Meet one of our rabbits! We have two does (females), a mother and her daughter (this one here).
This relic is our former shed, chicken coop AND rabbit hutch! (I would go on and include a picture of our new ones (each is its own entity now) if my computer/camera connection would work more than one time ever.)
We took cuttings of raspberries and gooseberries and planted them in the ground. Since they have no roots we have to make sure that they get plenty of water and not too much sun. Once the roots develop in the individual cuttings we will relocate them to sunnier areas in order to increase productivity. This method of planting is also known as propagation.
Some perennial flowers such as these daffodils are coming up and will serve as an early pollen source for bees that will later pollenate our flowers and allow them to turn into fruit, such as with the raspberries and gooseberries.
We did not have a market for all of our leeks last year, so some were composted. This one never got deep into the compost pile, so it never got hot enough for the bacteria to digest and disintegrate it, so we replanted it, mostly just for kicks!
Taking advantage of the warm weather last week, we dried our laundry outside.
Andrew Lyons and Shane present to the EcoHouse sustainable agriculture class on the importance of bats in ecosystems and how to improve habitat for them. Bats commonly predate upon pests of crops and in some cases even serve as pollinators. They made and displayed a bat house which we will later post near our farm to attract bat colonies! They also remarked that bats have an undeserved bad reputation for the few and far between cases where they bother people or spread rabies.
Andrew Brown gave his presentation on integrated pest management. He noted that having a diverse crop tends to mitigate pest outbreaks. Biological pest control is the occurrence of "beneficial" organisms preying upon pests. For example, some wasps consume caterpillars that eat our plants' leaves! Just don't bother them and they won't sting you.
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| ... And here we are having our weekly Sunday dinner meeting. After enjoying our food and celebrating each other's company, we get into business and organize ourselves so we can sustain the farm's productivity and our livelihood. Special credit to Julia for being our guiding farm manager. Well, that's all for now. Signing off -- Trevor |
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