Nesting Blocks - Quick and easy way to attract bees

 

Our "new" bee nesting block

Over this past weekend, we decided to build a small bee nesting block with the hope of attracting some solitary bees to help pollinate the garden.  I read that there are over 5000 types of solitary bees and 1500+ here in Nevada.

Solitary bee (Zool.), any species of bee which does not
        form communities.

Solitary bees are pretty neat little things.  After they find the nesting block, they will choose a hole size they like and move in.  They go to the very back and start building egg cells and laying eggs as they move their way back towards the entrance.  They then packing in some pollen and nectar and seal the hole up.  When the eggs hatch, the larva will eat the polling/nectar.  Once they turn into a bee, they will dig there way out into the open and join the world.

Building a nesting block is pretty simple.  I grab a piece of unpainted/unstained/untreated scrap 4x4 and then drilled lots of different sized holes into it with my drill press.  I then added a slanted roof to help keep the rain off and hung it on the wall near the garden.  Two days later, the bees have moved in!

A nice thing about solitary bees is that they are not very aggressive because they have no hive to defend.

Is Millie Really Miles?

Firefly discovered that one of our hens may in fact be a rooster. We agreed when we got the chicks that if one turned out to be a rooster that we would try to find him a good home but now we are pretty torn as to what to do with him. He is one of the friendliest chickens we have and it would be really sad to watch the remaining Silkie perch by herself at night. (The Silkie perch on the lower roost and the Winedots like to perch together on the higher one.)

Below is a repost of Firefly's blog about why we think Millie is really Miles:

Is Millie really Miles?: "I think one of our Silkies is rooster. :( Millie is actually Miles. I started thinking about how different Millie and Petri looked and the wheels started turning... something is very different. So, I googled how to tell the difference between male and female Silkies and discovered that the males will have wilder feathers on the top of their head, the feathers will be different lengths and point more towards the tail, they will also develop bubbly 'brain' looking skin on top of their beak, and have wattles under their chin. The females have more of a puffball for feathers on top of their head, they don't have the bubbly looking skin, and no wattles. So, I went out and took some pictures of the birds to confirm with others (hopefully someone who knows more than I do) as to the gender of our feathered friends.

This is Millie, notice the bubbly skin and wattle.

This is Petri, notice the neater feathers, lack of bubbly skin and wattle.

And, just to be sure, I took some of them further away:

Millie (Miles)

Petri

And because I didn't want the other two to feel left out... Here are Gibbardanna and Thelma:

"

Getting Closer...

The Chicken Run phase 1

I finally got the frame of the chicken run started, much to Firefly's delight, I'm sure.  The run stands 6' tall and is 8' wide.  The run only has 3 sides because the 4th side is the chicken coop itself.  I still need to build/hang a gate, paint it, level the trench, attach the chicken wire and finally put it into place and attach it to the coop.

The Chicks have Arrived

Say hello to the little chicks:

They are so tiny and cute and only about 2-3days old.  Right now they chirp, peek the ground, fall asleep, chirp, drink water, sleep, chirp,  chirp, dog pile each other, sleep...

We will post updates over at our joint blog www.fireflyskiesfamilyfarm.com/

Chicken Update

The coop so far, almost finished!

Our chicks should be hatching in a few days and we'll bring them home on Thursday!  We have everything we need for them, we just need to set up their home.

How funky is your Chicken?

After much debate between ducks and chickens, we decided to raise to raise chickens this year.  We've spent the last few days researching different breeds and type of chickens trying to find the perfect fit for us.  After much debate and three phones calls to the feed shop (Greens Feed in Reno) our order was placed.  We decided on two bantam White Silkies and two standard Silver-laced Wyandotte.

In our chicken search Firefly found the great chicken website, Backyardchickens.com

You can learn all about the White Silkies here and all about the Silver-laced Wyandotte here

Because the White Silkies are bantam, they come straight run which means our odds of getting pullets (females) are 50-50.  I guess the bantam are too small at birth to tell the gender. 

We went with the standard Wyandottes so that we would be sure to have some hens. (10% chance of getting males because they are sexed by hand) 

Our chicken book, Keeping Chickens by Ashley English should be here tomorrow or the next day and tomorrow I am going get the yard ready for the coop we are going to build. 

I'll post updates here but most of the chicken news will be located at www.fireflyskiesfamilyfarm.com/

How much is your Garden worth?

Curious how much your garden is worth? Find out here


We didn't keep track of how pounds of each produce item we harvested last year but it might be fun to do it this year.  Maybe we too can turn our $26 worth of seeds into $2000 in veggies!


If you are up for it, I think it would be fun for everyone to keep track of how much they havest and post their numbers at the end of the season.

Fireflyskies Family Farm

Firefly and I have created a joint blog to share about our life here on our family farm.  After reading "The Urban Homestead" we decided that we too wanted to start an urban homestead.  After some thought we came up with the name FireflyskiesFamilyFarm. Our new blog address is simply

http://www.fireflyskiesfamilyfarm.com/

We just got it up and running so there is not much there yet.  I am going to re-post a few farm related post from this blog over there to get things started.  As we get closer to spring and work around here picks up, we will be blog more frequently.

Fireflyskiesfamilyfarm is going to lean more towards just life around here while Stillmorningair starts to head more toward substainable living and morning thoughts.

Please check us out over yonder and please please please feel free to share your thoughts and stories!

First snow cont.

It started snowing last night and has just now stopped snowing.  Our unofficial total here at home is a whopping 8 inches!  This might not seem like much to a lot of people but for us here in Nevada, 8 inches at one time is a HUGH amount.  We only get only maybe two storms like this a year so we have to enjoy it while we can.

Firefly was lucky enough to get to stay home today while I drove around all day in the snow reading water meters.  Schools were closed today so I saw lots of kids out playing in the snow (and even more shoveling driveways with the folks).  Out of all the people I saw today out in the snow, everyone was happy...well, except for the one old guy on a quad with a snow plow and an oxygen tank on his back... It was kind of weird to see so many happy people out and about!  I wish people were always this happy.

When I got home, Firefly and shoveled the walk and then built a snowman (snow blob).  Now as I type my lovely wife is starting a fire...time for some hot coco!

Another Crazy Weekend!

Wow, it's been busy around here!  This time it was my spontaneity that caused our busy weekend.  Saturday Firefly (my new blog name for my wife) and I went to a friends house and picked gobs (3 paper bags worth) of apples.  I was having so much fun that I had to be pulled away from the tree, I would have picked all day if we had the time.  After we picked our 3 bags and our friend picked their 2 bags, the tree look EXACTLY the same!  I can't believe the amount of apples that are on this tree.





Sunday morning we turned 3 bags of apples into 14 quarts of applesauce and some apple chips. Then turned all that fresh apple sauce into some amazing apple butter.  We let it cook down over night and then in the morning, Firefly added more applesauce and let the butter continue to reduce down.  Then while I was at work, she whipped the reduced applesauce into apple butter and let it simemr a little longer.  (Somewhere in the middle of all this she found time to make a wonderful gluten-free veggie chili which we had for dinner and then froze the extra for another night).



When I got home, we canned up 40 or so 1/4 pint jars of yummy goodness.  Any guesses as to what our friends and family are getting for Christmas?


Special thanks to our friend Matt who peeled, sliced, and cored the majority of the apples!

 

 

Thanks to Dad for the help on the food mill.  Thanks to Mom for the wall decal and pictures.

Potato Harvest

 

 

Epic Failure.  Okay, it wasn't THAT bad but the 40ish potatoes was no where close to the 60lbs I was expecting.  We did however learn lots from our first year as potato farmers...

1. Less water...1-2inches a week is all.  I think we gave them about 1-2 inches a day!
2. Plant the seed potatoes a little further apart
3. Buy better seed potatoes...I think some of ours where duds
4. Start sooner in the season
5. Plant several types to have potatoes all season long
6. Find a better way to harvest...my back is STILL sore!
7. Don't let the tomatoes bury/break the potato vines
   

The other bummer was that we did not get many potatoes more then 8inches about the seed potatoes.  I'm not sure if this is because of the above mentioned reasons or if they were mislabeled at the store...seemed a little shady.

No worries.  We had fun and will try again next year.

Harvest from the "Neighbors"

Wow!  That's a lot of berries!

So we've decided to start canning!  We've been talking about it for a while now and this weekend we started.  Our 23qt pressure canner (biggest pot ever!) arrived Saturday morning and we broke it in last night.  We picked the above fruit from two houses around town.  The berries and tomoatoes came from the in-laws neighbor house and the apples are from Morgan's mom's friend's (our hygienist) mom's house (they also gave us our couches three years ago!).

Last night we turned the pounds and pounds of blackberries into 20 pints of really good, really sweet blackberry jam.

This afternoon we are going to be making salsa, spaghetti sauce, and applesauce. 

Can you guess what you're getting for Christmas this year...? :)

Potatoes

Hopefully we will be able to start our potatoes this weekend but looking back, I'm glad that we had to wait because we just learned some new potato information.

I had no idea that there were different season lengths for potatoes and the longer the season, the better they grow in hills or towers.

If you plant a short or early season potato in a tower, you are still only going to get fruit in the first 6-10 inches of soil...no reason to bury under 3feet of good soil. Mid and Late season potatoes are the best option for hills or towers.

Early potatoes (short season) 60-80days
Main potatoes (mid-season) 80-100days
Storage potatoes (Long Season) 100-130days

Turns out that we got lucky when we bought our taters. We are going to plant Russets (storage) and Reds (main) so both so do great in our tire towers.

For more information check out:
Seed potatoes - Ronniger (check out their catalog and growers guide for lots of great tips)
Potatoes from seed to storage
Growing potatoes in pots

Good luck!

Hrm...Is Mold okay?

EWW!! or AWESOME!!

I just checked on our little worm friends and guess what? They've made friends! I have to say that I wasn't very excited about their new "friends" but it turns out that everything is OKAY. I guess I just assumed that when we started our worm bin, we would just have worms! I was wrong.

It turns out that there are all kinds of little tiny things living in our new bin...to include some mold. I lifted the lid for my daily peak and BAM! there it was.

I got a little nervous for our worms so I did some research (google) and this is what I learned:

"It's not just arthropods and bacteria decomposing the organic material in the worm bin! Molds and fungi are common organisms in a healthy worm system. They feed on decaying organic matter with tiny, hair-like hyphae, secreting enzymes which break down and simplify the organic material. They are also an additional food source to other organisms in the system, including earthworms.

Molds and fungi can also serve as an indicator, telling us if the feeding rate is adequate. Because they grow most prolifically in still, quiet environments, large amounts of mold and fungi indicate there is more food than the system can quickly manage and the feeding rate should be decreased." - www.allthingsorganic.com/How_To/12.asp

I'm going to back off the food a little bit and maybe drop in a little bit of dry newspaper and see if that doesn't clear things up a little bit. Also, I learned that storing your scraps in the fridge or freezer for a few days before feeding to your worms will help them break down the food faster. (Yes Love, I know you already told me this several times before)

In any case, our kitten really likes the worms!


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Related Posts:
Kitchen Scraps to Garden Gold
We've Got Worms!

We've got Worms!

Yes, I know how that sounds but I'm to excited to care that it sounds bad. We've got worms and I love it!

Today was the day that I decided that we were ready to start worm composting (Vermicomposting). I didn't give much thought to buying the worms because I knew that I could call our local feed store and they would have plenty of Redworms (like I said before, you only want to compost with Redworms).

So I called them up....nothing, no worms. Hrm... So next I called another good local feed shop....nothing. Three nursery's later and still no one had worms in stock. The nice folks at Moana Nursery did give me the name and number of a local Worm Farmer. Yep, he grows worms, who knew. So I called him (Dick) up and we agreed that Morgan and I could pick up the worms this afternoon. He needed some time to separate the worms out.

What is the name of this man's company you ask? "Wigglen Dicks" Red Worm Farm - 775.849.0773 and they are located in Washoe Valley Nevada

After I set things up with Dick the worm farmer, we meet up with some friends and a free local sustainable gardening class. It turns out that we knew a lot about sustainability already but we did learn a few new things...all of which I have forgotten with all the worm excitement!

Next it was off to Target where we picked up to small (13"x13"x13") totes with hinged-type lids. to make our Worm composter. I was really excited because the two totes only cost $16 dollars instead of the $130-200 dollars (plus shipping) for a pre-made composter.

We spent about an hour with Dick learning about worms and the worm business and we learned so much more. I had done quite a bit of research and reading about Vermicomposting but he taught us a lot! If you decide to buy worms and you live near us, please go with Wigglen Dicks - great name and lots of great information. If you live elsewhere, I suggest that you try to find a local worm farmer and buy from them. It is great to get the worms right from the farmer because of all the first hand knowledge that you get as well. We got to see everything from the manure to the beds to the finished worm castings. I totally meant to take pictures at the farm but I forgot.

The following pictures show us preparing the food and building the composter - we decided to take the time and blend the first batch of food to help the worms get going.


It took us less then an hour to build the composter and most of that was trying to find a good system to poke the ventilation holes (hammer and nail is NOT the best way btw). I will walk you through the very simple steps below but I cannot recommend the book The Urban Homestead (The link is to Amazon but please buy local if you can) enough. I love this book and you will too. They walk you through a very simple and straightforward way to start worm-composting.

First we bought:

1. 1lb of worms (this is about 1000 worms) from Wigglen Dicks Red Worm Farm
2. Two dark color (worms hate light) totes with lids.
   

Next we did the following:

1. Drilled 20 evenly spaced 1/4" holes in the bottom of both totes. (These allow the worms to travel from box to box, and let any extra liquid leak out if necessary.)
2. Drilled 20 evenly spaced 1/16" holes in the lid of ONE lid.
3. Drilled a row of 1/16" holes about an inch up from the bottom of both totes all the way around the totes. We went about one every 3-4 inches.
4. Drilled a row of 1/16" holes about an inch from the top of both totes all the way around the totes. We went about one every inch. These are the ventilation holes that will keep the totes from becoming to humid.
5. Next we lined the bottom of one tote with 4" of damp shredded newspaper. To do this we took handfuls of shredded newspaper and submerged them in a bucket of water. You then take it out of the water wand squeeze all the water out until you just have a few drops - should be like a sponge. Then just unbunch and spread.
6. Next you would want to add in a layer of worm castings (soil ill work if your worms do not come in a bunch of castings. If you add soil, then you will not have "pure" worm casting until you start your second batch. It's all going into the garden anyway so it not a big deal. Use worm casting if possible or just some good organic soil)
7. Carefully add your 1lb of worms and be sure to cover any worms that get exposed. I was surprised at just how tiny and fast these little guys are.
8. Cover with the lid with the holes and place in the kitchen. You want to your composter on top of the second lid (with no holes) to catch any drippings. Place two bricks or some wood to keep the composter off of the lid. Our lids have 1 inch plastic tabs that keep the composter from touching the lid. Any drippings can be poured directly onto your plants.

That's it! You now have a worm composter. Worms will double every 60 days or so. If you start with 1lb then in two months you will have about 2lbs of worms. They will also produce their weight in castings every week so after a month you the say you will have about 4lbs of fresh worm castings for your garden! Craziness!

The worms will eat slowly at first while they adjust to their new home so don't over feed them. Start with just one handful of food (kitchen scraps, not plate scraps) a week for the first week and then by the second week they should be eating about two handful a week. If you check on them and they still have food, then wait a bit longer. If you cover the food with damp newspaper, it will cut down on the smell and prevent flies.

You should really really check out The Urban Homestead for lots and lots of great worm caring tips. Plus they tell you how to make some really good fertilizer tea from the castings.

Dick the worm farmer suggested that we also check out Yelmworms.com for more information.

Good luck and don't forget to love your worms! I'll post worm updates so stay tuned!
P.s. Worms and composters make great gifts :)

From kitchen scraps to garden gold!

Worms Worms Worm!

Worms are my new best friends and I hope that they will soon be yours as well. I mean just look at them, aren't they awesome!
Like I said two posts ago, I am soon going to be making a worm composting bin. Once you get your bin built (so simple) all you have to do is feed your kitchen scrapes to your worms and they give you the two of the best fertilizers ever: Worm castings and fertilizer tea.

You can feed them almost anything that you would normal throw away. From fruits and veggies to tea bags, egg shells, and newspaper. I think I am most excited to finally have a use for the weekly neighborhood post that we get in the mail!

Building the worm bin is super easy to do. It's so easy that you could might be able to figure it out from just the diagram below.

For complete directions and way more information I suggest you do one (or both) of the following: Go to your local bookstore (I like to support the local stores if possible) and pick up a copy of The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen and/or visit the Virginia Tech website on Worm Composting

You want to make sure that the worms you buy are Redworms (Eisenia foetida) which are the proper composting worms. If you buy them online, try to buy them as close to you as possible so the poor little guys don't die in route. My plan is to check out the local bait and feed shops first.

Harvesting the worm bins is super easy to do because once your bin is full of worms and worm castings, you just stack a second bin on top of the first one and start the process over. Your little composting friends will slowly work their way up into the second bin leaving only worm castings down below. Easy!

I cannot say enough good things about The Urban Homestead I personally think that everyone that reads this blog should go out and buy two copies as soon as possible. Keep one for your homestead and give the other to a friend or neighbor!

House Update!

WOOHOO! Today is a day for good news. Two days ago (Monday) we got word that the bank as agreed to enter into contract with us on the house. Monday night, we meet with our Realtor and signed said agreement and now we are just waiting for the bank to sign that they agree with their own agreement. The next step is for the selling agent to make sure the power and water are onto the house and then we can do the inspections!

It looks like we are still on track to close on the first of May. Then we can Begin the process of turning the house into this:
Wouldn't that be awesome!

We have some pretty cool dreams of trying to get the rest of the neighbors to start their own gardens and then we can have a big harvest party/block party and we can all trade and swap different kinds of fruits and veggies! Morgan told me yesterday that she doesn't think we should have to buy plants, and after a little thought, I agree. We are thinking that it would be a good idea to let some of the plants go to seed and then we could also swap seeds with other people in the neighborhood or even with some of you. Leave me a comment if you would want to get in on some seed swapping!

If you haven't noticed, I have lots and lots of big ideas. Sometimes these can be pretty overwhelming for not just myself but for others as well. To help not get so overwhelmed, I am trying to tackle a few smaller projects while I build up to the larger ones. My current small scale project is to build a worm composter for our kitchen scraps. I will tell you all about it in the next post!

Don't forget to let me know about the seed swap!

P.S. We just got a great deal (I think) for our housing insurance through AAA.

$1000 deductible with $300k liability and insurance coverage up to $263k for $330 a year.
Does this compare to your rate? Is this in fact a good deal?

Third times a charm...?

Here we go again! We have just submitted on offer on our third house! Cross your fingers, we should know something by Wednesday of this week.

I took Thursday and Friday off this week to spend some time with my lovely wife who was on her spring break. The first day of my mini Stay-cation, we met up with our wonderful Realtor and walked through another four houses. The first one was great and there are few words to describe the other three. A few of these words are Weird, Creepy, and What the heck were they thinking!

Here is the front of the house that we like and put an offer in on. It is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house and is 1044sq. It has hardwood floors through out the house and a large fireplace in the front room. The kitchen needs to be redone right away along with finishing the hardwood floors but everything else can wait a little while. The back yard is huge and just waiting for a large garden. We are also going to plant a few fruit trees and hopefully some blackberries along the back or side fence.

The house also has a 1044sq unfinished basement the is very open and bright! It looks like the original plan was to make it into a second unit and use it as a rental. It is plumbed for a washroom, bathroom, and kitchen. We would like to have it rent ready within a year and then hopefully rent it out to some friends.

We already like the neighborhood and have several friends that live within a two minute walk/stumble. The house itself is only about a three minute drive from our current place so moving day should go pretty quick!

I am hoping that everything goes through quickly and we can get the keys within a month so that we can at least get the garden started! I learned how to grow potatoes in tires and I really want to try it this year! Stay tuned for more on that!

The best part? Lots of room for ducks!