I slapped a second deep on the hive of the swarm I caught last month. Apparently, they've been building comb like crazy because it was ENTIRELY full. I guess they've had nothing better to do since the rain has kept them in so many days. I should have checked it two weeks ago. Anyway, I'll check this again in two weeks to see if I can get a super on it. It would be nice to get some honey off a new hive. I don't always... some years it is all they can do to fill two deeps before winter.
On the old hive, I was going to pull the super today, but didn't get to it. I'll do it tomorrow after I get back from hauling the youngest daughter to town for a doctor appt. It isn't supposed to rain til Friday, so that should work. I also have to figure out where my hive tool has gone... couldn't find it yesterday, and ended up using my pocket knife, which is somewhat less efficient...
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Ridiculous rain and overwhelming lettuce
I have four tires of lettuce, four different kinds. They have all absolutely adored this cold and rainy non-summer we have had up to now. I have been harvesting it by the cut-and-come-again method (meaning the outer leaves only so it keeps making more). I have never had lettuce that is three feet tall before. It has always bolted or simply melted from the heat before this. I have so much I've been giving it away and feeding it to the rabbits as treats... and the kids got sick of salads for a bit so I had to take a week off that. It's too bad there is no good way I know of to preserve this bounty. I also have a stunning amount of cilantro and dill. And the carrots are awesome. This is the first year I have EVER gotten carrots, and this year they did fabulous both in the hoop house and in the tire. I wish I had planted more. I would have canned a bunch for soups in the winter. Heck, I might plant another tire as soon as I have an empty one just in case the luck continues. The potato plants in the straw bales outside are trying to take over the world. The ones in the hoop house not so much. Only three grew there, so I planted more, but I don't know if it will be too hot there for them or not. I'm worrying about it since the ones outside have grown so wildly. The sweet potatoes are slowly getting planted in the straw bales as the slips in the house get long enough and have roots. I have one to plant today, and 6-8 more that are very long but have no roots yet, so won't go in for a few more days. I don't think the outdoor ones will have a long enough season to produce much, if anything. I hope the ones in the hoop house bales produce, at least.
However, the cold has really slowed the cukes. Even the longest cuke vine is only a foot long, and there is no sign of flowers. The tomato plants are smaller than normal, too, for the end of June. Some of them have flowers and a few small green maters. The pepper plants are also stunted by the cold, although the ones in the bales inside the hoop house have done slightly better than the ones in the ground. It may not be a fair comparison, since those were planted before all the others. I will harvest the last of the beets today. The turnips are done/harvested until the late planting. In the future I will plant more beets in the spring. The greens are decent in salad when they are young and tender, but I need some baby beets for the tater/beet/horseradish salad that we all liked, and some larger beets for the pesto recipe.
It's just the beginning of summer and I am already making plans for next year's garden. I am nuts.
However, the cold has really slowed the cukes. Even the longest cuke vine is only a foot long, and there is no sign of flowers. The tomato plants are smaller than normal, too, for the end of June. Some of them have flowers and a few small green maters. The pepper plants are also stunted by the cold, although the ones in the bales inside the hoop house have done slightly better than the ones in the ground. It may not be a fair comparison, since those were planted before all the others. I will harvest the last of the beets today. The turnips are done/harvested until the late planting. In the future I will plant more beets in the spring. The greens are decent in salad when they are young and tender, but I need some baby beets for the tater/beet/horseradish salad that we all liked, and some larger beets for the pesto recipe.
It's just the beginning of summer and I am already making plans for next year's garden. I am nuts.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Missed a swarm catch, but got a lot of broccoli
The old hive threw another swarm on Tuesday. They were wrapped around a tree trunk, with branches intervening, so there was no easy way for me to get to them. I set up a nuke with lure in it at the base of the tree, but no joy. They were all gone the next day.
This was made up for by a beef stir fry full of broccoli and asparagus from the garden last night. There is a bit more asparagus to harvest, and a bit more rhubarb, today. And a lot more broccoli. This is Sessantina Grossa Broccoli, which is actually a raab type. The heads are small - 1-2 inches - loose, and the reason I'm getting so much is that they are doing their best to flower since the weather heated up this past weekend. The entire plant is edible - heads, leaves, stems - the directions say to harvest before they bloom, but I've eaten both closed heads and blooming heads, and they taste the same... broccoli with a hint of mustard (sensible since they are in the mustard family). Of course, if I wanted a mustard with a hint of broccoli taste, I would just eat the "heads" of the brown mustard plants growing adjacent... it's a bit strong for me, though. I have NEVER had any luck with broccoli in my garden - something else has always eaten it before there was any head to speak of. I may try some other raabs next year, just to see how much difference there is between them.
This was made up for by a beef stir fry full of broccoli and asparagus from the garden last night. There is a bit more asparagus to harvest, and a bit more rhubarb, today. And a lot more broccoli. This is Sessantina Grossa Broccoli, which is actually a raab type. The heads are small - 1-2 inches - loose, and the reason I'm getting so much is that they are doing their best to flower since the weather heated up this past weekend. The entire plant is edible - heads, leaves, stems - the directions say to harvest before they bloom, but I've eaten both closed heads and blooming heads, and they taste the same... broccoli with a hint of mustard (sensible since they are in the mustard family). Of course, if I wanted a mustard with a hint of broccoli taste, I would just eat the "heads" of the brown mustard plants growing adjacent... it's a bit strong for me, though. I have NEVER had any luck with broccoli in my garden - something else has always eaten it before there was any head to speak of. I may try some other raabs next year, just to see how much difference there is between them.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Hens to the processor
Due to the number of half grown chicks we need space for, and the number of setting hens, I took 9 older layers to the processor today (this was the appt I made when I thought I would be taking the 3 roosters, too - because I don't really want to drive all the way out there for fewer than a dozen - I'd rather just process them myself and save the gas and money). This will seriously reduce the number of eggs we are getting per day to something more reasonable for us to eat or pickle. I took the ones with single combs, since they are far more likely to get frostbitten in winter than the breeds with rose combs. I did make exceptions for Chiquita (our only remaining hen from the original batch 6 years ago) and Speckles (because she is the friendliest and everyones' favorite). Now I just have to start training the half-grown chicks to use the larger coop, instead of the small on (which I need empty for the next batch). I need to remember to set up an appt for the beginning of October for all the extra roosters from the two batches of incubator chicks, and any that the hens hatch and raise themselves. That's a month longer than necessary for the first batch, but it will be the right amount of time for the second batch, and I only want to make one more trip this year.
Monday, May 27, 2019
SWARM!
I was watering veggies in the hoop house when I noticed an increase in pitch and volume of the buzz from the hive next to the hoop house. I don't know whether I am annoyed that on a day when I already had 100'+ of fencing to put up, and nine million other things to do, that the hive decided to throw a monster swarm. Or maybe I'm grateful I was right there when it happened, so I could follow them to the tree they decided to hang out in, or more accurately, the tree they moved to, after the first tree proved unsuitable for whatever reason. Anyway, they started 30' up a cherry tree, where there was no way I could reach them, but then they moved to 4' off the ground in one of the pear trees I planted a couple years ago. It was the biggest swarm I've seen - I decided to put them into a deep instead of a nuke, just because it was such a large swarm... think 2+ footballs worth... or a ridiculous 5# worth of bees. I had to cut the branch off the pear tree, but it needed to be pruned anyway because of the downward curve it was growing in. It wasn't the smoothest transfer I've ever made because I had to cut with my right hand, and hold the small end of the branch with my left - the branch was too thick to cut further back so I could hold it between the tree and the bees. But the ones that fell outside the box all headed inside afterward, so apparently the queen was inside. I hope they stay there. I'll move them to the other side of the hoop house tonight... when my bee suit is dried out from all the sweating I did in it while doing this.
In case any beekeepers are wondering, the deep has five frames with partially built comb in it, and I will add the other five when I take the branch out tonight, since by then the bees will have crawled off that in favor of the comb. I like this trick for hiving packages without shaking them, too - just stick them in a hive with some built out frames and they leave the box on their own. Then take away the empty box on top that makes room for the branch/box they were on/in, and everyone is happy.
In case any beekeepers are wondering, the deep has five frames with partially built comb in it, and I will add the other five when I take the branch out tonight, since by then the bees will have crawled off that in favor of the comb. I like this trick for hiving packages without shaking them, too - just stick them in a hive with some built out frames and they leave the box on their own. Then take away the empty box on top that makes room for the branch/box they were on/in, and everyone is happy.
Sunday, May 26, 2019
First Setting Hen for 2019
She has hatched six little chicks, of the nine eggs she was setting on. I released her from the dog crate so I could put the second hen that was trying to set into it (because the other chickens kept chasing her off her nest on the floor of the coop, and messing it up, and laying more eggs in it, and basically making the whole exercise pointless for her. If it stops raining, I'll go outside this afternoon and get some pics...
More food from the homestead!
I can't say the food was just from the garden, because we processed three roosters long past their expiration date yesterday. I have a date with the commercial processor next week, but these three needed to go ASAP, because they were being 1) really hard on the hens, and 2) making me come outside at 10PM to break up rooster vs male guinea fights. And since I like the velociraptor/male guinea for his entertainment value, if not the ridiculous amount of noise he makes, the roo(s) had to go. It was a lot quieter this morning with only one rooster in the coop. I still have to take the others to the processor, because it would be an all day job to do it here and I have too much other stuff to deal with one more thing.
Anyway, I parted out the roosters, threw the thighs/legs in the crockpot with some rhubarb/orange sauce, boiled the breasts to use in Chicken Pad Thai this evening, and made stock with the remaining carcasses... which immediately went into the asparagus soup that we had for lunch today.
Earlier in the week, I harvested ten cups of arugula and made a pint jar of arugula pesto, which the DH thinks is even better than pesto made with basil. I like it, too. The kids have not tried it, but I am betting OD will love it, and YD will prefer tomato sauce, as usual.
I have a ridiculous amount of lettuce (mostly Jericho, which has done really well for the last two years - outperforming every other lettuce I've ever grown). If the daily deluge stops long enough, I will cut some and we will have lots of salad this week to go with the leftover chicken, egg salad, and asparagus. I also have to figure out what to do with the remaining sweet potatoes - I have some in jars in the windows that are growing slips to plant, but there is still a bucket full harvested last fall that we should eat soon. I have a cold sweet potato salad recipe and a sweet potato soup recipe that can be served hot or cold... I haven't tried either yet, but I'd like to, especially if the temps really get up to 70 and stay that way this week. Since it is pouring now, I'll believe it when I see it.
We also processed three rabbits, which was a mistake on my part - we should have processed four, because I need the extra cage for the grow-outs that need to be separated from the does. And I need to re-breed the does, which isn't going to get done until I can stand outside without getting soaked. I wish we'd gotten these down in the February when the coats were prime, but it was so dang cold no one wanted to be outside for that. They will definitely be for the large crockpot due to size and age. I've never cooked a tough rabbit and don't intend to start with these. In fact, I might try grinding them, since I've never done that before. I wonder if there are any good rabbit/pork sausage recipes... if anyone has them, please send me a link or a pic!
Anyway, I parted out the roosters, threw the thighs/legs in the crockpot with some rhubarb/orange sauce, boiled the breasts to use in Chicken Pad Thai this evening, and made stock with the remaining carcasses... which immediately went into the asparagus soup that we had for lunch today.
Earlier in the week, I harvested ten cups of arugula and made a pint jar of arugula pesto, which the DH thinks is even better than pesto made with basil. I like it, too. The kids have not tried it, but I am betting OD will love it, and YD will prefer tomato sauce, as usual.
I have a ridiculous amount of lettuce (mostly Jericho, which has done really well for the last two years - outperforming every other lettuce I've ever grown). If the daily deluge stops long enough, I will cut some and we will have lots of salad this week to go with the leftover chicken, egg salad, and asparagus. I also have to figure out what to do with the remaining sweet potatoes - I have some in jars in the windows that are growing slips to plant, but there is still a bucket full harvested last fall that we should eat soon. I have a cold sweet potato salad recipe and a sweet potato soup recipe that can be served hot or cold... I haven't tried either yet, but I'd like to, especially if the temps really get up to 70 and stay that way this week. Since it is pouring now, I'll believe it when I see it.
We also processed three rabbits, which was a mistake on my part - we should have processed four, because I need the extra cage for the grow-outs that need to be separated from the does. And I need to re-breed the does, which isn't going to get done until I can stand outside without getting soaked. I wish we'd gotten these down in the February when the coats were prime, but it was so dang cold no one wanted to be outside for that. They will definitely be for the large crockpot due to size and age. I've never cooked a tough rabbit and don't intend to start with these. In fact, I might try grinding them, since I've never done that before. I wonder if there are any good rabbit/pork sausage recipes... if anyone has them, please send me a link or a pic!
Friday, May 10, 2019
Spring has arrived... sort of
Despite the rain and chilly weather, spring has officially arrived - we had our first asparagus of the season (and harvested enough to make asparagus soup tomorrow), and we had dandelion fritters for supper. Yes, yes, I know that isn't an optimal diet. It is a TRADITION... which is how I justify eating deep-fried food, covered in powdered sugar.
An additional herald of spring is the first setting hen. It is the usual one to start things off - the brown, feather-legged three year old cross. She is setting on nine eggs in the dog crate in the larger chicken coop. This is in addition to the six week old chicks in the duck coop, and the 5-7 day old chicks in the pole barn. Now, if I could just Munsell's to call me back to set up a time to process the dozen that need to go to the freezer...
An additional herald of spring is the first setting hen. It is the usual one to start things off - the brown, feather-legged three year old cross. She is setting on nine eggs in the dog crate in the larger chicken coop. This is in addition to the six week old chicks in the duck coop, and the 5-7 day old chicks in the pole barn. Now, if I could just Munsell's to call me back to set up a time to process the dozen that need to go to the freezer...
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Twelve baby Silver Fox rabbits!
Sanka had four kits this morning, and Cinder had eight this afternoon. This weekend I will baby-proof Cinder's cage, so that when the kits are large enough to leave the nest box on their own, they don't escape like half the last litter. And the recaptured yard bunny will be moved out of the duck coop and into her own cage tomorrow or Saturday as well. I am debating line breeding her to Momiji, or seeing how quickly I can acquire a good quality blue buck to breed her to, since I would like to add blue to my lines. In either case, I will breed her in 6 weeks (the end of May) when Sanka and Cinder are re-bred, so that I have foster moms available in case she has first-time mom issues. If the weather is decent tomorrow, I'll get pics of the babies and post them here.
New house, new phone, new computer, new baby bunnies, new chicks...
It's been awhile. A long, long while. I have a new laptop computer, since the desktop kicked the bucket. Also a new phone, because the Pirate needed one (so I can stalk her when she drives my truck), so she got my old one. I have a new house, too. We knocked down Cookstove House last fall (after removing the cookstove, yes). We put up a smaller modular home behind where the old house stood. This happened because after adding up all the estimates for necessary repairs to the120 year old farmhouse, I had a number that equalled a new house. And since there was absolutely nothing of any architectural value about the old house, and even if we put all the money into the repairs we would not have a house worth that much money... it would still probably not last more than 20 more years. So now we have a 3 bedroom, 1500 sq ft home, with a REAL basement (not that ludicrous "Michigan basement" and crawl spaces that were under the old house). I've painted the bedrooms, but won't get to the living room, dining room, kitchen or baths until the weather gets cold again... there is just too much to do outdoors, and I hate being inside when the sun is shining.
Today, our two original Silver Fox Rabbit does should kindle again. Actually, one of them did already this morning - I think there are only 4, but because of the extra wrap on the cage due to last night's thunderstorm, it was a bit awkward to see for sure. I finally recaptured the escapee bun from the last fall litter - it had been living under the chicken coops and the rabbit shed most of the winter. It is one very large doe, since it has been free feeding on the chicken pellets. I'll be moving it from the duck coop (currently unoccupied, since the duck prefers to hang out with the chickens) into new quarters this afternoon or tomorrow. I hope it isn't too fat to breed...
There are 15 ten day old baby chicks in the pole barn from the first bunch out of the incubator this year. There is another bunch in the incubator that won't hatch for a couple more weeks. I need to process about 15 of the grown birds in the coop this month, so there will be room for the new ones. There are currently two guineas, one duck, and 27 chickens in the coop. They are overcrowded because they refuse to use the second coop since the opossum got into it and killed a hen. I killed the opossum for his crime. Anyway, that's why it can currently house the rabbit. I think I will put the chicks into it as soon as they can handle the temps.
One beehive made it through the winter, plus the feral hive in the barn wall... which is NOT going to be removed, because it throws swarms for me every year and that is just too convenient (and far less expensive) than messing with them would be. I have to get my swarm traps out tomorrow, which will entail a trip to Dadant's for fresh pheromone. A nice drive... I 'll get in another episode of the History of the English Language podcast I enjoy so much.
Now I'm off to Physical Therapy for this biceps tendinitis mess that is interfering with the use of my right shoulder, and causing me to take time off my beloved kettlebell classes. After 6+ months, it is finally improving (yes, I should have seen the doc sooner), and no, I didn't mess it up this weekend while doing the kettlebell competition. I only did the 5 minute events, with the lightest weight allowable, so it was good. And the Pirate did fantastic - this was her first event - and she was not even breathing hard enough to stop her from smart mouthing her daddy in the middle of her event. The Princess is planning on competing for a slot on the National Team in June, in order to go to World's in the fall. She had to miss last Saturday's event (sad face) in order to take the ACT, which completely bummed her out. I hope we will all be able to complete in June...
Today, our two original Silver Fox Rabbit does should kindle again. Actually, one of them did already this morning - I think there are only 4, but because of the extra wrap on the cage due to last night's thunderstorm, it was a bit awkward to see for sure. I finally recaptured the escapee bun from the last fall litter - it had been living under the chicken coops and the rabbit shed most of the winter. It is one very large doe, since it has been free feeding on the chicken pellets. I'll be moving it from the duck coop (currently unoccupied, since the duck prefers to hang out with the chickens) into new quarters this afternoon or tomorrow. I hope it isn't too fat to breed...
There are 15 ten day old baby chicks in the pole barn from the first bunch out of the incubator this year. There is another bunch in the incubator that won't hatch for a couple more weeks. I need to process about 15 of the grown birds in the coop this month, so there will be room for the new ones. There are currently two guineas, one duck, and 27 chickens in the coop. They are overcrowded because they refuse to use the second coop since the opossum got into it and killed a hen. I killed the opossum for his crime. Anyway, that's why it can currently house the rabbit. I think I will put the chicks into it as soon as they can handle the temps.
One beehive made it through the winter, plus the feral hive in the barn wall... which is NOT going to be removed, because it throws swarms for me every year and that is just too convenient (and far less expensive) than messing with them would be. I have to get my swarm traps out tomorrow, which will entail a trip to Dadant's for fresh pheromone. A nice drive... I 'll get in another episode of the History of the English Language podcast I enjoy so much.
Now I'm off to Physical Therapy for this biceps tendinitis mess that is interfering with the use of my right shoulder, and causing me to take time off my beloved kettlebell classes. After 6+ months, it is finally improving (yes, I should have seen the doc sooner), and no, I didn't mess it up this weekend while doing the kettlebell competition. I only did the 5 minute events, with the lightest weight allowable, so it was good. And the Pirate did fantastic - this was her first event - and she was not even breathing hard enough to stop her from smart mouthing her daddy in the middle of her event. The Princess is planning on competing for a slot on the National Team in June, in order to go to World's in the fall. She had to miss last Saturday's event (sad face) in order to take the ACT, which completely bummed her out. I hope we will all be able to complete in June...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)