Building Bird Houses

Having accumulated so many wood scraps, I needed a project to clean up my shed. If I didn't I was afraid someone would ask me to be on the show, "Hoarders: Buried Alive" on TLC.

These birdhouses are mounted on a cedar pole with a piece of red cedar as a base. The actual birdhouses are build from old western cedar siding with roofs of recycled wooden oak shingles. The rest is just a little imagination, a few screws, and nails. Hopefully they will serve as a movable blue bird home for some migrant family.

Pesky Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are such beautiful birds The Pileated woodpecker, about the size of a crow, are mostly black with a conspicuous red crest, white throat, and white stripes on the wings and the side of the neck. You may have heard its distinct yuk-yuk-yuk- whistle, almost like it is taunting you when you run them off. We have a pair that nest in a hollow tree near the house and have been here for many years.

Even though we have aged trees full of insects to feed theses birds, several decided to explore our porch rafters for food. Early in the morning you would hear they tap-tap-tap coming from the porch.  During the spring the bumblebees had bored into the rafters and laid their eggs doing damage but not as much as the woodpeckers did trying to get to the larva.We would go out and shoo them away only to have them return the next day.

Our solution was to purchase several $1 plastic snakes and hang them from the rafters. Problem solved. We used their natural predators against them. By living in such close proximity to wetlands along the Tennessee River, the beaver swamps kill timber that have become a haven for all kinds of woodpeckers. We really enjoy watching this fascinating birds.

Hay Bale Gardening Success

Our first year of hay bale gardening has been very successful. After we harvested the beets and carrots, we were able to plant more squash and bell peppers in the same bales. We wish we had planted all our squash in the bales, because we had lots of problems with grubs and bugs. Most of the squash plants died after a few pickings. Next year, we will keep all the squash in the bales. Also, after straining our backs picking green beans, we may consider putting the beans in bales.

Stevenson Depot Days

Here you can see some of my latest winter projects. I have been collecting weathered shingles from old log cabins. These particular shingles are anywhere from one hundred and to one hundred and fifty years old. I have saved these for forty years and this winter I had the inspiration to use them to paint signs on the .  The topics are limitless.

We are displaying them today at the Stevenson Depot Days. The crowd was great this morning, but the summer temperatures have driven people indoors.

Another Predator

As usual, spring has brought out another one of our resident predators. Instead of killing the chickens, this one likes to eat the eggs. Friday, I when I went to gather the eggs I found a five foot snake in the hen's nest. The chicken snake, also called a rat snake, has a taste for mice but when given the opportunity he will raid a nest of eggs.  I really like snakes and hate to kill them, so I usually just carry them away from the house. I took this one over to our hay barn hoping he would help reduce  the mice population.

Becky has always thought the same snake was coming back. To test her theory, I spray painted this one's tail with fluorscent orange marking paint. I carried him off late Friday afternoon and he was back in the chickens' nests by noon on Monday. I knew it was the same snake because of the orange tail.  Over the past 40 years I have carried away over 100 snakes. I now wonder how many of those were making the return trip.

The moral of this story: Carrying a snake almost a mile away, having it cross two hills, and one swamp will not guarantee its return.

New Shed For Garden Sink

The shed for our garden sink is finally finished. We started the shed last year but due to heart surgery, it had to be delayed.  All the cedar posts and poles came from the farm costing us nothing. The tin on the roof was left over from roofing our home.

Last year the sink was useful but standing in the hot sun washing green beans, squash, etc. only strengthened our desire to complete the shed before this year's canning season. With the garden growing well, we should be putting it to good use in a few weeks.

Hay Bale Gardening

We are trying a new gardening technique we saw on Facebook and in a book called, Straw Bale Gardening by Joel Karsten. The book suggests using straw bales as it will have less grass seed in it.  We are using grass hay bales because that is what we had on hand in our barn.

So far we have planted several varieties of cabbage, broccoli, onions, beets, carrots, and tomatoes; all on the hay bales. Soaker hoses run the length of the bales and are turned on as needed. The bales were prepped two weeks before planting by putting a cup of ammonium nitrate on each bale and then watered daily. The purpose of the nitrogen is to feed the bacteria that decomposes the hay. The hay decomposition provides food for the plant.

Before planting seeds, I put about an inch of old chicken litter on top of the bales to cover the seed. The plants were just put in a hole punched in the hay.

We hope this method will reduce the amount of water needed for our garden and will cut down on our weed problem. We are going to try and spray between the rows of bales with a vinegar and dishwashing liquid solution instead of using herbicides.  Stay turned for further developments.