Garden Journal #9 (and some chickens)

Meet my nemesis: the Squash Beetle. 

Today we waged war against this guy and at least 100 of his friends. Probably more. I armed myself with the following and spent a good hour and a half picking off bugs. 

The arsenal: a bucket of soapy water, a butter knife, neem solution and a whole lot of Diatomaceous Earth (DE).

The Plan: pick off whatever bugs we can, dunk them in soapy water. Shake leaves to knock large quantities of insects into the bucket. Use wet knife to scrape eggs off leaves. Spray the underside of leaves and around the ground with Neem solution, causing insects to flee to higher ground where they can be picked off and dunked in the bucket. Heavily sprinkle the ground with DE to discourage anyone who fell off the plant from climbing back on.

It does seem rather unlike me to use natural and safe products that encourage genetic defects in the target insects. Its a bit like chemical warfare but this way I don't end up hurting the good bugs, like the bees and butterflies and spiders. No innocent bystanders, like flowers, were treated in this process.

And when we finished it looked a bit like it had snowed in our garden.

I moved a few vines off the ground and tried to encourage some trellising with a piece of wire shelving, since it worked well before.

pumpkin, tomato, cucumber and pole beans

 The plants in our tiny space are so very intertwined that getting rid of this pest is crucial to the survival of everything. This particular insect feeds off the juices of the leaves, stem, fruit anything it can stick its needle-like tongue into, eventually killing the entire plant. I only lost 2 pumpkin plants in this battle. I did have to uproot a sunflower that was getting chocked out by the beans and acorn squash, and pull out almost all my mulch. Hopefully that's goodbye squash beetle and not a hello to the grasshopper who loves to lay eggs in bare dirt...

So grateful we have chickens! 

Which brings me to our next project:

A chicken house remodel. The babies' feathers have grown in (the stubs of wattles and combs are showing now! I expect eggs in about 4-6 weeks.) and so they no longer need momma hen to snuggle them at night. This means we have 5 chickens demanding space in a house built to spaciously sleep three. For a while now, Ferdy has been putting herself to bed in the nesting box in the shed. Ella was distressed two nights ago and couldn't go to bed without being pecked. All signs of over-crowdedness. Time to add a wing to the house. 

Naturally the girls wanted to help,

with some safety gear.

Welcome to the luxury nesting area and sleeping quarters:

Again, using only repurposed materials, we added a spacious room to the coop. The girls were apprehensive to climb in at bedtime, but they all had plenty of space once I got them tucked in.

 All that's left is to coat the inside with food grade oil and paint the outside before the next heavy rainfall. But for now, we just needed to get the house in place before nightfall. And we did!

It's a bit dark to photograph after lights out, but you get the idea. The babies are not quite ready to roost while sleeping, but now they don't have to fight for space once the time comes. Nor do they have to worry that they are sleeping under someone. I will have to install the fan next, but that's easy and then everyone will sleep extra comfy and I'll start giving eggs away again.

And now on to more important things, like giant chess.

The battles of the seasons

I Am starting a war against the cottonwood borer! 

Last year there was one couple and they near killed a tree in the drought. This year I've seen at least 6 couples. While its been educational to watch them mate and then search for the root system and deposit eggs, I fear for the health of the trees! 

Since I dispise pesticides, I am using diatomaceous earth to dust the base of the tree. Once that had a chance to work, I will soak the root system in a neem oil spray with the hopes of defering any larva that do hatch from chewing through the root system. Sadly, this huge beattle, roughly 2" long with even longer antenna, are not interesting to the chickens. They hiss and are pretty intimidating, and i am a million times bigger than they are! 

All this comes after an interior attack on fleas and chiggers that, fortunately, did not resort to using a bug bomb. It was close though. Instead we DEed the carpet, let it sit for an hour, vacuumed. Then a few days later, vacuumed again to remove hair and trick flea eggs into hatching and then salted the rugs before vacuuming again. We have also washed all animals and bedding, neem oiled the dog and the carpet and the furniture, and resorted to frontline on the furry ones. The bites on us humans have significantly decreased, though the coating of baking soda paste for itch relief is still a daily application.

On to overcoming a bout of swimmers ear involving trapped lake water and a three year old. The miracles of hydrogen peroxide, lavender and eucaliptis essential oils and coconut oil! Now to stop the nasal drainage before we end up with a chest infection!

If all the time I've spent watching tinker bell movies hadn't been riddled with whining, itchy bites, fever and vacuuming I'd say I've been pretty lazy the last few weeks. Sleep has been nearly absent since the munchkin's fever raged in the nighttime until the clog loosened. Now she's coughing all night and requiring I sleep in her bed, while I toss and turn trying not to scratch. Needless to say, I'm tired!

 Fortunately we did get to take a break to go camping with some amazing friends! (How we acquired the plugged ear in the first place.) I'm hoping for a little break from maintaining healthy balance around my homestead for a while and find a moment for relaxing myself. 

Here's to a peaceful summer!

What is this?!

Saw 2 of these in my yard today after 3 days of heavy rain and/or watering. They're probably 2.5-3 inches long.

Gardening tips and a book review

I know it's been a while since my last real post. I've been weaning and therefore spending way less time nursing a sleeping child with nothing else to do.
That and Dan Brown novels have consumed my life!

I just read Digital Fortress for the first time. It took 3 days. Intense! I don't know why i waited so long to pick this one up! So I thought I'd try Lost Symbol, he's newest Langdon book. Meh. It was enjoyable but i thought it fit the Langdon-mold and so was predictable. But I do love the art history/religious scandal mixup, so I'll probably keep reading them, assuming he's gonna keep popping them out. How many more Freemason secrets is he allowed to give out??

Anyways- free book review over- gardening! Finally got all 3 beds in, seedlings purchased and planted, seeds are sprouting! Doing research on canning, pickling, companion planting, pest control, herbs and small coop designs. The ladies are quickly outgrowing their Giant Litter Box bed. Also, I want to plant herbs that I'll use, not just in homemade tomato sauce and to refill my tiny glass jars, but that balance out a yard. I recently read a few interesting facts

•ants keep the fleas under control. (I knew about the honeydew-aphid farms)
•spraying citronella oil (a few drops of lemon or orange essential oil and a cup of water in a spray bottle) around the compost heap will keep the ants from mounding near it and reduce chances of swarming on you
•artemisia keeps the mice away, and dried can be used as a candle wick
•bee balm attracts butterflies (our main pollinator down here)
•snakes tuck their heads under their bodies and squeeze tightly when being attacked by chickens, makes it difficult to be picked up
•Crickets eat pill bugs (so do frogs!)
•pill bugs: while good for aiding in decomposing, an over population will feed on young shoots. (Did you hear about my infestation? I moved 100s from under the container plants to the yard debris pile. There were too many for the one cricket I saw and my chickens can't keep up! Plus the ladies prefer the crickets when they're allowed to choose.)
• and leaving the sprinkler on overnight renders this hard, cracked, clay-ridden soil incredibly squishy. the plants LOVE it (but only once a week).

Weekend Madness

This weekend was full! I finished working on Dead Man Walking the Opera, Emagene helped me plant seeds for our spring bed, she got stung twice by a wasp crawling up the inside of her pant leg, and we got chicks!

First, the opera. I work with the local chapter of the Stagehands union, typically as an electrician but this time in props. I had to listen to/ watch rape, murder and execution every time I went to work the last two weeks. Needless to say, that kind of environment stirs up some shit you didn't know you had to deal with. There have been has many tears backstage every night as there was in the house. On the performance side: the singers and instrumentalists were amazing! Tulsa Opera put the show on and it was warmly welcomed. Personally, I was a tiny bit shocked it went over so well in our all Red state. And while I enjoyed working with the cast and crew, I'm ready for something a little more light-hearted. Like Stomp.

Seeds: we got non-GMO, non-hybrid seeds from Veganseeds.com and planted them in a Jiffy Greenhouse. The greenhouse has those sod pellets that grow when watered and are easy to transplant. We planted peas, beets, carrots, spinach, onions, radishes and broccoli.

E went outside with dad while I took nap Saturday. I wasn't feeling well. She came inside and sat in her rocker. She turned to look out the window and starting crying, obviously in pain. We tried to determine why: did you bonk your knee in the chair? Did you pinch your finger? I can tell its the back of her knee, so i reach up to see if something is poking throw her jeans that I can't see. I don't feel anything. She starts crying again. Is it a poke or a bonk? Poke. This time Pete reaches up her pant leg and pulls out. A . Wasp! He proceeds to kill it (since its mad and we are on our sofa) as I rip her pants off to assess the damage. 2 stings and a bite! They swell a little. Nothing a cold towel and comfort NeeNee can't solve. Within the hour the redness was gone and the welts followed soon after.

Chickens! 4 baby Naked Necks. They look like baby turkeys, are excellent eaters and poopers and behave like most babies: eat, sleep, poop, cry. Nothing we can't handle. Tomorrow we're gonna set up a corral outside so they can explore while we change the towels in the brooder. Currently, I'm having trouble falling asleep with the brooder lamp on. And I gotta finish load out tomorrow!