Fire Ants & Coffee Grounds

I have been doing an experiment for a while now. We have an over abundance of fire ants. In the past few years they have gotten worse and worse, although this year, there don't seem to be quite as many. We used to have many ticks and chiggers, they were the big problem, but now there are few. Most people think the fire ants have eaten them to the point that there are few left.

The ants are a problem to man and beast alike. They will chew on anything that disturbs them and have made huge ant hills out in some of the pastures that are about two feet wide and a foot or more tall. We have come to realize that if someone were injured and unable to get off of the ground in the vacinity of these ants, it would be a very bad problem, maybe even lethal.

Goggle images

Another problem we have discovered is that the ants will 'nurse' and care for aphids. There were parts of the garden last summer that had bad infestations of aphids, while the rest was fine. It didn't seem to fit the usual pattern of an aphid infestation. What I discovered is that ants use aphids as a food source. They don't eat the aphids, they eat the 'nectar' or residue the aphids produce as they feed on the plants. The ants will over winter a colony of aphids down in their tunnels, caring for their eggs and keeping them alive until spring. Then the ants will find suitable plant life to sustain the aphid population and will transport them to the chosen location. As the aphid population thrives, the ants are fed. Rather ingenious, isn't it? But at the same time, it increases the ant population in my garden. A couple of years ago, it got to the point that each time I went to pick the garden, I came in with a number of ant bites. It was unavoidable.

Now, back to coffee grounds. I ran across this article about ways to erradicate ants. Most of the information deals with 'regular' ants, not fire ants. Fire ants are extremely aggressive when protecting their homes. If you disturb a mound, they will swarm out by the hundreds, or thousands, and repeatedly sting the intruder. Each sting hurts and leaves a small red whelp. By the next day there is a raised area with pus in it that itches. 

Even though the article has several recommendations we could try, some of them are dangerous to pets or animals. The borax solution would probably work well, but would endanger our cats, so it is not an option. What caught my attention was the coffee grounds. Since we drink coffee, we have a ready supply of grounds. The article says, "Ants are extremely susceptible to caffeine. Leave coffee grounds (used works) where the ants are and they will carry it home and eat it. This method takes a few weeks to see."

One of the first places I put the coffee grounds. The ants appear to be gone.

For the past few weeks, I have been putting our coffee grounds around a number of anthills. Some of them seems to be gone, others seem to have just moved their hills over a ways. But I am hopeful. Maybe, just maybe, this will help kill out a few colonies and make it a little safer, especially in the garden. And if it does work, maybe I won't have as much competition from the aphids for my vegetables.
 

A new small ant hill on the left with coffee grounds, old inactive hill on the right.

This is one of those solutions that doesn't require a lot of work or preparation. Just a container for keeping coffee grounds and a few minutes of time. Hope it works. We'll keep you updated.

Until next time - Fern

The More or Less of Chickens

Hello, Frank here.

Hi Everybody. I have some positive chicken news and some negative chicken news. But first, the general chicken news. Last time I posted I was having a cannibalism problem, the chickens, not me. My plan was to butcher all of the young male birds. Well, things don't always work out the way you plan. I am currently having some health issues, and some days I get things done and some days I don't. 

I didn't get the young roosters butchered and put in the freezer. I was never able to get the cannibalism problem under control. Let me give you an update. When the cannibalism problem started, I separated the males from the females. This was part of my isolation strategy to narrow down the problem, and that part worked. There was no pecking among the females, besides normal, "Hi, how are you?" pecking. But as I said earlier, the butchering never occurred. The cannibalism among the males continued, so one day we got rid of all of the males. Pick any scenario that works for you, and use that to suffice, the birds are gone.

Barred Rock roosters and Australorp hens

So, now I have 15 young Australorp hens. I traded three hens for two Barred Rock roosters that are the same age, and everybody is happy. But, going back a few days, I didn't know if everybody was going to be happy, and I ordered 25 mixed heavy, day old, brown egg layers. A little quiz here. "But you didn't tell us whether you ordered male or female." But, I did tell you that they are brown egg layers. The reason I pose this quiz is because I asked Fern that same question. And she gave me the same answer. "Brown EGG layers." Okay, our lesson in humble pie for the day.

Well, the 25 little girls arrived. After 10 days, all survived but one. We did the usual, beak dipping in water, and had chick starter on hand. But this time they're not going to stay inside the brooder near as long. The outside temperature during the day is around 90 degrees, as is the humidity.

Different topic. I love where I live. The winters are mild, but a certain part of summer is hot and humid. If you are not sweating, it's because you are seriously dehydrated. I haven't lived in other parts of the deep south, and I can only imagine what it's like in other parts where it's hot and has the advantages of the moisture from the Gulf Stream. But, this time of year, I seriously think about shoveling snow again.

Okay, back to reality. Here in a couple of days the little girls will be going out to the chicken house, to their own little caged apartment. 

I'll be turning the former baby birds, which I'll now call teenagers, in with the adult birds. This is a slow process. I will open up the teenagers cage door, and just leave it open. I will continue to provide food and water in their part of the pen, that is now open. There will be some serious pecking order issues, but everybody will survive. This is just normal, social pecking order. The teenage hens will be terrorized for a few days. But now we have the young roosters and the old rooster issue. The old hens will also terrorize the young roosters, too. But the relationship between the old hens and the young roosters is mostly just a matter of 'get out of my way.' 

The old rooster is a different issue, though. Sometimes, but not often, you can introduce new roosters to an old rooster. But you don't want blood in your chicken house. As a general rule, but not always, an old rooster will not tolerate a young rooster, it's just simply a male thing. So the old rooster is going to have to go. I have found that roosters raised together are generally tolerant of one another, even though one is the obvious dominant rooster. But these birds weren't raised together and the old rooster just will not tolerate a young rooster in his chicken house. Again, use your imagination as to where the rooster goes. He's too old to fry, he's too old to bake, so he's just going to go.

So, now, in the chicken house, I'll have 25 ten day old baby chicks in their own pen, a mixture of 15 fifteen week old teenage hens, 2 fifteen week old teenage roosters and 19 fifteen month old adult hens. In about five or six weeks, the teenage hens will start laying. They will lay brown eggs. The current adult hens lay green eggs. When the teenage hens' egg production reaches an acceptable number, then the green egg hens will need to move on to a new home. It's a whole lot easier to get rid of laying hens than it is an old rooster. You can either take them to a chicken sale, sell them very cheaply to someone wanting to start up a chicken flock, or you can give them away. They will still lay good for another year or two.

So, this is where we are. Some people would say that my chicken plans are not stable, and they're right. I tried the Easter Egg chickens, and I was just not happy with the bird. Now I'm going to try a new bird. You might be asking, "What about the baby birds?" When they are about 12 weeks old, just about the time the adult birds will be leaving, I will introduce them to the rest of the flock. When the time comes, I will decide which 20 or so hens I will keep. I will find a good home for the remaining birds. Then maybe life will settle down in the chicken house.

It's been a roller coaster ride for the last couple of years. When the brown egg layers start producing, I will let you know how things are going. But, in the meantime, I'm going to have my lower back opened up, and we'll see how that goes. Take care, and may God be with you.

We'll talk more later. Frank

Growing Beets

We want to start off this post with a prayer request. Our nephew was injured in an industrial accident. He has serious injuries to his face and mouth. We would appreciate your prayers on his behalf.
 

This is about half of our harvest. The rest is still in the ground.

  
The beet harvest this year is being canned using the same techniques as last year which you can find here. The big difference this year is the harvest. Our crop has done much better this year. The small patch of beets is six by eight feet and planted fairly close together. In fact, some of them are too close together which is preventing much growth for those beets. There is also plenty of competition from the grass since we have had so much rain. That, and the fact that I haven't been weeding very much lately.

 We decided to cut off the greens and rinse off most of the dirt and mud outside on the porch. This routine worked very well. There wasn't near as much mud left in the sink after the final scrubbing before they went in the pot to cook.

The greens we kept to give to the chickens and goats a handful at a time. When I first started feeding these greens to the animals they would take a few bites and leave the rest. Now that it has become more routine, they tend to clean them up quickly. It takes time to change routines, especially feed rations for animals. I am happy to see how well they are consuming some different types of feed that are very good for them.

We tried a different type of beet this year, Lutz Green Leaf. The crop is much bigger which is great. One big difference in the beets this year is the color, they are much paler than last year. When we took them out of the canner, my first comment was, "These are really pale, they look like watermelon." Since this is only the second year we have grown beets, we don't have a lot of experience for very meaningful comparisons. It is another interesting learning curve. These beets taste very good, even to a former non-beet eater like me.

2013 on the left, 2014 on the right

For this harvest we canned 12 pints. Last year our entire harvest yielded only 5 pints, so we have already more than doubled our food supply and there are more left in the ground. It is very humbling and rewarding to put away food that you have grown from start to finish. It also brings a great deal of satisfaction and a sense of security knowing we have the knowledge and skill to bring food to the table for months to come.

I have seen pictures like these for years. Other people's pictures. Now, when I look at these and realize that we grew these, even among the weeds, I am humbled. What a blessed life.

Until next time - Fern

The Nutrition of Green Peas

Our cool, then warm, then dry, then rainy weather caused our pea crop to be later than last year, then they were happy for a while. We picked four good batches of peas, but we wanted to have more so we could freeze some. My plan was to have the peas produce and be finished by the time the tomatoes were growing well and ready for this trellis. As the lower levels of the peas finished producing, and the upper levels started blooming, the tomatoes started filling in the bottom level of the trellis. It was interesting.

Since the peas quit blooming in our warmer weather, we pulled them up and let the tomatoes take over. I think green beans would have been a better follow up crop, like I did last year. I just wanted to try something different and this was a better location for these two crops in my rotation scheme.

Green peas, are another crop that can be planted and harvested fairly early in the season. They will withstand cold temperatures and frost, and prefer cooler to warmer weather. Peas can be canned or frozen, and are great straight off of the vine. I had also hoped to harvest enough this year to can a few, which we have not tried before. We think they are better frozen, but don't want to depend on the freezer if the power is out for any extended length of time.

So, what are the benefits of eating peas? Their nutrients include:

• Protein
• Vitamins A, C & K
• Niacin
• Folate (folic acid, B complex vitamins)
• Choline
  
• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Phosphorus
• Selenium 
• Iron
• Potassium

Some of the health benefits associated with peas are:

• Low in calories; 112 per 1 cup serving; this may not be a desirable trait in a survival situation
• Contain phytosterols, which help lower cholesterol
• Good source of fiber
• Anti-oxidants
• Carbohydrates 21g per 1 cup serving

Even though we didn't get very many peas in our harvest this year, it is an easy, early crop that could add to our diets in the spring before many other crops are producing. I need to figure out how to increase the productivity of this crop for next year. There may come a time when we will be depending on early spring crops in our diets, and it may come sooner than we think. One of the things to consider is the caloric intake needed to continue producing food if everything has to be done by hand. This is one crop that has the benefit of producing early, but do the nutritional benefits make up for the lower caloric content? Is there another early producing crop that would provide equivalent nutritional value, with more energy producing content? Like potatoes? Would this ground be better utilized in growing another crop? Keep in mind that not all crops need to be high in calories. Part of the goal is to produce a well balanced store of food for the year, not just in the spring. The game changer here could be if this first crop was needed to stave off starvation. We're always looking for new food crops. We tried peas this year which tasted great, they just didn't produce enough. Food for thought.

Until next time - Fern

Free Food....For the Picking

Through absolutely no effort of our own, in fact, through our neglect, we have been blessed with free food for the picking this year. Along many of our fence rows and into some parts of the yard, we have been blessed with an abundant crop of dewberries and wild blackberries. They're everywhere, free, for the taking.

The catch? You have to be willing to brave the thorns on the plants, the briers, bugs and possibility of snakes or other critters lurking there about. You have to be willing to sweat, you know, do some work, to enjoy this wonderfully sweet, wholesome bounty.

I invited over three different neighbors to pick dewberries for their families. They really enjoyed this treat. One neighbor brought her small children to pick with her, which I thought was great. Her oldest daughter, a four year old, ate them as fast as she could pick them and left with a purple stained face and a smile.

The next batch of free berries, the blackberries are just now starting to get ripe. I didn't get any pictures of the dewberries, I just picked them, froze a couple of quarts, and we ate them. Straight off the vine, some chilled with sugar, and at Frank the connoisseur's advice, some were sprinkled with a little powdered sugar. They were great. Now we look forward to the next batch.

We also have a small patch of tame, thornless berries that are looking very promising. This is another example of a plant that has to be strong and independent to live here because it will have to survive neglect. I didn't get last year's canes cut down after they finished producing. This would have allowed the plants' energies to go into growing the new canes for this year's crop. Maybe I will get that done this year. But again, in spite of our neglect, we have food, waiting to be picked.

 








Over the years we have heard a couple of comments from folks here and there that have stuck with us. When I think of the free bounty we are blessed with this year, I remember these comments. The first is, "When is the government going to bring me some water?" This was after a natural disaster had occurred. The person speaking had done nothing to prepare for this disaster that had been long predicted and tracked as it moved into the area. This person was just sitting on the porch waiting for 'them' to come and bring them everything they needed and wanted. The second person was waiting in line at a post office talking to a friend. Her comment was, "Who is going to feed my kids this summer now that school is out?" She wasn't being callous toward anyone, she wasn't being funny, she was being serious. You see, it wasn't her responsibility to feed her kids, that was a job for 'them'.

Did we work hard enough to pick all of the free berries here this year? No. There were many that ripened and fell from the vine for nature to consume. Did I feel a little wasteful? Yes. Were there other things in life that took precedence at the time? Yes. That, and some good old relaxation.

This is one of those experiences that makes me ponder. Free for the picking. How many people would jump at the opportunity to work for free food and how many would sit on the porch and wait for it to be brought to the table, prepared and ready to eat? How did we get to the point where there are such distinct differences in these two groups of people? One group braves the thorns to reach the prize, one groups waits for their 'share' to be redistributed from the efforts of others, and presented before them. What will happen when they have to wait and wait and wait and wait, and nothing or nobody ever shows up? We have seen cases where there are those that don't wait very long at all. They tend to go out in mass and take whatever they want.

How long before this scenario of working and waiting is no longer sustainable? How long before the system implodes? How long before we return to, "If you don't work, you don't eat."? It gets closer everyday. Pick this day what you will do and how you will live. Don't let others pick for you, or you may be left waiting, and waiting, and waiting.........

Until next time - Fern