Tag: permaculture

New Additions

We had a problem this year. Mainly that neighbors dogs broke in and killed most of our chickens and peachicks. Suddenly we were down to 2 chickens, when it was decided 6 were needed to supply the family with enough eggs. What to do.

In comes the wonderful community we have around us. We were given 3 chickens. Happiness.

Then 4 egg laying ducks were given to us. Then a little call duck drake was given to my daughter. Suddenly we had geese. Then yet another egg laying duck was given to us.

There we were, completely without poultry and BAM, plenty of birds meandering the farm.

Now this has had an impact. The pond has been completely free of birds for the year. I had grasses and reeds growing. The pond was actually clear most days. The pigs were enjoying it and digging it out like crazy but otherwise, a healthy ecosystem.

The ducks didn’t make that big of an impact. The initial 4 were young and did not create that much of a mess. The geese, now they were a problem. I did not even consider how quickly and completely they could destroy all green matter around the pond. The grass, pretty much non-existent. All of the plants growing up around the pond, destroyed.

I was a little discouraged by all this. I was thinking about how tasty those geese would be. However, I think they can stay. They’ve started venturing out of the fenced pond area and onto the property as a whole. Our acreage can certainly withstand the appetites of two Sevastopol geese. In fact it was a beautiful morning, looking out the windows and watching our chickens, ducks, geese and peafowl wandering the property finding food.

Look at that fat pig!

Indeed I still haven’t fed anyone. I won’t until all the green on our property is gone. I will feed through the winter only. Even without feeding I have fat animals. Happy animals. Healthy animals. It has been a beautiful season with the animals.

Permaculture bringing in snakes

We’ve lived on our little property in Wyoming for 10 years now. We didn’t do much beyond putting up some fences when we initially moved out. It wasn’t until we started having kids that I started looking at our land with interest. Permaculture practices weren’t really put into place until child #2 came along.

Where I grew up, in the suburbs of Cheyenne, there was an open field behind the house. It was there for flood events and was fenced off. Not that that ever stopped any of the kids in the area from going over or under the fence to play in the mystical world of grass and creek. In this world snakes were plentiful. In fact, we made a bit of a name for ourselves as snake wranglers. You see every year someone would smoke or light fireworks and catch the field on fire. Then all the animals would rush to the side that was in tact and the neighborhood around it. People in the burbs aren’t fond of masses of snakes under their porches and my siblings and I would go round them up and put them back in the field so they weren’t killed. Snakes are kind of my thing.

One thing I noted about our property is the complete lack of snakes. Year and years of wandering, digging, etc and never seeing a single snake. It was disappointing.

That is no longer a thing. Last year we had our first snake experience. Babies. So many babies. All over the grass in our yard. The kids were entranced. Catching and holding them every chance they got.

Now those babies have grown up and we have a lot of big snakes about. So many that we’ve actually caught some in the garage mouse traps.

We spent some time this year saving tadpoles from the evaporating water puddles they are hatched in. Turns out tadpoles are a favorite food and snakes can hold their breath a really long time. So long my husband accused me of making the whole thing up.

Sorry babe, there really was a snake in the pool eating the tadpoles. HA!

We came home from one of our tadpole hunts to find the peahen screaming her brains out. I went over to see what was up and caught this bull snake attempting to eat her eggs. This is actually a small bull snake and he could not get that huge peacock egg in his mouth but you gotta give it to him for trying. I wasn’t sure if he’d go for me so I did put some bite proof clothes on before catching it. It was pretty docile. No problems. We took it away from the peacock and released it in the ground squirrel holes. Go get fat on vermin snake!

Then there was the day we were dumping tadpoles in the pond (as we decided they’d have a better chance in a larger body of water since all the pool tadpoles had been eaten by snakes) only to discover not one but three garter snakes swimming about slurping tadpoles. We removed them from the area but we’ve seen them back there several times since.

I’m pleased to have snakes around. They are a joy for us. The kids love catching and touching them just as I did as a kid. I’m happy we were able to create an environment they can thrive in!

Bees- costing way more, way more quickly than expected

Our bees are doing great. Really great. So great we’ve already had to purchase 3 additional boxes to expand the hive. I am thankful for all of the bee food we’ve been laboriously planting all these years as it’s made bee keeping a breeze. Well, except for how bee like my bees are being.

It turns out my bees really could care less about where they build their comb. My hive has foundation in the first two boxes and I have a lot of cross comb and burr comb happening. I was opening the hive every 2 weeks to cut this out but it matters not, they are still doing it. I know what you bee people are thinking. Is your hive level? Yup. Is it facing the wrong direction? Maybe. I did move it around though in the hopes it would help. It didn’t. My bees are just busy and they don’t care if I can access the hive or not.

So when I put the honey super on I took the foundation out. I really hoped that doing so would encourage the bees to build on the frame better. What did they do? Well they built their comb across every frame. Now I can’t even lift any of those frames out. What a pain!

I wanted to be a “good” bee keeper. I’m finding though, my bees think keeping away from them is as good as it gets. We aren’t planning on harvesting any honey off them anytime soon. In fact if this hive can simply be split to produce other hives, we’d be happy with that. Plus, pollinating the orchard and other plants is a huge plus!

So we are going to go into winter with a strong colony. I hope to either catch them swarming or split them next spring. Stay tuned!

The trees that survived this year

I had little hope for any tree survival this year. Ground squirrels had pretty much killed my oldest apple tree last year. I planted daffodils around it and hoped. This spring the ground squirrels are around my oldest plum tree. It apparently didn’t have enough daffodils or we are breeding super squirrels. Either way, I was worried.

The wind is also up around here and by up I mean I’ve been concerned about the house breaking up several times already. I’ve begun thinking to myself, why do we live here? We should move. Yet, here we remain.

The specialty trees were in our fenced yard. I figured it was guaranteed to be bunny proof with our massive bunny chasing dogs in it. What I didn’t count on was a giant sized puppy deciding to go out and chew the top off of EVERY SINGLE TREE. Forget the bunnies, I need puppy protection.

So the specialty trees were dug up and moved to a fenced off portion and I simply hoped that not all of them were dead. I’m happy to report that more than half survived, including my biggest almond tree.

Almond tree

They look rough but leaves are shooting out of their perfect little trunks and I’m happy, happy, happy!

So we have a medlar, 3 plum and an almond tree that survived puppygedon.

Bees- Take 2

Last years bees didn’t quite work out. Not to be deterred we are trying again. This time we bought a small langstroth hive. When they outgrow it we will move the established colony into the top bar hive I built.

We had a lot of debate about where to put the bees this year. Last year we discovered ants had taken over the bee feeder. I was concerned about that this year as well. I researched the ants, as I had no idea what kind they were, and found they are Formica ants.

This years feeder has the same cage on it, to keep the birds away, but I’ve moated it off from the ants. The bees have the benefit of food and water all in one place as well. I thought it quite brilliant.

I also thought placing the bees in our established tree line was brilliant. I was told by members of the Southeast Wyoming Beekeepers Association that the hive needed morning sun. The wind absolutely howls from the west here and our tree line blocks most of it. Placing the hive up against our thickest line of trees for wind protection was brilliant. Elevating it above the lilac bushes in front, even better. We screwed a nice pallet into the spool we placed so that we are able to strap the hive down, keeping the lid from blowing off and the whole hive from blowing over. It also left a nice space for the feed/water. I’m tall so getting into the hive isn’t a problem. I did prop a nice pallet up for stairs should I need to get all the way up there. All in all I am extremely pleased with the set up this year.

Installation went much smoother this year as well. The only issue I had was the marshmallow falling out the second I turned the queen box over. I just quickly dumped half the bees on top and closed the lid. It took a few hours for everyone to make their way inside but it has been several days and they are still there. I’d consider that a success.

We don’t have much food available for the bees at the moment. Just some dandelions that I haven’t seen a single bee on.

The lilac are close to blooming and all indications point to a bumper crop of sweet clover, so they’ll be overwhelmed with food options soon.

All in all, a hopeful start to this years bee keeping.

Adapting plans and what I have been up to

I have not given up on having a permaculture orchard here in Wyoming. I planted several experimental trees this year I have much hope for. I have not planted as much as usual though. Part of that is I really need to adapt my strategy to fit my reality.

A percentage of my trees do survive through the first rough year after being planted. I have been happy with this survival rate as it is better than what most people would expect from this area anyway. However, the growth rate is as low as the water they receive and they are so susceptible to animal death. My favorite and oldest apple tree was attacked by ground animals this year. I did go plant a ring of daffodils around it and it is not completely dead. Still, To see years of growth abolished so quickly is quite depressing. I believe with minor irrigation in the starting years I can really change the growth and survivability of my trees.

Now, I have limits on what I can water with my well. As such watering is going to be a scientific endeavor. We will be drip irrigating only the newest trees and only for the first few years. As such I will have time to execute and cover crop my earthworks while I wait for irrigation to become available to a new line of trees. We plan to start this in the spring and I will keep you updated on whether it makes a noticeable difference or not.

I have planted some experimental trees this year. We have 3 paw paw trees planted in the pig run next to the pond. I planted 2 almond trees, 2 hazelnut and 2 medlar trees in the yard. Those I have been watering. I’ve had some almond problems. Mostly that our dog appears to be convinced he is required to dig one of them up. We shall see if that tree survives to the spring.

As far as animals go this year we killed nearly everything in the fall. We no longer have any chickens or ducks. The simple reason being that I wasn’t getting any eggs anyway. The ducks were laying all of theirs directly into the pond and the chickens were eating theirs. The turkey, of course, went to Thanksgiving heaven. All we currently have is the two pigs and two peacocks (male and female). Hopefully we will have babies soon, from both.

I do intend to get more chickens in the spring but I am going to keep things under control now. No more babies, no more roosters. Just six sex-linked hens that will be replaced every other year. It was getting a bit ridiculous the other way. Who needs 25 chickens anyway?

Things are slowly marching on here. Spring should be interesting for me, discovering what has made it and what has not.