May 31, 2013

it has been a tough year for the garden...with the spring being so cold, 

 the plants have not grown as tall as they need to be....

sooooo.....just part of the garden is in.....

carrot & green bean seeds planted along the fence in the middle



tomato are planted and string line setup to cut the matting

for the pepper plants, but they are not big enough yet

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Ross smoked some beef & salmon jerky.....

he coated the beef in a marinade for 24 hours

then lined it up on the smoker grates

wish you could smell this....AMAZING!!!

beef sticks

salmon sticks

salmon planks

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we were shopping in town this afternoon, as we got close to

the animal shelter...i asked Ross to pull in.....15 minutes later...

JOY was in the van and ready to head to the farm....

we are very excited to have her!!!

she is adjusting to the other dogs and life on the farm quite well!!!

Pleasant Dreams!!!

May 30, 2013

this is my Great Grandpa Berts financial diary pages for May 1913....

what they sold or earned for income:
53 lbs of butter = $16.74

200 dozen eggs = $42.16

18 bushel potatoes = $7.85

berry plants = $.60

rubbers = $.50

so $67.85 came in

what they purchased or paid:
groceries (not specific) = $6.60

  feed  = $8.78

baker = $.50

berry plants = $4.00

labor = $3.30

Bangor trip - Mrs. = $3.41

Dentist - Mrs. = $4.50

mower = $7.15

egg cartons  = $.85

nails = $.65

dress & dress supplies = $3.75

sun bonnet = $.35

tithing= $1.00

posts = $2.40

road tax = $11.40

wire= $11.90

shades = $.90

so $71.44 went out

some interesting things.....

• lots of money spent on Alice again, a trip to Bangor, dress, bonnet, going to the dentist...my grandpa would have been 11 months old by now...so maybe this was his first visit away from the farm.
• road tax...$11.40 seems really high to me for the early 1900's
• wire....$11.90...he must have wired in some sort of area for animals
• no salary this month...so clearly in May they were already out of school

Pleasant Dreams!!!

May 29, 2013

Bee Inspection....Week 3

we started with my hive....you pull out the frames on the ends first and

inspect them.....I had activity on 6 of the 10 frames.....that is EXCELLENT

progress for 3 weeks....

the Queen is busy...on this frame, you can see Larva before they

are capped....

this is a great picture of several stages ....from the egg (looks like a

piece of rice) to Larva of different sizes....then the workers will

cap the hole.....zoom in and take a good look...

on this one....you can see the Queen...right in the middle of the picture

this is Hive 2 - Ross' hive....you can see the Burr Comb connecting

the frames....we remove that with each inspection

at 21 days new worker bees are born....if you look closely at the bottom

center of this picture and top left....there are bees coming out of the holes...

just AMAZING!!!

center of the picture is the Queen in Hive 2



last week I misspoke about PROPOLIS....I misunderstood it

to be another name for the BURR COMB that was connecting the frames,

but it is what is on the side of the frame in this picture...it is a sticky substance

that has HUGE medicinal benefits.

Pleasant Dreams!!!

May 25, 2013

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!!

Our annual tradition for this weekend is to prepare the garden....

looking West.....

looking East...

took off the old landscape cloth, and pulled the big weeds...

next step.....rototiller...3 times per side



Ross did the hard work....I just did the last time on this side...

then a quick roll to flatten it down...

laying down the new landscape cloth...the North side 

will have lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew

 and cucumbers and all the rest corn...

we measure and stretch out string so the rows are even

and then I plant each kernel of corn....almost 400....

will LOVE putting up a bunch of corn this fall!

tomorrow we work on the other side.....

Pleasant Dreams!!!

May 21, 2013

this is my Great Grandpa Berts financial diary pages for April 1913....

what they sold or earned for income:
46 lbs of butter = $16.06

184 dozen eggs = $37.15

23 bushel potatoes = $9.75

1 month salary  = $50.00

so $112.96 came in

what they purchased or paid:
groceries (not specific) = $6.54

  feed  = $4.55

baker = $.75

books = $2.33

Phosphate & Clover Seed = $15.00

Baby Shoes = $2.00

Teaman = $.38

Hat Mrs. = $4.50

Preacher Money = $5.00

Window = $1.00

Newspaper = $1.50

Dr. Reichard = $4.50

Drugstore = $.72

12 apple trees = $6.50

Hatching Eggs = $1.60

100 lbs Bran = $1.25

Plow Share = $.70

Cow Served = $1.00

so $59.82 went out

some interesting things.....

• that is a lot of money for a Hat for Alice....10% of the salary that month
• 10 month check up for my grandpa...and some baby shoes
• here is the WINDOW again....i still would guess it was for a church
• they didn't use the word STUD FEE but SERVED

Pleasant Dreams!!!

May 20, 2013

crazy busy week....we had a Conference at church, A surprise birthday party

for our friend, and family in for a visit......back to normal today...

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here is the Week 2 BEE inspection.....

here is Ross using the SMOKER to calm the BEEs

we found the QUEEN....look in the middle bottom of this picture....

you can't miss her!!!

we knew that the QUEEN was busy because on this frame you can see the

baby BEEs (larva)...some have been capped and others are still open

on this frame you can see that the QUEEN has laid an EGG in each cell

(you may have to zoom in....it looks about the size of a piece of rice)

here is a diagram of the Honey Bee life cycle....every 21 days

another batch of WORKER BEEs is born

upon opening this hive for inspection, we noticed that the BEEs were

making lots of extra comb at the top of the frames....this is called PROPOLIS,

and every book we read says that it has to be removed....so I used the HIVE tool

 to pry the frames apart and then sliced off the extra comb that was on the wood part

of the frames....there was quite a bit of it this week....not sure if that is normal

or not....we will see what is there when we go next week.... 

this is the extra comb that I cut out of the hive..... there is honey and pollen in the

cells....we will keep an eye on this and see if this continues to be a problem.

Ross made another great trade and got me a golf cart, affectionately

named "BUZZIN AROUND" so it makes getting back to the BEEs

a ton easier....Mom & Brother Tim came along for the ride on Saturday.

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so.....2 weeks in this is what we have learned.....

• finding each QUEEN in the hive was exciting
• you have to wait and look at them once a week...even though I would like to check everyday....
• it is an amazingly calm thing to sit back there with them and watch them work
• the water source we made for them (a 5 gallon dog watering bowl) is working out great
• we have heard them at the tree/flower blooms by the house...which is over 300 feet away from their hive, so we know that they are moving around the property now collecting pollen

we will post more pictures this Saturday for week 3....maybe we will get a picture of

a baby bee emerging from the brood comb.

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this week (Memorial Day Weekend) is when we get the garden ready,

so we will post pictures of getting that all ready to go.

Pleasant Dreams!!!

May 11, 2013

started off the morning checking the BEES...1 week old today....

started with my hive....

pulled out the center frame to see if the BEEs are making the comb

for the Queen to lay her eggs in.

they are doing a fine job....you have to zoom in on the picture...

 any place that you see shiny is honey inside a comb....and

eventually the queen will lay her eggs in each little square.....AMAZING!!!

then over to Ross' hive

his BEEs were way more active so I put on my screened hood....

they had formed a BURR COMB.....that was connecting 2 of

the frames together....in all the books it said to take your hive tool

and cut it off.....here is what it looked like....

  

if you zoom in, you can see honey in these combs....

the BEES are doing a fine job on this frame as well.

Today was the first time the BEEs were really flying all over me,

but I felt perfectly safe in my BEE SUIT!!!

during this week, we will fill their sugar/water mixture and that

is it....we won't disturb them again until next Saturday.

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spent the afternoon watching a couple of our grandkids playing soccer...

had a GREAT time!!!

Pleasant Dreams!!!

May 10, 2013

tonight we talk about BEE Tools....

on the left is the BEE BRUSH...used for brushing the BEES off of things

so they don't get squashed

on the right is the HIVE TOOL....used for opening, prying and scraping



this is the SMOKER...used to calm down the BEES when you need

to do some work at the hive.

we used pine needles from the trees to get the SMOKER going....here is a look at the

container that you put the pine needles into.

the all important GLOVES

as is the HOODED COTTON SUIT

here is the spot for all my BEE stuff in the greenhouse



the BEE waterer....we don't have a pond/stream in the back area

where we put the hives.....so we were trying to figure out a way to

get a lot of water to the BEES.....here is 5 gallon worth...

we put different size stones in the bowl to give the BEES something

to walk around on so we wouldn't drown them.

Tomorrow.....we take out the frames to see if the QUEEN is laying eggs.

1 week into our BEE adventure......we are VERY excited!!!

Pleasant Dreams!!!

May 8, 2013

very excited about tonight's blog......

everything you need to start a Beehive......

this is how we got it from Dadant Bee Supply.....then Ross

put each piece together and put a couple coats of paint on them....

here are the individual pieces and what they are called......starting from the

bottom of the hive and working our way up.....

 SCREENED BOTTOM BOARD

(this sits on top of a cement paver)

we chose the screened version so that debris could fall all the way

through the hive and out the bottom and not stay on a solid Bottom Board

HIVE BODY "Brood Chambers"

these are where the BEES live...the QUEEN will lay her

eggs in these chambers. Honey and pollen will be stored on the

FRAMES for the BEES to live off.

Once the BEES fill each of the 10 FRAMES, then we will add

another HIVE BODY on top of the first.

here is a closer look at a FRAME....the yellow part is called the FOUNDATION and this

is what holds the honeycomb that the BEES will make

QUEEN EXCLUDER

this is put on top of the HIVE BODIES so that the Queen cannot go

up any higher in the hive and lay eggs.

SHALLOW SUPERS

these are the same as the HIVE BODY, just smaller....this will

hold 9 FRAMES.....this is where the BEES store the honey that WE get

to keep.....again like in the HIVE BODY...once they fill one up, you add another.



here is a picture of them side by side.....

HIVE BODY (left)

SHALLOW SUPER (right)

INNER COVER

this creates a dead air space for the BEES....insulates from hot or cold

HIVE COVER "Telescoping Cover"

this fits over the Hive snuggly and holds everything in place

all the pieces put together before being painted.....

in these HIVES will be a working BEE factory....how cool is that!!!

we will keep adding Story after Story onto the HIVE as the

need arises.....

for now.....we are here....just the one HIVE BODY!!!

Tomorrow.....we talk TOOLS that are needed.....

Pleasant Dreams!!!