❦ We're back!! ❦

Simpson Eco Farms

After a long and arduous time away, we're back!! and this time for good. We are bigger, better and  more efficient than ever! It took a while but we have finally gotten our vertical hydroponic strawberry system up, and while there have been a few hiccups it is certainly a force to be reckoned with.

Vertical hydroponic strawberry system with insect hotel

To the right you can see the start of our insect hotel. This will build up the native bees and other pollinators/predator insects, as, the European honey bees future in Ontario (and Canada as a whole) is grim if we do not get rid of these toxic substances farmers keep spraying or buying.

Vertical hydroponic strawberry system in Ontario, Canada

While it has been fun getting the strawberry system set up, I am longing for the days I can bring in a shipment of citrus trees again. There is nothing like waking up in the morning to the smell of citrus blossoms or picking your own fresh lime right off the tree.



I shall keep this blog rolling, the berries flowing and the citrus growing, so look out for more posts on all sorts of farming ideas/projects and Ontario, Canada goodness!.

All the best!

Simpson Eco Farms

Baby muscovy ducks 🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣

Our Muscovy's have been producing eggs since spring and now, of all times, is when they decide to hatch them out; they certainly picked a funny season those silly little quackers. With fall just around the corner we still have enough time for them to grow, the only problem now, keeping walking bait away from the barn cats.
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As soon as they hatched the father duck wouldnt leave the coop, I thought it was just some nice gesture to the moma but boy was I wrong. So the next day I walked in and gave them some feed, then, out of nowhere, the male duck bends down and snaps up a little baby duck by the head.

WHAT THE!!

So after a little research I found out this can happen, the male might be trying to stay in his hierarchical position, so any new male competition is lunch, regardless of whether its his babies or not.

The interesting thing of all this is, one day, the moma duck looked like she had left the kids with the other duck, we'll call her auntie. I thought to myself (how nice), it almost seemed like some type of companion parenting, after all, it does take a village, right.

But soon I realized something was off. Whenever moma duck came around, auntie would hiss, then  start biting and I could tell auntie wasnt letting moma near her babies.

This must have been happening for a while as when I separated the babies from auntie, they chirped away very unhappily. Auntie did not want to give up those babies, she hissed at me, bit me twice and fluttered in my face with her wings. Im starting to wonder if maybe she doesnt think she's stealing them, maybe she thinks there her own for some reason?. not sure why all this happened, but very interesting to watch the drama unfold.

In the picture here is moma duck and babies. Moma is a blue eyed, all white Muscovy, with a very friendly attitude. Her sister on the other hand,......

The little yellow one was just stepped on by our new goat, it was terrifying.
I thought she was a goner. But she literately dusted herself off, pushed her wing back into place and went off hunting for bugs with the rest of the family. Not even a sign of hurt or shock. I figured Id give it a day or two to really know how she was doing and so far, she's a trooper.

The old nest. As soon as the young ones hatched she gave up on the old eggs.

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Our muscovy ducks ♫ ☮ Do the ducky dance ☮ ♫

We just recently picked up a trio of Muscovy ducks and its really starting to feel like a farm around here. With 2 chickens, 2 goats, 3 ducks, 6 barn cats and a caboodle of kittens We are on our way!.

The one thing I can tell you is, out of all the animals we have so far, the ducks are a delight to take care of. They waddle around, with no big hurry, feasting through bugs in the air and grasses on the ground. Corralling them to a certain location is beyond easy, just walk behind, helping guide them in the right direction, and off they go!. The only slight gripe I have is, sometimes, if I'm a little forgetful and leave the goat pen door open, the ducks get in and start eating all the left-over seed on the ground, THEN POOP.

Muscovy ducks cleaning themselves

Muscovy duck closeup ( male )

Our male Muscovy has a wonderful demeanor, he shows no bother to our two goats, even going as far as to compete with them over snacks on the ground. When he flaps his wings, you can feel the air move all around you, freaks my goats right out!, He's also one snazzy dancer, If you walk up and bob your head slightly, he does his little dance and shakes his tale.

One of our female Muscovy's has blue eyes and is the more timid of the bunch. The other female seems to like de-feathering her, it was only a big issue when we first got them, everything has seemed to calm down now, Thankfully.

Muscovy closeup

 Our other female is in the background and has been laying eggs quite voraciously.

 I'm not sure what these are, if anyone has an idea please chime in!

I dont know too much about flowers but I sure can appreciate them! From what I understand, this is an iris. It grows wild under our maple trees in our front yard and what I find interesting is, How similar in looks it is to a vanilla vine

Our rhubarb has started to flower and I figured I would collect some seeds and see what comes of it.
I understand quite well the complexities of growing plants whose seeds pop out like the roulette effect. Yes, it will not be like the parent plant but that's the whole point!. When it comes to these things, the more genetic variety the better, after all, I would hate to see what happened to the banana happen to rhubarb, I couldn't go on with out my pies and strawberry rhubarb deserts.
I swear on that giant spaghetti monster in the sky!

Are these prickly poppies?

Now, Ive grown poppies before, mainly for leaning about the medical aspects and how they're grown but I never got that into all the other varieties. They look vary similar, the flower pod, the stem, the spikes on the flower bud, but the leaves are soooooOOOOOO covered in thorns it just didn't look like what I know. Ive only grown papaver somniferum, some Hawaiian blue poppy and a few others I piked up from Richters herbs.

If anyone out there knows what this is please let us know!

Its certainly something living out in eastern Ontario. The amount of wildlife here is extraordinary.
BUT! I feel there is a warning I must give to future property investors,
The one thing that might wreck it for SOME people is......
THE BUGS.

Man 'OOOO man are there bugs.

Ive never experienced anything like the bug population here. If you breath in to heavily, you've just consumed you protein for the day. The black flies will dive bomb your eyes and the mosquitoes will suck you inside out. Now, there is a benefit to all this chaos. The ecosystem is THRIVING. The amount of bird species here is unlike anything else in Ontario, the butterflies are everywhere, the parasitoid wasps are around in apocalyptic droves. Bees and wasps are a plenty here, at least on the organic farms that is.
So, if you can put up with a mouth full of bugs, you will do fine down here. lol.

Cheers!

Princess sodalite mine ▨Ontario▨, ▣Canada▣. ♦ ♢ ☼ ☀Dig'n For treasure ☼ ☀ ♦ ♢

Princess Sodalite mine

The princess sodalite mine has been a destination high on my rockhound priorities list. When I was young, my uncle gave me a piece of sodalite, fascinated by its colour, and little did he know, that mineral would snowball my curiosity for the field.

( If theres one thing I've learned from this, its, Give your child, or any child for that matter, a few of your specimens, 

you never know who you will inspire )

Today couldn't have been better, it was 23C, early spring ( no bugs...yet), bright blue sky, and for the most part, it was me, by myself, digging all day. I had brought some carrots, a peach, few apples, and a mason jar of water 

( cant forget the toilet paper!! █ all they have there is → ONE ← outhouse █ )

This dig does not require any fancy tools, A simple rock hammer and maybe crack hammer would be good but even those are not necessary.

( One thing that would be a good idea to bring is a good pair of safety goggles tho ).

Other then that I brought a UV flashlight and my camera to test and capture what was around,
Of coarse, I get lost in picking and forgot to take pictures of what I was doing/found. lol.

Mine cart in front of Sodalite mine Ontario, Canada.

Princess Sodalite mine

( It took a lot of work to get rid of the poles and wires, Im still tweaking it tho, needs a little more work on the right side, I will come back and post the update later )

The View driving in looks like something the group of seven would paint, a scene so perfect that even the overhead wires seemed to drift away as I became swept up in the beauty, fresh air and relief of knowing this past winter was finally behind us. There is an old mine cart that sits out front stacked with a  rockhounds treasure. Across the road lye's a large body of water, infusing the air with an aroma impossible to capture in a glade plug-in 

( can you tell I dont like those things?).

I'll be honest,  this was one of the easiest drives to go rockhounding, I think it was nearly one or two turns off 62. There is ample parking, its a no worries type of place, if you want to head out to your car to eat lunch then go back to picking, you can. Its a very easy going vibe, thanks in large part to its  owner.

Walking up, the gargantuan sodalite pieces greet you at the door.
drool........

Princess sodalite mine greetings rock.

It was so bright that day I didnt even notice I was in the shot, lol. Ah well, it will have to do.

Princess Sodalite mine Ontario

Sodalite

Sodalite Ontario, Canada.

spaghetti coral

I managed to find a small specimen in the pile out back.

Conglomerate lava

I also found some of the that brownish/red rock to the top-right. Its a lava conglomerate and from what I'm told, its from around the Greece area.

Princess Sodalite mine shop

The inside is a great little shop, they have all kinds of specimens from ontario and around the world. They have everything from home accessories, jewelery, sample specimens, healing stones, fossils, rock/mineral books, and info on other mines in the area. The owner is extremely friendly and the only reason I didnt get a picture of him was, I find it strange asking people I dont know for they're picture. Other then that, He is willing to listen and help identify what you have, cant say enough good things about the man. 

Amethyst tree

I think the tree was a really neat piece. It caught my eye when I walked in.

Sodalite jewelry

This is some jewelery made from the sodalite mine here in Ontario.

Sodalite jewelry

Sodalite jewelery

Princess sodalite mine specimens for sale

Sample specimens.

Princess sodalite mine specimens for sale

Very reasonably priced specimens.

Princess sodalite mine fossils for sale.

Fossil

Princess sodalite mine fossils for sale

Princess sodalite mine fossils for sale

I'm gonna get one of these the next time I go, I was so tired at the end of the day I kinda forgot they were there.

Princess sodalite mine jade inuksuks playing hockey

I really like the inukshuk's playing hockey.

Princess sodalite mine specimens

BISMUTH - Prices sodalite mine

I actually picked up a piece of bismuth as a mothers day gift.

Azurite?

Is this azurite?

Rock/mineral books sodalite mine

Display case of healing stones, rock/mineral books and other accessories.

Native art.

1.

1.Calcite quartz 2. geode -amethyst 3.?

Geode.

It looked like they were making eggs out of pyrite.

Princess Sodalite mine Ontario - Black tourmaline

Princess Sodalite mine mountain- Ontario

This is the path to the rock pile, its not far from the actual building. VERY convenient when hauling a large bucket.

Princess Sodalite mine Ontario, Canada

Mountainous area blocked off with roap so the little ones know where not to go 

( good for a family outing,)

Please, dont let your kids yell and scream and throw rocks all over the place, this just ruin's it for everyone else. NO EXCUSES PARENTS.

Princess sodalite mine rock pile

This is the tailings pile, from what I understand, it gets filled up a few times a year with more rocks/minerals and the fun continues. While I thought it would be bigger, and at first I wasnt finding much, but this was all my fault and all to change in due time. I thought I would check the sides of the pile but that turned out to be a bust, so I thought, If they were dumping it in here it must be piled up in the middle, so the digging began and the beauties started popping out of everywhere.

Princess sodalite mine specimens from around the world

These small specimens were just some stuff I didn't have, they are ( from right to left )
1-Green opal, 2-calcopyrite 3-green quartz 4-fuchsite

Rocks/minerals from princess sodalite mine

It was late, I had only the kitchen light to assist me, I will have to take some more pictures as these ones did not do my diggings any justice.

Gems from princess sodalite mine

These are some of the gem/minerals I found. There was a lot of apatite, some rose quartz and I'm not sure what that black looking mineral in the top right is, well, its actually red'ish/purple but the camera cant pick it up. Also, there is a black mineral on the far left, to the right of the rose quartz, I think it might be black tourmaline?.

Fossils from Princess sodalite mine

Some of the fossils I found range from clam shells to corals. They must have shipped these in from Ottawa/Montreal/Quebec because, I was just reading a book on fossils (road rocks of Ontario- Nick Eyles- http://www.amazon.ca/Road-Rocks-Ontario-Geological-Discover/dp/1550418599 )  and these look exactly like what was shown from Quebec/Montreal area.
( FANTASTIC book by the way, I will be picking up the entire collection )

Sodalite from princess sodalite mine Ontario, Canada

Some of the pieces of sodalite I found.