Eve of May

Lilac in Full Bloom...Below My Pet BEES put on a pollen and nectar gathering show...
These are just the cutest little buggers...Golden and busy. I have been maintaining the feeders in the hives. They consume about a quart of sugar syrup every 2+ days. Each day that has been warm enough, we have seen them out in great numbers. They come back to the hive heavy with nectar and pollen. Just notice how much pollen they load onto the pollen sacs on their legs. Interesting Bee Trivia: Bees practice Flower Fidelity! That is, they will individually choose one type of blossom to work; thus, the superior pollination afforded by visiting bees is facilitated. We had several unseasonably cold nights last week, and suffered a good deal of frost damage to the grapes, which will severely impact the output of the vines this year. Below, frost burned tender grape shoots. They will send out new shoots. The crop just tends to be much smaller - if at all. Below, The persimmon suffered an equal fate.... Luckily the persimmon sends out their fruit shoots after the leaves, so there shouldn't be too much impact...We'll see. I am enjoying the anticipation of the fruit that has done it, in spite of the unseasonable cold. Below, Plums...And of course PEARS...Below, Danjou..."Plant pears you feed your heirs"...Even the nectarines seem to have dodged the icy bullets of the previous week...not escaping a good case of the Peach Leaf Curl though, as illustrated by the image above...Below, Wildflowers Explode...
Above the last of the Daffodils...Nectar Loving Moth below...
Loving the Greens...Below, see the Baby Broccoli Bud?
Itty Bitty Baby Snap Dragons above...Below, Lone Poppy...
Cherry Blossoms Catching Light above...Below, King Apple with the most unique coloring ....
Pansies above...and below, the tender shoots of the Douglas Fir...
It has been a long time since I last posted. There is no lack of happenings on the homestead front, I've just been unable to log much progress of the great outdoors, with my sorry butt in bed and my knee on ice. I attempted Stay Active Mode today, and I did enjoy (suffered through) a good bit of hiking up and around my hill. The frost damage is significant, but we are not alone in our crisis. The Sacramento River Valley, and the grape regions to our south, were all hit; the total damages to cherries, grapes, plums and peaches are yet to be known. My apple blossoms were a little singed, but for the most part appear unaffected. For the time being all the grapes are toast, as is the persimmon. About half of the plums either never set, or dropped what did set in the cold. Some plums do tend to bear just every other year.... We have no fruit set on the Greengage, Prune Plums, or the Original Santa Rosa. The New Improved Santa Rosa, Shiro, Golden, Elephant Heart, and the Satsuma, all seem to have set a pretty good crop ! yea! The pears, of course, are in their glory. Their bloom went off without a hitch, and virtually every tree is loaded with infant pears. If you were to plant just one fruit tree in the hills of Humboldt County, and wanted assured success, PLEASE make it a pear! They are non fussy, and reliably productive. They are easy to prune too, as you just basically maintain shape, and have no insane 2 day prune job, cutting back the endless new growth, like that of the apple or plum. More Later...enjoy. Jj

What a Week !

Golden Beauties...
Green Galore...Sweetest Spring Greens...Compliments of a well built raised bed. We planted an assorted mixture of favorite EZ grow veggies; Broccoli from starts; Cilantro, Spinach, and both Green and Red Mustard started in six packs; Late Broccoli and a few Collards started from seed and placed between the early broccoli; And both mini Carrots and heirloom Beets were planted directly. The bed is about 2 feet high, and it is filled with a basic mix of 1/3 compost, 1/3 soil and 1/3 peat moss. I supplemented with a small bag of Dr Earth 4-4-4, and of course, some chicken shit in the form of Stutzman's - in pellet form. Note: If you haven't tried the chicken shit in pellet form you must give it a go. In appearance it is like rabbit or horse food, the bags are quite heavy, and they cost about $10/ea - but go a long way. The pellets break down wonderfully integrated into the soil, or if used as a top dressing. Major appeal? NO SMELL!! This bed has remained covered for the most part since planting with a couple layers of floating row cover...actually I have a good source for that - will link. Below, check out the Flock of Ravens that came for a visit on my birthday.
Spring brings renewed hope and inspiration for most. For me, it has delivered 2 boxes of honey bees and one bum knee - very bad combo. My bikejoring escapades brought yet another (not so minor) injury, this time to my right leg/knee. We are all just really glad its not broken! For the full story you'll have to check out my mushing blog where I intend to whine about it in full...In the meantime...The rest of the story; The bees arrived in splendid shape on Friday, thanks to Ernie and the good folks at the Branscomb Center. It was a hot day and they were running over the screen quite a lot. I misted them with water, to cool them down some on the way home. I was instructed to wait ONE WHOLE DAY prior to installing, to allow the package time to bond with the queen. The queens are raised for this purpose, and prior to shipping, the worker bees are literally shoveled into the boxes with the queen in her own cage. They don't know the queen, and must acclimate to her scent. In retrospect, I wish I'd have gone with my first inclination to install them immediately - while I still had two good legs! As it was, they were placed in a cool well ventilated area, and I started to mist them with sugar water with a ratio 1-1. Then I took my fateful ride, and damn! Things got a lot harder after that. Living on the beautifully steep homestead that I do, even though the area where hives are has been leveled, access to that area is only for the sound of body. Still, late Friday evening I hobbled up there on crutches with the help of the hubby and kids, and with little fanfare we installed the first package. I did wear a veil, but was literally clad in short shorts, and long sleeved shirt. I received NO stings. Check out the videos (not mine) below for the process. The bees are quite docile in the package, because they have nothing to defend. In this instance they were indeed docile, like little lambs. Into the hive with you. In spite of the fact that I had to crawl back to the house, we considered it a success, and because light was fading (read DARK) we were forced to put off the installation of the second box, one more day. I'm truly gimpy at this point (oooh! the day after the wreck. Everywhere - ouch!) I fed them just twice on Saturday, it was also pretty warm. So when we went to install this second box we were greeted with quite a few dead bees at the bottom. Maybe 3x's as many as the first box. We say, don't worry, this is cool...just hobble your broken butt up there and "git er done. " When I injured myself initially, I called an old bee keeping companion for assistance, and he said to me "The girls can do it!" Hmmmmm... I'm glad I did not listen to him in this instance, because what followed was not the smoothest of installations, and is indeed part of our steep, steep learning curve in this new venture. So, I got myself up there (somehow) and right away things started going poorly.... The feeder can, which plugs the hole was completely jammed. (Stuck up with sugar? Bad fit? I will never know...) We (the hubby is there - no veil) are wiggling and jostling that fricking can for about 5 minutes! Finally, I used the hive tool to literally break it out. By now the bees are all pissed. One immediately flies up and stings my helper on the lip -very bad. The primary reason for using a veil at all times, is to protect the highly sensitive face area from stings, which can cause quite a reaction there - as you will see. I got the queen cage uncorked, with still far more hassle than the night before, plugged it with a marshmallow, and tacked her in place. I then dumped the whole feisty load out into the hive. These were some pissed off bees - not docile. I managed to hobble my body back down the hill, stripping bare naked in the path to free myself from those that had somehow found a way up into my LONG PANTS, and evenually dunking my head under running water to dislodge the 10 or so that had burrowed into the hair that was hanging out of the veil (another lesson learned the hard way)...by now the hubby's lip is already pendulous...and his eyebrow area looks a little suspect as well. Pretty stressful compared to the night b-4. The entrance reducer got all half cocked in the process, and someone still needs to go up and move that around...they do have access, and most of the bees made it into the hive although there were still a good cluster outside; not so good considering the first box was completely empty in the morning after. Below, the morning after- box 2. So bee it. Now we feed for the next 5 weeks while the hives build up. I will be refilling feeders, and checking to see that the queens are out and laying, in few days. Click photo below to learn more about the fascinating world of honey bees. Below that, The LIP...
Nebees Package Bees Installation - 5 min.


Bee Master Package Bees Installation - 9 minutes

.Snow is melting and flowers bloom....The photos that follow, and the header photo, were all taken by my Middle Daughter, R - she has two good legs and went on a photo venture to brighten this post. So much color in the world...Almond, below...Followed by Pansies...Lilac...and Cherry...
Pink Pearl Apple...And Snoopy, looking towards the future. It'll be bright!

Random Shots - Eve of Another Year -

Dark and Light Study in Spring...
Red-Tailed Hawk ...Orange Belly Cat...
Daffodil Bows...I like this shot because it is quite true in its suggestion that the flowers are looking downward. Below, Wild Lupine...
Borage Against a Bright Sky...Below Best Green Award goes to CHARD...Chard is soooo easy to grow. It reseeds itself, and is a dependable highly nutritious green for the homestead. Plant some anytime.
It is nearly the eve of another year for this homesteader. So many seasons I have enjoyed, I'll be blessed to enjoy so many more... Catching light all the way...

The days have been cool, and at last, we had a little, barely measurable amount of rain. I got the last of the bare root trees in the ground; a hazelnut/filbert which I learned I need a pollinator for; another Illinois Mulberry; and two peach trees, planted in a giant hole, side by side. This is a new space saving technique I'm trying out, which will conserve water and time as well. The trees are placed about 2-4 feet apart in a giant 6-8 foot hole. They are pruned apart from one another to create a open center. Also, with peaches you gotta remember, they can be sickly little buggers, but so worth the struggle and hassle when they do it ! So if one dies, or gets terribly weak, I'll have a back up. I've learned to be absolutely not attached to any fruit trees I plant. It really is a crap shoot and any number of calamities could befall them. I just figure the ones that make it, and do well, are the ones that belong here. And if a tree dies, or is severely weakened for some reason, I see the value in the planting space, and boot it out in favor of a young live tree. In chosing your trees, remember, a 1 year old whip will outperform the 2-3 year old stock. In light of how awesome a new tree can do, it makes little sense to nurse the poor performers. But I will confess to harboring a few of them...I have a couple of plum trees that are not looking good, since last year - w/poor new growth and spindly overall appearance. The vole/mole/rodent freaks that dwell beneath the earth here seem to love the plum, fig and rose roots. A lot. Luckily, they seem to be leaving the cherry, apple and pear trees pretty much alone. I have to mention that I have also seen trees severely damaged in various ways, come back with amazing vigor, and go on to perform as well as any. So, I guess we'll just have to see...more later, when i'm 40...;} Candles compliments of a0k1 at flickr.ADDENDUM: Team HumDog has a new Video! Check it out HERE!