Author: EEC Forest Stewardship

So, I spent a lot of time in March and April, purchasing a large water tank for irrigation using rain catchment. I found a company in Florida, GEI Works, which had potable water pillow tanks that could be shipped to me in Washington. It was a far journey. but the prices were right and the tank design was doable in my location. I happily worked with a gentleman via email to make sure I had all the parts and space to set up such a large tank, and clarified that, as a small farm, I would not have a forklift or tractor to take the 500lb. crate off the truck. They said a lift gate would be fine, and assured me the tank could be delivered.

Well, it came May 1st, without a lift gate, so they drove away with my tank. Then we rescheduled for Tuesday the 8th, and no truck came. The delivery company is Saia, and the driver told me they had no lift gate trucks with unloading ability available to come here, that they all stay in Seattle for urban delivery, and never leave the city area. I told GEI Works about this, and offered to plan a delivery in a few weeks, after I was able to contact someone locally with a tractor, and have them bring it to the farm for the delivery. GEI didn’t want to pay storage fees for the tank while I got unloading equipment, and assured me the tank would come Tuesday.

Tuesday I was on site all day with my phone in back pocket on full volume. I hate having my phone on my body all the time, but didn’t want to miss the call when the truck was on its way. No call came, and by 6:30 that evening I was back on the phone trying to negotiate what happened. Saia told GEI that I had not answered the phone, but the Saia policy is to deliver anyway, so someone was not taking responsibility, and instead blaming the client. They also lied about the call, as i have no such call in the record of my phone. I’ll say this much, Saia is an awful shipping company.

GEI Works is not much better, as they emailed me with a phone number and said to reschedule. I had the unfortunate experience of working for both companies without pay, calling and chasing people to try to get my merchandise, which I had already paid for in full. Meanwhile, everyone else I talked to was being paid by the hour and taking their time in figuring out how to help support the delivery. We tried again for Thursday the 10th, and I said I could be there waiting till 5pm. I stressed this because I had made plans that evening.

Guess what happened? At 4:45, I called the Saia help number and asked them to track my truck delivery. They did, and informed me the truck had two more stops and would be to me before 9pm. This was not what I had scheduled, and I said so. The lady on the other end was helpful, telling me the delivery was scheduled from 9am to 9pm. She then called the truck driver and made sure he was coming my way. After confirming this, I hung up and waited. Another phone call, it was the driver. He would not be able to deliver the tank because he did not have a lift gate. He again informed me that no lift gate truck would come from Seattle. I said that was not my responsibility, and thanked him for his time.

I’ve written GEI Works and demanded a full refund. This has been the worst business experience I’ve ever had, for something extremely costly and important to the farm. It was classic miscommunication, and instead of taking responsibility on their end, both businesses were putting it on me. Apparently, if you have the word “farm” in your business name, it is assumed that you have large equipment and plenty of time on your hands to wait for others to figure themselves out. A greater question from this is how are these businesses still in business? Oh wait, they usually work with large companies that are being paid by the hour to work with them. Because I am not, I lost on all fronts, from not getting my tank, to having to spend several days waiting for nothing and being lied to on both ends of the deal. This is not how I do business, and I am concerned that large companies like this do, but it’s not a surprise.

Bitter cherry (Prunus emarginata) is a great quick setting plant for hedgerows. I’ve been pleachering some in a field at Leafhopper Farm for the past few years and my work is finally starting to take shape. This past winter,  I cut a second pleacher layer off these cherries and they are leafing out beautifully.

Pleaching allows the living trunk of the shrub or small tree to lay down from it’s main stump with an angled cut which only partially disconnects the living tissue of the plant from its roots. This stimulates new growth in much the same way coppicing does, only you do not take away the upper growth, instead, laying it over to create more vegetation and a living fence. The young growth below will turn four cherry saplings into many more, in a web of new growth. The bitter cherry is also a fruit wood, producing flowers and small berries for wildlife, as well as livestock to brows.

These thickets of pleachered branches weave together into an impenetrable living boundary to keep deer off sensitive plants, and hem in livestock, keeping them out of replanted ecosystem for wildlife habitat and native plant nursery. Bitter Cherry grows rapidly, so you’ll see the “fruits” of your labor within a few years. I’m thrilled about this corner of the pasture, and know the cherry will set a well rooted hedge, which we can add other plantings into as the hedge grows and expands. Livestock and deer will keep it trimmed back, and my shaping will guide it’s upward growth into a solid living fence.

When you pleacher your shrubs and small trees, you bring them down to browsing level for livestock and wildlife, you’re also opening up the canopy, and encouraging new, young growth on the root stalk of the plant. I think the bitter cherries thrive on this practice, as most stone fruit can take heavy pruning, in fact, it thrives on it. Other native species that would work well in a pleachered hedge are vine maple (Acer circunatum), hawthorn (Crataegus), and Oregon crabapple (Malus fusca). When you set a hedge, give it 3-5 years to grow initially, as I am with a new hedge on the west fence line of zone 1 on the farm.

This hedge needs to establish enough woody stalk for pleachering. When the plants are this young, you can actually pin them down sideways by bending the tops over and putting a heavy stone or stake in to hold them down. I am trying that with a few maples, but letting the other hedge plants like dogwood (Cornus), and cascara (Rhamnus purshiana) bush up a bit, gives the plant a “set of legs” to stand on (healthy root system) before we pleach them over.

Once the plantings have taken root for a few years and gained some trunk mass, I’ll pleach them the same way I did the cherries to form a living fence for the farm. This hedge is very diverse, and will continue to receive more plants as it thickens in. The advantage of picking your plants for the hedge means more diversity and usefulness of your living fence. There is a well established, even overgrown hedge on the north fence of the property. It’s mostly on my neighbor’s side fo the fence, and dominated by European holly (Ilex aquifolium), a great pollinator and tool wood, but an invasive in King County Washington. Be sure that if you are planting a hedge, you use species you won’t regret later on. Since your hedge will probably outlive you once you put it in, make sure you maintain it well so future stewards will recognize the living fence, and reap the benefits of diverse fodder for livestock, medicine and food for people, and a long lasting boundary on any property.

The warm waters of spring are bringing fish to the surface at Leafhopper Farm! Two springs ago I released some decorative koi in the pond to see how this water feature supports fish and the results so far look good. These smaller fish on the surface are not the originals I put in, but new offspring. There are at least three generations represented by notably different sized fish. That would correspond with original adult fish introduced, the first year offspring, and this year’s offspring. Of course, it could just be that some fish are getting more to eat than others, but the smallest fish, not easily seen in these pictures, are dark bodied with light gold heads.

The ducks helped to seal the pond at it’s current level, but it’s still almost five feet below the outflow pipe, so I think more ducks will be needed next winter and now with a laying flock under construction, we should have those birds available during the rainy season. I had to pull the Magpies off the water earlier this spring, as they were turning the water green with too much nitrogen from their poop. There is now an aerator installed to oxygenate the water for a healthier aquatic ecosystem. As you can see by the fish, the water cleared nicely.

This pond is not for domestic waterfowl, and that’s important to remember. I’m sure by the end of the summer, Kingfisher, Eagle, Heron, and Osprey (to name a few), will feast on these domestic fish. The pond remains deep enough to hide a few and allow the fish to continue their reproduction. Eventually, the koi will breed back into carp, and we’ll have a feast of our own in time. Note that this water is land locked, with no great threat of connecting to a wild source. This is very important if you are going to put fish into your water feature.

If it overflows into a natural body of water, or comes out of one, do not stock it with fish, as they will get into the wild without great care, and even then, flood accidents happen. I know it’s a more extreme example, but farmed Atlantic salmon escaped from pens that were distressed in a storm on Puget Sound last year, threatening wild Pacific salmon populations and creating a movement in legislation to ban the farms from Washington’s waters by 2026.

Carp are already invading wild waters in Washington, along with many other states. The Great Lakes are fighting to keep them out, and all over the country, you can bow hunt carp in any season at any time because they are so destructive. How you ask? Well, they act like vacuum cleaners along the bottom eating anything, including rare species of plants and animals that get sucked up into their mouths.  Plants are especially vulnerable, being unable to get a foothold in the bottom of lakes and streams where these fish veraciously feed.

Goldfish are also carp, so please, the next time you want to go dump “Goldie” into your local lake to let him “be free”, know that you are introducing a very destructive species of fish into a precarious watershed in your region. Smaller fish, like trout, cannot stand against these monstrous eaters. If you have carp in your water, fish them as much as possible and know that though they are bony, the meat is coveted in other countries and could be an enjoyable delicacy for those with a broader pallet.

At Leafhopper Farm, we are using carp as a guide to our water’s health, and these fish can live in very stressful conditions, like late summer drought, which drops our pond to only a few feet of depth, in a pond with no as of yet established major plant life. This is a perfect habitat for carp, and the nutrient rich poop they put down adds to the future fertility of the soil in our pond. When the pond is well sealed and ready to plant, we’ll address the carp issue with some fun fishing and eating, or let the wild birds have their fill.

Leafhopper Farm’s stud services are listed in this year’s American Dairy Goat Association Member’s Directory. A special thanks to Hawthorn Farm for selling me Brockstaro, a great pure bread Nigerian Dwarf buck! Brock is “*D” listed, meaning he is purebred Nigerian Dwarf stock. He’ll be continuing to breed my two Boer does as we work to bring better milking and smaller frame to our farm goats.

In learning more about breeding goats, it has come to my attention that any goats born of my  Nigerian Dwarf buck and AmericanBoer does cannot be registered by the ADGA, as they do not recognize Boer breed stock in their milkers. This does challenge my plan to register my goats, and here’s something important to note- in the dairy world, the dame and sire both have to be milking breeds. In the meat world, only the bucks really matter to register. So, because I have a male Nigerian Dwarf and a female American Boer, neither registry will accept the kids I’m breeding. So?

Well, if I cared more about papers, it would mean my goats can’t be registered, so they can’t show, compete, or hold any fancy titles in a herd book. They are not worth much money if I sell, and as “mutts” the genes are not predictable. Luckily, I’m not in this for the prizes and registry, I’m interested in taking my Boer doe’s great milk production, and putting that with the small frame of a milking breed to see what comes out. Gamble, our only kid doe this year, is the first experimental product of these genetics, and I hope she remains small like her  dad, with the bag of a great milker like her dame, and the genetics of her dairy goat sire to boot. The ADGA has an “experimental” title in their registry, but absolutely no Boer genetics can come in, the goat has to be of milking stock.

To me, this seems very short sighted, as a good milk bag on a goat from a breed not often introduced, would bring in some fresh genetic material. People argue that bringing in outside genes can harm lines long term. I would make the same argument for inbreeding. The outcome will tell as we take on the experiment here at Leafhopper Farm. I plan to acquire a Nigerian Dwarf doe to open the door of registry in future. However, I’m very excited about my mix of goat genes, and the potential of creating my own unique herd of Leafhopper Farm goats born and bred on site, with great temperament, manageable size, and reasonable milk production for farm use.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go milk my doe for a bit of liquid fresh pasture sun!

Kittens are opening their eyes at Leafhopper Farm! They are very light sensative, so the grain room will be ambient and safe. Lucia was getting very ancey about being in the house, and I was not enthusiastic about a cat box, so we settled on the space both she and Muir hung out as kittens. Now Lucia is out and about hunting again, while the kittens are stable enough now to spend some time alone. The queen is still getting three meals a day and unlimited dry kibble. The kittens are putting on milk fat at an astounding rate!

It’s amazing to me how underdeveloped these small predators are when they come into the world. Deaf and blind, the kittens are still moving around in response to a need for milk, and the queen was in the bed or within a few feet of it for the first two weeks. The kittens cannot regulate their body temperature for the first few weeks either. Now the kittens are self-regulating, and the outside temperatures are warm enough. Though the new babes are through the toughest part of early survival, much could stand in the way of their survival. We’ll keep feeding and encouraging as the kittens come along. Soon they will have sight, and with that, the important socializing with people to bond domesticity into otherwise feral animals.

My partner Bernard and I had a nice wander in the valley the other evening. We visited The Snoqualmie River, checked for tracks under the 124th bridge, and had a great time walking in the cherry blossoms near a wetland. Tracks we saw included muskrat, beaver, rabbit, and deer mouse. Fine river silt is a great way to see detailed morphology of a track, and under bridges, the rain does not disturb the sub-straight. This makes great tracking possible, and we had a lot of fun trying to decode the tangle of shapes and scratches.

In a wetland down the road, we were serenaded by a strange low frequency boom occasionally coming from the edge of the water. It was some how familiar to both of us, but we could not figure out the noise. Our theories ranged from bullfrog to pheasant, but our minds did not rest on a clear answer, even after looking around the marsh for a long time. It was not until a few days later that I began looking for an answer online, and boy was it a challenge to phrase my search question right. “Loud boom sound in wetland” was no good, neither was “strange sound in a marsh”. I finally got it right with “strange boom calling from wetland” and found my way to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. May I proudly introduce The American Bittern. I’ve heard this friend before (thank you Lindsey for the lesson) and it all made sense after I listened to the sounds of this amazing bird.

Here’s a fun fact from the site which also made me smile:

American Bitterns are heard more often than seen. Their booming, clacking, gulping calls have earned them some colorful nicknames, including “stake-driver,” “thunder-pumper,” “water-belcher,” and “mire-drum.” -Cornell Lab of Ornithology

I’m not sure what would have come up in the search results using those nicknames! It was a fun learning journey, and all from taking a walk one evening in spring. This is the pleasure of being a naturalist; the mystery only gets larger as you go deeper.

Speaking of deep, our local river is looking very good at this time of year. Snow melt is happening at a perfect pace, helping to water the landscape without flooding. This is a wonderful gift to the farmers in the valley, and I’m happy for them, though the floods also bring nutrients to the soil and a good soaking before summer drought times, but we had great rain in April too, so things have a head start. It’s still going to be hot and dry again this year according to the weather outlooks, but that’s no surprise. I think we’re in for this weather pattern for the foreseeable future. It’s a little nerve racking, because fire is a very real threat once drought sets in, and we’re living in a tinder box. I hope to avoid the smoke this year, because last year was record breaking in our area.

It’s so beautiful in our valley, and nature is off the hook, as she is in most places. Here, there is something so special about our abundant life, thriving forests, and endless water features. That’s why I’m proud to call Western Washington home.

It’s finally warm enough to let the ducklings move onto pasture at Leafhopper Farm! The need for a good bath is evident in the enthusiasm with which these ducky babes splash about. It’s important to get ducklings into water sooner rather than later, as they need to clean their heads well, and chick watering troughs are not enough. However, preventing drowning ducklings is also very important. This first pool I’ve introduced into the outdoor round pen is shallow, only 2″ of water. It’s enough to fully submerge, without sinking under. All the small birds can touch bottom and stand up to get out of the water easily. In another week, a larger swimming setup will be introduced, once everyone has a good oil coating and some feather growth.

The young Cemani chicks are out on pasture now and learning their new habitat. The custom designed Sun Chair 2000 has been serving as the young bird roost for several seasons now, and I must say, the design holds. The roost is not completely safe from a predator invasion, but live electric mesh helps to deter predator intent, and the constant moving of the sun chair prevents a build up of scent. When you have a permanent coop set up, your have to clean it often to prevent a build up of poop, which sends out a beacon of smell to any predators. When you have a portable coop that’s kept clean, the smell does not build up as an advertisement.

Having the birds on movable pasture spreading manure evenly and directly to the landscape, improves pasture diversity, health, and resiliency. It’s a great way to control growth, avoiding the need to mow, which means mechanical maintenance and fuel expense. You don’t have to have huge numbers of birds to do the work, even one bird moved daily in a smaller coop can turn good soil. The key action is rotation, and my use of the sun chair as an easy, light weight coop for young birds, has been a successful poultry system at Leafhopper Farm.

A special note on livestock diet-

What you feed your flock will also greatly effect the health of your pasture. This is why I strongly believe in feeding only USDA Organic grains to my livestock. They wander all over my property pooping out what I put into them. If I’m feeding chemically treated grain to the animals, those chemicals will come into the soil and into the meat and eggs of my stock. That’s a recipe for concentrated contamination. The rain run off from the land will contaminate local water features too. Please use organic feed to help stabilize our environment, it’s worth the extra money, because chemical contamination clean up is excruciatingly expensive and no quick fix.

Found them yet? I’ll give a hint: bottom center and mid center, there are at least 6 shrooms in the photo.

Well, I missed this crop in the hedgerow along the west fence line. Can’t find em’ all, but I was a little sad to see such yummy bounty come and go so quick! The morels bloom on there own terms, and my hypothesis is cardboard assists in bringing in the spores, which then inoculate the ground as the woody pulp breaks down. This is only a theory, and not all the cardboard brings morels. I do know that morels love cottonwoods, and cottonwoods are often used in wood pulp for paper making. I’ll maintain that cardboard has endless uses in growing things, from mulching to mushroom spores, this material is wonderful. My dream is that one day, all cardboard boxes are held together with biodegradable tape [(thank you amazon.com)<-I don’t have an account, but many other people do], rather than the cellophane tape often used to this day.

We’ll keep an eye out for more morels and other shrooms at Leafhopper Farm!

Today the kids enjoyed one of their favorite games- “Top of the Rock”. Gwern is still a little larger than his younger siblings, Proctor and Gamble, but today, Gamble, our only female kid, took possession of the rock and held fast! It was great fun watching her push around both her brothers, claiming the top spot again and again with confidence. Even Gwern is held off in a head to head moment. Here’s to kidding around!

Gamble is also often leading the crew of three from place to place, and it’s showing in her confidence to stand and watch people walking by, instead of running away. She’s looking calm and collected, like her mother, lead doe Brownie. What makes a lead doe? The compelling wisdom which sways the rest of the herd to follow her. Brownie knows where to find the best brows and when to move to another good eating spot. She’s the first to spot a dog, then turns to stand facing it, stepping to the front of the herd in her protective posture to face any threat. Some might wonder where the buck is in all this, well, he’s most likely too busy putting his nose up a does butt to check if she’s in heat. Though he can be protective of the herd, most bucks are not the goat everyone wants to follow. indeed, it is a doe who will lead the herd, and her instinct the others trust. I hope that Gamble grows up to be just like her mother.