 one feature of our current bin that I don't feel is working as it should. The velcro strip around the top of the bin, meant to keep pupae from escaping without crawling into the collection bin, has a gap in each corner just big enough for pupae to wriggle through. I keep finding drowned pupae in the ant-trap moat around the bin, which makes me sad.
While I'm writing a wish list of future changes, I'd like to drill holes in the top of the collection jar just large enough for an adult fly to escape, but too small for a pupa to get through. Three times now, I've seen adult flies trapped in the collection bin, once because I left a pupa inside too long and it hatched, but twice because the flies went to lay their eggs in the main bin and ended up exiting in a different direction.
That said, our bin is providing a healthy dose of animal protein for our flock nearly every day, and the number of larvae inside seems to keep growing. I caught one fly laying eggs inside the handle of the drainpipe last week (which I transferred to the bin), but I suspect there have been many other sets of eggs laid without my notice. I'm definitely ready to say that Mark is right --- black soldier flies are a good fit for our farm. Now we just need to work the kinks out of the operation.
The new self propelled trimmer mower showed up a week early.
Her first day on the job will be Monday if it doesn't rain.
Cook the beans, broth, peppers, thyme, and garlic in the chicken broth for about 20 minutes, until the beans are soft. (Unfortunately, the brilliant color goes away and the beans turn gray at this point.) Cool, then puree the mixture in the food processor with the other ingredients. If you're smart, you'll blend up the tomatoes and walnuts first, but they worked out okay added in later.
Serving suggestion: Make little tacos out of Malabar spinach leaves filled with bean paste, chopped arugula, and thinly sliced tomatoes, red peppers, and edible-pod peas. These can be eaten with one hand like a soft taco if you're careful not to overfill. While this serving method is a bit time-consuming to prepare, it's pretty and fun for a special occasion! Happy birthday, farm!
Our old ratchet straps are 5 years old and rusty.
My new method is to store the new one in a ziploc bag to protect it from the elements.
Anna Are maypops tasty?
We put together the new Swisher trimmer mower today.
It feels like more than twice the cutting power of our previous mower.
I'm still learning how to use it. When the self propelled mechanism is engaged I found myself struggling to keep up with its pace. It's better to just pump the engagement lever a few seconds at a time to let the machine do most of the work.
Anna Win a free fig tree!
I don't usually cross-promote books here if we publish them but they're written by someone else. But our publishing wing has become the majority of our bread and butter lately, so I hope you don't mind the occasional plug...especially if it comes with a homesteading-related giveaway!
I'll start with the part you're probably most interested in --- the free stuff! I rooted a cutting from my father's Brown Turkey fig this year, and the sapling is looking for a zone-7 or warmer home. Daddy is picking a gallon of figs a day from this little tree's mother, and says that fig pie is his current favorite way to consume the fruit. As long as you don't live in a cold climate, fig trees require nearly no care, and can be fit into an area about eight feet in diameter (although I hear they get much larger in California). Why not enter to win your own no-work fruit tree?
What if you live up north? Don't worry, I'll swap out your prize for something more appropriate. You might prefer cuttings from my Chicago hardy fig --- these are easy to root and will produce fruit (with a little care) up through zone 6. However, if even that is too tropical for your tastes, you can choose either a medley of our favorite seeds, or a signed copy of one of my (or Aimee's) books. And, if a northerner wins the prize, I'll pick a second winner to give the fig tree to!
How do you enter the giveaway? Just plug our books using the widget below. Aimee has several new books out now or soon --- you've probably heard me mention Shiftless, which has already sold over 3,000 copies and will be an audio book within a few weeks; Burgling the Dragon is available at a special preorder price of 99 cents through September 30; and Aimee's short story Flight of the Billionaire's Sister will make you itch to read her newest novel, slated to release in November or December. Oh, and did I mention that her short-story collection is free on Amazon today? Once books are out of the preorder period, you can also borrow nearly all of her books (and mine too!) using Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited, so why not check some out? Thanks in advance for reading and for spreading the word!
Why are we moving this ancient freezer?
To have a rodent proof container to store goat feed near the Star Plate coop.
Yes...Anna helped push once she finished taking pictures.
Several of you asked (or warned) about fencing for our upcoming goats. I started to write a long post in reply about my complicated plans on that front, but it seemed a little silly to theorize when I'll be able to report on our trial and error in less than a month. However, there is a goat-related conundrum we're currently trying to solve --- water.
We plan to house our new goats in our starplate coop, but the structure is about 250 feet from the closest water source and up a relatively steep hill. It was a bit wearying to carry a five-gallon bucket to the coop once a week over the summer, so I can only imagine how old the chore will get for goats (who presumably drink more than chickens) during the winter months.
We've come up with several potential summer solutions, but winter ones will require more industry. We can finish working up the gutters and rain-barrel system, but the spigot is bound to freeze during the winter whether or not the tank is big enough prevent the whole thing from freezing solid. Similarly, we could pump water from the creek into our IBC tanks, but our creek-line isn't buried and only sometimes runs in the winter (and we'd still have to deal with a frozen spigot).
Gene Logsdon posted a few weeks ago about burying rain barrels to make mini-cisterns, and I think the idea has potential in our starplate pasture. I love to dig, especially at this time of year when garden work is winding down, and the starplate earth is much lighter than the stuff in our core homestead. Plus, Mark brought a hand-pump home from the hardware store many moons ago, thinking we might need it if the world came to an end, and we could use that to get water out of the buried rain barrel in order to hydrate our herd.
But I have a feeling that I'm missing something even more obvious. Ideas? How would you water goats located far enough away from the house that extension cords don't really reach?
The Oregon battery powered chainsaw made quick work of this large Box Elder.
Some of it is already rotten, but most of it will make good kindling material.
Every year, we seed six plantings of sweet corn, which provide near-continuous availability of the treat over most of the summer. And every year, one of those plantings gets away from us.
Mark and I are such connoisseurs of sweet corn that we only eat the grain at its peak. I start the water boiling at the same time I head out to the garden to pick and shuck the ears, then I drop the corn in the water and turn each ear once, removing as soon as the color changes from pale to bright yellow, a process that takes mere seconds. The result is corn so sweet, Lucy begs for the cobs, which she completely consumes.
But if I miss that peak-taste window and our corn starts to turn starchy...then Lucy, Mark, and I all turn up our noses. Instead, I shuck the corn and put it on our drying racks for winter animal treats. In the past, I've offered dried sweet corn to our chickens, but this year, I think the ears will go to the goats.
It seems like there's never as much honey in my Warre hives as I think there is. I went out to rob the mother hive's top box on a sunny afternoon this week...and found that there was nothing to steal. The fourth box was empty, the box below contained a good bit of honey but also some capped brood (meaning it had to be left alone), I didn't dig into the third box (but I hope it's also full of honey and brood), and the bottom box consists of partially drawn comb (photo above). So, instead of stealing honey, I took away the empty top box, and will probably remove the bottom box later as well.
Of course, you don't really expect to harvest honey if you split a hive, so just having enough bees and stores to get the mother hive through the winter is good. Luckily, two boxes full of bro