Early Harvest and New Bees

Since I have been taking pictures periodically, I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted to my blog until I started looking at the pictures on my camera. Apparently it has been awhile.

We've been very busy in the garden over the last few weeks. With all of the rain falling in the area, I've worked long and hard on the dry days. Fortunately, we had a multi-week dry spell in April and I planted most of the garden during that time.



The lettuce has been growing well despite hail and flooding rains. We even managed to get some nice salads from thinning the lettuces a couple weeks ago.



We are now starting to enjoy salad more regularly from full grown salad greens and have even had enough to share.



There is something about eating fresh out of the garden that just can't be beat.



I think the only thing better is perusing the garden for fresh vegetables and salad and then serving it with home raised chicken or turkey.



I really like the homesteading lifestyle.



Some of the warm weather vegetables have started growing. The corn is up.



And the sugar cane looks great.

I love looking out over the garden.



Our pool deck rises above the garden and provides views of the woods and our neighbor's pasture.



Our neighbor runs sheep and miniature horses in the pasture.



The horses are just beautiful.



And this year a baby plays around the pasture to the delight of us all.



He really is the cutest little thing.



And so curious.



We've added some new livestock to our homestead this Spring.



These are organically raised, small cell bees.



We ran into trouble with our last bees when hive beetles and wax moths attacked and we didn't want to use chemicals. The bees came from a standard commercial apiary where chemicals had been used and the bees couldn't make it without them. This time we are starting with bees raised in line with our own anti-chemical beliefs.



Everyone has been excited about our new Russian residents. They are not supposed to be as gentle as the Italians we formerly owned, but so far Kurt has been working the bees without his bee suit.



And the kids enjoyed helping to set up the hives. All the frames needed wax foundation before they could be installed. Gabrielle got the hang of the work quickly and Michael decided pushing pins into the box was help enough.



The kids are growing up so fast and I'm glad we've been able to raise them in the country.



Of course Gabrielle told me today she hasn't yet decided if she is a country girl or a city girl. So far she thinks she'd like to live in the country, but close to a city.



Michael has really grown.



And he tries to micro-manage everything in the house, driving us all batty. He's a bit too smart for his own good and already thinks he knows everything.

We took the kids to a barn party a couple of weeks ago. The party was a work thing for Kurt. We all had fun.



Michael spotted the jumping thing immediately and couldn't wait to play, unlike in times past. In fact, he wanted to stay when I returned to the barn. Normally Michael glues himself to my side.



Of course he wasn't alone since I had Gregory and Gabrielle keeping an eye on him. Still, it was a big step for Michael.

My favorite part of the evening involved catching up with friends I hadn't seen in awhile.



Since leaving Gulf Breeze, there are people I just don't get to see very often. Barbara is one of them. She is a dear friend and I miss her a great deal. I loved getting a chance to see her for awhile at the barn party.

Lilly

It has been a very sad day today. We lost our Lilly.



She had been with us for a lot of years. None of the kids can really remember a time when she didn't live with us. She was with us in Gulf Breeze. She traveled all over with us during our Hurricane Ivan evacuation. She was there as we picked up the pieces afterwards. She's gone for walks with us and on camping trips. She joined in as we started our homesteading adventure.



She will be missed.

All Hail Spring

At 4:30 a.m. yesterday, everyone jumped out of bed in terrified response to the jack-hammering golf ball sized hail battering our house. Hail fell in torrential sheets, while frequent lightening flashes showed us glimpses of a foreign, ice filled landscape. I have never seen anything like this hail storm. I prayed the windows and cars would survive the battering ice while the children prayed for the roof. About 15 minutes later, the ice turned to rain and we waited for sunrise to survey the damage.

Kurt left for class as the sun rose early in the morning. Creek water rushed over the small land bridge that forms the only way in or out of our property and no one knew if he would be able to get home later that day. Not much road survived the last wash-over and we didn't know if we would survive this one.

Praise to God's grace and mercy, damage was not as bad as it could have been. Enough road remains for us to get in and out of our property. Garden plants were smashed and trees defoliated, but the house remained sound as did the vehicles. (Except for a traveling crack in my windshield.)



Despite wind and rain throughout the day yesterday, leaves pulled down by the hail cover everything. Once these leaves dry we will need to sweep out the children's trampoline.



After struggling to survive flooding rains over and over this last month, the garlic suffered bravely through yesterday's hail and flooding rain. However, ice flattened much of it.



The onions fared worse.



Much of the sugar cane looked battered.



And torn.



Leaves snapped.



And bent over.



The smashed radishes have begun to rally, though it looks like bugs have started attacking the weakened plants.



The horseradish looks very sad.



Under all of the fallen leaves this bed was once filled with baby spinach.



The banana trees around our house look pathetic with their shredded leaves.



Our apple trees had finally grown to the point of producing abundant blossoms this year. Not many are left and those that are have few petals remaining.



Even the chicken wire covered coop yard sported a leaf covering. The turkeys and chickens are still trying to figure out if the leaves are good for food.



Our meat chickens are growing fast and eating tons of food every day.



The 70 of them also drink about 7 gallons of water each day.



They are already huge for only 4 weeks old.



The turkeys too are big.



Our rare breed chicken has feathered out as expected.



He looks a bit like Elvis.



What do you think?



He looks tiny surrounded by the giant meat birds while waiting his turn at the waterer.



Last week, I gathered the poke weeds for the first time and cooked my first poke salat.



I've never actually cooked greens before and didn't realize how little I had picked. We only had enough to just taste it. My recipe needs work. I don't know if I like poke or not yet. It takes a lot of work cooking it "in 3 waters."



Last week we got a couple deliveries from the power company.



As the power company trims their easements, they shred the plant material and will provide it free of charge for composting. I'm hoping to get a great deal more before Spring turns to Summer.



I cooked one of the turkeys we raised last year for Easter Sunday. After we picked the meat from the bones, I boiled the bones overnight with some onion, celery, garlic and bay for turkey broth. Yesterday, I canned 24 pints.



I love stocking my pantry with home grown and prepared food.

I have done a little knitting during the last couple of weeks.



I finished my Rogue Roses socks.



And I finally started my Rivendell socks. I have loved the Rivendell pattern for a long time and I can't believe it took so long for me to get started. I'm on the second chart and am already thinking I might need to make a second pair.

All in all, we're having a normal, crazy Spring.

My Beaded Sock Obsession

I love sock yarn. And I love beads. And I've discovered I love mixing the two together.



It all started a month or two ago when I knit my first pair of beaded socks (and gauntlets). I loved the look of the rich sock yarn colors and beads together so much, I knit another pair for a friend.



And then another pair for another friend.



And then I thought a fun, beaded pair of socks might cheer up my sister who has been having a rough time lately.



I can think of lots of other friends who might like beaded socks too, but I finally got to the place where I needed to try something else again. Something new.

But I keep thinking it would be fun to have a pair of warm, beaded stockings to wear under skirts in the winter.

One of Those Weeks

It has been one of those weeks. One of those testing weeks. One of those weeks when you stop and think carefully whether you've been praying for patience.

After weeks of dry weather, we finally got rain. And more rain. Probably 8 to 10 inches of rain. After a couple of days, the garden looked wet. Really wet.



Many of the new beds created by Kurt and Gregory looked like islands.



My salad greens, carrots, beets and radishes looked waterlogged.



And while my garlic and onions appreciated a deep watering, I can only imagine they are starting to look like fingers after a long bath.



I really hate when this happens though we plant in beds because this generally happens a couple times during the spring and summer. And worst of all, fire-ants float around in the water keeping you from getting into the garden to do any kind of damage control whatsoever (a bigger problem during harvest).



At least I won't need to hand water for awhile.



I took these pictures while we were still expecting another couple of inches of rain. In an act of desperation, Kurt and Gregory got on the tractor, in the rain and plowed a hundred yard trench from the worst part of the garden, across the yard to the creek. Probably 50% of the water drained off through the trench. Our yard looks like we have a problem with giant moles. But we have some hope of the garden drying out before the next rain.

If a flooded garden isn't trial enough, my computer has been acting up in the worst way. It freezes up constantly. Lately, it hasn't rebooted at all. Unless my husband is around or I take it to the repair shop. Then it works perfectly. Sometimes it scrambles stuff.



But I out-smarted my computer. I took a picture of it misbehaving and figured out how to use the display on the camera to show Kurt.

Because the kids can't do school without my computer functioning (it is the server), Kurt came home from work a couple days ago to see if he could fix the problem. He figured out the fan on my video card had gone bad. (He is a very smart man.) Yesterday he bought a new video card for my computer.



The new video card is defective.



It wouldn't work in my computer and it wouldn't work in his. Finally in an act of desperation, Kurt slapped his video card into my computer. The kids can do school if Gregory works on my computer, though Kurt cannot do his homework. But he bought the video card out of town and we had to get the kids back to school.

Today, instead of finishing up with the computer problems, Kurt shopped for a scope for my 22.



We have another fox killing our chickens. This one is brazen, attacking chickens in the middle of the afternoon with the family on the porch. Gregory, Kurt and I took shifts last evening/night with the 22 hoping to end our fox problem for the year. Gregory got a shot at it, but without a scope to guide him, he missed. He has never fired a gun the old fashioned way. Kurt took the early night shift, but the poor man has been working so hard fixing things around here and not sleeping while he commuted back and forth from work that I found him asleep when I went out for the late night shift. I am a good shot without a scope, but without light (the fox wouldn't cooperate and go into the area we lighted up and baited with the chicken carcass left over from dinner) or young eyes, I had no way to aim when I got a chance at the fox. We are hoping tonight will be better for us and worse for the fox.

Things sure never get boring around here.