Saturday, January 10, 2009

Favorite Books, SweetPea, more Bamboo

I really like author Gail Damerow.

also, has illustrations such as milking a goat


From Storey Books - Country Wisdom

Country Living by Carla Emery


I shiver think what all I'd do for this precious girl, SweetPea.

Yeah girl, give me the show pose. She's 3 months old now.

SweetPea was posing for the camera.


walking to the buck pen

can you count 5 Bourbon Reds? Franklin and 4 girls.

This may not be correct compost procedure - I throw the veggie scrapes an egg shells on top of the compost pile and let them air out for a couple of days then work 'em in to the pile.

I have 3 compost piles, this is the 2nd one.


Yesterday I blogged about bamboo and I got a couple of comments about bamboo being invasive. Yes, it is if you just let it go. When you plant some, would be good to have access to the perimeters of how far you want it to spread. This photo is looking to my yard from the neighbors. In the months of May and June, Mike mows the edge of this property and ours, to mow down the new shoots it sends out. Just keep it mowed down for those two months and then you don't have to worry about it again until next year. Our goats and chickens are beyond this "screen."

My hand on a bamboo pole. Also, yesterday I forgot to mention that we mulch the bamboo and put in walkways, chicken houses, etc. It's makes wonderful mulch.

Ours is tall.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Yellow Groove Bamboo

I want to design a Cathedral like this with our bamboo.

Yellow Groove Bamboo This bamboo will get to a height of about 10 to 15 feet in zone 5, 20 feet in zone 6, and 30 to 40 feet high in zone 7. Many culms have zig-zag’s in the lower section. This bamboo is very cold hardy and grown widely in the United States. The shoots are edible. The canes on this species can get so dense it is difficult to squeeze into the grove.

Our chickens have always enjoyed the bamboo for shade, protection, scratching, eating the leaves. Now, that we have goats, they'll stand on their tippy toes to eat the leaves which we just love it that they enjoy the leaves so well.

I think I'll start selling some of it at the Farmers Market. Have you ever priced this stuff? The landscapers seem to be getting $50 for a clump. I got bunches of clumps. I'll see if I have a market for it.

Bamboo is the world's fastest growing plant and some species of bamboo can grow up to a foot a day in the right conditions. It's this amazing growth rate coupled with the "spear" type shoot The bamboo plant has an extraordinary range of uses. Here's just a few: baskets, bicycle frames, bird cages, blinds, boats, bridges, brushes, buckets, canoes, carts, charcoal, chopsticks, clothing, cooking utensils, diapers, fans, fences, firewood, fishing rods, food steamer, furniture, garden tools, handicrafts, hats, incense, musical instruments, paper, particle board, pens, pipes, ply ,roofing, scaffold, tableware, toilets, toothpicks, toys, umbrellas, walking sticks .. and that's really only just scratching the surface.

Another important use for bamboo is food. The shoots are used in many Asian countries as a vegetable - sometimes eaten raw, or steamed and boiled. China makes beer from bamboo, which I've read is quite palatable. Given that, I'm thinking it may also be useful in relation to the production of ethanol.

Bamboo - you can wear it, you can eat it, you can build with it. Bamboo may increasingly replace plastics and wood products - what a marvellous gift from nature! Consider bamboo alternatives when purchasing items - despite some ongoing debate about the exploitation of bamboo and associated production processes of bamboo goods, it's readily renewable, sustainable and still seems to have a lot less environmental impact than chemical-ridden crops, destruction of old growth forests and petroleum-derived materials.
Bioremediation
One of the prevailing challenges facing dairy, beef, and poultry operations is the management of animal wastes. Too often the high nitrates in concentrated manure and slurry storages either leaches into the ground water or enters streams via surface runoff during periods of high rainfall. Consequently farmers are faced with either constructing expensive containment facilities or paying large fines for the environmental impacts of their practices. The problem of nitrate accumulations on a farm can be looked at as a resource, however, when bamboo is applied to the scenario. Bamboo can tolerate enormous applications of nitrogen fertilizers accumulating it and turning it into biomass. By siting bamboo around manure containment ponds or between a nitrate sources and sensitive ecosystems, bamboo can be used to ameliorate a problem while simultaneously providing another marketable crop to the farmer.

Animal forage

On our farm where we run dairy cattle and goats on an open pasture we are faced with food shortages during the winter months when grasses are dormant or no longer meeting the nutritional needs of the animals. Consequently we have had to invest in either purchased feed or the energy and labor of cutting and storing grass hay. Recently we have begun exploring a number of perennial crops that hold the potential for extending the forage capacity of the bottomland pastures. Bamboo has become a prime candidate as a perennial forage species as it holds its foliage year round making dormant season harvest possible. Having a high protein content (12%-19%) it is comparable to alfalfa in nutritional value yet does not require the intensive cutting, drying, and storage process of an annual crop. Bamboo thrives in the rich, moist alluvial soils of the farm's bottomlands. We are therefore researching the feasibility of growing bamboo in proximity to grazing animals. Feeding can be managed by either cutting bamboo and "throwing it over the fence" or allowing animals to g raze in bamboo paddocks on short rotations. WSU is also experimenting with producing silage, a product of fermented foliage or biomass, from bamboo leaves. Silage is typically produced from grass hay and is a common strategy for providing a food source to grazing animals during seasons when pastures are dormant.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Cold and Snowy in the NC Appalachians

Considering the cold and snowy weather, I'm thrilled to be getting eggs from the hens. We go through a lot of eggs - baking, breakfast, and other dishes.

Mike collected several eggs today.
Mike is an Appalachian State University Mountaineer.

Three does staying put in their house.

Clara peeks out.

June and SweetPea eating dinner.

Mike taking dinner to the buck house.

Wheaten Marans hanging out in the coop to stay warm.

Cuckoo Marans, Wheaten Marans, and a bantam Brahma - all girls.

White Faverolle, Salmon Faverolle, and a Bourbon Red Turkey hen.

Monday, January 5, 2009

SandHillPreservation

This catalog is my favorite, a seed/poultry combo! what more could you ask for. no hybrids here, just heritage seeds and breeds.


To e-mail your catalog request, Sand Hill Preservation Center include your name and mailing address in the body of the email. Catalogs sent in response to e-mail requests are sent out by bulk rate mail.

The bucks, Nougie and Dud, actually father and son, working on the bark. Interesting that we have maple trees throughout our backyard but this particular tree is the one they like.

The chairs were for Mike and I to sit down there with 'em but the boys have taken over the chairs. MilkDud and Nougat

One of my compost piles, yes, I think it's very photogenic, I stay focused and work hard on my compost piles. You should see the old coffee grounds that I lug home from the office. Whenever I'm working in the kitchen, I always have a bowl on the counter for veggie/fruit trimmings and egg shells. The chickens and goats contribute nitrogen poop to the piles.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

When a Little Farm I Keep


Weather-wise, this is the nicest weekend we've had since October.

Remember that I forced goats on Mike? How does it appear that Mike is taking it?

Nougat on his spool in the bamboo.

Neighbors, Teesa and Sam, stopped by.

Sam really likes Franklin and Franklin really likes Sam.

Franklin and some of the gang.

We got some gravel down on top of the muck.

I like for our critter lot to be a pleasant spot to hang out.

A good hangout for everybody.

MilkDud on his barrel.

I copied this poem from Jama's blog, it's so nice,
http://prosperinegoathill.blogspot.com/
thank you Jama for posting it.

When a Little Farm I Keep

By Katharine Hinkson (1861-1931)

When a little farm I keep,
I shall tend my kine and sheep,
And my pretty lambs shall fold
In deep pastures starred with gold.

On green carpets they shall tread,
Gold and purple be their bed,
Honey clover make their food
In a watered solitude.

Garden places I shall tend,
For a welcome to a friend,
Make for him a roomy seat
By the box and privet sweet.

And my kitchen garden shall
Grow me fruits on tree and wall,
Give me blossoms in the spring
And an autumn gathering.

An old dial and a cote
Where the pigeons fly and float,
And a well so green and dim
Where the little fishes swim.

Hives of honey I shall own,
Bees with drowsy monotone
Toil all day to bring me home
Heather honey at the gloam.

Twixt the mountains and the sea
There my little farm will be.
In a heart-remembered spot
I shall have my happy lot.

In a heart-remembered place,
Where the mountains lift their face,
I shall tend my sheep and kine,
And a thankful heart be mine.

When a little farm I keep,
I shall sleep the happiest sleep,
To my simple meals invite
Thanksgiving and appetite.

In the heart-remembered place
I shall wear a shining face,
And my quiet nights be praise,
And a prayer my innocent days

Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Years Day 2009

For our News Years meal, in the kitchen I made us - baked chicken, BBQ sauce on the side, potato salad, sweet peas, and served a Snapple Noni Berry (sugarfree).
My news Years resolutions are the same as always:
1. lose weight
2. lose weight
3. exercise
4. save money
5. try to be a better friend and neighbor
6. don't bring any more animals home
7. try not to mouth off at work
8. lose more weight
9. be a better inlaw
10. try not to mouth off at home

Stayed cold outside, and our boys found a spot in the sun.

Nougat looking over the fence, watching Mike work.

Nougat standing on his new landscape timbers.

Franklin! get your head out of the grain bag!

yeah turkey, you're a pig!

Franklin get back to your patrolling

RP, Wheaten Marans cockerel sunning

had to poke holes through the ice to get some water

Yuri, Spangled Russian Orloff rooster standing with some standard Ameraucana hens

Yada, Spangled Russian Orloff hen