Field Dressing and Mulch More

Seamus and I got an unexpected break from yard work this morning thanks to a call from Ian saying he had hunted his first deer.  We headed out to the forest to help him field dress the deer and bring it home to hang.

Out in Ian's hunting spot, I had fun testing out his tree stand.  Seamus would have climbed up too if we had let him.  He threw a tantrum when we said he was too small.

Seamus "helped" by sitting strapped into the stroller facing away from us cleaning the deer.  We sang him nursery rhymes while we worked and he played with an old turkey feather he found in the forest.  He was an excellent sport about the whole thing.

With this task now finished and my trailer relieved of deer transportation duty, I look forward to another mulch filled afternoon.

It's All Coming Up Rainbows, Daffodils and...Mulch?

Today began with the discovery of a huge rainbow in our entrance way.  The boys were entranced.  There is nothing more magical then a rainbow, even if it is caused by your own fish tank.

The knowledge that winter is just around the corner, in combination with our love of a good deal, resulted in us purchasing some 350 daffodil bulbs this past weekend.  The emergence of daffodils signal the end of what is usually a very long winter.  They are a welcome sign each spring.  

Knowing how eagerly I await them, I always intend to plant more daffodil bulbs each autumn.  However, I am often foiled by my own forgetfulness. By fall I usually cannot remember where the daffodils had popped up in the spring.  At the suggestion of my mom, this past spring I got smart and took photos of my gardens.  This way I knew exactly which spots would benefit from a few extra bulbs.  I cannot wait to see all these new blooms come springtime!

Seamus and I finished the day by starting our mulching adventures.  Ian found us the best deal on garden mulch: $20 for a trailer full.  I picked up our first load this afternoon and Seamus and I spread it out on one of my flower beds.  This is the first of what I suspect will be many, many loads of mulch.  I hope my back holds out - all this shoveling is quite a change for a body used to sitting at a computer all day writing a dissertation!  I must admit though, I much prefer to be outside.  

Here we go!

Almost there! Phew!

Stay tuned for more mulching escapades in the coming days.

An Asparagus Timber

On this cold and rainy Monday, Seamus and I opted for an easy farm chore.  We clipped back our asparagus bushes.  Like any two year old, Seamus prefers chores that do not take too long and have very obvious results.  Who are we kidding?  I do too!

We snipped the enormous yellow bushes.

Halfway done.

We were surprised to find a bunch of raspberry canes hiding underneath.

An easy chore for a chilly Monday.  As the colder weather rolls in, the time for garden clean up has almost come to a end.  I must hurry and get those daffodil bulbs in the ground!

Jack Frost Left His Calling Card

Last night we had our first heavy frost.  This afternoon we witnessed our first few snowflakes.
Winter is on its way.  Seeing as there is little we can do to stop it, we might as well enjoy its beauty.

Liam was entranced by the glittery frost on the leaves and fence posts in the early morning sun.  He and I took a few pictures while doing our morning chores.

It is nice to appreciate the little things like the crunch of frosty grass under your farm boots.

Scooped the Poo Sludge out of your Eavestroughs Lately?

I have the best parents on the planet.  Not everyone's dad would climb onto the roof of their house to finish pressure washing the siding that is too high to reach on a ladder. It was driving me crazy to leave part of the house dirty.

Yes, that's my dad pressure washing my house.
Turns out I get my love of pressure washing from him.

Not everyone's mom would weed their garden while babysitting their toddler.

Mom and Seamus helping me with yard work.

My parents did both of these things freeing me up to learn how to clean out my eavestroughs.

True or false?  Eavestroughs stay clean as long as there are no big trees over the house.

Unequivocally false.  While there were no leaves in sight, it turns out that my eavestroughts were full of up to a half inch of a disgusting sludge of bird poo and shingle sand.  As I learned today, this occasionally needs to be scooped out.  We have never done this the entire time we have been living here.

The bird poop-shingle sand combo.

My sludgy eavestrough.

 Luckily my handy Dad saved the day once again.  He created a poop scoop out of an old Dory bubble bath container that worked like magic!

My full sludge bucket and handy Dory scoop.

Is collecting a whole pail full of poop sludge a victory?  Debatable.  At least I can sleep at night knowing my house has clean eavestroughs.  Funny how I slept just fine before I knew that they were dirty.  Oh, life will never be the same again.

Acknowledgement is the First Step in the Road to Recovery

I come from a family of quasi-hoarders.  We are not as bad as the hoarders on TV but I do empathize with their predicament.  Keeping too much stuff that you do not really need is a difficult tendency to manage.  You tell yourself you might use/need/read it someday, but really?  Will you?

The strangest thing about my family's hoarding is that we often hoard things that have to do with wood.  My cousin Matt hoards barn boards.  My father hoards, among other things, piles of old plywood and building materials.  My Grandpa Ed had all kinds of piles of old farm equipment and building supplies on his property back North.  

I hoard books.  They line my living room walls.  I call it my "library" to make it sound sophisticated but really, when it comes down to it, I have a wood related product hoarding problem too.

Baby Seamus in my "library".

To make matters worse, I married a wood hoarder.  I know, what are the odds?!  But, it is true. 

Ian hoards wood logs.  He claims they are fuel for his smoker and camp fires but the piles of these logs get in the way and never seem to go down.  Moreover, Ian is an "organized" hoarder.  He refuses to mix the different types of wood (apple wood with cherry wood with "junk" wood).  This means that his piles of wood must occupy different locations on our property.  For example, there is junk wood for camp fires under a canoe on the side of the house, apple wood in recycling boxes in front of the garage, and a pile of cherry wood on my front porch.  

Until yesterday.

I am on a crusade to make the front of our property look presentable from the road.  After all the tree trimming, gardening, and pressure washing I decided that random piles of hoarded wood in front of the house were no longer acceptable.  So I fixed the problem.

Along with my hereditary "wood products hoarding" gene, I have also inherited a "wood piling" gene.  Just last week, I got a photo from my Dad proudly displaying his winter wood pile at the cottage.  

My Dad's wood pile.

Finally, a time to put this gene to good use.  I relocated Ian's cherry wood pile from my front porch to the side of our yard, piled safely and dryly (his two prerequisites for wood relocation) under yet another canoe.  Did I mention Ian also hoards canoes?

My wood pile

The wood pile totally hidden.  Bet you cannot tell it is under there!

Honestly, I am not sure we are on the road to recovery from our wood products hoarding problem.  Come to think of it, maybe hiding our hoarding under a canoe is worse than displaying it in front of the house.  Am I encouraging wood hoarding in secret?  I may have created a monster.  All trees in the vicinity beware!

Let There Be Light

As the days get shorter, our hens lay fewer eggs. They lay best in the summer when the days are the longest. 

The avian reproductive cycle, which is how a hen produces eggs, is stimulated in poultry by increasing day light.  Egg production increases as day light increases.

This is because light stimulates a part of the hen's brain called the hypothalamus causing it to produce "releasing factors". These releasing factors stimulate the anterior pituitary to secrete hormones known as genadotrophins. Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Leutenizing Hormone (LH) are two genadotrophins produced by the anterior pituitary which affect the ovaries. FSH, and to a lessor degree LH, are responsible for normal ovarian follicular growth. As the follicles increase in size, they produce increasing amounts of estrogen and progesterone. Progesterone acts on LH - which then triggers ovulation. Once ovulation occurs, progesterone secretion decreases rapidly (Pesek 1999).  Ovulation is egg production.

 Hens reach their maximum egg laying potential when the day light reaches approximately 16 hours per day (Zadina & Scheideler 2004).

A lack of light can cause a hen's reproductive cycle to shut down, triggering her to cease egg production until spring when the natural day length will increase to sufficient levels once again.

To encourage our hens to continue to lay into the autumn and winter, I extend their day light by a few hours. I have read that artificial light should be added during the morning hours. Sudden darkness can cause chickens to panic and pile up in a corner resulting in suffocation.  By applying extra light in the morning rather than the evening, chickens will naturally go to roost with the setting of the sun.

The boys were excited to help me set up the light this year.

We hooked everything up and ta da!  There was light!

Now, we will see if egg production increases back to summer time levels. We got seven eggs yesterday and only five today.   I'll keep you posted.

References

Pesek, L. (1999). Avian Reproduction: Triggers and Hormonal Changes. Winged Wisdom. http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww34eiv.htm

Zadina, C. &  Scheideler, S. (2004). Proper Light Management for Your Home Laying Flock.  Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. University of Nebraska–Lincoln. https://www.hort.purdue.edu/tristate_organic/poultry_2007/Light%20Management.pdf