Cats in the Garden
I’ve proclaimed my love of cats many times, and no doubt you’ve seen them in many photos. You’ve heard all about Miss Mama, the feral cat that moved her kitten into the garage, and Little Softie, the kitten that beat the odds. Up until Miss Mama, we had never had an outdoor cat. We really needed one, as we live in a rural area and have mice, chipmunks, and moles in abundance. With other natural predators in limited numbers, these little varmints can take over quite quickly. We used a variety of methods to deal with them, until Miss Mama moved in.
Now that Miss Mama is gone, Little Softie has taken over rank as chief hunter. She patrols the gardens keeping them clear of all little furies that love to eat strawberries and crocus bulbs. She’s still half feral, but is starting to come around, she loves a good ear scratch daily.
One of our indoor cats has also become a hybrid, spending his days in the garden and his nights in the house. Having cats in the garden is a wonderful thing. These two follow me around the garden and are never far behind. The force me to take breaks so they can get some love, and they make me laugh all the time with their crazy antics of climbing trees and chasing each other around.
The only problem having outdoor cats is that they don’t always eat their catch. We often find chipmunks under the cars, moles on our welcome mats, mice and birds in the garden beds, and last week a dead rabbit on the front porch. It used to bother me when they caught songbirds, but then I realized that predators play an important role in keeping the various species healthy. They keep the weak and sick from reproducing. I remember learning about this long ago in the movie Never Cry Wolf. Mother Earth News also had a great article about the importance of predators this summer.
Chiot’s Run will never be without an outdoor cat, not only do they help keep the rodent population under control, they are outstanding garden companions. We also appreciate that since we got outdoor our cats we no longer have to worry about mice building nests in our cars like we always had before.
Do you have any garden companions of the four legged type? What methods of rodent control do you find most effective in your garden?
Share this:
2012 Chiot’s Run Calendar
I started working on my calendar last week hoping to have it up on November first. That didn’t happen, but I did get it up earlier than last year! It’s always tough choosing photos for each month, narrowing it down, deciding what direction to take, edible, flowers, etc. I’ve toyed with the idea of making a few different calendars, one featuring edible gardening, one featuring flowers & other things – maybe next year. For this year I’ll stick to the usual mix. Here’s the 2012 Chiot’s Run Calendar:
I want to thank all of you who purchase this calendar, I get a small amount from each sale and this helps me keep this blog ad-free and it helps me pay the bills associated with this blog. Once again it’s available in Small and Large:
Small: 11″ x 17″ open (folds in half in the middle like a regular calendar)
Large Calendar: 13.5″ x 19″ has coils at the top so it’s one continuos sheet
I also revised my Quote Calendar for 2012 as well, it’s also available in Small and Large.
Lulu just sent me a coupon that should get you 15% off the calendar. Use coupon code: NINCAL for 15% 1-9 calendars and code: TENCAL for 20% off 10 or more calendars. Coupon expires December 18, 2011. See Lulu homepage for details.
As hard as it is to narrow down photos for the calendar each year, I always seem to have one photo that’s my favorite from the season. This year was no different, December was my favorite, there’s just something wonderful about the sunlight in that photo that I really love! This year however, I’m especially fond of January and May, there’s just something about those two photos I really love!
What’s your favorite month?
Share this:
Cleaning up
This spring I mentioned that we had a few tress taken down and we started clearing the new lot next door. Not too long after that we started working on our little camper for our trip, and we neglected all the piles of brush laying around the gardens. It’s been a bit of an eyesore since spring and it’s been driving me crazy because they’re kind of in the way. When I hang laundry I have to step around a big pile of cherry branches. When I walk to the compost I have to weave through a few piles of oak logs.
We used a rather large amount of this brush to build a dead hedge across the back of the property. Basically it’s a neatly stacked brush pile that acts as a fence or hedge. It provides wildlife habitat and gives us something to do with all that brush. We still have a ton left though and needed to do something with it. Rent a chipper is on our list, but we haven’t gotten around to it. Yesterday I started burning some of it to clear off the area I want to plant my tulips (which was piled high with branches).
One of the benefits to burning the brush is that it gets rid of a lot of it rather quickly and you end up with a nice bit of ash. The ash will be added to soil to sweeten it a little, it’s very valuable for our highly acidic soils. The entire batch of ash I made yesterday will be returned to the hillside where the brush was and it will be worked into the soil when I plant the tulip bulbs.
Just a quick word of caution – when burning in early spring, fall, or other dry seasons, always keep a full watering can handy just in case you have a spark that gets away from you. No need to be running to get a hose or watering can since you’ll have it right there where you need it! I’m certainly glad we don’t have rules about campfires here, it was nice to warm myself during the cooler parts of the day. We even cooked our supper over the fire last night!
There’s something so great about fires, I don’t know what it is. It was very cleansing to spend some time cleaning some of the brush out of the garden and burning it. Time spent tending the fire was a much needed bit of relaxation even though I was working! We certainly should make it a point to have a few more campfires this fall and spend some time sitting by the fireside!
Have you ever built brush piles in your garden for wildlife habitat? Do you enjoy sitting around a fire?
Share this:
Finding Inspiration
Being the type of person that doesn’t sit still much, I’m always busy. Recently however, I’ve been feeling busy, which doesn’t happen often to me no matter how much I have to do in my day. When I get this way I have trouble finding my creativity. Not taking time to notice some of the intricate beauty around me is what bogs me down. Yesterday morning after working for a few hours I looked out the window and noticed the beautiful morning; the sun was shining and a heavy frost made everything shine. I took twenty minutes to head outside and take some photos and it made all the difference.
These photos will be a good reminder to take some time each day to notice something beautiful. I need this time as it’s my meditation time of sorts, oddly enough slowing down to notice beauty around me helps me accomplish more in my day. I’m incredible thankful that yesterday was such a sunny, bright, and beautiful morning and I’m thankful that I looked away from my computer to notice!
What is something you have found inspiring lately?
Share this:
A New Hobby: Roasting Coffee
I’ve talked about our love of coffee several times before. Mr Chiots and I are coffee aficionados; we drink coffee like other people drink wine, talking about the depth of flavor, the crema on the espresso right after brewing, and on and on. We were super happy to find a local source for the most wonderful micro-roasted coffee, but sadly Al quit roasting to sell and we were left sans good fresh micro-roasted coffee beans. Rather than settle for mediocre, we decided to take our normal path and simply start doing it ourselves.
We spent some time researching beans sources and coffee roasters then we took the plunge. There are many people that roast their coffee in an air popcorn popper. Since we’re espresso drinkers and like a dark roast, that wasn’t an option for us. We needed a drum roaster.
After doing much research we found CafeCoffees which is a guy who builds them on a small scale. What we really like about this roaster is that he makes them repairable with parts from the local home improvement store. Whenever possible we like to buy appliances sans electronic controls and made to be repaired. They’re usually more expensive initially but end up being much cheaper over the long term. As small business owners, we also appreciate supporting a small business. The 3 pound roasting capacity of the roaster we purchased was an added benefit since it will save time and money over roasting in smaller batches.
We ordered a collection of espresso beans from Sweet Maria’s, some single origin and some blends. Then we waiting for our roaster to arrive, eagerly anticipating the wonders of home roasted coffee. Our beans arrived about a week before our roaster. To fill in the gap, we had to buy beans from another small local roaster to get us through. Needless to say, our decision to roast at home was backed up by the flat flavor to of that coffee.
Our roaster arrived last Saturday; we set it up and roasted two pounds of coffee on Sunday afternoon. We were happy with the roaster that we chose and were also pleasantly surprised by our roasting results (especially since it was our first batch). Technically you’re supposed wait 2-3 days after roasting for the espresso to “bloom” fully, but we couldn’t wait. We brewed some on Monday morning.
You may think roasting your own coffee at home is difficult and you need special equipment – but it’s not and you don’t. There are some people that simply use an air popcorn popper and some that even do it in a cast iron skillet (which I may try someday when we want some coffee to brew in our Chemex). Basically you put your green coffee beans in your roaster and roast until desired doneness, we like a darker roast so we wait until they start the second crack (sounds like popcorn popping). Then you cool as rapidly as possible and you’re done. We were actually amazed by how easy it was!
Roasting coffee at home also saves money! We purchase our green coffee beans for between $5-$6/lb and our roaster only uses about 5 cents of power for each batch (we can roast up to 3lbs of coffee). Of course it will take us a while to recoup the cost of the roaster, but since we invested in a roaster that will last for years to come so it will save a lot of money over it’s long lifetime.
Our initial efforts aren’t as good as the coffee we used to get from Al, but they’re better than any other coffee we’ve purchased. We’re also using single origin beans at the moment and we like a blend of beans for more depth of flavor. We have a few blends to try as well and we will most likely come up with our own blend with much experimentation. It looks to be a fun and delicious hobby! I’ll keep you posted on our adventures (Oh and I’m planning on making a how-to video someday for Ethel so I’ll let you know when that happens).
Have you ever roasted your own coffee or do you know someone that does? Have you ever considered roasting your own?
