You get to watching the same animals and grow rather attached even though they are wild. That happened with Tri-pod, a three legged antelope. Whether he lost his leg to a bullet and then gangrene, or whether a fence ripped it, I don't know but he had two hind legs and one front leg. Every fall he'd show up behind our house and stay all winter. Come spring he'd disappear. That happened for about five years and even though he had know sentimental mussy feelings for us, we did for him and have always wondered what happened that he never returned.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Antelope
You get to watching the same animals and grow rather attached even though they are wild. That happened with Tri-pod, a three legged antelope. Whether he lost his leg to a bullet and then gangrene, or whether a fence ripped it, I don't know but he had two hind legs and one front leg. Every fall he'd show up behind our house and stay all winter. Come spring he'd disappear. That happened for about five years and even though he had know sentimental mussy feelings for us, we did for him and have always wondered what happened that he never returned.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
A Good Bit Accomplished
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Gardening
Got to go and help hubby measure the house for new siding and measure the wall in the girl's room to put a strip along the top. Yes, I'm finally getting it painted. The girls are at their dad's. I'll be praying continually until they return.
Monday, July 26, 2010
A Reverse Cheetah on My Lawn
Know anyone with a thyroid problem - lots huh? Possibly even yourself.
Better yet, if I knew a way to naturally prevent them, I'd be even more happy. I've done some research but alas, nothing yet.
When the ag department says in their research so far using vinegar has shown a low impack on the environment, it doesn't mean for some plants as they are dead but that's okay too. That's the point, I want to kill some of the plants without it remaining in the soil long and causing a problem. Vinegar is bio-degradable.
So if my lawn looks like a reversed spotted Cheetah, I don't mind. The grass will grow back and I'm starving the roots of the thistle by killing the above ground plant which nourishes them. Studies have found that the 5% percent vinegar you buy at the store is as effective as Roundup, maybe even better they say. Some plants like the Canadian thistle are especially vulnerable to vinegar but they don't mention star thistle, Russian thistle etc. so if you've got it, please give it a try and report back so the rest of us can benefit from your findings. I have none other species of thistle in my yard to experiment on. Oh, I'm not complaining mind you but if we move someday, I may be dealing with a wider range of species and I'd like to have the knowledge already in place.
Keep in mind that the Ph of your soil will be changed for 24 hours only after spraying and the ground is sterilized for a short period of time so don't spray and then plan on planting right afterwords. Besides the thistle may come up again and you will need to starve the roots once more. Perseverance is the key to elimination. My research said you could use a syringe and squirt some down into the plant but I want it gone, all gone. So I'm dousing the leaves by spraying them liberally and not taking any chances for it only takes a inch or so piece to start the plant up again.
I guess vinegar has sparked quite an interest with the ag department as they have test trials going on in corn fields They are using a different percentage than 5% of vinegar but have found a rate that kills 90 to 100 percent of the weeds in commercial corn fields without damaging the corn. They did caution commercial organic growers to be careful what kind of vinegar is used as some could cause you to loose your organic license. Not sure what that is all about. If you are an organic gardener and sell produce you'll have to check that out.
www.unitedstatesag/vinegar.html is a good site to check out some of the studies being done.
I also looked into why thistle is thriving in your yard. No, it's not because the neighbor introduced it, for if the conditions of your soil were not favorable to it, it wouldn't grow. One is lack of calcium. That is probably why my garden does not have thistle when it is growing all around it. I've been throwing all my egg shells into it this winter. Calcium prevents blossom rot on tomatoes. As you might remember, I put milk at the base of a few plants as an experiment. This is suppose to cause a micro-organism explosion of population growth. Milk would also be great in preventing thistle. Now I'm wishing I had more so I could spray my whole yard.
I looked up a some experiments on using milk as a fertilizer and one farmer in conjunction with his ag agent is using 20 gallons per acre with liquid molasses and fish emulsion with very impressive results on poor pasture land. The ground he sprays with milk does not freeze nearly as quickly in the winter. That would be great for us in the spring as our ground is very slow to warm and quick to freeze in the winter.
Now I hardly have fields to treat so I checked and it is 1 part milk to 4 parts water. Whey is great too so after making cheese, goat or dairy cow lovers, use it on the garden. Got to try it on my flower bed that I'm fighting thistle in. So much better to prevent it than fight it.
I'll keep you posted on my experiments but for now I've not enough much milk as we are still feeding kid goats. Have any of you tried milk yet? Some on the Internet said they saw no results, while others said it made a huge difference. I'd suspect it was due to the nutrients lacking or present in abundance in the soil already.
One last thought, remember, the milk fed pumpkin in the children's book Farmer Boy, by Laura Engalls Wilder? I love that book it always gets me into a self-sufficient mood. Can't wait until the munchkins are old enough to enjoy it so I can read it to them. Just curious, I looked up to see if anyone was still growing big pumpkins feeding them milk and the answer was YES!
FYI
I sprayed the thistle covering the leaves completely and go back the next day and checked to make sure they are dead. I'm still finding more thistle and treating it. Today, I won't as vinegar is washed away with water and it's effectiveness with it. We had a big rain last night. Hurray! it will give the alfalfa that was cut a good start on growth again. The country was drying up and we've no irrigation. Some of you said you were going out to try spraying weeds with thistle, how did it go?
Friday, July 23, 2010
Brenda's Photo Challenge
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Spinning and Thistle
I've had two psychiatrist over the years. My first one was a Traditional Ashford. It got me through the many challenging years of raising three children. We home-schooled them and the Ashford sat next to the kitchen table for me to spin away on while they did their assignments. It relieved my anxiety at not being able to get things done around the house as I rationalize I was accomplishing something. It also was far better than sitting there twiddling my thumbs waiting to grade a paper or assist with an assignment. When I wasn't doing that, I was knitting up the yarn I'd spun. I loved it!
But anyway, this is my latest experiment - thistle. The grass is full of it and the kids don't like the prickly little beggars. Well, not the two oldest ones that is as the youngest doesn't seem to notice them in her bare feet - strange-. Oh I've chemicaled them over the years and they just keep coming back despite the toxins. I've even quit watering a couple areas in the yard hoping to kill them off with lack of water. Alas, no luck. So this year with kids to worry about and their ability to suck up chemicals at a much higher rate than adults, I'm trying vinegar. Yup, the stuff you buy at the store by the gallon. You see I know it kills things because I got the bright idea of mixing water, vinegar, a touch of dish soap, and oil; and using it as a bug spray. Killed the plants and didn't touch the bugs. OOOPS!
Flea beetles will make one desperate. If you have a solution for them PLEASE pass it on as I saw a few on my broccoli this morning. They can eat them to the ground in no time.
So I figured if it would kill broccoli, why not thistle? I put vinegar, just vinegar, in a small spray bottle like the kind you wet your clothes down for ironing and doused the leaves thoroughly. Keep in mind the thistle is not full sized but mowed over by the lawn mower and you will have a brown spot because the grass dies also but hey, I'm planning on spraying the grass around the garden with it when I'm done with the thistle as I want it killed in that spot so it doesn't venture into the garden.
The results so far are thrilling, two days thrilled that is. I know it hasn't been long enough to give it the test of time but I have hopes that if I starve the roots by not giving them a top to nourish them, then the roots will also die. The grass around the thistle is fine so far and the plants are dead. May take me a while to find all of the thistle hiding in the grass but with the cheap cost of vinegar, I can use a few gallons and not be out much money. Also no toxic chemicals to harm the munchkins, causing cancer later in life.
Yup, I think it is a win, win situation. The real kicker will be if the plants don't come up next year and I'm on my way to eradicating them from the yard. Wouldn't that be sweet?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Playing Hooky?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ9wy_SBJcEpFouJ5X1hrLefZK7LcnexwLD0nDKQa7jjx5WFofW-sP0h1_tOWHWlDkoIVYfGw43JX73vnpBO7pFe_CFxa5gVB2AjLU_Mt2K7itAbo4DJ6YwhGtXVu-99boHbfCPpX9jGAB/s400/IMG_5231.jpg)
But as you can see, I don't paint until the little goats are older and not proned to mountain climbing antics. I'm not that dumb.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Here Kitty Kitty, NOT!
Saturday night, I'm really glad we didn't have to find out since Reginald obeyed when called. He came into the garage and instead of continuing on his path toward the corner where the skunk was hiding out, he came inside as called. Curiosity may not kill the cat but he sure wouldn't smell nice.
I bet some of you have some tells to tale about a skunk or two.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Making a Splash
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Busy, Busy Day
First though since the kids left with their mom I really, really, need to go shovel some manure from the trailer on to the area of the garden we want to add next year. My garden doesn't look too shiny this year, too much manure. I knew it would be a problem but I also want to have some things accomplished that I won't have to do again next year and that is hauling lots of manure. Oh I'll still get a trailer and a few loads in the back of the truck as I clean this winter but the major work I want done and decomposing. Next year, I keep telling myself it will be a super garden. Our youngest grand daughter will be older and hopefully she'll let me work while she plays in the yard.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Goats Babysitting Again
This will have to be brief because of all the back log of chores to be done with having the grand kids for so many hours. I have to go find the dehorning iron and elasticator dohicky for the little buck. Yup, we haven't done that yet and I didn't want to with the kids around. It is my most dreaded task. I trimmed the does feet with the kids in the pen yesterday. Chicory stepped on our youngest grand daughters foot and she cried. The kids and I were in a pretty grouchy mood as I tried to accomplish a little more than the bare minimium chores. I'm getting frustrated.
This morning bright and real early I weed eated the corral area before the kids came. There is lots and lots of that with an apiary yard to weed eat, the corrals, and our yard. So much to do and so much I can't do with the kids in tow. Hopefully tonight our daughter will be home early enough that Kirk and I can sneak off alone to do the dirty deed of banding the buck and burning the horns.
But for now I had better go look for the equiptment as I don't want the kids down in that room since it also houses the kitty litter box and the.... and the.... you get the idea. Then maybe I can do a little work on the garden before they wake up. Probably hopeful thinking. The dishes and messy kitchen will just have to wait. I can do lots of it while holding our littlest one.
So as usual this won't be edited well but one has to do what one has to do. Sorry, hopefully all the mistakes give you a good laugh because right now its all I can do to get a blog up.
Thanks so much for following my posts. I'm going to start a new thing where instead of answering the comments by e-mail, unless it needs a personal reply, I'll notify you that I've replied on the appropriate post.
I mixed up the custard with the lemon/rose pedal jam for ice cream and it's chilling in the fridge. Tomorrow I'll post the results as I make ice cream with it today. I've also a batch of cheese cake ice cream custard chilling to make as this weekend we're celebrating Kirk's birthday. I have to do a little each day to get ready even though its only a few family members that will be present. Which reminds me I had better get the pie dough mixed today so I can make pies tomorrow. If I don't peice meal things I never get anything done being a full time grandma and sitter.