Been building, not blogging

If anyone wonders about the lack of activity on this blog, rest assured I'm still here. I've been working on summer projects, like a playhouse for the human girls, and a hen house for the feathered girls (next year). It helps to get some things done before the snow flies. I'd like to have pictures, but LR dropped the camera in a mug of tea a few weeks ago.
We harvested about 25 pounds of honey last month, too. Thanks, bees!

Spring at Snowy Hollow

Look who's coming to dinner! If he only knew how close he was to the table ....

Crabapple

One frame of the girls busy tending brood, packing in pollen.

One of the bees on an Evergreen Hardy White onion; seed-saving step one.

It's been warm and dry, and things are rapidly turning into summer. The spinach and pac choi will be bolting any day, but the turnips are coming on strong! I transplanted the tomatoes and planted cukes and borage near them on the south side of the house to capture some additional heat (permaculture!). The only thing left is the basil. Then we start the fall garden in soil blocks in late June.

A sweet, sweet day

Maple syrup season wrapped up a couple weeks ago, but we're still settling and canning. We put up another gallon and a half today. There's still another 2 gallons-ish waiting to be canned, so we'll end up with close to last year's total. Considering we added 12 more buckets, it comes out to be a mediocre year. Why should we be different than anyone else? Still, thanks to the trees.

Our last sap collection didn't add up to enough to boil for syrup, so I boiled the 4 gallons down to two, and pitched in a red wine yeast. It's bubbling merrily along.

It was a bittersweet day, too. Zelda's hive came through the winter very weak, and when I checked today, there were literally a half dozen bees flying around the entrance. When I opened the hive, there was nobody home. They had built comb at a crazy angle relative to the frames in one hive body; guess they didn't really know how to do it without foundation to guide them. Rebuilding those frames has been in the plan, so I brought it down to the garage and we had our first honey harvest today! The girls were just giddy with excitement over all that honey. We cut the comb out of the frames at first, but as things began to fall apart, we all dove in with our hands. Six very sticky hands. LR washed her hands in the pond so we could open a door and get in the house!

I tried a mashed-comb extraction technique I found on the web, which involved putting mashed comb in jars and filtering out the honey, ...

Trouble is, since honey is a bit viscous, the jars vapor-locked within seconds, and when I tipped them to allow air to move upward they leaked.

Version two features a paint straining bag suspended from a freshly-cut tripod. By morning, things should be well-filtered.

Our first honey harvest - nearly a quart of raw, golden elixir. There's a bunch more to be filtered, too. If a tablespoon is the life's work of 12 bees, then this quart is very hard-earned!

An early Thanksgiving

After a cold October, we're getting a few days of nice weather. We have even shut the pellet stove off during the daytime for 3 days now. All those deer in their winter coats must be panting! The bees have been out, too. We've seen several drinking at the pond, and the hive entrances are crowded. There are still a few drones getting the boot. I cut upper entrances for both hives, just a 4-5" wide slot in the edge of the inner cover, overhung by the outer cover. When (not if) the snow gets deep, they'll have a way out.

The garden is basically done except for a few greens in the cold frame. I picked parsley for a lentil & sweet potato casserole the other night. As Thanksgiving approaches, we're contemplating how to celebrate. The usual over-indulgent dinner with family just doesn't have any appeal. We're thinking of trying a 100-mile Thansgiving in the spirit of Michael Pollan's homemade local dinner in Omnivore's Dilemna, eating only things we can get from a 100-mile radius. There goes the sweet potatoes!

In the tradition of Thanskgiving, I'd like to publicly thank some of those who fed us this year. Some of you are good friends, and some are becoming such. We owe you much, farmers, so thanks to you (in no particular order):

• John Sullivan for eggs
• Jim Moses and Linda Grigg of Forest Meadow farm
• Sandy & Bernie Ware for strawberries, potaotes, and many other good things
• the kind folks at Second Spring Farm
• Laurie Brown for honey, fruit, and tomatoes
• Jayne Leatherman-Walker for tomatoes and great vibes
• Hochstettlers for peppers
• Alan Jones for those fantastic pears
• Maple Ridge Farm for grass-fed meat and granola
• another local organic farm for cilantro
• Shangri-La farm for apples
• Ebert March for carrots, squash & beans
• Millie Hathaway for rhubarb
• Marty & Michelle of Birch Point farm
• Good Neighbor Orchard for organic apples that went into some of my finest applesauce

There are many, many others, of course, who provided us with grains, flours, oils, all those things we buy at the conventional grocery. Thanks to you all; we'll help you keep up the good work! It's a joy to hand my hard-earned dollars to someone who has worked even harder for it.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank the soil of Snowy Hollow, my own place, for providing us with tomatoes for sauce in spite of the anonymous fungal disease, carrots, tons of raspberries, cabbage, parsley, peas, and especially maple syrup! Rest well, and next year I'll try to give back even more.

Mowing, herbs and bees

I pulled to zero-carbon reel mower out of the barn and cut some grass today. Just like last year, I found myself wrestling with the merits of mowing, which are few, versus the merits of leaving the "weeds" for their useful and enjoyable properties. Once you know a bit about herbalism, it's damned hard to mow a lawn! This year though, I got to it earlier and I didn't have the big thistle to leave for the goldfinches, or the fuzzy leaves of mulleins to leave for the kids to feel.

I did leave two patches of dandelions, however. Heresy! How could I do it? It was sooo easy; I have much more respect for dandelions than for grass. Dandelion greens are great in a spring salad, their blossoms can be made into wine (need to try that!), the dried roots can be used as a coffee substitute. As if that's not enough the tap root pulls nutrients up from deep in the soil. Can grass do all that?? Just say no to Roundup, and say yes to a yard full of sunshine.

As I walked by those patches of dandelions, I checked for any bee activity. True, the high of the the day was maybe 50 degrees, but there were no bees. It's just spooky to see so many flowers blooming right now, and so few bees.

We have 2 hives set up and the bees are due to arrive any day by U.S. Postal Service. Neither rain nor snow, nor buzzing boxes .... Stay tuned!

My daughter and I are going to participate in a bee survey this year, too. We found it at www.greatsunflower.org . Sounds like fun, and we're waiting for our sunflower seeds to arrive. If anyone actually reads this, check it out and participate. The bees need you!