Solar update, more baby quail, PICS

For those of you that are curious, the electric bill last month was $9.47. Way to go, solar! About $8 of that is administrative fees and taxes, the remainder is from the couple of days before they installed the new meter that credits us with surplus power. After all the math, it seems like it will pay for itself in about 5 years. However my husband and myself are both essentially freelance so the investment in the piece of mind that we have (basically) one less bill to pay every month is worth even more to us.

We had an 80% hatch rate for this last batch of quail. This seems a little low for eggs that didn't have to travel but still very much acceptable. There comes a hard time in nearly every hatch when a quail or two has started pipping out of the shell and for whatever reason gets stuck and doesn't progress. The general rule is to not help the quail, that hatching is a test of fitness and for the sake of future generations you only want to breed the best and healthiest birds. Often birds you help out will be weak or have other problems and die anyway. Every once in awhile though you get a bird that is so close, really seems determined and peeps away at you from half inside the shell as if to beg you for just a tiny bit of help. Honestly from time to time I help one of these birds, I tell myself I really shouldn't, but I can't just let it suffer. An important part of responsible animal husbandry is to not be such a softy, that you really aren't doing the breed as a whole any favors by helping out individuals in this situation. My solution for this is that if there is one that I've helped, to band it and make sure it doesn't get used for breeding.


It takes about 4 to weigh as much as a cherry tomato. :) On to the pics!






Breed responsibly!

Solar Yogurt?

Yesterday was yogurt making day, something I do about three times a month. Usually I use the "heating pad method" where you heat up your half gallon of milk in a double boiler to 185 degrees, then cool it to 110 and then add and stir in your yogurt starter (usually just about a quarter cup of yogurt from the last batch I had made). After that you cover it with a clean dish towel and let it sit on a heating pad set to medium for 7 hours. However this is what I saw on the thermometer in the shady comfort of our back porch:



Yes, that reads 115. I decided to try using the cement on the back porch as my heating pad from 2pm to 9pm. I was a little worried that the temperature might get too hot or not hot enough, but at 9, it was time to take the towel off, and it worked perfectly. Solar Yogurt? It's a go! I was very pleased and will be doing it this way until about October. Next, I'd like to heat up the milk in the solar oven, which will be a little bit trickier...