We put the babies back into the living room terrerium for their second winter. Unlike last year when they were out every day trotting around, they sleep all the time this winter. When they do come out, they tend to drink and go back to sleep. Cute huh? Stay tuned; Ed

We added 18 inches of topsoil and drip lines under the pv array. We basically neglected this area all summer but the shade allowed the vegies to thrive during the hot summer. A positive note on the pv system... Our actual payback on the system slowed during the recession as we were not able to maimize our tax deductions and take all the allowable depreciation. Recently though, we noticed we still had a significant suplus in electrical production so we converted the house water heater from propane to electricity. Our annual propane bill will probably drop from $1300 to $400! We'll know soon enough but this savings will shorten the payback period on our initial investment. Stay tuned; Ed

By late summer, we had quite the jungle on our hands. The netting was put up to protect the tomatoes from magpies. Both magpies and ground rodents moved into the garden as the hoophouse provided protection from the hawks allowing this bird pest problem. We also had a white fly infestation late summer. Production was successful through the fall and lasted for a month past the first freezes. The hoophouse worked well extending the harvest for an extra month. We'll see how well it works next spring. Stay tuned; Ed

This foundation detail on the hoophouse shows the rigid styrofoam that we buried 18 inches down into the ground. We are hoping this helps to keep the cold out as well as prevent rodents from getting in. You can also see the track that the plastic will attach to and, flashing over the edge of the styrofoam for protection from shovels. Stay tuned; Ed

Once the framing was up, we promptly added 30% shade cloth across the top. During the summer, it was quite pleasant in the hoophouse. You can see the ends framed in and we will not finish the plastic until the fall chills. Stay tuned; Ed

Then, the concrete arrived; three trucks came; two hours and 20 yards later, it was all finished. Nothing will now blow away in the wind. Two days later, winter began with a succession of snow storms. Stay tuned; Ed

This image shows the steel anchors that will be attached to the 8 by 8 wood beams. We used cinder block columns for most of these anchor spots as they were wider than the styrofoam block. Stay tuned; Ed

After the footings dried, we layed out the styrofoam block and added rebar to the top edge. We spraypainted the outside with a tan water based paint to slow down the uv exposure. These styrofoam blocks have a very high r value and will help the house to retain heat. Stay tuned; Ed

CHICKENS IN DECEMBER

Welcome back; it's now December and we occassionally leave a warming light on in the coop as we think this keeps the egg production rolling. We average 2-3 eggs per day with our four layers. Once the temperatures dropped to single digits, the hoop house froze out and we have been bringing swiss chard plants over to the coop. The ladies dig right in. Who knows, maybe we will get green eggs! We recently had an invasion of Starlings and they were eating all the chicken feed so we installed netting above the coop and that seems to have done the trick. Cheerios; Ed

Venus & the sunflowers

Sorry for our absense! We've been very busy!

Feeding time

Fraiser and the babies enjoying some mallow for breakfast.

Comstock Seed in the Reno News & Review

Link to an article about Comstock Seed:

First egg continued 6-28-10

Just to let you all know, the egg was for real. Cheerios; Ed

Completed hoophouse 6-28-10

Well, we have finished the new hoophouse until fall when we will lower the sides, hopefully before the first frost. All the tomatoes are hanging by string from the hoops. We used Lexan on the ends to keep out the rabbits and voles.

Comstock Seed flowers 6-28-10

Our flowers are beautiful this year. It has been a slow but perfect spring

Flower bed is a knock out

Spring flowers in June!

First egg 6-25-10

We had our first egg yesterday morning and it made a fine breakfast the next morning. I hear that we will have plenty more.

What's growing on the Farm today?

Office flower bed
Buckwheat sulfur in rows

Penstemon eatonii in between Great Basin Wildrye

Our little turf experiment. Barely starting.

Owl sign off for the season

Here's a baby peeking out of the Hoostel.
The Owls are mostly gone now. It's too hot in the barn during the days and the Owls are definitely out and about. They do occassionally come in during the night as we are still cleaning up after them. I sure hope they are eating voles on our farm and not venturing too far away. We'll check back in next winter and see who shows up. Adios; Ed The two adults and 2 of the 3 babies.

Lupines!

Lupines blooming beautifully today! I think I spotted our first California Poppy blooming in the bed as well. Around town, they've been blooming for a month!

Full grown baby barn owls 5-22-10

The house is full. Generally, the parents were sitting outside the house during the days while sleeping as the babies filled the house. This movie shows a third smaller baby that the mother is sitting on. The babies now fly and we've seen them on the far end of the barn perched on the window sills.

Hoop house under construction

Hard day at the office...

Fender Blender in action...

A visit from C C Meneley 3rd graders - Part 2

Filling seed packets with Shawn.

Making smoothies on the kid powered "Fender Blender"



The only teacher to give it a whirl!




Smoothies consisted of orange juice, bananas, frozen strawberries and a little plain yogurt. Yum!

A visit from C C Meneley's 3rd graders

The bus arrives around 9:30 am

We find out that instead of two groups of around 40 kids, we have one HUGE group of 71 kids!

One group on tour with Ed


Linda shows her group the solar panels

Students feeding the desert tortoises dandelions.

It's up!

Many mornings/days of wind have prevented the guys from installing the "wheel" of the windmill, but today, finally, the weather cooperated! Beautiful morning!

owls 5-4-10

The juveniles are taking on color and are out growing the house. Both parents are now routinely sitting on the rafters outside of the owl house. With warmer temperatures, the juveniles are no longer in need of mother's warmth. This movie shows the parents bringing in mice that the juveniles swallow whole. We can count three juveniles for sure but the camera angle prevents viewing. Very soon, we expect the juveniles to come out of the house and try the perches. The attached photo shows the parents sitting in the rafters near the house. Stay tuned; Ed

Earthday activities...

Ed spent Friday at Dry Creek Gardens' new windmill site in Washoe Valley. Our booth included solar information as well as information on our seeds. NV Energy and the USDA were present to talk about Dry Creek's new 2400 watt windmill. Thanks to NV Energy's rebate and a rural development grant from the USDA, Dry Creek is now producing much of their own power. Good luck Dry Creek (John and Nancy Strickland)

Linda spent both Thursday and Friday at Capital City Farm Days. She brought the baby tortoises to "show and tell" to about 700 elementary school children. Thursday started with around an inch of snow, so the tortoises were one of the few "critters" that came to the exibit. We took a picture, but it didn't come out.

Here's the local newspaper's article about it:

http://www.recordcourier.com/article/20100421/NEWS/100429965

Also, Linda and Ed attemded Douglas High School Environmental Club's Earth Day celebration. They brought the "Fender Blender" and the students made their own smoothies. The link to the Record Courier's article is here:

http://www.recordcourier.com/article/20100507/NEWS/100509873/1062&ParentProfile=1049

What is that purple flowering weed?

(click on photo to enlarge)

This one is the commonly called "Stork's Bill" or "Filaree". The scientific name is 'erodium cicutarium'. It has a small purple flower that turns into a two to three inch spike (thus stork's bill). It is a low growing annual that flowers from about February through May. It is supposed to be great forage for cattle, sheep and other wildlife. The baby tortoises seem to really love it!

New chicken pics

They love to jump up on the sticks.

All the other chickens are bigger than the Leghorn now. Foghorn started out much bigger than the other 3.

The black and white ones are extremely friendly.