Another Egg Producer!

Our chameleon has joined the ranks of the Gael Glen Farm egg layers.  We expect our hens and ducks to lay eggs but I admit I was a bit surprised to find several Jelly Belly bean sized eggs in the substrate of Avery's terrarium.  Obviously her eggs are not fertilized since we do not have a male chameleon, so there are no baby chameleons in our future (thank goodness).  However, it was neat to find them just the same.

Chameleons lay 12 to 80 eggs in a clutch.  We are trying to give Avery lots of quiet time since we've read that egg laying is very strenuous on female chameleons (no kidding - up to 80 jelly bean sized eggs in one go?!  Holy cow!).  Apparently if the chameleon gets stressed out during the egg laying process it can cause her to become egg-bound.  Becoming egg-bound means that she is unable to expel all the eggs inside her and it is usually a death sentence for the lizard (unless you are willing to pay a veterinarian to do an X-ray on your chameleon to confirm that she is egg bound and then do surgery to remove the eggs - I bet that would cost a pretty penny).

We are waiting with fingers crossed that Avery makes it through her ovulation in one piece.  Only time will tell.

The Great Lily Extinction

Would you like to know the bane of my existence?  Japanese Red Lily Beetles.  I hate them.

These horrible bugs start attacking my lilies in the early spring when the lily shoots sprout from the ground.  The adult beetles over-winter in the soil at the base of the lily plants and then emerge in the spring.  Japanese Red Lily Beetles have lots and lots of sex with each other.

The female beetles then lay little red eggs on the underside of the lily leaves in the signature pattern below.

These eggs hatch into larvae that then feast on the young lily's leaves and defecate disgusting piles of poop all over the poor plant.

The larvae then turn into the adult lily beetle (that also eats the lily leaves and petals) and the whole cycle begins again.  These bugs seem to breed like nobody's business and they absolutely destroy the lily plants on which they live.  They eat every last leaf to the point that the plant sometimes can't even bloom because it can't photosynthesize properly without any leaves.  Below is what is left of my (hypothetically) beautiful lilies.

Seriously...just a stem.  No leaves, no blossoms.

As far as I know there is no pesticide that kills these horrible bugs; garden stores sell traps for them but seasoned gardeners swear the only way to get rid of lily beetles is to pick the adults off by hand and then scrape and squish all the eggs before they hatch.  This is a ridiculous amount of face time for a few lily plants but I hate to let things die when intervention is possible, so for four long years I have picked these beetles off my lilies.  Well, I've had it.  No more.  I admit defeat.  My lilies have to go.

I have dug up all my lilies and thrown the sad looking plants and all the bulbs into the compost.  I will no longer be a slave to the Japanese Red Lily Beetle.  Life will have to continue on Gael Glen Farm without lilies.

A Very Veggie Update

Even when we are not blogging, our garden is still growing...thank goodness, since we've been a bit remiss in the blogging.  We blame the baby; he is time consuming.

While we had a rainy start to the season which made our veggies slow to take off (and the mosquitoes in the garden ferocious!), thanks to the plentiful sunshine over the past few weeks, our garden is looking incredible and already producing some healthy and delicious food.

Words can't do justice to our beautiful veggies, so behold...(note: the absence of virtually all weeds in the big garden which can be attributed to Ian's incredible vigilance in the weed pulling department - kudos!)

Rows and rows and rows of tomatoes.  We're not really sure which kinds (red, yellow, beefsteak, heirloom, cherry etc.) are growing where so it will be a surprise when they begin to ripen.  Right now there are tomatoes on almost all the vines but they are all small and green.

Broccoli.  Did you know the more frequently you harvest the broccoli crowns from a plant, the more they grow?
No excuse not to eat broccoli now!

Cabbage.  No cabbage patch kids growing in there though - I checked!  Coleslaw here we come.

A row of kale.  Perfect for smoothies, in omelettes and baked into kale chips.  Kale chips - too healthy to be called chips but tasty just the same.

Cucumber.  Lots of flowers just waiting to be pollinated by one of our honey bees (if they'd ever get back to business and stop misbehaving - a subject for another post)!

Zucchini plant.

Zucchini blossoms on a zucchini plant.

Baby zucchini on a zucchini blossom on a zucchini plant...and the green grass grows all around, all around and the green grass grows all around.  (If this doesn't make sense to you, then it is likely that you have not spent the last several weeks racking your brain for any and all children's songs buried deep in your memory in an effort to amuse a fussy infant.)

Rows of red onions.  Perfect as scallions now or we can let them grow into big red onions (patience required!).

The mint corner. Varieties: apple mint, mojito mint and chocolate mint.
We tried to make mint iced tea the other day; sounded like a good idea but tasted like toothpaste.
We poured it down the sink.

From left to right: peas, carrots and onions.

From left to right: swiss chard and turnips.  Turnips have turned out to be our bargaining chip this year -
no one else grows them but everyone is willing to trade for them!

Green pepper.  Yes, it is tiny.  Our peppers really suck this year.  Even though we have at least a dozen pepper plants, this is the only pepper that is growing so far.  Did I mention that our peppers suck?

Garlic.  Ian is the Garlic King - like the guy in the Ottawa Santa Claus parade but without the truck with the glass dome in the roof.  I bet our garlic would win at the Carp Garlic Festival if we weren't too cheap to pay the exorbitant entry fee.

So, this is what we are harvesting right now.  We'll try to keep you abreast of new developments as the season progresses.  We have lots of happy and healthy eating ahead of us!

The Plight of the Greedy Bird

Once upon a time there was a greedy bird.  She was a hen named Cuckoo and she had beautiful black and white feathers.  Cuckoo lived in a little house in a comfy pen with all of her sisters.  Cuckoo was an adventurous bird; she loved the thrill of breaking the rules and taking risks, especially when it resulted in something extra delicious for her to eat.

One day Cuckoo decided she wanted explore the great beyond.  "Why are we always cooped up in here?" she asked her sisters.  "Look at all that juicy grass just beyond the fence.  I am going to fly out of the pen and eat and eat and eat until I can't eat anymore."  "No, no!" chortled Cuckoo's sisters.  "It is dangerous out there.  Every hen that has ever gone beyond our pen has been chased by a scary grey beast.  Don't go Cuckoo!"

 But there was no convincing Cuckoo; she was tired of the boring grain the farmer always fed them and was determined to get to the green grass outside the fence.  She said goodbye to her sisters and took off running as fast as she could.  She spring boarded herself off the hen house and flew up and right over the fence!

"Look at me!  Look at me!" She cried.  "I made it; now I can eat all the grass I want."  But just as she turned to take her first mouthful she came face to face with a scowling grey beast.  The beast had a scraggly beard and razor sharp teeth.

"Uh oh..." thought Cuckoo.  "I am in trouble now."  And with that Cuckoo took off running with terror in her eyes and the great grey beast in hot pursuit.

Sadly for Cuckoo she could not out run the beast.  The beast pounced and with feathers flying, Cuckoo was quickly captured by the beast.  "This is surely the end," thought Cuckoo.  "I should never have taken such a big risk for something as silly as grass.  I should have listened to my sisters and stayed nice and safe with them inside my pen."

As Cuckoo cowered on the ground and accepted her fate, the farmer came running out of the farmhouse and grabbed the grey beast by the scruff of the neck.  "No!  Bad dog!" the farmer yelled.  "DO NOT EAT THE CHICKENS!  How many times do I have to tell you..."  The farmer put the grey beast into timeout and gently picked Cuckoo up off the ground.  He carefully checked her over, making sure her legs and wings were not hurt.  He then carried her over to the pen and softly put her down inside with her sisters.

"Stay in your pen, you silly chicken," the farmer said.  "It is too dangerous for you out here."  "It sure is," Cuckoo agreed.  "I will never let my greed get the best of me again."

And Cuckoo lived happily ever after (inside her pen under the watchful eye of the grey beast).

The End.

We Were Stinky...

Mama and Papa finally reached their smelliness quota.  They said that Emily and I smelled so bad today that (even though we have a grooming appointment scheduled for July 2nd) we got put in the laundry room sink and covered in warm water and soapy bubbles.

Just so you know, we hate baths.  They are very wet and make us look like drowned rats.

Charlotte in the tub.

But we do love shaking off all the water onto Mama and Papa after the bath but before they can get a towel around us.  We also love running around like crazy-pantses when we are wet, rolling around on the floor and dragging our snouts along the bottom of the chesterfield.

Baths may drive us crazy but we always get more cuddles when we are clean...so, maybe they are worth it.

Woofy regards,

Charlotte

A Fishy Addition

We are overwhelmed with mosquitoes in the backyard this year.  There are swarms of them just ready and waiting to bite us every time we go out to hang laundry, tend to the chickens or water the garden.  There are so many of them that they line the window screens on the outside - buzzing and bumping up against the screen just dying to get inside.

This has left us wondering whether the disappearance of our koi fish has allowed our idyllic pond garden to become a mosquito larvae breeding ground.

And so....enter the goldfish.  Since we can't exactly figure out where our koi fish went, Ian and I were unwilling to invest in new koi fish - at $30 a fish!  We chose the more economical (and just as orange and swimmy) option of ten brand new goldfish!  At 48 cents a fish this was much easier on the wallet and hopefully their introduction to the pond helps curb our mosquito problem.  We'll keep you posted.

Fish in a bag.

Fish in the pond.

Can you see them?

Departures and Arrivals

After a brief hiatus from the Gael Glen Farm blog - we are back in action.  It has been a hectic few months since our last post.  Krystal was busy travelling across the country doing interviews for her dissertation on Integrated Home Care Programs for the elderly.  She did 117 in-person interviews over three months and achieved her goal of getting them all done before the baby arrived.  If you would believe it, her water broke during her last interview and the contractions started as soon as she got in the car to drive home.  Luckily this last interview was in Ottawa and she and Ian were able to make it home in lots of time to install the infant car seat, pack the hospital bag and call the midwife.  What an afternoon!

While Krystal was off gallivanting in the name of academia, Ian was holding down the fort (aka farm) and yes, drinking beer - not only drinking but brewing beer (a topic for another post).

Over the last few months we've had the departures of some dear farm friends.  We have had to say goodbye to our last zebra stripped hen, one of our brown hens and one of our itty, bitty yellow chicks.  May they all rest in peace.

We lost all of the koi fish in our backyard pond.  How they disappeared remains a mystery since no dead fish bodies were left as evidence.  Did they die over the winter and decompose?  Were they eaten by a blue heron? We'll never know...

Sadly, our hive of honey bees did not overwinter successfully.  Apparently, it was a really tough winter for bees and lots of local beekeepers experienced substantial losses.  It was really disappointing to lose our bees after all the time and effort we had put into them but at least we realized it early enough to place an order for new bee colonies.  We decided to expand from one hive to two and both our new bee colonies are doing amazingly.  Ian has taken over as substitute beekeeper for the time being since, until recently, Krystal did not fit into the bee suit and now, even though she does, she is not able to lift the heavy hive supers.

We are also mourning the re-homing our our bitey Indian Runner Duck, Leah.  Yes, he was still bitey.  He continually bit Ian every day for the more than four weeks that he has been acting as substitute chicken keeper.  We finally tried Krystal's idea of introducing the new juvenile female ducks into the flock to try to spread out his aggression but watching him try to breed the baby ducks was simply too painful - those poor female ducks being chased and then mounted by a male duck three times their size....it was time for Leah to move on.  We successfully re-homed Leah yesterday to another farm where he has become the pet duck of a 10 year old girl.  She renamed him Lucky (when Ian heard this he said: "Yeah, Lucky he doesn't live here anymore").  Leah/Lucky will live with a flock of free range chickens (which we're hoping will curb his protective tendencies since there are no female ducks for him to guard) and have his own kiddy swimming pool.  As sad as we are to see him go, we are glad at the prospect of no duck bites all summer!  A happy ending for all.

The most noteworthy of our new arrivals on the farm is our beautiful human baby - Liam.  Baby Liam arrived at 8:35am on Saturday, June 1st 2013 in the Queensway Carleton Hospital.  He was 9 lbs 10 oz at birth and is a gorgeous, healthy baby boy.

In terms of other new arrivals on the farm, we have been raising our new chicks and ducks (I'll provide a separate update on them later), our new colonies of bees are doing well and our veggie gardens are planted (it took two tries at it because of a late frost but the garden is finally beginning to take root).

It has been a busy few months for our household but now that things are finally settling down, we are back to focusing on our lives here on Gael Glen Farm and Apiary.  Hopefully you'll forgive our time away from the blog and will join with us as we recap some the fiascoes we survived over the last few months and post new stories about the many adventures I am sure are yet to come as our lives move forward.

Looking forward to sharing our farm tales with you.

Best,

Krystal and Ian