EEC Forest Stewardship

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.

What does two weeks of rain followed by a week of warm sun bring? Spring growth! From bulbs to bracken fern, the plants are up and growing at Leafhopper Farm. We’ve stripped back the cloche coverings and sewn seeds in the green house to compel new young sprouts for coming summer bounty. Our pastures are off the hook, and chickens can’t even keep up! Our goats are browsing things down fast, and we’re proud of our diversifying pasture plantings. Grasses are not all a pasture should supply to healthy grazing animals, it must also have medicine plants like plantain and dandelion, there should be legumes like clover, and yarrow too. Take a disc to your pasture every few years, not a plow to till it up, but a disc, which opens the soil to new seed without completely destroying the established plants already in the ground and thriving.

In the small garden patch pictured above, a thick growth of cover crop mix sewn last fall is ready to chop and drop. All that green manure will go back into the soil in a second conditioning, Eventually, this patch will be the location of another hoop house. I’ve been jump starting fertility for the future beds which will grow year-round food for the farm.

To grow year round in most North American climates (with the exception of Hawaii), you need shelter and protection from the cold. Insulated covers like mulch will protect dormant crops, but to grow above ground in freezing temperatures, of course you’ll have to insulate the air. This brings us to green houses, and I’ll admit, I still have a love/hate relationship with the thing. By the first frost, I’ve been hunting and have good meat in the larder, making my connection to high maintenance gardens less obligatory. My cloche is the way to go for winter gardening, along with some cold frames for hardy winter crops like spinach or winter lettuce. The greenhouse has become an overwintering spot for certain more tropical plants that need to avoid frost. However, it could be better utilized with more added systems like rabbits or other compost techniques used to generate heat for an open space.

This year, a lot of our starts are herbs, which should survive through the year with proper protection (like a green house). Or the thoughtful placement of a cloche (I plan on building more). Ideally the plants take care of themselves, but stewarding means having a hand in what and how in the gardens. They are for the farm’s larder, and the closest to the living spaces that is cultivated, outside of house plants. This domestic scene takes a lot of water, weeding, and reseeding to maintain. Unlike the forests, which hardly rely on irrigation to survive. Indeed, the garden quest is a noble one, and the rewards are great, along with the losses, but that’s learning, right?

In the front garden pictured below, established winter crops, which were grown under a cloche, have shot up into towering greens for endless salads. The cloche is being reset in a new bed space above the old one, now in need of refreshing (another load of organic material set into the bank, that’s right, hugaculture).

The entire front garden is build on hugaculture, and it’s always ready for more organic material. This growing season, much of the garden is piled up into new mounds, awaiting new sewing of food crops, many of which will be transplanted from the green house. In the west side of the front garden, a cover crop sewn last fall is also ready for a cutting. This bed is only partially build up, and should be tilled in again by hand to return these plants fully into the soil to benefit planting next fall. This area of the front bed is also getting full sun for the first time this year, thanks to some tree work, and production will go up quite a bit, allowing more diversity of planting too.

The kitchen herb garden is enlarging, and the frost peach tree looks fabulous after a good thinning last winter. Kitchen sage, oregano, chervil, and chives have established for our culinary needs. There’s also a mix of early spring bulbs, which I am regretting a little as a companion plant to the herbs because it has made weeding a little tricky. It’s hard in the fall when everything dies back, to remember what will come back next spring. I’ve got maps drawn of each garden, but things change, and I recommend doing a redraw of your beds every few years.

Cultivated space is a lot of work, especially when you expect a certain amount of return on a crop that is most likely not perennial. This means replanting from scratch every year, how tiring! The garden is a lot of high maintenance, and yes, it can be worth it, but how much space can you really tend in this way? That’s something I’ve written about in past blogs, and will continue to bring up in discussion as this land and my relationship to it evolves. This summer I’ll be cultivating more gardens than ever, only partially planted with annuals. The majority of cultivated space in the gardens this year will go to developing hardy perennial plants which can stead the soil, rejuvenate it’s chemical composition, and ultimately take care of its self!

In a final reflection, gardening and tending a growing space for food is a great feat, it’s also investment in survival. Know your food and where it comes from, what it takes, how much risk there really is for us to keep up such a civilization of consumption. The concept of a victory garden is not only a practice in times of war, but a lifetime commitment to survival, self sufficiency, and a closeness with the earth that cannot be artificially created. Many of us claim we don’t have time. That is the language of a defeatist, and well worth looking at.

If you cannot grow food where you live, in your lifestyle, how can you grow yourself? Do you have pets, children, house plants? There’s some quality cultivation already in your life taking other forms, why not extend it into growing your food? Or, supporting others who do. At least going to the grocery store with a conscious intention to shop as an informed consumer is a great first step. Well, what is informed? Follow the typical questions; WHO- grows the food? WHAT- are you eating? WHERE- does it come from? WHEN- was it harvested? WHY- are you eating this? Question and skepticism are not the same, and being informed is a far cry from being nosy; especially when it comes to our bodies and health.

Guess who just became a new mom at Leafhopper Farm? That’s right! Lucia gave birth to two kittens last night and there’s no doubt who the father is. Muir is lazing on the porch with no clue. Meanwhile, tiny rat like kittens are mewing and nursing in their first full day of activity in this world. Lucia is a little upset about being kept in the bathroom, but she’s getting unlimited canned organic fish in olive oil. Yummy!

These are the first kittens I’ve ever known from birth, and they will be welcome additions to our rodent removal program. This will be Lucia’s only litter, and we’ll be fixing both her and Muir in the next few months. I wanted to let her breed once in a full life cycle experience, also having a few extra awesome mousers is great for the farm. These kittens are so vulnerable, yet destine to grow up into unparalleled predatory powerhouses.

In other news, ducklings!

20 baby Khaki Campbell ducklings arrived from the hatchery early this morning. I lost sleep over how to set up their pen, then got up at 6am and threw it together like a pro. It always amazes me how smoothly habitat construction happens once things are down to the wire. These little birds are a pleasure to sit with, and offer lots of feel good energy as spring moves into full force.

There’s a never ending list of “to do” here, but the baby animals make everything so much more fun! I’ll be learning a lot in the coming weeks as ducklings in substantial numbers settle onto the farm in a good grazing rotation while kittens will eventually open their eyes and turn into wild and woolly balls of fluff. Tune in for future cute pictures and funny videos of the livestock at Leafhopper Farm.

Weiss Creek has a new buffer fence along her head waters off Big Rock Rd. and it’s happening on Leafhopper Farm! With the help of my amazing family, we got the last of this fence line up and stretched in a final two day push. We’ll hope to hang the gates this week, focusing on final tie downs and secure post settings in prep for a walk though with King Conservation District reps this summer.

In the fall, USDA will fund a restoration project to remove blackberry and knot-weed using glyphosates (Round Up) in a “spot treat” method for minimal exposure to the sensitive salmon stream. Don’t ask me how the county justifies using Round Up, but it does prevent continual re-occurrence of the invasive species in only two years. After the initial spot spray (they selectively treat each root base of every invasive established within the buffer zone), and then return to spot check again the following year. By then, native species will be planted throughout the habitat to restore native under story and establish new forest zones along the creek to enhance rain forest stands.

This stream buffer represents Leafhopper Farm’s commitment to habitat restoration and natural resource regeneration. It is very satisfying to see the space cultivating healthy soil and water for future generations. I look forward to the work still yet to come as we establish new native species and design a mushroom log operation which will allow access to monitor and encourage planted spaces within the buffer, while actively maintaining the buffer zone by continuing to prevent the establishment of blackberry or the return of knot weed from upstream.

Since we will no longer be allowed to use goats or other livestock to mediate the area, more direct contact with the landscape on the part of the land stewards will be required. By folding in systems of production, like material harvesting (willow for baskets) and mushroom log cultivation (approved agro-forestry within stream buffer), the engagement with this space will remain strong, if not more connected than ever before. This is how we invest in our land, and work to restore and enhance our habitat. Without weaving ourselves into the natural world through direct engagement, it is difficult to fully comprehend, or care about the place we live.

Leafhopper Farm will continue to demonstrate good stewardship practices in the foothills of The Cascade Mountains in Western Washington. The farm will also continue to offer tours and consultation regarding stream buffer, habitat restoration, and food production systems in our temperate rain forest environment. The farm offers a physically implemented and federally recognized buffer instillation in site as part of our demonstration practices. Please contact us- info@leafhopperfarm.com to plan a farm visit, or for stream buffer consultation and planning with land steward Liz Crain of Leafhopper Farm.

It’s the first time Leafhopper Farm has had a “gang” of kids running together in the larger herd. They are most often together exploring, grazing, or laying in a big pile. There is a lot more behavior to watch with this more complex herd structure. The two male goats (Gwern and Proctor) spend a lot of time pushing each other around, mounting, and head butting. They are also the most likely to wander over to their dad, Brock, who they also butt heads with. They are still small, and Brock is so gentle, but firm. He’ll also graze calmly as shown in these photos.

Proctor seems to be the most watchful and aware. He always puts eyes on me when I come around, and often checks in with his mom, Brownie. As lead doe in the herd, Brownie has the wisdom in the group, and I’m glad to see her son taking after her as a watchful, observant goat. His sister Gamble, is a lot more care free, spending more time romping around in her own little world. She also tends to stick closer to her mom, Brownie, and watches the world passively, compared to her brothers. Gwern had a larger frame, and was born a week before his half siblings. He was pushing everyone else around a lot at the beginning, but now the three kids seem to be balanced out, enjoying their effort in exploration together more than alone (herd animals).

The kids are at an age of great activity, and lots of fun antics. I found all three kids crammed into the out house today, and they flew out together at once in a pile of cream colored velvet, flowing into the lush green grass. In the morning when I let everyone out for grazing, the kids sometimes get distracted and wander off instead of following the rest of the herd down the hill. When the realize the other adult goats are gone, a high pitched orchestra of bleating comes flying down the hill through the underbrush as kids pop out of the bramble and slide under their doe’s udder for some milk courage and maternal reassurance.

The kids are healthy, happy, and growing up fast. I’ll continue to soak up the cute weeks of babyhood and learning that these newest members of The Leafhopper Farm goat herd. We plan to weather the two boys, as our virile breeding buck Brockstaro is a great daddy goat, and gentle teacher for the young ones. I’m curious to see what size these kids grow to with their Nigerian Dwarf and American Boer genes together. I’m betting Gwern stays smaller, while his half siblings Proctor and Gamble, grow larger. I’m guessing this based on the leg length of the twins. Time will tell!