Just Say Yes to Rugs

Do you have an old rug to dispose of? Old rugs can be very useful around the farm and garden. Not only can you save yourself the cost of disposal, you can save money on materials that you otherwise would have to buy. Some uses of old rugs include:

Winter Garden Cover

Lay your old rugs over your garden in the winter. This will kill all the grass and weeds so you can start in the spring without having to deal with a bunch of sod. Also, if you want to go fishing, when you lift up the rug you may find a good amount of earthworms!

Pond Liner

Dig your hole for your pond. When you are through, line the hole with the old rug. This will protect your plastic that you put over this from getting punctured by an unseen rock or root.

Shed Roofing

Put the old rug (upside down) over the plywood on the roof of your old shed. Then make it waterproof by painting it with old paint or asphalt emulsion roof coating or asphalt roof coating. Or just build a frame for the roof of your shed or pen and use the rug as the roof itself. Don’t forget to put it on upside down and paint it.

I Hate Weeding: Part 1--The Cardboard Garden

If you're like me you don't enjoy weeding. Unfortunately my kids don't really enjoy weeding either. One solution I have found that seems to work well is to lay down cardboard and plant the plants in holes in the cardboard. This has worked well for planting small seedling trees in rows. The seedlings when crowded by weeds can be pulled up by weeding, so to have a system to protect them from weeds is very helpful. This system should work good for vegetable gardens also.

Step 1: Prepare the Soil
Work up the soil and add any fertilizer you wish.

Step 2: Lay down the Cardboard
Whether you get your cardboard from boxes that you break down or another source, lay them down as flat as possible.

Step 3: Cut Holes in the Cardboard
Cut holes in the cardboard for the appropriate size of the things you are planting. If seed, then a puncture with a metal bar is probably sufficient. If plug starts, then you will need a little bigger hole. Try to make the holes as small as possible. You don't want to leave any room for weeds to grow!

The cardboard will help the soil retain moisture and also water will soak through it when you water your plants as well as penetrate through the holes.

So when you're thinking of disposing of that large appliance box you may want to lay it down as one of the rows in your garden.

Crows: The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good

The Ugly

I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but let’s face it crows and ravens are not the most beautiful birds in the world and their noise is absolutely raucous. Their deep black shiny feathers are kind of pretty but their gnarly beaks firmly put them in the ugly category.

 

The Bad

We like to feed our chickens, ducks, and goats old bread but invariably this attracts crows. Sometimes they fill the treetops with their cacophony. This can cause a little friction with the neighbors. Besides the noise one of these huge birds can pick up an old bagel and drop it in their yard. Then their beloved dog promptly picks it up and scarfs it down. Not long afterward said beloved dog barfs it out, not exactly causing feelings of endearment to one’s neighbors.

We have also at times let mother hens raise their own chicks. They are so cute walking around the pasture with their mothers. However, we at times have seen crows in their vicinity and then all of the sudden after the activity, behold, no more chicks. We have lost several chicks and ducklings before figuring out what happened.

Well, before you get out your shotgun or .22 rifle think about this. First of all, where are those bullets going to fall if you miss. Although it is a rare occurrence people occasionally DO get hit by stray bullets. Also consider this…

 

The Good

On a few occasions we have lost birds to hawks. Hawks can be devastating to a free ranging poultry flock. But often I have noticed hawks hovering up above the farm being systematically dive-bombed and harassed by crows. We have had very few losses to hawks.

We now do not let mothers raise chicks on their own unless it is in a caged area. We put the chicks in brooders after they are hatched by their mothers usually.

 

Conclusion:

We try to discourage too much crow activity but not to the point where it is taking up too much of our time, only when it is convenient. I don’t want them to drive us to become “raven” maniacs.

Homemade Incubator Plans Now Available as an E-Book

"How To Make A Homemade Incubator" is now available as an e-book on Amazon's Kindle store. It is for sale for $0.99, and I will be making it available for FREE from time to time. It basically tells you how you can make your own incubator out of an old refrigerator or freezer. We had good success with our incubators last year, hatching about 300 chicks due to the faithful help of my son, Thad, who consistently turned the eggs and checked the temperature.
I also have other e-books available. I write under the name "R. Eugene Pearson". These books include:
The Antediluvians
Bible Limericks from A to Z
A Profitable Choice
A Dinosaur Game
The Three Mousegetteers
Zorba the Grape
Punishing Puns: Clean Jokes for Groan-Ups (some chicken jokes included)

The Starvation Garden

Do you have a place to put yard debris? Grass clippings, weeds, old straw from the stall, wood chips, old vegetables, or other organic debris can be put in a bin and allowed to compost. I have a bin about two feet high by six feet square. In this I throw old rotten dahlias, dahlia stalks, old hay, etc. and ashes from the stove.
     When we have left over potatoes that are going bad I throw them in the compost bin. I make sure they are covered a little so they won't freeze. These potatoes then sprout and grow in the compost pile and keep producing new potatoes which in turn sprout the next year. If hard times ever hit you, you will have a food source. (I hate to be a doom and gloomer but with our nation 14 some trillion dollars in debt, I don't know how much longer the party can last.) You can always dig through the compost bin and find potatoes!
     Another great crop to grow is carrots. They can survive a hard freeze so they can last all winter long. You can dig them all winter long.

Daylilies are a wonderful flower. We have four varieties at the farm. They are dependable perennials and multiply and get thicker every year.

How to Order Our Dahlia Surprise Mix

 

 

The Dahlia Surprise Mix has at least 40 Dahlia tubers and at least eight different varieties. These may include a variety of types, Ball and Pom Pom types, Decorative types and perhaps a few Dinnerplates. There are some nice flowers in this mix. They will bloom from late July until the first hard frost. The tubers can be left in the ground through the winter if mulched so they don't freeze or stored in a cool dry place.

 

 

The Dahlia Surprise Mix can be purchased for $16 plus $7.50 for shipping to Oregon or Washington. Shipping to all other states is $12.50. Please include an extra $1 for any additional Dahlia Surprise Mixes ordered.

 

    (Chippendale)

 

We also have 'Chippendale Dahlias' (5' high, 6'' orange blooms with white tips) available for 40 tubers for $10 (shipping rates are the same as for the Dahlia Surprise Mix). AVAILABILITY: FEBRUARY TO JUNE 15. No orders after June 15.

 

Send your check to:

Pearson's Foothills Farm

P.O. Box 966

Sandy, Or. 97055

 

We will try to get your order to you as soon as possible but please allow 3 weeks for delivery. Thank you!

A Simple Graft

The first batch of chicks has hatched, 70 out of 98 in the incubator, and that was without candling the eggs. Not bad for a homemade incubator. (For more info on that refer to the previous blog).

     After they hatch we put the chicks in several homemade brooders. We use regular lightbulbs instead of heat lamps to keep electricity costs down and they do the job. An enclosed box type brooder catches and holds heat well. A brooder light for a larger brooder area uses light sockets attached to the bottom side of a board which is raised by end pieces about 8'' high.

     The younger chicks snuggle up to the lights and the older chicks perch on the board above the lights as the heat rises and warms the board.

 

 

     Our trees are dug and potted. We have a lot of Grand fir, Noble fir, Doug fir, and Western Red Cedar. We also have some Austrian Pine, Incense Cedar, Coast Redwood, Pinyon Pine, and others.

     Deciduous trees include Red Maple, White Ash, White Birch and Purple lilacs.

     A deciduous conifer we have a lot of is Japanese Larch. It has an excellent light green spring color as the needles emerge and vibrant fall orange and yellows.

     Our 4-6' potted trees are 5 for $40. the smaller trees 2-3' in gallon pots are 10 for $30.

 

 

     We again have our "Dahlia Surprise Mix" available this year. 40 tubers for $16 (shipping is available). You get at least 8 different varieties and some very nice flowers. We also have individual dahlias for sale. To receive our brochure call us at 503-668-4524.

 

 

A Simple Graft

 

     It is fun to graft fruit trees! And it is not that difficult. It's an inexpensive way to increase your number of fruit trees. Our Shiro plum tree kept sending up lots of suckers from the rootstock. We have dug these up and moved them and grafted the shiro onto these, so now we have about 20 Shiro plum trees.

     Plums, apples and pears seem to graft fairly easily, some of the others not so much.

     A simple graft to try is simply to make your scion (the part being grafted on) into a V shape on the bottom. the scion should be about6 to 8''. Make sure your scion is the same diameter as the stock you are grafting it on to. The green cambium layers of the scion and stock need to match up.

     On the stock carefully make a slit down the middle of it going about an inch to an 1 1/2" deep. Insert the bottom of the scion into the stock. It should be held in place by the spring tension of the two sides of the split stock. next wrap the graft thoroughly with electrical tape and you're done. the tape keeps the graft from drying out.

 

 

Multiplying Rootstock

 

   Some apple rootstocks can be started by cuttings (M111 apple rootstock for example). Make cuttings of around 10'' in length and stick in the ground in a place that gets morning sun. Do this in February and March. By next March they should be well rooted and ready to transplant. Also experiment when you prune your apple and pear trees. Sometimes cuttings of these will root in.