Happy Cows?

Glorious weather today, so perfect that I knew I needed to get and take a walk. I decided to hike in the Diablo foothills, starting at the Macedo Ranch trailhead. It was a nice 2.5-miler up to the China Wall and back, and only a couple hundred feet of elevation change.

I was surprised to find cattle on the trail. Around here there are vehement arguments about whether to let the local ranches graze cattle in open space. The hikers and bikers don't like it much, because the cattle rip up the trails. There are also more flies when cattle are near, and dogs often need to be on leash when cattle are around. And most open space trails around here are set up so that dogs can be off-leash. Mt. Diablo (and the foothills) are different - they don't allow dogs at all - so that wasn't an issue up on this particular trail. But I will say that the trail was in bad shape, though that could be due to our recent winter rains. 

Also, many people think that cattle grazing makes it difficult for wildflowers to survive in the hills. One of my horticulture teachers, also an avid hiker, would strongly disagree. He said cattle have been here for centuries now, the ecosystem is used to having them graze, and the only thing that grows more when the cattle don't graze are weeds.

A sign at the trailhead

That's a discussion for another time. Mostly, I just wanted to talk about those ads we used to see. Do they still run them? The "Happy Cows" ads?

Ok, that one's pretty good, and they even show the grass the right color. Because, unless it's winter, around here it's dry. That's one of the reasons it's called "The Golden State." The cows aren't eating green pastures; they're basically eating hay.

That is, dry grass. Not the mustard, not the thistles, just the dead grass.

I wonder how happy that makes them? I guess they don't know any better. There are no dreams of luscious pasture for a cow, I would imagine. Think of how much milk and meat comes from California. Nine months of the year, those cattle are eating brown stuff. It just makes me kind of sad.

But, I suppose that's what cattle eat in the winter in other parts of the country.

It was a great hike, by the way. China Wall is one of my favorite places to walk - so impressive. I could see Castle Rock in the distance, which is closed this time of year due to nesting Peregrine Falcons. I swear I could see them flying around the rocks. Woulda been good if I had remembered the binoculars...

A dead branch with thistles

Nothing's so attractive to wildlife like a dead tree (or dead parts of a tree). This one was covered with Acorn Woodpeckers.

Part of China Wall; it spans a whole valley

These mamas and babies found a 'seep' - mud to squish in

Amazing pineapple weed, surviving beautifully in dry, cracked clay

That sky, oh my heart! There are some benefits to living here.

I forgot to mention that last Friday when Tom and I took our sunset hike in Shell Ridge near here, the rangers had completely fenced off an area for cattle using electric fence. We didn't realize this, and headed up a familiar trail, only to find a bunch of barbed wire. We managed to crawl underneath and then realized our folly; we weren't sure we were going to be able to find a way out. We ended up hiking through a lot of cow muck but managed to exit ok. It was quite an adventure. I guess that is one way to control where the cows graze; just would have been nice to have a sign at the trailhead informing us of certain closed sections.

Anyway! Here's your yearly reminder to get out and see the world a little, if you can. It's always interesting to see what you'll find in the hills. (No rattlesnakes today, though I was expecting them.)

A majestic Valley Oak

Some seed saving, and a turkey problem (or maybe not)

Each evening lately, after the sun goes down, I've been working on cutting down flowers and saving seed. I've done this in the past with annual flowers, but I had always been haphazard about it. This year I knew I wanted to get as much seed as possible, so I've been keeping a close watch on the flowers. 

One of the annuals I really enjoyed this year was Breadseed Poppies. I had two varieties, "Cupcake" and "Orange Chiffon," and both were gorgeous. When I saw the amount of seed they both produced, I knew I would want to save some for next year.

Orange Chiffon

Cupcake

Cupcake seed pods

When I noticed most of the flowers were done blooming and seed pods had formed, I cut down the plants and put the seed pods in a separate bin. There, I left them to dry for a couple of days. When dry, I split the pods and shook out the seeds. This yields thousands of seeds, not counting the ones that already self-sowed in the same spot.

some chaff on top

I've been doing the same with Clarkia, both "Mountain Garland" and "Farewell-to-Spring." These seed pods are much, much smaller and it takes a lot more time to collect the seeds.

Mountain Garland are the flowers on tall stalks, Farewell-to-Spring are the shorter, cup-shaped flowers.

Mountain Garland seedpod

seeds and chaff

I'll store these in our garage refrigerator; the clarkias can be sown in late Fall, and the breadseed poppies in late Winter. 

My eye is carefully trained on some cilantro that is blooming right now - I'd like to collect seed for both planting and for canning. We use a lot of coriander when we make pickles.

I also have my eye on some Love-in-a-Mist and some California Poppies. It's hard to get things at just the right time!

Now, about the turkey problem. The past few days, this turkey hen has been flying in to our yard and hanging out near the chicken coop.

She's not a wild turkey; those are everywhere around here but travel in very large flocks, and they are dark grey and black. This seems to be a Bourbon Red, which is a breed of domesticated turkey. I think someone in our neighborhood is raising turkeys and has lost this one. She is always alone. She is always hanging out near the coop. And she is always noisy. And - she is always hard to chase out of our yard. I've posted her appearance on our Nextdoor site, but if no one answers, I'd rather like to figure out if there is a way to catch her and keep her. Our chickens really don't like her; they get very agitated when she is near. And I certainly don't want her free-ranging in my vegetables. So we'd have to build her her own coop. But here's the conundrum: Do we spend time building her an enclosure of some sort, and then hope she comes back again? Or do we try to catch her, keep her contained, and knock together something on the fly? And doesn't she need company? And would she be a good Thanksgiving turkey, or would we want the eggs? The questions are numerous. Please do make suggestions. 

'Livestock' Update

This is a quick update on all the 'livestock' we have on the urban farm. I use that word as a joke, because all we really have are chickens and bees. And a dog. And a cat. And once in awhile, a stray coyote! (Actually, I just saw a report from a street one over from ours - the homeowners looked in their backyard and saw a cougar! And they actually got several pictures, it was magnificent. So it's possible that we have cougars visiting our yard from time to time.)

I continue to worry about the honeybees. I see very limited activity at the hive entrance, but then that can be chalked up to rainy and cold weather. Bees generally won't fly unless it's above 50 degrees, though they will fly if it's colder but sunny. Since I've seen so little activity, I opened the hive one day last week just to check (it was above 50, but barely, so I made it a very quick check). There are a lot of dead bees littering the bottom of the hive, but a cluster of live bees near the front, who were very aggressive when we opened up the bars where they were keeping warm. So we switched out some bars - moved the bars full of capped honey and nectar to the front of hive where the bees were, and took out some bars with empty comb and put those near the back. I have seen slightly more activity since then, but it's incremental. When the weather gets cold, the bees need to cluster together to keep warm, and traveling very far from that cluster to get food could result in death. So even if the bees have plenty of honey, if it's not in a place where they can access it, they can starve. Hopefully moving their food source closer to them will help them survive just another month or so until temps get warmer. 

Meanwhile, the manzanita has started blooming, so there is some forage for them, if they venture out.

Manzanita

The hummingbirds are all over this bush. Which makes me wonder about nectar: Do flowers renew their nectar supply each day? Many times a day? How can there be enough for everyone? These are mysteries that I must research sometime.

The chickens are doing very well. They seem to be experiencing a limited molt, or maybe I just don't know what a molt looks like. They've lost a few feathers but nothing drastic. And they are still laying well. We get 2-5 eggs every day. I've been buying greens for them (and us!) but I think the garden is finally at a place where it can provide their daily portion (and ours!). Also I've been shoveling up rotting leaves every weekend and dumping them in their coop. They seem to love them - they scratch around for hours - they must be finding little bugs or seeds.

Joe the dog is much better. You might recall he had a spinal injury that required painkillers and steroids. He's still on a very low dose of steroid, but he is MUCH better. We are still not walking him very far, but we are slowly working up to longer walks in the hills. This a great relief.

And Tasha the cat has become an indoor pet for the winter, which is surprising. She is a very independent animal (par for the course, with cats?) and usually prefers to be outside, doing whatever cats do. But this winter, in a total change of character, she has started spending every day indoors on our bed. This is how she looks, pretty much all day.

So all seems well with the livestock here at Poppy Corners.

Ants in the Hive

I swear, if our bees make it through this winter, it'll be a miracle. First wax moths, then varroa, now an infestation of ants.

Today I've been outside working. We've had wet weather recently, so no chance to get outside and do some weeding and general clean-up. Today it's a sunny, chilly day, and we expect more rain tomorrow, so I knew I needed to get outside and take care of some things.

On one of my passes through the back garden, I stopped and watched the hive for a moment. I do this quite frequently. I just want to keep an eye on the amount of activity, and while it's greatly diminished this time of year, if I stood there for five minutes on a sunny day and saw nothing, I'd be worried. Today I noticed little things crawling, and in alarm, I lifted the lid. Ants everywhere.

So Tom and I immediately got out the smoker, the diatomaceous earth, the light bee brush, and the hive tool. I hate to open the hive when it's cold, but I had to see what was going on (and it is over 50 degrees today, so not horribly cold). We separated the bars and saw ants pretty much everywhere. I didn't get any good pictures, but here's a terribly out-of-focus one on the ants in the uncapped honey.

This pissed me off. We killed as many as we could, rubbed out the line of ants going up the hive leg, and went a little nuts with the diatomaceous earth. This is really all we can do.

Ants are opportunists, just like most of nature - you can't blame them for wanting an easy meal. And our bee colony is so diminished in numbers at the moment, they just don't have enough manpower (actually, that would be womanpower) to fight the battle. They're barely hanging on as it is.

Like I said, it'll be a miracle if our bees survive the winter.

We've had a few problems with animals here at Poppy Corners lately. Joe the dog has got a spinal injury, some sort of compressed disc in his neck. He's been in a great deal of pain and has required several trips to the vet. He's on muscle relaxers and steroids, and he's getting better. But he's not allowed to go on walks, so he's antsy and we're antsy too. It's been scary but I'm hoping that he'll heal. He's firmly middle-aged, which, as I know well, doesn't help matters.

A much less serious problem is Tasha the cat and her growing collection of dreadlocks. She's a very crepuscular creature, climbing the fences at dawn and dusk to meow forlornly. At what, we don't know. I'm not sure where she goes exactly, though we can certainly hear her. She comes home with terrible mats in her fur, which I then find and cut out. She's looking quite holey.

There's lots of stuff growing in the garden: Peas, kohlrabi, all kinds of greens and lettuces, broccoli, cabbage, fava beans, garlic, shallots, turnips, beets, carrots, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. The growth is just incremental, which is difficult for an impatient person like me. In the heat and bounty of summer, things germinate and grow so quickly, and one gets used to that. Winter is a different story. Everything creeps along. But as long as it's forward motion, I'm happy. The squirrels keep digging in my beds which is annoying and slows the process down further.

Only 10 more days till the solstice! These short days are hard for me and for the garden. But the sun is still shining right now, so I'd better get back out there!