Hive Happy Hour - Beehive Immunity & Biome

1st conversation: So I took a deep dive right out of the gate into Beehive Immunity and Biome and of course the first attempt to meet and record was interrupted by weather. I did an impromptu recording of this presentation, so as to complete the first conversation. Due to scheduling and weather, it is just a presentation. I hope you will all join me next month for a conversation about Equipment Chores. Happy Beekeeping!

Eggshells for the Garden

If you have as many eggshells as I do, you probably already know this is a great calcium source for your chickens. I keep a cast iron pan in the oven and after breakfast place all my eggshells there for safekeeping. When I have enough to fill the pan, I turn the oven on to the lowest setting for about 15-20 minutes and let bake the shells.

After baking I let them cool. Once cooled, I crush them and place in a jar for storage. These crushed shells can then be added to the chicken feed or placed nearby as a calcium source for the birds.

You might even add them to your compost pile, for a calcium boost to your soil in the spring. But did you know you can use them as a biostimulant in your garden? Simply fill a jar about 1/10 - 1/15th full with eggshells. Then fill nearly to the top with Apple Cidar Vinegar (ACV with Mother), leaving about 1-inch clearance for bubbles due to fermentation. Cover with a cloth or loose-fitting lid or cover. You do not want to seal this as the solution will expand, and could break the vessel. Mark the jar and date. Store in a temped, dark space and let rest. The fermentation will do the rest.

After a few weeks, the solution will be fermented. Decant this solution, by running the liquid through a sieve and or cheesecloth to remove all the sediment. The debris can be used again, 3 to 5 more times. Place the liquid in a container, seal and place in a well ventilated cool dark space.

This solution will be full of micro and macrominerals for the garden. It can be used as a foliar spray or drench, on its own or in conjunction with other ferments. Be sure to dilute with good water. According to Nigel Palmer, this solution should be diluted at a rate of 1:500 (One Tbls to 4 gallons good water or 15L ) up to 1:1000.

The rule of thumb when natural crafting your homemade ACV extract is less is more. When in doubt, do a small test area. If after 24-48 hours, you have positive results, you can proceed with confidence. Testing a small area is a good idea any time you amend your garden.

Happy Gardening!

A Chicken Chat with Chef Gale Gand

Below is the conversation Gale and I had about the joy of backyard chickens. Gale and I met in a FB Group conversation when she shared her chicken therapy story and how having fresh eggs has been fun for her as a chef. This past year of the pandemic has opened so many homes to the joy of raising chickens. I would love to hear how chickens have changed your life! @storeysinthedirt

Check out what Gale is up to on FB @chefgalegand

Manifesting soil for the garden

Manifesting soil is not quick but I can see the results! Whaaallaa! It only took two years. But did it have to take so long? Not necessarily. I could have brought in compost, however, my concern with bringing in compost is, what is it made of? Is the compost made with Non-GMO or organic by-products? Are the grass or tree cutting full of fertilizers, or pesticides or herbicides? When I think of the food products going to the compost companies, I think of all the chemicals produce may have been exposed to. Beyond the Glysophate or Roundup, synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, what about the preservation sprays on fruits and veggies these days? I’m not a chemist, but the more I learn about these products, the more I question them.

Bearing this in mind, I opted for the long road. Two years ago, I purchased some chickens. They were all free-ranging chickens at one time. The first year, I experimented with the deep litter method in the coop. This method is now a key component of my composting system. With over 100 chickens free, they were fertilizing everywhere…it was a bit much. So I put most of the birds into tractors. About twenty birds and the six ducks continue to free-range and add to the deep litter.

The first batch of partially decomposed litter was spread over my first test area adjacent to a non treated area of equal size. Within four months the area which was composted was thick with lush happy plants; No signs of nutrient deficiency. The adjacent area was browning do the lack of rain. The plants were smaller and showing signs of distress and malnutrition. When I pulled back the composted plants, I could see black crumbles between the blades and stems. You guessed it, worm castings, the worms had come to eat the composting manure, straw, hay, grass cutting and pine needles.

Seeing the results, last September, I mowed the area short. Easy enough on the side not composted, but a real chore on the composted area. Even though we had not received rain in weeks, the field here was wet, like clog the mower, constantly, wet. This gave me confidence. So after, I cut the grass back, I applied my next batch of litter and compost materials to both sides. Added my some rock dust and tarped both sides of the bed. A 50 x 100 area, which will be planted with veggies this year.

Below, on the left, you can see what the ground looked like two years ago. This picture was taken recently just outside the tarped bed. On the right, you can see what it looks like under the tarp. I have a long way to go still, but I have confidence that I can now plant a garden with a much higher chance of providing healthy plants and nutrient-dense food to my family.

Happy Gardening!

First Spring Flowers

Have you ever foraged for plants or mushrooms? Have you ever wanted too? I encourage you to keep a local wildflower identification book handy. As the year goes by take a cutting of the plant and place it on the ID Page and date it. Then you will have a good idea when to expect them again, next year.

Here are the first four native plants found on my little farm. Purple Deadnettle, Hairy Bittercress, Chickweed, Hoary Puccoon. Seeing these little gems fills my heart with joy and excitement because I know winter is coming to an end and spring gardening is right around the corner.

Purple Deadnettle, Hairy Bittercress, Chickweed are all edible, can be used in teas and smoothies, dried or used medicinally. I can’t think of a bee that wouldn’t be eager to find these fresh flowers in the garden, or walkway. Each of these plants grows readily in many places and I encourage you to check them out.

The Hoary Puccoon (Lithospermum canescens), less common, is a member of the Borage family. As a member of the borage family, the little lovely is also a delight to the first foraging bees. With its long taproot, I would consider this a welcome addition to my soil biome. Research is conflicted as to the reason for the naming of the Hoary Puccoon, but all sources appear to agree that the name derives from the Algonquin people. The glorious taproots can be used in making a red dye, while the flowers can be used to make a yellow dye.

Hoary Puccoon should not be used as a food product or taken internally as it contains Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids. According to The Naturopathic Herbalist (https://thenaturopathicherbalist.com/plant-constituents/alkaloids/), only PAs which contain “unsaturated necine bases are hepatotoxic”. Hoary Puccoon may have as many as 7 PAs. I encourage you to read further on the processes in which PAs can affect the liver and other organs. This plant comes with serious consequences if used improperly. However, there are many indications, that it may have been used by the Menominee for external treatments. Some sources suggest it may have been used as a tea wash in treating fevers accompanied by spasms.

While this plant may not be a food product, it is a lovely little plant, which can provide food to early spring insects and contribute to the life cycle beneath our feet. I encourage you to look holistically at all things. I hope you are also lucky enough to have Hoary Puccoon on your homestead.

Happy Gardening!

Purple Deadnettle, Hairy Bittercress, Chickweed, Hoary Puccoon

Coffee and a Farmer's most important tool!

First things first put the coffee on and check the weather. I don’t have a TV and have not for most of my adult life. So no weather channel for me, I use weather apps.

Weather apps are awesome! The only problem with weather apps is just like every other app on the planet, they get updated and change. MyRadar has been my favorite app for years. Recently, it updated to a bubbly format with lots of hot pinks and neon blues and greens. Just like the coffee lady who is too chipper in the morning, the app is now too much for this old lady. It’s still a great app, so I have just moved it to the background (fingers crossed they do another update). In my search for a new app, I have landed on three apps MyRadar (in the background), Windy, and wOw. Windy has the best Widgets. I can quickly get an overview of the weather, but the fonts are small. In order to get the detail, I have to open the app, which I find cumbersome and not as user friendly as other apps. wOw is by far my favorite app. The format is not only pleasing and intuitive, but I can arrange the content as I see fit. In comparison to whether monitors I have on the property, it is very accurate and dependable.

What is your favorite weather app? Share your story with me at:

FB @StoreysintheDirt
Instagram @storeysinthedirt
Twitter @storeysindirt
MeWe @Storey's in the Dirt
Tumblr @Storeysinthedirt
Snapchat @Storey's in the Dirt

HOLD THE MOLD

So, I am a Solo-Mom, not a single mom, a solo-  mom.  My life is so full!  I have two amazing children, 100+ chickens, 3 pigs, 2 dogs and a piece of land I call home.  How did I get here?  To this full life?

I’ll start by saying, I don’t like to share my story.  It makes me feel weak and vulnerable. Two things I despise.  But in order to understand why I am here, it is important to understand how I got here.    

In 2016 I was sick, the kids were sick, and even the animals were sick.  My head was foggy, and I wasn’t able to see the big picture.  The cat and dogs were vomiting foamy vial and had developed bald patches.  I changed the animal’s food, because everything I read online led me to believe it was their food.  The kids were off.  They were struggling with homework, not sleeping well, and becoming short-tempered with each other.  Which I figured must be growing pains.  I would wake up at my desk, unclear when or how I had fallen asleep, or how long I had been asleep, a minute, an hour?  I had no idea.  I would ask my kids to do something and they would say, you just said that, but I would have no recollection of the conversation.  At one point, I thought they were messing with me.  It was all pretty strange.  When I  would leave for work, I would feel fine.

When you get settled in a routine, it can be difficult to see the big picture.  I felt like maybe it was just a getting older kinda thing.  The kids were just being kids.  The animals were eating the wrong food.  All these things did not seem related at the time.  Then one day I woke up, I could not lift my head, my arms would not lift.   I could barely pick up my feet, let alone my legs.  Then I nearly fell down the stairs.  When I was able, I went to the doctor.  I was scared.  What was going on?! 

Again, I am telling the registration nurse the same things I had told the doctors, the same thing I had told every nurse or medical professional who would listen for the past six months, only now I am really scared.  A woman, I assume was a nurse, overheard my conversation and popped around the corner.  She looked me right in the eyes and said, “go home right now, check for a gas leak, check the CO monitor and check for mold”.  In that moment, I knew it was mold.  I went home, picked up the kids the cat and the dogs and checked into a motel.  The kids and animals never went back to that house.

It’s been five years, and I can tell you, sometimes I wonder if I am actually better.  Other days I feel like I can conquer the world.  What I can tell you, is without my garden, I would not be where I am today.  Sometimes I feel silly saying it, but I know it is true.  The garden saved my life. 

Every day outside in the garden was like a year of healing.  I felt life returning to my body and the ability to think coming back to me.  Nearly daily, my memory improved.  My thinking improved.  Imagine if you will, that you are trying to recall something that happened in the kitchen that morning.  Only, it’s blank, like a dark room.  You cannot recall anything at all. Like someone deleted an episode and you can’t go back and watch it.  That is what it was like.  As I began to heal, I would try to recall things from our time in that house, only there would be nothing.  I can assure you this was terrifying, especially since my family has a history of Alzheimer’s.   

Imagine, if you will, what it was like as I would get up every day and feeling that my arms moved farther today than yesterday, that I could pick up my feet to tie my shoe, that I could turn my head without heaviness and pain.  Or that the deep pain in my bones was less today than yesterday.  One seriously disturbing part of the healing process was to realize how seriously ill I had become and to know that I did not realize it as it was happening.  

What’s most disturbing, is talking to my kids about their experiences.  My youngest says, when she recalls living in that house, she felt like she was drowning out of water.  When I ask her what that means, she explains that is how her body and mind felt.  She says that she remembers trying to do homework, and not understanding why she wasn’t able to get it done.  My kiddo is a fastidious reader and enthusiastic learner.  For her to have struggled with homework is still confusing to her.  She would have been 12 back then, so imagine not being able to articulate how you are feeling, all these years later, beyond that of drowning without water.  My other kid doesn’t talk about it much, because according to her, she doesn’t remember much.  

I’m not telling you this story so you will feel bad. I’m telling you this story, because I believe people are having similar experiences everywhere, with many different causes.  If you look at yourself or your sister or your mother or bother or father or children or neighbors, how many will see them suffering from something?  How many of you are suffering from something?  What is causing this?  I cannot give answer that or give you the perfect solution for you, but I can give you mine, my garden.  I can share with you how the garden saved my life.  How the garden became chickens and then pigs.  I have a chance to share with others a journey that may just help you and your family too.

Cold Stress & Chickens

According to Gail Damerow, in The Chicken Health Handbook, a chicken’s body temps for chickens runs between 105F and 107F (40.6C and 41.7C). When a chicken goes without food for a day, their body temps can drop 2.5F (1.4C), and another degree for every day without food. However, when the temps drop the bird’s metabolism speeds up. Providing adequate food and water, will help your chickens endure the cold temps.

You may see them fluff up and hunker down, shifting from one foot to the other. Do not worry, this is normal. Just like we need air in between our layers of clothing for insulation, a chicken will ruffle its feather’s creating pockets of air for insulation. Their blood flow reduces to their extremities, also cutting back on the release of heat through the feet, waddles, and combs.

In addition to feed and water, their environment plays a big role in their health. Providing dry locations for the birds in the field to hunker beneath helps to keep them out of the snow, sleet, and rain. Clean bedding such as hay can help to absorb water from snow and ice melting from returning birds.

When they bed down for the night, make sure the coop has ventilation, but not drafts. People keep asking, what is the difference between ventilation and drafts? Gail suggests a test to determine if the coop is too drafty. “Hold a strip of lightweight paper in the roosting area. If the strip moves, the coop is too drafty” paraphrased.

Good ventilation will limit a buildup of condensation or humidity in the coop, which can accumulate on chicken feathers. Ventilation is high in the coop and allows for an exchange of air inside and outside. No breeze. Good ventilation will also limit the build up of pressure within the coop, which could affect more fragile structures.

One last note, on cold nights, as tempting as it may be, there is no need to put a heat source in the coop. This can be a fire hazard. Also, when chickens leave the coop, they can experience shock from the changing environments.

WHAT STOREY’S IN THE DIRT MEANS TO ME.

1. The dirt under my nails and in the creases of my hands after a day of working in the soil.  2. The joy I feel when my kids work the farm with me.  3. Every wonderful, painful, new experience that adds to our own stories.  4.  All the wonderful and some not so wonderful people who we have encountered on our journey.  I love to meet farmers, gardeners, ranchers, bakers, fermenters, canners, homesteaders, poultry people, crafters, creators, bee people….there are just so many people, and they are amazing!  I love to hear their stories.  In fact, I get in trouble all the time, because I take too long talking to people, well listening to people too.   

IT’S GOING TO BE A FANTABULOUS 2021! JOIN US ON OUR JOURNEY

The farm is now in a very interesting location due to the fact that we have no top soil, yet….Well, I have started manifesting soil….with the help of the pigs and chickens.  If you know me you know my “Happy, Healthy, Safe and Strong” moto.  As a parent, my job is to make sure my kids are Happy, Healthy, Safe and Strong.  So they can grow up to be HHSS.  Then when they have children they can be, you guessed it, HHSS.  Well, I have approached my farm with the same philosophy.  I want the plants, animals (large and microscopic), insects (beneficial and sometimes not so much), fungus (edible to working), soil (and it’s biome), water (and it’s biomes), and even bacteria working for the farm, to be HAPPY, HEALTHY, SAFE, AND STRONG.  To that end and for the For the Love of Experiments…This year I will share experiments and experiences here on the farm.  Should be exciting (finger crossed).  We’ll have Coffee with Critters and put our Hands in the Dirt.  I’m going to share with you some of the ways we Close the Gaps and try some new ways to stack farm enterprises without breaking the back.  We have an awful lot to do, but I have learned to Keep it Simple Sally and encourage you to do the same.  Because at the end of the day we want to look out over our farm and Enjoy the View!