Bees!

We picked up our bees on Saturday and the transfer of the frames went off without a hitch! We love them and are perfectly enthralled with them! They are SO docile, proof of being well handled. We do not need a veil to work around them, now that may change when we start collecting honey but for now, we can stick our faces right into the hives and they go about their business.

Jeremiah and I built these hives in April. They are top bar hives.You can read more about there here if you'd like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_top-bar_hive

Because we bought "nuc" colonies (bee colonies that were already established), they came in a "nuc" box with frames the bees were already building on. We took out the frames and slipped them right into our hives and within an instant, they went right to work doing what they do.  We placed them on a  hill up behind the pond. They are protected by the trees there and the animals won't mess with them. Additionally, we don't have to mow around the hives and disturb the bees.

 

 

 

House

For those who visit this blog who I don't speak to on a regular basis, a house down the road came up for sale after a foreclosure. We bought it are now in the midst of renovating it.

I took some video to give an idea of layout. More photos to come as we progress through the demo. There were several things that absolutely had to be tended to (leaky water pipes in the bathroom. FOUR so far and one in the yard), the kitchen was not well laid out and the step up living room with the way the center island sat was very dangerous.

We've since torn up the carpet in 2 upstairs bedrooms and the living room and pulled up the raised portion of the living room which was raised with cedar planking and plywood. Jeremiah has fixed the leaky pipes in the bathroom and it will need new drywall in spots now and has fixed one broken pipe in the yard but there is still another going to one faucet because when turned on it has no pressure. These are the downfalls to buying repoed properties especially in cold climates. The the property is not "winterized" soon enough, freezing and thawing is inevitable.

I have since painted 2 of the three upstairs bedrooms, ceilings and walls. The master bath had an open concept from the master bedroom and no access from the other 2 bedrooms which I thought odd as the landing upstairs is big enough for another door and if the bathroom is large enough for  a huge 2 person whirlpool tub, it's big enough for a tub shower combo instead! The other bedrooms could only access the bathroom upstairs through the master bedroom or walk all the way downstairs and through the kitchen. Can you imagine doing that in the middle of the night?? No thank you. Changing things around a bit will make the house more usable and it's not too much time or money extra.

The kitchen will need new tile in place of where the old cabinets and counter used to be as the cabinets were in place before the "new" tile floor. Fortunately it was laid in such a way that we can pop up a few cut pieces and install whole tiles and it will be seamless. We'll also tile the rest of the living room that was raised before.

These videos were taken early this week when we did not have some of the work done we have now. I'll take updated photos as we go. My apologies if my voice is low. I was talking normally. I am also not a videographer, apologies in advance if your head spins a little when the movement or if it's dark. We did not get the electric turned on until Tuesday.

In the first video I walk through the existing door right into the kitchen. The glass pane to the right has been removed and is now the entry way into the living room. The previous entry way will be a walk in pantry off the kitchen. When you walk in the front door there will be a new wall to the left.

The closet upstairs where the furnace is is dark and you probably cannot see it. Sorry about that. These may be out of order.  

I will get photos today of the progress now that the electric is on. The basement would have been pitch black before the electric which is why it's not shown.

I've been bad

I've been terrible at posting, absolutely terrible. Here's a pathetic attempt at updating:

I think all of the does, as of April 13th or so, have kidded. I say I think because we put a buck out with the does to run with them while we were gone in Ca. but I don't think I left him long enough to "clean up" which is just as well as it is we had 10 does to kid this year and that just seems like way too many.

We're looking to downsize, in the process of actually.

The weather has been crazy, on again off again cold and for the next 5 days it's supposed to be over 90! So in one week's time I'll have gone to using the wood stove to the A/C!

I had wanted to start getting the garden in this weekend but our rototiller's carburetor needs a good cleaning so Jeremiah took it in to school with him and it didn't make it onto the docket before the weekend.

I have been sick fighting some sort of sinus/respiratory nastiness. It all kind of hit Thursday with a cough. Our last cough lingered for a while but there weren't any major issues with it. Drew had it something bad. I almost took him to the dr. just to get him something to quiet his cough so he could sleep but I found an alternate home remedy that worked just dandy! As for me, yesterday my head ached something awful and the Tylenol I took took forever to finally work and for the first hour didn't even take the edge off. I am sure I had a pretty high fever too, I could feel the heat radiating off my face. Nevertheless, I honesty cannot lay in bed, it makes me feel worse so I got up and did regular chores yesterday morning and a few things here and there. I feel a little better today.

Bees: I have been in touch with the individual/company that we'll be getting our bees from. This might tell you how bad/long/crappy the winter was, as of 3/4 of the way through April, they were still about a month out from separating the colonies to sell off because there wasn't enough flowers out yet for them to eat from. We ended up building the hives ourselves, we're almost done for them. I have photos I'll post once they are and painted up. It wasn't too difficult and we're happy with them. I am very excited for the bees!

Kids: Their last day of school was Wednesday. We got a letter in the mail with their new school assignment which is where everyone else from Obee will be going also.

2 weeks ago Wednesday we attended band sign up for Rachel to see which instrument might be best for her. She tried out the flute (which was her first choice originally before trying any of them but she has a widows peak in her lips which doesn't make playing impossible but it would take extra determination to learn to account for that. As a downfall to having beautiful lips, it makes it harder to play the flute, or so we're told. Oh well, she leaned she liked the clarinet better anyway so we're buying her a clarinet and she goes to band came for a week in May. Tomorrow she starts an hour long poetry class at 10:30 to noon with a friend of hers at a bookstore in town. Drew and I, I guess, will hang out at the library.

Drew's 2nd grade class always attends "The Magic Treehouse" (series of books) field trip. The 2nd grade teacher's parents have this beautiful piece of property about half an hour west of town they have turned into a kid's paradise. Jeremiah took off work to go this year and we had a blast.

The farm: The piglets are 2.5 months old now. All but 2 have been sold. Of the 14 born eleven made it past 2 weeks old and it wasn't pleasant having them in February. We had to rig up a brooder to keep them from freezing to death so I don't think I will farrow again in February...or March! As it is we are on track for the sow to farrow again in Sept. and I consider selling the pigs off completely but now with this swine disease going around, I have to wonder if that's really the smart thing to do. We kept a gilt (female) and barrow (castrated male) back to raise up to butcher out. Keeping a boar is expensive for just one sow an a few neighbors and I are considering keeping one between us to use.  We have a friend about half an hour away who has one we could borrow but the whole swine disease kind of has me scared about using outside services at all.

Who knows what the best answer is. Pork prices are only going to soar, just like beef did- Supply and demand. It's not even the finished product that is the issue, it's finding the animals to raise up to begin with! 50 lb. feeder pigs were going for as high as $200 an individual at the sale barn last month! Keeping 2 sows and no boar would be more cost effective but a boar has to be available. 

Onward and upward though....we got our delivery of 160 meat chicks in the mail day before yesterday. They are delivered to the post office and we go and pick them up which is usually a late night proposition. All 160 are not for us. We went in on a group buy. We kept about 50 some and in about 6-8 weeks we'll be butchering again!

Rental property: We're on track for the rental property to close on or about May 16th. We have to get the septic tank pumped and do some general yard clean up but we won't rent a dumpster until a busted pipe has been fixed in the downstairs bathroom wall. Otherwise all it needs is some kitchen cabinets, appliances, carpet if we can afford it (otherwise what's there just gets a good cleaning) and some paint.

Jeremiah: One of his students won gold for welding sculpture so he'll be going to Nationals at the end of June for a week in Kansas City.  He's also signed up to finally take the CWI (Certified Welding Inspection) class and CWE (Certified Welding Educator) the first of June at the college for a week.

His college classes are almost done (or are done) this week.

I'll update with photos later but I want to get this posted before I forget and it sits as a draft like all the other well meaning posts I've been meaning to get posted.

I'll end for now. The heat is supposed to be near record breaking this week in the 90's+ so I'd like to get started on chores before it's too hot to!

 

Our last big snow completely melted away but this was a photo of the greenhouse. We cannot start seeds in it. I pot in it because it's rather toasty on a day when the sunshines but without power and our cold nights, it does not stay warm enough. We have a shelving unit in the kitchen by the window that works well for starting seeds. With any luck, I can hopefully move all the flats into the greenhouse mid-March. At the rate we're going though, maybe mid-July! 

My favorite tree on the property- a Cottonwood. (and the chicken coop and pig's shelter in the background)

The sow is living in one of the loafing sheds with her piglets. In this cold, they must have a heat lamp and this is the only loafing shed that has electricity. It allows us much closer one on one contact with them though.

We're gearing up for another big cold storm this weekend. I am very weary of it. I am weary of the snow and I am especially weary of the cold, this one promises to pack windchill's well below negative with potential for record setting lows. Imagine that, our coldest recorded low was -24 in 2011. WE WERE HERE FOR THAT! Only the tiniest tips of green grass are starting to emerge. Normally I would feel we're on the upswing to spring but with that huge ice storm in April last year and snow in May, it's hard to be excited.

We have a couple does due today. It's going to be an exponentially long weekend making sure everyone is as warm as possible, new kids will have to be brought in to keep ears from freezing. Our youngest are 10 days old, they should be OK but anyone born in it would, at the very least, have frostbitten ears though it's very likely they would freeze to death if born with windchills that low.
Then there's still milking and now bottle feeding. We lost one of our older does Wednesday. To what I don't know but with this warm again cold again weather, it's very likely it was fast moving pneumonia and there was little I could do. She left 2 kids behind. I have sold off the buck kid and now have the doe kid. That, coupled with 2 piglets who are lagging behind, and I am bottling a few animals around here. The dogs are separated currently and the only way to do that successfully is to keep one in the garage and the other out in the barnyard. They switch places every 12 hours and neither one is very happy. They miss each other but Snow needs a break from pregnancy and a trail separation is the only form of 100% positive birth control.

 I don't like bucketing warm water but sometimes it's necessary. So, there's my weekend plans- surviving. The cold and snow is exhausting. I don't like to complain but few who have to get out in it don't get it. I could get rid of all of the animals for sure, that would leave me little to complain about, I guess. But, that would also take away much joy too, that's what you call a catch 22...a conundrum.

It's 3 AM. I am out to do a barn check. The wind is howling but this isn't near the worst of it. This cold is manageable. Tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night will be a different story. Jeremiah is leaving early to pick up the trailer from the shop this morning. He's done some modifications to it and the alternator was kaput. We're having friends over for a soup supper tonight. I'll be running the oven part of today for bread. I'm cooking a ham tomorrow.

Bottle Porker

10 piglets are happy and healthy but 2 aren't looking as plump as the others. I took it upon myself to try to supplement those girls. The info on hand rearing pigs hasn't been good. "It's difficult. They're stubborn. You loose them 50% of the time." Eegads, it doesn't sound like I am going to be too successful! But, I gotta try.

These 2 girls don't look much bigger than they did when they were born- which is usually nothing but skin and bones! So, I brought 'em in and tried feeding them with an eye dropper, by golly the one little girl looked like she wanted to suck so I decided to try the beer bottle and "lamb" nipple I use on the goats and wouldn't you know, that pig took to it like a fish to water! Dumb luck? I don't so. #2 girl took to it like a fish to water too and so now I am bottle supplementing all the ones who are looking a little less plump than some of the others and no one seems to have an issue taking the bottle at all! I think it has to be in the nipple! What's funny? I can't even get the goat kids to take it as easy as these pigs!!

They need to be fed often when they are this young and for that reason, I am leaving them with the sow for the most part. They seem to take to her just fine too but boy when they see me, I think they know the real chow wagon has arrived! I'm not real sure how this will all play out. My hope is that I can train them to a pan fairly soon. By the time they are about 10 days old they start to nibble on regular hog feed so it shouldn't be much time at all before I can start getting them milk through alternative means other than a bottle. I would imagine if a momma sow wasn't available, it would be a very time consuming proposition! They're getting goat's milk, by the way. Goat's milk is a well known universal supplement for so many animals because it's so easy to digest - cows (some dairies will even give their replacement heifer calves goat's milk instead of cow's milk as a preventative of disease transferable through milk or as a means of keeping their cow's milk for sale...seems almost silly but that's entirely another thing), puppies, kittens, foals, crias (baby alpaca), piglets, etc.

Pigs really are funny things. So smart and really very friendly once they know who to take a liking to. I'll tell you the same thing I tell the kids, "Don't get attached!" Everything has a purpose and her purpose is to make bacon.

The weather has been super nice up until this morning. I think it was 72 on Tuesday (!) and yesterday I had clothes hanging on the line. Last night wind picked up, the temp dropped this morning and about 7:45 when I went out to do chores, it was hailing and windy as all get out. The hail turned to snow shortly thereafter and now it appears it's all blown through and today's high is supposed to reach 51. Go figure!

I think the building construction class is about done with our milk barn. I thought it was supposed to be done by now as today marks the end of the 2nd trimester. I don't know what else is left to do seeing as how we're putting on the rood and side walls and pretty much the only thing they were to do is floor and framing and rafters/roof joists. They didn't want to do the metal siding and rooding which is fine, that goes up quick enough.

This last trimester another class is making our bee hives. I need to go in and speak to the instructor about what I want and give him some blueprints. Our bee colonies are reserved and will be ready for pick up come late April I think.

One of the does was bred earlier than I figured she was, as in, I had no idea! We had a couple buck escapes at different times which I wrote down and there have been no surprises as of late...except this doe. We have some round bales of hay out in the pasture the girls free eat off of and Tuesday when I went out mid-day to water the sow here she came walking up with 2 kids in tow - a boy and a girl. We're up to 7 kids now (4 boys & 3 girls) and one of the buck kids has gone on to his new home already.

Goat prices are up at the sale barn. I am not sure if it's because of the time of year (ethnic buyers) or because beef is scarce and more expensive (doubt it) or an influx of local ethnic groups (???) but anyway, we made quite a good price off of the whethers we took on Sat. It's not my favorite thing to do and we try to avoid taking animals there but it is what it is.

We ran out of wood, ran clean out, last week...when the temps were in the teens during the day! Not a stick left. That's a little frightening when propane is sky high ($3.64 locally a gallon and reports of up to $5.15 a little father up north). We paid $1.64 I believe last Oct. when we filled up. Granted, that was last Oct. and well before these polar vortexes and cold storms dumping lots of snow everywhere but sheesh, if that don't make you want to go out and find some wood, I don't know what will!

After some unusually above average temps at the end of last week, the snow as pretty much gone by Saturday. Last spring when we rented a dumpster to clear some brush from the front of the property we separated good burnable wood from junk brush. We barely made a dent in what's all out there but the burnable limbs sure came in handy! We loaded them into the truck, backed up to the garage and had a field day cutting up the 4-6" limbs with the miter saw. That miter saw is the way to go for quick firewood cuttin', I tell you what.

Additionally, Jeremiah is yet again modifying the log splitter. Nevermind I have been asking all along why we have to have a cylinder wedge driven splitter. It seems so dang slow! One night he was "You Tubing" log splitters and saw one with a cylinder driven plate that drove the log against a splitter shaped like a all-in-one pie slicer. That's the way to go! Split all your slices all at one instead of one at a time! Some day we'll have something that saves us time!

This winter has seemed long, but then, they all do. I am sure we're still a ways off from spring but the warm temps every now and again are a nice reprieve. The weekend after next we're supposed to be plunged into cold again just in time for March to come in like a lion.

I suppose it's better than a perpetual beach day, more interesting anyway =). Have a great day.

Cock and bull story

Here's something to crow about. Mother Hen was feeling a little empty nest syndrome having neither chick nor child and hatched an idea. She now maintains a strict pecking order. Hey, you gotta find some way to scratch out a living and we wouldn't want to put all of our eggs in one basket, right? She may be walking on eggs shells however, the sow really rules the roost around here. Mother Hen probably thinks she signed up for a pig in a poke with this job. She doesn't have time to brood over it though and may want to make herself as scarce as hens teeth before she ruffles the sow's tail feathers and her chickens come home to roost! The sow doesn't play chicken, she'd be all over her like a banty on a Junebug! Well if that don't beat a pig a pecking! This story is all a little bird brained but I hope it left you sunny side up.

February Snow