The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of the very beginnings of harvesting, celebrating 4th birthdays, and dealing with the intense heat while still getting extremely sick.
We celebrated Stirling’s 4th birthday last week. It always amazes me, the changes that take place over the course of one year. He has grown and developed so much and while I adore seeing it, I can’t help but admit everything seems to be going so fast.
Gone are his chubby toddler cheeks, and constant desire to be with us. Replaced with independence, adventure, and (let’s be honest) sometimes defiance! We are so proud of the little man he is growing into.
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The Garden
The onslaught of pests has continued. I’ve begun incorporating BT (Bacillus Thuringienis) in with our weekly routine with Neem oil. BT is used to combat ‘worms’ and caterpillars that attack brassica plants. The cabbage worms have met their match so far!
Both get sprayed on after sunset to avoid burning the plants in the sun and to lessen the chance of harming beneficial insects while applying.
Japanese beetles (brown, shiny beetles that devour everything in sight) have emerged and are taking over like plague. We’ve resorted to Japanese Beetle traps throughout the garden just to help manage their damage. I have been warned in the past to keep the traps on the edges of the property to keep the beetles away from your crops. Which makes sense; however, we have done this in the past and our crops still get wiped out and the traps remain mostly empty. By placing them around some of their favorite treats, we have collected thousands over just a few days.
The bag traps get emptied into a bucket of soapy water daily, which kills the insects, and then the bucket gets delivered to some very happy chickens! (Free extra protein!)
I have read that using beneficial nematodes, applied to the soil during the fall, will kill the larvae in the soil before they can develop into the flying monsters. This is definitely an avenue we will be pursuing this year!
A new foe we are battling this year have been aphids. Farmed and encouraged by ants, these little turds suck the sap from plants and secrete a sweet waste product (honeydew) that the ants eat. Ants will defend, move, and encourage their partner’s in crime to the demise of the plant.
The best known enemy of the aphid is the lady bug. Forget all the adorable, cute ideas you have about ladybugs. They are brutal in their desire for aphid annihilation.
I have wanted to create an environment where beneficial insects come to us naturally. In many areas, we have been successful! Dragonflies, wasps, preying mantis, and a wide variety of bees have made our property their home over the past few years.
Lady bugs are one that we haven’t seen much of. There are plenty of their nefarious imposters, the Asian Lady Beetle; however, they are definitely not beneficial. They simply stink, bite, and leave gross orange trails in the house during the fall.
We ordered 1,500 ladybugs and released them in various spots in the garden. While I was ordering, I decided to also add another aphid predator, the Green Lacewing, to also help manage the aphid population.
So far, the amount of aphids I have found has been drastically reduced! And there are several places throughout the garden where tiny ladybug eggs have been laid!
The Goats
Our two fawn does have been re-homed. The day finally came for the girls to move on to bigger and better things! Stirling was pretty bummed, but he knew the day was coming.
Definitely, the arrival of two NEW goats the following day helped to lessen the blow!
Yes, we are – in fact – crazy.
Two sadness were welcomed to our homestead this past Friday! A saanen is the largest breed of dairy goat. They can produce anywhere from 1-3 gallons a day, but have the lowest amount of butterfat in their milk (from 1-3%).
Compared to our Nigerian Dwarf goats, the smallest dairy breed and highest butterfat content (anywhere from 6-10% butter fat).
They are well known for their docile temperament, high milk production, and for being one of the quietest breeds.
So far, they have been living up to their standard!
We wanted to add a goat with higher production so we could look into storing milk for winter, making cheese, yogurt, and soap without having to ration who gets milk to drink and how much! Stirling also didn’t care for our Nigerian Dwarf milk, saying it was too sweet. The saanen milk tastes very similar to what we purchase from a goat dairy and he has grown up on.
Meet Daisy!
A Fun Experiment
We found monarch caterpillars a few weeks ago on some of our garden milkweed. The boys were so intrigued that we brought two in (with plenty of milkweed for them to munch on) in a large glass jar for the boys to watch the metamophysis.
I’m glad we decided to do the experiment, as the very next day, the last of the garden monarch caterpillars had disappeared. We haven’t seen anymore since.
Only one of the caterpillars survived the entire transition, and it emerged from the chrysalis on Friday!
We happily released it after acclimating it to the weather that same day. Stirling was fascinated to learn that we hatched a male! The round, black markings on the lower lobe of wings reveal our butterfly as male. Female monarchs won’t have the rounded area and have thicker black veining on their wings.
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