I'm a Bee Haver not a Bee Keeper

Yes that is four deep supers stacked on top of each other.  I have created a problem with my bee housing that keeps getting worse.  When we brought my one hive in from the coriander field pollination last month I couldn't wait to get it to my *bee yard* in the walnut orchard behind the house.  Bill helped me put it on a nice pallet, we cleared the area around it...I drug out a rocking chair my friend dropped off for me to give to another friend (sorry Paula)...  Anyway, the next day I go to lift the top off the hive and discover there is no inner cover and there are only 5 frames in the super and the bees had built free-form comb.  The comb was hanging from top to bottom and my quick look counted at least 3 of these hanging combs.  I took the lid w/comb and placed it above an empty super thinking I had some research to do.  I ended up spending several weeks watching YouTube videos of people handling bees, putting wild hives into box hives, capturing swarms, etc. etc.  I also ordered more frames, queen excluder, inner cover and a brush from Mann Lake thinking everything would be here in a couple days (Mann Lake in Woodland is 45 minutes away.)..well they send the stuff from their East Coast operation: even tho they had the items in Woodland!  So today I go out to the bee yard all decked out with my fake bee suit, smoker smoking...lift the top preparing to cut the comb and reattach to empty frames and place in another super...again...it did not go well...the comb is heavy and I can barely lift it, let alone try cut the comb.  I flipped the top upside down and the bees immediately went wild!  I smoked them several times, calmed them down, but still was not able to have the courage to cut the comb.  I ended up putting a super with new frames in the third position...first position has a few frames and some bees...the second super has a queen excluder and 5 frames, then I placed the cover with the comb in an empty super on top of the third...I'm hoping they all fly away to a better bee keeper and I can start all over again and get the right equipment and not depend on my husband and his *friends* to get the right stuff!  Yes that is 2 cinder blocks on top of the fourth super...the comb was about 3 inches longer than the super: I squashed it down...and YES the bees are totally PISSED!  I was out there from 8 a.m. until 12 noon and accomplished not a damn thing.  I have not given up though.  I will have several new hives and will be ordering new bees and a couple queens in the spring.  I hope the ladies I have recover from my man-handling...but I wouldn't blame them if they just packed up and left.

                                    

These are the elderberries I picked from the side of the road while going into town.  I took a pair of scissors and clipped them right into the bucket.  Funny little berries...I've seen them my whole life and never eaten one.  I'm making a syrup and jelly.  I read they are good for colds and flu...I will make about 4 quarts of juice and 6 pints of jelly.

                                           

Still have to pick the peaches on the old tiny bent tree next to the driveway...I have never had any good peaches off of that tree in the 30 years I have lived here.  But this year I watered and paid attention and we now have some pretty nice peaches.  Tessa made a peach cobbler yesterday and said it was delicious.

I have run out of pantry storage in the house and catering storage too!  The steel shelving will go into the old bedroom downstairs and become the new food storage room...I have 2 stainless steel rolling carts, too.  The blue salad bar cambro will be next years fresh produce stand in front of the house and the 3 brown rolling cambros will be sold via craigslist or ebay.  Too much stuff and too much to do!

I'm Sing'n the Cabin Canning Blues!

And The Sauce Begins

The cabin weekend was terrific!  Paula used up all of the old quilt blocks I've made over the years and made curtains/Roman Shades for the cabin!  I made tons and tons of tomato sauce and canned whole tomatoes.  I took 3 huge lugs up and came down with lots of full jars, but I still have a lug and a half to do!  Tomorrow I can the rest.  I would have liked to do it today, but this a.m. I went over to the Business and Visitors Center and packed up my office and removed all of my commercial kitchen equipment...I had lots of help and it only took one hour.  I now feel FREE!  The Community Garden will be managed by me via email and once a week visits, I'll do the Chamber e-blasts from home and go to the offices only when needed...YEAH!

August is for Prozac

Last night at the Farmers Market I had to ask one of the Vendors the date..."August 9th"....absolutely NO WAY!  Have I been zoned out for over a week...snap out of it!  I'm pretty sure I have adult ADD...no I'm serious...totally focused for one minute, easily distracted the next...jump from one project to the next...and ALWAYS loosing track of time.  I wonder if there's a pill for that...took Prozac for a year...loved how it kept my thoughts corralled in and narrowed...I actually visualized this file cabinet in my brain and as each task was finished I filed it...really terrific...then we had a family crisis and my brain refused to handle it..it was like I stepped back and was watching my life as a movie and I had no personal/emotional connection. I quit taking the Prozac, handled *the elephant in the room* and never went back on the *pill*...there are many days I miss it...but it didn't let me be the crazy ADD me that I truly am...and being a wife, mother and friend requires dealing with herds of elephants in the room!

Canned Sam's first batch of tomatoes...would love to do 3 times more...but that requires going to the field and picking them...ow my aching back...suggested to Sam he pull off 2 or 3 lugs from the sorting machine he just rolled his eyes: I'm sure he's just too busy to help his old ma out...we'll see.

Hatched out 4 baby chicks in the incubator: what an adventure: felt like I was the mother hen.  I tried to graft them onto my broody hen, but after a bit she refused to take them...so I've got them under a brood light her in the house (I'll be taking them to the cabin this weekend).  I have another 6 eggs in the incubator I hope hatch out...then we should have plenty of chickens.  I will be keeping a rooster and see if we can raise chicks the natural (lazy) way.

I canned up apple sauce, peaches, plums and pickles.  I still have a bunch of Granny Smiths and Asian Pears from Paula's...I just love having a friend with an AWESOME orchard!!  I bought a couple pounds of Gala apples at the Market and will add them to my next batch of Granny Smith applesauce and no sugar.  I have some small Heirloom cherry tomatoes in the dehydrator.  I made a batch of Claire's pickles and altho I'm sure they will taste great...they turned out wrinkled...I processed them in a water bath instead of just putting in the hot vinegar and sealing...I'm going to do another batch not processed.

The Garden is looking good.  I have a melon a day and they taste great, but I have discovered I'm not that crazy about melons.  I feel I wasted a lot of garden space planting what I thought I should plant instead of things I like...it's something amateur do and I'm no amateur.  So next year I get my melons at the Farmers Markets and Bills fields.  I will grow pole beans on the fences and buy at the FM for canning.  No cukes, cantaloupe, watermelon, zucchini, crooknecks and just a couple winter squash.  More beets, celery, Brussels, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, strawberries, potatoes, peanuts, chicken feed, garlic, herbs and just a few heirloom tomatoes.

Well the reason for my down and out mood is my friend Nancy didn't cut it in the Peace Corps.  I was really planning on living vicariously through her adventure and I am very disappointed . Enough said on that subject.

I have wasted this whole day doing bits of laundry, web surfing and snacking of fresh fruits and vegetables from last night's Market.  It is 4:00 p.m. and I will now shut off this damn computer, check the bees, chickens, garden and clean out the little pickup so I can pack and race up to the cabin tomorrow afternoon.  I will have a day to myself, then Paula up on Thursday, Dee Dee Friday and Nancy Friday late afternoon.

A Tale of Two Tractors

This Can Happen to YOU!

Since Saturday we have had a tractor stolen right out of our field next to the house and then today one of a most reliable tractor drivers put this newer tractor right in the ditch...so what's up?  I think we're all too stressed out.  Took forever for the fields to dry to plant and then the weather never really heated up the way it should...so everyone has this unfocused deer in the headlight thing going on.

My youngest son came in last night to tell me I had melons splitting in the garden and they were going to go bad...I spent the whole day in the garden watering and planting fall crops...there weren't any ripe melons...sure enough...2 ripe/split heirloom melons...when did that happen?  It's like everything is out of kilter...not quite right...like the funny house at the Trees of Mystery....

Took the grand kids out to pick tomatoes for canning...Uncle Sam's fields are getting ready for mechanical harvesting, so we go out and try and fill as many tubs as we can in one hour...we'll do this every day until harvest.  Tomorrow we'll also run across the road to Grandpa's cucumber field and pick for pickles.  I can't believe I spent $10.00 for dill at the store today...mine never did grow...next year I hope I have better luck.

No Leftovers at My Casa

In the last year I've made it a habit to can most of my leftovers...spaghetti meat sauce, ham and white beans, beef stew, lamb stew, chili with meat, lentil soup, stroganoff sauce with sirloin tips, split peas with ham and chicken meat in stock...I usually put them up in quarts, but today I did pints...these will go up to the cabin for my quick dinners when I go up by myself.  I just love having these quick fix jarred meals, so quick and so delicious...

I had my second market on Monday, all went well...it was a bit cooler....I came home with red and golden beets and green and purple asparagus beans...could have had some nice peaches, but I'm going to be getting 2 large boxes of peaches and Asian pears on Thursday.  The grand kids and I are picking tomatoes and cucumbers tomorrow...I don't like dill pickles, but I have my mother-in-law's recipe and the family insists on getting her pickles.  I'm looking forward to doing up the tomatoes....sauce, stewed, paste and whole: mmmmm!  I went out to the onion field and picked about 20 pounds of onions before they were plowed up.  Need to shop for bell peppers, pickling salt, dill and vinegar.

Painted Sky Soaps

I have to make time to work with the bees this weekend.  That means I have to run to Woodland and get 2 medium supers and frames.  I will try and fit that in on Friday....also need to get to Afton to pick up plums from Paula on Friday: well, I could get the peaches, pears and plums on Friday and get the bee equipment on Thursday...darn, I keep running out of week!!!!

My First Harvest

My first tomato in the new garden!  I have no idea what the variety is.  All of my transplants suffered the humiliation of loosing their identities when the grand kids took out their labels...we can only guess what we have out there.  I plan on checking the descriptions in the Baker Creek Heirloom Catalogue and making notes.  Next year, not only will I have labels, but maps too and photos and the kids will have their own gardening area....Grandma means business!!

First BIG dehydrating job.  These are yellow and green zucchini, yellow crook necks, cherry tomatoes and yellow potatoes given to me at the end of Monday's Farmers Market...thought drying them might be fun...it worked out pretty well.  I put them in some nice Mason jars...I think drying will be my preferred method of storage for small batches...have some green beans from the garden in the dryer right now...not enough for a meal of fresh.

Jars of dried veggies, yellow storage onions from Bill's seed field, LOTS of eggs from the Girl's, French Breakfast Radishes, White radishes, baby red and golden beets, purple carrots and 3 heirloom tomatoes....a really good week.  Tomorrow I drag the canners out: corn, blackberries, elderberries and maybe some nice fresh peaches......

Onion Seed Harvest, Corn is Ripe and Farmers Market: OH MY!

I am a big fan and supporter of Farmers Markets....I think every community no matter how small should have a least one...in our tiny county we have two certified markets and a non-certified produce/flea-type market...I love them all. The Colusa Farmers Market manager to a new job last week and I am now managing the Market...what fun! I contacted all of the vendors via email and let them know they would be working with me (most know me) and to help me as much as they can...the Market was last night and it went very well. Tessa came by and gave me a hand...she took the booth payment as I checked on their permits...it was a bit hot 101...so attendance was down, but it really was a great market day. I need to brush up on the WIC rules and need to map a better layout (we were a bit cramped)...but everyone said they'd see me next Monday. One of the delightful perks of being the Manager is all of the lovely fruit and produce the vendors give you at the end of the day: zukes, crook neck, green beans, cherries, peaches, nectarines, white corn, Asian pears, goats milk soap and snickerdoodle cookies....SCORE!

I'm heading up to the Cabin later this afternoon to meet with the electrician tomorrow early a.m.

I'm looking forward to a nice quite couple of days next to my cool creek. I plan on watching a few movies, eating junk food and taking a couple long lazy naps. I'm going gather up some pine needles for my bee smoker (I hear they work great) and take a bunch of pictures...I need to get a clean-up crew up there: lots of downed trees and just a big mess...I would have done it a long time ago, but crews cost LOTS of money and I'm always broke!

Bill started the onion seed harvest and this is the first time I've been able to take photos...usually they are too fast for me...it's fascinating: each onion plants seed boll is harvested by hand. The seed heads a put in garbage cans that are dumped on tarps, the head are then harvested by machine...those tiny little seeds are amazing!

I bought a case of corn over the weekend from Charter's Produce Stand on Highway 20. It cost $8.00 and I got about 50 ears. I canned 16 pints and froze about a quart. When I get back from the cabin I plan on doing another 2 cases...I could probably do it up at the cabin, but the elevation thing makes me a bit nervous. I made plum jam when I was up with the girls last week and it took forever for the water to boil....don't know about pressure canning....

Well I'm out to water the garden and take care of the chickens before I leave...no heat stress for my babies! And I just might swing by and pick up that corn and give high altitude pressure canning...I'm always up for a challenge!