Money Matters

Starting in my 30's I began to seriously research what I would farm, how I would accomplish my dream, and what was necessary to make farming a possiblity for my family. As I worked my way to management in the computer industry, I learned how to calculate costs and return on investments over time. I applied these things to the dream.

A epiphany came when I was researching requirements for selling dairy products. I was helping out at my cousin's goat farm in Michigan and asking questions of her suppliers and friends. I learned that a combination homogenization/pasteurization machine often sold to small villages in Africa would cost around $10,000. The friend recommended that I consider purchasing that machine if I intended to make a go of it in the dairy goat business.

I only wanted 5 goats for milking. A handful for meat and the rest would be sold. Here's how the calculation goes. If I milked a gallon from each goat each day that would be five gallons a day or 35 gallons a week. Some milk would be reserved for family use making about 30 gallons available for sale each week. If I sold the milk for $3 a gallon - the retail price then for goats milk, I could potentially make $90 per week on milk.

$90 is gross income. I factored in my costs. My feed would cost approximately $32.50 per week. This is the only cost I considered. At the time, I didn't count mileage or water or anything else. The net weekly income would be $67.50.

The next question is how much would I net a year from selling milk and how much would I save my using my own milk products. 5 gallons a week would provide for cheese, butter, cream, yogurt and drinking milk for the family. At the time of the calculations, I estimated I would save about $7 per week by using my own stuff. Added to income, it makes $73.50 per week. Just multiply by 52 to the annual net income - right? Wrong. Female dairy goats need to be bred every year to keep up the milk supply. They dry up for about 2 months before giving birth. That's at least 2 months of no milk pre-birth and 1 month pst- birth. No milk for 3 months or approximately 12 weeks. Take twelve weeks off the year.

Now at last I can get an answer. Will I be able to make a dent in the cost of the equipment in a year? $73.50 X 40 weeks = $2940. No - not at all.

I do not want to take out a loan for $10,000. I am extremely debt adverse and that was before I heard of Dave Ramsey. I wanted to earn the money up front. It would take about three years at full production to earn enough money to pay for the machine in cash. That was not appealing to me and I began to research other options.

I will write more on considering the money needed and its relationship to sustainable farming in the following weeks. Stay tuned.

Pretty in Pink - Pretty Annoying

What pink and green and grows all over?

A mimosa, of course.

Like that question only has one answer.

Actually mimosa can be quite lovely to view, but it is not your friend. Albizia julibrissin or mimosa has been here in North America for such a long time, we have come to think of it as belonging. Where I grew up in Virginia it was an extremely common site, particularly along highways. I was a little surprised to find it on Tennessee's Exotic Invasives Species list. But the sad truth is mimosa is a noxious weed tree.

Mimosas have all the common characteristics of many pest plants: easily suckers, the least little bit will sprout, exceptionally long dormancy ability, prolific seed dropper and it's from Asia. It has made it all the way to Tennessee's Watch List 1 with a rank of 1. That means, it is ranked as a severe threat which easily naturalizes and displaces native plants. One plant it takes the place of quite easily is the red bud tree.

If you're with me so far, you'll want to know how to get rid of it - organically. Get out the chainsaw or the ax or the tree pruners. Cut it down. When it suckers up, cut it down again. Pull the stump if you can and continue to cut the suckers. If you mow the area regularly, it won't have much chance to reproduce. Or you can grow a thick canopy forest. Mimosas prefer the sun. Although they will tolerate partial shade, they do not grow in the shade.

Learn to recognize mimosa seedlings and pull them as soon as you can grab them. If you weed them when the soil is slightly damp, you'll have a better chance of pulling the whole root. That's what you want to do, because the least little piece left will grow a new tree.

You can girdle large mimosa trees, if they haven't fallen down on their own. To girdle a tree, you use an ax to cut through the bark on the tree at about six inches above the ground. Cut a ring all the way around the tree, taking care to go through the outer and inner bark layers. The tree will slowly die. The best time to do this is in April before it begins to bloom. Really you can girdle whenever the fancy strikes. The late spring is best because the tree has expended much of its stored energy on spring growth and it will likely sucker a bit less once it begins to die. Keep up with those suckers, too. Cut them off when they appear. I guess you could put animals who like to eat bark near it, too. Like goats, sheep, horses, cows, etc.

Then plant something else. Make it native. For ideas about what to plant in our Middle Tennessee area, check out Landscaping with Native Plants. They have several brochures which can give you ideas based on location, soil moisture, sunlight and pH.

Lighten Your Load

Mondays are for anything local that strikes my fancy. Some days are more local than others.

photo by theogeo

Fall is a traditional time of "nesting" for us at the farm. In preparation for winter, we like to get the house in order and take stock of what we have. This helps us plan during the winter. Right now, the clutter is overwhelming. Like most folks, we moved into the house with very little and the collection of stuff just grew.

We have now been in our house for eight years. Despite two yard sales and at least monthly drop offs to the charity trailer, we still have too much junk. How do I know this? Because it's all over the house. Everywhere. Did I mention, we have graduated to paths in certain areas?

I am tackling this cleanup job a little bit at a time. Each morning after everyone is fed and the kids are at school, I pick an area of the house that I can clean in about two hours. That's Tip one: Don't over commit your time. Spend 2-4 hours max per day decluttering.

Tip two: There are three categories: Keep it, ThrowAway, and GiveAway. As I go through each area, I put the GivaAways in a box and the ThrowAways in a trash bag. I am left with a pile of stuff I want to keep.

Tip three: If fills up more than half the space available, cull through it again. It's time for the hard questions. Do I really need the five half full band-aid boxes or can I consolidate the boxes? Do we need twenty plus scented soaps which we haven't ever used? That's a GiveAway definitely.

Tip four: Take care of the GiveAways and ThrowAways immediately. Several decluttering books I've read are not clear on this. I know how I procrastinate. And some of you out there do too. You know who you are. How do you think the house got so cluttered in the first place? As I fill up the GiveAway boxes, I can take them out to the car.

Our local charity drop off takes stuff until 2pm, so I have to leave the house by 1:30pm. This gives me a time limit, so cleaning up is not a never-ending task for that day.

This is really a 10,000 foot view, but these simple guidelines can get it done. If I know I don't have the time to declutter today, I plan for it the next available day. My challenge is sticking with it consistently. I also seem to have unusually generous friends, because no sooner do I clean up one area, then someone drops off a box of stuff they think I can't live without. My challenge is to find a good home for this stuff - which is not my house.

What are some of your challenges keeping your house cleaned up and tidy? Time? Toddlers? Generous Friends? Pack rat spouse? I'm curious to see what challenges you have encountered and how you overcome these challenges.

It's the Great Pumpkin!

Fridays are all about nutrition

picture by Meowcat93

It's that big orange fall treat some of us long for all year - pumpkin. Of course, like many pumpkin lovers, I am a big fan of pumpkin pie. There is also soup, cookies, cheesecake, casserole and many other pumpkin treats. Best of all, I can indulge my artistic tendencies at Halloween and then compost the shell. I can eat the seeds or plant them for next year. But wait there's more! It's slices; it dices; and IT'S NUTRITIOUS!

Pumpkin is native to the Americas and quickly took over the spooky job of being a Jack O'Latern from beets and turnips. Colonists would cut off the top and scoop out the seeds. Then they would put in milk, spices and honey and cook the pumpkin in hot ashes. Check out more about pumpkins and their history.

Pumpkins belong to the Cucurbita family which includes butternut squash, summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers. Check out the Pumpkin Nook for fun activities and other facts about pumpkins, including how to grow prize winning giant pumpkins.

Now back to nutrition. The orange skin of the pumpkin is a clue to its nutrition secrets. Fruits and vegetables with bright orange color are high in beta-carotene which your body uses in creating vitamin A. Beta-carotene has also been linked to cancer prevention and has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease. Pumpkin seeds are reputed to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Pumpkin is also high in potassium - another essential nutrient. And guess what else - no salt or cholesterol. Yep. That's right no salt AND no cholesterol.

Now if I eat it my favorite way in pie, I am sure to have salt and cholesterol. I can reduce those items and the fat from the pie plus make it overall more healthy in the following ways. Substitute low fat condensed milk or low fat vanilla soy milk. Use whole wheat pie crust or low fat pie crust. Cut down on the number of eggs, use egg whites instead of whole eggs or use an appropriate egg substitute. Use Splenda instead of sugar.

Yeah riiiight.

You could do all that substitution or you could use all the real stuff and eat less.

Yeah riiight.

Who am I kidding? I'll eat less pumpkin pie when there's less in the refrigerator. Seriously, though. A healthy recipe is out there. I believe if you make pumpkin pie with fresh, organic, local ingredients (except for the spices), you will eat less because the food will be so satisfying, you'll won't be craving more...

Until the morning.

Oh, I do love cold pumpkin pie, too.

No ice cream please.

This is breakfast.

Let's have a moment of silence.

Now Where Was I?

It's early morning. The day is forecasted to be cold, breezy and wet. Jewel is laughing at the breezy graphic on the morning news. It's all hurry, hurry. Stick to the plan. Stick to the Routine. No extra time for anything if we're to leave on time. Brush Hair. Brush kids hair. Put on your shoes! Now what?

Oh yeah. Feed the animals.

"Hunter, don't forget to feed the dogs. Jewel, feed the kitties." Now, where's my coat?

And I'm out the door still looking back. A flash of white out of my peripheral vision. Did I see that right? I look full on. Yes it's a goat. Which one? Oh, it's Duchess and she's standing in the front yard. No, she's walking toward me.

"Hey Duchess, I call softly and grab the white plastic bucket piled on the desk on top of the iron work. On the porch. The coat is forgotten momentarily. I peer around for Buddy. Oh, he's in the other pen. He can't figure out how to get out. Good. He's set for now.

1-2-3-4 cups of sweet feed in the bucket. Sarah runs up to Duchess' heels. Doesn't nip but makes a perfect herding motion, then continues on. Duchess kicks up her feet and bucks her way toward the road as I come off the porch. The air is chilly and wet as the skin and hair on my arms becomes cold. No time to worry about that, now.

"C'mon, Duchess." I shake the bucket and she follows. I lead her down to the pasture where she'll be staked out today and put the bucket down. The white furry head goes down. The wide inquiring eyes disappear into the feed. She is head shy a bit as I come toward her with the buckle of the lead rope, but she doesn't pause for long in her eating frenzy.

Buddy's trying to climb the fence, but doesn't seem quite like he wants to try too hard. I have to get another container for him. Where's that coffee can from yesterday? The red plastic catches my eye. It's laying on the ground where it was kicked over last night. In the first pen. I grab it and walk to the house. Completely confusing Buddy who is still stuck in the second pen.

Now wearing a heavy jacket, I bring back the coffee can with the right ration. Shaking it gently as I walk, to get the billy's attention. Buddy tries to climb the fence dividing the two pens near the gate. His front legs hook over the wire, but he is reluctant to move quickly and jump over it. He's tangled with the fence before and it's too tall for him. He runs over to the temporary gate between pens and the roll of the wire confuses him. The fence is bent toward him, where Duchess made good her escape. She's the clever one, but she doesn't share her secrets because Buddy will eat her food. He looks at it and then turns around and heads to the opposite corner. I shake the bucket. He ignores me. I bang the bucket against the chicken house. He turns and comes back. My son stands there with the chicken feed. I set the bucket down. and try to help Buddy negotiate the temporary gate.

"Mom, the chicken's are eating the ---!" He shouts in alarms. I shoo the chickens and try to return to Buddy who is starting to wander off again. I move the sweet feed to a rock closer to me.

"Mom! the-"

"Okay, son. You're distracting me. I know the chickens are trying to eat it. I gotta get Buddy. Just be quiet. Alright?"

Buddy has wandered again. This time into the wire roll. He stops and turns around. He acts confused by the metal maze arrangement that is the temporary closure between the two pens. I put the can on top of the fence post away from the chickens and unhook the wire that creates the temporary closure. Buddy comes to the opening and looks at it, but doesn't attempt to step over the gap. He turns around. I have to show him it's okay and he can get in and out.

"Hey, Buddy. Hey, Buddy." I step over the low fence into the second pen. He looks at me. I step over the fence back into the first pen. He follows me. I take the can and he runs to the exit gate, blocking me way.

As we leave, Hunter places the chicken feed in the house and closes the gate to keep the chickens in.

"Get in the car," I call over my shoulder as Buddy and I do our start and stop dance to his stake in the pasture. I put the bucket down. His head goes into and he doesn't even look up when I snap the lead rope on.

So starts the day.

Southern Food: Collards

Fridays are all about nutrition. Picture by strawbaleman.

Collards are associated with the South, nearly always. But I found some interesting recipes from other places. Check out this soup from Portugal, or this tasty dish from Ethiopia. The truth is that collard greens can be quite nutritious no matter how they are cooked. But too much ham hock = too much fat. The simplest way to make them, by boiling them in water for awhile, is the best way to eat them.

Collards are an excellent autumn food. They can withstand frost. I saw it happen with my own eyes this week. We had heavy frost on the field two mornings in a row and picked well over a bushel of collards today. There's more where that came from, too. Some people say they taste even better after a frost. Even though you can grow them year round, they are best from January to April when other vegetables do not grow.

Some of the nutrients found in collards include vitamin A, vitamin C, zinc, vitamin E, folate, potassium, niacin, riboflavin and vitamin B6. 1 cup of collards properly cooked contains less than 50 calories and a little over 20% of recommended daily fiber. It also good for a heart healthy diet because of the B vitamins, folate and riboflavin.

Believe it or not, collards also contain about 22% of the daily requirement for calcium in one cup. I was amazed. If you are lactose intolerant, this is one way for you to get calcium in your diet.

One thing to bear in mind is that collards is part of a group of vegetables that contain oxalates and should not be eaten by people with kidney or gall bladder problems. You can read more on the nutritional details of collards at the World's Healthiest Foods. Even more information about collards can be found at: World Community Cookbook

Where's The Egg?

Thursdays are all about animals.

As the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, my thoughts turn to providing warmth and shelter to the animals. Will their nutrition needs change, now that it's colder. Will the length of the day affect them in any way? Do/can animals get SAD (seasonal affective disorder)? It's sounds kind of silly, but since I want to keep my animals in the best possible health, I must ask.

If you've been checking the egg count periodically, you will notice that it has been dropping steadily since early October. This is because once daylight hours drop below 14, chickens do not lay as many eggs. Why are there still eggs in the grocery store all year round? Are they $2 a dozen because they're flying them in from the tropics? Well, they're not exactly flying them in from the tropics. But, in large scale chicken farming the barns are kept a steady "optimal" temperature and the light is kept on for 14 hours per day. This uses energy that I can't afford. It is not cost-effective to do this for a small flock. Plus, t'ain't nachril.

I view the winter as a time to rest up and prepare for the energy of spring. Chickens that are kept up all hours of the night wear out faster. Winter also means that the chickens need to eat differently. They need to be able to have extra energy for the cold nights, so instead of feeding them only in the morning, I have to make sure they have food in the afternoon. When they eat, their body temperature rises for awhile which will help them on those frosty nights. A chicken house doesn't hurt, either. We converted an old Sears storage shed to a chicken house and they are lovin' it.

I really can't tell whether animals get SAD. I guess that one's for the scientists. My chickens are happy. And warm. And well-fed. And resting up for spring.

Another Ivy on the Ground

Tuesdays are devoted to weeds and other invasives

Ground Ivy is one of my favorite weeds to pull. It has a distinctive odor and is related to the mint family which you can tell from its square stem. In the early spring and late fall, this lovely little weed will get a jump start on just about everything else. It likes grass. It likes gardens. It likes driveway and sidewalk cracks. Its roots are plenty and its spreads like wildfire. It forms thick carpet-like masses literally anywhere and can easily overrun your lawn.

If it occurs in your garden, which it probably already does, you will have a heck of a time getting rid of it. Since I do not like to fool with chemicals, I tend to pull it up repeatedly. That's just about the only way to get rid of it. Pull it, pull it and then pull it again. Also grow other things that will shade it out. Luckily it does not care for summer much. That doesn't mean it won't pop back up when the weather cools down. This pest is a perennial. Yep. It'll come back. That's why it's so hard to get rid of.

Ground Ivy blooms in the spring and can be a source of allergies. It is for me. It's the odor I think. Once you pull it from your garden, don't compost it. Just pull it out, heap it up and let it wilt and rot on the path. Lay a thick layer of compost mulch on your garden - 3 or 4 inches, according to Mike McGrath. This should keep the ground ivy out until your seeds sprout.

Good Luck with it.

Out of the Loop

by Chaparrel [Kendra]

Yeah, I know. I've been out of the loop. I admit I haven't posted anything this week except for Monday. The truth is I haven't been near a computer since Monday. I haven't been feeling well and have had multiple doctor's appointments this week. Hopefully everything is squared away and I will be back to my usual self next week.

The hardest thing about being sick, for me, is the laying around doing nothing. Yeah, I know you're rolling your eyes at me. Who wouldn't want to lay around? It's not that I'm opposed to laying around, it's just that as a wife, mother and farmer I keep thinking of all the things I could be doing. I know I have built and re-built the new chicken house at least five times this week in my sleep. Believe me the coop gets better every time I build it, but the pieces are still sitting in the field waiting on someone to actually put them together. And that someone is me.

But then, am I all about sustainability? Doing what you can with the resources you have? Not overextending the land, the animals, the soil, or...

myself?

Ummm. Yeah, that's me.

That thought has kept me getting better this week without overextending myself too much. A little at a time. Easy does it. And so on.

See ya' next week!

No Variances On the Flood Plain

Vacant Lockmaster House near Old Hickory Dam by Brent and MariLynn

Mondays are devoted to topics of local interest.

I was reading the I-24 Exchange about various zoning variances that were denied based on instructions from the federal government that to grant them would increase the cost of flood insurance for the entire county. It seems that the attorney representing two of the variance requests withdrew the requests, saying that the issues involved had been discussed with him and the people he represented were going to abide by the county's decision to not grant the variances. No big deal, so far. Not quite what I expected but to my way of thinking, it is the only option.

What struck me about the reports of the whole affair was the insistence of the county planner for economic development that NO CONVERSATION had occurred between her and the attorney. What's the big deal, here? I'm not sure.

Okay, maybe I'm slow or naive or don't care enough about personal county politics. I didn't necessarily assume there had been a conversation, but her insistence that there wasn't one is the cause of my suspicion. Why would she make such a big deal about it? How does this relate to the junk pile further up river that has many residents upset. It was granted a variance. Doe sit violate EPA laws or Corps of Engineer requirements. I don't know.

I think it's pretty clear that the federal law supersedes whatever the county wishes to do. That's pretty much the law of the land post-Civil War and how federalism works. But I am unsure of many of the facts of the case. This situation has been going on for a bit of time, but I really didn't pay too much attention because it seemed to be over an installation of a swimming pool.

Now I am wondering what is going on. You never know when something small will become a major butt-covering issue. That's why I encourage everyone in Cheatham County to pay more attention to what is going on around here. With the completion of the Braxton in the near future, and the super-heated house building market in the north of the county, the indicators point to an imminent rapid growth for the county. If we don't pay attention, we will look around one day and wonder where all the green space is and what happened to the barns and old houses that were demolished to make way for progress.

Vegetables per Day

Fridays are devoted to topics about nutrition

The USDA recommends 2.5 cups for women in the 30-51 age range and 3 cups for men per day. So 2.5-3 cups per day of vegetables. And that's for people who exercise less than 30 minutes per day. Most of us, I think. I know when I was working an ofice job, the most exercise I got was walking to my car - maybe 10 minutes per day.

Being super-analytical, I want to know whta they mean by a cup. Straight from the USDA themselves,

In general, 1 cup of raw or cooked vegetables or vegetable juice, or 2 cups of raw leafy greens can be considered as 1 cup from the vegetable group.

Then there is a handy chart for you to look at that describes what a cup is for various vegetables. You can get there from this link: http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/vegetables_counts.html

The interesting thing about the new food pyramid is that it is customizable depending on your activity level, age and weight. Go to www.mypyramid.gov and click on MyPyramid Plan to go through a "wizard" to help you plan out what you as an individual should eat.

You can build a pyramid plan for each family member if you would like. This seems to be a lot of time to me. And it can be, but if you have no idea what you should be eating and how much, it may be well worth your effort to find out.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Thursdays are devoted to animals

Here at the farm, we have very ambitious plans to fence off what eventually will be a 100 by 500 foot area into several 50 foot square pens for rapid pasture rotation. Only problem for me is that is mainly a one-woman job with occasional help from various friends. Putting in fence posts two - three feet deep can be back breaking labor. When you're in a drought, you might as well forget about digging holes. I've bent my post-hole diggers blades, more than once this summer. But it must be done for two reasons: to keep the lovely critters in and keep the predators out. Here is what I have learned so far.

• Keep your post hole diggers clean and sharp to cut through the clay-shale mix we call a subsoil.
• It is better to attach your fence on the inside of the pen because when the goats rub against it, it doesn't bow out so bad.
• Check out the lay of the ground under your bottom wire. If there is more than a four inch gap, this will become a chicken escape route.
• Goats can jump anything under four foot tall.
• Goats and chickens can mix, but whatever flimsy thing you built for the chickens will not stand up to play time with a goat.
• Make sure your gates swing into the pen so if you forget to latch them, the goats still can't get out.
• Make sure your gate latch requires motion along several planes to unhook so the goats can't open it.
• A car and a fence stretcher make things a whole lot easier and tighter when putting up a fence.

Sustainable Essence

Wednesdays are devoted to sustainability


My grandparents called it reusing as in

Buy it new

Wear it out

Make it do

Do without



My parents called it recycling



And the latest version is re-purposing.

My grandparents were children of the Great Depression. Really more like teens of the Great Depression. All four worked to make ends meet for their families. All four were masters of re-use.

One of my grandfathers dropped out of high school his senior year to work full time to help support his family. He went to night school after work and earned his high school diploma. He went on to graduate from Carnegie Tech. With five boys in his family, clothes were constantly passed from one boy to the other.

My grandmother, whom he married, recalls wearing dresses made from the flour sacks her mother got her flour in. That family even recycled the ties from the ties from the railroad track. When the old ones were replaced with new, my grandmother's brothers would haul them up the hill from the tracks and chop and split them into firewood. Probably not very environmentally friendly, but they were warm when they wouldn't have otherwise been.

My other grandmother was already out of school and working. She always had a special drawer in the kitchen for bread bags, wax paper, string and rubber bands which she re-used when refrigerating leftovers. Sometimes these items would cover thoroughly scrubbed meat trays of cut vegetables for visitors, such as my brothers and I.

Her husband, my grandfather, taught me the important skill of salvaging nails from old boards and reusing them. I learned how to pull them out straight without bending them, so I could use them again on another project. He also built several bicycles from parts he would find in the woods. They all worked wonderfully well.

My father recycles lumber scraps from garbage collection day in the city by making them in roll-top desks and other carpentry projects around the house.

My mother is a master of recycling cereal boxes, doilies, wax paper, cardboard tubes, newspapers, Christmas cards - the list goes on. They all become new items in her various craft projects she does with teens and seniors.

This week, I had an especially inspirational week. I re-purposed feed sacks into garbage bags, old drink bottles into terrariums, and broken lead ropes into goat tethers.

Call it re-using, recycling or re-purposing, whatever you like. This is the essence of sustainability. Ask yourself, what do I usually buy at the store and what do I usually discard? Can I pair any discards with needs?

Is that Honeysuckle from around here?

Tuesdays are devoted to weeds and other invasives.

How about Japanese Honeysuckle? This plant is a mid-canopy forest edge dweller. Japanese honeysuckle is very like the native honeysuckle but much more invasive. Of course, it is silly, you say. It's not from around here.

The best way but also the most laborious way is to pull out your invasives, root and all. Do it like voting in Ohio - early and often. Actually, you want to start attacking the plant after its winter root stores are expended on spring growth. In the fall, the roots have stored energy from the summer growing season. Unless you have been hacking away at the foliage all summer, you probably don't want to mess with it until the spring. There are naturally, some things you will need to remember when you do go after it.

If you pull this sucker up, get the whole root or as much as possible. It will come back from even the smallest segments. Not only does it bloom and produce seeds, but it is also a runner and produces offshoots and suckers as it grows. Another name for this type of plant would be a colonizer. Do NOT put this puppy in you compost pile. Colonizer - remember. Let it dry up in a place it can't root and burn it in you annual bonfire, or bag it and drop it off. I prefer the bonfire method, because I am not adding to the landfill issue. Reason #2: I can use the ashes to supplement the soil or to cover the ice in the winter.




One way to tell the difference between Japanses Honeysuckle and the native species is to look at where the leaves join the stem. In a native honeysuckle, the leaves actually form one unit from the stem, where the leaves on a Japanese honeysuckle would be opposite distinct leaves. Check carefully before you pull, because some of the native honeysuckles can be quite rare. If you're not sure what you have, you can contact your local extension office or leave it until someone more knowledgeable can help you identify the mystery honeysuckle.



This weed will change the composition of your understory including what birds you see. It prefers full sun but is often found in partial shade. Go get rid of it. ASAP. You'll be glad you did.

Winter Eating

I have often heard women complain about adding weight between Thanksgiving and Christmas becasue of the constant supply of food during the holidays. In truth, most people will add an average of 15-20 lbs of holiday weight. This probably explains why the most common New Year's Resolution is to lose weight, usually 15-20 pounds. I don't think we should get bent out of shape over what we naturally are drawn to eat in the winter. I believe we crave certain foods that can help us depending on the season. I would think that you would not want to lose the weight until about March or whenever your leafy greens come out. I am not the only one. Check out these links:

• http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=28

• http://www.cuesa.org/seasonality/

• http://www.evitamins.com/healthnotes.asp?ContentID=1270005#Reference-List

The summary is that it is healthier to eat what is in season. It takes a little work to adjust our habits of just getting any old thing to eat. It will also take a little extra effort to adjust our food preparation habits. In oding so, you can avoid or lessen things like Seasonal Affective Disorder, hypertension, sluggishness, etc.

If you decide to try seasonal eating or are already doing so or aren't sure how to get started, post a comment below and let's get a discussion started that can benefit us all.

Let Slip The Dogs - NOT!

Puppies in a whirl

Thursdays are devoted to animal husbandry.

Lately we have been having a dog problem around here. Our "charming" dogs are eating a chicken nearly every day. Needless to say, I am about to go on a rampage over this, especially after I calculated the economic consequences of a dead $16 chicken that lays eggs nearly every day. The chicken murders have slowed down a bit since I threatened to execute the main criminal. My husband put him on his very own run very far from the chickens. Now I have the quite annoying, not properly socialized, new momma, Star to contend with. Seems motherhood has prompted a taste for chicken. While this is more excusable in theory, I still cannot afford it. Presently, she will have a new home in the old chicken coop for her and her puppies. Plans are to sell her off as soon as the puppies are old enough.

At Mule Shoe Farm like many small farms, the dogs have a purpose: to provide a guardian function, rid the yard of rodent pests, and act as an early warning system. These "jobs" are extensions of what dogs do naturally.

So is killing chickens, unless... We can all understand why a chicken is an attractive option to a dog. Folk wisdom holds that once a dog gets a taste for chicken, they never get over it. Folk wisdom also says to tie a chicken around a dogs neck, beat it with a chicken and various other remedies to cure it of chicken eating. We are instructed to essentially punish the dog for doing what it does by instinct. I do not believe punishment is the right answer. In fact it can be very counterproductive.

The key is to put the dog in a situation where doing its job correctly is much easier than not doing its job. In other words, don't give the dog the option of not doing its job. At the same time, the dog must be permitted to act naturally in a natural setting as much as possible. Since dogs are long domesticated, this could include anything from house confinement to fenceless containment depending on your budget. My budget is for water, not champagne or beer.

Low cost solutions include fenced areas for dogs or chickens or confine the dogs to a pen. I have found that obtaining used fencing is not that difficult and usually free. We also have plenty of rope lying around for this or that other thing. If the dog most benefits from being on a run, we will place the dog on a run. To keep the dog actively employed, the run is strategically placed near garden areas that would otherwise be subject to grazing.

In the case of new mom with socialization issues, it is prudent to keep her in a pen with her puppies. As the weather is quite variable, it needs to be somewhere that we can easily access with electricity for heat lamps and well-protected from the elements. Done.

Now what about the chickens being eaten. Really, I haven't found an effective way to keep the older dogs from killing the chickens once they already do. What I have noticed is that the younger dogs who have been around chickens since birth, could care less about the birds and in fact, pointedly ignore them. There it is. The solution. Star's puppies are not be chicken eaters if they are exposed to chickens from the beginning, even if Star, herself is a chicken killer.

This new litter can be introduced to the chickens individually once their eyes are open. To do this, we take the puppies one at a time in our hands and carry them to the chickens. Holding the puppies on the other side of the fence, the chickens approach and take a look. The puppy gets a look. Let this continue for up to five minutes or however much patience the puppy has. Make sure you take the puppy away before, it gets bored with the situation. Do this for each puppy and do this frequently as they get older. Maybe once a week to once every two weeks. How often depends on the relative intelligence of your dog for these things. The dogs pictured here, remember things quite well and are easily trainable. We do the introductions about three times for each one and move on to other things.

Help my Compost Pile - I Don't Have Leaves

Last week I talked about what you needed for your compost pile. Compost is composed of the following elements: green plus brown plus water plus air over time = compost. The green component is your kitchen waste. The leaves are the brown component. But you don't just need a little leaves, you need a lot of leaves. A huge amount. Tons. 30 parts for every part green. But I don't have that many, you say. Can I use something else? Please.

Okay, enough begging. I'll tell you what I know. Straw works well. Brown, woody stems from perennials work best in the spring after they've wintered over. Wood mulch or wood chips from a shredder can be used.

Make sure you rake up as many of your own leaves as you can. If you can shred them before using them, then you will have speedier results when everything else is equal. If you don't have enough, you could borrow your neighbor's or your whole street's leaves. On your way to or from work, take the road less travelled and go through neighborhoods where people like to bag up their leaves. Go ahead. Pick those bags up from the curb. The garbage men will thank you.

If you use straw for anything, like mulch, to grow potatoes, or for autumn hayrides, hang onto it. Keep it somewhat dry or let it dry out. Or you could volunteer to take your neighbor's chicken laying box straw. Last resort, you could buy a square bale of straw from a variety of places. The last option works well if you do not have too much to put into your compost pile. Make sure the straw you are using doesn't have nasties in it like Bermuda grass.

Some perennial stalks to use could from day lilies, cannas, cone flower, bear's breeches, coral bells or sedum. Of course they are many options in this category. You are not actually completely confined to perennials. You could also use corn stalks and sunflower stalks left over from the winter. You would probably prefer to shred or cut them up first. Plan ahead and be sustainable. When you plan your flower beds, make sure to include taller perennials with stems and brown matter you can use. As you do your fall or spring cleaning in your flower beds, set the brown stuff aside in its own pile for later use.

As you trim and prune your trees and bushes in the spring, you can take the wood and shred it. A shredder for branches no bigger than two inches in diameter should be sufficient for what you need. Be frugal in your purchase, as well. There is no need to purchase the biggest, baddest Tool Time super-mega-horsepower shredder for this. A good used one will do. Shred right into your brown bin.

A little pre-planning and ingenuity will go a long way toward good soil when it is time to mulch. You want to use compost before anything else. A healthy plant means less disease, less pests and more fruit. Good Luck!

Operation Clean Sweep Starts Next Week

To paraphrase Julius Caesar, " All of Cheatham County is divided into three parts." Three quite littered parts.

The high schools in the county serve to illustrate the divisions. The northern part is served by Sycamore High School, the central by Cheatham Central and the southern end by Harpeth High School. A distinct feature of our county is the two rivers, several large notable creeks and numerous small tributaries. Cheatham County is crossed by the Harpeth and Cumberland Rivers. Two notable large creeks are Sam's Creek which used to a be a resort area and Sycamore Creek. Coming up from the Davidson County line on River Road we have Pond Creek, Sam's Creek and Brush Creek.

You would think that with all this water surrounding us, we would have a fairly wet farm. Not so. Mule Shoe Farm is located just off the flood plain in the limestone hills which are also a feature of the county. While we have numerous wet weather springs and seepage from the hills, we don't actually have much of a water supply. Many wells in the hills have dried up or were not much use in the first place having either very hard water or sulphur water.

This means that the main water supplies for the county come from the Harpeth and Cumberland Rivers and Sycamore Creek. As I noted last week, there is lots of trash all over the county which often makes it way down the various banks to the rivers and streams. Another matter for consideration is the large number of sink holes in our area. In the past, people quite often would throw their trash in sinkholes and down hillsides. Now we have dumps to hold our trash.

It is still a concern that there is so much trash laying about. Recently the county picked up trash along my road. That was maybe two weeks ago. Today as we about our errands fro the day, my daughter made up a little diversion of saying litter each time she saw trash by the side of the road. Need I say, she talked the ENTIRE trip. Litter, litter litter litter litter litter, etc. for 20 minutes. Yikes!

This trash will eventually make its way into our water - our DRINKING water. That's it. Clean Sweep Week starts on October 22, 2007. Use that week to make an extra effort to clean up your trash and better yet, don't throw it on the ground in the first place. All during clean sweep week, you will be able to take all sorts of trash to the dump without paying the dumping fee. Take advantage of this opportunity to improve our county's greatest resource by starting to pick up your trash this week. Also remember to securely fasten and tarp your loads on the way to the dump. That way the trash won't distribute itself along the road on the way to the dump.

Remember Operation Clean Sweep starts on October 22 and runs through October 27.

The Big Size Does Not Fit.

Fridays are devoted to writing about all aspects of nutrition.

Call me a restaurant snob if you want, but I would like to have a reasonable amount of food at a restaurant when I eat out. I guess I got spoiled when I was travelling to Europe and the like as a computer engineer. In France, I noticed that eating out was definitely not the same as in the U.S. For one thing the service was noticeably better. But the main thing that stood out right away was that when I was finished with the meal, I wasn't stuffed. But I wasn't hungry either. I had just the right amount.

I attended a support group meeting last night devoted to families with children who have congenital heart defects. Our speaker was a young lady whose occupation is all about getting children to eat their food and get the proper nutrition. She was a food therapist. We discussed everything from the steps to introduce foods to children to how to supplement nutrition for children.

One of our topics was portion size. She noted that often we overwhelm our children with the amount of food we put on their plate. Her guideline was 1 tablespoon per year of age up to three or four years of age.

The food therapist also pointed out food groupings that parents could use to ensure that children receive the proper nutrition. These groupings are protein, starch and fruit/vegetable. In the case of a two year old, the child would receive at each meal: 2 Tbsp each of protein and starch. Then 2 TBsps of fruit/vegetable.

At age four, the parent would use the new food pyramid to allocate portions. Simply put, children need to take in at least as much as they expend to stay the same. Most children need to take in a little more calories than they obviously expend because growth and activity levels must be accommodated.

The size of the bowls and cups into which we put our child's food will influence how much they want to eat. If our regular size cup is 12 or 16 oz, that is how much we will drink at one sitting. If you buy 9oz. cups, you and your family are far more likely to consume 8oz. of liquid at a time. That allows you to properly portion out high calorie items like juice. Which by the way, your children should have no more than 2 glasses (8 oz. glasses) of juice per day.

Why does it work like that? Wouldn't the kids just get another bowl of whatever. Not necessarily. It depends on the environment in which your children eat. Since the body signals fullness after about 20 minutes of eating, a child may not feel hungry if they take their time eating the sweet cereal.

Eating environment is another area where parents must take charge. Studies have shown that most people will eat more if they eat while watching television. Children get distracted by things like television and radios playing in the other room or the same room while they are eating. If they eat sprawled on the floor or the couch, they digestive systems have a harder time receiving their food. These two factors indicate that sitting up at the table while eating with the family can have a profound effect on your child's eating habits.

Although childhood obesity rates are on the rise in the United States, we have the opposite problem at my house. My daughter must be convinced to eat an adequate amount of food. She will eat nearly anything you give her, but she will more than likely not eat all of it. She also takes a long time to eat. This causes her to feel full when she has not consumed enough calories.

The same problem works in reverse with an overweight child charging through a bag of Doritos in 10 min or less. The body hasn't signalled it is full, so the child grabs another bag of chips. How many calories are in a bag of Doritos? I'm scared to look plus I don't have any in the house. Think about how many two bags might have. Yikes. Then child doesn't go out and play to burn off those calories. It is more than likely that the kid will either watch TV or play video games. Watching TV burns less calories than sleeping. Yikes again.

If we, as parents can give our children a consistent eating routine that is balanced and proper, we will do them a huge favor. If you are curious about the new food pyramid, check out http://www.mypyramid.gov/ where you can find explanations, online tools and guidelines.

Now What Did I Do With All Those Leaves?

Wednesdays are devoted to sustainability.

I first came in contact with sustainability through organic gardening. As far back as I can remember, my mother had a very large and quite productive garden. She grew everything organically. One of my brothers had the daily chore of putting things in the compost pile. Every so often, my father would spend a Saturday moving the compost pile from place to another. There were discussions of good locations for the pile tempered by conversations about what comments the neighbors might say regarding our pile of nameless brown stuff in the yard.

A regular composting routine is essential to organic gardening. You do not want to spend hours of effort handpicking pests from plants or spraying plants with various organic anti-pest remedies. You want to build success into the equation from the very beginning. From the bottom, up. As you tend a garden, you realize that you often have lots of vegetative matter and nothing to do with it. Maybe it's weeds. Maybe it's straw. Maybe it's the leaves you raked of the ground from last fall. All of these things go towards composting.

Now is the time to start. As you rake your leaves up this fall, you need to find a spot for them to stay. Leaves are the secret ingredient, the magic potion of the whole affair. You can pile them up loose and cover them with a tarp. You can buy a special purpose compost bin or tumbler. Or you can build a quick conatinment system byt driving 4 metal t-posts in the ground about 3-4 feet from each other. Then you attach fencing material that doesn't have openings more than 4". Chain link, poultry net. Garden fence. Whatever. T-post clips are relatively inexpensive or you can recycle some wire coat hangers if you have a pair of wire cutters and pliers for twisting.

Now you can just leave the leaves where they are and next year you might have compost. But really you want is compost in the spring. So here is how you do it. Have another pile. When you put kitchen waste in it like fruit peels, squash innards, potato peels, etc., you add 30X that amount of leaves. That's right 30, not 3. Then at least once per week, you want to flip the pile. If you make a third compost bin, you can flip the pile between the two bins leaving the leaves where they are. Make sure the pile stays damp but not wet. About the dampness of a well-wrung sponge. You can use waste water from your dishpan for such a thing.

Optimally the pile should be a 3 or 4 foot cube in contruction size. This is approximate because as you know, piles don't come in cubic dimensions usually. At least at my house they don't. Also make sure the pile is not in the shade. When you walk up to it in the middle of winter and the pile is steaming, you know you are on the right track.