Bergamot Makes A Good Tea

I wanted to record what the plant Bergamot looks like because it is another useful edible and medicinal plant growing in Pure Water Hollow. We have had large patches of this growing on the hill between our garden and the Pear Tree path. This year we did not find as much as other years. It makes a good tea that we have enjoyed, especially when combined with other mint leaves. It blooms here in early summer.



I pulled the following info off of someone elses website, so I can’t vouch for the accuracy. We have never used it medicinally ourselves, but we like to know about potential uses for our plants:

Bergamot (Monarda didyma)): Perennial to 1 metre tall and 40cm wide. Also known as Oswego Tea and Bee Balm. Oval leaves, smelling like mint and basil, with pointed tips on stems to 1 metre tall. Grows in large clumps and spreads on runners. Red flowers, which smell of oranges, emerge in shaggy clumps in summer. Pick leaves and flowers through the growing season, but if drying for medicinal purposes, the leaves should be harvested just before flowering or while the plant is in full bloom. Reject any leaves affected by mildew.

Use an infusion of leaves for indigestion, headache, coughs, sore throat, nausea, and menstrual cramps. A steam inhalation of the leaves gives relief for bronchitis.

Medicinal Actions: Expectorant, disinfectant, carminative, antiseptic, antifungal

Usual Dosage: Pour 1 cup boiling water over 1 teaspoon dried leaves. Steep for 15 minutes. Strain, and take 1-2 cups per day.

Another Family of Chicks

The last of our hens that have been missing re-appeared today with 8 chicks following her around! Looking back on the calendar I see that she has been missing for about 3 weeks, which is the time it takes to hatch out a nest of eggs.

The chicks are very adorable, as usual. I think she is one of the hens that kept going broody and we kept throwing her off the nests in the coop to try to discourage her from setting. I guess she would not be denied and just moved out to the wild to have her nest and took her chances!

She was the fourth hen that had been missing, and now they are all accounted for again. Three of them survived and hatched off bitties but the one met her demise. We found the feathers and some bones a couple of weeks ago.

We had purposely allowed one hen to set and she hatched off 6 chicks, but as I wrote earlier she and four of her chicks were killed by some kind of predator. And one of our woods-hatched flock was wiped out by something, killing 9 of 10 chicks.

I hope these 8 have better success. We may try to find where she nests and transfer them all into a protective cage. This is working well with Cinnamon, but we moved her into the cage before her chicks hatched. Each night she has her 5 in with her and we close her up and each morning we let her out to take her chicks on their adventures.

It is nice to see baby chicks on the farm. (We have pictures of them that I may get uploaded here hopefully soon.)

Blue Legs And Her 14 Chicks

I just wanted to put up a quick post and share some pictures of the chicks we have been enjoying watching the most this spring. The mama is named "Blue Legs" … because she has blue legs instead of yellow like most of our hens. She was a wild hen that came to us last year, not belonging to anyone. She did not like the idea of staying in the coop, so she has been just roaming around, hatching off bitties. This last batch she came out with 14!

They have been fun to watch. We took some pictures of them after they had grown out of their new-born stage. They do grow very quickly! I thought these pictures were still pretty cute:






Isn’t she a pretty hen? The picture below shows her "puffing up" a bit because Gene, one of our roosters, was getting too close. You can see a bit of him in the lower left hand corner.




I like this one with her reflection in our small pond:




Blue Legs does a good job at being a mama hen. If she chooses to stay with us, she will be an asset to the Pure Water Hollow flock!

1 comment
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SisterLori on June 28, 2007 at 1:00 am
Blessings!

She is a beautiful hen. Do you know what breed she may be? (I have been looking online but have not found anything that looks like her. What a stunning addition to your homestead:)

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

Purewater: She appears to be a mix between game and a larger breed, because she is bigger than the typical game hens around here.

A Sad Morning/Mourning For Our New Chicks

We have had 3 hens hatch off chicks (or "bitties" if you are from around here) during the month of June. Two of them we planned and one hatched off hers in the hills in secret. (We are still missing another hen that may be setting somewhere.)

While it was wondrous to observe God’s creative miracle in the hatching of the chicks, and also amazing to watch the mama hens guide and protect her little ones, we have also been brought back to the reality that we live in a fallen world and that our homestead is in the middle of a wild country with various wild animals and predators. The hen we had named "Big Comb" hatched off 6 of the 10 eggs we put under her, on June 2nd and 3rd. We had her in her own small covered lot but let her out so she could show her little ones the beautiful world they were born into. This was the week of our VBS and on the night of the 4th we got home pretty late. It was after 10:00pm by the time I was going out to shut up the coop and Big Comb’s cage.

It had only been dark for about an hour, but that was enough time for tragedy to strike. The main coop chickens were fine, but Big Comb was not in her spot. Looking closer I saw feathers and the evidence of a struggle, and the dead bodies of two of her day-old bitties. They had not been dead for long. Upon further examination I found two more of the chicks still alive, huddled behind the nest. They seemed to be OK!

Here are some pictures of the two survivors:

The last two chicks were nowhere to be found and Big Comb was definitely gone, but at least these two little ones had made it! I imagine that whatever it was that got Big Comb and the two bitties would have come back and eaten the two dead chicks and finished off the last two surviving chicks soon. I wonder if my coming down the road had scared the predator away before it had finished? I was also mad at myself for not going out there the minute we got home from VBS instead of going in the house and unwinding for a few minutes. Maybe this would not have happened.

This was also sad because Big Comb was the last survivor of our original hens that we had gotten back in the spring of 2004. (We still have some of the original pullets.) She was the matriarch of our flock; mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother to many of our current flock.

In the meantime, the hen we named “Black Frost” had appeared from the weeds in the hills with 10 bitties of her own, also on June 2nd! We think they were hatched the end of May because they were already much larger than the two surviving day-old chicks of Big Comb’s. Black Frost is almost totally black in color with subtle specks of white on the back of her head and she seemed to be an excellent mother. She would not even let us get close enough to her chicks to offer them food she was so protective.

We had hoped that we could give the two surviving chicks to her to adopt, but we could not get them close enough to her for them to follow. If we could have just known where she was nesting we could have put them under her at night, but like I said, this was VBS and each night we would get home at dark, after Black Frost had already disappeared to her hideout.

Finally, on Friday June 8th, our hen Cinnamon hatched three chicks. She was another of our hens that went “missing” last month, but had gathered a nest of eggs for herself. We found her and her nest, candled the eggs, and moved her with the eggs we thought were good to a secure chicken cage. She had three healthy, black chicks! Several more of the eggs had “pipped” but something happened and the chicks did not make it out.

We had kept the two orphans in the house for several days, but that night they gladly snuggled down under Cinnamon with their three new siblings. I have been careful to close them all up together in their protective cage each evening and we have enjoyed watching them forage and hunt for food when I let them out in the mornings. Cinnamon will let us get very close to her chicks and it has been fun feeding them.

Meanwhile, we thought Black Frost was doing a good job wherever she was hiding at night. We would see her each day with her 10 chicks following her around, and she would flog off any dog or cat that came too near. She had kept them safe… until last night.

This morning, as I was feeding the chickens around 6:15, I noticed that Black Frost was running around making all kinds of racket, but with no chicks following her. It was so sad, seeing her clucking and cackling and making little mama hen sounds. I looked around the hill where we suspected her night nest to be and listened for any sounds, but I came to the conclusion that the chicks had fell victim to a wild animal.

Black Frost looked disheveled and battered a bit, but still healthy. I imagined her trying to fight off whatever predator had found them but had to retreat in the end. Apparently the little brood had been attacked and scattered.

The good news is that around 9:00 today Christina noticed that Frost had one of her bitties with her! She had found at least one of them! I guess there is still a chance that some more may turn up today, but it would be mighty slim odds. It sure is odd seeing only one chick following her around when there were 10. Here she is with her one surviving chick:




A few hens have also hatched off about 40 chicks in our neighbor’s yard. These are from the nomad flock that no one is sure of who they belong to. Some of them have been coming over to our yard and visiting, so we may end up with some of them before it is all over. One of the mama’s is the one we called Blue Legs who stayed with our flock over the winter but never got comfortable staying in the coop. She has been bringing her 14 bitties to our yard frequently and they are adorable.

Farm life in the hills of Kentucky is often exciting and fun, but it is also sad at times when we are reminded that there are plenty of wild animals looking for an easy meal. I guess they have to survive, too, but I wish it would not be at the expense of helpless little animals that are under my watch care. (Speaking of wild animals, another black bear was spotted in our county last week. The newspaper said there have been reports of bears from 5 different areas of the county this year, one of them being just a couple of miles from here across the river! The black bear population is growing in our neck of the woods in eastern Kentucky. Several years ago the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife would deport every one they caught to a more uninhabited area somewhere, but now they are allowing most to stay. I think that is pretty cool, as long as they leave our chickens, goats, pigs, and apiary alone!)

We Lost Our Swarm, But Genesis Colony Is Doing Well

"Mom, Dad! Come Quick! Something is happening to our bees!"

We heard these words coming from Matthew who was outside. It was about 4:00 in the afternoon. Needless to say, we got outside as quickly as possible. We were in time to hear a loud roaring buzz up on the hill. Our beehive is quite a ways up on the mountain and we don’t usually hear them buzz. Something was definitely up!

Then we saw a cloud of bees move from one tree back up the hill for a ways with a tremendously loud buzzing. It was quite a sight! And then everything was quiet and still. Evidently they landed somewhere close.

We had hoped that by adding the additional hive body and super the colony would not swarm this year. We thought we were in the clear because this is very late for a swarm. Lisa and I went up the mountain to check on the hive, thinking the worst may have happened. The hive looked fine. It wasn’t turned over and it wasn’t deserted. It looked just as it had the last time we were up there, so we figured that we had witnessed a swarm.

We walked around and around looking where we thought we had heard and seen the swarm stop, hoping to find them attached to a low limb. If we could find them, we could transplant them into another hive and have a second honeybee colony! We have another hive just waiting to be assembled so that would have been no problem.

They were no where to be found. Perhaps they actually swarmed yesterday, Wednesday, and had been hanging on a limb all day today. We were not out at this time yesterday so we would have missed it. We have read that they will swarm one day to a tree or someplace and send out scouts looking for a new home. Then they will move at about the same time they swarmed, just 24 hours later. All we could figure is that what we actually witnessed was the swarm moving to a new found home. They are probably in a hollow tree somewhere on our mountain.

They are incredible insects. Here are some pictures of the Genesis Colony taken a few weeks ago. It looks pretty much the same today:




Here is a close-up of one of our bees:




We are planning on adding another super soon and checking to see how much honey is in the current one. When we do that, I’ll try to get some pictures of us in our bee outfits with the smoker. We didn’t get any pictures the first time we got into the hive to add the new hive body and super, but it was a good experience. The smoker worked great and neither one of us received any stings. Hopefully they will be as agreeable the next time, also, even though they lost part of their colony.

As far as we can tell, our colony is still doing fine. It is a shame that we lost our first swarm, but I suppose that there will be more. That is definitely the way we would like to add future colonies instead of having to buy more. We thank the Lord for our honeybees and for allowing us to have this learning experience. To God be the glory!

Remembering Our Bitty Bunny

We enjoyed the little bunny we rescued for a few days, but, sadly, he ultimately did not make it. We called him "BB" , short for Bitty Bunny.

We were having a nice Lord’s Day, enjoying our Sunday afternoon walk. We were up at the clearing, relaxing and taking in the beauty of God’s woods and feeling close to Him, when Luna (our black lab/pyrenees mix) came out of the weeds carrying a little animal in her mouth!

We quickly got it out of her mouth and discovered it was a little bunny, and he was still alive! He was breathing hard, and it seemed his back legs were hurt, but no major bleeding. We took him down to the house and the children began caring for him.

We made up a comfortable box for him. Christina got leaves and weeds to make a bed for him and some clover to see if he would eat. We also made up some of the replacement milk that we had gotten for the kittens. He did eat some and take some milk, but not much.

The children loved him and he was so adorable. They cared for him Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday we made him a nice home in one of our chicken cages so he could be out in the grass and dirt. His back legs were still not recovered, but he was able to move around using his front arms.

It is difficult to save baby bunnies and we let the children know that the odds of him surviving were not good. Sadly, we were correct. This morning he was no longer living.

I did want to record some of the pictures Erica took of him for our memories. Even though we had him just for a few days, we wanted to remember him. This was one of those experiences at Pure Water Hollow that would go quickly into forgetfulness, if not for pictures and this blog. That would be a sad thing.




And here he is next to a ball to give a size comparison:



The ball is not actually a regulation soccer ball. It is a smaller toy ball that looks like a soccer ball. But it still gives a good idea of how small this little bunny was.

He was a very sweet and adorable little animal.



(We have thought about trying to raise rabbits for food, but I think we would have trouble with the "adorable factor"! That would be a difficult hurdle to overcome for us!)


2 comments
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sheryl on June 24, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Oh how sweet of you all to try and help BB. I am sorry he didn`t make it. sheryl
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SimpleFolk on June 24, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Oh, I'm so sorry…It's so very disappointing when this happens (a sad part of any homestead/farm life). It was so sweet of your children to take such good care of the little fellow.

Amy

Exploring Tadpoles Turning Into Frogs

This week the children have been having a great time watching the creatures change in our pond. Today they captured all of the different phases going on and had them all in one bucket!

Here is a tadpole, (or polliwog depending on where you are)starting to grow it’s legs:




I read that they hatch out as a tadpole and remain in that form until the following season. Then they start growing legs in their transformation to frog, and the other frog characteristics come on gradually.

The tail is the last thing the tadpole looses on its journey to becoming a frog. I don’t remember ever seeing a frog with a tadpole tail, so I was amazed at this next picture myself! Here are a couple of the frog before it lost its tadpole tail:





And we all know what a frog looks like, but I had to put up a picture of one to make this post complete. Here is a finished frog with a tail-frog in the background:




And some day these little guys will be peaking out at us, daring us to try to catch them, like this frog:




God gives us all kinds of science lessons right in our own pond! This is what I call "home schooling through the summer"!

June Wild Flowers

This has been a beautiful spring and one of the things we always enjoy is the wild flowers that God graces our property with. Erica has taken a few pictures of the most abundant ones that I thought would be nice to show here. No matter what direction you may look here at Pure Water Hollow, you will probably be seeing wild roses, day lilies, or daisies.

We have daisies coming up all over the place. When we mow, we are careful to leave the best stands of daisies alone. Simon and Christina often pick these to use in a bouquet for their mother, who proudly displays them on the dining room table in a vase.






We also love to see the day lilies blooming. Aren’t they pretty?





Another wild flower that has been catching our attention is the wild roses. We have so many pretty blooms and they range in color from almost completely white to pure pink to purple and many shades in between. Here are some of them:






Erica made some rose collages with her new camera that I thought were really pretty:





And there you have some of the most common and abundant wild flowers of Pure Water Hollow during this late part of spring.

The prettiest flower of all was working the camera. Thanks for the pictures, Erica.



PS Since I don’t know when I might next do another entry of just nature photography, I thought I would include a picture of a "flying flower", a zebra swallowtail butterfly that Erica took:

Saving This Year's Kittens

Some time ago I wrote about two of our cats each having a litter of kittens. The best of the mama cats was then hit out on the road a day after her kittens were born. The other mama was not showing very many mothering instincts to her own kittens and now her litter had to be doubled! We had eight kittens and a mama cat that did not want to stay with them!

We got the replacement formula and the children started to bottle feed them, alternating between the bottle and the kittens nursing from the mama cat.

Sadly, two of the the eight died, but the other six seem to be doing well. Erica has now taken several pictures of them. They are cuter in person, but the pictures give you an idea of what we have been enjoying caring for.

Here was one litter soon after they were born:



We bottle fed them for several weeks:



They began to get into the cute, playful stage pretty soon:





Kittens do sleep often:



The kittens were not the only ones who enjoyed the replacement milk from the bottle. This is Creamsicle who was probably the daddy cat:




We were thankful that they did still have one mama cat that could nurse them some times, even though 8 was a bit too many for her:



We have been enjoying seeing these kittens get stronger. For a while we had them up at the barn in hopes that they would grow up to be good barn cats, but one night the mama cat moved them all back down to our house.

We did not have the heart to move them back up yet, and they are easier to play with on our porch!

3 comments
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clairebear on June 21, 2007 at 3:47 pm
I LOVE kittens!!! Oh how precious!
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LittleHouse on June 21, 2007 at 5:25 pm
The kittens are so cute! They seem really playful too!

Erica did a really good job taking the pictures! We Love all of you!

Love,

Mary & Laura
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sheryl on June 21, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Oh how cute! I am going to come and visit you all just so I can play with the kittens. lol