I just had to share this picture with you all... I took this myself, while driving (traffic jam) to Dryden last week! Anytime the car would go less than 50 mph the dog would come out, front legs and all, and enjoy the breeze :-)

Ithaca Journal article

Though of course most of my quotes are slightly misquoted - I'm getting used to that, having been interviewed before - the article itself pretty neat. It's about a possible ordinance change for urban chickens in Ithaca, the Common Council had a meeting about it last week. Which I thought interesting because even though I know quite some chicken people nobody seemed to know about the ordinance meeting?! Hopefully there will be a follow up, and I can get my email tree in place in time :-)

www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20104200361

some of the misquotes
- chickens on every block, don't remember saying that... did say quite a number of people have chickens in dutch suburbs, just like having rabbits.
- the Backyard Poultry Day is not organized in collaboration with the Cooperative Extension, though I would have appreciated the help!
- it's not my present neighbors dog, but a neighbor in a rental quite a couple houses ago who left her dog on a leash outside until it barked it's head off, all before we would normally get out of bed in the morning... JK, if you read this: Knickers is fine! a Good Dog!

My own Top Bar Hive

I built a top bar hive to specifications of the BioBees.com website and have it ready, set, go for a colony of bees! Initially, I was going to buy a queen and would barter worker bees with my friend Simon but his second hive did not make it through winter... I contacted Dadant and they just had a cancellation in so I could reserve one of those packaged bees for us! Because of the different type of hive we can only easily use either packaged bees or a captured swarm, so this is perfect.

We also just received the Barefoot Beekeeper bible on top bar hive beekeeping where introduction of a new colony is explained in great detail. I just hope I can make the little guys & gals happy enough to stay in my home made hive! I guess we'll find out...









I am planning to build another top bar hive this summer, from planed hemlock instead of an old bookcase I found along side the road - boards that are actually straight and easy to work with! Now I know a couple things that are not quite explained in the building plans I should be able to make the 48" version, which can be used for artificial swarming. The landing strip I made for this one is highly decorative, but very unnecessary and might even help mice to get in so will be removed shortly. Item 1 of my learning curve :-)

Where did I leave my garden tools...

A great idea I got from Mother Earth Magazine (I think...) couple years back is using an old mail box to store garden tools in. I mounted one to our veggie garden fence last year, and apart from having a dry place to put stuff in, it's also been a great conversation piece!

What goats want... part 2

Jamie is sleeping with his brothers today! He jumped the enclosure this morning, trying to get to the milk he heard beeping in the microwave. Smart boy - sort off.

Other things he likes to play with and eat: plastic grocery bags! Those are fun!

Something I found funny, sort off, at the time... you know the saying that if a plant pulls out easily it's one you value and if it pulls out difficult it's a weed? I've got another one: if a goat eats a plant it's one you value and if he ignores it it's a weed! Boy, does he like my dwarf Japanese maple, and anything I potted up, and apple trees, and budding raspberry & blackberries etc, etc, etc...

For the dutch people among you, I realized something about choice of language. Jamie was aan het zeuren om z'n fles waarop ik zeg "Niet zo mekkeren!" Ha, de mensen die dat het eerst gebruikten voor het gezeur van hun kinderen hadden ook geite-kinderen! Nou worden baby geiten niet voor niks "kids" genoemd...

Here's a pic of both my kids wanting to sit on the same pillow, watching tv...

our 1958 Metzendorf

Last Fall we bought a camper / caravan with the idea to do short weekend trips around the Fingerlakes and Adirondacks area with the two year old. Of course, it is a 1958, so there is some restoration / fixer upper involved. The biggest problem was a leak in the roof (some tried to fix that by putting a circular saw to the roof strip?!) we did not dare tackle ourselves but had local vintage camper expert Fletch from Fletchers Vintage Trailers out in Trumansburg fix up over the winter.

I found the camper listed on craiglist as a Hot Rod camper - whatever that means - in can be used right now condition. Of course, that was just a little exaggerated - leak in the roof, leak in the rear, one window frame almost pops out from the moldy warped plywood sheeting - but other than that in fine condition :-) Though I must say, by the time I got to the seller somewhere near Rochester I was ready to buy the thing and drive back, just so I would not have to drive all that again!

The camper seems to be built to sleep 5 people: one in the top bunk, two in the bottom bunk and two on the table/couch futon. This means that we do not have to alter anything for bed time, we can use the two bunks and be done with it! Most smaller Metzendorf campers - the ones that actually fit a standard garage - do not have the top bunk and that will of course be Simon's bed. We will have to come up with some sort of gate so he does not roll/fall/jump out.

The kitchen has a three pit propane stove and an ice box. And yes, it does look like a fridge but it's nothing more than a really well insulated cooler with a water drip to the outside! I'd never heard about these either, but apparently they work better than regular coolers which we'll be happy to find out. We might get a car fridge which plugs into the car battery via lighter if we need to. The camper also does not have a toilet / shower (it does have a small hanging closet) so an outside chemical toilet would probably not be amiss either for those midnight peepees!

PlantAardigHeden.nl

Een erg leuke website met allerlei recepten o.a. met zelf te vinden / groeien planten zoals munt en brandnetel. Twee voorbeelden:

Verse munt chutney

• 75 gram verse muntblaadjes
• 1 eetlepel gerapte gember
• 2 Spaanse pepers zonder zaad
• 4 eetlepels citroensap
• 1 theelepel zout
• 2 theelepels suiker

Was de munt en droog hem in een doek. Gebruik alleen de blaadjes.
Maal de ingrediënten in een mixer of staafmixer tot er een homogene pasta ontstaat, eventueel wat water toevoegen.
Je kunt er 60 gram amandelen , hazelnoten, pijnboompitten of geroosterde pinda's in doen voor het fijnmalen. Het malen duurt dan wat langer en je moet hier altijd water aan toe voegen anders is dit te dik.

Heel lekker bij gebakken aardappel en tempé. Dit kan ook gemaakt worden van koriander of kervel.

Brandnetels met verse kaas

Verse kaas: Breng in een pan 2 liter melk aan de kook en giet er 2 1/2 dl yoghurt bij. De droge melkbestand delen scheiden zich nu af van de melk. Giet alles door een doe die in een vergiet gelegd is. Vang het vocht op want dit kun je drinken of als huidlotion gebruiken (molkosan) Dit is vele malen goedkoper dan gekocht in de winkel. Laat deze substantie een half uur in de vergiet staan.

• 500 gram brandnetels of de helft en de andere helft zevenblad
• 1 eetlepel olie
• 2 theelepels gemalen korianderzaad
• 1/2 theelepel kurkuma
• beetje sambal
• 1 kleine ui
• 1 teen knoflook
• 1 1/2 dl room
• beetje suiker en wat zout

Snijd de groente fijn.
Doe de olie in een pan en bak de kruiden er in.
Voeg de groenten toe en smoor de groenten in 10 minuten gaar.
Doe er naar behoefte een beetje water bij.
Snij de verse kaas in blokjes en voeg de suiker en het zout er bij, laat dit nu 3 minuten stoven.
Roer de room er door en serveer dit met rijst of met hele dunne pannenkoekjes. (Indiaas).

te vinden op Plantaardigheden.nl