Odds and Sods on how to get along with nature

Only 2 things to contribute today. It may be too late for some of us this season but,

1. the easiest and safest way to get rid of wasps and hornets (those pesky things that get incredibly stupid towards the end of the summer) is to take a shallow bowl of water, add some sugar and some yeast. The sugar water attracts the wasps, they drink it and the yeast kills them almost immediately. It does not appear to attract any other critters. One or two bowls will get ride of several hundred within 24 hours. It's a lot safer than trying to find the hive, smoke the hive, or squirt it with some commercial pesticide containing heaven knows what. One of those critters nailed my horse in the belly and the resulting side jump and buck resulted in a separed shoulder and badly bruised hip. I don't like hornets!

2. By trial and error, I determined the dressed weight to live weight ratio for both chickens and turkeys to be 0.81. This is handy to know so that you process them before they don't fit in the oven.

It's a great day! No grass to cut and no snow to shovel!