The Mysterious Case of the Missing Electric Fence

I was always a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  I have a collection of Sherlock Holmes mysteries where the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solve cases that befuddled Scotland Yard.  Sherlock Holmes paid attention to every minute detail in solving cases as he famously said, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

That leads us to the mystery that we have at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  We like to wait until May to mow.  I have a solar powered fence charger, shown below, that charges up a reel of poly wire rope strung on temporary, step-in posts.  I set these paddocks up and run the cows through the yard over roughly a week.  By the time they've made it through the yard in a week, the first paddock has grown up and is ready to be grazed again.

The cows have learned, like Pavlov's dogs, that the sound of the reel unwinding the wire rope means that they will soon have access to fresh, tender White Dutch clover, and they begin to moo loudly, impatiently.  Here they are in all their glory in the first paddock of spring:

At night, I put them back in the permanent pasture, but leave the temporary fencing in place. Yesterday something bizarre caught my eye.  There was no wire hanging between the posts.  I did a double take and walked over to look more closely.  The solar charger was still there, fortunately, but the reel and all the wire was gone!  Of course this photo is before the "Great Fence Heist."  If you look closely, you can see a post near the road and then if you look to the right of that one, you can see a post between the crepe myrtle and the telephone pole.

At this point I'm getting a little angry, thinking, "I can't believe someone stole my fence!  Nothing like that has ever happened before.  I felt violated and began thinking, "It is time to get a Ring doorbell camera and an outside camera as well."  Between the Gallagher fence reel and the wire rope, the value missing is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $75-$100.  The solar charger is worth more than that.  Why would you leave that?

The solar charger was close to the house.  Perhaps the thief was too chicken to come close to the house with our dog, not to mention that we might (we do) have firearms.  They could have just stood by the road, grabbed the wire rope, attached it to their truck hitch and the wire rope, reel and everything attached would be pulled to the road where they could throw it in the back of their truck and escape.

But when I walked to the road, I noticed a couple of clues that made me re-think my theory.  Namely, the two poles near the road were bent, and there were tire track marks that clearly showed grass mashed down.  Someone had driven off the road, through our fence and bent the poles in the process.

Upon this happening, the fence probably got caught around the suspension of the vehicle and as they motorist regained control, he (or she) unwittingly drove off pulling 350 feet of poly wire, a reel, and several broken poles bouncing behind them.  Tricia and I got in the vehicle and drove due east.  We saw nothing.  We drove due north and due south.  Again nothing.  All would be good if we could've found the reel, but we didn't.

My thinking is that the driver was either impaired or distracted when they hit our fence.  They didn't want to come back and apologize and/or "face the music."  I was hoping that once they got a safe distance away, they would have pulled over, cut the fencing away, and left everything in the ditch somewhere, but no dice.  We couldn't find any evidence.  We could sure use Sherlock or Dr. Watson to help us solve the mystery.

Until then, we'll likely get a camera and install.  We'll still run the cows through the yard.  I do have another reel and more wire rope.  But we'll operate a little smarter and we'll roll up the fencing and put it all in the garage until the following day.  "Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me."  We're just happy that the solar charger came unhooked from the fence.  That would have been a shame to have lost it!

Success & Failure After the Deep Freeze

Prior to the deep freeze that rolled through our area, bringing 10 inches of snow and temperatures in the single digits, we listened to a gentleman at our bee club meeting tell us about a technique he used to save all of his citrus trees from temperatures in the low 20's from the year before.  We've always piled mulch real deep around the base of the trunk.  That didn't work out so well.  We didn't lose the trees, but it hurt them so badly, the next year we had no blooms, thus, no citrus.  We had to prune back all the dead branches.

I was interested in this man's tactics as his trees were loaded with satsumas and oranges where our poor trees were barren.  This guy purchased tarps at tractor supply and covered the entire tree.  Then, he ran extension cords to each tree and put a heat lamp under the tarp.  That's it!  So we endeavored to do likewise.  Note to self:  Purchase tarps in advance of the freeze.  Don't wait until the last minute because the shelves will be bare.  

Let's look at each of our three citrus trees.  We had more, but had lost them in previous freezes.  Here below is a small satsuma tree.  It's only about 3 1/2 feet tall, so what I did was turn a heavy plastic trash can over it and put a heat lamp underneath.  Look at the results.  The heavy trash can did a pretty good job of keeping the heat inside.  The uppermost limbs and leaves are dead, but there is green growth toward the bottom where the heat lamp was positioned.

Looking more closely at the bottom of the satsuma tree, you can see fresh, new, green growth along with LOTS of blossoms.  We WILL have satsumas this fall!

Here is our navel orange tree.  As I told you, it is big.  Too big, in fact, to get the tarp over it and fastened tightly at the bottom.  We did the best we could.  I wonder if it would be beneficial to prune the tree back to ensure the ability for the tarp to completely go over and seal good with bungee cords at the bottom.  We were able to put the heat lamp underneath, but from a distance, the navel orange tree looks bleak.  We may have to chop it down.

Not so fast, my friend.  As you look closer, there is green growth coming out of the central trunk!  That's great news.

Looking closer, you can make out orange blossoms.  What a nice fragrance!  We'll have oranges this winter.

Well, things are looking pretty good.  Let's check in on the tangerine tree.  It had been hurt badly by the previous freeze, so it was smaller.  We wrapped it completely with a tarp and put a heat lamp under the tarp.  Uh Oh!  There's no growth.  This thing is toast.

We'll have no tangerines this fall.  These were so tart and tasty.  Their color was what I describe as "electric orange."  We'll have to buy another to replace this one.  I'll chop this one down.  Things were looking pretty good with our new freeze protection protocol.  However, I try to be a glass half full kind of guy.  And like ol' Meatloaf sang, "Two outta three ain't bad."

I Can't See Me Lovin' Nobody But You...

"Imagine me and you, I do I think about you day and night, it's only right To think about the girl you love and hold her tight So happy together" -  The Turtles 1967

We've been talking a lot about the literal birds and the literal bees lately with us hatching out baby chicks and then putting out a swarm trap to catch a wild swarm of honeybees.  But today, we'll briefly talk about "the birds and the bees," if you know what I mean.

We have two cows and a heifer that need to get bred.  Nick, the Jersey bull, is just the guy to do it.  LuLu has been in milk for over a year and a half.  It is time to dry her off, but we want to get her, Rosie, and Elsie pregnant.  No dice, so far.  Elsie had a cyst on her ovary and the vet came and took care of that.  But up to this point, she's not been able to get pregnant.  We track the days, put the cows in heat with the bull, and...  They cycle again the following month.

Rosie had lots of mucus showing.  It was her time.  We put her in the bull pen with Nick.  He began courtship immediately.

Rosie was in standing heat.  It's a little embarrassing to photograph and show this, but we are 99% sure that Nick was successful in his endeavors.

We'll keep watching the calendar and for signs and we'll put Elsie and LuLu in the bull pen with Nick as the right time arises.  If they keep on coming in heat, we may have to assume that Nick is a defective bull with low sperm count.  If so, there's a neighbor down the road five miles or so away with a registered bull.  We may have to schedule a 'date night' and bring our three girls down there.

I can't see me lovin' nobody but you

For all my life

When you're with me, baby, the skies'll be blue

For all my life

Bringing in the Cabbage

Today is St. Patrick's Day.  Corned beef and cabbage is St. Patrick's Day fare.  We've no corned beef, but cabbage?  Yes, we've got some of that!  As the weather warms, the cold season crops begin to suffer.  Cabbage is one of those crops.  I like to leave it as long as possible to let the heads get big, but snails are attracted to our cabbage.  Tricia doesn't like snails - she says they're gross.  I told her to consider them escargot, but she's not buying that line.  I already picked one row of cabbage, but here's another we'll pick up today.  The cows and goats know what's up, and they gather to beg.

Here's probably the nicest head of cabbage in the patch. 

 

This one is a good, average sized cabbage - some were bigger, many were smaller.

As I picked, I plucked the outer leaves and tossed those to the waiting animals.  Before long, I had harvested the entire row.  This makes room to plant a couple more rows.  I always plant between the rows for the following year.  It's my easy way of crop rotation.

And here we go: A case of cabbage.  I'll tote these back to the house and spray them all down to clean them up real good.  Then I'll load them into the refrigerator, so they'll last.

We've already eaten a couple of side dishes of smothered cabbage.  We also had some cabbage and sausage jambalaya.  It is similar to a deconstructed cabbage roll.  We'll eat lots of cole slaw.  Finally, we'll make several quarts of kimchi and sauerkraut.  

The Ides of March

The Ides of March or March 15th is a day with ominous undertones.  Things bad happen on this day.  Julius Caesar, for crying out loud, was assassinated on this day.  But on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm, March 15th was just another day.  Nothing bad happened.  In fact, it was a productive day in the garden.  Let's take a look.

This little baker's rack is our greenhouse.  It works for us.  Two shower curtains are wrapped around it tightly and held by binder clips.  When it gets cold, we bring the whole thing inside.  On January 1st we plant a lot of seedlings (tomato, pepper and eggplant) and continue throughout the next couple of months (cucumbers, squash of many varieties, cantaloupe and watermelon).  We keep them watered and once they get their first true leaves, we begin using diluted fish emulsion to spray the leaves for foliar feeding and the soil.  Fish emulsion ferments in the water bottle, turns green, and stinks to high heaven.  Don't get it on you, but get it on your plants.  They love it.

These are about eight or nine varieties of heirloom indeterminate tomatoes and they are ready to be transplanted into the ground.  They are calling out for some more powerful fertilizer as they have a slight yellow tinge in their color.

Here is a tray of Boston pickling cukes, one of three varieties we plant.  We'll transplant these today beneath the trellis.

When I transplant the tomatoes into the garden soil, I use a garden knife to dig a pretty deep hole.  Then I grab a handful of composted chicken litter and toss it at the bottom.  I cover the bottom of the hole with composted wood chips that have turned into a rich topsoil.  The tomato is planted deep - buried up to the lowest leaves, then covered with the excess garden soil and watered in.  In just 3 days you can see the transformation that's taken place.  The yellow tinged leaves have been replaced by dark green healthy leaves.  The roots have reached the fertile soil and are ready to jump up out of the ground.

Believe it or not, after transplanting almost everything in the greenhouse, we also planted sunflower seeds, two rows of okra, two rows of sweet corn and two rows of snap beans.  The garden is about 80 percent planted.  We have warming weather on the horizon and we're optimistic that what's in the ground is healthy and will survive.

Happy Green Thumbs, friends!

Our Daily Bread

 

Image Credit

This famed photograph hangs in the kitchen of my childhood home.  Mom and Dad have it overlooking the kitchen table.  An interesting background behind the "Grace" photograph can be found HERE. It was named the State photo of Minnesota.  The photo evokes thoughts of piety, simplicity, and gratitude to God for providing what we need each day.  He is faithful.

Tricia was on a tear in the kitchen the other day with her sour dough.  She made two loaves of sour dough bread and then made bagels.  I had been after her to make some homemade rolls that remind me of being in elementary school in the 70's.  The lunchroom ladies would make these homemade rolls that they would slather butter on the tops when they would remove the silver trays full of hot rolls from the oven.  It smelled so good and tasted heavenly!  Did they make rolls like that at your school?  Can you remember that?

Although we don't have those big silver trays, nor do we have a big, commercial oven, but my bride made me some homemade rolls!

Talk about lovin' from the oven!  We immediately put real butter on top and ate one while it was piping hot.  

But wait, there's more daily bread.  Tricia decided to make homemade cinnamon rolls - a sour dough variety.  This photo is me peering into the oven anticipating the buzzer going off to signify they're done.

Soon they were done and were placed on the counter to cool.

I wish you could smell this sticky goodness.  At the time of this photo, they were still too hot to try to eat.  The cinnamon sugar you see oozing out the top is like molten lava.  If you tried to put it in your mouth, it would burn the skin right off the roof of your mouth.  Lord, give me patience.

But good things come to those who wait.  While I poured some coffee and waited for the sour dough cinnamon rolls to cool, my wife had made a cream cheese icing for the cinnamon rolls.

We are indeed thankful for Our Daily Bread, from both a literal and a spiritual standpoint.

Learning A Life Lesson From an Old Saying

 "Don't Count Your Chickens Before they Hatch"

We've all heard that adage.  It means to not get too confident in your plans counting on the most favorable outcomes.  Getting your hopes too high leads to disappointment.  Temper your expectations.  

We put 42 (supposedly) fertile eggs in our incubator 21 days ago hoping to get some laying hens to replace those lost due to the deadly mink ordeal.  I immediately did the math.  Last year, if memory serves, we achieved a 75% hatch rate.  Assuming similar results, we'd hatch out 31 (roughly) chicks since you can't hatch out 31.5 chicks.  Of the 31 eggs about half would be roosters.  That would leave us with 15 hens.  All that assumes no mortality on hatched out chicks - a big assumption.

Of course, we could buy baby chicks from the store, but they're $5.99 a piece right now!!  Plus, I'm reading that stores are tracking people that purchase baby chicks and reporting their location to the USDA because of the bird flu situation.  Something doesn't sit right with me about that with privacy and all.  You know the old saying about the camel's nose under the tent and all that...  No thanks, we'll hatch out our own chicks.

On day 21 Tricia heard "cheep, cheep, cheep" coming from the room where we had the incubator.  Chicks were pecking out of the eggs!  I gently lifted the rotating cradle that moves the eggs from side to side out of the incubator and began taking the eggs out one by one to lay on the bottom of the incubator.  If you don't, baby chicks could get injured between the rotating cradle, even though it moves very slow.  You can see one of the chick's beak pecking out of the egg below.

Mission accomplished.  All of the eggs are laid out.  Now we wait...

Here is the first freshly hatched chicks all wet from the egg.  That's an ugly little creature if you ever saw one, isn't it?

Pretty soon, though, they dry off.  When they are dry, I move them outside into the garage, where I have our makeshift brooder set up.  Here is the mugshot of the first chick.

And here is the profile shot of the same bird.

I poke their little heads down in the water so they'll drink.  The water has a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in it.  Then I set each one down in the brooder with some non-medicated chick grower so they can start scratching and eating.

I run back to the incubator where more have hatched out.

We gathered the eggs over 3 days, so gradually chicks hatched out over the next 3 days.  Here they are under heat lamps in the brooder where they'll grow for a week and we'll move them outside into this same brooder that we'll set up in a chicken tractor.

When the dust settled, we only hatched out 16 eggs.  That is a dismal 38% hatch rate.  We'll likely get 8 laying hens to add to the flock.  We'll also get 8 roosters that we'll butcher and put in the freezer for chicken & sausage gumbo.  That's not fantastic, but it's 8 more hens to add to the flock, so we're not going to belly-ache about it.  And we'll remember to not count our chickens before they hatch.  We'll also remember, "If at first you don't succeed, try try again."