-
Rhinoceros Beetle
-
What We’ve Been Tending this Week
And what a week it has been. With this heat it’s a good thing the watermelon is plentiful because we’ve been sucking it down to stay hydrated and fueled while caring for everything here. The birds have been working hard too, so their share of the melon crop has been earned. I think they’ve figured out that leaving some juice in the eaten out melon halves attracts a week’s worth of bugs, therefore extending the buffet. Farm and homestead plants need daily monitoring, watering, fertilization and repositioning. Mom’s orchids are flowering for an unexpected bonus round since December, and her Gasteria succulent has divided into a handsome clump on The…
-
Everything Loves Our Produce
If it’s turned a bit gnarly and not safe for us to eat, no worries….the chickens will take it. Tomorrow there won’t even be rind left in that coop. It’s better not to attract deer and vermin with aromatic goodies plowed back into the compost situation, so the birds usually get first crack at it. Growing food here has surprisingly been easier and more productive. All of the work we put into creating and building up organic beds now keeps us well fed. The wild blueberries outdid the first-year cultivated blueberries by a factor of at least ten. Watermelon picked today were each 30 and 40 lbs, and it is…
-
Observations from a Summer Solstice Week
-
The Abundant Mistletoe
-
Two Up, Sunny Side!
-
Red, Blue, Green, Oooh, Ouch!
In the span of a year here I’ve seen some stunning insects, and in some of those situations my prior background in collecting serves us well. Don’t need to whip out the field guide to know that some of these lawn jewels can hurt real bad or stink up the joint right quick if messed with. The large, fuzzy bright red “ant” is a wingless female wasp called a velvet ant, or cow killer. Though slow to anger it has the longest stinger of them all and packs a wallop. This is the second Spring in a row where I’ve first seen the smaller reddish brown species of velvet ant…
-
Stalking Dinner
-
It’s Always Cactember at Cactus Island.
Especially at blossoming and wooly growth times. A 6am seniors-only grocery store run last week surprised us with the tail end of open flowers on these night blooming Cereus Peruvianus/Hildemannianus as we walked over to the Jeep to leave. Made our morning and the rest of the day. The Pilosocereus aff flexibilispinus “Sitio Grande, Bahia” are getting taller and darker blue-green smoky skin, and the similar P. Piauhyensis are trading out lime green skin for dark green-blue complimented by yellow needles as they hit a growth spurt finally. A 6’x6′ square of extra shade cloth is aiding the Harrisia Aboriginum in growing healthier, taller and darker green as would be…
-
A Gold Tortoise Shell Beetle and What it Likes to Visit
