. And, then there are ladybugs. Lots and lots of ladybugs.
Chard seedlings are growing from the plantings I did last week. And there a lots and lots of seedlings starting in the big pot that I planted in garden video. This is the one I put the entire pack of marigold seeds in. I am not sure I have any marigolds at all, but for sure there are other plants coming up. I can tell because the seedlings look a little bit different from one another. I did use old soil for this pot, some of it dug from the yard. By watching the seedlings grow, I will learn to recognize them.
1 cup white sugar
juice of 1 lemon
lemon zest (optional)
Note: you can also use lemon essential oil in the place of lemon juice, or other essential oils, like lavender. I always like adding the real product to my scrubs, like dried lavendar or lemon peel.
Farmer Ladybugπ
In the morning, I worked more on the new sundial medicine wheel garden. I finished weeding and then moved onto the dirty work: compost. We have two composters. One is supposed to sit and break down while the other gets filled. When one gets filled after 3-6 months, we empty the finished one into the garden beds. Somehow, this time, there was confusion about which one to add to, so it turned out that both had raw compost. That was why the work is dirty. Raw compost stinks and the smell gets into your skin. It takes many, many washings to remove. Also, its wet, gloppy, sticky and hard to spread. You also cannot spread it on top of your garden, not only because it stinks, but it can attract unwanted visitors, like rats and possum, but it will burn your plants. You have to bury it. To make it easier to work with, I decide to make compost tea. I empty the composter into a wheelbarrow, add water and mix. It's like a witches brew, stirring it with my shovel, and the smell! Mosquito and Cob-weaver don't come near. They stay indoors and close all the windows to the house. After mixing all the composts chunks into a tea to make a slurry, I pour this over the new bed, then turn it in. I then take the wheelbarrow to the vegetable garden and side dress all of the rows. While I work, a looper moth lands on my leg. She stays with me the whole time I work in the garden. After, I have to change my clothes. Cob-weaver comes outside to take care of the looper moth. Then I scrub and scrub my hands and shower. I use a wonderful lemon sugar scrub Mosquito made for me in last year's gardening class. It leaves my hands and arms soft and clean. Still it takes the rest of the day for Cob-weaver to come close to me. The smell finally left after I washed the dinner dishes. When I walked outside in the setting sun, the whole yard smelled like a cow pasture, fresh and fertile.
As I work, I see lots of animals. Bisbis has caught another gopher from the garden. This was the one that had been eating my parsley. Skipper butterflies dance together on the grass. One sits on the ground, flapping, while the other flips and spins and performs above it. We have several kinds of skippers that use our lawn. These are woodland skippers. I dig up a Jerusalem cricket. I carry him gently and bury him in another part of the yard. Cabbage-white and Painted Lady butterfly float by. And, then there are ladybugs. Lots and lots of ladybugs.
Chard seedlings are growing from the plantings I did last week. And there a lots and lots of seedlings starting in the big pot that I planted in garden video. This is the one I put the entire pack of marigold seeds in. I am not sure I have any marigolds at all, but for sure there are other plants coming up. I can tell because the seedlings look a little bit different from one another. I did use old soil for this pot, some of it dug from the yard. By watching the seedlings grow, I will learn to recognize them.
Lemon Sugar hand scrub
1/4 cup coconut oil1 cup white sugar
juice of 1 lemon
lemon zest (optional)
Note: you can also use lemon essential oil in the place of lemon juice, or other essential oils, like lavender. I always like adding the real product to my scrubs, like dried lavendar or lemon peel.
- Melt the coconut oil.
- Add the sugar. Mix.
- Add the lemon and lemon zest.
- Pour into a jar with a top and let cool.
- To use, after washing with soap, get a teaspoon to a tablespoon of scrub and work it into your skin for as long as you like. Rinse off.
Farmer Ladybugπ
Monday, April 6, 2020
In the morning, Sara was cooing in the dog kennel. I removed the blanket I had put over the top, said "good morning," and went to make coffee in the kitchen. Then, at the top of her voice, she started singing what we call the "egg song." It's that loud rhythmic hen song that all the hens sing to announce to the whole world that they are going to go and lay an egg. It echoed and bounced all throughout our tiny, sleeping house. Since Cob-weaver and Mosquito were still sleeping and I still hadn't had my coffee, I quickly carried Sara in her kennel out to the chicken yard and let her out. When I came back in the house, Cob-weaver was awake and rubbing her eyes.
Ant wakes up really, really early. He has farmer's hours, but with no farm to tend to, so at 4:30 am, he goes outside to listen to the world waking up. He told us that he heard lots and lots of birds chirping, tweeting, and pipping high in the sky. Swallows, especially. It's spring migration and we are right on the Pacific flyway. This is the major bird super highway that follows the coastline. During migration, birds use the strong storm winds to help push them over large distances and in spring, everyone is going north. They usually come in waves in front of storms. In between storms, there can be fall-outs, where they literally fall out of the sky, land and refuel. When you are in the middle of a fall-out, the trees are dripping with birds, a lot of them are warblers, tanagers and orioles, the dazzling and bejeweled ones. It's a good time to year to look for fall-outs.
Cob-weaver's caterpillar has made a cocoon. It's a moth, for sure. She was right, as always, it's not a cabbage-white butterfly.
Ant wakes up really, really early. He has farmer's hours, but with no farm to tend to, so at 4:30 am, he goes outside to listen to the world waking up. He told us that he heard lots and lots of birds chirping, tweeting, and pipping high in the sky. Swallows, especially. It's spring migration and we are right on the Pacific flyway. This is the major bird super highway that follows the coastline. During migration, birds use the strong storm winds to help push them over large distances and in spring, everyone is going north. They usually come in waves in front of storms. In between storms, there can be fall-outs, where they literally fall out of the sky, land and refuel. When you are in the middle of a fall-out, the trees are dripping with birds, a lot of them are warblers, tanagers and orioles, the dazzling and bejeweled ones. It's a good time to year to look for fall-outs.
Cob-weaver's caterpillar has made a cocoon. It's a moth, for sure. She was right, as always, it's not a cabbage-white butterfly.
Sunday, April 5, 2020
There was a big, reddish brown millipede curled under the bunny litter box this morning. I left it alone. Do you remember the story about millipede?
So much rain today! About dinner time, Ant came in and said, "you have to do something about Sara, she's soaking wet." Cob-weaver and Mosquito chimed in, "help her, please help her, she doesn't know how to stay out of the rain." I said, "she's fine, she has been in rain before and lived. Remember all the rain we had last week?" But Ant insisted, and so did Cob-weaver and Mosquito, so I went out in the rain and got out an old dog carrier from the shed, cleaned and dried it and put fresh newspaper and an old flannel sheet inside. Meanwhile, Cob-weaver had separated Sara and was making her stand under the eaves of the house because as she said, "she doesn't know to stand under cover in the rain." She was indeed soaking wet. I also noticed that the other younger chickens, Lula and Penny, were pretty wet, but no one was worried about them. So, we put Sara inside the kennel and I carried her in the house and put her next to the heater. And she got to sleep in a house once again.
All of us have a story and all of our lives are interesting. This is Sara's story, as best as I know it. Sara was hatched May 28, 2018 with 6 other eggs in a classroom incubator. Ms. Anjo*, the teacher, got the eggs from a friend of hers. The class lovingly raised all 7 chicks, but Ms. Anjo loved them most of all. She earnestly cared for them, taking them home every night, on weekends and over the long summer break. All the chicks were given names, of course, but as they grew older, it become apparent that only one was a hen, and only one could be kept. That one was Sara. You can still see a picture of Ms. Anjo and Sara together in last year's yearbook.
Over summer break, Ms Anjo with the help of friends and parents bought, delivered and built a coop for Sara and moved her outside into the garden. The coop is palatial compared to the one already in the garden, which already was home to 3 other hens. Why did Sara get her own coop? Well, because Ms. Anjo thought she would have more than just one hen and then when it was apparent there would be only one hen, Ms. Anjo didn't want Sara to be pecked by the other hens already in the garden. Besides, she'd already built the second coop.
So there Sara lived in the new coop, all alone, until Spring, when she started showing signs of being broody. The students could no longer gather her eggs, so we decided to let her raise her own chicks. I got 6 fertilized eggs from a friend and Sara brooded them. Did you know only fertilized eggs can hatch? She sat and sat. She was so protective. You would not even recognize her, her personality changed so much. One egg disappeared. We didn't understand, until much later the fierce battles Sara was having at night to keep her eggs protected. For 21 days exactly she sat and just after Easter, the 5 remaining eggs hatched. There were five fluffy baby chicks! Sara was a good mother and really fierce. Only Ms. Anjo and I could go into the pen to feed them. Not because she liked us or let us, but because we could withstand her blows and attacks. We noticed rat droppings in the coop, and then for the first time I looked at that coop and understood her fierceness. Ms. Anjo and I quickly got to work adding finer gauge chicken wire all over the roof and adding a door to the coop to close each night. We also added wire to the steep, steep ladder, so the chicks could easily walk it. So Sara and her chicks were safe and she raised them well. The garden students voted and named them Jack, Mango, Moonlight, Skittles and Experiment #1. Here is our garden chalkboard from that vote:
At the end of the school year, Mosquito, Cob-weaver and I took the chicks back to the farm where their birth mothers and father lived and Sara was once again left alone. Then Ms. Anjo moved to the big city. She wanted more than anything to take Sara too, but she could not move her into an apartment, so she left her in my care.
Now Sara's story continues here, at my house, where she is learning finally to be a part of a pecking order. She continues to have new experiences, like walking around the neighborhood and sleeping in my house. The rest of the story, you can read here.
Farmer Ladybug π
*my new codes to puzzle out. I will be sending out a puzzle soon on the Garden math page with more decoding for you.
So much rain today! About dinner time, Ant came in and said, "you have to do something about Sara, she's soaking wet." Cob-weaver and Mosquito chimed in, "help her, please help her, she doesn't know how to stay out of the rain." I said, "she's fine, she has been in rain before and lived. Remember all the rain we had last week?" But Ant insisted, and so did Cob-weaver and Mosquito, so I went out in the rain and got out an old dog carrier from the shed, cleaned and dried it and put fresh newspaper and an old flannel sheet inside. Meanwhile, Cob-weaver had separated Sara and was making her stand under the eaves of the house because as she said, "she doesn't know to stand under cover in the rain." She was indeed soaking wet. I also noticed that the other younger chickens, Lula and Penny, were pretty wet, but no one was worried about them. So, we put Sara inside the kennel and I carried her in the house and put her next to the heater. And she got to sleep in a house once again.
Sara's story
All of us have a story and all of our lives are interesting. This is Sara's story, as best as I know it. Sara was hatched May 28, 2018 with 6 other eggs in a classroom incubator. Ms. Anjo*, the teacher, got the eggs from a friend of hers. The class lovingly raised all 7 chicks, but Ms. Anjo loved them most of all. She earnestly cared for them, taking them home every night, on weekends and over the long summer break. All the chicks were given names, of course, but as they grew older, it become apparent that only one was a hen, and only one could be kept. That one was Sara. You can still see a picture of Ms. Anjo and Sara together in last year's yearbook.
 |
| Baby Sara |
 |
| Sara having storytime with Ms. Anjo |
Over summer break, Ms Anjo with the help of friends and parents bought, delivered and built a coop for Sara and moved her outside into the garden. The coop is palatial compared to the one already in the garden, which already was home to 3 other hens. Why did Sara get her own coop? Well, because Ms. Anjo thought she would have more than just one hen and then when it was apparent there would be only one hen, Ms. Anjo didn't want Sara to be pecked by the other hens already in the garden. Besides, she'd already built the second coop.
So there Sara lived in the new coop, all alone, until Spring, when she started showing signs of being broody. The students could no longer gather her eggs, so we decided to let her raise her own chicks. I got 6 fertilized eggs from a friend and Sara brooded them. Did you know only fertilized eggs can hatch? She sat and sat. She was so protective. You would not even recognize her, her personality changed so much. One egg disappeared. We didn't understand, until much later the fierce battles Sara was having at night to keep her eggs protected. For 21 days exactly she sat and just after Easter, the 5 remaining eggs hatched. There were five fluffy baby chicks! Sara was a good mother and really fierce. Only Ms. Anjo and I could go into the pen to feed them. Not because she liked us or let us, but because we could withstand her blows and attacks. We noticed rat droppings in the coop, and then for the first time I looked at that coop and understood her fierceness. Ms. Anjo and I quickly got to work adding finer gauge chicken wire all over the roof and adding a door to the coop to close each night. We also added wire to the steep, steep ladder, so the chicks could easily walk it. So Sara and her chicks were safe and she raised them well. The garden students voted and named them Jack, Mango, Moonlight, Skittles and Experiment #1. Here is our garden chalkboard from that vote:
 |
| Broody Sara |
At the end of the school year, Mosquito, Cob-weaver and I took the chicks back to the farm where their birth mothers and father lived and Sara was once again left alone. Then Ms. Anjo moved to the big city. She wanted more than anything to take Sara too, but she could not move her into an apartment, so she left her in my care.
Now Sara's story continues here, at my house, where she is learning finally to be a part of a pecking order. She continues to have new experiences, like walking around the neighborhood and sleeping in my house. The rest of the story, you can read here.
Farmer Ladybug π
*my new codes to puzzle out. I will be sending out a puzzle soon on the Garden math page with more decoding for you.
Saturday, April 4, 2020
This morning when cleaning the chicken coop I found fresh blood and another crocodile egg. They were in different parts of the coop, so I don't think their appearance was related. The egg was older too, with all the insides eaten. I know there are no crocodiles, alligators, turtles or snakes in the coop. The egg is definitely from a chicken.
I ground up finely the 12 washed egg shells I'd collected over the course of the week and put them out for the chickens. They gobbled them up.
We notice our cat, Bisbis, hunting in the garden. She pounced and ran off with a gopher. She spends the day snacking on it.
I spent the rest of the morning drawing in my journal the possible cabbage-white butterfly caterpillar we found yesterday. Here it is:
I then decided to pick out new seeds to plant for the next video. Mosquito picked poppy seeds. These come from a seed pack, but you can also plant poppy seeds from your spice drawer, or other seeds like coriander (cilantro), cumin, fennel, sesame seeds, whole pepper, and so on.
We have been borrowing a dissecting microscope from our biology teacher neighbor for at least 6 months for Mosquito's botany lessons. It's so cool to look at the seeds close up. Poppy seeds are so tiny! We measured them, 1 mm X 1 mm. Their seed coats look super strong though. Here is the poppy seed, and here also is the marigold seeds I drew on March 25th in my journal.
Mistakes are great for new discoveries. After my failed marigold seed germination, I am still led to wonder and learn more about about ancient seeds and to share what I've found with you. I remember a story of some being recovered from clay pots that had been stored underground by ancient people. I found a few more articles:
I ground up finely the 12 washed egg shells I'd collected over the course of the week and put them out for the chickens. They gobbled them up.
We notice our cat, Bisbis, hunting in the garden. She pounced and ran off with a gopher. She spends the day snacking on it.
I spent the rest of the morning drawing in my journal the possible cabbage-white butterfly caterpillar we found yesterday. Here it is:
I then decided to pick out new seeds to plant for the next video. Mosquito picked poppy seeds. These come from a seed pack, but you can also plant poppy seeds from your spice drawer, or other seeds like coriander (cilantro), cumin, fennel, sesame seeds, whole pepper, and so on.
We have been borrowing a dissecting microscope from our biology teacher neighbor for at least 6 months for Mosquito's botany lessons. It's so cool to look at the seeds close up. Poppy seeds are so tiny! We measured them, 1 mm X 1 mm. Their seed coats look super strong though. Here is the poppy seed, and here also is the marigold seeds I drew on March 25th in my journal.
Garden math: Using a ruler, find the measurement for 1 millimeter (mm).
Mistakes are great for new discoveries. After my failed marigold seed germination, I am still led to wonder and learn more about about ancient seeds and to share what I've found with you. I remember a story of some being recovered from clay pots that had been stored underground by ancient people. I found a few more articles:
- After sitting in a clay pot for 850 years, ancient squash seeds are bearing fruit. In 2008, archaeologists uncovered a sculpted clay ball used to store seeds at a dig site on the Menominee reservation near Green Bay, Wisconsin. Within this seed ball, seeds from a previously unknown variety of squash were found. Squash-growing pioneers successfully germinated these ancient seeds and produced the first Gete-okosomin squash crop in centuries. The seeds of this squash are now being distributed to indigenous communities throughout North America. Source
- I found the story about the buried seeds that I remembered. They are 10,000 year-old squash seeds that were buried under a floor in Peru. These seeds were not viable though, but its still a cool story. Archaeology magazine
After lunch I weeded some more and mowed the back yard, putting all the yard waste in with the chickens. It's good to mow right before it rains.
We have caught some bees. They are not in the supers that we baited though. They moved into our fairy house. We call it our fairy house, but it is actually an cute piece of yard art shaped like a house the size of Cob-weaver that Ant removed from someone else's house because it was full of bees. Even though he removed the bees inside, and blocked the holes and cracks, it still smells of old comb and safety. After sitting in our yard, new holes have formed and now it is once again a bee home.
While I was working our backyard neighbor brings by a gift of toilet paper. Another friend walking by told me our bunnies were a breed called English Spot.
Also while I was working, Mosquito and Cob-weaver decide to take Sara for a walk. She follows them like a dog, but like a good dog who walks with their owner off leash. They take her for a walk in the street. Maybe they'll have to start carrying poo bags for her.
Also while I was working, Mosquito and Cob-weaver decide to take Sara for a walk. She follows them like a dog, but like a good dog who walks with their owner off leash. They take her for a walk in the street. Maybe they'll have to start carrying poo bags for her.
In the evening, I set up a plant nursery under my indoor grow light. I start seeds at my house instead of the greenhouse at school so I take care of them daily. I planted basil, catnip, kale, chard, spaghetti squash, leeks, cilantro, sweet pea, more marigolds, and yarrow. Maybe tomorrow I will draw the seeds in my journal.
After dinner, a former farmer, now in 4th grade, writes me to see if I know where to find seeds. I have heard that stores are empty of gardening supplies. I think everyone is cooking, baking and gardening just like we are. I have lots of garden seeds donated generously by Botanical Interests Seed company to our school garden. As we've learned, seeds don't last long, so I tell her I will bring her some. So I offer to you the same, what would you like to plant?
Farmer Ladybug π
Thursday, April 2, 2020
This morning we made blueberry muffins with the sourdough starter. I've been better about the daily feeding of the yeasties since I started cooking with them. The muffins were really dense and needed a lot longer to cook without the baking powder and baking soda I typically put in the recipe. So, for quick breads, just like I did the biscuits, I'll keep my baking soda to help rise the dough.
We saw 2 monarchs flying by today. It's late for monarchs. It must be the winter males that don't migrate to the breeding grounds in the coast ranges, Central Valley and the Sierras. Before I was Farmer Ladybug, I was one of the scientists that tracked and tagged monarch butterflies. Monarchs are protected. It is illegal to catch, touch or even disturb monarchs without a permit. Did you know that our monarchs are called western Monarch butterflies and are only from the land west of the Rockies? Many people don't know that the monarchs that migrate to Mexico in the winter are not our monarchs. Those monarchs are from the Eastern US. population. So there are two monarch populations, separated by the tall Rocky mountains that can't be flown over by monarchs. The western Monarch butterfly wintering grounds are right here and extend in a very limited range in coastal California to our north and south. So, we are smack dab in the middle. Monarchs depend on shelter in their wintering grounds for survival of the entire species. The wintering monarch is the longest lived, living up to 6 months! They arrive in September and leave in March. The population peaks at Thanksgiving and every year there is an annual Thanksgiving count to count all the monarchs in the western population. It is usually only the female that flies to the summer grounds to lay eggs on milkweed and other host plants. Milkweed is not important on the winter grounds because there are no caterpillars here, but trees are, like Monterey cypress, Monterey pine and eucalyptus and also a variety of good nectar plants. Why do you think monarchs use our school garden? The males die here after breeding. There will be 4-5 generations before they return again. That means that it is the great-great-grandchildren that return in winter. How do they find their way?
I mowed the front yard and put all the cuttings in the chicken yard. It looks so green, soft and beautiful, covering all the dirt. The chickens had fun spreading it around. This will help with the flies I hope. Mysteriously, I also mowed a chicken egg. It was on the opposite side of the house of the chicken yard. It looked like Sara's egg. We sometimes let her run around the yard away from the other chickens while we play. We never noticed that she laid an egg.
The bunnies were out and digging again today. They dug up a blue, plastic Easter egg from deep underground. Mosquito said they were Easter bunnies.
My marigolds still haven't germinated. I looked again at the package and it says they were from 2014! It's important to check the packaging date before you plant. Some seeds can last a long, long, long time and still grow. Seeds are amazing little packages, dormant and waiting but still very much alive. Wild seeds sometimes can can wait years until conditions are perfect. Some must have fire, or frost, or some other environmental condition to break their dormancy. I was interested, so I looked it up and found out that:
Many cultivated plants, like marigolds, do not have special protections in place or requirements to break dormancy. This is because they've been cared for by humans for so long, and humans have selected those seeds that are easy to germinate, while throwing out the others. Humans also provide perfect conditions for their plants, like water, sunlight, soil, and help their plant outcompete others by weeding around it. So over time, seeds of cultivated plants have lost the ability to survive without humans. You can tell by looking at a seed how long it may last: thin-coated lightweight seeds like marigolds can last 1-3 years while harder-coated beans and corn may last 5-10 years. I once had mustard green seeds from my grandfather that germinated after 10 years. My marigold seeds came from my own seed collection. There may be still a few hardy seeds in that pack of several hundred that will germinate, so I will plant all of them. Your seeds were donated this year from Botanical Interests Seed Company. They are at most 1-year old. To be sure, though, see if you can find the packaging date.
Although this is my basic muffin recipe, I often modify it by types of flour, types of berry, sugar (usually none), extract type and even replacing the curdled milk with yogurt or water, whatever I have on hand. I have even made it without the egg if I don't have one.
1- 1/2 cup flour (you can mix whole grain and white)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar (optional)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1 cup berries
Farmer Ladybug π
*Newsweek and Archaeology magazine
+National Geographic
We saw 2 monarchs flying by today. It's late for monarchs. It must be the winter males that don't migrate to the breeding grounds in the coast ranges, Central Valley and the Sierras. Before I was Farmer Ladybug, I was one of the scientists that tracked and tagged monarch butterflies. Monarchs are protected. It is illegal to catch, touch or even disturb monarchs without a permit. Did you know that our monarchs are called western Monarch butterflies and are only from the land west of the Rockies? Many people don't know that the monarchs that migrate to Mexico in the winter are not our monarchs. Those monarchs are from the Eastern US. population. So there are two monarch populations, separated by the tall Rocky mountains that can't be flown over by monarchs. The western Monarch butterfly wintering grounds are right here and extend in a very limited range in coastal California to our north and south. So, we are smack dab in the middle. Monarchs depend on shelter in their wintering grounds for survival of the entire species. The wintering monarch is the longest lived, living up to 6 months! They arrive in September and leave in March. The population peaks at Thanksgiving and every year there is an annual Thanksgiving count to count all the monarchs in the western population. It is usually only the female that flies to the summer grounds to lay eggs on milkweed and other host plants. Milkweed is not important on the winter grounds because there are no caterpillars here, but trees are, like Monterey cypress, Monterey pine and eucalyptus and also a variety of good nectar plants. Why do you think monarchs use our school garden? The males die here after breeding. There will be 4-5 generations before they return again. That means that it is the great-great-grandchildren that return in winter. How do they find their way?
I mowed the front yard and put all the cuttings in the chicken yard. It looks so green, soft and beautiful, covering all the dirt. The chickens had fun spreading it around. This will help with the flies I hope. Mysteriously, I also mowed a chicken egg. It was on the opposite side of the house of the chicken yard. It looked like Sara's egg. We sometimes let her run around the yard away from the other chickens while we play. We never noticed that she laid an egg.
The bunnies were out and digging again today. They dug up a blue, plastic Easter egg from deep underground. Mosquito said they were Easter bunnies.
My marigolds still haven't germinated. I looked again at the package and it says they were from 2014! It's important to check the packaging date before you plant. Some seeds can last a long, long, long time and still grow. Seeds are amazing little packages, dormant and waiting but still very much alive. Wild seeds sometimes can can wait years until conditions are perfect. Some must have fire, or frost, or some other environmental condition to break their dormancy. I was interested, so I looked it up and found out that:
- The oldest mature seed that has grown into a viable plant was a Judean date palm seed about 2,000 years old, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada in Israel. It had been preserved in a cool, dry place, not by freezing. It was germinated in 2005. Before discovery, this tree was extinct!*
- The oldest seed that has grown into a viable plant was Silene stenophylla (narrow-leafed campion), an Arctic flower native to Siberia. Radiocarbon dating has confirmed an age of 31,800 ±300 years for the seeds. In 2007, more than 600,000 frozen mature and immature seeds were found buried in 70 squirrel hibernation burrows 125 feet below the permafrost near the banks of the Kolyma River. Believed to have been buried by Arctic ground squirrels, which had damaged the mature seeds to prevent germination in the burrow; however, three of the immature seeds contained viable embryos. Scientists extracted the embryos and successfully germinated plants in vitro which grew, flowered and created viable seeds of their own.α©
Many cultivated plants, like marigolds, do not have special protections in place or requirements to break dormancy. This is because they've been cared for by humans for so long, and humans have selected those seeds that are easy to germinate, while throwing out the others. Humans also provide perfect conditions for their plants, like water, sunlight, soil, and help their plant outcompete others by weeding around it. So over time, seeds of cultivated plants have lost the ability to survive without humans. You can tell by looking at a seed how long it may last: thin-coated lightweight seeds like marigolds can last 1-3 years while harder-coated beans and corn may last 5-10 years. I once had mustard green seeds from my grandfather that germinated after 10 years. My marigold seeds came from my own seed collection. There may be still a few hardy seeds in that pack of several hundred that will germinate, so I will plant all of them. Your seeds were donated this year from Botanical Interests Seed Company. They are at most 1-year old. To be sure, though, see if you can find the packaging date.
Garden math: Farmer Ladybug's marigold pack says they were packed in 2014. How old are Farmer Ladybug's marigold seeds?
Berry Muffins
from Lean, Luscious and Meatless, vol 3 by Bobbie Hinman and Millie SnyderAlthough this is my basic muffin recipe, I often modify it by types of flour, types of berry, sugar (usually none), extract type and even replacing the curdled milk with yogurt or water, whatever I have on hand. I have even made it without the egg if I don't have one.
1- 1/2 cup flour (you can mix whole grain and white)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar (optional)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1 cup berries
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Oil muffin tins
- Mix flour, baking powder and baking soda.
- Put mil in another small bowl and add lemon juice and let stand for 1 minute.
- Add remaining ingredients, except berries, and curdled milk to flour and mix well.
- Fold in berries
- Divide into muffin tins and bake for 15 minutes.
Farmer Ladybug π
*Newsweek and Archaeology magazine
+National Geographic
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.
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
πFarmer Ladybug
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 SnyderI 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
- Preheat oven to 450F
- Combine flour, baking powder, salt and if desired, other herbs you might like (eg. dill, marjaram, thyme, garlic)
- Add oil with fork until crumbly
- Add milk so that you have a dough you can handle, not too sticky
- 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.
- Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned
πFarmer 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?
πFarmer Ladybug
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?
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
Fly Reduction Strategies
- Manage the chicken poop by raking the chicken yard daily, cleaning the coop daily and covering the chicken yard with yard waste
- Smoking out the chicken yard
- Running a fan in the chicken yard
- 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.
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter softened
1-1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
πFarmer Ladybug
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 flour1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter softened
1-1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Mix flour, baking soda and baking powder
- In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually mix in dry ingredients.
- Put in fridge to cool for 15-30 minutes (although you can skip this part if you just can't wait)
- Roll and shape cookies.
- Bake 8-10 minutes
πFarmer 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 π
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 π
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.
Sara tried to roost on the floor again.
At night there were 3 big storms.
Farmer Ladybug π
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 π
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.
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 π
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 π
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.
Beekeeper Ant and Mei Mei Cob-weaver decide to make chocolate chip cookies after dinner.
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)
Farmer Ladybug π
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 package2 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)
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Mix flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In separate bowl, cream butter, sugars, then add eggs and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture until combined. Stir in chips and walnuts.
- Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake 8-10 minutes.
- Freeze leftover dough for another day.
Farmer Ladybug π
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 π
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 π
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 π
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 π
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.
Farmer Ladybug π
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 π
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