Winter Thoughts—Great Farm Search 2013, Pt 2
It’s strange to me how most real estate agents don’t get what would make a place a good homestead. I say this based on our experience selling a farmstead and buying another in 2013. (Part 1 of the tale is here.) Then again —unless your agent also happens to also grow some of their own food, raise some of their own meat — why would they know?
Read MoreWinter Thoughts—Great Farm Search 2013, Pt 1
When we were looking for land and a home where we could really settle down and create our next (hopefully last) beloved homestead we were seeking a very specific place. Despite the clear specs we relayed to real estate agents, you just would not believe the things they thought we’d love. But I was a frustrated farmer with a mission: find home.
Read MoreFirst Chicken Coop: The Taj-MaHen
I’ve posted that a good coop is THE KEY to happily keeping chickens. What I mean by that is a spot where your chickens roost at night and can be locked up safe when you need them to be.
Read MoreChickens: Hardest Working Garden Buddy Award
Some friends and I were standing in the ramshackle remnants of the November garden at Larrapin after an arduous 2012 summer season. There wasn’t much to crow about once you got past the glorious stand of collard greens. Perhaps as a kindness, my friends remarked instead on how handy it must be that my chicken paddock is right beside the garden. The hens were casually pecking away at piles of end-of-season garden residue tossed over the fence to them. Yes it is! I nearly shouted, relieved to turn the attention away from all the things I didn’t do right in the garden this year.
Read MoreBeekeeping Hint: “Nurse” gloves
Now that it’s hot summer, beekeeping enters a quiet season again. The spring swarm frenzy is over, honey is bottled and sitting like treasure in the pantry. Hive inspections can be on an as-needed basis instead of every week as in the Spring.
Now the bees are just busy keeping the hive cool and looking for nectar in this dry, dry weather. Meanwhile, I’m watching what trees and shrubs are still producing nectar in the hot summer months, because I want to add more of those to my landscape. At the moment, I’m interested in the Chinese Golden Rain tree, which has bloom I’ve read are full of nectar during the hot summer months….still researching all that. I wish I had the site and the soil to plant basswood, seeing the bees on those flowers earlier this year on an ENORMOUS tree in front of the E.R. of the Fayetteville V.A. Hospital was amazing. If you do have bottomland, plant basswood!
Anyway, speaking of hospitals, one of the tools of my nursing career —the ubiquitous blue non-latex gloves that you can also buy at any big-box store — have turned out to be a wonderful beekeeping tool as well. The heavy leather gloves they sell in the beekeeping catalogs are just crazy to me. I couldn’t pick up firewood in those honkers, much less sticky heavy frames. Not without crushing a bunch of girls, and that’s not ok with them or me.
I’ve worked gloveless, which is a kind of badge of honor among the crunchy beekeeping set, but I’m easily distracted by the aversion of getting stung. Yes I have tender hands despite all the gardening, but I wear garden gloves! I only got stung once during my gloveless phase…and that was because I accidentally pinned a bee while moving a frame, still those little pokey bee feet constantly trotting over my hands as they investigated skin pulled my attention from the inspection. Not to mention I got the sticky, dark propolis on my hands then left brownish fingerprints all over the handholds of the bee boxes. Not so great.
Enter nurse gloves. The bees don’t seem to count the glove as skin, so are disinterested and stay out of the way a bit more. They probably could sting through a single glove, but none have so far. The gloves are very thin so there’s no cumbersome feel. I put on two layers of gloves just so I can strip off the top pair if they get too covered in propolis, start getting messy or sticky or get alarm phermone on them and begin to attract unpleasant attention from the guard girls. Yes, they are sweaty if you have to work in the heat, but I change gloves between hives if I’m sweaty, cool off my hands and start with a fresh pair. (Note: you CANNOT get fitted gloves on sweaty hands…this is why I take off a pair vs putting another on in mid-inspection.) It’s not perfect, but better than any other solution I’ve found so far, even if they look kinda weird in pictures. (Thanks to Marianne for the photo from early May, 2012.)
Thanks for stopping by Larrapin Garden, even in the July heat.
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