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

What goats want...

I thought it funny to write down a short list of things Jamie likes to eat. Anyone seen the mower episode of Shaun the Sheep?! Seems like we're growing one of those :-)

The first couple weeks all he wanted was milk. That's good, that comes nicely contained in bottles.

Week three he started to nibble. Like Simon did when teething, putting everything in his mouth to taste and feel texture - also no harm done... sort off - Rolf did not appreciate the texture exploration of the unfinished wood train table corners!

Week four he started to eat paper. Paper bags, newspapers, magazines - anything that rips nicely will do. He graduated to our woodstove wood, munching on the bark and the punk wood bits (seem to me like woody marshmallow bits) - then on to stove ashes. No idea why ashes, maybe he had bad indigestion or something... he's not eating the goat bix I got, though.

Week five he started to eat string, shoelaces, rope - like spagetti, and I've got to pull it back out in case his tummy gets into trouble! But no hay, won't touch the stuff. He will eat the leaves of my Japanese dwarf maple! And we found him in the middle of the bonfire pit - after our bonfire adventure - munching ashes and coal.

He's getting a little heavy to lift in and out of the goat enclosure in the sunroom, and he's starting to enjoy being with the other goat boys, so in a week or so he'll stay with them overnight. He still gets a bottle at 10pm, when that's done with he can move out. yay!

Oh, he knows the sound of the microwave equals milk! He gets real agitated when I nuke milk for Simon's naptime, searching everywhere for his bottles, he heard the peep so there should be milk around somewhere!

Stretching the fence

Here Michael, Avec and Rolf are working on stretching the braided wire fencing. The wire fencing gets sandwiched in between a 2x4" and metal plate, bolted down well, which in turn is looped to a winch / come-along which is connected to the hitch of the truck. First the wire fencing is looped around the further most corner post, the end wires looped back to the fencing and the loop is stapled.

Several people lift the fencing upright, making sure it does not catch anywhere. One person ratchets the come-along while the other people keep an eye on the fence and help it along where necessary. When the wire is taught, there is quite some force on the cables and whatever you tied it to, the fencing gets stapled to all the wood fence posts and extra well stapled to the end posts before the winch is unhooked. And that's all ;-)

The first two stretches we did with experienced help from sort of neighbor Michael, the other two we did ourselves with help from Avec. Here Rolf has tied the come-along to the bottom of a tree in the wood's edge, the other stretch we used the one foundation post of the goat house which is already in (the others still need to be placed).

And all this for these guys :-)

Laundry Detergent / Egg Drop Soap

Ingredients:

1/3 bar Fels-Naptha, 5.5 oz bar
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax powder
1 tsp essential oil (optional)
2 one gallon jugs with screw lid (vinegar or window washing fluids)

Grate soap and put in large saucepan with 6 cups of water over medium heat. Heat the mixture until the soap melts. Add the washing soda, borax and essential oils (if desired), stirring constantly until all has dissolved. Let it sit for 5 minutes over heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let sit for another 5 minutes.

Using a funnel put half the mixture in each gallon jug (mark the fluid level with a permanent marker for next time). Fill each jug with hot water and shake well. Continue to fill the jug to the top with hot water. Shake again, then put aside for 24 hours. This gels up and looks like egg whites.

Use about 1/2 to 2/3 cup per load. It will not sud up like most detergents (that's an added ingredient) but the clothes do clean up and smell wonderfully. You can also add 1/2 cup of white vinegar to soften the clothes.

Variations:
- grate the soap, add the soda & borax and use as a dry soap powder.
- for a gentler soap, exchange Fels-Naptha with Castile soap, or even with Ivory soap.

Apple Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups canola oil
2 cups cane sugar
3 eggs
3 cups whole wheat flower
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract

3-5 large apples, cut into small pieces
1 cup nuts, like walnuts or pecans (optional)

Combine oil, sugar and eggs and beat until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Add flour, salt, soda and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Gently fold in apples and pecans. If the batter is too stiff use the kitchenaid with a dough hook, otherwise the apple pieces will be mushed.

Bake in greased bunt pan at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Remove cake from pan, turn it upside down and let cool.
You can substitute the apple with pear very nicely.

Prepare sauce.

1 stick vegetable butter
2 tsp goat or soy milk
1/2 cup light brown sugar

Cook all ingredients for about 15 minutes or when the sugar is dissolved. Pour on cake.

Excerpt from Cooks.com

Perennial Trading?

we have:

purple lilacs
white lilacs
heritage rhubarb
chives (purple flowers)
chocolate mint
spearmint
forsythia
everbearing & junebearing strawberries (mix)
curly willow
orange daylily
and some odds & ends...

interested? let me know your trade :-)

Duck versus Goose

We had quite a racket going on near the entrance to the chicken run, lots of honking and whistling and quacking with feathers flying everywhere... I assumed it was one of those little testosterone spats, again - which is was - between Muscovy male Moe and buff goose male Kristopher. What I did not realize was who had won!

Since they did not let go of each other I went up and grabbed Moe (he's smaller by far) but his toe nail was hooked into Kristophers skin. I unhooked that and plunked Moe into the leanto part of the run and put the little sliding door in to keep them separated. Kris seemed rather demure, no hissing at me, with a "nothing happened here, nothing to see" air around him. I did not think about it too much, as long as Emily was still on the nest, brooding (she's in the run, hence the localized testosterone).

Guess my surprise the next evening when Moe was smack dab in the middle of the run door and the two geese did not dare get any closer! MOE HAD WON! My god, I do have wimpy geese :-) I did select this particular breed cause they are a lot less aggressive and I guess that's correct!

They're even nicer to Simon now - I do not immediately have to herd and lock them in their pen. Before, when Simon would go out in the yard Kristopher would immediately run for him, but now they keep their distance - a sort of "I don't see you, I don't have to do anything" unless Simon gets too close.

I do now remove Moe from the main run each night and put him in the lean-to, which is fine and one of the Muscovy girls is brooding there anyway. He seems to know the new routine and after I clipped his nails (lesson learned: only clip the points, the rest IS alive) he does not want to be picked up and I only have to herd him once or twice and he'll go in there himself. He might be ugly but he is a smart boy :-)

What goats want...

I thought it informative to write down a short list of things Jamie likes to eat. Anyone seen the mower episode of Shaun the Sheep?! Seems like we're growing one of those :-)

The first couple weeks all he wanted was milk. That's good, that comes nicely contained in bottles.

Week three he started to nibble. Like Simon did when teething, putting everything in his mouth to taste and feel texture - also no harm done... sort off - Rolf did not appreciate the texture exploration of the unfinished wood train table corners!

Week four he started to eat paper. Paper bags, newspapers, magazines - anything that rips nicely will do. He graduated to our woodstove wood, munching on the bark and the punk wood bits (seem to me like woody marshmallow bits) - then on to stove ashes. No idea why ashes, maybe he had bad indigestion or something... he's not eating the goat bix I got, though.

Week five he started to eat string, shoelaces, rope - like spagetti, and I've got to pull it back out in case his tummy gets into trouble! But no hay, won't touch the stuff. He will eat the leaves of my Japanese dwarf maple! And we found him in the middle of the bonfire pit - after our bonfire adventure - munching ashes and coal.

He's getting a little heavy to lift in and out of the goat enclosure in the sunroom, and he's starting to enjoy being with the other goat boys, so in a week or so he'll stay with them overnight. He still gets a bottle at 10pm, when that's done with he can move out. yay!

Oh, he knows the sound of the microwave equals milk! He gets real agitated when I nuke milk for Simon's naptime, searching everywhere for his bottles, he heard the peep so there should be milk around somewhere!

it sure is Spring...

We have so many different colors violets growing on our back field, I love to keep an eye out and see if I can find another one! We even might have wild dog's tooth violets (Erythronium denscanis?), though they sure look different from the violets I'm familiar with... When paging through a bulb catalog I found their picture and recognized them from the many little flowers growing at the edge of our woods and field. Neat, huh :-)

Wacky Chicken Nest Box Contest

first ever Wacky Chicken Nest Box Contest !!!
looking for functional, original, unusual or just plain wacky... as long as the girls can use it :-)
should be portable to be displayed during event hours

first annual Backyard Poultry Day
at the Ithaca Farmers Market

Sunday May 2nd from 10 am to 3 pm.

Judged by our Market specialist Karma Gloss of Kingbird Farm

First Prize a Chicken Backyard Hutch valued at $79.99 from Critter-Cages.com, other prizes include VermX 100% natural herbal parasite control from Verm-X USA and unbelievably delicious Happy Hen Treats premium treats for Chicken!

for a submission form and more info please contact Susan@VerbergPhoto.com. Entries should be dropped off between 10-11am, the winners will be announced at noon

GOOD LUCK!

DO NOT CALL list information

Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month.

Cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies. In addition to being a nuisance, these calls can be costly when cell phone accounts are charged for calls received. These calls can be prevented by placing your cell phone number on the National DO NOT CALL list.

You can do this either by calling the National DO NOT CALL list at 888-382-1222 or going on line at this address: www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx The call to put your phone number on the list must be made from the phone you want listed.

A Beginner's Beekeeping Class

Beginning with Bees
A Beginner's Beekeeping Class
presented at

Cayuga Nature Center
1420 Taughannock Boulevard Route 89
Ithaca NY 14850-9510

Saturday April 17 9 AM

The Finger Lakes Beekeepers Club announces a Spring workshop to help people begin keeping bees. The workshop is designed for people who wish to start a bee hive, whether to raise some honey or for pollination. Finger Lakes Beekeeper Club members will be on hand to present displays and workshops, host informal conversations with beekeepers and a visit to the Club Apiary.

Light refreshments will be provided. Participants should bring a brown bag lunch.

People may find more information by visiting the website, www.flbeeclub.com or by sending an email to twelder62@yahoo.com

Because there is a limit of 80 persons, preregistration is required by April 9. The cost is $8.00 person, $12 family. Checks should be made out to “Finger Lakes Bee Keepers Club” and mailed to FLBC, c/o Tammy Fazzi, 4 Hanford Drive, Dryden NY 13053

Dutch Cheese Press

Drying recycled plastic baggies

A friend of mine remarked "hey, how useful" when she saw baggies hanging to dry on the fridge - so in case you do not want to buy a professional plastic bag dryer - this system works perfectly!

I got the magnet clamps at Target, about $5 for four if I remember correctly. Make sure to fluff up the bags to prevent trapping moisture inside.

other uses for above ground swimming pool...

Last year we successfully used the blue plastic surround to house our baby ducks and geese in outside - it's both weather proof and draft free! - and this year it's the sunroom playpen for our baby goat.

We have a dog crate in the pen, with a heat lamp on top and a heated cat bed inside to keep the little guy warm at night when he's all alone. It works real well and both the blue plastic surround and the towel around the dog crate keep the little guy out of drafts (the sunroom windows do not completely close).

Oh, the ladder is so my 32+ lbs toddler can go in and out by himself!

Goat Diaper for bottlefed goat kid.

One diaper for a baby goat made from one of our toddler diaper covers... cheap, easy and works surprisingly well! The inserts are newborn prefolds (locally for sale at Mama Goose, downtown Ithaca) which I launder together with my toddlers' diapers. The diaper cover is slightly altered: I cut off the two velcro side taps (saved some of the border to sew around the cut edge), removed the velcro pieces and sewed those back on along the top edge. This way it is a wrap - or as the male wrap I got at PetSmart for $20 said; it nicely covers the male countours...

As you can see, it is comfortable enough to be able to have nice, long naps in front of the woodstove...

DIY Cat Scratching Post

This home made cat scratching and climbing post is made of two electrical wire spools from our local electricians dumpster, leftover fabrics and saved baling twine.

To make, measure the diameter of the two large wooden discs and make fabric slip covers. I sewed a tunnel and used a piece of road to tighten the fabric, a piece of elastic would do the same trick. Measure the small top disc and make a slip cover for it. I used fake fur fabric, several of the disk have circles of regular carpet underneath the cover. Regular carpet does not curve / bend and thus can not be used to cover cat furniture.

Put fabric over small disk. Drill three holes for metal bolts in top disc of large spool. Put fabric over large disc. Attach the small disc and tube to the top disc with the metal bolts that come with the spool. Put fabric over the last large disk and attach all pieces together. Wrap bailing twine or any other cheap, rough twine around the cardboard tubes.

The post is surprisingly sturdy, used extensively (over our store bought one) and even our two year old thinks it's a great climbing toy. Enjoy!