Lilypalooza 2020

It has arrived!  Lilypalooza 2020 at the Genuine Faux Farm.  We hope you enjoy your virtual tour of some of the day lilies gracing us with their presence.

We'll step the words down and increase the volume of the pictures!

Survivor

The gingko tree survived yet another Winter and yet another late freeze that took all of its first flush of leaves from its stems this Spring.

The gingko tree has survived winds that have pushed it a little off of center.

The gingko tree was damaged but was not broken by a buck that was rutting.

The gingko tree survives, but it rarely seems to put on much growth.  I has not thrived.

And that makes me sad.

I wonder if I would be sadder if this tree would not have survived.

If the tree could speak, what would it tell me?  Would it have some ideas of things I could do to help it grow and be healthier?  Or would it tell me it is just fine with survival?


I don't know the answers.  But, I sure can create a fine list of questions.

Available from GFF July 16

There is all kinds of neat stuff in this week's email/blog newsletter.  We encourage you to read if you are able so you can stay up to date on a wide range of things going on with the farm and elsewhere!

Quick news (details lower in this post/email):

#1. Upcoming Schedule

#2. Crop and Poultry Report (featuring garlic!).

#3. Join us in a Pesticide Action Network Funding Match.

#4. Farmer Update

#5. Spray Season

#6. Hansen's Outlet Location

#7. New Blog Material

#8. New Delivery Method

#9. Egg Cartons

#10. 2020 Farm Credit Program

#11. Welcome to New Members

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Cedar Falls: Thursday, July 16  5:00-5:40pm Jorgensen Plaza WEST parking lot

New Delivery Method: Please maintain appropriate physical distancing.  We will place your order into a yellow tray and put it on our table.  Once we step away, place your order in your bag/box you bring.  then set the yellow tray in the 'dirty' pile next to the table.                                                  

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Available to members (order by Noon Thursday!):
    eggs - $3.50/dozen (limit 2 doz - we will try to fill 1 doz for all orders first, unless you order for two families)

   scapes - $1/bundle of 20 (last week!)

    beans $2/bag

    large "bugs bunny" carrots $3/pound

   frozen broiler chicken $3.60/pound (avg 4-5 pounds)

   summer squash - $1 ea

   zucchini - $1 ea

   oregano - $1 bunch

   garlic - $2/head

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THE GFF NEWS

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1. Upcoming Schedule

• July 16 - Cedar Falls Delivery (Jorgensen Plaza)
• July 22 - Waverly Delivery (St Andrew's and Yogi Life)
• July 30 - Cedar Falls Delivery (Jorgensen Plaza)

2. Crop & Poultry Report

The garlic came in with timely help from Sophie and Max.  The quality of the crop is fairly consistent.  We are making garlic available immediately this year rather than waiting for them to completely cure.  Any garlic you get in the next few weeks should not be treated as long-term storage or seed garlic.  They WILL store for months as is, but they won't go through a Winter very well until they cure.  So, feel free to order them if you want to use them in the next frew months.  Wait to order if you want storage into the Winter months or you want to plant some as seed garlic.

3. Pesticide Action Network Funding Match

You may recall that Rob now works for the Pesticide Action Network and if you go to their website, you will see some of my writing there.  I would like to invite you to honor us by donating to PAN to help further the work of this organization.  Our farm is among those who have provided matching funds for an online funding campaign. 

I recognize that many of you are careful about where your money goes and in determining where your giving might land.  If you have questions about PAN, I will gladly field them.  I also want to make it clear that outside of the staff at PAN and the people who receive this email or read our blog, we are not putting our name out there as one of the farms providing matching funds.  This is not about us or our farm.  We are sharing this with you because you are the people who have supported us through so many things and many of you have asked what you can do when it comes to pesticide drift problems.  We are putting some of our money where our mouth is with this match and we hope you will honor us by joining us.

Thank you for your consideration!

4. Farmer Update

The farmers are dealing with life and the issues of the world just as everyone else is - and that can be tiring and stressful.  It helped us immensely to get a little help (in a physically distanced way and with masks) from Sophie, Max and Victoria on Tuesday.  And, today, we have had some help from Brenda (sister) and Nicole (niece).  Last Friday we had a group from Green Iowa Americorps come and help us clean up a couple of areas that needed cleaning.

We are beginning to fully realize how isolated we have been this year and how much we miss having some consistent help on the farm.  Tammy and I can be excellent workers, but there is no replacing extra hands to get the work done.

5. Spray Season

We also have the normal farm stresses of trying to get it all done AND we are now entering insecticide and fungicide spray season.  We've barely exited herbicide season, so it feels like it has been ongoing.  The biggest difference is that the spray planes will soon be out in force.  You may tire of us mentioning it, but it is important that EVERYONE who witnesses off-target spray should report it to the Pesticide Bureau in Iowa.  Make note of the time, date and location as well as any additional details so you can report accurately.

6. The Hansen's Outlet Location

We are removing Hansen's as a delivery location until construction is closer to completion.

Again, we understand that many of you preferred Hansen's because you pick up product there and/or it is closer to where you live.  We also appreciate that you are all willing to do things to make that location work.  Thank you.  However, the location will not continue to work for us (it's not about you, it's about us this time).   As construction progresses there, we will revisit adding Hansen's back on the delivery location list.  But, for the time being, expect only one delivery location at Jorgensen Plaza in Cedar Falls.

We recommend taking Main Street south to Hyacinth and entering the West parking lot.

Thank you for your understanding.

7. New blog material for you

• Are you curious about what a day of chores look like?  Here's a picture-laden post on that topic.
• Do you know what a Dickcissel is?  Well, you can find out here.
• We took a walking picture tour of the farm and then wrote about it.
• We had some bad weather go around us - so the anti-weather machine was on.
• We didn't say a word about National Pollinator Week, find out why.
• And to close the week in blogs, what is Screwy Data?

8. New Delivery Method

The prior method of placing orders into the back of vehicles worked reasonably well and we attribute that to your willingness to work with us!  thank you!

We are, however, aware of some problems with the current system:

- we are using far more single use plastic than we want to be using and we want to go back to some of the re-use practices

- our available product list will become more complex as we get deeper into the season, which makes the current model a little more difficult to pull off

So, we return to asking you to bring a re-usable bag, box, etc to put your products in.  We will use chalk to provide guidance for physical distancing.  We will put your order in a yellow tray on the table(s) and you can then remove your order and place it in your bag/box.  Once done, we will ask you to place the used tray into a pile.  We will clean these on our return from the delivery for the next use.  

9. Egg Cartons

We will be willing to receive egg cartons from you starting this week.  We will put a green tray out for you to put used cartons in for re-use.  Please nest these cartons so they take less space.   We will not use any cartons we receive until they have been 'quarantined' for a period of time.  Research has shown that the Covid-19 virus does not live long on cardboard surfaces, but we'll be safe and re-use boxes by taking the ones that have been in our supply longest first.

10. 2020 Pre-Paid Farm Credit Program

We will run the system in $50 increments.  In other words, you can purchase a minimum of $50 of farm credit at a time.  We will cap the maximum amount of credit at $200 and you can refill your farm credits at any point.

Like the CSA program, this gives you the advantage of not having to pull out money at each delivery.  Instead, we will have a ledger with tracking for your current credit balance.  This also provides us with some working capital to start the season.  Also, like the CSA program, we will give participants better pricing and opportunities than those who might prefer to 'pay as they go.'

A major difference this year is that farm credits can be used for ANY farm product the Genuine Faux Farm offers.  If you buy farm credits, you can apply them to purchasing meat chickens, vegetables, eggs or any other thing we offer this year.

We are accepting purchases of credits now and throughout the season.

11. Welcome!

If you are new to this email newsletter for the Genuine Faux Farm, we would like to welcome you.  If you are an 'old hand,' we want you to feel welcome too - but we were gently reminded that we need to introduce people a bit more to the system.

The basics are as follows:

  - we deliver once per week - alternating between Waverly and Cedar Falls locations.

  - Waverly is on Wednesdays

  - Cedar Falls is on Thursdays

  - anyone with farm credits can order from either location, you just have to arrange to get what you order.

  - to order, you only need to respond to this email - sent the day prior to the delivery.

  - a "gentle reminder" email is sent the day of the delivery.  This email confirms that we have received orders by listing those from whom we have received orders.

 - delivery instructions will be in this email each week.  Please pay attention as circumstances may require a change.

Be Well!

Rob & Tammy

Genuine Faux Farm

Tripoli, IA

Screwy Data

When I walk behind a wheel hoe or run Barty around the farm to prepare ground or cultivate I find that my mind is able to multi-task fairly well.  Obviously, I have to pay consistent attention to what I am doing so I don't destroy plants I want to keep with the wheel hoe and the stakes are higher with the walk-behind tractor.  With Barty I can both destroy plants AND potentially do a bit of harm to myself or whatever else gets in the way.

Now, if I am cultivating with Rosie, the tractor, there is usually even less brain multi-tasking going on because that tool has even more potential to do harm.  But, I digress...

In any event, my brain can go all sorts of places when I am walking back and forth between 400 hundred foot rows of veggies.  One place it went to recently, much to my surprise, was my eighth or ninth grade science class.   I don't recall for certain which, and that doesn't matter.

Different Abilities
The instructor for the class was Mr. Rasmussen and he was, generally speaking, a capable teacher.  Certainly, as far as I was able to tell, he knew plenty about what he was teaching and I actually liked most of the things we covered - which is saying something when you are talking about middle school.

Everyone who is reading this knows this is going somewhere - so let's just get right to it.  Mr. Rasmussen had a host of physical challenges.  When he walked, it was with a shuffle that made it look like he could topple forward with each step, his arms hanging at his sides as if they might be too heavy for him.  There were days when Mr. Rasmussen would remain seated for the entire class.  He spoke as if his tongue were two sizes too large for his mouth and the rumor (I never found out if it was true) was that he had had polio when he was younger.

Sometimes he would try to give a demonstration in class that required measuring out some liquid into a glass tube.  He would start with one tube with too much liquid and try to pour from that tube into a second tube to get his required amount.  It was painful to watch as he would pour the liquid from one tube to another.  The shaking of his hands and arms made it virtually impossible for him to get what he needed.

The entire class sat there and watched, unsure of what we should do.  I could tell that some of the members of the class were inclined to just think it was funny and others thought it was sad.  But, in general, it was supremely uncomfortable.  You see, Mr. Rasmussen did not seem to want help, though he did accept it when one member of the class offered to pour it out.

I certainly learned from Mr. Rasmussen, but I suspect I learned more after the experience than I did during it.  Or - at least - I didn't fully realize what I was learning at the time.

 

A Lesson Learned
 One of the things I learned is that it takes a great deal of bravery to break away from the crowd.  When you add to it the uncertainty that comes with being a young person who is not sure if you are supposed to help....

I remember a good deal of internal pressure and debate when we witnessed our teacher struggling.  I would feel embarrassment on his behalf, but then I would berate myself that there was nothing to be embarrassed about.  His body only allowed him to do so much and there was no shame in that.  The next battle was whether or not he would appreciate help and whether I dared to step forward and offer to change what was going on.  I knew the answer - but then I had to fight my own shyness that was at its peak in middle school.  That, and as a middle school student, I still ran on the training that you waited for the person in authority to direct what was going on.

Mr. Ed Rasmussen

I would like to say that I was the student who finally won the battle and volunteered to help.  But, I wasn't.  Instead, I desperately wanted to be that person.  All the while, I felt a flood of relief when it was someone else who finally stepped up.

Good Data / Screwy Data
When our class would do a lab, he would shuffle from table to table, checking on our progress.  If things were going well, he would approve by saying "Good data!"  If you had made some sort of mistake, his response was always "Screwy data!"  I learned to appreciate the complement that was "good data" and I was determined to avoid "screwy data."  Such is the life of a kid that gets positive reinforcement by academic success.

The desire to achieve "good data" overrode my reticence to try new things in front of an audience.  I have to admit that lab and hands-on courses terrified me at that time for that very reason.  I would very much prefer to try things out without others nearby to witness potential failure or - even worse - see that I did not quite understand what was going on.

Stepping Up
Stepping up and doing what seems like the right thing always sounds so easy when we say it.  But, if it is really all that easy, why don't we do it more often?  A big part of it is because you and I are all too worried about what others will see and think about us.

Happily, I have changed a bit since middle school.  Sadly, I still lose the battle with myself to do the right thing too often.  But, as far as I am concerned, hearing the words "screwy data" even once is too many.

And so, I find that I try to push myself a bit every day to stand up for someone else just so I can hear Mr. Rasmussen say "Good data" in my head.  Sometimes I do something small like writing a blog that addresses difficult things.  On other days, I speak up when I hear someone say something that is cruel or inappropriate.  I wear a mask and give people space because I want them to stay healthy.  Once in a while, I'll stop the truck and help someone at the side of the road who needs it.  There are times when I volunteer to do something to help someone else - even if it isn't something I want to do.

And here's to you Mr. Rasmussen!  Thank you for stepping up.
That's good data.

Pollinator Week?

This year, national Pollinator Week was 'celebrated' June 22-June 28.  And, perhaps some of you noticed posts in the social media or maybe there was a mention in your news outlet of choice.  But, if you looked more closely, you might find that those who were yelling loudest about pollinator week this year were those businesses that do the most to harm our pollinator populations.  Foremost among them is Bayer Corp with a "Blue Ribbon Bee Keeper Award" and a seed giveaway.

Do not confuse 'pollinator' with honey bees... honey bees are only one kind of pollinator!

Who Do We Trust With Pollinator News?
Bayer was among the forerunners of companies that researched the development of neonicotinoid insecticides, which have been shown to harm pollinators of all types (this link is from the Xerces Society, whom I trust to provide balanced and factual resources).  In fact, the Xerces Society provides a searchable database for research regarding the dangers of pesticides for invertebrates.

What does Bayer do?  They provide this little web page giving lip service to bee health.  Essentially, Bayer makes a claim that their products are necessary and that neonicotinoids do not harm pollinators... well.. just honey bees actually.  Read what they have there and notice that they provide a link on the words "research shows."  It's the only link in the text.  And where does it go?

To a website hosted by an organization that is sponsored by Bayer, Syngenta, etc etc.   And it does NOT go directly to any research.  THIS is why you bother to check out your resources and why you bother to read things carefully.  Otherwise, you might begin to believe that Bayer really does care about pollinators.

Why is this lawn overgrown?

Why National Pollinator Week Wasn't Viable This Year
Most organizations that are truly concerned about pollinator health have backed off of promoting the national 'pollinator week' for two reasons.

1. The national week has been co-opted by companies like Bayer.
2. Most organizations who are truly concerned about pollinator health were concerned that there were other important things going on that needed national attention during the scheduled week.  Things like Black Lives Matter and the Covid 19 pandemic.

The good news here is that organizations who truly promote pollinators realize a national week isn't really all that important when it comes to the effort to protect them.  What the national week did was give a nod that it's a big enough issue to get a little recognition.  It's more than recognition that the pollinators need.

Here is some of what is in that overgrown lawn

What Matters Is What YOU Do
I have heard the argument that large businesses and people with the most money and power have so much control that it doesn't matter what each of us does in the grand scheme of things.  Ok, I'll grant you that I don't have much power in this world on my own.  But, I have enough power to make a difference.

On our fifteen acre farm, we have habitat for a significant number of invertebrates of all types.  We have two honey bee hives.  We know we have orchard bees and bumble bees and Monarch butterflies and hummingbirds.

We leave parts of our lawn unmowed so the clover can bloom and the critters can eat.  Then, we mow it down so we can get another bloom later in the year.  We plant flowers that provide a food source for pollinators and we try our best to have a bloom period that lasts as long as we can get it.  We let the dandelions bloom.  We don't try to tame every square inch of our farm.  And, we keep learning and doing our best to change as we figure things out.

What we do matters to the tens of thousands of creatures that live on the Genuine Faux Farm or pass through here.  If we do our part here and you do your part where you are, we can make a difference.  And, if we actually take the time to start pushing for real changes that will support pollinators world-wide, we might be surprised how things will turn out.

Anti-Weather Machine

As odd as it might sound to some of our farmer friends who live elsewhere in the state, the last truly dry period of weather we had during the growing season that caused us any concern was in 2012.  It was during that season that rainshowers and storms dried up as they approached or they simply split and traveled on either side.  We claimed this was the work of a fictional(?) anti-weather machine.

We are not terribly dry right now, so there really isn't a parallel with 2012 here.  But, we did get to see the anti-weather machine at work yesterday as we watched not one, not two, but three systems (mostly) avoid the farm with one splitting roughly in half and going on either side of us.

We saw the first one heading our way from the North in the morning and noticed some fantastic shelf clouds heading our way.  I wanted to grab the camera, but preparing for what looked like a bit of a poof of wind was more important at the time.  Once those things were done, I was able to go get the camera and see what I could see.

From a picture taking perspective, we missed getting the cool shots of the shelf cloud approaching the farm.  But, we still were able to take interesting pictures.

It is amazing how dark everything gets when the clouds are overhead, especially considering the day had started out as a bright and sunny one.   Since I am not particularly good at quickly changing settings on the camera, there were numerous photos I thought were going to be good that did not turn out well.  It has a great deal to do with all of the lighting challenges that come with this sort of weather.  It rarely seems that the pictures do the actual storm justice.

Perhaps the only shot that really shows how this storm felt highlights fingers on the leading edge of the storm.  These appeared only briefly and I was able to catch them with the appropriate background to show their structure. 

I did all that and then got inside before it started to drip on us.  It was only a minute or so of light rain for us.  But, a mile or so to our East saw some heavy rain.

Caught My Eye

We got the camera out the other day to do some recording for the farm, and then I found myself taking other pictures of things that just caught my eye.  So, why not share?
 

Feeling Lucky?

 Do you see what I see here?  They called my name, but instead of picking them, I just took a picture.  I suspect they appreciated this approach to catching luck better than the traditional approach of picking them and pressing them in a dictionary or other large tome.  See if you can find all of the four-leaf clovers in the picture!

Anything to get away from the gnats and skeeters

The Inspector and Soup have been finding all kinds of different places to go to get out of the sun.  But, more importantly, they have been trying to get away from the nasty bugs.  This time around, I found Inspector in the grass catcher trailer.  I'm not sure that I thought it would be a great place on such a hot day, but he didn't seem to want to leave it either.

The good news is that we have noted a steep decline in the gnats over the last two days.  What a relief!

A bit of the blues.

 One of the next phases for the house is to paint the windows.  We had some blue that was used for trim on the outbuildings, so we thought we would try it and see how it went on.  It is a bit brighter than we want, but ti also doesn't look all that bad with the trim color.  We did go and get some paint that was color matched to this trim - that should speed painting up if I don't have to cut in around the trim as well as on the windows.

Lilypalooza begins!

 It is a good thing when the Buffalo Gnats disappear and the day lilies begin to bloom.  It would be even better if we could clean up some of the flower beds!

Pollinator food!

The clover is beginning to get to a point where we will mow it down to encourage a new flush of flowers later in the season.  But, it has been quite a bloom over the past few weeks!
 

Elderberries all over!

And we're noticing more and more Elderberry bushes on the farm along the edges.  We really don't mind them, so we tend to let them be.  I am not sure about this one, since it is growing right next to a building.  Since it is the Poultry Pavilion, it has a pretty good chance of being left alone.
 

Cloud Watching

 There have been some very interesting clouds over the past few days.  On Saturday we had no less than three systems with shelf-clouds go rolling over us and by.  We didn't get much rain or wind.  The nasty stuff actually went around us this time.  We're grateful - but sorry for those who got to feel the brunt of it.

More Monarchs on the way

And, we have had a wonderful hatching of Monarch butterflies on the farm.  They like to float around in the understory of our larger trees at the end of the day looking for roosts.  I know we would be happy to have many more of these butterflies, so here's hoping they have a good remainder of the summer at the farm.

Ree-chard!

We have had a pretty good year for birds on the farm and we are certainly hopeful that it will continue.  Of course, we are about to enter the season where fields around us will be sprayed with insecticides and fungicides and we know full well that it does not help our local bird populations.

That said, I didn't want this post to be entirely about that.  While I do want you to care about the over use and improper use of agricultural chemicals, I would rather you understand the value of some of the things that are threatened when we don't recognize that pesticides are dangerous tools that require extreme caution.

One of our pleasant surprises this year has been the contingent of Dickcissels that have decided our farm is a good place to nest this year.  We realize that we have had Dickcissels other years on the farm.  But, unlike many birds, Dickcissels do not go back to the same nesting sites year after year.  Depending on weather and available food, they may opt for one site over another each season.

This year, the Genuine Faux Farm is a good place for Ree-chard!  Yes, we call them "Richard," but we try to make it sound like a French pronunciation.  And, just in case my former college French professor every reads this.. No, my very bad American accent had not improved.  So, yes, it is true that it does not actually sound very French when I say it.

Click on the picture to see a larger version!

Reechard is not terribly shy, but he does like his physical distancing!  We have identified at least three male Dickcissels that reside on the farm and they love to find the tallest part of our younger trees or bushes so they can make their song heard.  The Youtube video below provides you with the song we hear most of the time when they find these prominent perches.

If you go to the Audubon Online Field Guide for the Dickcissel, you will find that they provide a quick sample of each of the several songs our friend(s) named Reechard will sing for us.  Just take the link I have provided and scroll down and look at the bottom left where it says "songs and calls."  Song #1 is what we hear most of the time.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, as always, has additional information for bird identification, including photos and videos.  If you would like to learn more about any bird, we highly recommend their site.  Allow yourself to dig around a bit and I think you'll be surprised by how much you find there. 

And, just another note regarding our friends named Reechard.  We had some stormy weather pass through today.  We noticed that their songs stopped just prior to the point that we started noticing lightning.  We're pretty good at recognizing when the weather is going to turn, but they just might have a leg up on us.

And, yes, we did get everything closed up and inside before we got completely soaked.  Let's just say we were 'lightly soaked' and call it a day. Have a good Friday everyone!

Merry-Go-Round

In early July, the daily chore list can get pretty long.  It's a good thing we have more hours of sunlight to do them in!  We had someone ask us to write a post about what it meant to "do the chores" at our farm.  As with every farm, the chore list has a great deal to do with the time of year and the way the farm goes about business.  For our purposes, we decided a chore was something we absolutely have to do every day or every other day, without fail.  That means things like, weeding, harvesting, planting, mowing, mulching... well, you get the picture... these things don't qualify.  We may do them most days, but it is rarely the same place or the same crop.  We also eliminated things like laundry and cleaning harvest containers.  These are done regularly as well, but I'm not sure we'll impress anyone by including them here.

And, you know us, we're ALL about impressing people.  Yep.

Step 1: Care for the Farm Supervisory Staff
You know what they say - if management ain't happy...

The Inspector will make sure that Step 1 is completed prior to any other task.

The cats (both indoor and out) need to have the ritual of food, water and some nice skritches for the day to start off right.  We have learned, much to our chagrin, that it is not a good thing at all if we skip step 1.

The Inspector will lead you to the location for food and water if you appear lost.

Step 2: Open It All Up
Most of the tools are in buildings.  There are plants in buildings.  If you want to do any work on the farm, you have to start.. er...   Ok, you start by caring for the felines.  But, if you want to start doing work, you have to open some things up.

We'll need some food for the poultry, I suspect it is in here.

Typically, we'll open a series of doors and leave them open for most of the day unless the weather is inclement or there is something we are hiding from the farm supervisors.

We'd better get Eden and Valhalla opened up too!

While we are at it, we have to make sure the plants in the high tunnels don't get to warm.  That usually means we open up doors and roll up the sides.  There are two high tunnels to open.  On a regular basis we run irrigation in the high tunnels (every 3 or 4 days).

Casa Verde needs to be opened up as well if there are plants inside!

Sometimes, we actually do a quick run around and let the various flocks of poultry out even before we provide them with fresh food and water.  This is especially true on very warm days/nights.

Interlude 1: Say Hello to the Workers
The bee hives are on the way to some of our next tasks, so we often stop for a moment and say hello. 

The bees usually are too busy humming a tune to return the greeting.

Step 3: Feed and Water Birds
This can often be the largest part of our chores, especially in early June when we have two flocks of broilers, two hen flocks, turkeys and a new batch of broiler chicks.

There be new broiler chicks on the farm!

Each flock is going to need food and water each day.  Well, ok, most days.  Sometimes, new chicks don't go through all of their water in a day and sometimes if there are lots of puddles, the other flocks may not drink the waterers down.

My, the turklets have grown into Turkles!

The birds currently in the brooder room are the turkeys and the broiler chicks.  The room is kept warm and we work to cut breezes until true feathers are forming.  As they grow we might start to ventilate the room more until we move them out.  We check how spread out the flocks are listen for problems - making adjustments as needed.

The henlets are next door.

The henlets (our new egg laying flock) are getting closer to full hen size.  At present, they stay inside the hen room in the Poultry Pavilion as part of the process of getting them to identify this room as their 'Home Base.'  In a couple of days, they will be allowed out into their pasture area.  As with all the other flocks, they need food and they need water.  Once we start letting them onto pasture, we will be opening and closing their room door so they are protected at night and have access to the outdoors during the day.

ah, the Summer Cottage is near Crazy Maurice right now

The hens are out in the Northwest Territories of the farm and are closed up in the Summer Cottage until we go open the door and put up their access ramp.  Obviously, we give them food and water - usually before we let them out so we don't have to dodge birds as we do it.  We normally make a first check for eggs at this time too.

Then, there are the Boyus!

We have two flocks of "Boyus" in the Eastfarthing and they both need to be let out, fed and watered.  On an every other day basis (unless it is way too wet to do so) we move the buildings using Rosie, the tractor so they rest over a new patch of pasture.  Every couple of weeks, we have to reset the solar-powered poultry netting, which includes mowing the greenery down so it doesn't short the fence out.

Step 4: Wet Our Plants
Hey, the plant nurseries of the world get to use that pun all the time, but we also water plants, so we should get to use it if we want!

We have houseplants and flowers on the front and back porches

The potted plants usually need water every other day, unless it is particularly hot and windy, they we'll water each day.  They have enough soil to be somewhat forgiving.

There are fewer trays right now, but they still need water.

The plants in seedling trays need watering in the morning as well.  Earlier in the season, we have them in Casa Verde, in the trailer you see above, on a hayrack and on heatmats in the garage and basement.  These all need watering.  Since they have less soil, they are prone to drying out - so we need to pay attention here!

Interlude 2: Admire a Flower
We have flowers here and there, just so we can take a moment and view them as we go about our daily business.  This daylily opened its first flower for us at the Genuine Faux Farm. 

Ain't it purdy?

At this point, we are done with what we might term the 'morning chores.'  There are numerous other things that might happen during the morning chore set depending on how things stand, but they tend to have something to do with these tasks.

In other words, we can start doing "real work" now.
That might be Rob working for PAN or Tammy working for Wartburg.  Or we might plant, weed, harvest, mulch, turn a compost pile or clean out a poultry room.  Perhaps we'll prepare for a delivery?  The possibilities for the day abound!

Until...

Mid to Late Morning Chores
Well, whatever we decide to do, at some point we need to do a few things that are classified as 'chores.'

Like collect eggs from the hens.

Sadly, we have yet to figure out how to train the hen flocks in collecting, cleaning and packaging eggs.  We get to do that particular chore.  And, if we don't want them to break a bunch of those eggs, we need to visit them more than once in a day.

While we're at it, we'll check the babies.

And, if you have baby birds, you need to check them fairly often as well to make sure temperatures are what they need.  It doesn't take long, but it is just one more thing...

Oh, and about that irrigation you started this morning.  You probably should turn that off.

Oh, and don't forget to water the seed trays in Valhalla too!

Mid-Afternoon Chores
There are common themes here.  Collect eggs, check baby birds and other similar things.

Haven't we seen this picture before?

But, we also have to add - wash the eggs to this list.  It's a chore - that's for sure!

And yes, you should check all of the flocks on a warm day to make sure they've got water and see that there aren't other things going on that need your attention.  And, remember those seedlings in trays?  They might need more water by now!

Baby plants need water, that's a fact.

Early Evening Pre-Chore
So, about those broiler chickens....

Yeah.  These guys.

It turns out that they LIKE to be where their food is.  We take their feeders out of the building every morning and fill them and we put them BACK into the building every evening to encourage them to find their way into the building by the time the sun goes down.  A waterer usually goes in as well.

Why?  Well, we've found that most of the birds will go in without our doing this.  But, when we do put this step in, all but one or two will go into the building without our herding them later in the evening.  Believe me, it's a worthwhile chore to move those feeders now!

End of the Day - Put It Away

Barty and Rosie at the end of a busy day.

We admit that there have been days when we are really tired and there is absolutely no rain in the forecast that we might forego putting some things away.  This is especially true when Barty (the tiller) is on the other side of the farm.  But, most days, all the tools go back under shelter.  Sadly, we are not always so good as to put everything back into its place.  That is another story.

End of the Day - Close it Up
All of those opened doors need to be closed. 

Remember all of the doors you opened in the morning?

 And the high tunnels need to be closed as well.

Time to roll down the sides and close the doors.

We've considered leaving the high tunnels open on very warm nights, but we don't particularly care for dashing out to close them at 2 AM when a thunderstorm with strong winds pops up.  Others can worry about that.  Us, on the other hand?  We'll close them up every night.

Oh!  Better remember that too!

End of the Day - Shut It Down

We have learned the hard way that we need to check that all water sources are turned off.  Irrigation that runs for twelve to fourteen hours is not a good thing.

Ah, good the hydrant at the left is off.

We have two hydrants by Valhalla, one by Casa Verde and the faucet on the north side of the house.  It may not sound like much, but by the time we are doing our final chores, it is 9:30PM in June and July.  We're usually pretty tired and find ourselves reminding each other to do things like "check truck windows" and "make sure the door is closed" and "did I turn off the water?"  It is far better than climbing into bed and remembering one of these was not done.... and then going out to do it.

The henlets are fine.

While we are at it, we need to turn off lights for the henlets and give them one last check in.

And turn off lights and check the brooder room too!

 And, while you're at it.  You should probably put the cat food bowls away so the raccoons don't wreak havoc because they've found them!

The Inspector will expect to see you again in the morning.

End of the Day - Close Up the Poultry

Oh yes, now we need to close the door on the broilers and the hen flock.  

Most of the broilers are in their building by 9:25PM

Broilers are a bit of a pain to herd, so if you can get them to go in on their own, that is best.  Even then, there is usually one or two that will make you walk them around the building a few times before they go in.  With two flocks of broilers, this chore is a times 2.  Just like it was in the morning.

Good night Ladies (and Maurice)

The hens are usually in by 9:30pm (or so).  There are often a couple that meander around a bit while you wait for them to go in so you can close the door.  

There is usually a moment of 'reviewing it all' in hopes that we don't forget anything and we aren't forced to get up in the middle of the night to correct something.  We realize some of these things don't sound like much.  But, if you forget them, you can have a fairly big problem later on.  

Good Night Everyone!

If the farmers have the energy - and sometimes even when they don't - they say "Good night" to all of their friends and acquaintances as they see them during the evening walkabout to do chores.

Even the Barn Swallows are mellowing out.

The Barn Swallows are not chittering or performing their aerial acrobatics, but they are preening before finding their roosts.  A Great Horned Owl reminds us he's in the area with his call.  Richard, the Dickcissel gets one more series of songs in before calling it a day.  The monarchs float around the understory of the larger trees until they find their spots.  Meanwhile, the lightning bugs come out and light our way back from closing up the hens.

And the Inspector drops by for one more skritch and offers up a friendly purr.

We hope everyone has (or has had) a fine day.