La Casa Grande Colectiva

Tag: spring

Tour of the Secret Prairie in downtown Champaign

If you ever wander the streets of downtown Champaign, with just the right kind of aimlessness, you may suddenly find yourself in a tiny forest, which opens up onto a tiny prairie, complete with wetland, glacial till, and authentic hobo markings. This is the Pocket Prairie, which Dave Monk (a.k.a. The Prairie Monk) takes care of and uses as a demonstration of the ecosystem.

Dave came here from Australia decades ago to study the prairie ecosystem, only to find that it was rapidly being swallowed up by farming and development. Today, less than 0.1 percent of original prairie remains. Dave stresses that the sheer genetic variety found only on the prairie may very well contain future cures for cancers, as well as plants with the potential to be good biofuels. The research will take years, as it does, and of course it is up to all of us to ensure the prairie is still around when we need it.

From neverending battles with landscaping racketeers and those who hire them, came the slogan “Grow it, don’t mow it!” This spirit is reflected across Urbana, which has more un-traditional and wild-growing lawns than I have seen anywhere else.

At any rate, I helped Dave produce a virtual tour slideshow of the “Pocket Prairie” in the springtime, and here it is (original post):

June 29, 2009
Late Spring Bee Checkup

Ed, a local beekeeper, came to check out our hives for a three week checkup last weekend. Robby is out of town, so he arranged to have some members of CEIBA help keep an eye on the hives. We had gotten a late start with our bees but each queen came with 5 frames of brood and honey. In just a few weeks, the bees have really established themselves and Ed determined it was time to add the second box on the hive. This will give each hive 10 fresh frames to build comb and expand the colony size.

This frame is full of capped brood. Brood is the general name for combs that have eggs and larvae. The worker bees feed the developing larvae before sealing them in with a cap . In a few weeks these bees will hatch and the process will start over again with the queen coming around and laying eggs in each comb. In this way, the colony will double and triple in size very rapidly.

In the center of this photo, a bee is hatching from the comb. We watched as the bee ate away the cap. Like eating corn on the cob, she went back and forth chewing her way out. After she leaves, the workers will clean out the comb and get it ready for another egg.

This is what the comb looks like when the bees decide to store honey instead of brood. This looks like it was a fresh frame to begin with since you can still see in the lower left that the comb hasn’t been fully drawn out by the bees. There must be a lot of nectar flowing now because even though the comb isn’t finished, the bees are already storing and capping honey. In the upper right is capped honey. To process the honey, the bees sit over the comb and fan their wings to evaporate off the water. Once the honey is sufficiently concentrated they seal the comb off. You can tell the difference between capped honey and capped brood by the color.

I took lots of photos so we could inspect the bees in depth without keeping the hive open for too long. Click the thumbnails to go to a flickr set of the event.

June 22, 2009
Another weekend recap!

Jacob, Andrew and Ronna re-sodding our muddy front yard.

A beautiful grass island was formed.

The neighbor’s yard was covered in spring time flowers!

Sophie howled and barked at dogs across the yard.

March 25, 2009
Gardening only leads to more chicken photos

Today folks were relaxing in the yard.

While Kannan and JohnE dug a fresh bed. Wherever there’s fresh dirt, the chickens gotta peck at it.

(click on the picture to see it full size!)
JohnE tried to feed the chickens.

And then he did some majestic shirtless log juggling.

March 17, 2009
garden progress, weekend recap

There were several changes made to the garden landscape this weekend.

Ronna sowed a bed of peas and lettuce
Rob, Rob, and members of the Catholic Worker House turned the old compost pile.

Mac, Kannan, and JohnE pulled up some sod to make a vegetable bed for the members of their house.

We began digging a hole at the end of the canal system that runs through the garden. We spent a lot of energy and the pond that forms will probably get really gross. We did use the topsoil to raise a few vegetable beds in order to alleviate the Sping flood that we’re expecting.

March 17, 2009
chicken behaviors – dust bathing

Our chickens love a good dust bath. While it looks dirty and gross, its actually an important part of their natural hygiene.

On nice sunny days the chickens will spend all afternoon showering themselves with dirt. They’ve found a few spots in the yard with suitable soil, but their favorite is over by the garage in the full sun.

The fine soil is sifted down through their feathers and helps by rubbing dry skin off their bodies. It also helps by clogging the breathing holes of lice and other parasites.

A quick shake and she’s as clean as ever.

March 17, 2009
Spring Comes Early in the Garden

Last Friday was a beautiful day. After a day at work I came home to find housemates and friends working in the garden.

Drew, Rob and JP clearing out bamboo to make room for fresh beds.

The chickens were out pecking for worms and enjoying the nice weather.

Sophie was really excited about the chickens.

The bamboo was burned.

And the resulting fire was strangely beautiful.

Just another day at La Casa.

March 11, 2009