Carolina Anole

The Carolina Anole, or Green Anole, is common in the Southeastern United States, along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast states, from the Carolinas across to Texas. We have these guys all over Gohn Greene Farms. In this photo the anole was showing off his chameleon like ability to change colors from green to brown. Although not a true chameleon (he's actually more closely related to iguanas), he can both change color, and regrow his tail if it is lost during an attack.

The males also have a colorful dewlap, a flap of skin on the underside of the neck. They'll inflate this brink pink dewlap to defend their territory from other encroaching males. When they're not fighting over turf they spend most of their time hunting dinner. They eat mostly crickets, grasshoppers, flies, and the like so they're welcome to stake a claim to just about anywhere on the farm and eat as many bugs as they like!

Paw Paw Seeds

Last fall I bought 20 Pennsylvania Golden / Davis cross paw paw seeds. I kept them in the moist paper towel in a ziploc bag that they were shipped in and placed them in the refrigerator to stratify. They only needed 70-100 days or so but I kept them in a little bit longer than that. After maybe 120 days I took them out and put them in some moistened seedling mix in the same ziploc bag (without the paper towel) and placed them on a shelf to germinate. After two or three weeks they had germinated, as shown above. The seed with the largest taproot is shown, although most of them had roots just barely poking out like the other seed shown. Some hadn't opened up yet, but I planted all 20 with high hopes.

I bought two 10' long corrugated drainage pipes and cut them into foot long lengths. The above picture shows one whole tube and another cut to length. I tied them together securely in groups of four with waxed twine recycled from pine straw bales. I then bundled all 20 tubes loosely with a piece of scrap rope. I filled each tube with organic tree and shrub planting mix and planted each seed about an inch deep. After I watered everything thoroughly and the dirt settled a little bit I had an inch or two of space at the top which I topped very loosely with pine straw.

The whole setup is under a cherry tree by the driveway, not far from access to water. I expect them to come up slowly, first concentrating on their root systems. They'll be in these tubes for at least a year, and may not be planted out until Fall 2018 or maybe even Spring 2019. I don't expect 20 trees to make it to maturity, but I think at least half of them had already germinated before going in the dirt. If I get at least two trees that I can plant near the other two that I have for cross pollination I'll be happy.

Arbor Day Foundation Trees

The Arbor Day Foundation is a wonderful organization, helping to plant trees all over the world and bringing all of the many benefits of trees along with them. As their way of saying thank you for donating to their organization they will ship you about a dozen trees to plant in your yard. The shipping is timed so that the trees arrive to you just in time for planting.

The trees are shipped bare root, you can see them in the white bucket in the above picture. Bare root trees are an extremely cost effective way of shipping trees, but their survival rate isn't as high as those shipped in containers. We had a dozen or so shipped to us last Spring and planted them in the ground the very next day. None of them ever leafed out. 

We weren't expecting a whole lot from free bare root trees, but anything above 0% survival would have been preferred. This past fall we had another dozen shipped to us and on the recommendation of Meredithe's uncle Tim we started them in containers. One of the dozen was a Blue Spruce which, being an evergreen, was easy to see that it had arrived alive. The rest we could have scratched the bark and monitored closely to see if they were still alive, but we just stuck them in these containers and protected them from too much light and wind by placing them along the Southern wall of our shed, back in the woods and hoped for the best.

To our pleasant surprise, they have begun leafing out this Spring. So far I think we have a Dogwood and a Washington Hawthorn. Hopefully more of them will leaf out as the weather continues to warm up this Spring. But even if the others don't make it, at least a 25% survival rate is better than 0%!

Washington Hawthorne

Dogwood

Walnut Bandits!

A couple of months ago I planted 30-40 black walnuts an inch or two down in the soil to stratify for the winter. I thought that covering them with a grate, weighted down by cinder blocks, would be enough to hold off the squirrels. I was wrong. The cinder blocks do, apparently, make a lovely squirrel table. The grate is also easy enough to just tunnel right under and stores walnuts reasonably well... for a squirrel to find and secret away... somewhere else.

I didn't lift the grate and inspect the damage, I just grabbed a few rocks from the driveway and reinforced the sides. I'm hoping that they only absconded with a few walnuts and the rest are still awaiting Spring. I covered the rocks with a little extra dirt, covered it all in pine straw and kept it moving. Maybe they just thought a few should live somewhere else and I'll find a surprise walnut tree somewhere in a couple of years? OR maybe squirrel season doesn't end until February 28th and they'll taste of walnuts. I'll keep you posted.

Clearing Space for the House

We decided to place the house at nearly the highest point of the property. The site is just to the North of the garden and, more importantly, just North of a few wild cherry trees, an elm, and some as yet unidentifiable nut trees. They may be pecans planted by the previous owner, but we aren't quite 100% sure what they are. There are a few pines in that area to the South of the house and 5 remaining pines where the house will sit. There are maybe 20 or so more pines in the area that are a little too close for comfort. The 5 pines will definitely have to come down, and at least some of the others in the area. Most of the underbrush was privet, easy to remove, but tedious. After 10 or 15 hours split over two days I cleared the privet, as shown in the next picture.

Next I tagged the trees that would need to be removed and used some lumber I removed from the old chicken coop to mark the corners. The currently expected house footprint is 35' by 45', with a 15' by 25' screened in front porch. The front porch will hopefully be where the chicken coop currently sits along the Southern wall, with the possibility of adding a second porch on the Western side of the house in the future. All of these pictures are taken from the Southeast, basically from the front porch, looking at the front of the house.

This final picture is the most recent, and from a little farther back to show the chicken coop removal fully underway. If you refer back to last weeks post, The Chicken Coop Rescue (...again), you can see the drastic difference between what the space looked like before and after this stage of the clearing process. Once big pines start coming down the area will undergo another drastic transformation, letting in much more sunlight. The larger hardwoods to the South will be kept to shade the house in the Summer, but let the sunlight in during the cooler winter months.

The Chicken Coop Rescue (...again)

Sorry ya'll! I accidentally deleted a blog post from July of 2015! I was looking back at the old chicken coop, because I just tore it down, and I wanted to refer you back to the above pictures... that I just deleted.

In the original post I showed y'all where I had cleared the fallen pine straw and leaves with trees growing out of them off of the top of the old coop. I also used tree trunks to prop up the roof to aid in drainage. It worked pretty well for the last year and a half. I used the old coop to keep tools dry and as a rain shelter for pop up rain showers. These days we have a new shed in which to store our tools and hide in from the rain. The old chicken coop isn't as useful as it was and is located where we want to put our front porch on our new farmhouse we hope to build. 

When relocating the old pictures from the original post I stumbled upon the bottom picture which shows the coop from an even better angle for comparison. My new blog post coming out later this week will feature the wooded area behind the chicken coop in this picture. So, again, sorry for deleting history, here are those pictures I wanted to show you, and stay tuned... we're clearing a space for the house!

One Small Step For A Man

OK, so it's not exactly a giant leap for mankind, but this little step has been very helpful. Located along the old fence line between the shed and the home site, I had been wanting to improve that step for weeks. There was a little rise there from where the driveway had sunken over time. I had been going up and down over this rise tripping and cursing while switching out tools to clear the space for the house. I eventually decided to put the cart before the horse and improve the step before continuing the tripping and cursing cycle. I had the piece of wood from improving a closet in an old apartment and the rebar was found on the property.

I took a shovel and a level and made a nice level step. There was one tree root, maybe 1-2" in diameter, from the pine to the left of the step as you head up the hill, but it wasn't too difficult to remove and the pine should recover just fine. After I removed the root and leveled the area I simply plopped the wood down and drove in two pieces of rebar to hold it in place. The piece on the left isn't as flush as I would like but it does the trick. I imagine I'll eventually replace the step, or at least reposition that piece of rebar but at least I can traverse the path from the shed to the home site without obscenity spewing from my mouth.

Turmeric Harvest

Back in August when we replanted the turmeric into this larger 18 gallon container we expected to wait until the leaves died back for the winter to harvest. They didn't make it that far. A couple of weeks ago we noticed a couple of the leaves had been nibbled by deer. Nothing major, just a little sampling. This past week we came back and every leaf had been eaten back to the stalk. Every. Single. Leaf. Apparently, the deer had cautiously tasted our unfamiliar turmeric leaves... and liked them.

We figured since the weather was changing and everyone was fighting off colds, the heavy deer browse was a decent enough sign to go ahead and harvest the turmeric. Luckily we weren't in it for the leaves, we wanted the rhizomes, shown on the edge of the sink in the picture above. Each rhizome could be replanted to multiply next year. In fact, everything shown here started out as one rhizome about the size of a golf ball this past Spring. But rather than planting, we used the majority of the rhizomes for tea.

Meredithe separated the rhizomes from the rest of the stems and roots. She then grated them into this big pot, added water and brought it to a boil. The resulting tea is rich with turmeric's best known chemical compound, curcumin. Turmeric derived curcumin is often used in curries and mustards, its rich color has been used in dyes and cosmetics (Be prepared for it to stain your skin during processing). It's warm, bitter taste is delicious, which would be enough to make the process worthwhile, but we wanted it for its medicinal properties.

Curcumin has anti inflammatory properties, making it medicinally useful for all sorts of ailments. We kept the tea in the refrigerator for a week or so, drinking it by the glass cold, or  hot or mixed with apple cider vinegar like a shot of cold fighting medicine. We like to add honey to the tea to sweeten it, or chase the tea/vinegar combo shot with a spoonful of honey. We find it very effective at reducing cold and flu symptoms, without the drug induced haze from the pharmacy.

Eastern Black Walnuts

Butterbean is standing guard over our Eastern Black Walnuts. The nuts take three to four months to stratify underground before bursting to life in the Spring. These particular nuts are from North Georgia, and last season, so hopefully some of them will sprout. There are probably 30 or 40 of them under the grate. They're buried about an inch or two below the surface and spread out evenly. The grate and cinder blocks should keep the squirrels from digging them up.

With any luck we'll start to see shoots poking up through the grate in April or May. They grow fairly quickly, up to 35 inches in the first year, so we'll have to dig them up and either pot them or permanently relocate them soon after they sprout. They are fairly vigorous, but they do send down a deep taproot so the sooner we move them to their new home the better. Selecting a permanent site can also prove tricky since they can be damaging to nearby plants. Walnuts produce the toxic compound juglone in their roots, leaves etc which stunts the growth of nearby plants giving them a competitive advantage.

Depending on the number of shoots we get, we may make a space for them at the front of the property by the driveway. If we can keep them away from the garden and food forest and avoid their leaves in the compost bin they can be a valuable asset. Walnuts are prized for their edible nuts and also for their wood. The trees can produce nuts in as little as 4-6 years, but large crops will take 20 years. For now we'll just have to wait and see what happens in the Spring before forming any long term plans.

Invincible Tire

 

 The wheelbarrow had been sitting idle with a flat tire for several months. I didn't really need it over the summer, most of the tasks required a hose and a few buckets. But as the weather (hopefully) begins to cool off the wheelbarrow will be much more useful.

Another pneumatic tire like the one the wheelbarrow came with was priced at $20. I opted for the $35 invincible tire. Made of solid rubber and set on a sturdier hub it never goes flat. Considering the first tire lost a fight with a thorn on day 3, I figured it was well worth the investment.

The new invincible tire has an extended hub much larger than the factory tire, so I cut the old spacers to fit. I've since seen tires sold with new spacers online, but measuring and cutting one of the old ones roughly in thirds was quick and easy. I just clamped it onto my workbench and cut it with a hacksaw.

The brace on the end is much closer to the larger 14.5" tire than it was on the old 13". It has some space, more than the bottom picture would lead you to believe, but it's tight. I may extend or bend the brace, or I may put a different wooden brace behind the tire instead. In any case, it works as-is for now. It's already back in action hauling pine straw out of the forest and mulching the fruit trees for winter.

Mulching the Fig

The fig, pomegranate and grapefruit trees are all out in the open in full sun on a South facing slope. They get plenty of sun in this location, but they are also out in the cold winter winds. In order to better protect them I used the same mulching process on all three, shown here on the fig. I mulched the fruit trees back in the food forest similarly, but with less mulch. I'm hoping that since they are more sheltered they should be OK with less. If I get worried about it later this year I can always add more pine straw from the surrounding woods.

As you can see from the top picture in the top collage the yard has slowly been creeping in on the fig. I had mulched it similarly last year but the grass has made its way back in to the trunk of the tree. In order to reduce competition for resources I hoed a circle around the fig, giving it about two feet in all directions free from grass and weeds.

After I cleared out the competition I layered garden soil, cardboard and pine straw as mulch. Each tree up in the front received 4 cubic feet of soil as mulch, the trees in the back only received two cubic feet each. I put down about one cubic foot of soil to level out the ground and get some good soil contacting the majority clay soil underneath before I put down the layer of cardboard. The cardboard will eventually break down into soil as well, but should suppress the grass enough to keep it from breaking through this year. Also, most of the grass roots were removed with the hoe.

As shown in the top right picture of the bottom collage, I layered the other three cubic feet of garden soil on top of the cardboard making sure to leave some space right around the trunk of the tree. I put a layer of pine straw on top of the soil to retain moisture and hopefully prevent erosion. Then I placed a couple of pieces of slate under the fig to block any grass or weeds from sneaking up through the area directly under the fig that didn't receive any mulch. They should hold some heat from the sun on those long winter nights as well.

Finally, I put the sheet plastic back up around the base of the fig. It isn't entirely opaque but will block a lot of the sunlight from hitting the trunk directly, preventing possible sunburn. It will also block out the worst of the wind. I put the cute little puppy dog statue back on top and voila! The fig is ready for winter.

Repairing the Gate

As you can see from the above photos the gate had been damaged in a storm. The hinge on one of the gate arms had both twisted and bent the hinge open and had also pulled loose from the post. I took out all of the remaining screws and assessed the hinge. The only damage was to the piece attached to the gate arm. I used a couple of C clamps to hold it still and beat it back into shape with a hammer. It's not perfect, but it's much straighter.

The post itself was slightly damaged as well. The wood had split, loosening but not losing the corner of the post. I reattached the hinge to the post mainly using the old screws. One screw was missing so I used a longer screw and set it at a different angle to better secure it to the sturdy portion of the post. You can see the difference between the screws in the pictures below. The longer screw appears to have a larger head, but it actually has a small head. I used an odd nut washer that I had to make sure the new screw wouldn't pull through the hinge.

The newly reshaped hinge holds the gate arm both closer to vertical and more square to the post than it had been. Now the gate closes and latches... just in time for deer season.

Eastern Leaf-footed Bug

The eastern leaf-footed bug is a common, minor, garden and agricultural pest. A variety of species of leaf-footed bugs can be found in a wide range from the southern United States to as far South as Panama. This family of bugs feeds on plants with their sap sucking mouth parts, often damaging the fruits and nuts of the host plant. Citrus fruits here in Georgia, and even more commonly Florida, are known to attract the eastern leaf-footed bug in particular.

This photograph was taken on one of our catalpa trees. This individual bug was on one of the many bean like seed pods. Each seed pod had its own attacker, seemingly claiming the pod for his own. I doubt the bugs will damage the seeds ability to germinate, and the seeds aren't edible, so they can dine on catalpa pods for now... But they'll also happily feast on peaches and black eyed peas and all sorts of other edible things common here in the South, some of which we may grow in the future. Just one more reason we need some chickens.

Stick Bug

Stick bugs are a member of the order Phasmatodea from the ancient Greek phasma, which means phantom, an obvious allusion to their camouflage. There are many different varieties of phasmids, some look like sticks, others like leaves. They are obviously difficult to spot, this one almost got sawed in half by accident.

They are slow moving and most don't fly, although a few species can, particularly the smaller, lighter males. They also have compound eyes which gives them good night vision. They grow by molting and as they age their eyes become more light sensitive and they become more and more nocturnal. I found this guy in the middle of a cloudy afternoon. I had been clearing a lot of brush in the area so I'm not sure that he was out moving around, it's more likely that I disturbed him during his daytime nap.

Their reproductive exploits are fascinating as well. They often copulate for days or even weeks at a time. One species of stick bug, Necroscia sparaxes, holds the record for longest mated pairing among all insects... at 79 days. I'm pretty sure my wife would kill me and eat me well before the third month.

While their feeding habits can be damaging to some trees, especially during intense outbreaks, the damage is typically not widespread since they don't get around very well. They usually prefer dining on the leaves of undergrowth in mature forests, so they actually promote the larger trees ability to succeed. Hopefully this guy is munching on our abundant blackberry leaves and not stunting little oak saplings.

The Shed

Just as you pass through the old farm gate in the old fence line and enter the food forest is this inconspicuous little spot on the left hand side of the driveway. Our first idea for shed placement was closer to the front but we wanted something in the shade, central and away from the road. This spot looked level and didn't have too many large trees so I went out there one day and cleared it out to see what we were working with.

Removing the privet tangle opened up the vast majority of the space, but was by far the easiest third of the job. The two trees along the left not immediately on the old fence line would need to come down, mainly for fear of them later coming down on the shed. Also, that beastly looking poison ivy vine on the old gate post would definitely have to go.

I took out the poison ivy first, gradually chopping it up into 3' pieces and moving it entirely with an old pair of bypass loppers. I used them like tongs and tried to keep my distance. I must be one of those people that poison ivy doesn't bother because that stuff was everywhere and I didn't develop a rash.

I went back a second day and took down the two pines growing off the fence line, they were each probably 25 years old or so. I processed the branches and upper portions of the tree into smaller pieces and dragged them to nearby brush piles. The bottom 20' of each trunk I cut into 10' lengths and saved for use in the construction of a log cabin style chicken coop for which I'm gathering supplies.

Meredithe and I came back on a third day and removed large branches along the driveway to clear space for our new shed. It was to be delivered that afternoon and the process by which they unloaded it from the trailer and moved it into place was fascinating. They used a machine called a mule, which kind of looked like a forklift, to drag the shed off of the trailer. They put the other end on two wheels and drove it back and into place. The company we purchased from builds on site, but this shed was previously rented, repossessed and we purchased it at a discounted rate.

We love our new shed! It has all of the extras we wanted, a loft, the sturdier barn door upgrade, a metal roof upgrade and I can't imagine picking any other color. It was even wired for four outlets and a light. I'll have to rewire some of it, but free hardware is free hardware. It'll be nice to have dry work space and storage on the farm. Now where did I put those logs, I'm ready to build a chicken coop...

Yucca in Bloom

This yucca plant was planted just inside the property line by the previous owner. I hadn't seen, or at least noticed, it bloom until this year. It's usually planted purely for ornamental purposes and I can see why. Those flowers are beautiful!

Some species of yucca have edible parts, but since I'm not entirely sure which species I've got I haven't tried to do anything with it from a culinary standpoint. It's appearance leads to confusion with yuca, or cassava, a commonly planted edible perennial, which is often planted and harvested annually from cuttings for its edible root.

Other uses include using the leaves to hang meat for drying or smoking. By piercing the meat with the spiny leaf and tying a knot a small hook is created making the hanging easier. Another use gives it it's nickname as the "sentry plant". Also utilizing the stiff sharp leaves, concerned parents would often plant this sentry underneath their daughters windows to stand guard. Deterring young suitors from climbing in, and their daughters from climbing out of first floor windows. I'm happy to just let it grow and watch it bloom, right where it is; standing sentry along the property line.

Common Whitetail Dragonfly

As the name denotes, the adult males of the Common Whitetail Dragonfly are easily distinguishable from other dragonfly species by their brilliantly white tails. This individual is a juvenile male and as such has not yet developed his tail coloration. The females have a smaller brown abdomen and a different wing pattern.

They all feed mainly on mosquitoes (yay!), along riverbanks and other bodies of water. Gohn Greene Farms is only about a mile from Lake Oconee so there is plenty of water nearby. The dragonfly nymphs feed on mosquito nymphs, adult dragonflies feed on adult mosquitoes. The more dragonflies, the less mosquitoes. The males are especially territorial over the best feeding areas. They each maintain about a 50 to 100 foot stretch of bank along the waters edge and defend it against intrusions of other dragonflies.

When a male common whitetail sees another male common whitetail he will raise his abdomen as a warning to the other dragonfly. The larger, whiter abdomens belong to the dominant males. They will often fly into each other to defend their territories for feeding and breeding.

Breeding, even if you have the biggest whitest abdomen, only takes about 3 seconds. Following which the female swoops down to the water surface and quickly deposits hundreds, possibly even a thousand eggs. Hopefully all of those eggs will hatch and begin feeding on mosquitoes ASAP!

Turmeric

Check out our first turmeric plant! The leaves are super cool the way they come straight up the center in a tight curl and slowly twist and fall open. Each leaf is bigger than the last, building beautiful foliage. The large leaves are beautiful and the plants can be cultivated easily in containers for aesthetic purposes.

Although beautiful, we are mostly interested in utilizing the roots. Similar to ginger, turmeric is propagated easily by dividing the rhizomes once a year. Later this year, when the leaves turn from green to yellow we'll know it's time to dig up our turmeric. We can harvest some of the root, but we'll be taking several cuttings, each with one bud and replanting them in late Winter or early Spring to multiply the plant.

The turmeric that we don't put back in the ground will be used in the kitchen for various uses. Turmeric is a key ingredient in yellow curry, it also gives many yellow mustards their distinctive color. It has a zippy heat too, another property it shares with ginger.

Turmeric is known for its anti inflammatory properties as well, and contains various antioxidants. Golden milk is a beverage made from coconut milk and turmeric known for these medicinal properties. Similar to chai tea, it's a spiced beverage, delicious and good for what ails ya!