Farm Fodder

We brought home a dexter bull calf Sunday night. He is 5 months old, never handled and most likely pulled off his momma when we picked him up.

I had him in his own paddock until this morning at 1:45AM. – Well, maybe he got out  sooner than that,  but that’s when I went out to find him.

We had severe weather most of the night – that means lightning, thunder, lots and lots of rain… hard rain.

Marilyn heard him bawling and the dogs’ barking woke me up. I got dressed, put on my rain coat and grabbed the .22 (we have coyotes and other predators around us).

I went outside with my trusty led head lamp on and started analyzing the situation. I didn’t see Buck (that’s what the boys named him) in his paddock, so I walked the whole lower portion of the property, checking for signs that he had jumped the fence somewhere.

After several scratches from wild roses, blackberries and other brambles, I figured that he wasn’t down by the street or in any of the paddocks down there. So, I headed up to where the barns are, praying he hadn’t gotten over the fence by the street and headed across the road and up into the hills.

Then I spotted him… He was behind the boy goats’ paddock where we had put a huge potato bed this summer. I suppose the thunder and lightning scared him and he ran up the hill and jumped a low area of fence. I’m sure he was lonely, too… I started heading down to get some rubber bungy cords, some rope clips and to get Marilyn. She was standing at the porch door when I got down to the house, and I told her what was up.

She had already awakened Nathan, figuring I would need some help, since I had been out for 30 minutes and hadn’t updated her. I used a 16 ft. cattle panel as a make-shift fence to keep the bull from getting past us on the south sideso we could drive him up to the goat barn. We then opened the gate to the girl goats’ paddock and drove him in there.

After about 10 – 20 minutes, he seemed to calm down and was laying down in the barn with the goats.

I got back to bed around 3:30 and thought about the small pen we used for baby goats when weaning. I got up early and checked on him. He was still laying in the barn with the goats. I then verified that the baby goat pen (made from all cattle panels) would hold him, and then I left for work.

Hopefully, he’ll stay where we want him now…

Well, the CSA is over, the cow calved, the first freeze has hit. Time to shut down the beds!

Marilyn and the boys have shut down the strawberries and other beds out front.

I put up the 2nd greenhouse for winter crops, moved many of the bell and hot peppers to one of them and Sam planted lettuce in that same greenhouse with the peppers.

We srill have lettuce, kale, cauliflower, peas and chard still growing in the garden beds and I’ll have to make hoops for those beds and put agribon over them to prevent freezing this winter.

I need to add couple of “shutters” to the cow’s stall before winter.

The bees have plenty of stores, so I am not too worried about them – I hope that statement doesn’t come back to haunt me in February!

Busy life!!!

From cold to overly wet to scorching heat and back t o wet. What’s next?
Hopefully, the warmer temps will hold strong so the peppers and tomatoes will grow. We have shade cloth over the cole crops still growing.

Right now, I can hardly see through the rain that is pounding the windows -

Although I applaud their efforts, my concern is whether there is enough forage for those bees to survive, let alone put up excess honey.

I know that, here in Verona, had I not started planting “bee-friendly” plants, a small orchard of fruit trees and berries, there would not be enough for my bees.

The first 2 years I was hard pressed to keep 2 – 3 bee hives going and that was with a lot of feeding.

Not sure what they would find n a 2-mile radius around downtown Cincy…

Best of luck…

Downtown rooftop bees a honey of an idea | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com.

We will be planting a “3 Sisters” garden bed again this year. The 3 sisters garden consists of corn, beans and squash and is a traditional method of planting for the American Indian tribes.

Putting corn and beans in the same mound will allow the corn to grow and the beans to climb up the corn. The squash is planted in its own mound and will provide “living mulch” for the entire garden bed.,

The planting is like this: where CB = corn and beans and S = Squash. The rows would be CB  to CB = 5ft. So, a row width across would be 10ft. 3 rows deep would also be 10ft. This gives ample room for the plants to co-exist.

O O O O O = CB S CB S CB

O O O O O = S CB S CB S

O O O O O = CB S CB S CB

Dexter, our “Dexter” bull had gotten into the bee yard  2 or 3 times in the past. I had reinforced the fence, put a strand of electric  wire on the top of the fence and setup a different paddock.We had moved him back to a paddock adjacent to the paddock that had the common fence with the bee yard.

Well, Sunday, he broke down a section of fence and got back into the bee yard again!

Nathan went out at 5:30 to milk Fern,a nd he came right back in and said “Dexter is in the bee yard and he knocked over all of the bee hives”.

I went out and ran to the bee yard. I went through the gate to try and coax Dexter out of there when the bees decided that I was some co-conspirator and was there to wreak more havoc on their overturned homes!  Considering I was in a shirt and jeans, that was a very bad thing.
I ran out of the bee yard with bees swarming all over me. One they subsided enough for me to slip inside the back porch, I immediately went into the house, put on a bee jacket and headed back out.
Dexter was ramming the fence trying to get out, and finally ran out the gate I had left open. We chased him in and out of the blueberries, up and down the drive and finally got him headed to his paddock, where he was more than happy to run in through the gate. Nathan moved him back to the new paddock where he couldn’t get back into the apiary.

In the meantime, I had headed back to the bee yard and started to right one of the bee hives. Well, that didn’t last long, since I was still in blue jeans and the bee jacket – they were stinging me through my pants and all over my hands and forearms (no gloves).

I left the apiary and, once the bee cloud flying around my head and body had dissipated, I went back to the house, took off the bee jacket and put on  a full bee suit over my pants and shirt. I then donned arm-length gloves and headed back to the bee yard. I was abler to work with minimal stinging, so I quickly re-assembled the bee hives that had been knocked over.

Quickly that is, for carrying 100 pound brood boxes back up the hill, then having to carefully )and slowly) place them on the bottom boards that were waiting. I could at least tell which hive went to which bottom board, since they were knocked off close to each one.

When I was finished, I felt like I had been lifting weights in a sauna!

When the sun comes out  again (which won’t be until Wednesday or Thursday), IL will have to check all of the hives for queens.

I called this morning to set up an appointment to have the nice processor take Dexter out to play – and return him in nice, neat little packages marked “steak”, “hamburger”, “roast” and “Brisket”…

It’s bad enough that our entire society is dependent on the “just in time” delivery service of food, the power grid, American Idol, etc.,. But now, to live in downtown Cincinnati with the impending economic doom lingering over our heads is sheer foolishness.I thought ostriches were only found in zoos and far away lands, like Africa. it seems other species bury their heads in the sand…

Where will these people get fresh water or go to the bathroom in case the electrical infrastructure fails for more than a few days? Where will they get food if the transportation industry is crippled for more than the 72 hour limit for scheduled deliveries?

Here’s an intelligent quote from a new “resident”. It really shows what an “independent” thinker he is and it really makes me want to move in next door: “Going to the Reds or Bengals games and not having to worry about the parking lot scene and not worrying about doing anything other than going to the game and walking back home,”

And here’s a “self-sufficient”, “sustainable-minded” quote from another new resident: “The shops and restaurants downstairs will be really fun to go to,”

I guess they are “consumers” and not “citizens”…

Well that’s worth throwing away anywhere from $840 – $2500 per month to rent an apartment in the concrete jungle, down on the banks of the Ohio river.

First Residents Move Into Banks Apartments – Project Economy News Story – WLWT Cincinnati.