2 Salamanders found on the eastern plains of Colorado

2 Salamanders found of the eastern plains of Colorado. I was turning off the water valves of the irrigation system when I found two salamanders in the bottom of o double deep irrigation valve box.

Last year I found a tree frog in there. This was a very wet year so maybe that helped the salamanders which were a surprise to find. I read that they like to live in leaf piles and underground. We definitely have a lot of leaf piles after bringing approximately 13,000 pounds out last year.

Salamanders found of the eastern plains of Colorado
2 Salamanders found of the eastern plains of Colorado

Mini Herefords are here and the bee hive was destroyed

Mini Herefords are here and the bee hive was destroyed.  Great morning getting the two Herefords out and on the property. The plan is to do mob grazing on the micro scale with these two girls. They are 7 and 11 months old. The thought is they can help the soil an soil life a lot. Oh and it looks like they will eat some tree leaves which we usually have a lot of 🙂

Mini Herefords on eastern plains of Colorado
Mini Herefords on eastern plains of Colorado

Bee hive destroyed today or last night

The temperature was in the 60s this morning and by 10:30 it was freezing. After getting the hay stacked and the cows situated I headed home and remembered I wanted to wrap the bee hive in foam to keep them a bit warmer. I walked out with the foam and a knife to fun the hive in pieces spread out 100 yards. It is snowing at this point and I’m scooping up bees that I hope are still alive. I then found a clump of bees that were definitely alive an hopefully have the queen. I have a frame or two of honey in a super that they built up earlier this year. So I put the clump and other bees that might be alive in a box with some of the stripped frames and the super inside a room attached to our house that doesn’t get so cold. I hope I have the queen and can get them enough honey to rebuild.

Bee hive destroyed

Clump of bees still alive
Clump of bees still alive
I meant to already be growing some buckwheat indoors so now I definitely will plant some for the bees. Now I know why electric fences are around hives.

Planting Garlic in Colorado at RegenFarms

50 pounds of garlic is more than I realized! One half bushel bag of garlic bulbs contained about 575 cloves. Different types of garlic will have a different number of cloves per pound.
If the cloves are spaced at 6 inches you get an average of 6 per square foot. The 575 cloves needs about 100 square feet to plant.  I’ve ended up planting three areas with garlic even though I thought I had tilled enough space originally for all the garlic. And there is still more garlic to plant. If garlic is one of the top ten speciality crops it may also be one of the most labor intensive.

Below is an area in the 2013 food forest that has been tilled and planted with garlic. Planting into soil that has been prairie is much harder than into existing garden areas with softer soil.  Leaves was added for mulch. I’m considering placing a border around the area that goes into the soil to keep the grass from growing in.

New Garlic area at Regen farms
New Garlic area at Regen farms
Garlic planted and covered with leaves
Garlic planted and covered with leaves
Half bushel bags of garlic for planting
Half bushel bags of garlic for planting