We are finally here...well, at least I am; Smoky's transfer doesn't go through for another month. And although I have many photos to share I can't even find the camera to download them. As I type, I am surrounded by boxes. They can stay there a while. The number one priority this first week full time at the homestead is to get the garden in.
Today ends Day #3 of waking at the crack of dawn to beat the heat and get seeds in the ground. I work till around 1:00, stumble in for lunch, and then try to unpack during the afternoon. (Not terribly productive today: I fell asleep in a camp chair on the porch.) This is what's planted so far: tomato plants, basil, butternut squash, lettuce, spinach, collard greens, swiss chard, two varieties of sweet corn, two varieties of pole beans, lima beans, and four varieties of shell beans. What's left? Carrots, zucchini, crookneck squash,two varieties of pumpkins, two varieties of both watermelon and cantaloupe, turban squash.
We netted the sour cherry tree against birds before Smoky left, and they should be ripe next week. I'll try to get a photo. Daughter is coming for a visit, and I believe I will wrangle her to help me can them up.
And pears....we have a half dozen or so trees LOADED with pears. It's actually a bit frightening.
But that's another story, and it will have to wait for another day. It's 9:00 p.m.. I'm so tired I can't even type straight. G'night.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Bessie's Gifts
Bessie was the previous owner of our homestead. Now 94 and living in an assisted living center in town, she and her husband spent many happy years here raising their family. I have never met Bessie in the flesh, but I feel I've come to know her from the gifts she left behind in the form of the trees, bulbs, and flowers of every description and variety that populate the property. Every weekend we make a new discovery or two.
Lilacs, on the bush and in a porcelain enamel pitcher on my kitchen table. Their heady perfume filled the house.
Pear tree in bloom. There are several, as well as apples, cherries, and plums, all bursting forth with blossoms.
Onions coming up in field beside the house. They came up on their own, most likely from seed from a mature plant. Who knows how long they had been waiting for an errant bit of moisture?
This caught my attention when I was clearing trash out of the garden. It's a very old grape vine. The dead and brittle vines I cleared out of the fence above it spread all along the fence, so it was a prolific plant at one time. In the year the homestead had been vacant it had received no water, yet managed to hang on through the blazingly hot summer. A well-established root system and decent winter snowfall were its salvation. We planted four concord vines just last week. I wonder what type of fruit this old-timer will yield?
Bessie would know. I wish I could ask her.
Lilacs, on the bush and in a porcelain enamel pitcher on my kitchen table. Their heady perfume filled the house.
This caught my attention when I was clearing trash out of the garden. It's a very old grape vine. The dead and brittle vines I cleared out of the fence above it spread all along the fence, so it was a prolific plant at one time. In the year the homestead had been vacant it had received no water, yet managed to hang on through the blazingly hot summer. A well-established root system and decent winter snowfall were its salvation. We planted four concord vines just last week. I wonder what type of fruit this old-timer will yield?
Bessie would know. I wish I could ask her.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
My Attempt at Refining Beeswax
Since beekeeping is high on the list of priorities for the homestead, I was excited when Smoky brought this home:
It's a bit hard to visualize against the orange of the Home Depot bucket. This is better:
Beeswax! Smoky found it inside an electrical panel. It was an abandoned hive.
Amid visions of handcrafted candles and little pots of sweet-smelling unguents, I searched the internet for information on how to best extract and refine the wax. I found an excellent blog post
at The Lone Star Homestead. The trick is to slowly melt the wax with water, allowing the impurities and wax to separate. The theory is that the dirt and bee parts will sink to the bottom and the pure wax will rise to the top. It's necessary to repeat the melting and cooling process with water a couple of times before carefully melting the pure wax and straining it through a piece of nylon stocking or cheesecloth. A pan dedicated to the melting process was in order (you won't want to use it for anything else), so I hopped down to Goodwill to find one. $8 was more than I wanted to pay, but what I found was heavy gauge stainless steel vessel with a cover and a pouring lip - perfect!
I filled the pan halfway with water and added the wax. You don't want to overload the pan.
As I was adding the wax, I noticed that it was webby and what looked like dead mites or larvae.
With a sinking heart but hopeful still, I began to heat the pan on a medium-low setting. Maybe all the webs and whatever-they-were would sink to the bottom.
But no sinking was apparent. Beeswax was obviously in there, but so were pieces and parts of I don't know what. Perhaps they were dead bees?
It was a mess. Still hoping, I put the pan out in the garage where it was cold. After the top layer hardened, I removed it in pieces. This is what it looked like:
Obviously, there was beeswax in there (notice it on my fingers), but extracting it was going to be tough. I decided to try the melting process another time and gauge the results. Maybe the chunks would fall to the bottom.
They didn't.
With not much prospect of successfully extracting (much less refining) any beeswax, I sadly threw the clumpy stuff away.
No candles. No creams. No lip balms. (Sniff!)
I read up a bit, and have come to the conclusion that this wild hive suffered a wax moth infestation that led to its demise. Too bad for the bees and too bad for me! I will have to wait till we have our own hives before I can try this again.
It's a bit hard to visualize against the orange of the Home Depot bucket. This is better:
Beeswax! Smoky found it inside an electrical panel. It was an abandoned hive.
Amid visions of handcrafted candles and little pots of sweet-smelling unguents, I searched the internet for information on how to best extract and refine the wax. I found an excellent blog post
at The Lone Star Homestead. The trick is to slowly melt the wax with water, allowing the impurities and wax to separate. The theory is that the dirt and bee parts will sink to the bottom and the pure wax will rise to the top. It's necessary to repeat the melting and cooling process with water a couple of times before carefully melting the pure wax and straining it through a piece of nylon stocking or cheesecloth. A pan dedicated to the melting process was in order (you won't want to use it for anything else), so I hopped down to Goodwill to find one. $8 was more than I wanted to pay, but what I found was heavy gauge stainless steel vessel with a cover and a pouring lip - perfect!
But no sinking was apparent. Beeswax was obviously in there, but so were pieces and parts of I don't know what. Perhaps they were dead bees?
Obviously, there was beeswax in there (notice it on my fingers), but extracting it was going to be tough. I decided to try the melting process another time and gauge the results. Maybe the chunks would fall to the bottom.
They didn't.
No candles. No creams. No lip balms. (Sniff!)
I read up a bit, and have come to the conclusion that this wild hive suffered a wax moth infestation that led to its demise. Too bad for the bees and too bad for me! I will have to wait till we have our own hives before I can try this again.
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