Blueberry Hills is not
certified "organic", although we are moving toward more sustainable farming
practices every year. Last year instead of spraying for an outbreak of leaf
hoppers and aphid, we brought in green lacewings and lady bugs to fight the
battle naturally. And, naturally -- they won. We then put out "good bug
food" (for real) that kept them around until the next outbreak -- if any.
They hung around, instead of moving on when the outbreak was under control.
We use recycled chipped material from the Chelan Recycle Center for our
mulch twice a year on top of our blueberry plants, instead of buying new
sawdust. The word has caught on and many of the local landscapers themselves
are now bringing their chipped material directly here to Blueberry Hills --
instead of burdening the Chelan Recycle Center. It's a win/win for us all.
We are also participating in a deep fryer oil recycling program with N.W.
Biofuel by recycling our oil directly for biofuel development.
So -- although we're not certified "organic" -- and likely never will be,
we're taking steps toward making some healthy decisions to protect our
farmland and our friends and family. Less chemicals. Healthier living. Which
bring us, my friends, to Debbie's "Barn Owl Project".
The Barn Owl Project
Along that line, we are collaborating with our local "Bird Lady",
Debra Olson Burnett. Her program is called "The
Barn Owl Project". Debra has been involved in bird rescue
and rehab programs throughout the United States for years. She is in
the process of developing this program. She brings her 11 week old
Barn Owl (her very first rescued one) "Herbie" and 3 week old "Soren"
to Blueberry Hills every weekend. Saturday and Sunday from about
10-2 she is here educating the public and drumming up support for
this program.
In a Nutshell...
Debra
“The Bird Lady”
has been
rescuing baby barn owls (and even eggs!) out of the hayfields in
Quincy and the surrounding area. Aging hay barns are being torn down
and farmers are now placing tarps over large stacks of hay bales
instead. They can sit there for years without being used or sold.
When they eventually are, truck drivers come in and pull the bales
apart. For years they have thought these “pesky birds” were pigeons,
and were being killed and the eggs broken. Finally, a truck driver’s
wife noticed — these are not pigeons! They are barn owls.
Debra has started a project of rescuing these gorgeous creatures and
re-homing them to farms that do not use mouse poison. She currently is
raising 26 of them, all in various stages of growth. A family of barn owls
can eat between 20,000-30,000 mice in a year! You can’t invent a better
mouse trap! A baby barn owl will eat 4-5 mice a day—and they’re expensive.
Debbie buys them from a company in California for $1 each. She’s attempting
to do this on her own, but with so many owls coming to her to be rescued,
the financial end it has been daunting, to say the least.
We at
Blueberry Hills
support and appreciate
the work that she’s doing. We see the big picture. We are adopting 2 pairs
of Barn Owls to provide us with an opportunity to appreciate nature’s way of
taking care of itself — and allowing them to handle mouse control here on
our farm — without poisons.
