The hay is baled and awaiting pick up. Just slightly more than half of last year’s cutting, but we had several freezing nights in May and a fairly dry early spring. It is what it is and they have more to add to their winter hay supply for their cattle.
The first fruit from the plum produced about 2 dozen delicious plums. Not enough for jam but I am enjoying them a few at a time. Peaches are almost ready to begin harvest. Blueberries are beginning to ripen and I also pick a handful each time we walk on one of our trails. The first planting of shelling peas was pulled today and a couple quarts of peas frozen for later use as well as enough for dinner tonight with a few new potatoes.
The first tomatoes were brought in today as well, a small cluster heirloom that are delicious.
While harvesting them, I spotted this large hornworm. The chickens thought it and a grub or two were delicious.
There are now two beds that are open, so I will plant a second planting of green beans. The sprouted cucumbers and sunflowers were planted in today. I think a few more will be planted out from seed.
Soon the potatoes will have to be dug, not just sneaking out a couple for dinner. Maybe some bolt resistant greens will go in the other bed.
The chickens have figured out how to escape the run, but since the hay is down, they can again free range.
What a whirlwind last 5 days. Son 2 and family returned from their RV trip and spent about 24 hours with us, including a birthday party for two of their daughters, a “bonfire” (not very big), and a hive inspection. It looks like maybe two hives are queenright, frames shifted to help population and add brood and queen cells to the other two. If they don’t make their own queen, I will have to seek out a local source. We have a huge beekeepers association, and at least a couple of them raise queens for sale.
Later the night they arrived, Son 1 arrived for his delayed birthday weekend and our time with him was wonderful. Lots of good food, hikes and walks, enjoying his presence. He got to kayak with a friend, mountain bike ride all three days, and do some stone masonry work on the patio which is now finished from the house outward. The last 5 or 6 feet still need some leveling and puzzle placing some smaller rocks to finish it out. Then he and I will move the remaining small rocks to the inside edge of the stone wall and we will order soil and mulch to fill the garden. Since Huck’s coop, the old chicken tractor that blew over about a year ago, was sitting on a cedar post raft on flat stones, he disassembled the raft and moved those stones over to fill in spaces. That leave the broken frame to be disassembled, the hardware cloth saved and the rotting wood put in the burn pile once the screws and staples are removed. We don’t want them in the grass where they might end up in a mower or tractor tire.
He was driven to the bus back to the train at 5 this morning, but will return to help his brother make repairs on the roof of the RV next weekend if the materials arrive by then.
The plum tree is producing a small amount of fruit for the first time. The little plums are delicious. I may save the remaining ones as the last ones ripen to make a small batch of plum jam.
When we returned from a late afternoon walk, there were two big tractors with hay mowers taking down the hay. I guess tomorrow they will tedder, rake, and bale it. It isn’t the latest they have done it, but approaching it. I’m glad it is down. I like watching it blow, but once it dries and turns golden, it isn’t long before it falls over and ceases being useful.
On June 1, my friend and I did a hive inspection. One hive had a virgin queen, one was queenless, 1 had a queen that died of shock while she was being marked, and 1 was truly Queenright. We hoped the virgin queen would make her mating flight and return to provide brood, shifted a couple of frames of brood around to queenless hives with queen cells on them, and waited to see results. Yesterday, I went to inspect them alone. Three hives have no eggs, no larvae, two with good population, the third not so good, the 4th hive thriving with a marked queen. A message was sent to Son2, the bee owner, but didn’t hear back from him. Messaged my friend and posted on the local bee keeper’s forum and it was suggested to shift frames again, look for queen cells, wait and hope they make new queens.
Another inspection with intervention will occur this week, maybe tomorrow before the heat dome returns to cook us. I feel bad that this has happened, but am at a loss as to a solution. We may have to reintroduce new queens to the three hives and hope for success. Three of the hives are or have been making honey and the honey supers on those hives are heavy.
I fear that the weakest hive has a worker layer as there are lots of drone cells in that hive and that is not sustainable.
Unfortunately, the beginner beekeeper class occurred before I knew there would be hives here, so I missed it this year. A couple of the keepers offered to come put another set of eyes on the situation, but today is Father’s Day and other plans had already been put in place.
Son2 is due here this week at the end of their vacation, I hope he has time to inspect while he is here and can offer guidance.
The past several weeks have been very frustrating with the hens. They are about 2 1/2 years old now, so should be at the peak of laying. Egg production has been dismal which leads one to believe that their nutrition is off or they are hiding eggs. They get premium feed, oyster shell, and until yesterday, free ranging all day every day, so it must be egg hiding. A search has been made in their hidey holes and all around the house and gardens, but no hidden nests have been found. Monday through Wednesday there were only 16 total eggs for 13 hens. There should be at least 9 or 10 each day as they don’t all lay an egg every day and some breeds only lay 3 or 4 times a week. Yesterday, they weren’t released from the coop at all and there were 8 eggs. This morning, some extra fencing and some 8 foot poles threaded through their shorter fence were cobbled together to make the fence about 6-7 feet tall around three quarters of their run. The other quarter already had fencing over the pop door in an angle down to the fence so they couldn’t jump from the door over into the garden.
This kept them in the run today and so far there have been 8 more eggs today, so as many in 2 days as in the prior 3 combined, still not as many as there should be.
To add to the reduction, there is a second Buff Orpington that has decided to be broody just as the other one was broken of it. They are a broody breed. This time, she was put straight into the chicken palace with food, water, and a ladder for a perch, but no nesting box. She will stay there for three days and three nights and hopefully will cease the nonproductive behavior.
Not knowing if their coop could be the cause, it was thoroughly cleaned today and pine shavings instead of straw added to the floor and nest boxes. It is probably time to consider replacing them for next year. There will not be as many added this time. After this year, there will only be enough kept to for daughter’s and our use. This fall, the hens will molt and their egg production will stop entirely during that period, so a good time to cull them.
Yesterday, a mouse was caught in the house and tossed out into the tall grass on the edge of the upper hay field. It is on the path over to the coop. Seeing activity there, a closer examination showed American Carion Beetles. I had never seen them before. There are quite an interesting looking bug.
I mowed last week, parked the riding mower in the garage as usual. It took me 3 days to work sections to get it all done then, so this week, we called Grandson local to see if he wanted to get out of the house and earn a few bucks. Hubby had an early dental recheck of some work done two weeks ago, the weather was better than the forecast has predicted, so we took an early walk and went the couple of towns over (only about 20 -22 miles from our house, much less from the dentist office) and picked up the young one. Fed him lunch and brought him home to mow. The riding mower started right up, I put air in the tire that doesn’t hold air for more than 24 hours, and set him to work as I prepared to get the tractor and grade out some of the recent rain damage on the driveway. He pulled off and it was immediately obvious that the blade did not engage. Google sent me to check out various potential problems and it seems that the PTO clutch has failed, not repairable, just replaceable. The shop we have always used closed last year, so research to find a new one was done.
Grandson local said he would do the front of the house with the push mower, not self powered, but it wouldn’t start. The spark plug was pulled and cleaned, reinstalled and three of us took turns pulling the cord to no avail. Yes, it has fresh gas and enough oil. He ended up using the string trimmer to clear an area from the front door to the side of the driveway.
Daughter is going to come over tomorrow and hitch our trailer to her car as we can’t tow it with ours and is going to take us and it to the shop along with the push mower, and pick up a new gas grill to replace our old one that was seriously damaged blowing across the yard in a wind storm and the burners and grates disintegrating a year or so ago. She was going to help us do that in a couple of weeks, but since she has to come help with the mowers, we will go ahead and make that purchase now.
I can’t replace the PTO clutch, the lawnmower issue is a mystery, and the grass is growing as I watch it.
After returning Grandson local home, the driveway did get done, just in time for another intense thunderstorm. I think the driveway survived.
Tonight, we will be rewarded with a couple of new potatoes pulled out from under a plant and a handful of fresh from the garden Sugar Snap Peas.
I should have staked the Sugar Snaps, they are tall and have fallen over and the stems are quite brittle. There are plenty more to enjoy and freeze for later.
The babies are all feathered out on the front porch, but as of this morning, still have not fledged. I haven’t checked tonight, I’m spent.
Today, my spinning friend and local bee mentor came over to help me inspect hives and mark queens. There were 4 overwintered queens, 1 in each nuk when we installed them. Four queens or evidence of them about 3 or 4 weeks ago when we inspected. Today was a different story. The first hive installed and the first inspected today had a lot of bees, brood, eggs a few days old, larva, and the only queen found was a virgin queen. Hopefully she will make her mating run, return safely and continue to build that hive, but it means we probably have already had a swarm that we didn’t catch. The second hive had larva and brood, but no eggs, no queen, and several queen cells. The population of that hive wasn’t as strong either. The third hive was very active, eggs, larva, brood, and honey being capped, but we caught the queen, she was active in the catcher, marked, and she never perked back up. The workers tended to her, but we don’t think she will make it, so we took a frame with queen cells on it about to open and took a frame from that hive, hoping they will nurture a new queen and she will also take a mating flight and return. Hive 4 was strong and so many bees, brood, eggs, and larva and the most gorgeous golden queen who we marked and put back in her hive. They have filled several frames in the honey super full already. We stole one of their frames of brood, eggs, and larva for the second hive. Another inspection will be done next week to see the status, and I hope it isn’t as hot that day. I don’t handle heat well and ended up having to sit in the shade while my friend finished hive 3 and started hive 4. Once back up to the house, we sat, discussed the situation over glasses of iced tea. In another hour, when it has darkened and cooled down some, she suggested I reinstall the reducers to help deter thievery. We are hopeful that today’s efforts will provide viable queens before the hives die off. It was brutal, 85 f, no shade, and lots of sweat. I didn’t wear the bee jacket, just a veil, jeans, long sleeves, and the long gloves from the jacket. I can’t imagine working the hives in the jacket on a day as hot as today.
I knew this project would be both disappointing and rewarding and some days it is both. I am thankful to my friend that is more than willing to come work with me as I learn. I only wish that I had had the energy to go help her after we were done as she headed home to get in her bee yard which does have some shade, but also more than 3 times as many hives.
Last night, we went into town to get a pizza to eat on their patio and purchased a pot of flowers. A couple of decades ago, my Dad built me a wooden wheelbarrow to use decoratively. It needed repair so that was done earlier yesterday and some houseplants and a hanging petunia that hubby gave me for Mother’s Day were installed in the wheelbarrow on the front porch. The new flowers added to the front for more color. (not in the photo taken earlier)
On our way home last evening, we had a severe pop up thunderstorm that took the new umbrella off the porch and broke it, but we saw our first rainbow of the year, actually a full arc and for a while, a double.
Faint double
Just before we left to go into town, I let Miss Broody out of isolation. She had spent 3 days and 3 nights in the Chicken palace with food, water, and a ladder to perch on, but no nesting boxes. That seems to have broken her. Though she is still walking around slightly puffed out and clucking, she isn’t avoiding me and hasn’t gone back to the nest, even last night. This New Hampshire red was out when I went to lock the hens in last night and she wouldn’t enter the run with me in there. First she flew to the top of the gate, then to the top of the coop.
Not a weather vane.
Once I left the run, she came down and went into the coop, silly bird.
Our farm of about 30 acres sits in a hollow (holler up here) on the side of a 4000+ foot mountain. There is a large holding running cattle to the west, open hay and corn fields to the east with a home in a wooded lot between part of it and us. Wooded lots to the south, and a home in a wooded lot to the north. Our farm is mostly open, former grazing land and now hayfields maintained by local men who run cattle on other properties.
For the most part, everyone is respectful of other people’s land, asking permission to cross or look for an animal they wounded but not killed while hunting. Once in a while, there is total disrespect. Trash strewn along the gravel road that passes north of us, recently, a broken recliner dumped at the top of our property down a hillside to the creek. When we purchased this land, the sink hole near the top was full of appliances, glass, cans, tires, and part of a vehicle. With a neighbor’s help, we removed the large stuff and hubby and I spent many hours removing cans, more than 100 tires, and unbroken glass, leaving what we couldn’t get to be covered by composting leaves.
The first autumn I was in the house, alone for a weekend, I heard dogs, shouting, and gunfire entirely too close to the house late at night. Hunting raccoons, I guess, but rather unnerving. Last night, there were gunshots, some too close to the house, some farther off in the woods to the south, but they didn’t all sound like rifle shots, followed by a flashlight moving across in front of our house. It was probably coyote hunters, but we don’t allow hunting on our property after an incident a few years ago, not an accident, just disrespecting our rules. There is no way to know who it was to speak to them, but it is still alarming to have middle of the night gunshots near the house and seeing someone in your front yard.
What a week, a week of ups and downs. The loss of a friend and a renewed friendship. An unexpected brief visit by Son 2 and family and an equally unexpected cancellation of a long weekend with Son 1 to celebrate his birthday.
The day my friend in Tennessee passed, Son 2 called and said he and his family would be in late the next evening to prep and then leave in their RV that lives here between trips. They arrived in pouring rain in two cars, he and his eldest son first to get the generator going while I dragged garden hoses from the back of the house and connected to the one at the yard hydrant to fill the water tank. They spent the night in the RV after loading it up, visited the next morning and left for a family vacation.
A couple weeks ago, a received a message and called a friend of 4 decades. When we both had young children and lived in Virginia Beach we were fast friends. Her husband’s job took them away from the area, then returned them to the area and we picked up where we left off. Then they moved again for his job and then back again only to be moved yet again. During that station, they were planning to return back to Florida where they were both from and we kept in touch with cards and letters mostly. I did take our children down one summer for a week, then when they were planning their move back to Florida, she went to see how their house construction was going and invited me down to spend a few days with her, just the two women. Our daughter was living less than an hour away from her and they both met me at the airport, spent a couple days with both of them at her little house where she was staying and then just the two of us. That was about 20 years ago. The message was to call if I could and we talked on the phone. She was driving north to a family event (her husband needed to fly later) and she wanted to meet up with me. I finally convinced her to stay here overnight and we had a delightful visit, again catching up and picking up where we left off. She arrived just a few hours after Son 2 and family left.
This whole week has been a steady rainstorm, about 3-4 inches of rain has fallen this week. When we could catch a break in the rain we would dash out for a quick walk.
Son 1 was due in last night to spend the celebratory weekend, but he found out yesterday morning that he may have been exposed to Covid and did not want to potentially contaminate a train car or his Dad and me, so he had to cancel and reschedule in about a month. This was disappointing to all of us. He was looking forward to coming, I was looking forward to pampering him with no chores and lots of good food.
All of the ups and downs caused the days of the week to blend together and I lost track. We were out taking a walk yesterday when I got a text asking if our spinning trio was getting together, I had totally forgotten it was Thursday.
Box turtle from yesterday’s walk
A text exchange between our trio ended with me being dropped off at my bee mentor’s house to spin for a couple hours, the third member deciding to skip. It was just what was needed to boost my spirits.
This morning, the sun is shining, at least for a little while. This hen has been sitting on this empty nest for nearly a month hoping to have babies. An impossibility as there is no rooster here and I don’t leave eggs under her, but she is persistent and very evil about being removed from the nest.
Brooding takes 21-22 days, so I had hoped she would get over it early in the week, but nope. She still sits, puffed up, growling, and pecking at me if I try to move her.
There are 5 baby Wrens feathering out on the front porch. They will fledge in another week or so.
The Bumblebees and our honey bees love the blooming Comfrey plants.
Early in the week, we replaced the back porch umbrella finally after two years without. I love sitting out there with my morning breakfast, but only when there is an umbrella. It hasn’t gotten much use this week because of the rain, but it only took one day to realize that the small round table back there wasn’t large enough for it, so I moved it to the front porch for the succulent pots and the square table that is only 11″ larger to the back for enjoying the back deck.
When the storms stop, it will be a nice place to have breakfast or dinner to enjoy the view and nice days.
It has been quite a week. Now we are alone again in our house, hoping Son 1 doesn’t get ill and being a bit irritated for him that his co worker was not responsible about letting people know and staying masked or staying home with her sick family member. Hopefully the co worker doesn’t get ill either.
The week has warmed a bit more each day with intermittent thunder storms, not producing much rain, just a lot of noise and light. Today it broke 90 f. We got our walk in when is was 6 degrees cooler than that, but on a section of the trail with little shade.
A few days ago when we walked our hay guy down to see the bee installation so he and his helpers were aware, three of the feeders were still half full. Last night they were empty. This morning while it is still below 80 f, the heavy bee jacket and veil were donned and the hike down the hill to fill the feeders and flip the inner covers to give them more ventilation. My local mentor suggested cutting a notch in the inner cover, my brother said to use shims, the internet suggested craft sticks diagonally across the two back corners to slightly lift the outer lid and provide additional cooling when it is going to be brutal. I like my brother’s idea, but lack the acrylic to cut the shims. My “craft sticks” are coffee stirrers and not thick enough to provide space if laid on the inner cover and not sturdy enough to put diagonally. The syrup I had wasn’t sufficient to fill all the jars, so syrup is being dissolved now and I will look for another shim solution today. I don’t have a battery operated jig saw, but do have a battery powered drill and some hole saws that fit it, so maybe a semi circular hole in the back of the inner cover with the screen material provided by my mentor is the solution. After the syrup is fully dissolved and the bees are quieter in the dusk, a solution will be devised. All 4 hives are filling brood and making honey.
A few weeks ago, Mountain Mint was ordered from a Tennessee nursery, three plants, $20+ dollars. They arrived yesterday, 3 dried out bare root segments in a couple tablespoons of potting soil in a plastic bag. I’m quite irritated by this. My bee mentor has Mountain Mint that she recently divided and she said she would give me a start. The bare roots were planted and watered, but without much hope of success. The Baptisia nearby is blooming gloriously.
It is such a pretty plant and the dark seed pods that form, dry and make interesting addition to dried flower arrangements.
The Wren eggs in the spider plant have hatched, but the babies don’t raise up with open mouths yet, so the count hasn’t been made yet.
Once they fledge, the baby spider plants in the starters around the mother plant need to be set it soil. They aren’t sufficiently set in and the one below the nest in this picture is totally uprooted.
The electric around the fruit was a waste of time. The single strand wasn’t slowing the deer down at all. After our walk today, since we were close to Lowe’s, a second bird net was purchased. In the afternoon heat, the grass within that area was weed whacked down, cardboard put down around the plum and a fence erected around it. Several long coated steel posts were angled over the grapevine, a long cord tying them to the end posts and lashing them together and the net was draped over the line and covering the grapes. There are many clusters starting and the deer can’t have them this year.
a bag of mulch needs to be spread around the little tree.
Hopefully, they are protected now. The electric is just around the top of the garden again, though there has been no evidence of deer in there. The pintos, bush beans, second planting of peas, and some of the sunflowers are sprouted. Not much of the corn is up and no sign of the cucumbers yet. On a cooler day, some work with the hoe is needed out there though. For now, a bottle of water and a rest under the ceiling fan is in order. I like spring, not summer heat. It will be cooler after today for a while.
The crazy boomerang storm has alternated between partly cloudy skies and real rain storms with thunder and lightning. When it leaves this time, it will keep going and it is going to get hot, summer hot.
When I went over this morning to free the chooks into the yard, the path is between the garden and the young plum and grapevine. The plum has fruit for the first time, but it also has new deer damage. Since the fence charger was taken down to use on the bees then returned to the garden as a stronger charged one was needed for the bees, it had been sitting by the post on the ground, and not remounted and turned on. After the Saturday morning routine of breakfast, Farmer’s Market, and daily walk, efforts were made to try to deter the deer from finishing off the plum and grape leaves. The charger was remounted on the pole with new mounting screws and new poly wire strung as the old wire was several years old, showed some burned spots, and wasn’t long enough to go around the fruit and the garden. Because the wood pile, uphill from the fruit and garden already had a couple of T-posts set at the ends, insulators were added at a lower height than the garden wire and the fence wire strung to enclose the plum and grapes. This will require relearning to walk above the wood pile to the chicken coop, but may protect the plum tree and grapevine. If it doesn’t deter the deer, a fence will go up around the plum and another bird net purchased to drape over the grapes.
My portion of the sweet potato bundle was planted out in the half barrel and just as water was about to be set up to sprinkle them in, it began raining a very steady, heavy rain. The sprinklers haven’t been needed on the flowers or vegetables for a couple of days which is nice. The only thing left to be planted out in the spring garden are three Thai peppers, but they are still in the hydroponic starter and not large enough to go outside. They could be planted with paper tubes around them to deter the sow bugs, but it is better to let them get some size on them. As there is still about a full quart jar of dried Thai’s from last year, it is no hurry.
The hay is getting tall and deep.
This doe is standing, not lying down.
It is broody hen season, too. One of the Buff Orpingtons has been sitting on an empty nest for two weeks. She would make a good Momma hen as she growls, puffs up, and pecks at me every time the egg door is opened. If she is removed from the nest to the yard, she growls and stays put until the door is closed or one of the other hens pecks at her weird noise, then she runs right back to the nest. No real effort has been made to deter her as past efforts on that front have never worked. A fleeting idea to put fertile eggs under her was quickly abandoned as the coop is already too small for the 13 hens that live there at night. About another week, she will tire of it and return to the laying flock. If not, she will go to freezer camp as a non productive hen doesn’t need to be in the coop.
Her most indignant self.
In anticipation of a bumper crop of assorted hot peppers, most of the remaining hot dried peppers from last year have been started as a hot pepper ferment to make sauce in a couple of weeks. Last year’s sauce is nearly gone. There are still enough dried peppers left for cooking purposes.
That is the spring’s second ferment begun. The asparagus are delicious and a second jar of them will occur as soon as another quart jar of them are available.
For days, the buds on the peonies have been opening more and more. This is the first year that there have been more than a couple and one is full of buds. During college years and when available, a small bowl of a floating bloom adorned my desk. This green glass bowl was hand blown at Jamestown Historical site and was perfect to float two beautiful peony blossoms.
Spring is a wonderful time of the year here in the Virginia mountains. It is great to be able to get the garden in and still cool enough to keep it weeded. The hot, humid summer will be upon us too quickly.
Cabin Crafted 