The buzz

I mentioned that one of my hives had me worried and was very weak. After talking to the folks at K&K again, I went with their advice to place a new queen in the colony and take a frame of brood from the healthy hive to give them a boost. So here I am getting into the weak hive.




This frame should be covered with bees and wax and brood...as you can see there's not much of anything. The brood that was present looked dried up and there were NO eggs or young larvae present at all.


I have a theory as to what may have happened, but it's all a guess at this point. I think the original queen may have been weak to begin with and didn't lay enough brood. Something happened to her, or they swarmed (which makes no sense, but is still a possibility) and the hive decided to make a new queen. I found two empty queen cells, so my thought is that two queens hatched and rather than one of them dominating, they killed each other and the hive didn't have enough brood to make a new one at that point.

Their numbers were declining rapidly, but there is no sign of disease.

Placing the new queen in the hive.

I checked on her yesterday and they almost had her out of the queen cage. I'll wait a few more days before checking again. I'm worried about this hive, but there isn't much I can do at this point but wait....
and wait.

Lotsa things in life are like that aren't they? :) The bees are helping me be more Zen. Ah, that would make a good post..."Zen and the art of beekeeping".

First fruits

We built a new pen for Ms.Tica and she loves being a semi-free rabbit again. I think she's the best fed rabbit in these parts, getting raw veggies and leaves from the garden every day. I'm thinking about ignoring those Home-owner association rules and putting some chickens in here. It's under the deck stairs so I don't think anyone would see them easily. Anyone know how well chickens and rabbits do together?





The herb garden is bursting at the seams now. There are several basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, summer savory, oregeno, marjoram, lavender, marigolds, dianthus, tithonia torch (mexican sunflower), sunflowers and morning glory. The Dill is all finished for now but I may start some in the fall again. Two volunteers share the herb bed...a roma tomato and watermelon, both from last year. I really need to move the watermelon but every bit of space I had left, went to the sweet potatoes.


I know it probably gets old seeing this same shot week after week, but I like seeing how it changes every time. I didn't get half of my goals accomplished this year, so it helps me to see the progress on what DID get done.:)



Another volunteer, sprung from the old compost bed. I thought it was zucchini at first, but it's kinda round. Might have been a hybrid, so we'll just have to see what it wants to be and whether it will be useful or not.



Cherry tomatoes hang gracefully on the vine,





Some plump peppers,




and a few knobby cukes.

My Brandywine tomatoes are filling out. Might be time for some fried green tomatoes soon!




This morning I unearthed a handful of Yukon Gold potatoes,


which became a simple and hearty breakfast of onions (also from the garden), potatoes and eggs from down the road. Yum.
There is nothing more buttery and smooth than a homegrown Yukon Gold. I can't believe the silky texture. Potatoes can handle long-term storage but they sure have great texture right from the garden! I can't think of many foods more pleasurable.

Good eating

We had been eating a lot of salad, up until the weather got a bit hot and things were going bitter. The above picture was typical for a few weeks though. Herbs, swiss chard, lettuces and broccoli or cabbage leaves were the norm. I still have a couple bags of lettuce in the fridge and we've planted some heat resistant varieties to see how they do.

There is one raised bed that gets a lot of shade that might make a good summer lettuce bed. We'll see. I've been told that July and August are the hardest months for lettuce but the rest of the year is pretty easy around here for growing them.



Our farmer's market bounty was a loaf of ciabatta, a brownie, lettuce, some strawberries and a bundle of lamb's quarter.


Our Brandywine tomatoes are doing fabulous. Since this picture was taken last week they've gotten quite a bit larger and are covered with blossoms. A few have set fruit too. One of the cherry tomatoes has several fruits and I'm eagerly awaiting the first harvest.




Sierra has become quite adept at building frames for the hives. I can whip out ten frames fairly quick now, with her help. One of the hives got a second hive body as they were starting to get crowded. The other hive hasn't even worked five of the ten frames very well yet, I'm starting to worry about that one. They need to get busy or they won't get through winter. Not sure what is going on but I'll get someone out to look with me soon.



The healthy hive is incredibly busy every day now.




Last week when I inspected the hives I had to scrape a lot of burr comb off the inner cover. I decided to strain out the little bit of honey that was in there...it was so good and gave us a glimpse of future rewards.:)

The view from the hives is looking more filled in lately.





A meal that was almost zero miles...some scrambled eggs from about 1/10th of a mile down the road, chock full of herbs and greens from our garden with some mint tea to top it off.


The pizza was inspired by our visit to Touch the Earth Farm where we were fed very well. I used a puff pastry crust and topped it with olive oil, mozza and plenty of basil, oregeno, marjoram, garlic and some leeks. It was SOoooooo yummy!

The more we grow our own food, the more we enjoy the entire process. We've pulled a few potatoes this week (got my first purple tonight) and had a couple for breakfast a few days ago.

I've also taken to spending part of our grocery money on staples we can store long-term. We've got about 50# of flour, 25# of rice, lots of peanut butter, canned beans and dry beans, oats, baking soda, vinegar and more. The idea is to buy items we use all the time and get to the point where the budget is a lot about what we want to buy, rather than what we feel we have to buy.

The more we store and grow, the less dependent we can become. It's a slow process at times, but it feels good to be in process. I have a feeling this will be a winter where we will be very glad to have large stores of food. Prices aren't falling, that's for sure.

QOTD

Found at Beth Fuller's blog....

“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.”
~~Freya Stark

You get three words

This has been on my mind lately, don't ask why. I think of weird stuff at random times.:)

If there were three words to describe you after you died, what would they be? I decided that I hoped people would say of me "she was fearless". I can't think of a better legacy to leave behind. Still working on that fearless part.

What would people say about you? Three words. Go!

Oh, and publish a link if you put it at your blog or feel free to leave it in comments here. The above picture is one that Sierra and I did on February 29th. Fearlessly leaping. Yep.

Path to Freedom

I love the Path to Freedom website and just signed up for the 100 foot challenge. Part of me wonders how on earth I plan to meet the challenge with such a smallish garden, but then everything I've accomplished thus far has been by committing first and figuring it out later.;)

They give some space for including local foods and such, so the eggs I buy right down the street will probably be included at times. Connected with a couple that runs an organic farm at the beekeeping meeting last night. Very exciting! Mainly because they plan to have a booth at the newly started Jonesborough Farmer's Market.

Anyone who lives nearby should really think about supporting the market. It runs on Saturdays from 7am-11am in the library parking lot and for now the booths are free. Once they start charging it will be a $5 daily fee or you can rent for the season at a discount. I'd love to get enough herbs going to start taking some bundles down. For now I'm trying to eat them all.:)

...and so it grows

The garden keeps growing (funny how that works) and we've been harvesting salad materials pretty regular now. This is the view from the beehives looking towards the back of our property.




Inspecting the newly sprouted beans, which I've been told will make good "leather britches".




Some marigolds peeping out amongst lettuces and peppers. There are a couple of cucumbers on the backside getting ready to climb up the jute twine.



The potatoes seem to grow while you watch them!


The herb garden is just filling in but there is enough parsley, cilantro and dill to dress up the salads with. There is something most spiritual about picking a bunch of greens and going inside to make a meal of it. Every bit of what goes into salad was started from seed. There will be more soon....some cukes and peppers and tomatoes.

We've got plans for the main garden bed to be dug and tilled soon. I'm still not entirely convinced of the no 'til methods though we'll experiment with some of it. I think it's easier for me to create something aesthetically pleasing through tilling. I want defined spaces that are pleasing to the eye as well as useful for growing food. Both are important to me. I think that's why I like raised beds.

The eventual main garden area will have a retaining wall along the backside so it will be a well-defined space. Not sure how much we'll get done this year but at least we're getting our plans together finally.

Projects for this week include assembling and adding a second hive body so the bees have more room. Oh, and good news about chicken eggs...we found a farm just up the road that sells them for $1.50 a dozen. It's close enough to walk there and we even got to help gather the eggs last week. Since the evil home owners assoc. won't allow for chickens, this is a good alternative for now.

If only I could get some raw milk out here...still looking.
My cats need it ya know.;)

Zero miles...almost

The Black Locusts are blossoming! I've waited an entire year to sample this delicacy after learning they were edible last year but losing the blossoms to a late freeze. They are truly an elegant food. I picked a few for the kids and Sierra got very excited about my stir fry idea.


So she came outside to harvest some edibles..

she started with the locust blossoms.



Aren't they amazing? I think they are one of the most fulfilling wild edibles ever....they are beautiful to look at, smell heavenly and taste of a sweet, mild pea. Perfection if I ever knew it.



She gathers some broccoli rabe from the garden along with the blossoms.



Busted! She looks like Tica here, nibbling on the blossoms.

Speaking of Ms. Tica...she's a total escape artist. I knew this about rabbits, truly I did. But she is extraordinarily talented. Funny little gal will jump back in her cage if you chase her. As long as you don't try to pick her up, she'll let you get close.

Sierra pauses to play with silly rabbit before chasing her back to her enclosure where she dutifully jumps back in. She's got us trained well.



The final zero miles meal (and our very first ever, so it's a special occasion). Ok, it's almost zero miles. We did use a bit of olive oil and a smidge of Dale's seasoning, but other than that it's all from right here. It was delicious.

Delicious and satisfying right down to the nubbins of my soul.:)

The garden grows

Outredgous lettuce and Italian dandelion. Our rabbit likes the dandelion greens better than I. It seems much more bitter than the wild stuff growing in our yard.




These are the potatoes after covering them with dirt twice (hilling). Today they are easily three times this size and I just took this pic two days ago! They grow like mad.




There are happy cabbages....



...and HUGE broccoli rabe. We've been eating off it regularly for a few days and sharing with Tica.


The strawberries are just getting started. Next year they'll be luscious!

I feel so powerful having started most of it from seed. :) They seemed so fragile and here they are growing food for us daily now. Incredible.

The Swarm

On Saturday, a swarm appeared on our trampoline. The kids went down to jump and suddenly had a bunch of pissed off bees flying around. Not a good day to jump.:)

On Sunday, I went into my hives and they looked just fine. No worries. I decide the swarm can't be from my hives (which made no sense anyway, as they still have plenty of room). I decide to call K&K on Monday if the swarm is still there.

Monday arrives and all hell breaks loose. Bleu is outside working when suddenly what-seems-like-five-million bees are around my hives. It stays crazy for a while then the blob of what-seems-like-five-million-bees moves back over to the trampoline and makes our yard practically unusable.

I'm a bit freaked out now. My hives seem to have little or no activity and I really don't understand what is going on or what to do about it. I leave messages at K&K and another hive inspectors voicemail, no answers though. I call throughout the day at work, can't get anybody!

So I call Jessica, just up the road. Yes, she has a five gallon bucket. Yes, they'll come over after I get off work and help me remove them in the dark. "It's like the blind leading the blind" says she. I laugh casually in agreement, hiding the fact that my knees are shaking now.

The going theory is that the swarm had decided to try and move in on one of my hives and failed in their first attempt.



The swarm was quite happy up there under the trampoline. My kids weren't so happy about them taking that location. It's tempting to try and hive them, but two hives are quite enough for this year. Jessica felt the same. So this swarm was freedom bound.

We donned our equipment.
Headed out with an entourage of nervously excited children and one curiously amused husband (hers...mine was hiding out in his office).

The conversations when facing the swarm were something like;
"ok, do you want to hold the bucket or knock them in?" (neither job seemed entirely safe)
"Should I smack the top of the trampoline or just lift and drop it?"

A range of opinions fly forth from the entourage.

Then there's that lovely thought that they could be Africanized bees and all may not go well. Oh, the things you think up at just-the-right moment.


It went something like this...
The main group of bees had the bucket held under them by Jessica, I lift the trampoline about a foot off the ground and drop it. Big blob of bees falls into bucket while a smaller nearby blob falls onto the ground. We brush as many of them up as possible. At some point we decide we've pushed our luck far enough and leave the rest to fend for themselves.

Not one sting.
We're mildly cocky at this point,having captured our first wild swarm without any experts. "The blind leading the blind" thing came off without a hitch.

There were a couple of pissed off bees following us for a few minutes. They got squashed...I did want to take that veil off!



So there's the bucket-o-bees.
Capturing a swarm at night was a great idea.:)

Jessica and family took the bees home with them for release on their property. I got an update this morning:

~~Ren, I walked the bucket o bees out to the pasture and placed it at the base of a dead locust tree. It is perfect if they use it, it has a large split that opens into the tree's center without opening all the way up, so they would actually have a "ceiling" if they use it. I wanted to just sit and watch, but the day called. I'll go back later and check on them. It was a neat feeling holding that pail with the vibrations of their buzz going through my hands. Jess~~

Thanks for calming my fears and coming over in the dark to help me out. You guys rock!

Edibles

We've not only been getting more garden in this last week, but also collecting a few wild edibles.
The violets seemed to carpet the hill almost overnight...

we took advantage and sprinkled some onto salad. My favorite way to use violets is by glazing them with egg whites, sprinkling sugar on and drying. They save in the freezer and look amazing atop cakes and in salads.

Don't these look luscious?
Sierra helped...
A couple days ago we were all about the dandelions. Chopped greens in salad and I even harvested some root for future use.

My girl also helped plant the onions, garlic and potatoes this week, she's one of my constant gardeners.:)


We had some passerby friends, a wee butterfly..



..a garden kitty named Bella. She loves to follow me and rub against my backside while I'm digging in earth.



This wee caterpillar was saved while cleaning brush. I think it makes an amazingly graceful circle, cradled gently on a leaf.


There are many of these willing helpers...

..yeah, we grow 'em big in Tennessee! Happy digging everyone...spring is grand.