Deer spotters

I just looked outside and saw Morgan and Spirit in the pasture, they were both looking intently at something across the pasture. I looked and saw two bucks and a doe. The bucks were gorgeous, with large racks in velvet. Frequently we will hear a "huff" sound if we come up on a deer accidentally at night or we notice the horses at attention as they always locate deer first.

7 egg day

Today was a 7 egg day, got an egg from each of our 7 golden comet hens. Even better, 6 of the eggs were laid in two nests in the chicken coop, one egg laid in the barn. Yesterday I rearranged perches and nests in the coop and added fresh hay.

Optical Refractometer, pasture brix levels

Yes, it's official, I've gone off the deep end now. Some people who are close to me, names with held to protect the innocent, have been aware of this situation for quite some time.

If you remember I am interested in mob grazing and was recently reading some articles which mentioned pasture forage brix levels. Huh??

Well, apparently brix is the sugar content, and a handheld device called an optical refractometer can measure the sugar content, or brix, of things like honey, grapes, corn, garden produce, and even grass. For example, vinyards will measure brix levels of grapes to determine the proper harvest time.

So, some grass farmers have started to measure the brix levels in their pastures and are reporting very interesting findings. If a pasture is well managed one can achieve brix levels above 10%, even above 20%. Animals perform very well on high brix forage, and a high brix pasture is very healthy. Interestingly, destructive insects such as grass hoppers will leave high brix pastures alone.

I went to Amazon.com and ordered myself a 0-32% optical refractometer so I too could measure brix levels. I paid about $60. An optical refractometer is an interesting device. One collects a few drops of liquid from a sample and puts the liquid on the surface of a prism and then closes a transparent plate which spreads the liquid out in an even film across the surface of the prism. One then holds the device up so that sunlight passes through the sample and looks into an eyepiece and reads the brix level of the sample directly on a scale.

How it works: sunlight passes through the liquid sample and bends, or refracts, just like light bends when it enters a pool of water. If the sugar content of the sample is low then the light is not bent very much. A high sugar content causes the light to bend more. The bent light is collected in the prism and directed to a scale where one can directly read the brix level.

There are a few gotcha's. The readings are temperature sensitive, so the reading must stabilize or one must use a temperature corrected refractometer. Brix levels in grass change during the day, they are lowest early in the morning and highest later in the afternoon on a sunny day. Sunshine, and photosynthesis, cause sugar levels to increase in the plant. So, if you are making hay you might want to cut your hay crop later in the day.

The device measures refraction, but refraction is influenced by minerals and other solids in the sample besides sugar. Many pastures and fields today have been mined of essential minerals so it is good to have brix readings, as well as soil samples.

I measured brix levels in my pasture and had readings in the 3% - 5% range (in doing so I destroyed our flimsy garlic press, which I employed to squeeze juice out of balls of pasture grass, I now need to find a sturdy unit). These are fairly low brix levels. Mob grazing and certain other management practices (such as raw milk applications) are said to be able to increase pasture brix levels above 10% and even above 20%. To be continued.

Living off the land ...

Well, not quite, not yet.
A nice 63 degrees outside this morning.

My morning chores consisted of taking care of pigeons, chickens, and budgies. I watched pigeons fly for about 30 minutes. One group of young pigeons went ranging cross country and came back home about an hour later.

For breakfast I scrambled up three lovely eggs courtesy of our pastured golden comet hens. Yum! I was enjoying a cup of coffee when our power went out. So, I decided to go out and take a look at our power line to make sure that it was not down on our property, no tree had fallen on it, etc. I started down the driveway at a nice slow pace. I decided to wander off into the woods and followed a deer trail down to the old homesite. Then I went back to the driveway and down to the road to check the mail. No mail and no problems with the power line.

I started to hike back up the driveway and came across two pretty wild turkey feathers which I picked up. Then I saw a bunch of wild blackberries, and some were ripe. So, as I hiked back up the driveway I picked a few ripe blackberries and ate them. They are fabulous.

Chip's wild blackberry guide:
Blackberries will let you know when they are ready to be picked.
First, the blackberries are black!
Next, the little "balls" that make up a blackberry will be large and plump.
Finally, when you try to pick a ripe blackberry it will come free from the plant with barely any force at all. You just lightly touch the blackberry and it will fall into your hand, or you might give a gentle tug. If you do this and the blackberry does not release then it is not ready, just leave it on the plant.

Finally, pop a ripe blackberry in your mouth.
You don't need to chew it or use your teeth. Just use your tongue and press it against the roof of your mouth and the blackberry will melt in your mouth and release it's sweet goodness. No bitter taste, no seeds, just delicious.

Pup-pup Wiggles Piller of course was with me for the morning walk. He was following the scent trail of some critter in the woods when a nice sized buck with antlers crossed the driveway about 50 feet ahead of me. The deer are probably enjoying the blackberries now too, along with the clover in our pastures. Seeing the antlers reminded me to check on the mineral block we have out in the pasture which is used by the horses and the deer.

I arrived back at the house to find the power had been restored so I finished my cup of coffee and made this blog entry.

Turtles on the move

June 17 (late post). The last two mornings while driving in to work I saw at least 6 turtles crossing the road. It must be turtle migration or mating season or something.

July 5: About 10 days ago while driving up our driveway we came across a nice snapping turtle, those are the ones that look like dinosaurs.

Snakey

I was mowing the grass along the horse pasture fence line when I came across this guy.

Down by the creek today

I took John and a friend of his down to the fishing hole so they could fish. I snapped a couple of pictures while down there. The kids caught four fish, three small and one larger.

Almost time for wild blackberries

We've got lots of wild blackberries growing all over the place. They are mostly green or red right now but will soon be ready for picking. Can't wait.

First Harvest

Debby found she had a few green beans in the garden that were ready to pick.

Free Ranging Baby!

We opened up the chicken tractor and let our Rhode Island Red chicklets loose for the first time. They loved being out.

Biscuits?

John decided to make some biscuits from scratch from a recipe that was in a magic book he was reading. John did an excellent job, the biscuits turned out great, John has now made them a second time.

Cattle, grass & methane

Papa called yesterday and told a joke about cows and methane, if you contact Papa I'm sure he'll be glad to tell you the joke. It reminded me of an article I read which stated that properly managed grass pastures would absorb more methane than a cow produces.

Apparently there are a lot of benefits to natural grass fed products.

Tractor maintenance

My tractor now has 215 hours on it. Today I changed the hydraulic/transmission fluid and filters, put in 15 gallons of Kubota SUDT fluid and two new Kubota transmission filters. While I was at it I also changed the engine oil and filter. Put in almost 3 gallons of Shell Rotella synthetic T6 5w-40 engine oil and new Kubota engine oil filter. Also cleaned radiator screen, checked engine coolant, checked front axle fluid. Tractor is good to go!

The end of the rainbow!

John and Mary were outside playing at about 7pm, it was dry and sunny. Rain hit fast and hard seemingly out of nowhere. Then, another beautiful rainbow. This rainbow was extra special because we could see the end of the rainbow right next to our car!

Just a couple of days ago we were treated with a gorgeous double rainbow, Mary said it was the prettiest rainbow she had ever seen. And today we saw the end of the rainbow.

Gone Fishin'

John dug up some worms from his worm spot near the barn. Debby packed a picnic, we then headed out. We tried to get to the river near Camp Austin but could not find the right place. So we went a mile from our house where Clifty Creek meets the Emory river.

Ginseng?

Someone locally is selling wild american ginseng. I think that we might have some growing on our farm, or at least we have the potential to grow it. I took this picture of a plant that looks a lot like ginseng. I don't think it is ginseng, but we have a lot of it. What is it?
Update June 7, 2010: I believe that this plant is Virginia Creeper.