This Is For The Birds...

Our peaceful mountain home now has a war being waged right outside it's doors. What started with a few pesky interlopers has quickly escalated to stealthy, nightly attacks that are robbing us of sleep and sanity.

Let us step back in time a couple months to the start of this saga...

As you may recall, last fall we started putting out bird feeders and over the winter we were very pleased with the variety and volume of birds that visited on a regular basis. We occasionally had some other woodland critters come around and help themselves to the bird feeders, namely squirrels and deer.

The squirrels were entertaining enough that we did not mind (too much) that they spent hours each day dangling from the feeders as they picked through to get the choice seeds and dropped the rest on the ground. We have several bird species that prefer eating from the ground, so the seeds tossed out by the squirrels did not go to waste.

The Deer Feeder

When the deer first appeared, we were so excited to have them visiting our yard each evening, we did not mind that they were quickly emptying any of the bird feeders within their reach. However, after they broke one feeder, and then gnawed away at wood on it's replacement, we decided it was time to re-locate some of the feeders. Little did we know that this decision would, while eliminating these little skirmishes, lead to all out war on another front.

First, we decided to remove any bird feeders from being within reach of the deer. We did provide the deer with a seed block, so they did not seem to mind the loss of the feeders to much. We had been hanging a couple feeders from wrought iron shepherd hooks, the style generally used for hanging flower basket. The deer (and squirrels) could access these quite easily, so we stopped using them and attached a curved hook onto a tree trunk, at a height that the deer could not reach.  With this move, we vanquished the deer, but the squirrels continued to offer them aid by knocking seed to the ground so that the deer could forage. The squirrels also became demolition experts in that they would pull apart and/or chew off sections of the plastic feeders so that the seed would pour out onto the ground. Needless to say, we preformed hardware upgrades, replacing the plastic feeders with squirrel teeth resistant metal versions.

Basketball Hoop Feeder

When we moved onto the property, there was an old basketball hoop attached to a length of 2x4 that was in turn screwed into a tree along the driveway. As neither Alan or I are know for our prowess on the basketball court, the hoop was repurposed into yet another bird feeder stand. Alan fashioned a rope and hooks into a pulley system for raising and lowering the feeder to fill it.

Ahh, a truce. The birds were feeding, the squirrels were entertaining (and feeding) and the deer were no longer destructive. All was peaceful on the home front, until....

All out war was instigated by new visitors (aka the enemy)... raccoons. We had not seen any raccoons on the property all winter, but this spring and summer several things changed that probably played crucial roles in bringing the enemy to our door. First, I planted a garden. When I put tomato plants in containers on our deck, I quickly realized I needed to surround them with chicken wire as some type of 'critter' was digging them up at night. Next, one day as I was filling the basketball hoop bird feeder, the cross-timber gave way from the tree and the feeder, hoop and 2x4 came crashing down... on my head!

The final impetus to our soon to be declaration of war was the lack of birth control within the raccoon community. Early in the summer, Alan would go out on the deck at night, shine a flashlight up into the tree branches, and there would be several cute baby raccoons staring back at him. Fast forward a couple months and those nocturnal critters of destruction are no longer cute, and no longer up in the trees.

Squirrel Sabotage

When the basketball hoop feeder exploded (I think it was squirrel sabotage), we decided we needed to tighten our perimeter and move the feeders to more secure locations within 'friendly territory'. The enemy lines were encroaching upon us. We crossed into enemy territory during the light of day, rescued the feeders and brought them up to the deck. We had prepared the retreat location by mounting hooks into the deck railing and we hung the bird feeders there. Close to the house and about 10 feet off the ground.

Attempt #1:
Bring feeders up to the deck

However, within just a night or two, we started hearing footfalls across our deck on a nightly basis. One night, as I was sitting on the sofa, I looked through the office to the sliding glass door and saw the enemy staring in at me! The raccoons were not deterred by our proximity to the newly relocated bird feeders. We would sit at the living room windows, just six or so feet from the feeders hanging on the deck railing and watch the raccoons attack them. One night, while laying in bed, I heard a large crash and the next morning found one of the feeders laying on the ground.

Attempt #2:
Extend feeders away from deck

Time for new war-time strategies. Since proximity to us did not deter the enemy, we decided we needed to hang the feeders in a manner to keep the raccoons from being able to reach them. Our plan was to extend them out away from the deck in some manner so that the pesky critters could not get to them. We made a supply run to Lowe's and I came up with an idea using conduit, a section of larger pipe and various hooks and clamps to make retracting poles so that we could still easily fill the feeders and then slide them out of reach of the raccoons.

Pre-War

This deterrent worked for a couple days, while the enemy also strategized, and then we were once again waking up to empty bird feeders, and worse yet, damaged feeders that had plummeted once more to the ground.

War Time Destruction

A Wounded Soldier Returns

We were not yet ready to surrender, so back to the drawing board. The weight of the full bird feeders was causing the lengths of conduit to bend downward (even before the weight of the raccoon was added to it each night). We decided engineering an upward slant to the conduit would do the trick. We assumed the raccoons would not be able to climb up a sloping steel rod. Alan cut small wedges of lumber and inserted them between the deck rail and the conduit.

A Wedge Was Added

Attempt #3:
Angle the pole upwards

Attempt #4:
Grease the pole

That night, we went to bed confident we would wake up to birds happily having breakfast, not screaming at us because the feeders were once again empty. Again we had success for a couple days, but then the enemy once again foiled our plans in some way. I suggested we grease the poles, so Alan then applied lithium grease. And yes, we were grinning evilly as we sprayed the lubricant on the poles as thoughts of raccoons slip-sliding and plummeting to the ground raced through our minds.

The Raccoons 'Pooh-Pooh-ed'
Our Fortification Attempts

The next day, the raccoons left us a visual comment as to what they thought of our last escalation in the war of the bird feeders. In fact, I almost stepped in their 'comment' as I opened the french doors and stepped on the deck the next morning.

At this point, we truly believed we had won not only that battle, but the entire war. For several days we woke up to feeders that still had a seed supply, despite the sound of the pitter-patter of raccoon feet on the deck during the night. However, the enemy is persistent and apparently lithium grease dissipates (or possible raccoons licked it off) because after about a week, we once again woke up to empty bird feeders.

At this point, I fear we may have reached the point of loosing a bit of  our sanity. We are now determined to stop the raccoons at all cost. Alan brought out the big guns (no, not literally as I am not prepared to try raccoon stew ...yet). Out came strips of lumber, power driver and nails. We have now created one more line of defense on the deck railing. So far, this has been a bloodless war, although I had feared I would wake up to bloody paw prints on the deck after our last reinforcements. If this has not convinced the enemy to surrender, the pellet gun may be the next item in the arsenal against this formidable foe.

Hmmm, I wonder if the raccoons
will leave a 'comment' to this?

Attempt #5
Need I say more?

Mulligan!

Alan and I used to be avid golfers, a few summers ago we played at least 36 holes per week. Mini-golf that is. One of my few claims to 'fame' was that I was once asked to join the United State's International Mini-Golf Team to compete in Italy. Unfortunately, no companies feel they would benefit from sponsoring a mini-golf  all-star, so I declined the invitation as I would have to finance the trip myself.

If you are not a golfer, you may be wondering what this has to do with my post today. In golf, there is a term for a shot that you want to 'do-over', it is called a Mulligan. We have been living off-grid for over a year now and I had been floundering about what my next blog post topic would be. Usually, within a couple weeks of posting a new blog entry, several events have taken place that seem to tie together nicely to create the next post, but the past few weeks have been a mish-mash of activities that seemed to have no cohesiveness. And then I was was reminded of the word 'mulligan', and that gave me the idea that it was time for a 'do-over'. I decided to page back through some of my posts over the past year and, based on their titles, see if they could be expanded upon to reflect our more recent off-grid activities. So here goes....

From July 3, 2012: We are in 2G Territory
This original post focused on various upgrades we had made from our initial few days of surviving on the property to all the comforts of home we had been adding during our first stay. Here is a list of some of our further upgrades we have made this summer:

Alan's Home Built Combiner Box
(He will be posting a detailed article soon)

1. Combiner box for the solar system. Alan built a new gadget to go between our solar panels and the charge controller. As the trees leafed out this spring, we felt we were loosing some power when all the panels were not in full sun. In the morning, as the sun rises over the mountain, the trees in our yard block the sun from the eastern most panels on the deck and these panels do not get full sun until about noon. And then, as the sun crosses the sky and starts to dip to the western mountain, the trees on that side cast shade on the western panels. When panels were in the shade they were draining power from the sun soaked panels, so some of the power was not making it to our batteries.The combiner box contains diodes that isolate each panels so the shaded panels can not become parasites stealing our power. We have seen our peak power production climb from 13.1 amps up to 15.2 amps, a nice improvement! Alan plans on posting an article on his project soon.

Our Newest Water Tank
 Bungee cords from the cage frame to the
downspout align the gutter. The elevated
bathroom tank can bee seen behind it. 

2. Rain water collection. We moved our second IBC tank, the one that had collapsed when we placed it on concrete blocks next to the shed. We now have it behind the house, just outside the utility room. We put up 20 feet of rain gutter on this side of the roof to feed into the tank. This catches water from twice as much roof area as the 10 foot gutter we have feeding our bathroom tank. We had one torrential rain storm soon after setting up this new tank and the water just gushed in from the 20 foot expanse and the 250 gallon tanked filled in just that one storm.

3. Automatic watering system. When we were last up north, Alan went to one of our favorite stores, American Science Surplus,  while I helped our daughter with the grandbabies. He went there just to browse for any sciency stuff  that might be useful on the property. American Science Surplus has lots of science  related items, electronics, etc. One of the treasures he picked up was a timer he could connect into our water system. That, plus a drip hose created an automatic waterer for our pallet and container gardens while we were in Kentucky for about a week.We were able to set the timer so that the drip system watered the plants for 15 minutes twice a day while we were gone.

The Drip Line  Along the Pallet Bed, Through the Containers and Across the Barrel Planters
(Carrots &Pepper  ---- Tomatoes ----Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes)

Alan Tests the Spring Water

We also had to make sure the water tank was full before we left, we did not want to run the tank dry watering, because then the pump would burn out as it kept trying to pump water but sucked air instead. So, we made a trip to the spring to fill our third IBC tank which we keep in Hoss, our larger pick up truck. We then use a 12v transfer pump to move water from the truck to the house tank. Whether we are adding rain water or spring water, we always treat the water we store in the tanks and then further filter all the water used for consumption.

From July 31, 2012: No Internet for Over 4 Days

Last summer we left the property for an extended period to partake in several events that all occurred within the same time frame: our grandson's first birthday, helping our daughter with an annual event in Kentucky that she could not attend due to being 9 months pregnant, and then the birth of said grandaughter. The four days without internet was due to the fact that Alan and I were so busy with our daughter's booth at the event in Kentucky I was exhausted each night and never turned my computer on. It is sort of ironic, that whenever we have a need to travel and be back on the grid is when I slack off on my internet usage.

Hanna Helps Stock the Booth

This year, the events were similar, but a little more spread out. We traveled to Wisconsin in May for the birth of our third grandchild, but then we came back south before heading out to Kentucky once more for the annual sales event. This year was even more fun than usual helping out our older daughter with this event because she was able to attend it with us this year, along with her husband and their daughter. So, while we had four people working the booth this year instead of two, and thus I was not exhausted each night, I still did not use the internet much because I was too busy playing with our granddaughter.

From September 11, 2012: Never Ending Projects and Distractions

First Fruits...

Some projects around the house seem to take forever to get completed for a variety of reasons. For example some are tiring and time intensive, like cleaning and painting floors. Others we slowly collect what we are looking for before actually beginning the project, like my kitchen cabinet hardware. And others, frankly, are things we don't really want to get started on and usually do not get moving on them until we have a need, like when we were assembling various pieces of furniture, some of which did not get built until January and that was only because guests were arriving and we needed it for the guest room.

... And Veggies

Do we still have never ending projects and distractions? Always. Right now, my garden is a never ending project. Not so much this year's garden as we are starting to see the fruits (and vegetables) of our labors, but my plans for next year's garden. As I am seeing the results of our various garden experiments, I am already getting excited about what I want to accomplish in next year's garden. In fact, last night I was up late checking out seed company web sites and have already bookmarked various tomatoes and squash I want to grow next year. I also purchased large pots yesterday that were on clearance ($7.99 marked down to $1.99) to expand my container garden next year. In fact, with the longer growing season down here, I am hoping to plant some fall garden items this week.

I Opened Up Another Puzzle...
That's OK, Just This One
It's Only 350 Pieces

One of my distractions I wrote about last year, was a jigsaw puzzle I had started that kept me up late at night. I can easily become obsessed with completing a puzzle, so I have not started another since that one. That is, until four nights ago. Alan has been having some shoulder pain the last few weeks and last Friday he woke to excruciating pain. Bad enough that he decided it was time for to get it looked at. Turns out, according to the doctor, you should never sleep with a fan blowing directly on you and Alan had been doing just that. We had been having a bit of a heat wave and every night it was still over 80 degrees when we went to bed. Alan set up a fan in the bedroom window that is right at our headboard, which is decorative wrought iron style and thus open to let the fan blow through, right onto his shoulder. Since (1) the fan which is about 8 inches in diameter, is positioned at the center of the headboard and (2) I did not suffer any ill-effects of a night breeze hitting me and (3) it is his right shoulder that is in pain and he supposedly sleeps on the right side of the bed; I take that as proof that Alan sleeps in the center of the bed.

OK, Just One More...
And Then I'll Stop

Wow, was that a digression from the topic, I had simply meant to explain that Alan has been on pain meds and going to sleep early, so I have once again opened the beckoning jigsaw puzzles. I started with an simple 350 pieces puzzle, to get them out of my system once again. But their deceptive pull was too strong, I finished that one in two nights and quickly escalated to a 500 piece puzzle which I again blew through in just  two nights. So, while my husband is on pain pills, I am struggling with my addiction. There is a 2000 piece puzzle sitting on the shelf, and worse yet, the picture is composed of dozens and dozens of vegetable seed packets. If I start this puzzle, would that mean I was feeding two addictions at once?

From September 28, 2012: It's Just a Phase

This post that I made last year was one of my favorites. In it, I listed the various phases we were seeing transpire on the property, most of which involved insects. Katydids, walking sticks, harvestmen (a.k.a.daddy-long-legs), and praying mantis to name a few. This year, were are seeing the same phases to varying degrees. This summer is much wetter than the summer drought we went through last year, so some insects are more prolific this year and others not-so-much.

We also had a new phase that we did not have last year - dragonflies. The main variety we saw throughout the spring and early summer were a smaller sized dragonfly with vivid blue wings. There were other species as well, but we had literally dozens of the beautiful blue little dragonflies flitting about the yard. They particularly liked to hang out around Hoss's truck bed. Maybe the black truck emanated some heat during the day that became their spa. They also liked to land on the tips of my tomato stakes in the container garden on our deck.

Unfortunately, one of least favorite phases has been greatly extended this year - the tick phase. Fortunately, the tick control we used this year in the yard is working very well, but stray outside that zone and you are virtually guaranteed to find the little buggers on you soon after. Alan walked about 50 feet into the woods south of our deck to place a shooting target and that evening we discovered four ticks had become attached to him in that short trip out of the tick free zone.

While the tick phase is lasting much longer this year, end of July and still going strong, one of our favorite phases was much shorter this year. The skink phase. You may recall last year we discovered these cute little lizards with bright blue tails liked to sun bathe on our deck.With our wetter spring, I thought we may even see more skinks than last year, however I forgot to take into consideration one of the additions we made to the household this winter - our cats.We did see one of the cats walking along the deck with a bright blue tail sticking out of it's mouth.

From October 8, 2012: Wait, That's Not Quite Right
This summer, I once again found myself thinking this at one point. In fact, it was the first title from last year that popped into my head for this post. As summer was approaching, the sun was higher in the sky and the power being generated by our solar panels decreased. I did not expect that. As you may recall, last fall as the sun was dipping lower and lower in the western sky, we took down a few trees to open up our southern vista to accommodate our solar array. With spring, the days became longer, and our batteries were being well fed, and then as summer approached, we noticed the incoming power levels were slowly dropping off. The problem was, while the sun was higher in the sky, the trees were leafing out and causing shadows on parts the solar array both in the morning and late afternoon. The amount of time each day where we had full sun on all the panels was actually decreasing as we approached the summer months.

The combiner box I talked about earlier helped us retrieve a greater percentage of the power being generated, but we now know that, overall, we generate less power in the summer than in the winter. Go figure!

From October 20, 2012: The Goldilock Zone

This entry last fall discussed the balancing act we find in regards to many aspects of our off grid life - our wood burning stove, propane water heater, etc.. This summer I have added experiments with another appliance that involves adjustments to get the temperature just right. I have finally started working with my Sun Oven, which is a solar powered oven. Basically a black box, with a tightly gasketed glass door surrounded by highly reflective panels. The sunlight is reflected from the panels into the oven to provide the heat. This may not sound impressive, but I can easily heat this up to 325 degrees just by sitting it in are yard.

My first experiment was brownies, and I admit it was not the best choice to start with. There is a big difference between baking, such as breads, cookies and brownies and roasting. Baking is much more scientific and much less forgiving to any fluctuations.You just can't throw some ingredients together without a recipe, toss it in the oven at an unspecific temperature and expect it to come out as perfect cookies. Well, you can if you are my older daughter, but that is a different story... On the other hand, it is fun to throw together some ingredients for dinner, toss them in an oven and see what you end with.

Yummy Baked Beans

That said, my brownies turned out OK, but would have been better if I had baked them in the regular oven. So, until I get more proficient with the Sun Oven, I am focusing on creating slow-cooked meals in it as opposed to baked goods. I have made a great pot of baked beans that I took to a pot-luck and yesterday I threw a pot roast in a pan with new potatoes and carrots from our garden. I put in the Sun Oven for several hours while I worked around the house and ran some errands and last night we had a great pot roast meal with homemade sourdough bread. Note: I baked the sourdough bread in the regular stove the day before.

From December 5, 2012: This is Only a Test
The test referred to in that post was our jumping back on the grid and into a more luxurious setting for our annual Turkey Palooza celebration with our family. We have just made reservations for this annual event this week, but I am actually switching up the meaning of this do-over title to let you know some projects/testing we have coming down the pike as funds are available. Topping our list of things we want to work on are:

1. Grape Solar Panels. This is a new brand of solar panel that has recently hit the market. They will provide more power than those we currently have. So, rather than kicking a long established member out of our solar system (no Plutos here), we will be adding to our solar system. This will involve some testing as we will now be mixing two brands of solar panels and will be working to make sure they play well together. We are not in need of additional power right now, but that leads us to the next two items on the drawing board...

2. A High Efficiency Ceiling Fan. We have found a company that manufactures highly efficient 12v ceiling fans that use brushless motors. According to the specifications, this should be able to be integrated into our off-grid power grid without being a power hog. This will help with climate control both in the summer and winter.

3. A 12v Solar Powered Refrigerator. There are now 12v refrigerators that also use efficient brushless motors, and thus, can be powered using a solar electric system such as the one we have set up. While we are very please with how our propane fridge is working out, we would like to expand our self sufficiency in this area by eliminating the need to periodically purchase propane for refrigeration.

Well, this blog post has certainly re-visted a lot of topics from the past year, but I do have one more Mulligan. You may recall a sad post last year when we had to put our very old dog to sleep because she was becoming too ill to have any quality of life. At that time, Alan and I made the decision to not get another dog. Well, meet Mulligan, she came walking up our driveway one day and apparently had not received the memo in regards to this decision. The fact that I fed her because she was skin and bones probably did not help persuade her to continue on her way.

The dog that is not our dog, as I insist on calling her, had a collar with a broken link of chain attached to it. We posted we found her on Craig's List and also hung a sign at the end of our driveway, but based on her neglected condition, it seems she had been surviving on her own for quite some time. As we did not know her name, Alan started calling her Spot. At this point I still adamantly called her The Dog That's Not Our Dog. Our youngest daughter told Alan that Spot was a lame name, especially since the dog (that's not out dog) has no spots. She said Alan needed a do-over on her name, a mulligan. So, the dog that is not our dog  is now called Mully (short for Mulligan). She sleeps behind our house, runs down the drive to greet us, and enjoys the food and dog biscuits we buy for her. She is also getting a do-over in life.

Back to the Stinkin' Mountain

Welcoming Ellison to
the family

When I last wrote, we were preparing the property for our absence as we traveled north for the birth of grandbaby #3. Our daughter and her husband had requested that I be present for the birth. It was a wonderful blessing to be present to welcome baby Ellison into the world! We had a great time visiting friends and family, but were also a bit worried about what we would find when we returned to the property, as the entire time we were away, at least once a week , there were very strong storms going through our part of the mountains.

Before we left, we did set up a cell phone in the house that we could call and have it send us a picture of the interior of the house. Alan also has his phone set up so that he receives texts when there are severe weather alerts issued for the area. Whenever we received a text alert, we could 'call the house' and have it send us a picture. The cell phone is in the corner of the kitchen so that the photos show the entire front interior of the house - kitchen, living room and office. This way, we could at least verify that no trees had fallen through the roof on that side of the house. This view also shows the french doors in the kitchen and the sliding glass door in the office, so we can also verify they are secure while we are gone. We are also so fortunate to have a good friend down here who was willing to drive out all the way from town at least once a week to check the property for us. Thanks Mike!!!

Playing with Big Brother Zeke

Our final week up north, I stayed with our daughter after her husband had returned to work. My goal was to help Eryn ease into her expanded motherhood roles as she now has a toddler and a newborn.After we left, I knew she was doing a wonderful job as she even managed to try out her canning skills by pickling asparagus her first day she was on her own with the two boys!

In my last blog, I promised to share photos of how my various garden experiments survived while we were gone. I had a lot of trepidation as to what I would find when we returned. There had been a lot of rain while we were gone, but much of it had been accompanied by violent storms. During the 12 hour drive, we saw much flooding and wind damage though-out Illinois and Missouri. In Illinois there were portions of grain silos scattered across fields and even in the highway median strips.

As we got closer to home, the damage didn't seem as severe, but I was still feeling a bit anxious. We pull into the driveway and everything looks pretty normal. Some of the things I notice first are:

Lots of empty bird feeders

1. All the bird feeders are empty
2. The potato plants are overflowing out of the top of the barrel
3. The tomato plants have grown about two feet.

The tomatoes actually were a bit water logged because I had placed the containers into totes so that they would get extra rain water if it rained while we were gone. I was still operating on the premise we are in a drought, but we had so much rain while we are gone, a news report last night declared we are officially out of the drought.

The tomato plants grew a lot -
except the one farthest right
but it is making a come back!

After, the quick 'once over' of the immediate property we went into the house to check it out. On the way up the deck stairs, I noticed an odor of something rotting that seemed to be coming from somewhere in the near vicinity, but I couldn't pin-point the location. Just an added note here, I have a stronger sense of smell than Alan, so it is usually my job to ferret-out strange odors. For example, when the propane tank on the stove is getting low, a slight propane odor can be smelled in the kitchen. I am always the first to detect it. When we first noticed this I worried about a propane leak, and the odor gets stronger as the tank gets lower. In fact, we tore the stove apart looking for the leak. Then, upon googling the problem, we discovered that as the propane tank gets low, the chemical that is added to the propane to give it that distinctive smell becomes more intense and can be smelled even though there are no gas leaks. So now we actually use it as an indicator as to when to get the tank refilled before it actually runs out.

The potato barrel has certainly changed since my last post

Anyway, I digress, back to the story of our return. I could not determine what was smelling so badly by the deck. My first thought was a dead animal, but there were none in sight. So I decided to come back out for a second look after checking the inside of the house. We open the side door into the utility room, turn off the alarm and the first thing we notice is a dank smell. We assume it is because the house has been closed up for a month. We open the windows and remove the barriers we install on the french and patio doors when gone for extended periods, then open them as well to air out the house.

This explains the fat raccoon that
was up on the deck looking in the
patio door the other night.

Once we have unloaded the car, I go back outside for a closer assessment of how things stand. Everything looks good, but we seem to have lost all of our birds. I am not sure if it is because we are fully into summer and they now venture deeper into the forest to fend for themselves, or if it is due to the fact the bird feeders are empty and they have flown on to seedier locations. One of my first chores is filling the bird feeders. Unfortunately, that chore has to be put on hold because some other guests, probably raccoons, have tipped over the can of bird feed, knocked off the lid, and devoured it.

I am still plagued by that rotting smell outside, somewhere near the deck. I check for rotting plants and even for dead rodents in the pile of used lumber we have under the deck for various projects, but still can find nothing. As I am taking stock of the various areas of my gardening, I see almost everything has survived and many are thriving. One exception is several flower pots in which I placed some gourd seeds right before we left. I had planted the seeds and then mulched the pots with dead leaves in hopes of holding in moisture. With the deluge of rain we had, it appears the seeds did not sprout. I grab the pots and decide to empty the potting soil they hold into my potato barrel, as those plants have grown at least 18 inches above the dirt. I need to start burying most of the stalks if I want any chance of ending up with a barrel of potatoes. I dump the first pot of dirt and immediately know I have found the source of my rotting odor. It appears the leaf 'mulch' I used to cover the potting soil has been decomposing in all the rain. One mystery solved.

Back in the house, another mystery remains - the dank odor is not airing out. After a couple hours, I have narrowed it down to the kitchen as the rest of the house has aired out. The next morning I narrow it down further to the sink/cupboard area of the kitchen. I open each drawer and cupboard, give a good sniff, and nothing. I then stick my head in the sink and sniff the drains and think 'possibly' but it doesn't really seem like a strong odor. Alan thinks the P-traps may have dried out and odors are backing up from the septic system. We empty a couple bottles of water down the sink drains and then I wash down some baking soda and hope for the best.

The next morning we discover the odor still hangs in the kitchen. I am getting ready to open up and empty all the cabinets and the drawers in the kitchen thinks that it has to be a dead mouse.I am not looking forward to this because we have about 25 cabinets and 10 drawers in our kitchen, not to mention I am expecting to find a dead mouse in one, and a dead mouse that is has been dead for a while.

Just as I am giving myself a pep talk to get moving on Project DMH (Dead Mouse Hunt), I spy the fly trap we had hung in the kitchen window right before we left. On our last extended visit up north we had returned to find several flies had taken up residents while we were gone. Well, more than several, but less than a lot. There needs to be a term to describe a number that is less than a dozen but more than several. When I describe a number of something I usually use the words couple, few, several, dozen, dozens, hundreds... But there doesn't seem to be a word for the amount between several and a dozen. But again I digress...let's just say there were enough flies to be really irritating when we got back from that previous trip.

The Culprit

Now, the fly tarp we bought is a plastic bag that contains some chemical that is irresistible to flys. When ready to use, you fill it with water and hang it up. We hung the bag in the kitchen window because that seems to be where flies like to congregate. So, as I go towards the sink to start emptying cupboards, I spy the fly trap and decide I should check it out as it is hanging above the sink and that is where the odor seems most pungent. I reach up, unhook the bag and pull it down so it is under my nose and take a big whiff. And, I then proceed to gag and about 'swoon'. Mystery number two solved.

So, our mountain is no longer stinking, the garden has survived it's month of neglect and we are happily ensconced back into our off grid life. When we left, we were having a record breaking cold spring that included measurable snow in May. Now, upon our return we are experiencing heat-wave temperatures that usually do not kick in until July and August. We have some outdoor projects we are working on, which I will cover in another post, but with the heat-wave we have returned to our summer work schedule of getting up early to work on the hottest project during the 'cool' of the day (about 80 degrees), stopping at noon as the temp is usually over 90 by then, and then back to another project in the late afternoon as the sun dips behind the trees. At least we currently have a decent water supply right now, so we can shower frequently enough so that we will not be the ones causing a stink to arise on the mountain once again.

Palletable Vegetables

Bringing home garden supplies.

If you ask Alan, he would say the title of this blog is an oxymoron as he claims to be chlorophyll intolerant when it comes to eating anything green. And, hopefully, if you ask my children whom I home schooled, they would say that the first word should be palatable. However, I am currently experimenting with various horticultural options on our dirt-less property and some of my experimentation includes wooden pallets.

Berry bush in blossom!

Last year we attended a workshop on raised bed gardening. The instructor started by asking how many people had moles in their gardens. A small percentage raised their hands, and he responded "Congratulations! That means you have dirt!" We were not so 'lucky'...

So, how do you attempt to garden when your land consists mainly of old hardwood forest and the small amount of open land is 75 percent rocks and 25 percent clay? As usual, I started by googling and first on the list was raised beds. You may recall that last fall I constructed a raised bed for some raspberry and blackberry plants I found on clearance, and I am happy to report that all the plants survived the winter, and are now sprouting lots of shoots and green leaves and even a few blossoms. This is now dubbed my berry patch.

There was also a raised bed 'of sorts' already in our front yard, near the road. The yard has a slight slope and the previous owners built up the lower edge (east side) with landscaping timbers, and filled in the north and south sides with landscape timber wedges so that the west side of the bed is the original rock and clay yard and the 'bed' extends east from there and gets deeper as it approaches the road. So the top soils is about two inches deep on the west side and 12 inches deep on the east side against the landscaping timbers along the road. This has become my first garden patch.

Digging up bulbs to
make room for vegetables.

This bed, while already established, had not been used for vegetables. It was filled with various flower bulbs and as spring arrived, more and more spring flowers started to pop up out of the ground. I got busy and started digging up all the bulbs as their plants began to appear. It took several weeks to complete this eradication as I would think I had dug everything up, and a few days later more would appear. The east side of the garden ends at a steep embankment that drops down several feet to the road. As I dug up the dozens and dozens of bulbs, I tossed them down this bank hoping that many will take root and form a spring flower bed along this embankment. So far, it looks like some of them are taking root.

The Domed Deer Deterrent for
the young rhubarb plants.

The first things I planted in the garden patch were rhubarb and asparagus. As these are perennials and can take over large portions of the garden if not kept in check, I wanted to establish their plots and set their boundaries. My rhubarb shot up very quickly and I had to quickly construct a make-shift deer barrier to protect the tiny shoots. This was solved with some chicken wire and tomato stakes. I am still waiting or the asparagus to make an appearance. I then planted onion sets and garlic in this bed as well.

Time for do-overs.

While preparing the raised bed, I was also starting seeds in the house. I was a little to gung-ho and started the first batch too early, little did I know this was going to be a cold spring with frosts very late in the season. We even had snow in May, which broke records that were over 100 years old. Since I couldn't plant my sprouted seedlings outdoors when I had planned to, they became very spindling and many died, so I decided to start over with a new batch of seeds. I started peppers, tomatoes, celery, spearmint, acorn squash, cabbage and several other items as seeds.

Pepper plants in a pallet row.

I then started working on the palletable portion of my garden. My gardening research had turned up using pallets for gardening: Turn A Pallet Into A Garden. I have obtained several pallets and, to date, I have constructed one pallet garden based on the instructions found at this link. This first pallet garden leans against our deck on the south side of our house, the same side as the solar panels.. This is my test pallet to see if the sun will be too strong there so I can determine if I can add more pallet beds, or relocate this portion of the garden to the east side of the house, which still gets sun, but not the full sun that is on the south side of the house. I planted two types of carrots (from seeds) along with peppers and celery (from my seedlings) in this part of the garden.

Potato plants peeking out from the
first addition of soil and compost.

My next experiment is a modification of container gardening. Someone had told me they had read about growing potatoes in a barrel, so I googled it and came up with a web site with instructions: Growing Potatoes In A Barrel. Following the instructions, I prepared a 55 gallon plastic barrel by drilling drain holes and then added soil and compost. I planted eight pieces of seed potatoes and once they sprouted and grew a few inches, I started the process of adding soil and compost periodically as the plants grow. I made one modification to the instructions, I placed a brick under one side of the barrel to angle the opening towards the sun so that the plants get more direct sunlight rather than being in the shadows of the barrel while they are growing down inside the barrel. Since this is an experiment, I also set up a 'control group' by planting eight seed potatoes in my raised bed garden as well, then I will be able to compare the volume of the harvest from both locations.

May 3rd? Really?
This is NOT Wisconsin.

I also received some tomato plants from a friend; two plants each of four different varieties.  I decided to use container gardening for these and transplanted then to large planters on my deck.These were fairly large when i received them and they are now staked and flourishing on the sunny deck. Due to the several nights with freezing temperatures during the end of April and first part of May, we got lots of exercise carrying all the large pots inside every night and back out to the deck each morning.

The deer are gossiping about
the new buffet that is being built.

By the second week of May, the weather seemed to bounce back to normal, except for an abnormal amount of rain. So, I planted some other seeds in the raised beds including green beans and Mexican black beans. I also transplanted my squash seedlings into plastic buckets. I did not want to use up all the space in the raised beds with the squash plants as they vine and spread out, but I knew they would not grow in the rocky clay somewhere outside of the garden, so I decided to use the buckets to see if container gardening would work for the squash. If they seem to stop growing due to the limited root space, I will make another raised bed to transplant them into. I plan on adding more raised beds anyway, so this would just be the one I'll add next.

Garden fence version #1. Not a successful design, but
easily re-purposed for the berry patch. 

With the onions and garlic coming up in the garden, and my control potatoes hopefully sprouting there any day, we had to come up with a permanent deer determent to replace the chicken wire cage I hastily constructed over the rhubarb. Over the past few weeks, we had been checking out local gardens as we drove into town to see what other people used to protect their gardens.  We first decided to build a wood frame and attach plastic fencing using a staple gun. The idea being that we could attach this to the landscape timbers with hinges and flip the cage open when working in the garden. This cage went together beautifully, but unfortunately was not stable enough to flip open. However, it was also a good size for the raised bed I had constructed for my berry patch, and since we do not have to work in there on a regular basis, we moved this protective enclosure over to the berry patch and started thinking of another option to protect the garden patch, yet still have easy access into it.

16 foot feedlot panels form a trellis in the truck bed.

We decided that metal posts and fencing would be a good option. We stopped at a Tractor Supply to look at options and we saw some rigid fence panels in their outdoor lot that looked like they would be a good option for easy set up. The rigid panels, which we learned are called feedlot panels, come in various heights and grid size. We decided on cattle feed lot panels which are 16 feet long and 50 inches tall. The first question is How do you transport 16 foot long panels home in a pickup truck with an 8 foot bed? The salesman at Tractor Supply said they could load up to four panels into a pickup at a time. These panels are about $18 each which seems very reasonable. We purchased the first four and had them loaded into the truck bed. They looked a little unusual as we drove down the road, but with the use of a couple of ratchet straps they transported very easily.

Hopefully, the deer will not jump over the fence.
But, if they do, we will just raise deer instead!

We connected the panels using plastic zip-ties. Because they are rigid and we were not making long stretches of straight fence we only needed to drive a couple metal support posts at key locations. This made us very happy as it is not easy to drive fence posts into the rocky ground. As we were working with the feedlot panels, actually as they were sitting in the truck, I got an idea of how to use them in another part of the garden. I was contemplating adding some grapevines at some point and one of these panels is flexible enough to make a trellis for the vines.

So, at this point, much of the garden is planted in the various locations and formats and the deer are hopefully blocked from making it the new buffet in town. Everything is set except for one big problem - we are now leaving the property for several weeks to head back to Wisconsin for the birth of grandbaby number three! I keep telling myself that this year's garden is experimental, so if things do not survive while we are gone, that is just a part of the experiment and I will compensate by making more trips to the farmer's market and purchase produce to can and dehydrate this year. Besides, that would help the local economy! I did place my tomato containers in plastic totes and put several inches of water in each tote to hopefully act as an automatic watering system. I also placed leaf mulch in my potato barrel and squash buckets to help retain water when it rains.

I give this experiment a 60% chance of success. 

As I am writing this, we have been back up north for a few days (no grandbaby yet) and I keep checking the weather back at the property. So far, it has been warm, but there is rain in the forecast so all should be well for now. Alan rigged up a remote camera for the inside of the house, perhaps next time he can set one up for the gardens too. He already told me he has designed an automatic watering system for the next time we are gone for any period.

We will be staying in Wisconsin for 2 weeks after the baby is born, so the newly planted garden could be abandoned for about a month. I will be sure to take pictures of what everything looks like when we arrive back down south because at the start of this blog I did promise to share the good, the bad and the ugly!

Spring Guests: Long Awaited, Unexpected & Unwanted

The streams on our property
are no longer dry

I just realized it has been a month since my last post, Spring has arrived, and with it many chores have been added to those that had become the Winter routine. Occasionally we still have to bring in wood and tend the fire, as we have been told this Spring has been below average temperature-wise, but our gardening projects are now in full swing. Those exploits, however,  will be another post in the near future. Spring has also meant the arrival of some guests around the property.

Introducing friends to a favorite
BBQ joint

First, the long awaited. My dear, best friend brought her son and a friends of his down from Wisconsin for Spring Break. Unfortunately, the weather turned cold and wet just before they arrived and stayed that way the entire week they were here. One of the things I love about our Ozark weather is it's volatility. Whenever a cold spell sets in, all you have to do is wait a day or two and warmer temperatures will soon replace it, however that was not the case for their visit.

We put the boys to work
around the property

Despite the weather we had a great time showing them around and enjoying each other's company. Up north we used to get together with them every Friday, so they have been greatly missed. We also got to travel several hours from our place to go visit some of their relatives that also live in the Ozarks. We had a great time visiting her family, and Alan and I my just stop in to see them again if we ever find ourselves in their neck-of-the-woods. One other perk with these guests - I had two strong teen-age boys to carry wood in all week, not to mention a few other chores we put them to work on.

The boys decide to 'enjoy' the stream
despite the temperatures only getting to the low 60's

Next, the unexpected guests. There have been several of these lately. One evening we came home to 13 deer in our front yard. Since the area of the front yard by the road is the only part of the property in full sun, that is where a majority of my raised beds are going. There was already one bed in place, but early this spring, I discovered it was filled with flower bulbs. I have dug up dozens, if not hundreds of iris, tulip and hyacinth bulbs in this little plot. I am throwing them down over the bank along the roadside in hopes that some of them will take root there. The good news is, our deer have been eating many of the unwanted shoots that were popping up in my soon to be vegetable garden. The bad news is, the deer have been eating many of the unwanted shoots that were popping up in my soon to be vegetable garden! I am sure they will not stop when the buffet switches from flowers to vegetables. So, one of our projects has been creating deer barriers (hopefully!).

The deer enjoy the bird seed under the feeders,
as well as inside the feeders they can reach.

Critter-Cam confirms my late night Peeping Tom
was a bobcat that was visiting that night.
Or, would that be a Peeping Bob?

Our 'critter cam' has shown us lots of our nightly visitors, and confirmed one in particular that was a little disconcerting, but exciting!. I was up late one night by myself, sitting in our living room, working on a crochet project, when I heard a loud 'thunk' against the window closest to the sofa. I looked up and saw a cat doing a chin-up on the window ledge, staring in at me. My first thought was that one of our cats was out on the deck and wanted in. This was quickly followed by the realization that both of our cats were curled up on the sofa next to me. Then I realized this was a very large cat with a pudgy face and tufted ears. All of this took place in just a few seconds and the cat disappeared quickly, at that point it dawned on me that I was 90% sure it was a bobcat, we have seen one in our yard before. I ran out to the deck (not too smart as I was un-armed) but it was gone. Later, we checked the critter-cam and verified there had been a bobcat visiting that night.

And now we come to the unwanted. It happened sooner in the season than I expected, I found the first tick on myself, never a pleasant experience. We had taken our visiting teens over to the side of the property by our 'cottage' to do some target shooting, and that night I discovered the nasty little unwanted visitor had taken up residency on my abdomen. And these interlopers are not limited to our property. I am taking a course to become a Master Naturalist and our last class was on entomology. There have also been classes on mammals, stream studies, geology, etc. Each class consists of class time in the morning and then going out in the field for hands-on instruction for what we had just studied. In the case of the entomology class, we spent the afternoon out in the woods turning over rocks and dead tree limbs looking for interesting bugs, spider, centipedes and mites. I really enjoyed the class, but unfortunately, when I got home that night, I discovered yet another tick attached to my abdomen, word must have got out that this was a prime feeding ground for ticks. The good news is that while I was at my all-day class, Alan had sprayed our entire yard with a tick killing solution. And next we will be putting down the granules we discovered last year that kept the ticks away all Summer and Fall.

Our new water facility

You will notice I said Alan sprayed the yard. He did not use the back-pack sprayed that was our version 2 shower last summer, he used a hose hooked up to our new pressurized water system! You may recall the pump we installed in our bathroom to pump water to our shower, well Alan installed a similar but more elaborate system in our utility room. There is now a water hose from one of our large rain water storage tanks into the house. This is connected to a 12 volt water pump that also has a small pressurized tank. From this, there are two take-offs.

Look, we can spray water
out the window!

Pressurized water is redirected both to an outside spigot, which can be used for watering the garden (or spraying tick-icide') and an inside spigot that first runs through a somewhat coarse water filter. This inside water can be used directly for laundry and cleaning, or used to fill our potable water filter bucket to be further filtered for our cooking and drinking water. I have also claimed this new hose as my weapon of choice in our long-standing family tradition of indoor water gun battles. I can't wait for the next time any of the kids visit!

There will probably be another post soon with more details on this and other amenities in the most recent round of upgrades we have made around the house. This is our first Spring on the property and it has been proven to be a very  busy time of year. It has felt good to once again be working on many physical projects around the house and property, the sore muscles are back and it is a welcomed feeling as we can sit out on the deck in the evening and look over what we have accomplished during the day. And now that the yard has been sprayed, it is nice to know there are no ticks staring back at me thinking 'Mmmm, dinner". At least, that is what I am telling myself....

In a recent post I included images of various birds we have identified that are visiting the property, but those were 'canned' photos, not ones of the actual birds that have visited. I will leave you now with some photos Alan has taken recently from our living room window:

The birds really enjoy the new Hot Pepper suet we found.
This little nuthatch keeps coming back for more.

The next few shots are of a red-bellied woodpecker
that has become a very frequent guest.