Weeding, apples, turnips and doves

Most of today was spent in the Eaton Rapids orchard belatedly dealing with weeds. I am between 1/4 and 1/3 done with getting it whipped back into shape.

One of the sub-tasks was to rip vines out of trees.

I actually used a scythe to drop the weeds. I will let them dry for a few days and then I will shred them with the push mower.

God willing, I will be picking apples tomorrow

 

The Liberty apples are dropping like crazy. Time to pick them and it isn't even September. 2600GDD b50 since January 1.

Turnips

I broadcast turnip seeds in Southern Belle's goat pen.

 

If you look closely, you can see the apples that fell off of the tree next to the pen. You know an apple has to be pretty bad before goats will turn up their noses at them. 

 

Foundations for dove nests

 One of my friends lives "out west" at Juniper-Pinyon elevation. We had a discussion about nitrogen fixing plants and there were not many options for his particular climate. Without supplemental irrigation, the native nitrogen fixing species fix minute amounts of nitrogen. "Minute" like on the order of one pound per acre per year.

 

After a bit of brainstorming, using flying animals to transport nitrogen in looked like a possibility. Since he is not close to non-seasonal open-water, bats were not a great possibility. But doves like Mourning Doves, White-winged Doves and Inca Doves and domestic Pigeons remain possibilities. While not considered "social" animals, they are particularly territorial. In the case of Mourning Doves and White-winged Doves, they would likely nest more closely together if they had suitable platforms or foundations.

 

So I have been messing around with making "wreaths" of 5" to 6" in diameter of local materials. It looks like Virginia Creeper (a.k.a. Woodbine a.k.a.  Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is flexible enough to work.

 

One of the cool things about doves is that they can have large, daily home-ranges where they forage for food. That is like a cast-net that gathers the nutrients from that home-range and concentrates near the nesting site. The size of the home-range depends on the availability of food. In Waco, Tx it can be 25 square miles. In northern Alabama it can be 0.8 square-miles.