Fire Ants, Guineas and Gardens

It has been so very long since I have posted anything.  I have been very busy and was suffering from severe blogger block.  I finally am back in the mood to post.  I have several things to talk about today as the title suggests. I am going to discuss Fire ants, Guinea Keets and my Garden.

Fire ant mound in my yard

Fire Ants - Oh my, has anyone ever been bit by a fire ant?  I am from California and had not encountered fire ants until I moved to Oklahoma.  They are not native to Oklahoma, they were imported.  Who would import such a vile creature?  They cause terrible itchy puss filled bumps that take forever to heal.  They kill trees and build big mounds that ruin yards, pastures and gardens.  They can kill plants in my garden.  In other words, they are pesky and are so thick on my farm.  I have declared war on them for 5 years and have tried all kinds of poisons and natural remedies.  I have reduced the population but still have a significant battle on my hands. Today I am trying a remedy that Will promises to be successful.  I am hoping that he is correct.  He is a genius at lots of stuff so I think he may be right.  His solution is to mix grape jelly with borax and make a thick paste of it and drop it in balls around the fire ant holes.  I deployed the paste but I could not resist taking my horse training stick and ramming it into the mounds to stir up all the fire ants.  He said I should have probably just put the poison balls around the mound but I am at war!!  He says that the ants take the poison down into the ground and that it kills the queen.  I will let you know if it works.  Everything else I have ever tried just makes the colony move and become more virulent.  Did I say they are pesky pests?

Little adorable guinea keets, so sweet don't you think?

 My dear friend called me yesterday and told me that she has to get rid of her guinea keets because the animal enforcement lady in town said they are too loud.  She had ten little guineas and so I went to get them and she let me take them and the ferret cage that they were in.  I have not ever raised my own keets but have adopted Mom's guineas that were here when I moved here.  Guinea moms lay their eggs out in the tall grass and the babies are very tiny when they are born.  The guinea mommas are not very good at keeping their babies alive.  We have had more than a hundred hatch in the last 5 years but only 5 are still alive here.  My guineas hatch their babies but at night they roost in the top of the barn and leave their babies to fend for themselves.  They get eaten by coyotes and snakes or die in the cold nights.  Guineas are amazing pets and are wonderful to have here in Oklahoma.  They eat every kind of bug including fleas, ticks,chiggers, grasshoppers etc.  My neighbor has been infested this spring with fleas and grasshoppers but I don't have any thanks to my guineas.  They also will fight and eat snakes.  They are great watch dogs.  When the hawks start circling, the guineas raise a ruckus and sound the alarm.  I will go out to look and all the guineas and chickens will be under the bushes or vehicles and do not come out again until the guineas sound the all-clear.  I know if the guineas are shouting there is a problem. They are hilarious to watch.  They invented the grid-search that you see law enforcement do.  They chatter and toddle like little ladies and walk in straight lines searching for bugs systematically.  I have been concerned because I have gone from 30 guineas to 5 and so I am thrilled to have these wonderful new baby guineas. 

 My garden is the best garden that I have every had.  I have 6 varieties of tomatoes, various kinds of peppers, cantaloupe, squash, tomatillos, beets, radishes, corn, basil, rosemary, sage, cilantro, plums, pears, peaches, grapes and pecans.  I have already harvested the plums and froze them for smoothies.  I had to harvest the peaches today and put the unripe fruit in a paper bag to ripen because the birds were already having a feast.  I have pickled some peppers.  I have not ever pickled anything so I am unsure if I did it right, I will know soon enough. 

I found all my Mom's old California Cooperative Extension books that tell how to dry, pickle, can and make jams and jellies.  I have all of the fruit jars that Mom left and all of the canning equipment.  I am determined to conquer my fear of canning and preserving this year.  It is intimidating.  I chastise myself every day for not paying attention when Mom was canning, pickling and preserving.  I hope I can learn how.  I want to can salsa, chow chow, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, pears, peaches.  I want to pickle watermelon rind, peppers, beets and okra.  I love to go out to my garden with my puppy dogs in the morning.  It is quiet and the plants are still covered in dew.  It is amazing how much the garden can change overnight.  I love to find peppers I did not see the night before or new budding tomatoes.  I have not ever been able to control the pests and weeds before. This year with the aid of the tractor and tiller and my hoe and yanking, the weeds are few.  The pests are being controlled with diatomaceous earth and lime.  If you have not ever tried diatomaceous earth and/or lime you should.  The diatomaceous earth is very cheap, pests cannot become immune to it, it is all natural and organic and works very well.  It is fossil shell flour and it scratches the waxy coating off of bugs and they dehydrate to death.  It is working so well.  I also use it for mites on chickens, mites in nesting boxes, fleas on dogs, worming chickens and dogs, flies on my horse, as an anti-caking agent to spread lime, as a feed additive for cows and horse to control fly population.  If I were brave enough I could make a paste of it and use it to exfoliate my face.  Maybe next week :).  The lime enriches the soil, keeps the fungus away in the ground, stops bloom rot on tomatoes. 

So that's all I have to discuss today.  I am supremely contented with my critters and garden.  I love how the Lord has blessed my life.  This is the day that the Lord has made, rejoice!