Hog Heaven?

Along with some of the more obvious affects of the drought, such as lack of harvest, trouble starting fall crops, seedlings dying after transplanting; can come less obvious results.

Such as wild boar visiting your urban farm! YIKES!

Now we don't have any iron clad proof or photographs of the wild beasts, but we have had a spotting and pick up of one such deceased aforementioned, who came into contact with a vehicle about a mile from the farm, near the now dry river bottoms which make a nice little highway for wildlife to travel upon. So we do know they have moved into the area and have easy access to the back of the farm now - thanks in large part, to the drought.

Seems this particular guy, or gal, has a sweet tooth. The evidence they left behind was similar to the incident on down the river bottom's trail at the Trinity River Audubon Center in southeast Dallas. Knocked over honey bee boxes......


This is actually the second time I've found one of our bee boxes knocked over. There wasn't any damage to the boxes, and most of the bees survived - including the all important queen bee. But this meant another unplanned trip to the boxes by The Texas Honeybee Guild's bee keepers to upright the boxes, inspect for damages and locate the queen - to see she was in the proper box.

When temps are in the upper 90's, dressed up in a full bee suit is not the coolest attire I can think of to wear, but Brandon suited up and took care of the girls - harvesting a bit of honey in the process.
YUMMY!

It looked a little darker than the first harvest, but tasted very light and fresh.

So, all is well again in the bee world - and as for the hogs....well, I've had a few offers to take care of them for me; Bacon anyone?

We'll see about that - hopefully, it will rain soon and they will just find their way back home where they normally live - which, I don't think was originally on my farm. Until they move, or are removed, I just hope they stay at the back of the property and don't discover the gardens - that, could be another real disaster! We're having enough challenges in the gardens without them rooting around!

Farming and all its challenges...




Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Good News on the Horizon

Sandy Soil Temps Soar Even Under Heavy Layers of Mulch

This summer’s extreme heat continues to take an extreme toll on farmers and ranchers all over Texas. Some farms are able to cope a little better with the use of shade houses, trucking in hay, additional and different timing on plantings, and re-planting as we’re doing here at Eden’s. But I hear many stories like ours of lost crops, excessive water use, equipment breakdowns, drying out wells and selling off of livestock before they should be; in every conversation I have with or about North Texas and Central Texas farmers. It appears it’s going to be a summer for the history books.

A Silver Lining

There have been some positive things going on here at Eden’s in spite of our current season’s hiatus. We had an anonymous donor pledge $2,000 towards the securing of compost for our gardens and one of our members pledged $250 towards the purchase of a poultry netting security fencing kit.

Compost is the basis of the soil’s life – and in our beach-sand-like soil, it is going to help us to retain moisture levels and kick some biology into gear. We add horse and chicken manure to our compost piles but can’t make it nearly fast enough to cover the number of rows we need to plant to keep our place productive. This donation is a huge help!!

After our latest round with roaming dogs, it seems that setting up electrified netting in the back yard is going to be the best way to protect our girls – and Snowball. I’ve not heard back yet from the extension office regarding help with valuing our hens’ worth, but as soon as I do, I’ll send off the request for restitution from the dogs’ owner and/or pursue further action as needed. But it’s nice to know that if, in the end, justice doesn’t seem to prevail, there are people out there who appreciate the value of the eggs/food that this farm produces enough to step up and give extra when they can. I can't tell you how appreciative I am of these pledges as well as all of the hard work of our volunteers, workshare members and kind words from supporters of my work.

It really is a nice feeling to know that there are other people out there that can see the vision I have for Eden’s. I see Eden’s as much more than just a place a farmer can scratch out a living. Small farms are more dynamic than that – or they can be anyway. Especially one that is so close to a large, dynamic city such as the DFW metroplex where educated locavores are eager to improve their diets.

School Children Touring Eden's Learn About the Importance of Honeybees in the Garden

Part of what I see Eden’s doing, is implimenting programs that will help to grow the level of awareness and education among its neighbors in the metroplex. I want to reach those who may not really understand that there is a great benefit to eating more home cooked food made from real, clean and in-season local ingredients. Not just to their taste buds, but to their health, as well. Sadly, many of the problems we develop from poor eating habits form slowly over time – and unseen until it is a serious problem.

We all know, or in some cases, have lost, someone who has heart disease, diabetes, struggles with obesity, food allergies (which are often caused by processed foods laced with too many synthetic ingredients our bodies don’t recognize.) and even more serious issues that are often the result of a suppressed immune system due to lack of proper nutrition. Mood swings, learning disabilities, depression, lack of energy and slow healing from various illnesses or injuries can also be connected to our eating habits. This quest to reach out is a personal mission of mine to help those who would reach back and benefit. I realize not everyone is going to give up their 99 cent heart attack fast foods or prepare every single meal from fresh, locally grown in season foods. I'm not expecting anyone to do that - I don't even follow that strict of a way of life, though I've been called a food snob. I just try to take notice of what I put in my body so that on those occasions when I'm out with others and there isn't as healthy an option as I'd like, my body should be well enough to manage some cheesy fries from Snuffers or a bowl of ice cream or whatever your weakness might be. No one has to be perfect, but let's be healthy! Many of the top killers are caused by food and lifestyle choices - poor choices!

Eating is the basis for just about everything else in life!

Cacuzza is a Fall Harvest Favorite at Eden's

Here at Eden’s, I’m doing what I can to secure a future for farming, teaching, learning and sharing all things food and healthy in my community. Thank you to everyone who is on board with me and welcome to those who are just joining! Summer may be beating us up this year, but fall is around the corner and another season of growing is underway! Let’s be grateful for the farmers who have found ways to grow in spite of the treacherous temps, and work to secure more local sources that can do the same thing.

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Summertime (or, when it rains it pours)

Snowball - Still reins over his throne

It seems as if whenever something out of the ordinary happens on the farm, I remember that it's been awhile since I've updated the blog and say to myself that I need to get that done soon. Seems things have been coming down the pike so quickly lately I've not had time to put them into thoughtful words to share. After this morning's events though, I thought it was time to stop, sit down and reflect - if for no other reason that doing so helps us to heal our hurts and move on.

Last night, there were dogs growling/barking and apparently taking up residency under the floor of my barn's feed room. Thankfully, none of my boarders or any of the horses were injured or attacked - but none the less, they were unwelcome guests and I called the authorities to have them removed.

Falling short of that, citing that they were unable to reach them under the floor and apparently thinking it was better to set a trap overnight than try to lure them out and finish the job right then, I was left with a trap full of canned dog food and a wish and a prayer that this would work out as they planned.

So this morning at 6, I headed outside to enjoy the cool of the dawn air and feed my chickens, cat and horses and see how many of the stray dogs had managed to share the food in the cage. None. Not one dog was in there. Where had they gone? How strange that they weren't attracted to that smelly dog food?

Solomon RIP

I fed my horse and let out my remaining cat, Eve; my sweet boy and everyone's most favorite cat, Solomon, met his demise two weekends ago after not being put back up one night, as I generally do. A coyote apparently thought he would make a good meal as there wasn't much left of my poor Solomon when I found him early the next morning. I then went through the barn to let out the chickens. Hmmm, that's strange - how did those silly chickens get the side door to the coop open? OH NO!

Snowball, Snowflake and one of the older yet to be named hens somehow managed to survive the brutal attack and mass murderous event that must have taken place late last night or early this morning - earlier than 5 when I got up or surely I'd have heard commotion.

Needless to say, I'll not be selling any eggs for quite some time. Snowball has some recovering to do as does one of his mates - Snowflake appears to have escaped virtually unscathed - somehow. Thankfully, I don't clip their wings - so she must have "flown the coop". I'm sure it will be some time before there are any eggs laid or any eggs fertilized in there for that matter. Snowball is in pretty decent shape considering the lack of feathers and bite marks but still needed to be doctored a bit, I think that he'll be fine eventually though. The hen I'll watch closely as she seems to be the most injured. Snowflake is a bit shaken up, and I can't catch her to examine, but looked ok from what I can tell.



Tootsie - our silly rooster in pj's


Unfortunately, Tootsie, Sister's Daughter, our last Bantam hen, and 8 of their coop mates weren't so lucky. A mass burial was held out back in one of the many mulch piles in order NOT to draw any coyotes up close to the barns. Hopefully we were able to bury them deep enough - I'll add some liquid molasses later on to help hide the odor and break down their remains into compost.

So one of the lessons here, is that you can't make a chicken coop out of chicken wire for one thing. You must use reinforced hardware wire - which I pulled out to replace the chicken wire with after the last kill of my pullets this winter but somehow never got "a round tuit". The dogs were up underneath the floor in one of the barns where there is about a 3' space, (that I've been meaning to board up - to keep the ducks and chickens from laying eggs where I can't reach them!) Not really big enough for the animal control officer to crawl into - but had he to do it over again last night, I think he'd have fired that dart pistol in there until he got them and then figured out how to drag them out later. Or, tried to lure them out with the dog food rather than just set up a trap and hope for the best.

Too late for that now - I imagine they'll be "put down" once they get back to the shelter (they were holed up in the chicken pen area with their victims and were finally "darted" and taken into custody.), and no one comes to claim them. Are dogs not pets anymore - just creatures people throw away or leave to run on their own? Faced with having to shoot a dog, I don't know that I could do it - not permanently anyway. Dart yes, bb, yes. Kill? Probably not me. I'm too soft for that. But I do have a few choice words for people who let that kind of animal run loose. This is a family site though, so I'll let you fill in your own thoughts....

Of course the dogs' owners had no ID tags on them. No irresponsible dog owner would do such a thing. Why that would mean they had to be sure their fences and gates were secure or they'd face a fine for stray, potentially vicious dogs on the loose, (yes, they were pitt bulldogs, but that doesn't really matter - put more than one dog of many breeds together, and they will chase down and kill chickens).

So there will be no restitution for my losses. My CSA members will not be able to get any eggs for quite some time and I'll be fortunate enough to find sufficient quantities for myself from the loose barn chickens that run around the pasture on the other side of the farm. They lay simple brown eggs which we mixed with the blue and green and pale pink ones from those that resided in the pen area. I'll be down to about 2 or 3 eggs a day - if I'm lucky enough to find them. I'll give Snowball and the 2 girls some time to recover and me enough time to really build a compound before I even think about whether I'll go outside of my flock to increase it or not. I've not brought in chickens from outside for several reasons. One is risking disease/pests spreading to my existing chickens. The other is trying to model a sustainable flock where my roosters do that for me.

So this week's projects of course include securing the remaining chickens behind the hot wire gate again, which was more for keeping out the skunk and raccoon that were terrorizing the baby chickens than dogs. As well, I'll have my farm's carpenter get on reinforcing the other coop STAT! And, I have decided that it is time to invest in some electric fencing designed for poultry. Premier One has a kit that I believe I can use with my existing electric charger to keep out anything - even vicious dogs. We leave the ground cover overgrown to provide shelter from hawks. I was reserving the electric fencing for use out in the pasture once we built our chicken tractor to use in the gardens for soil improvement, but it seems my budget will just have to be stretched early and again later on when the tractor is built - I can't keep going through this - I'm just a soft city-girl living on a farm and my heart just breaks every time this happens.

So, in addition to the August-like, season ending extreme temperatures this June, losing my favorite cat, various other disappointing things that just happen in life to all of us from time to time, to this morning's very sad events - I'd be putting it mildly to say that I'll not be too sorry to see June 2011 leave me and my farm behind.

I accept these things as learning experiences that force me to face certain things and make changes in myself where needed and forge on ahead. There's a lot of life left to live and all this stuff does help make us better somehow in the long run. We never know how today's events will turn out to change something tomorrow or how it will help someone else along the way.

We've turned under many of our crops due to failure from the heat and are hoping that we'll be able to nurse along new crops recently planted for an early fall harvest this year. We'll be erecting shade cloth as soon as they get their first true leaves to help protect them from the July and August sun which surely won't be any less merciless than it has been since late May.




Growing future farmers


Life on the Farm is not easy, that is for sure. Rewarding, challenging, exhausting, delicious and enlightening - yes. But easy is not a word I'd use. I have a lot of plans for this little urban piece of paradise, even though we've had our share of setbacks. If I can just keep my feet under me long enough to get them in place and start working, we'll have an even more wonderful farm to share with the community than we already do.

Into everyone's life comes a few storms - but the dawn always comes

Everyone who comes here loves it and vows to return - and usually does. I know it is a special place worth preserving and restoring and sharing with whomever we can. It grows more than just good things to eat - it grows people, experiences and character. I can't prevent every disaster, error or mishap - but I sure can get to the place where I'm not band-aiding everything instead of really fixing or doing it right the first time. Baling wire and duck tape are ok - but I'd rather have the right tool for the job. Thanks to everyone who comes out to the farm and helps. I can't do it alone - and I'm grateful for those who also share the vision with me. We will grow and continue to add programs and more crops to share with the community.

Here's hoping your gardens are green and growing better than ours up in North Texas are.

And on the upside - we got over 3 1/2 inches of rain and were able to harvest over 100 lbs of heirloom carrots!


Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!