Saturday, May 16, 2015

Saturday Catch Up - Who Knew?





Looks like we are on day 3 of rain. We did have a slight break yesterday morning that allowed me to catch up on some of the new bee hive manipulation but the ground is so saturated that any off road movement is limited to walking only or maybe the use of a garden tractor at best.

I was out finishing up some minor details to the fence when I looked down into the hayfield and saw this furry animal in a small to medium sized Mulberry tree that has grown up in the fence line between the hayfield and the useless nag pasture.

We have more Mulberry trees than I can count around the place. Anywhere there is a fence or pole for a bird to perch on there is a Mulberry tree sprouting at it's base, or growing next to it or in the fence if it is so far back I haven't cleared that section yet. We have at least six or seven small to medium sized ones around the yard and barn I have allowed to keep growing for shade and a bit of forage food for the animals. More importantly though I leave the Mulberry trees for my son. He literally starts walking around grazing on Mulberries this time of year. He even eats em before they are ripe which concerned me when he first started doing it 15 or more years ago but now a days I don't even pay attention. I have read they can cause hallucinations but he has never seemed to suffer any ill effects from them.

There are several Mulberry trees around the Ram's paddock. The Ram LOVES Mulberry leaves and keeps the low hanging limbs stripped of leaves but he doesn't chew on the trunk or bark itself. The useless nags don't either which is probably why that particular tree managed to survive better than others out in the pasture. My son used to go into the Ram's paddock and eat Mulberries while holding the limbs down for the Ram to eat the leaves. They had a mutually beneficial grazing pact in place that was quite comical to watch.

I will also burn Mulberry wood as it is a pretty decent firewood to be honest. The trees grow fairly fast and the wood is dense and very rot resistant as well. If I could find any straight sections I bet Mulberry would make good fence posts too.  The Male Mulberry trees are the ones that produce pollen and the bees will gather it for Spring build up food which is another reason I leave em bee (Pun intended) whenever possible.

Apparently the Sheep are not the only ones around here that love Mulberry leaves though because when my curiosity finally got the better of me and I walked the 50 yards or so down to investigate the critter in the tree it turned out to be a very large, fat Groundhog. I never knew those things could actually climb trees. This particular groundhog has a burrow up under the loafing shed and has lived quite peaceably in the pasture for years now. We come into contact about every time I am down there and since he or she never ventures up to the garden I leave it alone. When I am brush hogging down that way I always do slow passes near it's normal range area so it knows I am there and can get out of the way and when I am on foot it pretty much pays me no mind at all anymore. There it was though about 20 foot up that tree chomping away on Mulberry leaves.

I came into the house and did a google search and sure enough about 90% of all the stories, posts or articles I found about groundhogs in trees involved a Mulberry tree.

One thing I like about Small-Hold farming. You learn something new almost every day.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!


13 comments:

  1. Had no idea wood chucks could chuck their hefty selves up a tree. I had to BUY four mulberry trees last year (although still haven't planted them...it's on the list for this weekend). I'd be right next to your son eating the mulberries, I LOVE them and them make great pies and jam!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carolyn - We have never tried to make anything with them. I figured the bowls of them my son brings back is proof enough that they can be relied on as a food source when it is needed. If I tried to collect some for other use it would deprive the son of his forage too.

      Delete
  2. I have seen them go up trees though it isn't rare or really smart for them to do so as I shot one of the ones that were going in the garden when it climbed up a tree. Of course this was before the palletsade days and now I don't worry with them much now.
    I was eating mulberries one day and they were real good until I took a close look and discovered they were crawling with some kind of little bugs but maybe I was hallucinating .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sf - I never knew they could climb at all honestly. It took me by complete surprise. I haven't seen any bugs on the Mulberries my son brings back from his forage runs. His eye sight isn't the best though maybe he is missing seeing them.

      Delete
  3. Mulberries are one of my favorites. Useful, tasty, drought tolerant, zero effort; what's not to love about them.

    Best,
    Dan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dan - Well I have heard they play hell on car paint when it comes out the back end of birds.

      Delete
  4. Mulberry trees in the goat pen are called free goat feed. Outside the goat pen they're called weeds!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HG - Well I haven't found a tree yet that wasn't useful in some way. Even the Boxelders seem to be of some value. I do admit though that some of the qualities I prize in trees is not the norm. I figure at the very least they are burnable :)

      Delete
  5. Ground Hogs like mulberries so much they are willing to climb for them. Who knew?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TB - I seriously had never seen nor heard of a groundhog climbing a tree before I saw this one doing it and then did a google search. Sf is right apparently it isn't all that unusual but it surprised me.

      Delete
  6. PP,

    Who would have thunk it!!!! LOL!!!!!
    A ground hog, enjoying mulberry leaves. Great picture!

    ReplyDelete
  7. "They had a mutually beneficial grazing pact in place that was quite comical to watch."

    That's hilarious!

    I found out groundhogs could climb trees one day when I went out to hang wash. My washline was secured to a walnut tree on one end when I heard the growling I looked up before i practically stuck my hand in his general biting vicinity. My heeler and black labs made short work of that groundhog, they were barking at him after they got him down and trapped in a cinderblock wall that he eventually committed suicide by making a break for it.

    My friend makes pretty good mulberry wine, but they (the trees) are like weeds around here, they are invasive.

    ReplyDelete

Leave a comment. We like comments. Sometimes we have even been known to feed Trolls.