Turkey Trot

Since Thanksgiving is coming up, I've decided to share the story of the (brief ) time that we had turkeys on our farm an how they terrorized us.



Since it was around Thanksgiving, our club's leader decided to get turkeys so that we could raise an sell them to people for Thanksgiving dinner. We set up an electric fence, put up some wire coops inside and released the turkeys that we had bought in their new home. Things went smoothly for the first couple weeks, but soon the turkeys started getting a bit older, and there for bigger, stronger, and more rebellious. And of course it was the job of the 4-H kids to take care of these birds. This included feeding them, giving them water, and putting them in their coops at night. That last task is where most of the problems occurred, because the turkeys really, REALLY did not want to go in. They would make us chase them around the coops, attack us, climb under things, and one even jumped onto the coop itself.  (the coops were like 6 feet tall) not to mention the times when they escaped and we had to chase a turkey across a field in total darkness (it was in the evening) So this thanksgiving, when I'm eating turkey, I won't take it for granted.

The Stupid Tomato Worms

While it is true that there are a lot of other pests on the farm, but the Tomato Hornworms have a special place at 4-H as the most hated of them all. and it's not just because they look like this:



they also cause a ton of damage to tomato plants by eating leaves, eating the fruit, and laying eggs all over the place so there is never a shortage of these little creeps in our tomatoes. There is still hope though, since there are ways you can get these worms out of your plants.

1. bring in some predators .
tomato worms have a few predators, an if these other animals won't do any harm to your tomatoes or other crops, then you can keep a few of those around. These include lady beetles, green lacewigs, and wasps, though I would not recommend wasps if you are planing on keeping the tomato plants in an enclosed space (like a porch or greenhouse) or near children or pets.

2. handpicking
if you have only have a few tomato plants and you want to keep it natural, you can always pick the worms off by hand. They may look scary, but tomato worms do not bite and are harmless. You may still want to wear gloves while picking, because some of the worms can be covered in wasp eggs, like this one:


3. Bacillus Thuringiensis
this is a bacterial disease that affects Tomato worms, and it is commonly available in most garden stores and other stores such as Home Depot. You spray the leaves with BT (it does not affect tomato plants) and when the insects eat the leaves, they will become infected by the disease.

gardeners hand scrub

Hello people of the Internet, today I will be sharing a recipe for "gardeners hand scrub" 

and it will keep you hand soft, healthy, and smelling great. This stuff usually costs an arm an a leg in stores, but this is an inexpensive and easy way to do it.

What you will need:

• containers
• any brand of dish soap
• sugar
• salt (optional)
• anything else you want to add in, like herbs or essential oils

1. get some small jars to put the scrub in. They should ideally be medium to small mason jars, but you can put them in pretty much anything.

2. pour dish soap in until the jar is about half full

3. add about 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of salt (the salt is optional)

4. add anything else you want to put in and mix it until it is fairly evenly mixed.

5. enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this little DIY, and if you enjoyed it please hit that follow button for more like it.