Posted in around the homestead, critters, tagged rabbits on April 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »
They love taking a hold of it and flipping it in the air, hence the hay on their backs.
They are chewing on the same piece of carrot… even though there were a couple more in their bowl.
Marilla
Mini Mae
They have since sexually matured… and needed to be separated. They were each trying to show dominance over the other by pulling fur and mounting each other. Had to separate them before it escalated to a full-blown fight. Still need to build them a hutch!!
Posted in around the homestead, critters, tagged bamboo tubes, bees, bug hotel, bug house, butterflies, lacewing, ladybug, mason bees, spider on April 23, 2012| 3 Comments »
My heart goes pitter-patter whenever I see beneficials crawl and fly in my garden. It means I am doing something right. It means the soil is healthy. It means unwanted critters are being kept in check, without the use of nasty chemicals.
I want to make sure that they have a place in my garden. So I built them a bug hotel last month.
I had put building a bug hotel on my homestead bucket list. It was an idea I saw in Gardener’s World Magazine (British Edition) years ago. I’ve been adding to the ideas ever since, from NW Flower and Garden Show and Pinterest Boards… and boy, are there ideas out there. Some are clearly more decorative, rather than functional ;0}
I was hoping mine would be functional… today I saw proof that it is!
The mason bees have been busy filling in the bamboo tubes, spiders have been spinning their webs, and beetles have been staking their claim in the wood pile underneath. I will have to wait and see about the lacewings, bumblebees, and butterflies.
water for one and all
upturned clay pot with moss and straw tucked inside for bumblebees – decaying leaves, sticks and twigs for beetles – straw, bricks, rocks, clay shards for more beetles and ladybugs
rolled cardboard for lacewings – twigs for butterflies – bamboo tubes for mason bees
Posted in edibles, homestead garden, photography, the world around me, tagged edibles, road-trip, tulips on April 20, 2012| 3 Comments »
Decided to drive down to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm last week… wanted to try something different. I usually drive up to the Skaggit Valley Tulip Festival. This time I was killing two birds with one stone… I was heading down to attend a presentation by Marisha Auerbach on how to grow your all your own produce in 2.5 years (if you ever have the chance to attend any of her presentations or workshops, do!! She has great info, like this: Perennial Forage Handout), so I looked into other things to do near Portland.
All the way down I-5, it poured! So much so, that I almost changed plans. Yes, I have gear to protect my camera, but it gets pretty cumbersome. I was 5 miles out, when the rain stopped!
It was a little field… but enough to keep me busy wandering around as storm clouds rolled around the field.
It turned out to be a great tie in – tulips are edible!! I’ll be adding lots more tulips to my garden!
Someone was there blowing bubbles… it was pretty windy, so I had to move fast to capture them ;0}
Just as I started to head back to the car, the rains came down again!
BIG little BIG ... life as I see it. 