Rain water catchment system

In the Garden

I have the perfect set up for doing rainwater harvesting.  For some reason, there are multiple downspouts on our home and garage (probably our previous homes had this too but I just did not notice).  I have at least 4 places where I know there are downspouts that I can use to collect rainwater.  There are 3 downspouts located in the back of the home.  I consider the garden area "behind" the house so these are perfectly located.  The home/garage are situated "above" the garden area so we have gravity on our side back there.  

There is not as much slope to the front area of the home but I can still envision a way of collecting rainwater and diverting it down to an area where I want to put in a duck pond.  That is a project for next year...

Buying all these containers to catch the rainwater is going to be expensive.  I am hoping to maybe configure one system each year i.e. one downspout each year.  I remembered that we have a stock tank that we kept because it is in good condition.  We found it in a wooden box with insulation around it.

Stock tank hidden in wood box with insulation around it to keep it from freezing in the winter.

So, I started thinking that I could use this stock tank as a way to catch water for the garden until we can get a "real" catchment tank.

Here is a nice blog post about how someone else used a stock tank to catch rainwater.

I found this piece of metal in the barn and decided to use it for a "lid"

Henry help me put on a spout.

I bought a gutter diverter to put the rain water into the tank.

Then, I sat the lid on.

I then went to the Goodwill and bought a brown curtain and I draped it over the tank and secured it with bunge cords.  You don't want insects to be able to get in there so that is why I put a cloth cover over it too.

Here is the finished catchment system.

Anyway, it ain't pretty but it works!  It is a 100 gallon tank and it filled up 3 times in the spring.  I used it to water the asparagus and blueberries.  Of course, we haven't had any rain for a while so it will just sit there until the fall.

~Denise

Water for the bees...

Beekeeping

I don't think it is any secret that honeybee populations are on the decline worldwide.  Honeybees are useful pollinators and they give us honey!  Planting bee friendly flowers that bloom all spring, summer and autumn is one way to help the bees.  Another thing you can do is to put out a waterer for the bees.  All that flying around makes them thirsty!

Where I live, it gets very dry in the summer.  This little guy was trying to get a drink from our water feature that we have in front of the house.  BTW: the birds just LOVE this water feature and take baths there all the time.

Making a bee waterer is not hard at all.  Just use a very shallow pan and add marbles so that the bees have something to stand on while getting a drink...

I placed my bee waterer in my herb garden where I have herbs and flowers planted.  I see bees coming and going all day.  You will probably have to add water every day because you don't want the water too deep and it will evaporate. quickly when it's super hot. 

In this article, they floated wine corks in a bucket to make a bee waterer.  Here is another article about making a honeybee water garden...possibly a future project!

I went out back last week and looked at the old log where I saw wild honeybees last year.  I waited all spring to see if they would start flying out of there but nothing happened.  Well, it appears that a new group of bees have moved in (it could possibly be some that swarmed out of my own hive).  Anyway, the good news is that I saw honeybees flying in and out of the old log again!  Yeah!  

Then, I turned around and found a dead owl...ouch!  It really freaked me out.  Mostly just scared me because I was NOT expecting that.  I think it was one of the parent owls and not one of the babies.  

I am going to keep this blog post short because I just have like a hundred million things going on now that summer is in full gear!  I have been picking raspberries and I picked wild blackberries last Friday and made jam to take to the Farmer's Market.  Next weekend, we may go in search of huckleberries...

~Denise 

P.S. I should say that on July 14th, it marked 1 year since we signed the paperwork and bought our farm!  So, Happy 1st Anniversary to us!

2018 Spring update

On the Farm

At the end of each season, I am going to write up what we have been working on...mostly it has been planting and getting the garden area ready...

The past 3 months we have planted:
25 June bearing strawberries (10 went into my raised strawberry bed and the rest went into the food forest area) and 10 ever bearing strawberries
2 Pecan trees - none of these lived
2 Walnut trees - 1 of these seems to be growing from the base the other is dead
1 Almond tree - growing good
1 Chestnut tree - did not grow
1 Sugar maple tree
2 cannon firs and 1 Concolar fir (future Christmas trees)
8 blueberries
25 asparagus crowns
2 rhubarb (also got a couple transplants from a friend)
1 lemon tree - this is in a pot that will come inside in the winter
1 European Beech tree
2 Grapevines
1 black Elderberry
1 Service Berry
1 Pussy willow
1 Pear tree - also appears dead
2 Seaberries - these are not looking too good either...

Let's just say dozen's of herbs, flowers and vegetables...most gardening places have a 1 year guarantee on their plants so I have requested new nut trees to replace the ones that did not grow.  Now for some pics...

Asparagus crowns ready to be covered up

Baby asparagus...so cute!

Then, I posted this past week on Facebook that I heard in a podcast that you can plant strawberries among your asparagus.  So, I ripped out the 10 June bearing strawberries that I had started in their own little raised bed and transplanted them among the asparagus.  I didn't really care for the little raised bed that I had made for the strawberries and I was already planning on using a pallet to plant my strawberries in next year.  Actually, I probably will start a strawberry pallet next spring too.  Can't have too many strawberries! 

I had been to a "garden center" type place this week to replace one of the honeyberries that I planted last fall.  They had some ever bearing strawberries for sale so I bought 10 to put in the other asparagus bed (I have 2-12 foot long asparagus beds).  I just planted them down the middle...

A friend of mine had delivered to us a huge pile of oak leaves last fall.  I used most of them in the food forest area.  There was still a small pile of leaves left this spring once the snow melted away.  I started cleaning up the rest of the leaves and noticed several acorns.  So, I planted them...

...and 3 oak trees grew!  I did not include these in the tally above.  I will be putting them into their own pots and make sure they are growing good.  I will probably plant this this fall.

Grapevine that I am trying to trellis along a fence.

Went to Disneyland in March over spring break and had a great time!

Mark and Henry on ride at Disneyland.

Joshua and Henry at the beach in California

Henry, Mark, Denise and Joshua outside the Cars ride at Disneyland

Right after school was out, Denise and the boys went to visit family in Kansas and we brought back some blackberry bushes...

Now, I have to tell you the story behind these blackberries.  When Henry and I were first married, we lived in North Carolina and I planted these thornless blackberry plants.  Mark was a toddler and he would walk up and just pick the berries right off the plants and eat them.  He was often covered in purple blackberry juice...so cute!  

Anyway, my mom took a few starts back with her to Kansas one time when they came to visit us in NC.  Of course, the blackberries took over her garden!  After that, we moved to Florida and then to Idaho.  So, now I am going to be getting back some of the blackberries that I had like 14 years ago!

Transplanted blackberry starting to grow!

This is why people don't grow sweet potatoes this far north...LOL.  It got down to 38 degrees and they were frosted!  It is a little hard to see in this pic but 2 of them really did not have much damage.  So, I have marked them and I am going to save sweet potatoes from these to make slips next year.  I'm sure if these would have been covered, they would have probably been okay but this happened when I was away in Kansas.  I planted them in this old tractor tire because I thought it would be hotter for them in the black tire.  The good news is that about 90% of these have made a come back and are green again.

Frosted sweet potato plants.

Lastly, I just finished planting my sunflower seedlings yesterday...the slugs are still being problematic but over all, I think there will be a good amount of flowers...

...in fact, it looks like we might have our first bloom opening today!  I took this pic this morning!

I am scheduled to be at the Farmer's Market on Saturday...hopefully, we will be getting some more flowers opening.
~Denise

A Bucket of Bees!

Beekeeping

I knew it was going to happen...my bees swarmed!  I had seen the swarm cells.  Swarm cells are used to make a new queen.  A beehive makes swarm cells when the hive is too crowded.  The "old" queen takes off with worker bees to find a new place to build a hive.  Most of the bees will leave in the prime (or first) swarm.  Sometimes, there will be smaller afterswarms.  

This is how it all went down...I was out mowing and I noticed this swarm hanging onto a branch.  It was hanging very low, only about 4-5 feet off the ground.  As I had said previously, I knew this was going to happen because I had noticed the swarm cells in the hive. 

I should have split the hive but I have been so busy this spring with getting the garden ready, that I have not had time to stop and get a hive all put together.  Also, I was getting ready to go out of town and I figured if they swarmed while I was away, I wouldn't have a chance to get them anyway.  But, as luck would have it, I did see the swarm and I actually had a little free time that afternoon.  I called my friend, Alison, with the Moscow Bee Company.

Alison brought a nuc box and was able to capture the swarm.

Then, Mark's worker that I had brought out to see the swarm noticed another smaller swarm (afterswarm) up higher in the tree.  Alison had this fancy bucket that she used to capture that swarm...

Alison kept that swarm and I headed to Spence to get a langstroth hive for the swarm that she put into the nuc box.  I took out some of the frames and tried to "dump" out as many of the bees that I could.  Then, I just turned it upside down and left it for a little bit to allow the last of the bees to crawl down into their new home.

So, here it is...the new hive.  I went in to check in on it the next evening and I saw the queen in there.  I wasn't too worried but it was nice to see her.  

I will be keeping an eye on my top bar hive.  There are still lots of bees in there but I am also excited to try a new type of beekeeping in the langstroth hive.
~Denise

Pallet gardening

In the Garden

My friend, Joe, sent me a pic of a pallet garden a couple of months ago.  I thought it was such a neat idea!  Eventually, I want to make more raised beds for the garden but buying all that wood and hardware cloth gets expensive.  

Side note, the reason I am looking to make the raised beds is mostly to keep the voles from eating my garden.  However, voles have not been a problem in the garden that I thought they would be.  Last fall, I put down cardboard and then mounded up lots of hay on top of it.  The idea was to kill the grass.  This was left all winter and this spring with the melted snow and rain, it was really wet under the cardboard.  I think this kept the voles away.  It was too wet under there for them to want to tunnel anywhere.  This was a pleasant surprise!

Okay, back to the pallet garden.  This seemed like a great way to make a little garden area for lettuce.  Since the pallets are not really deep, you need to plant mostly shallow rooted crops.  I am trying lettuce, spinach, cabbage, kale, celery, and green beans this year.  Overall, I figured out that it costed me $8 per pallet to put the hardware cloth on the bottom.

I got some free pallets (make sure they are heat treated and not chemical treated).  Then, I did buy hardware cloth and put that on the bottom.  Overall, I figured out that it costed me $8 per pallet to put the hardware cloth on the bottom.  In a couple of articles that I saw, they put landscape fabric on the bottom but I didn't care if the roots went down into the ground (I just wanted to keep the voles from tunneling in).  

  

This shows the bottom of the pallet with the hardware cloth on it.

Pallet garden when it was first planted...lettuce, spinach, lettuce, celery, lettuce, and 2 cabbage.

Same pallet as above a little later...

Then, one day it snowed!  Okay, it wasn't really snow.  It was cottonwood seeds.  Another side note, I thought they were birch trees and I tried to tap them this spring...no wonder I did not have much luck...

These are the pallets for the green beans.  I will only plant where the drip hose is laid out (rows 1, 3 and 5 of the pallets) and mulch it with hay once the plants get up...

Since we are talking about pallets, I thought I would share a pic of the pallet compost bin I made last fall.  I have been putting all my grass clippings in it.

New pile just built on the far left.  More finished compost on the right...but still cooking...

It seems to be working really well and gets super hot (see below).  The biggest limiting factor with the open compost bin is keeping it wet enough.  When I first build a pile, I layer the grass and then add some coffee grounds and wood shavings mixed with rabbit poop.  I use the hose and water between each layer.  Then, I turn it once a week.  After the week is over and I am turning it, I notice that there are lots of areas in the middle that are dry.  I was really surprised so I add more water.  The microbes cannot break it down if there is not enough moisture for them to work.

~Denise

Great Horned Owls...

On the Farm

A week or so ago, I had posted a pic of one of the Great Horned Owls.  Shortly after that, I took this video...

As you can tell, if you watched the video, I had trouble keeping track of all the owls!  My best guess is that there are 5 owls.  Two adults and three babies.  

So, I decided to do a little bit of research (also known as "googling") to learn a little bit more about the Great Horned Owl.  I had several questions: do they migrated, do they mate for life, and would they attack a human!

This information is taken from the National Geographic website:

About the Great Horned Owl

The great horned owl is the most common owl of the Americas, easily recognizable because of the feather tufts on its head. These “plumicorns” resemble horns or, to some, catlike ears.

Habitat

Great horned owls are adaptable birds and live from the Arctic to South America. They are at home in suburbia as well as in woods and farmlands. Northern populations migrate in winter, but most live permanently in more temperate climes.

Parenting

The birds nest in tree holes, stumps, caves, or in the abandoned nests of other large birds. Monogamous pairs have one to five eggs (two is typical), both the male and female incubate, and the male also hunts for food. Owls are powerful birds and fiercely protective parents. They have even been known to attack humans who wander too close to their young.

Feeding and Hunting

Like other owls, these birds have an incredible digestive system. They sometimes swallow their prey whole and later regurgitate pellets composed of bone, fur, and the other unwanted parts of their meal. Owls are efficient nighttime hunters that strike from above, and use their powerful talons to kill and carry animals several times heavier than themselves. Owls prey on a huge variety of creatures, including raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, domestic birds, falcons, and other owls. They regularly eat skunks, and may be the only animal with such an appetite. They sometimes hunt for smaller game by standing or walking along the ground. Owls have even been known to prey upon unlucky cats and dogs.

This answered several of my questions.  On a side note, I was mowing the other day and listening to a podcast called Moms and Murder.  It is a true crime podcast and they were discussing a murder in which the defense wants to use the Owl Theory.  In the Michael Peterson murder case, the husband, Michael Peterson, was convicted of beating his wife and then shoving her down a flight of steps.  However, the defense wants you to believe that the Owl did it...

Taken from a local newspaper regarding the Michael Peterson murder case:  A single, microscopic bit of feather listed in an SBI crime lab report could be the key to proving that Mike Peterson was not responsible for the staircase death of his wife nearly seven years ago, an attorney and former neighbor of the Durham novelist says.

Larry Pollard says he believes an owl, possibly mistaking Kathleen Peterson as prey, could have attacked the 120-pound, 47-year-old as she walked from her swimming pool to her kitchen on that warm December night in 2001.

It’s possible, he says, the owl swooped down, became entangled in Peterson’s hair as she pulled on it, and caused multiple bruises and wounds on her face, wrists and arms as well as seven distinct wounds on the back of her scalp, including two tri-pronged lacerations likened to the bird’s razor-sharp talons. 

“The key thing about this feather is not the fact that we found a feather but the fact of where it was located when we found it,” Pollard said. “This feather is located entwined in Kathleen Peterson’s hair, and it is clutched in her left hand in the hair that was pulled out of the root from the ball of her head.”

The evidence was never examined and the owl theory, which has met with mockery and ridicule, was never brought up at trial. Pollard wants the feather and other forensic evidence reconsidered and plans Thursday to call on interim Durham District Attorney David Saacks to reopen the case... 

The idea is that she was attacked by the owl and then stumbled into the house and up the stairs and lost her balance and fell.  She had also been drinking and had taken some medication that makes you sleepy.

Okay, back to the farm.  I have LOTS of grass to mow so I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts when I am on the mower.  I also saw this one morning while I was mowing...

Three baby owls!  I do believe I have seen both the mom and the dad and three babies.  Fun to watch but I will make sure to keep my distance.

~Denise

What's new in sunflowers...

Sunflowers

Did you know the latest, greatest thing in sunflowers?  It's white sunflowers!  I did get to order some so these will be the new flower for this year!  They are also working on green and purple sunflowers.  I didn't really care for the green ones and the purple seed was already sold out.  Maybe next year...

This is going to be a super short blog post because I HAVE LIKE A MILLION THINGS TO DO TO GET MY GARDEN READY!  I am so excited (and nervous) to have a "real" garden this year and I am busy laying soaker hoses and such.  I will definitely be posting about all my garden adventures at a different time.

So, back to the sunflowers.  Yes, I am trying to grow them at our new farm!  I laid out the drip hoses last week.

As you can see, the cardboard and hay did a great job of keeping the grass down.  I planted daffodils all around the perimeter of the sunflower area to keep the voles away (but I did see one scramble under the hay when I was mowing the grass last week).

I also had started some seedlings in the house and transplanted them out into the area last week.

I also planted some seeds directly into the area to see how they would do.  Still waiting on them to germinate...

If you don't remember, last year, I had actually bought several new kinds of sunflowers to try but my sunflowers just did not take off and then we were moving onto the farm and blah, blah, blah...

Anyway, there were 6 new sunflowers that I wanted to try last year but it just didn't work out so I ordered all of those sunflowers too.  Here is a link to the blog that explains all those new sunflowers.

That is it for now, I am headed back outside to do some more sunflower transplants!

~Denise