Author Topic: The Iowan Path (Read 365282 times)

iowabow · « **Reply #390 on:** June 27, 2014, 07:04:19 am »

On Tuesday I did a flint knapping demonstration for the Native American Art and Literature course for our south campus. They had a field day at Iliniwek Village State Historic Site. This is a very cool site and we were guided through the site by Earl Walrath treasurer of the Iliniwek cheaper of the Missouri Archaeological Society. When I make it back to the office I will post more pictures.

iowabow · « **Reply #391 on:** June 27, 2014, 11:05:01 pm »

Things are really starting to come together now. Picked up a bush hog on Craigslist and it should make clearing the shelter area much easier. My first try at a corn food plot is interesting and it was planted by hand. The pile of wood is from a friend who tore off a back porch which also had a deck. This scrap and the wood cut with the mill this winter puts us on a forward path. After a long conversation with JW I just combined my two weak bee hives into one so now I have a total of three.

iowabow · « **Reply #392 on:** July 02, 2014, 07:44:57 am »

The corn is getting taller each day and the blackberry patch is coming on strong. We just ran out of blackberry jelly from last year's batch. So I am looking forward to blackberry jelly at breakfast again. The bees are working hard and starting on the second deep hive body. We are down to a 1/4 of a jar of honey and looking forward to the honey harvest as well. The weather has been cool this summer with light rains every couple days these conditions are keeping flowers in bloom longer than in the past few years.

Pappy · « **Reply #393 on:** July 02, 2014, 09:14:46 am »

Looks like you are making head way,you look like you have gathered enough supplies to get that shed started. Corn is looking good,blackberrys are just starting to come in here also.

Pappy

JW_Halverson · « **Reply #394 on:** July 02, 2014, 11:26:52 pm »

Mmmm, blackberries! Once when on vacation out in Washington state, I fed my way into a blackberry patch like an old boar black bear. I quickly learned to only eat 'em if they FELL off the bramble when I touched them. I ate until I was full and didn't want another berry. I was 13 at the time. Luckily I have the digestion of a cur dog, I can about eat anything and do fine. I imagine most people may have had a little 'distress'!

Checked our swarm hives, iowabow. They are going gangbusters! At this rate they are going to surpass the two package hives we installed two months ago.

iowabow · « **Reply #395 on:** July 07, 2014, 09:05:27 am »

Here are a couple pictures from the Art Show in the Burlington Art Center. This show was a collaboration with my friend Jared. You should see in this work influences from the primitive materials we all use.

iowabow · « **Reply #396 on:** July 07, 2014, 09:06:26 am »

Picture

Pat B · « **Reply #397 on:** July 07, 2014, 09:36:39 am »

Nice work, John. You do some really cool art.

Pappy · « **Reply #398 on:** July 08, 2014, 05:17:21 am »

Very nice stuff,and you say I stay busy. $:-\$ compaired to you I would say I don't.
Pappy

iowabow · « **Reply #399 on:** July 09, 2014, 09:59:41 am »

Here are photos of the pond project. Lots of hours on this project. Enjoy.. this is one year before and after.

Pat B · « **Reply #400 on:** July 09, 2014, 10:51:53 am »

How do you keep the duck weed off John?

iowabow · « **Reply #401 on:** July 09, 2014, 11:58:23 am »

Well not completely sure just yet because this is my first year working the pond. So this will be a long answer. In the spring I bought 6 grass carp and a variety of others like bass bluegill etc. ...and I noticed that one had died so maybe there are 5 now. But the carp did not do the trick so I started to net the duck weed. You might ask why? and the answer was to remove it so light could reach the bottom of the pond so that plants in
pond could produce the oxygen needed for the fish. It took me a week to figure out that the duckweed can produce as fast as I can remove it. So I decided to treat with chemicals. My rational was that the pond was out of balance due to nitrogen and phosphate run off and all the trees litter form the surrounding banks. Now the water shed has been placed in crp set aside. When i started this project last year there were no fish in the pond. The fish had died off so the eco system needed to be re-balanced. So it hit it with bacteria to decompose the leaf matter and copper crystals to attack the submerged plants (I know this is counter intuitive but I am trying to reduce the work for the young carp) and weaken the strength of the duckweed. Then I hit it with an aquatic herbicide called tsunami dq. It was almost all dead on day one then it came back and I retreated it and it all just about has died. Now I only need to maintain control with spot spraying till I can order some Koi fish. If these actions don't neutralize the issue then I will move toward a bubble system to introduce oxygen and water movement to help reduce black mud build up. The crp and removal of trees from the dam and cutting all the walnut trees from the surrounding banks should go a long way to re-balancing this economy system. I fully expect it to take a couple years to put it back in check. As you can see in the picture many of the cattails died off with the rise of the water level after the dam was repaired. So I am seeing some natural balance and that is good. I hope that the fish can rebalance the pond so it requires very little work from me in the future.

Pat B · « **Reply #402 on:** July 09, 2014, 12:08:38 pm »

Sounds like a good plan. Sometimes you have to give nature a boost.

iowabow · « **Reply #403 on:** July 09, 2014, 01:19:53 pm »

Nice snake found at the pond

Pat B · « **Reply #404 on:** July 09, 2014, 01:27:37 pm »

I'd love to have a pond; still water. We do have a nice creek with waterfall but our land is too steep or it would be ridiculously expensive to have a pond here. Water attracts all sorts of wildlife and I love it all.

Primitive Archer