First Blueberry Harvest

Posted on by July 16, 2009

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The Blueberries are Running! The Blueberries are Running!

Okay, well, considering that we JUST planted our two little bushes this year and they were baby bushes as well… I’m actually very very surprised that we’re getting any berries this year, but well, the little guys are beautiful and ripe and ready to be harvested.

We donned our gear and headed out in the early dawn to labor at the blueberry patch… we were prepared for some hard work… fruit of our tender gardening care and water and good compost…. yes, we were ready to share of our harvest with the family and add to our ever growing poundage off the farm. (We’re up to 4.5 pounds so far!)

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Yes, this is only our first harvest, we expect to double our harvest in a week or so, there is that much more fruit waiting and still a little green.

Ahem. Hee hee… well, you know first year fruit is always a little on the lean side. The fact that I’ve gotten about 15 strawberries off my patch is amazing… and look…. the raspberries are trying hard and I expect at least 3 or 4 raspberries as well!

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Well, to celebrate, we whipped up a batch of pancakes… and since Jessy was the one that wanted blueberries in our yard…. she got the first and only pancake with the 5 little berries!

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And then we added a skillet of fresh farm eggs and our local made pork sausage to compliment the celebration breakfast! Yum!

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It’s amazing how good such a simple breakfast is after the rigors of harvest time at the Moby farm… aching muscles and the hot summer morning air on your body, the seconds of effort…. hahaha…. okay, it’s just a good breakfast!

Jessy even shared one bite of the precious little blueberries and man, they were tasty. Can’t wait for next year and maybe we’ll get like a whole handful off the little bushes!

I will admit, the berries are some of the best eating on the moby… so sweet and perfectly wonderful. Fresh picked and eaten fruit is just so good, it’s almost sinful. We’ve even picked a few ripe sweeties and eat them in the YARD… they don’t even make it to the house. Can’t wait for next year…

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Death at the Moby Homestead

Posted on by July 16, 2009

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I’m not fond of my livestock killing stuff. And thankfully, they are pretty bad at it, so generally, we don’t have a problem. Luna is our hunter kitty… but we interrupt her all the time when she’s considering birds… in fact in the last year, she only caught one. And she’s not out all the time.

But, I must admit, I wasn’t too upset that she caught a little mole. These little dudes are ruining my yard and all. They are digging all over the place and making little lump tracks in the grass and all. Of course, I don’t really have nice grass or anything, it’s mostly weed and clover and dies off pretty quick in the summer. One day I’d like a little bit of nicer green… next year I’m going to overseed the area with some good fast growing hardy grass, just to see if it takes…

But I digress.

Luna caught a mole.

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The kinda funny thing was that she, Gypsy, Jack and Dixie have all been looking at it and then looking at her with this sort of weird admiration in their eyes. You can see it. She’s the big man on the homestead at the moment. They all try and get the little guys, but it’s ny-impossible. They are gone in their tunnels as quick as you noticed them. Gypsy is the biggest goof about the tunnels… she will run around the yard and sniff and sniff and wag her tail as she wanders about trying desperately to find the little diggers.

Jack and Dixie are powder puffs when it comes to real wild kitty activities, and just think that Luna is the Queen of all Wild Kitty Women. Jack tries ALL the time to catch a bird, but he is just absolutely terrible at it. He’s definately indoor kitty material. Dixie is just a big wuss and is afraid of her shadow most the time.

Luna of course, has been gloating in the kill, and I gave her a little time to sit and admire her little victim, but then the show was over and the cleanup crew removed the little body and everyone was sent on their merry way. Hopefully, now, the little moles will think twice when Luna is around…. I doubt it, but you never know.

All things considered, moles are fascinating animals …

* A 5 ounce mole will consume 45-50 lbs of worms and insects each year.
* Moles can dig surface tunnels at approximately 18 feet/hour.
* Moles travel through existing tunnels at about 80 feet/minute.
* Moles contain twice as much blood and twice as much hemoglobin as other mammals of similar size. This allows moles to breathe more easily in underground environments with low oxygen.

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