Snowflake Images

I saw this article on http://spaceweather.com/
Beautiful, aren't they!

SNOW FLAKES: The industrial district of Marl, Germany, isn't known for its natural beauty or outdoor photo-ops. But maybe that's because people just haven't been looking closely enough. On Dec. 18th, resident Martina Borchert discovered this scene in her own backyard:

"These crystals landed on top of a rusty old bird feeder," she says. "Normally they would have melted instantly, but the temperature outside was -4 C, and that gave me time to arrange a photo shoot using my Canon EOS 350D and a 60mm macro lens. Two hours and one cold nose later, I stored more than 800 snapshots on my hard drive!" Here is a selection of the best: #1, #2, #3, #4

circumhorizontal arcs

A friend sent me these pictures of a beautiful rainbow phenomena that happened here on June 6, 2006. This one was taken Just over the Idaho border:
Here's a link to the other image:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/chaim8a.htm
This one was taken from downtown Spokane.

It made National Geographic news! You can read more about it here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-rainbow-fire.html

It's Nice to Have Help Raking Leaves!

Around our house, one of the most fun of all chores is the annual raking of the leaves. Of course it usually takes 4 times longer than it should because of all the help we get! ...That will make sense when you watch this:

Spring Fats/ Fall Fats

This is an extremely good article!
http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100245164
I'll quote part of it here:

"While researching a book on omega-3s, I realized that the essential fats—the omega-3s and their close cousins, the omega-6s—change with the seasons. It might sound like a small idea, but it may soon fundamentally change the way you think about food.
First, let's start with omega-3s, what I'll call the spring fats. These are likely the most abundant fats in the world, but they don't originate in fish, as many believe. Rather, they are found in the green leaves of plants. Fish are full of omega-3s because they eat phytoplankton (the microscopic green plants of the ocean) and seaweed. In plants, these special fatty acids help turn sunlight into sugars, the basis of life on Earth. The spring fats speed up metabolism. They are fats that animals (humans included) use to get ready for times of activity, like the mating season. They're found in the highest concentrations in all the most active tissues: brains, eyes, hearts, the tails of sperm, the flight muscles of hummingbirds. Because fish have so many of these fats in their diets, they can be active in cold, dark waters. These fats protect our brains from neurological disorders and enable our hearts to beat billions of times without incident. But they are vanishing from our diet, and you'll soon understand why.
Next up are the omega-6s, what I'll call the fall fats. They originate in plants as well, but in the seeds of plants rather than the leaves. The fall fats are simply storage fats for plants. Animals require both—omega-3s and omega-6s—in their diets and their tissues. But omega-6s are slower and stiffer than omega-3s. Plus, they promote blood clotting and inflammation, the underlying causes of many diseases, including heart disease and arthritis. Omega-3s, on the other hand, promote blood flow and very little inflammation, which may prevent things like heart disease. The proper mix of these two fats helps create tissue with the right amount of blood flow and inflammation. But because they're in constant competition to enter our cells, if your diet consists of too many omega-6s, your body will be deficient in omega-3s. And that is what's been happening to us as we've been eating more and more seed fats in the form of soybean, corn and other vegetable oils."

Continuing with this line of thought...
The notion of seasonal foods is certainly not new. Cycles and seasons have been celebrated and honored throughout the ages. It is only recently that we have forgotten why. Globalization has made any food available at any time, anywhere on Earth. Our modern heated houses mean our bodies are no longer stressed in the winter cold and so no longer burn winter fat. We have quite effectively removed the seasonal cycles from our lives and our bodies suffer the consequences. Artificial lighting has disrupted day/night cycles creating a sleeping disorder pandemic, lighting also interferes with lunar/menstrual cycles in women, and the seasonal lengthening and shortening of the days is obscured by modern artificial lighting. Chickens will lay eggs all year, cutting their life span in half as a result. In humans, it contributes to the growing (pun intended) obesity pandemic and high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, ...
How much healthier would we be if we simply brought our bodies back into the natural rhythms of nature?

Harvest is in

My mom just sent us a box of home canning that she had done this year. It was like Christmas in October! There were 2 jars of beans that were broken, but all the rest were fine and are very much loved and appreciated. Her pepper jelly is beautiful! I am so glad to get a jar for the holidays. I was going to make some but that was one of the things I just didn't get around to doing. We had a cold snap down to 18, so it killed our fall colors this year. We are so sad. :(
I brought in a ton of green tomatoes and have them all in the basement. I managed to grow a good many beans despite the late start and... I wonder ... the freeze hit before the beans were dry on the vines, so I brought in the beans I had for seed and hung them to go ahead and finish drying,.. as long as they look mature and black when they are dry, they should be ok as seed, right? A gardening friend gave me an All American Pressure Canner. (what a gift!) I didn't have enough beans to bother canning this year, but I'll hopefully get a better start next year. I did make a few pickles and some canned tomatoes with vegetables. I've already used over half the tomatoes though! *giggle* I add tomato paste and meat and have spaghetti sauce, or add it to Spanish rice mix for a hearty Spanish rice, or use it as soup base, or add meat and chili powder and make chili. I didn't make jelly this year, but we still have plenty from last year, so we're set on jelly. We harvested all the herbs and have them drying all over the kitchen. We had seven good size pumpkins, and a friend of ours gave us eight butternuts.



OH! I grew Ruby Queen corn- everyone agreed it was the Best corn they had ever tasted by far. It wasn't a bumper year, but I didn't do too bad, all things considered.

Chickens, Ducks, and Wolves... oh my!

Many critters have come and gone since my last post... er... the one before the 2 quail posts, that is. Back then I had chickens, so that's where I need to begin. As I feared, my family and neighbors were not fond of constant chicken chatter. These were some exceptionally noisy chickens. I honestly think a rooster would have been quieter! Warning- set your volume low before watching this one!



So I had to find them a new home. As luck would have it, a very nice couple from a farm in Rosalia (a small town to the south) came to pick them up. They have about an acre fenced off for their flock of chickens, they told me, with lots of grass and bushes and a small pond- sounds like chicken heaven!
So I have flat given up on the idea of chickens. But I have not given up on the idea of eggs! As you can see from my quail posts, there are other egg options out there for urban egg production. I found a source for quail, but we need to make an enclosure for them first. But we still had the chicken pen and barn....so I thought, Ducks! Like quail eggs, duck eggs beat chicken eggs for nutrition. So we bought a few ducks off of Craigslist to try them out. I had read that khaki Campbell ducks lay more eggs than any chicken breed- almost 300 a year! And that's without light supplementation! So I decided to get a few. Nope, not for me. They were as noisy as chickens! So they went. I had read that khaki's were developed from runner ducks, another type that lay 300 eggs a year, so we tried a black runner female. We had also gotten some Cayuga Ducks. These have since become my absolute favorite! They are exquisite! And they are Quiet! The runner was a bit noisier, but not too bad.
Now... unfortunately we learned the hard way that an Arctic wolf though not all that interested in a chicken is terribly interested in a duck!!! One day I had the ducks out of their pen in the backyard. The dogs were inside, the back door was locked. ... Or so I thought. Orio opened the door when no one was looking and went out in the yard to play. It didn't take him long to find that a duck made a great toy. I went outside to find him trotting across the yard with a dead duck in his mouth. He saw me and came prancing over to me to ask me to throw it for him. I fell to pieces! It was the Cayuga female! All I could do was just hold her and cry. Don made sure Orio knew he had screwed up royally! Afterwards I wouldn't talk to Orio for 2 days. But as if that weren't enough, about a week later, tragedy struck again. The ducks were put away in their pen, the dogs were out. No one was looking. Suddenly Dori came running to the door yipping and barking to tell us Orion was getting into trouble. No one realized that our Arctic wolf had had a taste of his natural food source and decided that was what he wanted for dinner. He plowed his way under the gate to the duck pen and killed my remaining 2 ducks! Luckily I only had 2 at the time, the Cayuga drake, and the runner. I was so furious I came frighteningly close to killing him!
So Don is going to rebuild the duck pen for me. It will be taller, thicker wire, and he will run it underground and fan it out so that if Orio tries to dig under it, he'll hit wire. Nothing is entirely wolf-proof, but we can at least slow him down enough that we can catch him before he gets too far. I now have 3 pairs of show quality Cayugas. They are absolutely beautiful! No way is that wolf going to get any more of my ducks!!!

Raising Quail

I found a very informative article on raising quail!
Click Here
From Backwoods Home Magazine which I highly recommend! Housing requirements, feeding, nutritional values of the birds, nutritional values of the eggs, great article!!

Quail Eggs- Perfect food?

I have still been researching the best critters for producing eggs. When I thought of quail I immediately hit the internet to find out if this might be a good idea. I ran across this article about the nutrition in quail eggs:
http://geniuscook.com/quail-eggs/

"Quail eggs are small speckled pearls that nature gives us. Since ancient times, this delicacy has been prized as a dietary and healing food. While quail eggs are so small (10-12 g), they are packed with many biologically active substances we need to be healthy. They are an abundant source of useful trace elements and vitamins. Their nutritional value is 3-4 times higher than that of chicken eggs. They contain 13% proteins while chicken eggs provide a bit more than 11%. Quail eggs contain 140 μg vitamin B1 compared to 50 μg in chicken eggs, and they contain twice as much vitamins A and B2. And quail eggs provide five times as much iron and potassium as chicken eggs. They also are richer in phosphorus and calcium.

Due to their amazing content, quail eggs are considered as a dietary food. The thing is quail eggs do not have “bad” cholesterol (LDL) and are very rich in “good” (HDL) cholesterol, so even seniors can eat them. Unlike chicken eggs, they do not cause allergy and diathesis. What’s more, they can help fight allergy symptoms due to the ovomucoid protein that is even used in the production of some antiallergic drugs. Regular consumption of quail eggs can help against many diseases.
Health Benefits of Quail Eggs

Quail eggs:

* are a remedy against digestive tract disorders such as gastritis, stomach ulcer and duodenal ulcer.
* can help cure anemia increasing hemoglobin level and remove toxins and heavy metals from blood.
* help in the treatment of tuberculosis, bronchial asthma, diabetes and vegetative-vascular dystonia.
* have strong anticancer effects and may help inhibit cancerous growth.
* help eliminate and remove stones from liver, kidneys and gallbladder.
* may accelerate recuperation after blood stroke and help strengthen heart muscle.
* are a powerful stimulant of sexual potency. They nourish the prostrate gland with useful substances, phosphorus, proteins and vitamins and therefore help restore sexual potency in men.
* promote good memory, enhance brain activity and regulate the nervous system.
* strengthen the immune system slow down aging of organs and increase the life span.
* improve skin color and strengthen hair making it shiny and voluminous. That’s why quail eggs are used for facial and hair care masks.

If kids eat at least 2 quail eggs daily, they grow better and are less likely to suffer from infectious diseases."

With a nutrition resume like this it is worth some serious consideration!!! I know quail are easy to raise and don't take up much space, are pretty quiet, don't stink, ... hmmm.... I might be on to something!

A Zorse is a Zorse... of Course!

I have seen zebra/ horse crosses before, but this one is just stunning! Meet Eclyse!


More Eclyse Pictures
More info and pictures here

Eclyse the Zorse - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Summer 2009 Part 3

Summer brings lots and lots of summer squash. Good old fashioned crook neck is one of my favorites. I didn't get any seeds planted, but I bought a few starts at our local garden store and now have plenty for us, the dogs, and the chickens!




The garlic is in bloom now. They have such neat-looking flowers.






The corn and pumpkins are looking great! They grow so well together! The corn is much darker green this year with it growing in the pumpkin vines. I'm convinced! This is a great way to grown them both! Another great trick from our Cherokee ancestors!
















Here's a beautiful pumpkin blossom.









This is a little rubel blueberry that had something happen to it during shipment. We thought for sure it was dead. But it looks like it is going to make it! I must say though that the rest of the blueberries we got from Hartmann's were the best plants I have ever received in the mail! Actually, they were even better than a lot of plants I see at nurseries! I will definitely be shopping with them in the future!


Here's the blackberries I still have not planted, sitting on the back patio. I may keep them in the shed over winter and plant them next spring. They have grown enough this year that maybe we'll get a few berries next year! I hope so! :)




The strawberries are producing like crazy already. We're getting 8 or so a day. Yay for strawberries!
It won't be long before we can make strawberry cake, strawberry ice-cream, strawberry jam, strawberry sauce for cheesecake. Yummy!

New Chickens!

Now that I am pretty sure I have a good setup for the chicken coop and yard to keep "Big Nose" out of my eggs, I decided to get chickens again. After searching for a week or two I found a lady who needed a good home for her flock that she had rescued along with some other animals from an abusive situation. I had to do a bit of research to find out what kind of chickens they are. I think I have decided that they are Wyandottes. There are a Black, a Golden-Laced, and 5 Columbian, one of which is a rooster. Well, being in town, dot dot dot, no rooster, so I had to find him a home. Luckily it didn't take long. There was a catch. This rooster is sterile! I have a couple of friends out in the country that have chickens, so I called around. I thought it might be hard to find a home for a sterile rooster, but I got lucky! One of my friends said that she didn't need a rooster, but she has a friend with some laying hens including some younger hens she was raising up. She had lost one the other day to a hawk and was desperately looking for a rooster to protect the flock. She did NOT want fertile eggs, just eating eggs- so this rooster was PERFECT! And as luck would further have it, my friend was already in town and volunteered to drop by and pick up the rooster for her other friend. The only sad part was I never got a picture of him. :(
The hens have spent the last couple of days getting used to their new coop and yard. Today I let them out into the whole backyard and they have been all over the place checking everything out. I have a ton of pictures! Click a picture to see it larger. Enjoy!

Summer 2009 Part 2

So... where was I? Ah yes, holy cabbage. Ok, so slugs aside, everything else seems to be doing great! I have several kinds of tomatoes as usual, this year I have Grape, Early Girl, Brandywine, and a Russian Black. I have lots of green tomatoes out there, so it won't be long till I have fresh tomatoes!












I also have several kinds of peppers. I have purple, yellow and red bells, and cherry. I've picked a few already and there's lots more up and coming.









In the salad department we have enjoyed red leaf and romaine lettuce, but it is going to seed now, so it's time to plant more.










We have lots of onions and some garlic that is just beginning to make heads.









We have no shortage of violas that have blanketed all the free space in the garden. What a splash they make in fresh salads!











Our comfrey has really taken off this year! This versatile medicinal plant is certainly a welcome sight in the garden.











There's still more to report, so it looks like I'll be posting part 3! Stay tuned!

Summer 2009

I can't believe it has been so long since I made a post to this blog! Has it really been this long?! I suppose so, since so much has happened. I was so late getting my garden in this year that I came close to not planting one at all. But now I am so glad I did! Everything is coming along nicely. :) The fruit trees are doing well, not much in the way of fruit this year, but they are growing like weeds! We do have a few pears and a couple of apricots.









We planted blueberries this spring and actually grew a couple dozen berries.










We also bought 50 Tristar strawberries which are doing well and are already producing berries! That's Tristar for ya! :)









Not everything is growing as well as I would like. My chicken powered bug patrol is currently out of commission- I gave my chickens to a friend to keep for me until I was better able to keep Orion from eating all my eggs! So this season I have had a slug problem! Slugs ate my Cherokee beans to the ground! GGGRRRR!!! After replanting the beans and distracting the slugs with a blanket of leaves from the box elder tree, I have a couple dozen struggling plants that look like they might make it.










The cabbage has not escaped the slugs either. Holy Cabbage Leaves, Batman!!











There's much more to report, but I'll have to finish later. I'll post part 2 tomorrow! :)