At Home in Nature

In Elbert County we find many things put to use that find new life and are no longer rubbish.We find many things, brand new, cast away on the roadside like soda cans and lunch wrappers that become rubbish.But the State law is clear: farmers know best what to do for the raising of crops and animals, and should be allowed to employ whatever materials are necessary without the censure of their work being called rubbish.

Prosperous Matheson is home to some of the most picturesque farms in Elbert County where the rolling hills of Agate begin to fall to the plains.The communities are linked by road and spirit, and though you can find the old Agate School bus parked along Highway 83, soon, as Agate fades forever, the two peoples will finally sunder.Yet there too you see rubbish, but of a different sort.Instead of peacefully at rest, rubbish is laid aside for use, and is actively used as soon as it may.This sort of zealous energy for farming is to be admired, and thankfully is encouraged by the protection of State laws.

Down the Matheson Road, a beautiful windbreak for the cattle can be seen out of scrap metal and tires.The tires are falling down in some places, but is still functional! Though our tire walls and pens are larger, we are not proud; we all do what we can and admire and learn from each other’s efforts.Larger is not necessarily better: in the arts of recycling, efficiency and utility matter most.The scenic trash of Elbert County is so because it reminds us of the beauty of utilitarianism, as each work of art speaks of the ingenuity and love for the animals and crops and land bestowed by the craftsmen responsible for it.

Even in prosperous western County where the horses are worth more than most of the inoperable vehicles in eastern County, tires are used as culverts and walls and gardens, and so many other uses besides.Farms and ranches, no matter their wealth, need rubbish to work the land, it is often the only affordable material to choose.State law protects farmers and ranchers in numerous ways, providing special protection and rights to farmers and ranchers who make their own food, who undertake the use of horses, who raise cattle or other animals, or in other ways secure our State’s economy with a dependable economic engine that has outlasted silver booms and busts, technology booms and busts and will even outlast those commuting revenues that Elbert County has in recent times attempted to cultivate.

There is enough room in Elbert County for all of us, and whether on your farm you wear muck boots or sandals, whether you enjoy at the end of the day a hot plate of rice and tofu or beef and potatoes, the diversity of Elbert County’s farming and ranching community stands unified in the practice of recycling materials and keeping hold of things that may one day be again useful.

Here's a contest with excellent prizes for first, second and third place!

Every correct answer is entered to win, but EVERY answer with supporting citation from the law gets a bonus prize.

Does Elbert County's rubbish ordinance apply to

a) Agricultural lands
b) Industrial lands
c) All lands but agricultural and industrial lands
d) All lands, period

Email answers to twointents-AT-gmail-DOT-com, or respond as a comment to this post...  Good luck!

The cactus are in full bloom right now on the Eastern Plains, and what a good year for cactus flowers it is!The prickly pears are especially having a good flower year, as they have larger and more prolific flowers than normal.If you haven’t seen these beauties yet, don’t wait – cactus flowers don’t last long!

In a few short months, the flowers will have turned into wonderfully delicious fruits.One of the best tasting wild foods in Elbert County, prickly pear fruits are normally ripe in October or November, depending on the weather.They are very sweet!Also called tunas, these fruits are usually used for making jelly, but can be used in many other recipes (try substituting them for berries in almost any recipe) or just eaten raw.

If you can’t wait to try the fruit, or just want a seasonal treat for dinner, the cactus pads and flowers are both edible.Watch out for spines (they are best removed carefully with a potato peeler).There are many recipes for cactus pads, also called nopales, and are best to eat when they are young.Cactus flower recipes are harder to find, and they are usually just used as an edible decoration by sprinkling the petals on salads or desserts.

While every child loves fruit, most love vegetables if they are exposed to them a dozen times or more.  Vegetables are better foods for children than fruits, but the causes of obesity are numerous.  If you have trouble getting your children to eat their veggies, write to me - I have plenty of ideas, from having fun cooking adventures with them to making them pretty on the plate: apetites are increased by more than just sauces!

In the mean time, I read some scary statistics from the new book Ending the Food Fight, Guide Your Child to a Healthy Weight in a Fast Food/Fake Food World by David Ludwig, MD, PhD.They speak for themselves:

* The percentage of overweight children ages six to 11 has doubled in the last 25 years.

* The percentage of overweight teens has tripled.

* One in three American children (30 million kids) are overweight today (and it is predicted that one in two — a full half of all children! — will be overweight by 2010).

* Pediatricians now treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol, “adult” onset (type 2) diabetes, heart attacks, and sleep apnea in children.

* By the time overweight children are in their 20s, they can expect to be diagnosed with diseases that normally affect people in their 60s and 70s, including heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and even amputations caused by complications from diabetes.

* Overweight children are discriminated against more than those in wheelchairs or with facial disfigurement.

* Childhood obesity affects the quality of life as much as a diagnosis of cancer does.

* Life expectancy is declining for the first time in human history.

* A typical child sees 10,000 junk food ads a year.

* Modern foods are made by food chemists, not grown by farmers.

* Neighborhood playgrounds, school physical education, and after-school programs have all declined dramatically — while junk food vending machines are now everywhere in schools.

The wildflowers are at their peak display right now as the world begins to prepare for the winter ahead.You can preserve these colorful bits of summer by pressing them and preserving them in a botanical journal, homemade paper, potpourri, laminate them, or many other means of displaying them.

There are many tools for pressing flowers, and while I am sure they work well, none are so cheap as a big heavy book that you already own.To press flowers with a book, first make sure it’s a book you won’t be wanting to read or use for several weeks.Pick some flowers (more on this below).Then place them between two paper towels.You can skip the paper towels, but then you risk miscoloring the pages of the book or having the petals permanently stick to the book.Carefully put the paper towel-flower sandwich in between the pages of the book so that you don’t bend or smash them.You may need to put another heavy book or other weight on top of the book with the flowers in it to help them be flat.

When choosing flowers to press, you can sometimes press the whole thing and sometimes just the petals.The thicker the flower, the harder it will be to press.Whenever you think the flower may be too thick, you can simply remove the petals from the center and press them individually.For example, snapdragons and violets can be pressed whole, but roses and daisies need to have their petals pressed individually.

Check on your flowers every week or so until they are fully dry.If you don’t let them dry out all the way, they will likely get moldy in their display.

There are many ways you can display your flowers.One fun and educational way is to make a botanical journal.To do this, find a pretty blank journal to use, or make your own (you could even make your own paper).Carefully glue each pressed flower onto every other page in the journal.Then, around the glued flower and on the facing page, draw a sketch of the entire original plant it came from, describe the plant and identify what it is called, perhaps even write a poem or some thoughts about the plant or your adventures in finding it, or paste a photo of the plant.Your journal can be quite a work of art!

When you’re doing your grocery shopping next time, here’s a report you might want to consider.The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has recently published its seventh annual “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce” which presents a list of the produce that has the most and least pesticide residue on it.This does not mean that the produce on the list had the most or least pesticides applied, but rather tests the amount still on it by the time you are ready to eat it.The point of the guide is to allow you to pick which fruits and vegetables you may want to consume in place of others while still getting your daily minimum fruits and vegetables for a healthy diet, NOT to discourage you from eating fruits and vegetables entirely!It is important to note that all the produce, even the “worst” fruit of the list, still falls well below the safe levels set by the EPA, so all of the produce on the list had safe levels.

Here’s the report’s fndings, as published on walletpop.com:

The highest levels of pesticide residue -- and dubbed EWG's "Dirty Dozen" are:

1.Apples

2.Celery

3.Strawberries

4.Peaches

5.Spinach

6.Imported nectarines

7.Imported grapes

8.Sweet bell peppers

9.Potatoes

10.Blueberries

11.Lettuce

12.Kale/collard greens

The produce with lowest levels of pesticide residue as determined by the EWG, starting with what ranked the lowest, are:

1.Onions

2.Sweet Corn

3.Pineapples

4.Avocados

5.Asparagus

Debuting on the list this year is cilantro, which had not been previously tested by the USDA. The data showed 33 unapproved pesticides on 44% of the cilantro samples, which the EWG said was the highest percentage recorded on any items included in the guide since the data tracking started in 1995. Green onions (ranked No. 29), cranberries (No. 36) and mushrooms (No. 39) were also newcomers to the list.

Keeping your animals (or someone else’s) on the correct side of the fence can be quite a challenge.Some kinds of animals are easier to fence in (or out), and some are very difficult.Within a species, some individuals are more determined to escape and some are quite content to stay at home.Keeping them fenced may require some effort and, for difficult critters, some thought.

Take these cows, for example.Right now, they are only about a month old, fairly small and not very strong.They have grass enough, but the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.Without precaution, they might slip through an opening or loose wire in a fence, or when they are older they may break a fence.Cows don’t mind much about barbed wires, and will push them just them same as smooth wire.Our solution? Tires in combination with barbed wire (we would have used regular smooth wire, but wanted to be using a “legal” fence according to state law, so that we would not be so liable if they get out).Why?They could push over the tires, or they could push through the wire.With both, however, they can’t push hard on the tires because they have some fence in the way.And they can’t push through the fence because there are tires on the other side.Additionally, the tires prevent the cows from trying to reach through the fence to the grass on the other side: they can hardly see the grass, much less reach it.

We have a similar fence for our goats, but instead of barbed wire we use strong mesh fence.The goats are better at climbing the tires, even with wire in the way, and are small enough to climb through and around the wire and tires (as are sheep).A good mesh fence that is tightly strung is hard for them to climb, and tires on the other side prevents them from bending the wire out of shape or pushing their way out from underneath the wire fence.With horses we make a fence similar to the goats, or string lines of wire like with the cows but not barbed: barbed wire should never be used around horses.

In addition to the benefit of helping to keep your animals in their fence, tires are also good for providing a windbreak and shade.

It’s dragonfly time again!Though they look ferocious (hence their name), dragonflies are actually very harmless to people, and great for your garden and yard!

Dragonflies are predators and eat lots of small bugs.When they first hatch they live underwater and eat other underwater bugs, especially mosquito larvae.In fact, they are one of the major predators of mosquito larvae.However, they don’t reproduce as often or as quickly as mosquitos, so if when pesticides are applied to ponds to kill mosquitos, they kill the dragonflies too, but the mosquitos will return again quicker than the dragonflies will.

Once they are grown, the dragonflies continue to hunt other bugs.Which bugs they eat depends on the species of dragonfly, but include small bugs like mosquitos and gnats to larger bugs like caterpillars, moths, etc.There are even dragonflies that eat small mammals like frogs!

There are many species of dragonflies, and they are all fun to watch.They are territorial, and sometimes will buzz you if you are in their space (but won’t attack you – don’t worry!).Some fly around to patrol their space, and some find a favorite perch from which to keep an eye on everything in their territory.If you want to find some dragonflies, the best place to look is near standing water, since that is where they reproduce and are most likely to hang out.

A small bale of hay is 50 gallons of material, and sometimes, due to moisture content, density or other quality factors, the weight of the bale may differ.Like a bushel, a small bale is a volumetric assessment.Thus, it is often better to get “heavy” bales than “light” ones, because you are getting more hay for your money.

However, heavy bales are typically sold for more than light bales and the farmer who is buying hay must often do a per-pound analysis instead of a volumetric analysis.If a heavy bale weighing 75 pounds is sold for $10 and a light bale weighing 25 lbs is sold for $10, the buyer of the light bale is paying an additional $1.75 per pound for hay.

Green hay is rarely sold: hay is typically dried.However, a premium on fresh hay ought to be paid because it provides better nutrition to your animals and you do not require as much green hay as you do dried hay.Paying twice as much for green would usually not be unreasonable.If you buy green hay, however, make sure that it is very fresh, and buy frequently.Old green hay that is not stored properly will quickly mold or ferment, which is not healthy for your animals.

Coccinellidae is a family of beetles, known variously as ladybirds (UK, Ireland, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Malta, some parts of Canada and the US), or ladybugs (North America). Scientists increasingly prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as these insects are not true bugs. Lesser-used names include ladyclock, lady cow, and lady fly.

Not all ladybugs are red (other common colors are orange or yellow), and not all of them have spots; those that have spots may have one, several, or many.The number and shape of spots indicates which species of ladybug it is.There are over 450 species of ladybugs in the U.S. alone.

There are lots of myths around the world about ladybugs and their spots. Some have said that it indicates how old they are (a new spot for every year of age).If a ladybug lands on you in Brussels, the spots on that ladybug tells you how many children you will have. Many farmers around the world have believed that the spots on a ladybug tells the fortune of the next harvest, if there are less than seven spots, the harvest will be good. Some people believe that if a ladybug lands on you, you can count the spots and you will soon receive dollars in the same amount as the spots.

The sweet smell of Russian olives can be noticed again, and the delicious flowers are about to set…well, not very delicious fruit.However, now’s the best time to enjoy them on your table!If you like the flowers, and I sure do, now’s a good time for bouquets too.

So surprise someone you love, and make them a fresh wild bouquet! Russian olive flowers, picked as entire branches from the tree, go great in bouquets with grasses.Try picking a variety of grasses for interest, and especially look for brome grass.If you can find some so late in the season, add some lilac branches with their wonderfully scented flowers.The purple lilac and yellow Russian olives are lovely together.

If you like the smell of the Russian olives, you may want to consider also making scented goodies with the flowers.You can use the flowers to infuse soaps, candles, and other products with its fragrance.

About this time of year, farmers begin to sleep a little better.  No risk of frost!  But there are many reasons why people lose sleep.  Analysis of insomnia by Doctors Vallières, Ivers, Beaulieu-Bonneau and Morin in their “Predictability of sleep in patients with insomnia” (Sleep. 2011 May 1;34(5):609-17) indicates that a 3-cluster predictability exists for the disease, indicating at least 3 classes of insomnia.

The Doctors explain “daily sleep diaries were completed for an average of 48 days and self-reported questionnaires once. Three nights were spent in the sleep laboratory for polysomnographic (PSG) assessment. Sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency, wake after sleep onset, and total sleep time were derived from sleep diaries and PSG. Time-series diary data were used to compute conditional probabilities of having an insomnia night after 1, 2, or 3 consecutive insomnia night(s). Conditional probabilities were submitted to a k-means cluster analysis. A 3-cluster solution was retained. One cluster included 38 participants exhibiting an unpredictable insomnia pattern. Another included 30 participants with a low and decreasing probability to have an insomnia night. The last cluster included 49 participants exhibiting a high probability to have insomnia every night. Clusters differed on age, insomnia severity, and mental fatigue, and on subjective sleep variables, but not on PSG sleep variables,” and conclude that “these findings replicate our previous study and provide additional evidence that unpredictability is a less prevalent feature of insomnia than suggested previously in the literature. The presence of the 3 clusters is discussed in term of sleep perception and sleep homeostasis dysregulation.”

The National Sleep Foundation's 2002 Sleep in America poll showed that 58% of adults in the U.S. experienced symptoms of insomnia a few nights a week or more.The causes of insomnia are numerous, ranging from second hand marijuana to physical defects of the brain, but this study presents a new take on this common illness by reducing the number of ways that the body reacts to insomnia – either with more insomnia or less insomnia.