Honey… mouthwatering

We recently harvested our first season’s honey, with the help of our good friends Neris, Wendy, and girls.  It was a fine excuse to get together and enjoy a lovely afternoon!

The first step in harvesting honey is to prepare yourself some nice, thick smoke (as seen coming from the smoker in the picture below.)  As you can imagine, removing frames of honeycomb from the hive tends to upset the little worker bees within, and if you’re not carefull you just might get yourself stung!   Smoke helps to disorient the bees, thus making it easier to make off with their summer’s work before they have enough time to get mad.   

Mmmmmm Mmmmmm, would you look at that!

Some of the bees will have to be physically brushed away from the honeycomb, now those are some loyal girls I tell ya!

Some people use an extracting machine which spins the frames within a big drum until the honey is extracted and ready to pour into jars.  We, on the other hand, ended up extracting our honey the old fashioned way – scraping it out with a spoon, wax and all.

We scraped the honey into a fine mesh bag, which we then hung from the side of a big pot to drain for a couple of days. 

Eventually the honey drains into the pan and we’re left with a bag of wax and several jars of liquid gold.  Mmmmmm Mmmmmm good.

The color of the honey is determined by what is in bloom at the time of production.  The honey above is most likely a product of the Japanese Knotweed which has been in bloom most recently.  There was also a variety of light colored honey in the hive from earlier in the season, most likely made from the blackberry blossoms and clover of early summer.

Introducing Clover

Meet the newest addition to our growing little farm, she was  born just hours ago! 

Yee-Haw

A View From the Coop

Get a load of these peeps my Mr. brought home a couple of weeks ago.  He’s got plans… and a couple of them will soon enough be waking us up at the crack of dawn… cockadooduldoooo!

Honeybees, Baby!

His labor is a Chant~
His idleness~ a Tune~
Oh, for a Bee’s experience
Of Clovers, and of Noon!
~Emily Dickinson

The honeybees have  finally arrived, yay!   They arrived in this box last weekend, and they were feelin’ a bit couped up to say the least.  You could hear their buzzing from several yards away!   

Transporting these babies from this cardboard chariot to their new home, sweet home required a steady hand. I knew that wouldn’t be mine, so I signed up to take the pictures instead, shutter release buttons don’t sting do they?

Now we watch and wait for these girls to do what they do, my mouth waters with anticipation!

A Wonderland Collection

Yee-ha!

Well, it’s official… I’m a bonefied country girl.  I’ve got a horse and some country, what more could you need, right? 

Now I just need to get me some riding know-how… ’til then, I reckon I’ll just pretend!  (do they have some sort of country DMV where I can get myself a license to operate this fella!)

Introducing Jake

Well, we brought home a companion for Stanley yesterday.  His name is Jake.  Another quarter-horse gelding, twice the age of Stanley, and twice the horse.  He’s friendly, rides quite nicely, and has enough patience and experience/training to be the example that Stanley needs.

Stanley took to Jake right from the start. 

        I believe that I’ve taken to Jake as well… I feel that by the end of his acclamation period, I’ll be jumping at the bit to saddle him up!  This country girl is ready to have herself a horse that she can ride!

Yipeee!!!

So what do a bunch of country-bumpkins do on a quiet evening, after all the chores have been finished???

Why… we swing from trees… what else?

Nourishing Notions

“Many things grow in the garden

that were never sown there.”

~Thomas Fuller

Today, Little Miss M and I spent some time in the garden together.  We shared in some lovely conversation.  We reminisced for awhile, and then she enlightened me with some of her dreams for the future.  She dreamed of getting married someday, and she heartily hopes that this fella, whomever he may turn out to be, enjoys planting a garden.  It’s at the top of her dreamy Mr. Right’s Qualities list… for now anyway!

I love the time I’ve spent in the garden this summer.  Each visit consumed well over an hour and kept my hands quite busy, however my mind was completely undistracted and uninterrupted – ready to engage with whichever child who happened to wander in behind me.  Special times.  Our garden has nourished our bodies, and the times spent in it have been health to my soul.

After we carried our veggies up to the house, she worked with me in the kitchen to prepare them for dinner.  Little sister enjoyed watching, with frequent nibbling.  Later, we sat down to freshly steamed beats, green beans, and green salad (all from our garden, except for the tomatoes – I haven’t attempted those yet.)