Ella Sandberg

A long overdue tour of everything going on at the homestead...Peter and I have been working hard and expanding gardens and adding new animals to the farm.

Today the Japanese beetles showed up. This year we are slightly more ready than last year, and we actually hired 4 farm employees that will be here in a little over a week. We planted "trap crops" to attract the beetles away from the crops we want to protect...amaranth and lots of zinnias. Problem - trap crops are not in full bloom yet, so not trapping anything. I caught a bunch to try to feed them to our chickens. The chicks were interested, but the beetles' crunchy texture was a bit much...

Meet our chickens by name...also confession, it is really hard to tell Astralorps and Barred Rock baby chicks apart for me as a newbie...so inadvertently family and friends named chickens not necessarily according to the original assignments. But it turns out the names suit each chicken well... Australorps - Ellie, Dessie, Rosa, and Amelia Eggheart Barred Rock - Lafawnda (Napoleon Dynamite favorite), Girl George, Agape, and Pickle Pee (video game character) Brahmas - Kalico, Quill, Fluff,...