Tag Archives: wild things

Barnyard, Livestock

Oh Rats!!

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The best way to keep rats away is to not feed them! For most of the livestock, put out just enough fermented grain that they can clean their plates in 10 or 15 minutes. The rest of the day should be free-range pasture and foraging.

Oh Rats Drawing

Meat birds, on the other hand (we raise Cornish Cross), need to be on continuous feed in order to maximize weight gain in 8 weeks. Still, even though they have the access to high protein feed during the day, when the rats come out, the feeders are empty.

Princess Kitty Brown
Princess Kitty Brown – resident Mouser at Bent Pine Farm

To rid yourself of existing rats try traps, or better yet a “mouser” cat for your barnyard. Our resident nocturnal rodent hunter is “Princess Kitty Brown”. Princess is 16 and all the animals look up to her…well, down actually, since she is very small. She has survived a run-in with a bobcat, right here in the backyard. And while she is fiercely protective of the feed supplies against rats, she is secretly afraid of the chickens!

In summary…keep your grain larder and henyard neat and clean, employ a rodent-hunter, and if all else fails … try the “p” word.

Happy Homesteading,

T.

Feather Pen Post

fruit, orchard

How Do You Know When a Paw Paw is Ripe?

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Well, the obvious answer when you are new to paw paw growing is to ask someone who has grown them before!    Enter the Pinterest search.    There is a lot of information out there about the paw paw.   It was both abundant and popular back in the day, with Native Americans, colonists, and European explorers.

Actually a tropical fruit, it has self-adapted to the more temperate climates of some of the Northern states.    It grows wild in 26 states.

We’re excited, because we have at least a dozen wild paw paw trees and they are all full of fruit.  They will make a wonderful addition to our fruit smoothie.  Apparently you have to be there when the fruit gets ripe,  ’cause if it falls off you’ll lose it.    This could get tricky.

Turns out that paw paws start off with hard shells like they are now.  When they are ripe, the skin softens a bit, like a pear.    We’re keeping a close eye.  Wish us luck.

So the answer to the original burning question, “How do you know when a paw paw is ripe?”  is that someone else can give you hints (“the skin softens, like a pear”), but you’ll never know if the paw paw is ripe until you  experience it yourself.  Lived experience, the only real way to learn.

Thanks for playin’

T.

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