Cabin Crafted

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  • Bee Downer and hope

    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.

  • Rural living

    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.

  • Ups and Downs

    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.

  • A friend lost

    💔

    Today I lost a friend, a fellow fiber lover, a playful, gentle soul who fought cancer for 9 years. Her loss is felt by many today, leaving her husband, an adult daughter and her husband, and many, many friends who loved her.

    When attending retreats with her, a part of a small contingent that would go out to lunch together. To know her, you knew a true friend.

    Through her failing health, she was always concerned about you, not herself. She was gracious and loving and fun to be around. She will be sorely missed by many.

    Goodbye my sweet friend. Rest now that you are no longer suffering.

  • Hot stuff and bees

    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.

  • And More Rain

    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.

  • And Then Came the Rain

    After yesterday’s errands and walk, the last tomato was caged, two more peppers planted and staked, the blueberries netted against thieving birds, so I can enjoy all of that luscious blue fruit. A stop, no, 4 stops to try to get sweet potato starts were a failure, but the last stop said they had been shipped and should be in today or tomorrow, so today’s check in was a winner and a bundle purchased. It is much too large for our garden or our family use, so the bundle will be shared.

    We got our walk in just before the rain began and between showers, the half barrel that will contain the sweet potatoes was moved to the garden on a cardboard layer to deter weeds from growing through the bottom or up around the sides and then filled with fresh soil. The slips are soaking in a pot of water for a few days to freshen the roots and they will be planted out. Herb seed and transplants were also done between showers, but now it is raining in earnest, good for the freshly planted seed and transplanted starts.

    In my quest to use open pollinated vegetables and save seed, the small Oui yogurt jars seem the perfect size for seed storeage. A google search produced silicone lids that fit the jars. A dark box will be scrounged and the seed will be stored in the back of the refrigerator between seasons. For several years, flower seed has been saved and replanted each year, beans and peas have been saved without much thought to how they were stored.

    The next year or two, the open pollinated varieties may be switched until the ones that best suit us are tried and approved. The beans and peas that have been the spring and summer staples are already on the list. Dent corn varieties will be tried to provide corn meal and chicken scratch. Seminole pumpkins have been favored. Cucumbers are different each year, but maybe the best one has been selected this year. We use a lot of Jalapenos, but often grow several hot peppers, and they will cross pollinate, so that choice might be more difficult. The same with tomatoes. A good paste tomato for sauce and canning is great, but a fresh sliced tomato can’t be beat in the summer and again, there is the cross pollination issue. Lettuce and spinach are planted out repeatedly and not allowed to seed.

    The battle with grass and weeds in the paths of the garden has been ongoing. Cardboard and mulch work for a short while. A huge load of wood chips would be ideal and could be added to each year, but it costs an arm and a leg to get it hauled up the mountain. Weed whacking around the beds seems to be the best that can be done for now, and hand pulling those that will come up. Some weeds are so persistent they will go through the barrier layers. It is exciting that the garden is coming together and fresh homegrown vegetables and fruits will soon be on our table and in our pantry and freezer.

  • Another Stellar Day

    To vary our retirement routine today, we went up the mountain instead of down. The top of the mountain is Mountain Lake Conservancy and Lodge. The lodge property is the site of the filming of most of the original “Dirty Dancing” movie. Signage abounds identifying what occurred where, including one that says they spray painted the grass and trees green because it was autumn. We had a very nice lunch on the porch (where Baby first saw Johnny) looking out at where the lake used to be. Unfortunately, within a couple of years of us moving here, it disappeared through a fissure in the bottom of the lake. It has done that before and refilled, but it probably won’t happen in the rest of our lifetime. We were fortunate to have visited when there was a large, full, deep lake. The feeder streams still flow down, but the water disappears into the fissure. A few years ago, attempts were made to plug the hole, the lake partially refilled then failed.

    After lunch, we took off on trails through the woods. The Conservancy is about 2,000 feet higher elevation than our house and spring time is just beginning. Flora and fauna abound.

    Red Trillium
    She wasn’t 20 feet from us and unconcerned.
    May apples, past bloom and forming the fruit.
    Not many leaves on the trees yet though.

    Lots of fiddlehead ferns, violets, tiny white wild flowers. A cool breeze and lots of sunshine.

    Once home, it was back to the garden planting.

    Sweet corn and Bloody Butcher dent corn fill this bed, then topped with a sheet of fence wire to deter the crows until the corn is 6″ high. Pumpkins will be planted in that bed too, but the third sister was a purchase error and the Pinto beans are a bush bean, so they were planted in a separate bed nearby. The tomatoes were caged, the peppers staked, cucumbers and sunflowers planted, and the sprinkler started on it all. Once sweet potato starts can be purchased, they will be planted between the blueberries or above the potato and asparagus beds. There are a few more peppers to plant out when the starts are large enough and some basils that are in the hydroponic to intersperse between the tomatoes. Hoops were installed over the blueberry bed to support netting which will be purchased on the next Tractor Supply run, maybe tomorrow. The garden is now in maintenance mode until time to begin harvest. Late season beans will go in after peas are done, and garlic and fall greens when the time comes. So far, only spinach and asparagus are being harvested.

    Last weekend’s rains are a storm that is boomeranging back to hit us again this weekend with the same storm. That really is a thing according to the local weather blogger for the newpaper. The garden won’t need watering again after today for a while.

  • Garden Time

    Last week, my spinning friends that were visiting went out to the garden with me to see if they could identify this:

    It starts like this and becomes this…

    It has a matt of copper colored roots with below ground runners that can go a couple of feet from one plant to the next. It was overtaking the blueberry bed and beginning to take over the adjacent bed that is slated to be the three sister’s bed. After our glorious walk on a beautiful day yesterday, an attack on the weed was tackled. When done, the above bed was clear (for now).

    My experience with it is that if you don’t get all of the roots, which is impossible, it just comes back, so I will have to keep at it. The blueberries are full of tiny berries. Bird net may be in order this year as it looks like it could finally be a good harvest if I beat the birds to them.

    The two nights of potential frost didn’t get cold enough to freeze and the forecast looks like spring nights have finally arrived, so the tomatoes and peppers that have been in and out of the house for a while, were planted out today after that bed was weeded. The tomatoes spaced out nicely for the number I had and there is room for the Thai and Serrano peppers once they have achieved enough size to transplant them into the garden. The bed is getting a good watering in right now. Maybe later, the second planting of peas and the first planting of beans will be sown. The three sister’s garden will be a day in itself. My garden plan has been altered somewhat so the cucumbers need to find a place to be planted.

    Yesterday’s walk was an extension of the walk we do from the end of the Huckleberry Trail. About 3/4 of a mile into that walk, another trail that travels through the Heritage Park, also known as Brown Farm. The farm was a dairy and beef farm and was purchased by the town of Blacksburg under the New River Trust. It has a large pond and trails through the fields and old farm buildings.

    Wonderful old buildings and silos. The shot up through the silo was taken by holding the camera through a hole in the side from outside.

    Interesting nature finds, a nut shell, an all white daisy like wildflower, and just look at that tree. Hubby is 6’1.5″ tall to give you reference to it’s size. We finished the rest of the usual walk with this side trip.

  • Tick Season and preparing for new garden

    It is only May 1 and already many ticks have made their way into the house on our bodies or on the pups. Three bites already on me. It is going to be a bad year for them I fear.

    There is a mowed path to the bees that will stay mowed as the adjacent hay grows, but sometimes you have to walk through the branches of a cedar tree to brush off any hitchhikers and in spite of pants tucked into socks into boots, the bee jacket, veil, and gloves, they are still finding their way in. I dislike chemical sprays even around my pants legs, much less on upper body, especially since most are from going to the bee yard. I’ve had folks suggest wrapping a dog tick collar around my lower pants legs, but that doesn’t stop them from the cedar branches above the lower legs.

    They are disgusting, creepy crawlies, disease carriers. We need Guineas, but doubt they would stick around and they are so noisy, but definitely tick gobblers. This will be a difficult year to wild berry pick because of them.

    This week, the last of the tomatoes frozen toward the end of the season last year were finally processed into pasta sauce. That puts 11 pints of pasta sauce on the shelf to start this year. Three from last year, 8 new ones, plus 3 in the freezer, 3 pints of canned tomato puree added this spring. There is still a supply of assorted tomatillo sauces/salsas/jams, and a bag remaining in the freezer, so they won’t go in this year’s garden. There are 8 peppers ready to plant in two weeks, plus another variety started from seed that will be a bit later. One of the Farmer’s Market vendors had several varieties of tomato starts so one each of two varieties were added to my purchase to give me 8 tomato plants, 2 more than originally planned. The huckleberries didn’t come up in the starter flat which gives me some space to accommodate the extras. The corn patch will be half sweet corn and half Bloody Butcher so seed can’t be saved, but extra seed of the dent corn was purchased to use next year. The plan this year has two varieties of beans and two varieties of peas, so again, seed can’t be saved. Already, a plan for next year is in the works to grow only single varieties of heritage vegetables and save seed for future planting. This will be somewhat limiting, but our primary hot pepper use is Jalapenos, primary tomato use is sauces, sweet corn is such a short season, the Bloody Butcher will provide corn meal and roasting ears. Though we enjoy bush beans, young Pinto’s can be eaten green and if enough are planted, dried for winter chili and goulash. With peas, we enjoy both sugar snaps and shelling peas, but if only shelling peas are grown like year’s past, seed can be saved. It will be an interesting experiment to see if the lack of variety bothers us or if the variety will just come from Farmer’s Market purchases. Seminole pumpkins are great for stuffing or pies and will be the third part of the Three Sister’s garden. Spinach will be planted, but I have never tried to save seed from spinach or lettuce. Cucumbers of course will be in the garden to eat fresh and to make pickles. Garlic was not planted for this year, but will be added back in for the fall garden to overwinter and provide bulbs next summer.

    Here’s hoping for a great garden season and more putting by for the off seasons. I need to start gathering jars for processing vegetables and later for when honey gathering commences, probably not until next year though.