R.I.P Ms Cougar......

today was a very sad day on the farm.. not only for myself but my daughter and her hubby... we've always stated that this is sacred ground for God's creatures.. small and large.. unfortunately due to some very irresponsible 'farmer neighbours'' earth is minus one very beautiful creature... and it was especially sad because that beautiful creature's life was snuffed out here on the farm..... her crime - the death of sheep... sheep who's owners didn't put in the barn at night... negligence on the part of the owner as far as i'm concerned... not only did they 'murder' the cougar, they murdered the sheep who's lives were shortened because someone couldn't be bothered to make sure they were safe... unfortunately ms. cougar couldn't read the no trespassing sign, or read a manual that told her what she could and could not eat... i'm know there are plenty of people who would disagree with me.. you know 'sheep killer' etc., but when one puts dinner in front of them... hmmmmmmmm......

my daughter and son -in-law did a very valiant effort to save the cougar and i wish more than anything that they could have saved her...  the 'conservation officer' stated he'd try to save the cougar, but we all know.. relocation doesn't happen often, rarely if ever.. for bears or cougars.... we asked how many cougars on the island.. he stated 400-600 animals... in my estimation that is getting down to the extinction wire... (our island is large..... Area: 31, 284 square kilometres (12,076 square miles).   i have to say i'm ashamed to be human today...we as a group have raped, pillaged and destroyed everything in our path.....   

anyways... R.I.P    Ms Cougar

she's in the tree... look just above the centre of the picture and you'll see her hiding in branches...

after she was 'tranquilized', she fell into the creek below....
words can't express how i feel about seeing her lifeless body being dragged up the hill ...

From beasts we scorn as soulless,

In forest, field and den,

The cry goes up to witness

The soullessness of men.

~M. Frida Hartley

p.s. as for the bear that is wandering around we will not call the conservation officer, but we WILL continue to make sure our garbage is clean and tidy, our compost is buried deeply, our dogs in check, in the fall our fruit will be picked or composted properly and hopefully he will wander the land in peace.....

The Good, Bad and the Ugly....

was a great movie.. but Momma Nature's movie is even better...so sorry i don't have a movie.. BUT .. IF i had oodles and oodles of 'dough' perhaps i'd have one of those fancy dancy video cameras that does Macro/micro what-have-yous.... but i don't.. so still it is.... and ONE day i'll have a better lense... but in the meantime i'm happy to you show you the good.... bad and (not so) ugly....

the good.....

Nasturtiums...an all purpose plant... great to ward off some of those 'evil' aphids... tasty flowers and seeds to eat... the flowers can be just eaten in a salad or maybe dipped in some batter and deep fried, make a vinegarette, stuffed...the list goes on.... and the seeds are a poor man's capers... not so bad huh!!! apparently the earwigs have found my nasturtium leaf delicious, but not quite as delicious as my marigolds which now have the appearance of a tree who's leaves have fallen off in september.... 

in my previous post is a picture of two very frisky little ladybird beetles...they have long since flown away... BUT....  

'ladybird ladybird fly away home, your house is on fire and your children are alone. (eating those BAD aphids!!)

you can see this baby ladybird beetle larva is having a 'tasty' aphid meal... yummy yummy in my tummy....

and below, i believe this is an 'older' sibling of the above ladybird larva

a brand new hatching of babies... woohoo....

the bad.......

i'm really not so sure what this is... BUT i suspect that it's something come to eat more of my apple tree...

just a note * the apple tent caterpillars i seem to have under control... whew!!!

and the ugly....

a LOT of folks really really don't like snakes, think they are ugly and are terrified of them or just plain annoyed by their existance... pity because they do so much good...as for me i love to see them in the garden and this year is a great year for the garter snakes, at least here on the farm.. i've spotted quite a few... the large amount of slugs i had are no longer.. haven't seen one in awhile....

this snake was 'visiting' another snake.. but unfortunately i disturbed them before the 'dance' ... so sorry mr and mrs snake..  

all the critters were found in, on or under my apple tree that was infested with aphids... as for the aphids, they seem to have died down to a dull roar... so i'll leave them and see what transpires... so far... 'full circle'...

Oh My!!!!.......

after i sprayed the one apple branch with the lemon juice and water i thought i'd better go have a lookie-loo and see if i'd killed any of the dastardly aphids.. and look what i found!!!  not only those 2 frisky ladybird beetles but some other multiple legged critters...

below is a rather hairy little fellow, don't you think!!

and this wee spider seemed to mimic the wee honey ants that were tending to the aphids.....

this larger ladybird beetle had tucked himself/herself into this leaf...nothing like nature's own 'fly-in restaurant' !!!

while i was shooting pictures of the other critters these two little ladybugs wandered all over the one branch and ended up in this coiled aphid filled  leaf... i'm hoping that copious amounts of eggs will be deposited here...and my aphid issue will be eaten away...  i'm not going to spray the apple tree branch again but will keep a watchful eye for more tent caterpillars and carefully dispose of them....

as for the aphids which i'd sprayed earlier, they did seem to be less but the ants were busy busy milking them so we shall see....

i found this great short video on aphid farming...

and in my hunt for ladybug 'stuff' i found this very cute website page, with a poem i like.. i'm not sure who wrote the poem but it so fits my thoughts on Ladybugs... 

Lovely little ladybug,

sent from heaven above,

please watch over my garden,

and fill it up with love.

Bugs in the Basil...

there are a TON of aphids that hatched, waiting to be eaten by ladybugs, squished, drowned... whatever manner works the best!!!  was doing well for awhile, but always suspected this was going to be a buggy year, lack of cold winter combined with wet spring... mmmm buggy season!!!  my poor little greenhouse plants got swarmed, i think i've gotten rid of most of them but they are now sitting in my basil... grrrrr...

i found a website ( Ramona's Basil Garden  Love your Basil ) a few months ago and received an email with a recipe for 'possible removal' of aphids using a lemon juice cocktail ( 1 lemon to 3 cups water )

Ramona has a video clip of how to make the spray... am going to make some today and give my basil a good go with it... wish me luck!!!

unfortunately the aphids have attacked one of my apple trees too... with great gusto they've mulitplied and are causing the poor little tree great stress... yesterday i was inspecting the leaves and was horrified to find....... apple tent caterpillars.... babies but hundreds of them... out came the clippers and off with the branches that were hosting the hungry little critters... as much as i hated to interfer with nature.. they are now in a very large bucket of water... hopefully all have all gone to buggy heaven....

i have my fingers crossed and will be watching closely to see if any more of the dreaded critters hatch... 'they' have predicted a tent caterpiller year because of last winter's mildness.. guess we'll see... this will be the first year that this little tree has had more than 3 apples on it.. i may end up removing the apples so the tree can heal itself... i only have 2 apple trees, both Gravenstein , in my opinion, one of the best varieties of apples..when i think of Gravenstein i think of Grandma's big old apple tree that was in the front yard, down by the river... ahhhh fond memories... 

The Living Room....

2 posts back i mentioned that my friends lost their house to fire... they've since moved into their trailer and thank goodness it's 'late spring' and not winter... thought i'd share the view from their outdoor living room ....

the clothes on the line... rescued from their washing machine... sometimes small things are miracles!!

our dear friend Shadow who has coped very well in his new home...

notice the hail!!!  as we were sitting there a thunderstorm unleashed hail and copious amounts of rain.... such is life in the country!!!

Speechless......

well almost..... these  three lovely tomatoes, medium sized.. organically grown..... $5.12



















my tomatoes that i bought as plants.... $1.50 each ... on sale....




















and i have a ton of ones i raised from seeds, at $1.99 a pkg. ......
if you look closely you can see a small tomato.... i can't wait for that first tomato to ripen, smell like a tomato and taste like a tomato... mmmmm thank you creator...

June is here........

but except for the fact that its about 60 degrees, it might as well be march!! Rain rain and more rain.....my garden looks lush.. the parsnips in their second year are 4ft high already... the peas finally awakened with their first bloom...  when the sun does come out.. ahhhhhh you can almost feel the relief... on a good note, i've not been short of water yet!!!
yesterday we found this little alligator lizard... looks as if it's been in battle already, seems to be blind, the tail already been lopped off... so 'allie' went home to my daughter's.. she got out a spare tank and settled allie into the new home... i'm sure allie will get the best care possible and grow healthy and strong.... in case your wondering, she raises lizards so has an endless supply of crickets, slugs and other assorted goodies... mmmmm aphid snackies... sounds good huh!!   speaking of aphids, they've arrived... in my apple trees, the parsnips, the kale... where are the ladybird beetles!!!

back tracking a week..

my friends were burned out of their home and as we watched in disbelief we were reminded of how precious life is.. they came out of it with life, limb and Shadow their dog.. friends and neighbours (of whom some they'd never met) rallied together, supplied them with clothing, shoes, blankets, pillows and whatever else they needed... for at least 4 months they will be living in their travel trailer and as the Phoenix, they will rise out of the ashes...   life is good....

also had a visitor a few days ago.. a very large black hairy visitor!!  was a rather scary few minutes!!!  my dog sampson was outside and got to meet his very first bear... i looked up in time to see sampson get up and move very slowly, i looked towards where he was looking and my first thought was 'who's big black dog is that' and then suddenly realized that it was no dog at all... my heart was pounding asi raced to the door and tried calling sampson back.. fortunately after a few frantic screaming calls he came....and the bear sauntered across the field and into the woods.....  whewwwwwww is all i can say... dog and bear 40-50 feet away from each other could have had a very bad ending...