Bee Cool

The air is so thick and hot even the bees come out in force to fan and cool the hives down:

They are all doing really well with no signs of distress or infestation. 

We attended our first Beekeepers Picnic Sunday.  Even though it was exceptionally hot, we were glad we went.  We met alot of nice folks with common interests.  Everyone (obviously) keeps bees and most of them have chickens and other livestock as well.  Erin was right, it was a real treat talking to people whose eyes don't glaze over at conversations on gardening, canning and such! 

Alot of information was shared freely and I look forward to future gatherings.  I thought I'd pass along some interesting tidbids taken from GloryBee:

• Honeybees pollinate over 80% of fruit, vegetable, and seed crop in the US.
• The average beehive contains about 20,000 to 30,000 bees in the winter, and about 60,000 to 80,000 during summer months.
• To make a pound of honey, a colony of bees collects nectar from over a million flowers.
• A honeybee uses her tongue to gather nectar from a flower to take back to the hive.
• Honebees have two sets of eyes.  A set of three simple eyes detect light and dark, and a pair of  complex eyes with over three thousand lenses that detect ultraviolet light.
• All worker bees in a hive are female.  All male bees are drones, whose sole task is to mate with the queen during her one nuptial flight.
• A honeybee can fly 15 mph.
• Pollen baskets on the outside of the back leg are used to collect pollen that is taken back to the hive and stored for food.  If you see a bee with yellow granules stuck to her legs, it's pollen.
• A honeybee has two stomachs:  one for storing the nectar that will be made into honey, and one for digesting food.
• A honeybee has two pairs of wings that beat 250 times a second.

We also found out that IL recently changed their law regarding the sale of honey.  We have never sold at a farmstand or a local Mom & Pop, but now could!  So long as we are under 500 gallons per year in sales, we need no special licenses, inspections etc. 

Maybe I will find a cute yard sign to put up after we harvest.  Of course, it would go right next to this sign:

Isn't it sad that you would even have to be a little scared?

I'm protected. 

 

On second thought, if I don't start seeing the garden boom here pretty quickly, I may just make Meads and drink myself silly.

 



Convicts, Crops and Coincidence?

The Chicken Convicts are on the loose daily now.  Every.Stinkin.Day.  At least they don't go far.  They run the fence and talk to each other instead.  I don't understand why they can't figure out how to get back in if they were smart enough to get out. 

Remember when I said all that rain we had last month would hit us on the opposite end of the spectrum?  Yup.  Dry as the bone out there.  We went from 15" one month to .11" this month and I am having to water. 

Last month:

This month:

I have spotted grasshoppers here and there but not too many other pesky critters.  And although the Japanese Beetles haven't been bad this year, they are terrorizing my raspberries.  If they keep it up, I am going to sick The Convicts on them.

After what seems like a very long 'forever' this year, we had our first whopping garden harvest:

A whole .25 oz.!  I think I should leave the peas to the professionals.  Planting on both sides of the trellis didn't even overcome a bad year here!  Bummer.  Debating if I should plant a Fall crop of peas or not.  I will say this, Lincoln did better than the Little Marvel for me.  Worth the learning curve.

We pulled all the garlic too.  It was a bit disappointing also, but I will take what I can get.  I was lucky to have found the marker stakes because for the life of me, I could not remember what varieties we planted.

This is the Little River Giant:

They are the closest to size one may be accustomed to.  So I will try these again next year based on best production in our ground.

This is the Inchdium:

Like the Chesnok Red and Ailsa Craig, they are very small.  I suppose in the end and all things considered how this season has gone, I am pleased enough.  We harvested several hundred bulbs.

The weather has given us a few beautiful days at least.  It got so hot that I managed a few sewing days even:

I have a few other projects to work on when this next heat wave hits as well.  Seeing as how the weeds are relatively under control at least.  Last year by this time, I picked blueberries on July 9th.  They aren't even ready yet.  Next thing you know, it will frost.  Errrrr

And how do you like this for a coincidence? 

Look familiar?  It's not the same one that crashed Greek Easter.  Yup.  The plant behind the last plant that blew had a fire yesterday.  This was a big'un.  No evacuations as it is a rendering plant.  Good thing the wind wasn't blowing in our direction.  Do you think they will send a gift certificate or free lard?

This is why people move to Minnie-soda. 

Did I get that right?  ;-}

Good Things

Good things always come to those who wait.  And I am a very patient person.

Yesterday we had the most wonderful reunion with my Aunt Diane and Uncle Richard!  They have lived out of state nearly my entire life.  Now retired, they "summer" in North Carolina and "winter" in Florida.  I've always wanted to say something like that!  Sounds so Southern Belle like.  If only I had a fan and a glass of sweet tea in my hand...

It's funny how after all these years, they still look the same to me.  And it's was a treat to "get to know them" as real people too! 

The picture above was a visit from years ago.  The twins are their girls, Jill and Julie.  I have no clue which one is which!!  Then my cousin Lori, and goofy here is on the end.  When Lori and I were little, we looked forward to Grama bringing back all the girls clothes.  Not only did we love the hand-me-downs, we got to look like the twins too!  Albeit, a bit more compact version of them.  As you can see, being the same age didn't mean being the same height.  They stole all that!  There are only a few months between me and the twins!!

That's OK though, because yesterday, Aunt Diane realized the "all grown up" version of me, stole all the "something else" in the family.  I'll let you guess what that might be...

Aunt Bena and Uncle Wally are hosting them for the week and would you believe, we finally got Uncle Wally up here too?!  It took nearly 5 years and two other family members, but he made it!  I suppose he didn't want to see a darn green tractor!  Red-schmed!  :o)

The Famn Damily

Aunt Diane and Uncle Richard wanted to "see our farm".  I had to laugh because, sure it's a farm, just an itty-bitty one compared to their 50+ acres.  She always tells me she spent all her growing up years wanting to "get off that farm!" and now that she is retired, all she ever wanted was to 'get back to it'.  And she did.  :o)

My hopes are that if Uncle Richard comes up with a few things that need doing at their place, it will convince Pig Pen to make a trip.  It's no joke that he has to have something to do.  A nice "sit and visit" only goes so far with him and he has to move.  Or sleep.  He doesn't sleep much.

One thing I learned yesterday, is that my Aunt Diane and I have a bit more in common than I realized.  She calls it like she sees it.  I loved that about her!  Uncle Richard is about the kindest man in the world.  I love big, squishy hugs and he's darn good at it!

It was a hoot to sit and listen to "The Girls" reminisce about old times. 

Aunt Bena, Aunt Diane, Mom

I about bust a gut when they told the story of Mom and Aunt Diane on the potty chairs.

Use your imagination.

As the story goes, they were sitting on their chairs and apparently there was a wire close by.  I am guessing a hanger-type wire or something.  Nothing electrical in nature.

Mom asked Aunt Diane, "I wonder what that wire would feel like in my ear?"

Aunt Diane promptly obliged and poked it in her ear!!!

Aunt Diane said she was only doing what the ole nag (cleaned up version) asked for!  For this, she got the one and only spanking Grampa ever gave her. 

I laughed so hard!  Kids!

And lastly, another nice surprise that seems to run in the family as well.  Forget the knick-knacks or other chotchskies, I made Aunt Diane a special order purse -and forgot to take a picture of it!  However, Aunt Diane came bearing gifts that are sure to please any one of us:

Now that's the way to my heart for sure!  Straight out of her garden...I ate my first tomato sandwich of the season, and it wasn't even my own!  It sure tasted good!!! 

Hats off to my family!  I had THE BEST time with all of you!  I love you!

What are These?

We have these "berries" growing all over our woods.  I have never picked them because I have no clue what they are.  Yesterday I scoured all sort of berry sites and came up with zip that looked just like them.  The closest I could get was chokecherry or chokeberry.  Even still, they seem a bit off from what my eye can discern. 

While I would love to have another type of wine to play with, I'd also love to live to tell about it.  Or at least not hallucinate and tell everyone how much I love them.  Although that could be fun!

So here are the photos:

Every seen them?

Know what they are?

I love you, I love you, I love you!  Who needs organic hallucinogens after all?

Worth Crowing About

Since it has been a very trying garden season for all of us out there,  I thought maybe I'd show off a few good things going on here for a change!

Black Turtle Soup Beans Blossoming

 

Yellow Eyed Beans..."Beaning"
As my friend Tricia would say!

PEAS!!



We officially celebrated my nephews HS Graduation over the weekend.  Here are four generations of the boys:

Front and center is my brothers Grampa.  He turns 100 this October!  Still spry and sharp as a tack! 

Can you imagine the things he's seen? 

And what this little guy might see someday?

We got to visit our newest nephew yesterday!  We even had a brief glimpse of his eyes!

Happy Momma

Proud Grama

And for your further viewing pleasure, Julee and Gardener (no, really that's his name) brought the kids by today.

Don't you wish you could still sit like this?  And not pay for it dearly?

You may or may not find this pretty darn cute:

I know you might not believe me when I swear this...YES, I asked the questions.  I did NOT coach the answers.  She's just a little farm girl in the makings!  :o)

See anything wrong with this picture?

Why are there chickens on both sides of the fence?  Dunno, but it took me 10 minutes and a pound of sweat to wrangle her back in!

See, I told ya there were some things worth crowing about! 

Huh...well, isn't he just the star of the show?  I wonder if he realizes he only has two tail feathers?

Men

Cooling Stations

We have gone from swampland and skeeters, to cool days, to hot and muggy.  Nothing being harvested yet, so with the long weekend and one short break in the festivities - what in the heck did we do with all our "free" time?

1)  Con convince friend into thinking you have an ingenious idea. 

2)  Purchase the most inexpensive ones you can find.  Inflate.

3)  Feet out one end, head resting comfortably on the other.

This was my attempt to burn of the Farmy Flip Flop Feet. 

Didn't work.

4)  Include puppies.

And there you have it folks, a Redneck Watering Hole.

Now if those tricks don't work for you, go for a ride, top down - and enjoy the view in an alternative cooling station:

Or not.  :o)

How did you enjoy your time off?

Happy 4th of July everyone!!

Calling All Lady Homesteaders!

If you followed along with Mama Pea's Storm Addendum post yesterday, you may have seen a picture of what a true Lady Homesteader is prepared for:

Chicken Mama packin' a chainsaw!  Many of you offered up the always witty and fun comments.  However, MaineCelt seemed to have piqued and inspired Chicken Mama ... who is running with it.

MaineCelt said...

Joining the chorus--by now is it an "old saw?"--Chicken Mama sure can rock the skirt/blouse/chainsaw ensemble!!! I think we should do an inspirational calendar of homesteading women with the tools of our trade: chainsaw, manure fork, scythe, etc. AND I want you and CM to do a roadtrip so take all the pictures. I volunteer for "scythe!"

A little background here may be in order.  Every year Chicken Mama puts out a calendar.  I, being the proud owner of said calendar, attest to the beauty and quality of them!

So c'mon folks!  Let's have some fun and show the world what we are made of...our unstoppable spirit...what drives us...and our love of all things "Homesteadish"!

And if that isn't enough, she is proposing to donate any proceeds from the sale of the calendars to a charitable cause.  A truly kind act from a wonderful soul.

Right now, you can pop on over to Chicken Mama's blog, read her thoughts on where she is going with this, and join in!

Leave a comment there or shoot her an email by clicking this link.

Why not get as many of us to join in as possible?  Encourage one another by spreading the word and posting this fun idea on your blog as well!  Make sure to link back to Chicken Mama's page.

If you need a little help, here is what the stand alone link looks like:

http://swampriverridge.blogspot.com/2011/07/mainecelt-hits-nail-on-head.html

Just copy and paste!

GO TEAM!