Garden Update

Not a big update (had Megan's wedding this weekend, plus worked on truck on Sunday).

Bought a fishing scale to get a decent estimate of harvest.

Picked 20# from the garden on Sunday. YTD: 25#.

"Conventional" Dairy Farm

Sysadmin Bastard From Hell

Garden Update

Picked a couple pounds (est.) of squash, eggplant, and tomatoe today. With previous potatoes, probably at 3 pounds for the year.

Farm Progress

An excellent video from the 1930s through 1950s showing the progress in farm equipment

Killingly Mill Rates

2006 / 2007:
Killingly Town 25.8000
Attawaugan FD 2.8300
Dayville FD 1.8000
Dyer Manor FD 0.4300
E. Killingly FD 2.0000
So. Killingly FD 1.3000
Orient Heights FD 0.5700
Williamsville FD 2.2800
Borough of Danielson 4.4500

There was a re-evaluation in 2007, which means the assesments on properties (generally) go up, so the tax rate goes down to raise the same revenue. The % is the change in the mill rate.
2008/2009:
Killingly Town 17.800 -32%
Attawaugan FD 2.0100 -29%
Dayville FD 1.8000 00%*
Dyer Manor FD 0.4500 +4%
E. Killingly FD 1.1500 -43%
So. Killingly FD 0.9000 -31%
Orient Heights FD 0.4200 -27%
Williamsville FD 2.0000 -13%
Borough of Danielson 3.000 -43%

* With Dayville being a BIG OOPS...they didn't adjust their mill rate to the new grand list. They've already told people to ignore their current tax bills and will issuing new ones.

Garden Update

4/10" of rain on 7/14 (Monday).

I picked about 40 Squash Bug egg masses on Tuesday evening. They are on all the curcubits, but showing a definite preference for the Blue Hubbards. I'm thinking I should put some bark strips by the different squash plants to see if I can catch adults that way.

No recent rabbit damage. There is a rabbit hanging out near the garden, but haven't caught her in the garden -- seems to have learned the lesson.

More Daylillies

Fuck it, I'm voting for T. Boone.

There's an old military axiom that a good plan executed well immediately is better then a perfect plan finished too late. That is true in many areas, and one of our huge national problems today is we have far too many people who want the perfect plan instead of compromising on what is reasonable. Being environmentally responsible and making a profit are not mutually exclusive -- we can exploit our resources rationally. It may mean companies can't make as much money in absolute terms, and it may mean some rare species are allowed to go extinct -- rather then trying to maximize profits or environment, we should grab the big middle ground and progress as a society.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-07-08-t-boone-pickens-plan-wind-energy_N.htm

http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan/

That's the moonshot folks.

In a paragraph:

Let's build a line of windmills across the high great plains that is capable of generating 20% of our nation's electrical need, and take the natural gas now providing that 20% of our electricity and instead use it to power our cars. And have it completed in 10 years.

Ok, yes part of it is T. Boone Pickens wants his tax breaks...and no tax breaks are not good public policy. They interfere with the market in many ways, often unexpectedly and unplanned.

But the government does have a critical, and important, role to play in big infrastructure projects. Ranging from emminent domain powers to build public utility works like power transmission lines, to fast tracking regulatory approvals of new car models using CNG.

I'm an unrepentant supporter of nuclear, but with the combination of high plains winds and the long distance capability of High Voltage DC transmission which can get power to either coast I think you can see wind take over 20% of our energy needs sooner then nuclear could double to 40%. Their environmental footprint is relatively small -- you can still farm and ranch around them for the most part, and certainly they don't pave over large blocks of land like some of the recent solar proposals do.

Other parts of a new energy plan -- from conservation, to plugin hybrids, to domestic oil drilling are important too. Renovation, expansion, and electrification of our railroad network is another big and worthwhile project. Expand nuclear too, selling the coal saved to China, a nation that uses twice as much coal as we do and has only one quarter as much in the ground.

But this is the single, simple, big, bold plan that's both transformative and will goose American manufacturing like nothing we've seen in years. The boom of Reagan's military build up comes to mind, but military spending doesn't leave a lasting economic improvement -- this does by reducing our trade deficit. Suddenly several hundred billion dollars a year going to third world dictators instead is paying wages to Americans in good paying jobs...who in turn are spending it in this nation and saving and investing it too.

It doesn't need government to run the program or finance it. But it does need government help to overcome obstacles, and to make sure regulatory approvals are done fairly but quickly. No matter your politics, this is needed and needed yesterday -- for the economics of it, for the confidence in our future it would suddenly give people, for the tax revenue that's needed to pay down the debt and to pay for future government programs.

Commit to projects like this and rebuilding the railroads on a timeline of 10 years or less and watch a lot of today's market troubles disappear in a few weeks. You hear the President always give the State of Union as, "strong." And truly it is, despite our momentary gloom from time to time. No nation matches us in the combined quality and quantity of agricultural land, our fresh water supplies are inexhaustible, no one has more coal, we have large reserves of natural gas, and new discoveries of fossil and non-fossil fuels like methane hydrate are likely in the coming years. The incredible richness of our lands that we've enjoyed and that have built this nation remain very rich. There are reasons for our malaise today, but there is no reason to be pessimistic about the future.

It's the moonshot. And it's time we start the countdown.

Connecticut Agricultural Value

Playing around with the National Agricultural Statistics Service and some of my other reading recently (for shade tobacco):

2007 Connecticut, Rough numbers, wholesale pricing:
Hay $350/acre
Broadleaf Tobacco $11,712/acre
Shade Tobacco ~$30,000/acre
Sweet Corn $2,160/acre
Tomatoes $6,000/acre
34 Vegetable Mix $2,160/acre

Which is why market gardeners need retail sales or Community Supported Agriculture in order to make it. Even then the market gardens often are combined with other enterprises or off-farm work to make ends meet for a family.

General Garden Updates...

Rabbit damage is under control. I've identified at least three litters from Momma based on their size -- Momma and the other I shot (whose sibling has wised up and moved out of the garden it seems), plus I shot another smaller then those. Saw one real little one earlier this week, not much bigger then a chipmunk. We'll see if she lives long enough to be a big enough target.

Weeds are growing like...weeds.

The Sunflowers & Pole Beans look like a failure, as well as a lot of the bush beans, thanks to rabbit damage. Rabbits even ate the flower buds off the daylillies in the vegetable garden!

Some 'maters bursting from their cage:

Weeds not eaten by the rabbits are doing good:

This corn is a bit short for the variety; the right row is maybe 6" low which isn't bad, but by the left is real short. It's setting tassles, which jives with my notebook that says around the 2nd week in August I should have corn from these.

First Kiwi Gold raspberry of the season. They get sweeter, but I don't mind 'em young :)

Yellow squash is a bit spindly from growing under the row cloth, but seems to be recovering nicely.

It's an eggplant!

Squash Bugs

Today I found the first three adult Squash Bugs in the garden.

I know they've been active for about two weeks, having found a few egg masses like the one in the picture. This evening I covered about 1/2 the curcurbit leaves and removed about a dozen. They take 10 to 14 days to hatch, so if I can cover the whole garden every 7 days it'll help control them.

I'm not sure what to do about the Remay floating row cover next year. The summer squash outgrew the cover before I could use the Blue Hubbards and others as a really good trap crop. However, I found no egg masses after inspecting 1/3rd the summer squash. They definitely preferred the Blue Hubbard & Connecticut Field Pumpkins.

Maybe I'll plant a later row of summer squash under the cover next year? Decisions...decisions...

Daylillies!

Started blooming this week. Here's the first three.
I've long lost the names. This year I'll be dividing them.

Tiger Lillies

(Photos to come...)

I have two distinct plants known locally as Tiger Lillies.

These are a daylily,Hemerocallis fulva, referred to throughout my region as Tiger Lillies:

These are American Tiger Lillies, Lilium superbum. Like other lillies, they're fairly slow growing but as they develop...wow they get big!

Poor Idiots

This is actually an extract from a post I made elsewhere, but I kind of like it:

To go back to colonial days, some of the most fascinating reading can be found in Larned’s History of Windham County. Fascinating for both themes that continue to reverberate today in their parallels, as well as noting what has and has not changed. God bless Google Books (even though I have a recent reprint): http://books.google.com/books?id=g90TAAAAYAAJ
The 1745 murder of a bastard child, from a secret pregnancy, and subsequent execution of Elizabeth Shaw (p. 288);
Dr. Hallowel’s performing an abortion, resulting in the death of the woman, in 1747 and the subsequent trial and jail escape to exile in Rhode Island (bottom p. 362);
Or my favorite, the 1726 issue showing that in nearly 300 years our government bureaucracy is just as inept and politicians just as good at playing hot potatoe — that being the case of the poor idiot Peter Davison. He lived in an area, Mortlake, that was outside of a town’s jurisdiction and who was responsible to pay for his care came to involve at least Pomfret, Norwich, Plainfield, Mansfield, the New London County Court, it was the very first case on the docket when the Windham County Court was established, the General Court, and the Governor & Council. (pages 213, 267, and 344…it was quite a story )

Got the Momma

In the waning daylight got the adult rabbit. 2 Down, I believe 1 to go. The other young one strategically hid under my mom's camp trailer.

That's a cottontail, not sure if it's an Eastern (most common) or New England variety. In Connecticut they have litters from March to fall, normally 2-4 litters of 3-8 each. About 1/8th of the young survive till the next spring on average.

They eat primarily at night, and hide in dense brush during the day. The raspberries in my garden were providing them excellent cover it seems. More info here.

==============
And the classic Duck Rabbit, Duck!

Garden Update

Photos to come later.

-- Tomatoes doing well.

-- Corn doing well.

-- Beans took a big hit from the rabbits, so I'm short on developing bushes.

-- Beans & Sunflowers likewise took a big hit.

-- Potatoes looking good, but I suspect most of them are growing underground instead of in the straw :(. I got the BT San Diego in the mail, really fast shipping! Came in Priority Mail for Saturday. Now, if I just have a few days it looks like it won't rain!

-- I took the row cover off yesterday. Plants were way too crowded underneath it!

-- It's July 1st and the first hybrid daylillie opened!

-- It's also July 1st and I have yet to see a Squash Bug...BUT I found a bronze egg mass today that indicates I have some around! I'll have to plan tomorrow afternoon to spend an hour doing a plant inspection seeking and destroying the eggs.

-- Also need to get the bird netting over the blueberries, and take pictures/document which bushes aren't pollinating so I can order mates for them for next year.

-- Flushed one rabbit, but it went in a direction I couldn't shoot. Will try again later.

First thing I've ever shot.

I used to do a good amount of target shooting when I was young. But I never shot at an animal.

My father, who grew up on a farm, tried to get me to go hunt a rat one day that had hitched a ride home from the dump, but the thought of killing a mammal didn't sit well with me.

Sunday morning I decided the rabbits in the garden needed an acute case of lead poisoning. I haven't had the target rifle out in 10 years, took me four tries on two key rings to find the right key for the trigger lock. Aim was dead on, but I forgot how loud the crack was -- even for a .22 long rifle.

Today I picked up some "sub sonic" ammunition -- you still hear the fire cracker like pop of the cartridge, but the bullet doesn't break the sound barrier so you don't get the sharp crack you normally hear with gun fire. Attracts even less attention from the neighbors, and I'm pretty private anyways since you can't see another house from my yard when the leaves are on the trees.

Connecticut regulations, as I understand them, allow you to kill nuisance small animals that are destroying property -- there isn't a difference between a mouse chewing a hole in a box of rice or a rabbit eating lettuce in the garden. You're also allowed to discharge a firearm within 500' of an occupied building provided you are within 500' of a building you own or lease. So legally I believe I'm covered.
One rabbit down. The other two managed to stay out of view until they got into the woodline and disappeared, so we'll have to revisit them. It's interesting to me to observe their behavior and how quickly I'm devising ways to hunt them in order to drive them in a direction I need to get a clean shot.

I killed the rabbit -- no malice, and no joy from the killing, but satisfied I accomplished it. The equation was simple, they are doing too much damage to my garden and the cost of a proper fence in time and material is more then I can spend right now. The ground is extremely stony which makes stretching a fence very difficult since even T-posts can't just be pounded in. In past years hawks or foxes controlled the rabbits, I don't know why this year the rabbits have led such an unmolested life.

I'm also comfortable knowing my gun shot was no more cruel then the death from a hawk or fox, and likely quicker. It certainly was less stressful then what an animal goes through when caught in a Have-a-Heart trap for hours on end until someone checks it. Have-a-Hearts are for one purpose, so you can release non-target animals if necessary; I strongly disagree with the relocation of most animals, particulary common pests like rabbits. You're relocating your problem to someone else, often animals have no den or hiding place they know of so they become easy prey, people often release animals in the wrong locations -- like woodchucks in the woods where they starve if they're so unlucky as not to quickly become coyote chow, many animals are territorial and will fight with their same species in the area they're released, and it's a vector to spread wildlife diseases like rabies faster then would naturally occur. If an animal is a problem, and it's not a rare species, and you can't easily fence it out...it is perfectly ethical to kill it.

My only regret is I don't know how to dress a rabbit, and particulary what to look for in contamination (such as perforating intenstines) that may have occured from the gun shot, so the meat I was not able to use.

Just call me Mr. McGregor.

Staking tomatoes the easy way

Or is stringing tomatoes? A tip from Farmhound on an organic gardening board I'm active on started this.

So far it seems to be working well.

I didn't invest in the box of plastic baling twine, but I will -- a single role of string isn't quite enough. Of course 9,000' or so of baling twine that comes in a box will be a lifetime supply. They come in a box of two rolls, since most balers use two strings. I would use the plastic, the sisal (natural fiber) I believe will stretch too much over the season. It should last several seasons if you pick it up at the end of the season -- might have to tie in a little extra from time to time to make up for what you lose cutting the knots each year. The twine will be about $25-30 depending on the sale prices.

Here's a big view. Lettuce is interplanted in parts of the rows.

Now let's look at a close up of one of the plants. I'm pruning my tomatoes this year -- everything below the level of the first flowers. It's supposed to improve the quality, as well as reduce the risk of diseases being picked up from the soil / humidity near the ground.

The little knots use short pieces of string to tie the lateral strings together. It really strengthens them. I tie them where it's convienent then slide it over to where they support the plant well.

If the my early optimism proves accurate, I'll expand this to do all my tomatoes next year and not use the cages for them.

Threshing Grain

Was talking to my step dad yesterday and he mentioned he remembers, as a little kid, helping out at Pakulis' farm harvesting outs with an old combine that filled bags. Now that's old.

This isn't a combine -- the part the workers are tossing in the bound bundles is a thresher which seperates grain (oats) from the stems (which becomes straw). Before combination harvester threshers, grain would be harvested by a "grain binder" that cut and bound it into bundles then stacked in shocks to protect them from rain in the field until later brought to the thresher.



Straw used to be kept outside in stacks, just like you would have hay stacks. Hay and straw, properly done, is sheds water remarkably well -- think of thatched roofs. The straw chute on the thresher is long and high to facilitate making outdoor stacks.

As we got into the 20th century balloon frame construction allowed larger hay lofts in barns which allowed a lot of loose hay to be stored inside -- where it you had even less loss, and better yet could use gravity to toss it down to the animals instead of hauling it inside.

Another trend was the development of Hay Presses -- early stationary balers. These balers allowed hay and straw to be compressed into easily shipped bales for transport into our horse-powered cities.

With farms increasing in size -- both in acreage as well as the volume of crops grown per acreage with improved research, education, fertilizers, pesticides, and varieties -- farmers would increasingly use baling on their own farms. You could store more crops inside in the compressed form, and it's easier to handle and trade. In the above video, the straw is being fed by a funnel directly into a stationary baler -- today's field balers would come later.

The oat grain is the animal feed -- that's what the two youngsters in the grain wagon are making sure gets distributed well in the wagon. That will be emptied into a mouse-proof grain bin later. Straw is the by-product used as bedding, able to absorb two or three times it's volume in water and urine. This is different from hay which is cut as animal feed and harvested at a stage when nutrition comes from both the developing seeds as well as the leafy stems.

Going from older technology that would be quite familiar to a typical 1930s farmer, let's look at Glenvar Farms in Australia using state of the art combines along with their own system they've developed to bale as they go:



Many years ago a farmer friend of mine gave the sage advice it's not what you gross, it's what you net. The Amish have the labor pool to use the older technology, and I have no doubt net much more per acre by not having large loan payments to make. In many areas though labor -- particulary for seasonal activities like planting and harvesting -- is the scarce resource and requires the use of efficient but expensive machines.

Moments of happiness...

A nice, modest summer thunderstorm is passing through this evening.

One of my Dalmatians, Jake, is scared of the thunder -- his original owners had left him outside with no one looking after him when they went on summer vacation, and the police confiscated him for neglect.

He scratched at the door -- twice. So I opened it, he went out on the deck in front of my house and realized that wasn't the smartest idea. But the two of us ended up standing under the little roof over my front door, just watching the frog strangler of a rain that was falling, with the nice, cool downdrafts of wind and distant flashes of lightning and sounds of thunder. Frogs complete the scene, croaking away in the background -- they like I, it seems, find joy in the refreshment of these storms.