The last evening of May is filled with fireflies. Rising out of the pasture and the garden just
at dusk, they begin their ritual intermittent flashing. The males flash as they fly about, while the
females, which stay close to the ground, light up briefly to signal their
availability. A wonderful variation on
this spontaneity occurs among firefly species in the Great Smoky
Mountains. These insects tend to
synchronize their flashes, all simultaneously flashing on and off, sometimes in
great pulsating waves through the dark treetops. So sitting on the front porch, watching the
firefly courtship display, I thought I might have spotted another variation in
the firefly repertoire. There seemed to
be an occasional reddish flash among the fireflies lighting up over the front
garden. And it had a steady pulse,
showing up through the pea vines and fronds of asparagus, blinking almost like a
light on an appliance. Which of course
is exactly what it was, the blinking light of an appliance you can find here
and there all around Green Gate Farm . . . a solar charger.
These chargers are a convenient way for farmers to supply current to electric fencing far from any other power source, and electric fences are essential to keep livestock in and vegetable munching deer out. The photovoltaic cells in solar chargers convert sunlight into the electricity needed to operate the fence. The red light I saw was from the charger for the area occupied by the youngest pigs, two Red Wattle crosses. They’ve spent the past six weeks ‘rototilling’ an area that will be planted later in the year. (See January 21, 2014 post on Manure for more on how pigs help us in the garden.)
Pig areas all over the farm are fenced with a plastic
and wire tape about one inch wide. Lars
sets the special flexible posts all around the perimeter and then affixes the
tape at pig nose level setting another strand or two above that. It takes only moments to train the pigs to
recognize and honor the taped boundary. Forever after they will recognize that tape and assume that as long as they stay within it they will be comfortable and safe.
Lars setting the fence. Pigs being pigs. Charger on post to right. Chicken wagon with charger on the left. Ladies scoping out escape routes.
The beauty of the solar chargers and flexible fencing systems is that the livestock can be moved regularly to new pasture. This is especially true for the laying hens, who need to be moved often, so the chicken wagon is equipped with a solar charger too. The fencing used here, woven plastic and wire, is about 3 feet high and encloses an area of about 500 square feet of lovely pasture. Some of the ladies, though, seem to be expert escape artists, flapping over or slipping under the fence, just to prove they can. But they always manage to slip back in when it is feeding time or when the setting sun signals it is time to go inside to roost for the night. These days that is just about the time the fireflies appear. Then the pasture shimmers with hundreds of tiny flashes of light and a single little red one standing guard in the twilight.
Link to those synchronized fireflies:
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