A break between cloudbursts to enjoy some sunshine... ♥ @WalkWithMe
It has been raining quite a bit here in the south, but there were a few moments of sunshine I decided to capture before it rained some more.
One of my favorite things to do in the mornings, while I am feeding the animals, is to look at the sun rising and shining through the spanish moss. It is really lovely, pretty much every single morning. Now YOU get to see what I see!
Did you know spanish moss makes tasty goat food? No? Well, now you do!
The sunshine is lovely, that is, until it transforms from 'golden rays of delight' to 'sizzling death beams'!
This is our chicken coop. The kids are always looking for outlets for their creativity, and this is one thing they can do, make the coop awesome! I'm pretty sure the chickens lay more eggs out of pride for their fancy digs.
You see the wheelbarrow full of water? I wasn't kidding; it's been raining a LOT!
I just had to pick this strawberry from the greenhouse. I seem to have thwarted the slugs for now! I ended up giving it to a sleepy child who declared it 'the best strawberry ever'!
Check out the growth on this catalpa tree! I planted a couple of these from seeds two years ago. Last fall, I planted the seedlings outside, and they have been growing fantastically so far! Supposedly this moth, called a catalpa moth, will lay eggs on these trees, and the caterpillars wreak havoc on the leaves. The caterpillars are supposed to be so numerous that they fall from the trees and make excellent fishing bait, AND chicken food. Even though they eat most of the leaves, they are not supposed to actually harm the tree or stunt it's growth. This is an experiment, and we shall see how it does! So far so good!
Here are some of the chickens, free-ranging in the sunshine. They don't mind getting wet, however, and continued free-ranging around in the downpours...
Last, but not least, on my walk, I admired our house! The dreaded siding project is finally done!! :D
Yes, there is a huge mess lying around that needs cleaned up, and there are some small touch-up things to do, but the main huge jobs of the metal roofing, and the siding, are COMPLETE!
Thanks for walking with me on this briefly sunny morning! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! ♥
This work by @SquishySquid is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
hi @squishysquid. I saw your post on Our Discord Group. I've upvoted you too. I have followed you. Please do follow me back @itsystems. Thanks
Our SteemEngine Discord group is a great initiative
Thanks @itsystems!
Just so you know, asking for follow-backs is generally considered poor Steem etiquette.
I agree, the SteemEngine group is pretty fantastic!
Really love the sun bursting through the tree's, and the picture of the Strawberry is epic - wonderful post thank you so much for sharing 🤗
#thealliance
Thank you very much! :)
That does look like the best strawberry ever. Nice than you can grow these things and they look as good as the supermarket best variety.
We have an apple tree with nice eatable apples, but they always get ruined with pests every year. If we get a dozen unblemished ones we are doing well.
Thanks!
I had had a rash of ugly strawberries due to slugs, but I think I have conquered them for now! Hopefully nothing but pretty ones from here on out.
We have an apple tree too, but it has never produced anything. I think our poor soil is not allowing it to grow well. I need to mulch it and perhaps feed it more. I have to admit, I have so many projects going one, sometimes things fall through the cracks...
Thanks for the tour round the homestead squishysquid. I really liked the first picture in the post with the litchen trailing from the trees. We don't get anything quite like that where I'm from. I'm a keen veg gardener but I live in the city and grow on an allotment. As I've got older I've become more enticed by countryside life. the great thing about steemit is I can live these dreams through all the great posts like yours. Thanks for sharing :-)
Haha thanks for the complement, and glad you enjoy looking at what we have going on! :D
I'd love to free range our chickens and ducks, but between our resident foxes, coyotes and bobcats, and our own dog, ummmm . . . no. I'm too focused on them living out the night to experiment with their lives.
Our neighbor to the north has a huge Catalpa tree in her front yard, which she hates, but Marek and I have been wanting to get seedlings for a while now, so that we can plant a few by the river to use the caterpillars as fishing bait.
And the suckers are huge - a good two inches long, and there are tons of them. I hadn't thought about planting the trees in the barnyard, but it's a great idea, so thanks for that. Nothing like free protein to help boost egg production!
Judging by my neighbor's experience, make sure that you plant them where you won't be parking vehicles or equipment, as the caterpillars exude a sticky substance that covers everything.
Wow! Someone who actually knows what a catalpa tree is! Every time I mention it, I get blank looks... Yes, we have them planted far away from any vehicles or buildings. That's the main thing we want it for, free protein for the chickens. We dont fish too often, but Im sure we will try them as bait when we do. ;)
We are lucky to not really have predator problems where we are at. We have a chain link fence around all our property, which helps a lot, and are surrounded by neighbors, which I do not like, (the neighbors are okay, I guess, I just would rather be isolated), which keeps them at bay, I supposed. There are bobcats, hawks, foxes etc, around here, but they never bother us. Ive got our dog trained, too, so I am really lucky, predator-wise. ;)
Yeah, my neighbor is from around here, and calls them "Tobbie" trees (not sure what spelling they use), so it took me a while to find out the actual name, but I finally did. They are all around here, but we've yet to spot one on our place, so I'm planning to beg a few seedlings from them soon, which she'll be more than happy to get rid of.
The tree is actually quite pretty, and is a legume so fixes nitrogen, but she doesn't like it because of how ragged it looks at the height of caterpillar activity, not to mention the caterpillars being everywhere. ;-)
We've been lucky regarding predators, as we've yet to have any animal lost to a wild predator, though we did lose a guinea pig to one of our cats, and one of our breeding Silver Fox does to our dog.
Both losses were on me, though, not our dog and cat, as it was my responsibility to make certain their cages were properly secured, in which case they wouldn't have escaped in the first place. Neither of our domestic predators got punished for their "crimes."
That said, we're currently saving/raising funds for better housing for all our animals, including the cross fencing, movable tractors for our rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens, and enlarging (and making taller) the enclosure for our ducks.
Once we have a substantial number of them, I'll allow a couple of dozen to free range in the woods, as Muscovies are pretty good at surviving predators, but I definitely want to fence off a sizeable area to keep out the foxes, coyotes and stray dogs first.
As for bobcats and the occasional cougar, wolf or bear, if any, hey, we tried. I'm not putting up a 13' bear-proof fence. And bobcats will be able to climb up any tall tree and jump over, so we'll just have to deter them as well as possible with the solar powered flashing lights, and similar deterrents.
I guarantee that livestock guardians will be in our future, whether they are Great Pyrenees or similar breeds, or llamas, donkeys or camels. A friend of mine had a black bear come on her place when she was gone, when she was raising sheep and alpacas, and her neighbor caught on camera her guard llama chasing the bear away. I'd love to have seen that! ;-)
Oh wow! A llama chasing away a BEAR?! How crazy is that?!
Livestock guardian dogs are something Ive been interested in for a while now, but at the moment we don't have enough land or animals to make it worthwhile. I am hoping for more land in the future though, and to expand my goat herd, and when that time comes, Ill put some serious thought into a livestock guardian of some type. Sounds like llamas can also be very effective! :D
Yeah, I know - wouldn't you just love to see the video? Hilarious!
A lot of people in our neck of the woods use donkeys, as they are very territorial, but generally get along well with other herding animals. But they have also been known to scare off predators much larger than themselves.
And a camel or llama isn't out of the question, especially since I've recently learned of the many health benefits of camelid milk.
What we would ultimately like to have are Polish Owcharkas, aka Tatra Mountain Sheep Dogs, which are long-haired, all white and resemble Great Pyrenees; but tend to be friendlier and not as standoffish with new people. Though, like any good LGD breed, they won't tolerate strangers near the animals in their charge without the owners present.
For that reason, they were almost extinguished as a breed during WWII, as they tried to protect their families and villages as invading forces came through, and were slaughtered for their efforts. They remain quite rare today, even in Poland, though they are highly regarded throughout Europe.
Which is why we don't have them yet, because extreme rarity equates to quite expensive, and there are so few currently in the States that I'm concerned about inbreeding.
When we do get them, we will bring unrelated dogs directly from Poland, which will bring much-needed new blood into the American breeding lines. They are an amazing breed, and I would like to help perpetuate them, so their genetics are not diluted and/or lost.
In the meantime, we will probably wind up with a couple working stock Pyrenees, which are common where we are, and considerably more reasonably priced. They do tend to wander though, as a breed, so we need our barn fence repaired or replaced first.
I'm hoping to get a seasoned working pair, already used to free ranging chickens and other fowl, from a farm that is downsizing. Perhaps they can teach Lolo some manners around the smaller animals, or at least respect, so he'll leave them alone. ;-)
Good luck finding the perfect dogs for your farm!
The ovcharkas sound fantastic. I have seen photos of them in some LGD facebook groups, and they look amazing.
Good on you wanting to keep the breed from being diluted, and keep it high quality. Many people nowadays just breed dogs willy nilly and do not care about what they are even breeding.
Roaming is one of the issues that concerns me. I keep hearing about peoples' LGS leaping or digging out and roaming around, which does make sense, being that the dogs feel like protecting a larger territory than what the humans generally give them... Not an issue I would look forward to dealing with though.
I hope you post about the dogs whenever you do get some! I would love to follow along and see how it goes for you!
Yeah, we came close a couple of years ago, when our neighbor's dog across the street had pups, and one of the females developed a crush on Lolo, which was mutual. They were hilarious together.
They had sheep, and she followed me to the barn a couple of times, and got to know the goats. But, by the time I got a chance to talk to him, he had already found her a home. Sigh.
If we fence the barn for deer, at seven feet, it will keep the dogs in too.
Oh how disappointing about the pup! :(
Yes, I would hope 7ft would work, for jumping anyway. Our is only 5 and I know a LGD could fly over that... A lot of people put a strand of electric around the bottom to prevent digging out. A lot of work, but potentially worth it if predators are an issue...
These pics, especially the strawberry reminds me of my mate's house in New Zealand. Any other fruits that you grow?
Right now that is it, fruit-wise. I have a few small fruit trees growing, but they are not big enough to be producing yet. Apples, nectarines, citrus, fig, and even an olive that we planted just this spring.
In the greenhouse I have tomatoes and peppers that look like they'll produce well this year, so I am super excited about that. :D
This post makes me want to plant something in my yard 😊
And that first photo is so magical, it give me chill feeling, looks like heavenly realm, lol.
Thank you so much!! I love looking at that area every morning, it gives me the same feeling. ♥
Go plant something, it is fun and satisfying!!
Your first photograph is awesome. It creates a magical appearance. I love the childrens decorations on the hen house and your house is looking great. Nothing like being on the land among the chickens and garden.
Thanks so much! The sun always looks so pretty in the mornings on the spanish moss, and I think I managed to capture it successfully at last! ♥
We love this kind of life. :)
You sure did.
That was an interesting journey that makes me wish I'm that sleepy kid who got d strawberry ; (
Thanks for sharing
Thanks!
I am always tempted to just eat them myself, because strawberries are delicious! I never do though, the happiness the kids get from being surprised with an early morning treat is worth it. ♥
Eat it and carry the guilt burden for the rest of the day hehehe...
Its just a natural phenomenon how we tend to want to care for the kids and deny ourselves pleasure just so they get the best. ♥ :)
Weldone!!! squishy-sounding-squid lol!
Haha true, true. Maybe next time Ill eat it!
What a beautiful morning. Just looking at your pictures makes my morning great too. If a child says that it is the best then it really is the best strawberry ever hihihi. Congrats on finishing the roof and the sidings. Have a great day! 💚
Yes, it must have been wonderful, haha!
Thanks so much! It was a really pretty morning, (although it started raining soon after).
Have a great day too! ♥