Our Tiny Homestead
  • Home
  • Inside
    • Buy Nothing Challenge >
      • 2014
      • 2015
      • 2018
      • 2019 & Debt-Free
    • Our Wood Stove
    • Laundry
    • Prepare for a Power Outage
    • Renovations
  • Outside
    • Theresa's Gardening Goals
    • Permaculture 101
    • Perennial Vegetables
    • Eat Your Wild Yard
    • Seed Starting
    • Walnut Syrup
    • Gardening for Wildlife
    • Wildlife Pond
    • Save Our Bees
    • Our Gardens >
      • Celtic Cross Garden
      • Catio Construction
  • Shelf Chefing
    • Bear's Shelf Chefing
    • In Shape Shelfchefing
    • Wild Raspberries
    • Grilled pizza
    • Celebrate Seasonal Eatin >
      • Samhain - Late Fall
    • Cook of Anarchy grilled cheese
  • Cooking
    • Wood Stove Cooking
    • Haybox Cooking
    • Heat wave solar cooking
    • Division of Labor
    • Recipes
  • Pantry
    • Pantry Intro
    • Pantry Cooking
    • Yearly Harvest List
    • Preserving
    • Making Staples
    • Growing Sprouts
    • Building Our Pantry
  • Celebrate
    • After the Pandemic
    • Winter Solstice
    • Mid-Winter & Imbolc
    • Spring Equinox
    • Late Spring & Beltane
    • Summer Solstice
    • Fall Equinox
    • Late Fall & Samhain
  • Our Books
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Resources

Catio Video

4/19/2017

Comments

 
Bear here... 

Has anyone seen our catio building page? Anyone? ( We decided to build an 8' x 8' x 10' cage on the back of our house that the cats can enter via a window and tunnel. The cats like it, they can play outside and  still be safe in our yard.) 

Well... we decided to build a catio 2!  A catio that was large enough for the cats and us humans. ( I am pretty sure I blogged about it.) We are getting pictures of it together for a "how we did it" page. Until then you may want to check out the VIDEO of us and the cats in catio 2.
COOL... I think I did this right!  Hope you all enjoy the video.

​Type at ya later...​ 
Comments

The Hawk in the Bird Condo

12/19/2015

Comments

 
Picture
Even in a tiny yard, you can get some big wildlife. Theresa had just gotten up from the computer to warm her hands at the woodstove when she saw a flash outside the bay window that her brain interpreted as a hawk chasing a small bird. She looked out the back door in case she could actually see what was going on, and found a hawk perched on our brush pile.

We estimate there were between 50 and 100 song birds in the pile at the time. The hawk was obviously looking for dinner, but was too big to make it further into the pile to get at his prey. After a few minutes, four or five birds took off and the hawk was after them in a flash, and was quickly out of our sight. A couple more minutes went by and the smaller birds left the brush pile in two waves, dozens of them rising up together. Others stayed put.

It makes you wonder- were the first few birds that left putting themselves in harm's way to protect the rest of the flock?

We were surprised when the hawk came back a few minutes later- his chase must not have been successful. Perhaps our brush pile has been his hunting ground recently and we haven't noticed. We decided to go outside, in an attempt to get better pictures, and to encourage the hawk to leave. We don't want him to feast regularly at our backyard smorgasbord. We also thought about seeing what would happen if we threw him some meat from the fridge (Bear wondered about mice in the basement), but decided we shouldn't...

Below are some fuzzy close ups of the hawk. Maybe a red-tail?

Picture
Picture
Needless to say, brush piles like these provide a lot of good cover for small wildlife. If you'd like to have one in your own yard, click to see more about our Accidental Brush Pile and Gardening for Wildlife.​

Hope you're having some great wildlife sightings in your own yard,
Theresa & Bear
Comments

Baby Frogs a Hoppin'

7/19/2015

Comments

 
From Theresa: We built our tiny wildlife pond in 2012, and it immediately started to attract wildlife, including dragonflies, snails, water beetles, birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. We built it hoping for frogs, because I love falling asleep listening to their calls. In its second summer we had one resident frog, but there weren't many mating calls. This Summer, we were serenaded for many nights by calls from the American Toad, tree frogs, and a third frog we couldn't identify. And this time it resulted in a pond full of hundreds of tadpoles, which have now become incredibly tiny frogs!!
Picture
"We're sunbathing and she's taking pictures of us- How rude!"
Picture
Frog with a Duckweed Hat
(Theresa was trying to clean some of the duckweed out of the pond,
and was surprised to scoop up a frog along with the duckweed.):
Picture
King of the Mountain:
Picture
King looking for a smaller mountain:
Picture

They began as tadpoles....

We first noticed tiny tadpoles in our pond on 6-6-2015:
Picture
Then the gang got bigger (6-12-15):
Picture
By 7-11-15 the tadpoles started to get legs (Bear says we should call them frogpoles):
Picture
Then they lost their tails and became frogs!
(Walking on water with the help of duckweed):
Picture
This American Toad could be one of the parents (dad or mom, we have no clue):
Picture

The Habitat:

This is the wildlife pond we built, 
although Bear says it looks like a swamp since it's covered with duckweed. 
It's been amazing to sit next to the pond every day 
and discover first hand how tadpoles turn into frogs, 
knowing that we played a tiny role in supporting new life.

For instructions on making your own tiny frog habitat, 
see our page on how we built this wildlife pond:
Picture
Comments

Toad Watch 2015 In the Beginning...

6/10/2015

Comments

 
Bear here... We gots lots of life in the pond. The mating songs are almost over and tadpoles are in sight. I am planning to take some pictures of them developing into toads. The momma  looks like an American Toad ( And yes, that is the name of the species). If I can figure out how to use the movie part of our camera I will try to post movies. (Don't hold your breath. Just sayen.)

I am going to blog most of the changes and am hoping to add to the pond section of the website in the fall. We have read that the changes could be done in 90 days. Let's see what happens...
Picture
The American Toad with duckweed on her back.
Picture
The Babies (The little black dots w/tails)
First count: Many
Next count:  Very Many
Night count:  Even more, near the surface
Picture
To the left is a dragonfly watching me, watching the baby toads. I'm not a little creeped out... Nooo. I wonder what she is thinking?

Anyway... Any dragonfly babies I can get shots of will also be on this page. BONUS!

Type at ya later.




Comments

Gardening for Wildlife

3/20/2015

Comments

 
Picture
Picture
From Theresa: It's too early in our area to plant anything, so I've been writing about gardening instead. I've added a page on gardening for wildlife, with tips for providing their four basic needs: food, water, cover, and places to raise young. It's important to do this even in a tiny yard like ours, because if we restore habitat for bugs, bees, butterflies, birds, etc., we are supporting the ecological systems that ultimately support us. And it's fun to watch all the activity in the garden!
From Bear: You may see gardening from top to bottom, but the important stuff starts from the bottom up. Just like having good soil, you need good bugs and helpful critters, from worms on up (they need to have a good day in the neighborhood). So in our yard we garden for Nature's critters as well as ourselves. Theresa built these crazy critter condos that aren't really crazy once you think about how Nature is all connected.
Comments

Building a Wildlife Pond

8/17/2014

Comments

 
Picture
From Theresa:

I've added instructions for how to build a small backyard pond, that will both benefit wildlife and fascinate humans. This is my favorite part of our yard, and I can't say enough to encourage you to add a pond to your own yard and enjoy the wildlife that will visit it. My instructions are quite lengthy, but are also hopefully quite helpful, as I've tried to pull together all the details I wanted to know when I built our pond and started welcoming frogs and dragonflies into our yard.
Comments

    Theresa & Bear's Blog

    We prefer quality to quantity! 

    Theresa will be posting notifications of the new pages we add to the website and Bear likes to share inspirational posts about our homesteading experiences. 

    If you'd like to follow our blog:
    • ​subscribe via email (below)
    • like us on Facebook (see the "f" link at the top right of the page)

    Note that if we include a link to a product in our blog, it means we have used and authentically recommend it. Though it doesn't cost you any extra, we may receive a small commission if you click on the link or buy the product. Some day it may be enough to help support our work so we can do more of it. We gratefully thank you.

    Archives

    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    June 2021
    April 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Buy Nothing
    Buy Nothing
    Buy Nothing
    Cooking
    Cook Of Anarchy
    Fall
    Foraging
    Gardening
    Green Cleaning
    Grilling
    Misc.
    Pantry
    Renovation
    Shelf Chef
    Spring
    Summer
    Weight Control
    Wildlife
    Winter
    Wood Stove

    Subscribe:

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

Home    Inside   Outside   Shelf Chefing   Cooking   Pantry   Celebrate   Our Books   Blog   About   Resources   Contact
Be the change you wish to see in the world.  ~Gandhi
Want to know when we add new content to our website?  Subscribe to our Blog.

These pages may contain affiliate links that allow us to share products we authentically recommend.
Clicking the links results in no extra cost to you, but we may receive a small commission that may someday help fund this work.

Copyright 2020 by Theresa & Rob Berrie