Monday 5- 21- 2018

It was a busy Monday morning.  We slept in until 730am.  It's the first time in a long time that both of us have slept all night. It was great to see it was late when we finally woke up. 

We had a nice breakfast together of fruit parfaits made with yogurt, berries, cinnamon, and walnuts. 

Dude got right to work fixing and slimming down a drawer that swelled. I broke a glass container filled with hot tea yesterday (all over the tops of my feet -ouch). I didn't realize I hadn't gotten it all wiped up and swelled this drawer, getting it stuck and not able to open.  He is amazing and got it trimmed in no time. The drawer holds our onions and the narrow shelf holds our baking pans like cookie sheets and muffin tins.

Then he headed outside to feed the animals. 

I made a few pickled eggs. I am the only one that likes them so only made six of them. I peeled them and put in a canning jar.

Here are the casts of characters for my pickled eggs. 

Basically you heat 1.5 white vinegar, 1 cup of water and whatever you want to pickle them with . I added salt, pepper corns, pepper flakes, minced dried onions, and dill seeds. 

Heat and pour over the eggs. Refrigerate. 

My grandson now wants to be a chef (and yes, still the Grim Reaper and a Cowboy) so I got out some fabric to , at least, make the hat. Hopefully he will like it. 

Summer, the horse that stayed behind, began the day running the fields crying and calling out for her sister.  By midday she was doing better with the sheep out in the pasture with her. 

Dude spent the day in the garden. He did get cantaloupe (it does very well here), watermelon, more beets (I want to dry them and use the powder) and cucumbers planted.  Last week he planted a few rows of sweet corn. Yes, we are late but we are replanting due to dud seeds and the dog digging everything up and chewing down the fruit trees and roses.  We put up a fence and began again. 

The swarm that took over our old hive is still there.  It is right in the garden and facing it. This swarm is strong ,large and flying all over. We need to turn it around and move it. We will probably do it the way my dad taught me.  We will attach the two supers with brackets and block the entrance (all done at night) and then move it. I need to get an epi pen first -the one we had was super old. It is used in case of an allergic reaction to a sting. We had decided we were not going to buy (usually about $250) a swarm since we keep losing them(everyone I know is losing them) but we would collect swarms.  This one came to us. God had other plans for us. 

The honey wagon will arrive to empty the septic tank on Wednesday... yes, not everything is on the homestead is cozy fire stoves and growing vegetables - smile. 

peace

Lazy Sunday in pictures.

We had a lazy Sunday.  The whole first half of the day we just were lazy and enjoyed reading or catching up on the computer.

We bagged up goat milk to put in the freezer.

Dude has decided we are cutting out desserts and a big chuck of our sugars. So I hurried up and made a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (wink)

Then I went out to let Blizzard and Flake out for a bit. These are the best turkeys ever!

I think the cat was hoping I would turn my back so she could have a turkey cutlet lunch.

Checked on our hives.

The bees were heavy with pollen.

 We put water on them until the irrigation pond near us gets filled.  But all is looking good this year.

ooooooooooh Honey!

This beauty watched us from above. Falcon or hawk, not sure.

Went to walk with the goats but fatboy didn't know if he wanted to get up. He is a little upset because we put him on a diet about a week ago.

The boys compared goatees.

The hens are doing well in the chicken yard.

After a warm and sunny day we are ending with threatening skies.

Sewing Challenge Day 6:

Making this dress.  I will have it done tonight but slow going.

Hope your Sunday was a Fun Day.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Beekeeping... how I got started and what do you do in winter.

I fell in love with beekeeping the second my family got their first hive back in the late sixties, early seventies in NC. My dad had always wanted bees and it was my mom who gave him the gift of bees.

Driving down a dirt road in the family station wagon we ended up at a peanut farm just after the sun had gone down.  I could barely contain my excitement. This was the coolest thing I had ever been a part of.  We picked up two hives, each were  clamped together with braces and the entrances sealed shut with a wooden bar.  These bees were not escaping and I was far from being afraid.  These were my dad’s first hives. They were Italian bees.  We drove home without an incident and I was fascinated watching my dad set them up not too far from our house in the back yard. I knew right then and there I would have my own hives one day.

We teased my dad about the way he kept bees. He had no mentor and gathered information from books and by trial and error.  When it came time to retrieve the honey he would line up whomever of his six kids willing and brave enough to be handed a frame of honey and tell us, “ walk straight to the house, do not stop, do not panic and put these in the kitchen.”  I can’t believe we did it this way now but we did, without problems and straight into the kitchen. Later my dad would take a heated knife, uncap the wax and cut squares from the frames. Most of the time he just put these square pieces of wax full of honey in a mason jar. Other times my father was extremely unconventional, slicing a piece of comb full of honey and place it right in a cut off pair of brand new panty hose and then squeeze them until all the honey had been extracted. We laugh about this now but back then we thought this was just the way it was done.

Today our swarms are delivered by mail, picked up from a drop-off location or collected as swarms in trees or buildings.

The first bees I ever owned were Buckfast bees for their extreme gentleness. They were developed by a monk in 1920’s by Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey in England. Many argue whether they are a race or hybrid bee but being one of little knowledge in the genetics of bees I got them because they were mellow and at the time, easy to get. I raised them in my backyard in Denver, Co  and never lost a hive in over five years until one day they swarmed.  I have also tried Starline, Midnight and Italian. My hives for the last 4 years have been Italian. Thank goodness I have never experience the Varroa mite (a parasite that latches onto the bees suppressing their immune system – a huge threat in today’s hives) -, I do medicate. I have lost many hives to colony collapse, moths and mice.  Colony collapse is very sad and moths are gross – they lay eggs and the larvae make their way through the hive making a mess and basically take over a somewhat weak hive.

People have asked what bees do now that it is winter. We start in the fall by making sure the hives have enough honey to keep the bees going for the winter. We never take the two bottom supers leaving those for brood and food for the bees. The bees form a ball or cluster of bees  keeping  the center of the ball at 92-94*. They reve up their metabolism to keep the hive warm and they do this with honey. The ball of bees move the cluster to get to the honey. We have lost weak hives that had honey but didn’t have the strength to move everyone to get to it.   We do use bales of hay as a wind break around our hives. There is not a lot to do during the winter. Most people build more hives or frames during the winter. It is also a good time to catch up on reading and learning as much as you can about bees.  We are were able to take classes from the botanical gardens in the winter about beekeeping.

For now we will look forward to spring and ordering more bees.

A view from the hives.  This is the alfalfa field .

Looking toward home.