Pesky Wireworms
I’ve been harvesting my potatoes little by little as I have time and nice weather. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I have potatoes coming out my ears. Luckily, all the animals love them. There are a decent number of culls this year, the voles were particularly fond of the big main crop type potatoes. Most likely this is partly due to the fact that they’re in the ground longer and later. There are also a decent number of potatoes with wireworm damage, which is always annoying.
Wireworms affect crops more when there are grassy weeds in the garden or in an area that was sod the previous year. I’ve been very good about keeping the grassy weeds pulled, which means my wireworm population will decline in the coming years. I’m also planning on putting the chickens into the garden after all the potatoes are out of the ground to scratch around and eat any that they can find. Luckily any potatoes with wireworm or vole damage can still be fed to the animals, they’ll no doubt enjoy feasting on potatoes for the coming week.
Have you ever dealt with wireworms in your potato crop?
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Crazy Chickens
Our broiler flock is CRAZY. This coming week we’ll be butchering all the roosters (we’ve already butchered a few). There are five lucky ladies that will be integrated into our laying flock, a few of them are already laying eggs.
These chickens decided long ago that roosting in the old apple tree was much more fun than roosting in the portable coop we built them, go figure. I don’t worry much because they’re surrounded by an electric fence to keep them safe from predators. They love roosting in the tree so much, that the other day I found an egg perched perfectly on one of the branches.
Chickens are crazy animals, but entertaining as well. Hopefully when the ladies are moved to our new flock they’ll decide roosting in the coop is much nicer, we shall see. At least our main laying flock coops up nicely every night.
Do your pets every do anything crazy?
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The New Chiots
If you listen to Cultivate Simple, you know that we’ve been talking about getting a new dog. We have been talking to a breeder of Anatolian Shepherds in Ohio who feeds raw and follows natural protocols for her animals. The plan was to get a puppy from her, but she contacted us a few months ago about a four year old dog that was looking for a new place.
This is Tara, the new resident chiots (don’t worry, Lucy is still around and kicking, but she’s retired to a life of rest). Tara has had a few rough patches in her life. She was purchased by some people in Canada and wasn’t treated very well. They claimed she was aggressive and were going to put her down when she wasn’t very old, the breeder knew she wasn’t and fought to get her back. When she finally got Tara back, she was placed with an animal behavioral specialist for a while to make sure she didn’t have aggression issues. After being given the all clear, she moved to a farm in SE Nebraska where she had goats, chickens and ducks to watch over.
They decided to downsize and didn’t really need Tara anymore, so they wanted to find a good home for her where she could have a job to do and animals to protect. The breeder thought we might be interested and after much conversation with the current owner we decided she’d be a good fit for our little place. Transport was going to be an issue, but luckily, the breeder had a network of people willing to help. After asking, she found a very generous guy that was moving from California to Connecticut and was willing to pick her up on his with through.
Last Friday, he met Tara’s parents in a parking lot at 3 am in Nebraska. At 7 am on Saturday morning, he arrived in Connecticut (his brother was traveling with him and they took shifts and drove straight through). I left Maine not long after she arrived in CT and picked her up at 1 pm. She made the trip to her final home. This was a photo of her when I picked her up in CT.
So far she’s been great, very sweet and gentle. No doubt her personality will start to show more and more as she becomes comfortable. She will probably also start testing her limits as well as dogs are prone to do, particularly dominant dogs.
She’s settling in, getting to know us and the animals that live here and our workflow. So far she’s contained to a leash or a chain until we’re comfortable that she views Chiot’s Run as her new home. We’re working with her daily on perimeter training so she learns the boundaries. Hopefully she’ll be a big help with our predator problems.
Do you have any working dogs at your place or have you seen working dogs in action somewhere else?
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Cultivate Simple 46: Common Liberty Dog
On this week’s episode we discuss the Appleseed Project, our impressions of the Common Ground Fair, and our new LGD Tara, a beautiful Anatolian Shepherd.
Appleseed Project
Go back and listen to our On The Hunt episode to hear one reason why I value marksmanship so highly.
Learn More about the Appleseed Project
Common Ground Fair
Checkout the Fair Schedule. Click ‘show expired’.
What’s for Dinner
Books of the Week
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:14:45 — 52.0MB)
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Quote of the Day: Jessica Prentice
When you don’t grow up with a memory of something tasting wonderful, you sometimes have to work a little bit to learn to love it. There’s always a chance that you’ll never learn to like a thing, but you don’t know that until you really try.
Jessica Prentice – Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection
This is such a great quote, it rings true in my life. Thankfully I grew up with a very broad palate of things I tasted. Mostly do to the fact that I grew up in another country. We learned to eat thing like beef tongue, liver, yucca and all sorts of things many people would consider unpalatable.
As a result, I’m very adventurous when it comes to trying new things. In general, I have like almost everything I’ve ever tried, there are very few things that I don’t really like. Well, except for frosting (aka icing). Crazy, I know, someone who doesn’t like frosting. Even as a kid, I’d scape my icing off my cake and give it to my brother, who loved it.
Cooked greens used to be the one thing that I had trouble eating. I kept making them, we kept eating them, and eventually we learned to love them. They went from being not very appetizing to being enjoyed. Sometimes it takes trying things multiple times, cooked in different ways to find a place on your plate.
Do you have any foods that you want to learn to love?
