Evil Weed

Have you seen this viney plant growing at the edges of mowed areas or sprouting in disturbed areas?

THIS IS EVIL WEED!!!

That's black swallow wart, an alien invasive from Spain / Italy that has taken root in the eastern United States over the last ten years.

This plant spreads by both rhizome and seed. It grows vigorously when in full sun, climbing and smothering other plants. And here and in the North East, it has no natural predator.

Black Swallow Wart is very difficult to destroy because of its vigor, ability to smother other plants and develop from cut roots.

Black Swallow Wart is in the same family as Milkweed, and has a similar toxin that discourages browsing animals from controlling it. Worse, it attracts native insects that do eat milkweed mistake it for milkweed and lay there eggs there, but the larva cannot survive eating Black Swallow Wart.

BSW has small dark flowers in July and develops seed pods in August. If those pods are allowed to mature, they will spread on the wind by the thousands.

Mowing the plants in late July helps to prevent the spread by seed, but it does not control the plant. It will spread by rhizome.

We are trying to control ours through weeding, smothering and cutting. We have not been at it long enough to know if we are having any success. I suspect that given the pervasiveness of this plant on our land, it will always be a problem for us that takes continual maintenance. But hopefully we can gain some control over it and recover some productivity of our land.

WWOOF

So, who has experience with a WWOOFer? I bumped into this on another Blog and am investigating. From what I read, it is a loose organization that hooks up volunteers who are interested in organic agriculture and self sufficientcy with farms willing to host them in exchange for labor. There's supposed to be some exchange of knowledge in there, also. I am not sure the model would work for us or not. It would seem a natural fit since we are working hard to develop a sustainable way of life and we already offer short term low detail housing. But the fact that part of our cash income is derived from that housing situation might make it mutually exclusive. If we were to trade some of that income generating housing for labor, it would put a crimp in our cash flow. But it's an interesting idea and worth hearing more about.

So has anybody else heard of this? Had experience with it?

Chicks arrived today

Our chicks arrived today.


We ordered some new hens to freshen our flock. Our youngest current hens are in their third season and they don't lay very much anymore. It's a basic truth, the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long... Our guinea hens still give us an egg every other day, even though some are more than four years old. But guineas only lay six months a year. Those chickens have been giving 12 months a year, so their eggs literally run out and there is nothing left. That's domestication for you. Guineas aren't considered a fully domesticated.


So we ordered a mixed group of birds, hardy for our environment, good egg producers and passable for meat. They arrived packed close in a smallish box for warmth. Chicks emerge from their eggs with reserves for a day. So they can be shipped without food or water for about a day as long as they stay warm.

The key is to be ready to receive them. They'll come to the post office, the post office calls, and don't delay picking them up. Have a brooder setup and ready to receive them and ready to feed them. They need to eat as soon as possible or their little batteries will run out.

They don't need very much, just dry food, water, warmth and somebody to clean up their poo....

My wife and I came to the same conclusion today. Thinking about the animals we have. Our son is growing surrounded by life and life cycle. We think it is wonderful.