Stuff around the farm

Yesterday while working outside I decided to take some photos of stuff around the farm.

This is actually from February, when my mom visited.  She and Joni got along fabulously.  This was taken before it started pouring, and pouring, and pouring for days.

Our fowl scene has been hit hard.  I wrote last time about the duck tragedies.  We also had some major chicken tragedies.  I had bought 8 australorps, and 3 Texas leghorns a bit ago. They were too young to lay, but all seemed well.  The leghorns disappeared first.  They're smaller than all of the other types of chickens we have (australorp, rhode island red, rhode island red/white mix).  Then slowly but surely our birds started disappearing... and when we wised up to what was going on, there were 3 birds left :(. The mongoose had eaten/ killed them all :(  

Now the mongoose traps are out and I think that while we're still catching them, we've made a pretty good dent in their population.

This is what's left of our flock of maybe 15+ birds.  Pippi, Maude (duck), Onyx and Blackie (australorps) and Ginger (Rhode island red).

They've been getting on well.  But I think the stress of losing all of their sisters (and the constant mongoose visits) kept them from laying.

Now, a month or so later....

 We've finally started getting eggs again.  The brown one was laid by one of our Australorps.  The two dirty white ones came from Maude the duck!  She laid another one today.  So despite her incessant quacking, we might like her after all!

and we really wanted a few more birds (eggs).  So last week I got 8 rhode island reds.  For our records, this week they are about 5 weeks old.  They should start laying in the summer.
 


We brought Joni down near the house to be closer to us.  Here you can see her, Milo and the baby chicks (in their serious mongoose-proof enclosure)

This is a photo of our worm bin that we were working on in the last post.

 Compost happening!

Some projects

This is us working on our black soldier fly worm bin.  The idea is that we stick food scraps in this large 55 gallon drum with black soldier fly larvae.  They process the scraps into nice compost and then supposedly they climb up a ramp- which we have set up to dump right into a trough for the chickens to eat.  It's been over a month now and the ramp hasn't worked yet. Several websites listed the degree of angle for the ramp, but we saw larvae falling.  So we've modified it and are hoping for the best.  In any case, they are doing a number on the scraps.  That's always a good thing!

These next photos are from fencing in the pond.  We busted out the concrete mixer-- the one that we used SO much back a few years ago but which now sits lonely much of the time (not that I am complaining!)
Ra'am was there to help.  We set the posts this day.  Luka was a big help too :D

 Reads: Ducks R Stinkets

1/4/2012 K, GB, R, L, N

December 2011 highlights

Seems like there's never quite enough time to update this blog.  But I went through my photos to highlight what I've missed writing about.

 This is the last photo we have of the great duck experiment of 2011-2012, which was a big fat failure.  We fenced in the pond area and though there were many duck escapes, all seemed to be going ok.  But then one of the 3? males started wobbling and not looking so hot.  And then one of the females looked kind of bad.  We thought (maybe rightfully so) that one of the males was being agressive towards other ducks.  So the "offending" male was picked up by Jake for dinner. 

In the meanwhile the wobbly male died.  And the ducks numbers started decreasing.  One female (the one who had been beat up) disappeared (she wasn't so healthy looking) and then we had 2- one male, one female- Harold and Maude.  And then on the day of Luka's birthday party, Harold died (after getting wobbly).

The verdict?  Our pond wasn't clean.  The ducks died of botulism.

Maude never got sick and has since moved in with the chickens.  

GB and I spent 2 days draining and cleaning the pond.  We also bought a very large aerator.  It looks MUCH better, and we've decided to not get any more ducks in the near future.  Too loud, too poopy and too stressful.

 This sneaky kitty snuck into the house and onto OUR bed!

Ra'am returned for winter break!!

Christy, Brian, Emma and Maya visited!
We spent some quality time at the beach!


We had a super fun New Year's Eve party!

Joni spent some time near the pool!

We tackled a large pond project.... we're now unsure about it since the whole botulism fiasco (which was caused by anaerobic activity in the pond)

GB and I traversed the upper pasture to clean up the fenceline.  We opted to leave the giant tree that had fallen (too big!).  But GB cleaned up many many smaller trees/ branches that had fallen across the fence.

Four legged friends

So Joni's been living with us for a couple of weeks now.  So far, so good!  She spent the 1st week or so tethered near a big grass pile.  But I was worried that she was a little lonely there.  I know I was anthropomorphizing, but I just felt like she needed a few friends.

So on a rainy day, GB, Luka and I went down to retrieve the goats from the lower property.  

Luka did a fine job leading them up the hill

GB and I took Joni on a walk to meet her new friends.  Sometimes the walk is a bit of a struggle.  I think GB had taken over for me at this point.  There's just so much yummy food to eat along the way...

 Taking a little snack break while Luka rides up and down the driveway.

 Meeting the goats!

 Hmmm.... Joni seems a lot more interested in me than in the goats.  Loki, however is VERY curious.

 Back to the tether for one more night!  Ducks come out of their enclosure to see the large friend.

We did end up moving Joni in with the goats the next morning.  They've been together there for about a week so far.  At first, Loki maintained his status as the alpha male.  But after a few days it seemed like Joni's got the upper hand.  She stomps at the goats when she doesn't want them around and they scatter!  I suppose it's smart to respond to an animal that's several times larger than you!

Joni doesn't seem all that interested in the goats.   She's there with them, but unless they're in her way, she doesn't pay them too much attention.   Perhaps she likes other donkeys more?  Or maybe she's just a people donkey!

In any case, it's nice to see Joni in the pasture where she can run!  Tethered, she can't really exercise her legs.  Seeing her running is so nice!

Mark and Kassie just sent us some pictures of our dear donkey, dressed in a saddle, with ribbons in her hair.  Isn't she so pretty?!?

 

Typical goat play-- up in the air, butting heads

Joni

Well, we bit the bullet and adopted a donkey.
Since I last posted, GB and Luka spent the day visiting a couple of donkey places in Puna.  They talked about bringing home a pregnant female that they had liked.  We decided to visit another donkey rescue operation in Waimea.

So the day that Ra'am left for UCSB (sniff sniff), GB, Noam and I loaded in to our car and headed up to Waimea to meet Casey and Mark and all of their donkeys.  They had just received a lot of 15 or so wild ones.  They had 2 donkeys that they were using to train the others-- Super Boy (who Noam was smitten with) and Eeyorie.  They kept mentioning Eeyorie's Best Friend as a possible donkey for us, since she was a fairly solitary donkey and seemed pretty mellow.
They invited us to return in 2 weeks after they had had some time to work with the new arrivals.

We returned yesterday and soon after our arrival, they offered Eeyorie to us.  She was the most friendly of the donkeys-- she came right up to us at the fence.  And she is just super mellow.  Even though they are both really attached to her, they felt as though she would be a good fit for us-- easy going and very comfortable with people-- especially with the kids.
AND... they offered to bring her this am!

Like all the farms involved in the donkey rescue, they are just inundated with animals.  Super Boy has taken over training of the other donkeys because he's much faster than Eeyorie.  So  that was our gain.

We've changed her name to Joni (Mitchell).  The name suits her.

Joni, just arrived at our house, in the trailer

checking out the foliage.  See the pretty teal ribbon on her tail?

Casey shows Luka how to touch Joni

 Joni hasn't met the goats yet.  The pasture we would like to put them in together is recovering, so in the meanwhile, Joni is tied to a stake in the yard next to a hugely overgrown thing of grass.  They assure us that she could stay there for several weeks without problem.  If we need to move her, it will be easy.  She's DOCILE!

On another note, GB and Luka set up the electric fence at the tilapia pond for the ducks.  The fence is useless-- they can get right thru the holes (elecrified or not), but they are so thrilled with the large body of water, that they stay.  So far so good!

Burros?

There's been a lot of publicity of late regarding wild donkeys/ burros near Waikoloa. GB read that 100 of them were being airlifted to California, and called to find out about adopting one (or two). Apparently they dislike dogs and would be good protectors for the goats.

He and Luka are going to check them out this week. We may end up with a baby (who would require 3 months of bucket feeding!). OR... there's a pregnant mama who needs a home. We wouldn't have to keep her baby (due in 4-5 mos, they guess), or we could keep it.

It's a new adventure!

plant and woe

We've started some end of summer planting here. I love planting new stuff. Even though it's a lot of work, the potential for new food/ trees is awesome!

Today we planted this bamboo (blue bamboo?) that Stardove and River gave me for my last birthday.

Last week I planted these two figs here near the house. They're hard to see, but this gives me a record.
I also weeded the pineapples and mulched them heavily. I want to see how long the weeding/ mulching lasts
One of a few pineapples we got this year. I bet next year is a bonanza!
All was peachy keen. GB and I were working together, and we had the bamboo in the ground already. The backstory is that since we got the plants (these including some atroviolacea bamboo), we've been walking the property trying to figure out where to plant what. Since the atroviolcea and mango are large, it's important we make good decisions about where to put them!

So we chose a spot for the mango near the firepit. I thought that maybe the phone line went thru that spot, but GB assured me that the phone line was in with all of the other utilities and we'd be fine. Famous last words.

To make the digging "easier", GB got on the tractor. One swipe with the bucket and he was leaning over looking at something.... the severed phone/ DSL cable. shoots!

Luckily, Gerard, the electrician was a mere 5 minutes away and came and made a temporary fix. He's got to order the part to splice it permanently. No teenagers were home to scream about the lack of internet. Gerard saved the day.

And we got the fairchild mango planted--- Well above the shed and any utilities ;)

Pippi

Before talking about Pippi, I wanted to give a duck update! We went to the mainland and left 5 wee ducklings. 2 weeks later they are full on DUCKS!

We let them out of their cage and within 24 hours we had lost one (to an 'io, I think). We put them back in for another 5 days and they were big enough and now are growing fine! With a larger area, they aren't quite as smelly!

But the big news is Pippi. I have been really angry with her, because right before our trip I found her breaking open one of the chicken eggs. Previous to that, I had been thinking about getting her a boyfriend....

When we got home, though I found her sitting in this planter box. Hmmmmmm.
When I heard her fly away and start cackling, I went down to the box and found these!

Without a male, we're obviously not going to get any babies, so we brought in 3 of the eggs to taste. GB read they are like chicken eggs. It's hard to see how large they are in the above photo.... but they are, and the shell feels a lot stronger/ thicker than a chicken egg.

Cracked in a bowl:

For comparison, 2 large chicken eggs in the same bowl

Verdict? Peacock eggs are delicious!

And Pippi is still sitting on the 4th egg (and we haven't seen anymore since). She is on her nest all day (even when we have a party) and gets up once a day to eat and do her business. When she does get up, she makes a lot of noise to scare away predators. I'm a little sad for her that her eggs won't hatch, but since I don't need any more peacock poop, I'm happy I never got her a boyfriend.

More grass!

The area behind the house, in between the house and garden bed has just been a total eyesore since we moved in. Because of the earthworks and rain and slope, there was just NO topsoil there, and all we had was a bunch of crappy clay. We've tried so many things to help grow some soil and grass there, but nothing worked..... until now!

The Biermans, once again, came thru as our trusty grass suppliers. Murphy and Harry spent the summer digging up their front yard, piling the grass for our taking.

Ra'am loaded severl truckloads full of grass and brought them over here for our extensive grass planting adventure!

GB took the tractor and scraped a good area for us to start.

Here's one of the many loads Ra'am brought

Despite the fact that the grass was already cut up, it was still a ton of hard work! Loading up, UNloading, and then planting was hard! Each clump of grass is a different thickness, so there was shoveling, raking, filling, and puzzle putting together skills used.

Here's a huge pile ready to be planted

Noam working hard! This picture shows the area almost done

We also planted in the cinders directly behind the house as well as down below the pool in a "problem" area. So far the grass is looking good (one month later) and I can't wait to see it all filled in!