I love seeing old photos side-by-side with new ones of the same area, but this site takes it to a new level. Check out these civil war era photos that fade into current photos. How cool! Be sure to use the sliders, it makes it more real to me.
Category: Pictures
History Fading Away
Posted by Steve On June 25, 2015
The Chicken Chronicles
Posted by Steve On June 16, 2015
Just like yesterday’s post, this one is two weeks in one. I forgot to schedule both of them last week. DUH!
The Welsummers are now about 13 (now) 14 weeks old, and they are FINALLY starting to venture out with the big hens some. Up until this point we have wondered if we made a mistake putting them into the coop with the older hens, and perhaps we did, but now they seem to be coming out of their shell (pardon the pun) a bit. 😀 We are still cornering them by themselves in a separate cage almost daily to give them time in the sun without having to worry about the older hens picking on them.
One of the issues we have had with the Welsummers is that they just roost on top of the nesting boxes instead of the roosting bar. Last night I put a branch in there near the nesting boxes and was happy to see a couple of them on the branch when I opened the door to the run this morning.
The laying is going full steam, and we have been able to bless family and neighbors with several dozen eggs so far. It sure is nice to see the smiles on the faces of folks when you bring them a dozen fresh eggs, especially those who really enjoy them.
Speaking of eggs, the silly Welsummers are roosting on top of the nesting boxes, so there ends up being a mess in the boxes all-too-often. I need to get another roosting pole put in the coop in an effort to prevent this – it’s not happening this week though.
Speaking of chicken projects, I also need to get the roof patched. There are a few leaks, which aren’t causing trouble now, but I sure don’t need them to continue. I doubt I will get to that this week either. And that isn’t it. I have another project I have been putting off for a while, though I will save the details of it until later.
Happenings Around the Homestead
Posted by Steve On June 15, 2015
WEEEEELLL – it helps if you hit the post button. 😀 This week you will get a double update.
It’s been a bit of a slow week around the homestead, at least outside. Inside I have been drying some herbs, both oregano and mint. It might be better to air dry these both outside, but I prefer to use the dehydrator on low (around 95 degrees) because it is consistent. When things are dried outside I have to keep a closer eye on them to ensure pests aren’t getting into the items I am drying, and I have to watch for the rain. I don’t have either of those worries inside.
The oregano I am drying is a nice, strong, True Greek Oregano, whereas the mint is Chocolate Mint (my favorite), Orange Mint, and Spearmint. There is something special, I think, about herbs that have been dried at home. I don’t know whether it is simply knowing where they come from, or if there is a quality difference (I am sure of that, btw), but I sure do like it.
The plants I started last week are all doing well though. I am so hopeful that the sweet potatoes take off and grow well. My biggest concern is the deer. Once they find these plants, they will certainly eat the leaves off of them. They always do. I probably need to get a covering for them as soon as I can to try and keep that risk down a little. I may put the tomato cages over them temporarily until I can get something more appropriate.
I am a little surprised that the brassicas I planted early in the spring haven’t all bolted yet. They are in a part of the yard that gets afternoon shade, so it may be that this is enough to keep them from bolting, but it is also enough to keep them from growing like I want to see them grow. Even so, I don’t mind the plants taking their time as long as they don’t bolt. 🙂
Since I originally wrote this, last week, I have successfully finished drying the mint and the oregano. Today I plan to put Feverfew on the dehydrator.
Perhaps the item of most interest this week is that some of the winter sown plants have just been happily living in their milk jugs since winter. My oldest son has been wanting to plant some things, so I showed him where to move them yesterday. That means I now have Skullcap, German Chamomile, and two types of Echinacea in my raised flower bed. Woot! Here, let me share a picture or two:
One of the new flowers/herbs in my garden, German Chamomile.
My Favorite Fresh Mint: Chocolate Mint
Happenings Around the Homestead
Posted by Steve On June 1, 2015
As I have said in a previous post, I am not planting my garden in full this year. I decided to only plant those things which were already ordered (sweet potatoes and herbs) and some things I had already planted before deciding this (corn, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and garlic). So even though I am not doing a lot this year compared to previous years, I am still planting quite a bit. This weekend I needed to plant some sweet potato slips that arrived a couple of weeks ago, as well as Goldenseal plants.
I must have ordered more sweet potatoes than I remember ordering. I planted 45 slips, 15 each of Beauregard, O’Henry, and Purple Passion. Those are orange, white, and purple sweet potatoes, respectively. Oh, you didn’t know there were different colored sweet potatoes? Yep, and while they taste similar, they do not taste exactly the same. I find the purple sweet potatoes to be more dry and a little less sweet, while the white sweet potatoes are more mild, and actually make a pretty good white potato substitute. Here is a picture of one of the slips I planted:
O’Henry Sweet Potato Slip
The garlic is coming along nicely, and it won’t be too long until it is ready to harvest. It is not all that is doing well though – the mint is growing like wildfire this year. Check out these pictures:
Chocolate Mint – one of my favorites!
Orange Mint
I mentioned the Goldenseal. Check out the roots of this plant! They are so golden in color:
Goldenseal Roots
Here is picture of the leaves.
Goldenseal
I am anxious to see how this grows. It is native to this area, so it should grow well.
New Photo Project
Posted by Steve On May 22, 2015
I’ve mentioned a couple of times lately that I have been working on a new photography lighting project, and today I want to share the first sample from the completed project. The lighting is based somewhat on Kinoflo lights, which are a brand that are used for professional headshot photography. I love the soft light the Kinoflos provide, but I don’t appreciate the expense (thousands of dollars). So I decided to make my own. This headshot is a sample from the completed project:
Headshot Sample
I really like the triangle catchlights in the eyes, but I may be alone in that. I do wonder if I need to tone them down a bit. Anyhow, overall I am very pleased with the project, and looking forward to using the lighting more.
The Chicken Chronicles
Posted by Steve On May 19, 2015
Well, I meant to post this last week, but for some reason I forgot about it. So, you will get last week’s post and an update to last week’s post. 🙂
Another week, another chicken problem. It seems Red has hurt her leg somehow. Red, by the way, is any one of the Rhode Island Reds, as we cannot really tell them apart. Anyhow, we have had to separate her to keep the others from picking on her, and to keep her from trying to go up and down the stairs in the coop. We’re also giving her half a baby aspirin at least two times a day. Right now she is avoiding standing on that foot, but I cannot see anything wrong with it. That leads me to believe she might have sprained it somehow.
In other chicken news, we built a small coop for the babies (the Welsummers) so they can start staying outside all the time. The silly girls wouldn’t go into it the first night though, acting like young kids the first time they try to camp out. 😀 We finally decided to bring them in after listening to crying for an hour. Maybe they will get used to it decide to sleep in it. It won’t be long until it is time to integrate them with the rest of the girls.
We had a good week of laying both weeks, including one day where all of the older birds laid eggs – that hasn’t happened often at all.
This week’s update: Red is doing much better. She is now back in the coop with her sisters, and while she is still favoring her leg, she is much, much better.
Since last week, we have put ankle bracelets on three of the Rhode Island Reds, and amazingly we can now see who rules the roost! There is one of them, tentatively named Pink (because of the pink bracelet) who is obviously at the top of the pecking order, and it seems Blue (you guessed it, a blue bracelet) who seems to be #2). The Easter Eggers seem to not really care either way, but they do recognize Pink’s authority. It’s funny how we could never notice that without some identifier of who was who.
The most exciting news this week, and a far change from what I expected given the update above, is that the babies, the Welsummers, ran into the big girls’ coop one day when they were out running around, and they showed no interest in coming back out. The older ladies are picking on them some, but they seem to be holding their own, so this is where they will stay. 🙂
Happenings Around the Homestead
Posted by Steve On May 4, 2015
How I love this time of year! The weather has just been amazing! The plants are coming out everywhere – I love it!
One of the biggest pieces of news around the homestead this week is the number of apples on the apple trees! I cannot believe this! We have had these trees since we moved in here, and while they have made one or two apples a year, it has been truly pathetic. This year, as you may remember, I pruned them heavily. I can’t say that made all the difference, but I have to believe it made the bulk of the difference. There seems to be hundreds of tiny apples now growing on the trees. Check it out:
Growing Apples
The other big news of the year is my almost-firm decision that I am not going to put out a full garden this year. I have decided that there is wisdom in letting your soil rest periodically, and with us having just converted to a new type of gardening, this is a fine year to let it rest. I have already ordered some plants, and I have already planted some things, so anything that grows from that will be permitted to grow, but we aren’t going to do anything else. Basically, this means we will have garlic, some greens, some popcorn, and sweet potatoes. The rest will be left to rest. (I sure hope we can find someone with plenty of fresh tomatoes this year!)
One of the nice things happening in the garden right now is the portable chicken coop is allowing our chickens to fertilize the garden like mad. 😀 We are moving it around the garden regularly, and they are not only eating any grass that remains there, but they are stirring it up, fertilizing it, and helping to prepare it for next year.
The Chicken Chronicles
Posted by Steve On April 28, 2015
I have to begin this week’s post with some unfortunate news. For those of you who know my wife, I would ask that you not talk about this around her. She is still taking it a bit rough. We lost our first hen last week. Snow White had become egg bound, and to make a long story short, she died from it. Believe me, there is more to it, which is why my wife is not keen on discussing it, but it ws a good lesson for us. In the future any hen who gets egg bound more than a couple of times in their first year of laying will be removed from the flock. It seems this is a strong sign that there is something physically wrong with the hen, which ended up being the problem with Snow White. This is why I want to add one or two birds a year to the flock though.
Speaking of new birds, the Welsummers are coming along nicely, and they are spending most of their days outside now except when the weather is bad. They are loving it. We still haven’t mixed them in with the rest of the flock yet, as we are wanting them to grow some more first. In fact, I hope to make a make-shift small henhouse for them today so they can stay outside more, but still in their own cage.
Egg-laying is coming along nicely, and even with the reduction of one laying bird, we are still keeping up with our typical totals of 49 eggs per week or 5.44 eggs per bird per week. I can’t wait to see that number go up when the Welsummers start laying.
Speaking of the Welsummers, how about a picture?
Aren’t they getting big? It seems we bought them around the first of March, so they are nearing eight weeks old. Lately they have been trying to establish their pecking order – it is almost like watching a bunch of teenage boys. 😀
Happenings Around the Homestead
Posted by Steve On April 27, 2015
While there wasn’t a homestead or a post about the chickens here last week, that doesn’t mean things weren’t happening. As you can imagine, with the temperatures warming up, things are buzzing here.
Speaking of buzzing, that is the first thing of interest today. It seems the native bees, the Blue Orchard Mason Bees, did not decide to make the bee house I put up home. There is no sign of them nesting there at all. This doesn’t mean they aren’t around, they just aren’t there. Even so, there is plenty of bee activity. I think, looking back, I messed up by getting them delivered too late. That’s okay though – you live and learn. I still have one more shipment of native bees coming, and they are set to arrive around May 15th. These are Leafcutter Bees. I’ll post more about them as we get closer.
One thing that has happened in the last couple of weeks is the arrival of my Goldenseal plants. Goldenseal is an herb that is native to the US and widely known for its medicinal properties. One of the really cool things about it is that it grows natively in hardwood (preferably oak) forests in the shade. That makes it a perfect plant for one of the flower gardens here. Let me show a picture of it:
Young Goldenseal Plant
I have already planted three of the six of these I ordered, and the other three are ready to be planted now. I might be able to set them out today.
Regarding the rest of the garden, I am debating letting most of it rest this year. There is more to come on that later.
Happenings Around the Homestead
Posted by Steve On April 13, 2015
Spring is here! Trees are blossoming, flowers are popping up everywhere, and the beautiful Cherry Blossoms have already passed their peak. I love this time of year! However, it also means it is time for the work to begin. In fact, many people have already put out some of their summer vegetables, something I am hoping to get to this weekend (writing this on Saturday). If my schedule works out as planned, I hope to have popcorn and some other vegetables planted this weekend. UPDATE: I did get the popcorn planted, but that was it. I hope I can find the time next weekend to do some more.
Perhaps the most exciting news here at the homestead this week has only indirect ties to gardening though. I am now a beekeeper! Don’t be expecting honey anytime soon though, as I don’t have honeybees. This week my first shipment of native bees, Blue Orchard Mason Bees, arrived! Did you realize that honey bees aren’t even native to the United States? Nope, they were imported to the United States from Europe in the early days of this country. Blue Orchard Mason Bees, however, are native to the US, along with many other bees of which you may have never heard. I’ll be sharing more about this in coming posts, I am sure. 🙂
This doesn’t mean I don’t have an interest in honey bees. I do. However, my primary reason for bees is better pollination, and the native bees are better pollinators than the honey bees. Of course, honey bees have the added benefit of honey. For some reason, this reminds me of the chickens. Let me explain. I often say, jokingly, that I whisper to the birds, “It’s either eggs or meat, your choice.” However, I think the better way to think of chickens is as fertilizer factories that control pests and produce eggs as a side benefit. With the bees, they are primarily pollinators, and if they produce honey, that is a great side benefit.
So, how about a few pictures?
First off, this is the kit:
Mason Bee Kit
Here are the bees right out of the box. They are still groggy, but yet they have all emerged from their cocoons.
Groggy Mason Bees
Here are some nice macro shot of the bees.
Male Blue Orchard Mason Bee
Blue Orchard Mason Bee peering out at me.
Male Blue Orchard Mason Bee preparing to fly.
Male Blue Orchard Mason Bee
Blue Orchard Mason Bee and a good view of the tubes
Female Blue Orchard Mason Bee
Female Blue Orchard Mason Bee
Finally, here is a shot of their new home, which I placed on the eastern side of a tree in our yard. I might move this to a different location next year, but this seemed like a good starting spot.
Mason Bee House
Rest assured, this is not the last you will hear about Mason Bees. 😀 More to come, perhaps even later this week.