the colder season is upon us

tabitha dug the sweet potatoes. they were huge. she left them out to dry and it has done nothing except rain ever since. we'll bring them in tomorrow and let them cure in the house. we removed the top super from the bees and got a little more honey. they are mostly closed in for the winter now. i have yet to wrap them in tar-paper and put their top feeder on. they should have plenty of honey stored for winter but i will feed them anyway. i don't want them to die. like the bees from last year did. strangely every ones bees in the immediate area died last year. that is little consolation though.

i replaced the gaskets on the wood stove. toly and rome managed to destroy them through out the summer. the remaining gasket was hard and crunchy. the wood stove manual suggest that they should be changed every year. i can't imagine doing that. the gasket material cost twelve dollars and the special high temperature glue was another five. not too expensive but it was a pain in the butt. i scraped and wire brushed the old gasket and glue and put in the new gasket. all the doors had to be readjusted the make a proper seal.

i had to clean the stove pipe and chimney too--messy work. the flue was nearly completely clogged. ash had fallen and settled where the stove attached to the pipe. i took it completely apart and realigned the pipe and made sure that it fit very snugly. all the proper heat shields needed adjusting too. it took a few hours but i feel much safer having gone over the wood stove in such detail.

i lit a small fire to take the damp chill out of the house. the draft worked great and the stove seals to the point of killing the fire with the damper shut. i'll trim the white rock-wool around the pipe next time it cools down. i left extra there to be sure i got a good seal and could use the surplus to stuff into leaky areas.

i also loaded a little wood on the porch. most of the wood is soaked from the wet weather we have been having. this should dry and keep us until sunny weather returns. i have taken a cold so that is about all i can do for today.

last night picking

we picked these tomatoes from our plants last night.

tabitha has a bit more from the day before to add to our first canner load, hooray.

we are getting tomatoes but it is sad to see the dying plants give up the ghost. we have been eating tons of squash and cucumbers. tabitha has canned over fifty pints of pickles. she also has the second row of beets to put up. they are very small in comparison to our first row.

there is a storm raging outside right now. i was awoke by a thunder clap. the weather here can be so dramatic. i'll take a little drama to get the rain. tabitha broadcast buckwheat as a cover crop for part of our garden. it needs rain since we don't have soaker hoses there.

the bees should like buckwheat. i got into the bees the saturday. they seem great. it was kinda windy so i didn't go for the full inspection. i did notice that we'll have to harvest honey within a couple of weeks. these russian bees are so friendly in comparison to our old bees. i hope they over winter well. you'd think they would being from russia and all. i'd like to split them in the spring or maybe we'll buy another starter nuc. having bees is a love-hate relationship. we love most everything about them except that all four of our hives died this last winter.

we took the kids to their friends for a swim-birthday-party yesterday. they love them it is so great to watch their play. i wish we lived a bit closer to them. as we all squished into my little truck the conversation always returned to our need for a van. we consciously choose to only have one vehicle and knew what we were getting into. now with toly probably needing further testing and accompanying trips to springfield our status has changed. having a second vehicle/van falls from the luxury column over to the necessity column. anyone know what a pound of flesh is going for these days?

chicken soup

tabitha has been making bone-broth chicken soup regularly since our quitting milk. i guess that cooking the bones for extended periods makes the bone calcium bio-available to us. regardless of the super nutritional benefits, she has perfected it. the soup is so rich and flavorful. she adds some of our dehydrated onions and several heads of garlic. then the coup d’état is her crazy-good semolina egg noodles. our girls eggs are so dark yellow that anything cooked with them takes on that rich color. the kids all love the soup and we eat it for several meals between roast chickens.

dehydrated onions is a technology that we'll incorporate into our life forever. the onions keep better and are simple to use. a solar dehydrator is in my near future--this summer.

best of all we have been eating the soup from our new set of bowls from annie--also thanks for the tomato seed btw.

it is like drinking a specific wine from the proper glass designed for that wine. the bowls complete the soup into a final product, the sum being greater than it's parts. it is like garden fresh tomatoes and home made cottage cheese, the sum being greater than it's parts. there are many things where the sum being greater than it's parts but they are usually experienced infrequently in life.

the kids are really growing fast these days.

rome is especially breaking the time-speed-continuum. he is so-almost crawling.


we all huddled in front of the imac camera the other day.


our chickens laid twelve eggs yesterday. tomorrow i'll make morning-cake aka french toast. it is a very popular breakfast around here. we buy real vanilla and maple syrup from the natural foods store. given our farm fresh free range eggs and the result is heavenly. i'll try to capture the excitement on camera tomorrow morning once they know what i intend to make for breakfast.

i have officially gone through 2/3 of our wood queued for this winter. i have some other back-up wood that we could burn this year. i guess everyone is burning more wood than usual in this area. i'm not sure what the factors are that cause this. we are burning an inordinate amount because a baby needs a really warm house to crawl around in.

i bought bees yesterday. three pounds of russian and marked queen. i pledge to take better care of the bees this year. i need to get my Ch'i groovin' with these bees this year. we love them and are willing to go to great lengths to have them here. the russian queen will be an experiment. people either love or hate them. we'll see where our cards fall regarding them. i'm excited for this new adventure.

i need to get tabitha a bee suit. it will be better if we do it more closely together. we balance out each other in life and approaching the bees together will be one further example of how we do things better together. we can play off each others strengths and achieve the sum being greater than it's parts. isn't that what life is about?

roary and nimue are gone

our friends bought roary and are taking nimue to the sale barn for us. we were very happy last evening to have them gone. then it happened..

the calves knocked over our strongest bee hive last night and killed all the bees due to the cold temps last night. bees are not like ants they cannot freeze and live to tell the tale.

the count of monte cristo

the count of monte cristo is my favorite book. i like don quixote almost as much. i aspire to live life like alonso quixano but realize i am much closer to edmond dantes rather closer to sinbad the sailor. the count's professed alter ego.

it has been a long time since i've read either book. i think about edmond dantès whenever i get angry at someone. yeah i know let it go... but here i am trying to post and still feel violated.

anyway..

the bees are all still alive.

we have had some very cold weather. our neighbor and trash collector guy had all of his bees die during the last cold spell. he came by and offered his sugar water that was now useless. i refused because i don't plan to feed them. each hive had plenty of honey this fall. my goal is to have the healthiest bees possible but under natural conditions. somehow i think that feeding them sugar is kinda like humans eating at mcdonalds everyday. a person can live on it but won't remain healthy.

after his bees died i began to question my logic. i was worried about the bees and today i feel better. when richard the trash guy came by i offered him a nuc of bees. i said these bees are local and are hardened to the conditions in the ozarks. so in the spring if all the hives survive i'll checkerboard them and slip some of the extra brood comb with a few bees in a box for him. it is not really any skin off my back. i'll need to do this to keep them from swarming anyway. i don't want to start-up any more hives for me to take care of either. if i manage these four hives they should produce more than enough honey for our needs. mead production may start in a few years but not right now.

the pigs are doing fabulously.

i have really enjoyed them even though their waterer froze and catastrophically failed.

here is the repaired version with a 50 watt birdbath heater installed in the bottom.

there is a specialized pig nipple threaded into this 4' pvc pipe. it almost holds three gallons of water. if we continue to raise pigs i'll upgrade to a larger diameter pipe and add another nipple.

i fed them an old pumpkin and they loved it. they eat hickory nuts and persimmons when we pick them off the field and toss them into their pen. it is amazing to watch them crunch a hickory nut with their molars.

kassi loves her little pony.

she's hugging it tight.

henry is getting so big.

huge in fact and still growing.

the chickens are finally starting to lay.

they have been giving up about six eggs per day for a week or so. yesterday i installed a light in their coop in an effort to extend their daytime hours. i might trick them into laying heavily throughout the winter. we have been without a reliable supply of eggs for far too long.

see it there in the back?

tabitha is finally really starting to heal up from the pneumonia.

going outside has not been an option without repercussions. luckily it is extremely warm today. rome likes it outside too.


toly loves to swing

the land of milk and honey

i just had a peanut butter and honey sandwich with a huge glass of milk. was it our milk and honey? YES, i love our honey and this was the first glass of the newly freshened rory. it was buttery and delicious. rosemoon, tabitha's stance on how soon to drink a fresh cows milk is as soon as possible. we couldn't make colostrum custard because we used tomorrow® teat infusions to prevent mastitis and that requires 72 hours wait. i must say that i couldn't wait an entire week with no other raw milk source.

here is our milker. we got three gallons yesterday. i look to see a bit more than that once rory settles in.


we got to pick the rest of the apples from my father-in-laws apple tree. so far we have only picked five buckets full. there are still three buckets still on the porch waiting for us this weekend.

today we canned twenty three or so quarts. my job was to operate the peeler-corer-slicer. i remember using one as a kid. it makes short work of a tedious job. tabitha filled the jars, ran the stove and canner.


toly helped. his job was to take a bite out of each apple and hand it to me. we are big on quality control around here.


this was tabitha's station. see the show canner? it holds fifteen quart jars and sits over two burners. it heats up pretty fast--so did the kitchen.


these canned apples look so tasty.


stack/split wood 1/2 a rick
move bees 2 hives
can a mess of apples 23 quarts
fix milker switches
move baby sling hook at barn
fix drain by bees
- - bees still in the way
get hay 16 bales
straw, water, jocelyn pen
- - tomorrow
fork waste hay by feeder into compost
- - need new pitch fork old one is broken
mow & feed grass to cows

gooey comb squish

we harvested one of our supers and let the kids squish the comb. this honey is for personal use so hygiene isn't really an issue beyond a good scrub down first.

toly didn't feel like getting his hands that dirty.


we learned many lessons


mostly we just had fun


before we started squishing the honey we let the kids gorge themselves on honey comb.


it was so tasty. the kids normally just tolerate honey but they loved this stuff.


it is the perfect kid activity squishing honey.


this hive didn't have any extra honey. two hive bodies full. nearly double the required amount to over winter.


gooey squishy fun


i have to move the hive locations because the tree above them is loosing huge branches and needs to come down. it was struck by lightning a few storms ago.

the bees shouldn't have any trouble making it through the winter. we'll leave two hive bodies per hive. that will be plenty so we probably won't need to feed them at any time. our hives should be really strong for next year.

i also learned that i want to use smaller supers for honey collection. this will be a winter of getting prepared for next year.

i also want to try beequick to get the bees off the supers for easy harvesting next year.

gathered knowledge
- - small supers for honey
- - harvest more often
- - keep them from swarming at all costs in the spring.
- - get in the bees more often
- - make a bee tool box to hold all necessary tools
- - ask more questions from beesource bee keeping forums

i received an award for a great blog home is...
i read her blog as often as i read any--which varies greatly on my allowable time. i really appreciate the way she obviously respects her husband and family. i especially like the nickname she gave her husband. the first person that comments what it is will get a special present.

k-)

data collection on bees

warning boring post ahead

tabitha's hive (double swarm)
mostly friendly
2 full hive bodies (they'll likely make it through winter)
empty super (foundationless)
perfect brood comb (brood surrounded by honey)

swarm hive (single swarm)
very passive
two full hive bodies except two frames of top body
(they'll also likely make it through winter)
needs super (another hive body)
doing surprisingly well since they don't seem as active.

drone hive
passive (much more passive then last visit)
two full hive bodies and
one and an half frames full in super
building comb from bottom
foundation wrinkling causing them trouble
(note to self, never use foundation again)
lots of bees not so many drones
obviously has queen now
they got a late start it took their queen a while to get going

karl's hive (or africanized bees)--just kidding;)
very active almost aggressive
2 full hive bodies
one super full of honey
second super 2 frames full from foundationless frames
beautiful natural comb built from wedge attached to frame

i didn't really "dig in" to the hives. it was just a look see to see if everyone has room for honey. we need one hive body for a super for the (single swarm hive) i pulled some frames to see how they are doing. showed tabitha beautiful natural comb. it really is amazing.

in the bees

bee suits not just a sexy fashion statement.


that lower white box is completely full of honey. i had to add this top box pronto.


in an effort to be lazy we are trying to go foundationless. in a normal apiary wax sheets with comb impressions are put on each frame so the bees can extrude them out in the right place. we had horrible luck keeping the foundation in place. the second time we got into the bees there was huge crumples of foundation and comb haphazardly extruded everywhere. we decided to just put thin strips across the top to get them started. that effort worked marvelously. then we had to add frames in a hurry without any foundation to keep crazy hives from swarming. they built out the comb perfectly and filled it with babies. we started to wonder why should we bother with the wax foundation at all. we don't have any plans on using an centripetal extractor so there is no need for reinforcement wire or anything.
anyway, we are trying a huge experiment. michael bush of bush bees has a huge site dedicated to lazy beekeeping. rather, letting the bees be bees and trusting nature. he has an example of a little triangular addition to the top bar. this allegedly lets the bees know this is where to begin. harvesting this honey could really suck if this experiment goes badly. the risk is huge but the reward might be that we never have to buy foundation again. not that the wax foundation sheets are very expensive but anywhere we can cut costs means more "hookers and gin" for me.

here is another view of the addition "v". i am holding the frame upside down for better shading.

i also purchased a little brad pusher--six bucks. it makes assembeling these frames and new addition triangle. easy.


all of these bees were chasing me down just a few minutes after this shot.

when they have a ton of honey the get really protective. poised on the front porch looking for trouble.

---

other farm news

our first cow is looking really healthy. she gets a daily dose of kombucha too.


this is rory she is kinda bossy


i, finally after three years, put cabinet fronts on tabitha's cupboards. she loves them. easy to please isn't she?

garden work

this is a row of tomatoes desperately in need of weeding and mulching.


this is the walkway between the tomato rows. this year we are using feed sacks as a weed barrier. i tore them open and the kids helped soak them in water. they stick to the ground better when wet.


here is a double row of tomatoes just after tabitha hoed it.


this is the walkway partially covered in mulch to weight it down. in previous years we have used wheat straw. our source for wheat straw has most of his fields underwater. buying it from other sources would break us.


this is a new experiment. a fellow blogger, i won't drop any names, uses aged sawdust for his human manure project. i plan to copy ron's composting toilet--oops sorry ron. anyway, i went to get the saw dust and decided that it would make a good replacement mulch. i loaded my truck myself with a silage fork. i mounded it up and my little truck thought nothing of it. doing it by hand afforded me the luxury of picking out all huge chunks of bark. this row is basically a truck load. it seems we'll need two more to finish the tomatoes.


our beets are really starting to make.


we also harvested the garlic. we love garlic. this is a rows worth. it won't last through the canning season.


here is the row that it came from. there were some bare spots and tabitha transplanted the chard from the hotbed/cold-frame. it has gone to seed and we'll save some for next planting.


kassi flitting around demanded to be photographed.


this is the "crazy hive." the bees are incredibly busy. they spend a considerable amount of time hanging around on their front porch. i have to get another super on them before this weekend. we have been using hive bodies for everything. we need to be standardized and this is what we started with.

the double swarm hive is almost completely built out both of it's hive bodies. tabitha has laid claim to as "her hive." we are having trouble referring to them without elaborate descriptions. i thought we should name them after cities but the idea never stuck.

here is the oldest batch of broiler chickens. don't they look tasty? they think i might have a treat of whey, milk, clabbor or farina. not yet fellas.