Around the yard.

I took the camera out the other day (between rainstorms) and took a few photos. All this rain has got things growing!

These are bing cherries, so they aren't ripe just yet. They will get much darker and be soooo sweet! We have netting on the tree, lest the birds eat them all.




Apples...




...peaches...


...pears (Asian, then Bartlett).




Now I want to jump rope! "Apples, peaches, pears, peanut butter - what's the name of your true love? a, b, c, d....." Do you remember that one?

Then, the garden! Onions up front, followed by carrots. To the left, that big green mess of leaves is horseradish. Further back, assorted squashes.


To the left, a little salsify, then rutabaga. Cabbages (and more carrots) in the middle part. The big winding rows in the back - potatoes!


Peas of all sorts - snow peas, sugar snaps, and English.


Green beans. Yummy!


Sweet corn (and pumpkins to the right).


And finally, a couple of experimental crops. First, quinoa:


and amaranth.


Pretty flowers too!


Flax - pretty and good for you!


I hope your garden is doing well this year too. What do you have planted?

The Shed.

When the mobile home was on the property, there was a utility room built onto the back of it. It was a decent size utility room, plus it has stairs leading down to a small cellar. That's where the 'well stuff' is too - the electrical for our water well, the pressure tank, all that.

When the "Git-R-Done" crew took down the mobile home, we asked them to leave the utility room standing. Somehow, in spite of all the other mishaps related to having them here, they did manage to leave the utility room standing. We framed up the open side (where the mobile home used to be) and turned it into a shed.

Hubby finally has a place to organize and store his tools! Woo hoo!

He's been working hard to get it in good shape. First - the outside. Once we got siding up on the open side, a lot of the trim had to be replaced. Then he caulked everywhere that needed caulking, scraped paint as needed, and primed the bare spots.



After one coat of paint, it looked like this.


It was a bit blotchy up close - so he put on another coat. Look at it now!


Neighbors have asked if we put up a new building. He did a great job, and I love the color! We'll be using the same color on the henhouse and the barn....eventually. He's still working inside the shed, and we still need to re-do the roofing and figure out the dirt/plants/mulch around the foundation, but WOW! Much better! Yay Sweetie!!!

Guess What?

Another little chickie hatched today!

I don't have pictures (sorry) but it looks just like the first one. So that's two - woo hoo!

This little guy.

A few weeks ago, one of my little bantam hens went broody. That means she decided she wanted to hatch some chicks, so she stayed on the eggs in the nest all day...and all night.

After a few days of larger hens running her off whenever they wanted to lay in that nest, she gave up. My bad - I think if we get in this situation again I'll put her in a separate section of the henhouse where they can't bother her. I'm still learning all this!

When I went out and no one was on the eggs, they were still warm. I put them in the incubator, just to see what would happen. Later that day, I also added two more freshly laid eggs.

So far, we have this little guy. We may get more chicks over the course of the next few days, and we may not. We have our fingers crossed. Meanwhile, he is doing great. Apologies for the weird camera angles, but I was trying to photograph into a box and around the light fixture. He's cute at any angle, though!

Just hatched.


He was eating pine shavings, so I put some food and water in for him.






He's yellow, with a little bit of red tinge on his 'fuzz'. We've since moved him to the brooder in the henhouse where he is happily eating and drinking with plenty of space to roam.

I'm pretty sure it's a he, because every time I put my hand in to add food or water, I get pecked - even young roosters can be aggressive. Then again, maybe the little chick is just trying to get me to bring in a friend!

Hopefully we'll have more in the next day or two - I'll keep you posted!

Snake!

We almost never see snakes here. This makes me sad, because I really love them (the non-venomous ones, at least).

Yesterday morning I was putting a bucket away when I found this garter snake, mid meal.


I know. Kinda 'ew', but kinda cool too!

But also kinda 'ew'.


I think all the animals are doing better with all the rain we're getting this year. If that means more snakes for me, then yay! Especially whatever eats gophers. Especially one that's big enough to get that gopher that keeps tunneling under the clotheslines. Enough already with that!

In other news:


More about that soon! ;)

What do you think?

I've been tweaking over at the grocery challenge blog. What do you think? Is it too green? What would you add or take away? Leave a comment and let me know.

(thankyouverymuch!)

Happy Newzzzzz!!

When hubby was out in the field a few days ago he saw a couple of bees flying in and out of the old hive. That's not all that unusual, really. Sometimes a scout will check an empty hive to see if there is any honey to be scrounged.

On his way back up to the house, he watched for a moment, and there was 'traffic'. So I put on my makeshift/frugal/cheap bee suit (light blue sweats, a fuzzy sweatshirt, double socks, welding gloves and a beekeeper's veil, topped off with rubber bands at my ankles and wrists - I am a sight!) and went to check things out.

Apologies - I have no photos at this time. Have you ever tried to use a camera when you're wearing 2 layers of clothing, a bee veil and welding gloves? I'll try to get some pics soon!

I took off the cover to find a decent size grouping of honeybees in the hive. It was the right time of day for me to be snooping in there (early afternoon) on a bright, warm, sunny day, so they were really docile and pretty much ignored me. When a bee hive gets too crowded, the workers hatch a new queen. The old queen leaves, with about half of the bees in the hive, and they move out. That's what a swarm is. In this case, a swarm found my old, empty hive and moved right in.

I did't pull the frames to check for brood (babies), but I noted that there is a feeder installed in the top super. (A super is a box. The box holds the frames where the bees build honeycomb to store honey and/or hatch brood.)

The next day, I made a batch of syrup for the honeybees. 1 gallon of water, five pounds of sugar. Heat until the sugar is dissolved, then cool and feed to the bees. This will give them a big boost toward rearing more young, gathering more honey for themselves, etc. You don't feed honeybees once they are making honey in the small (shallow) supers, but feeding them when they are filling the larger (deep) supers helps ensure that they will have plenty of honey to get them through winter.

Anyway, when it was time to feed them, the rain came. Bees do not like rain, not one bit! It makes them stop working, and that makes them cranky. It was starting to get a little late when the skies cleared and the sun came back, but I decided to feed them anyway.

Poor choice. They were not not not in the mood for visitors, and make that clear by stinging the heck out of me....well...my bee suit. The welding gloves took the worst of it. I counted over 30 stingers.

On the other hand, going in when everyone was home gave me a good sense of the size of the swarm. It looks like it was a good-sized one, so I may even feed them again once this batch of syrup is eaten. Anyway, since they were feeling super cranky, I poured the syrup into the feeder, put the lid back on and got out of Dodge. Several guards followed me for quite a long way, and I had to stand and hold my breath (they sense carbon dioxide when you exhale and that agitates them) until they finally flew off.

We have honeybees again! Woo Hoo!!

I'll need to do a little hive maintenance. There is no landing board at the entrance, so I'll cut some plywood and attach it. They are mostly using a hole that the previous bunch chewed through the top super. No biggie, but I'd like to give them more, and easier, access. Once we get their home fixed up a little, I'll start checking for brood, look for the queen, all that good fun.

Sweet!