Dan has been working hard, all summer, to split the wood we have in the backwoods pasture.  We had the woods logged out somewhat a few summers ago & Dan is still working on splitting it since there was so many tree tops left on the ground.  This is a pic of what we have stacked on our porch.  We've stacked it in the garage and LOADED the barn. 

I love having wood ready to go for the winter, as we heat about 80% of the time with our Jotul wood stove. (one of our smartest purchases!).  It's getting cold enough now that we are making a fire every evening.  Before long, making up the fire will be the first chore of my day.  Love it!

 This is a picture of the queen cage that I installed on Saturday, September 14th.  You can see how few bees there are at this point.  The gentleman I bought her from said she was laying in a great pattern and I had so hoped she would come out, get busy and save the hive.

This is a picture of where the hive sits now.  Empty and in our garage.  The queen came out, but the bee population kept dropping and I never did see eggs or larvae.  Maybe she came out and then died or was killed.  Maybe she came out, didn't like the hive and took off with the majority of the bees. (this last idea was suggested to me by the gentleman who sold her to me).  To make things worse, due to my schedule & the weather, I couldn't get out to the hive in time to take off the leftover honey.  It was all robbed out before I got into it.  Huge Bummer!

 

I was discouraged and sad immediately afterwards.  However...I know how much I have learned about beekeeping this year and am thankful for all the help I received from everyone.  I can't wait to get another package of bees in the Spring of 2014!



Hansel & Greg are growing well.  Dan's dad came out recently and helped Dan build a shelter inside the lean-to for the hogs.  Just a windbreak-type thing, but enough to give them a cozy place to snuggle into the straw at night.  We are keeping half a hog for our freezer and have sold the other half, but still have a whole or two halves to sell.  I really don't know where we are on pricing yet, since this is our first time raising hogs; but we should have a good idea closer to processing at the beginning of December.  The hogs have had a very large pen to run around in, and everyday they have had a combination of garden leftovers in addition to their mash.  Tomatoes have been their favorite!  They also like pears, apples & nuts.

 

Yesterday when I opened the barn in the morning, two of the eight turkeys were in the chicken pen.  They must have just flown over the shorter dividing fence.  The chickens all seemed fine so I removed the fencing.  I had worried that the turkeys might pick on the smaller chickens, but it doesn't seem to be a problem.  I'm very pleased they can all get outside easily now.

 

 

 

I harvested my potatoes this morning.  I had planted some red, some white & russet.  Some are quite large and some very small, but all look good!  I didn't get as many as I had hoped for although I'm sure that's my fault.  I did grow them in a wire cage, above ground and quit adding soil and potato starts before I should have.  Things just got busy...oh well:)  We will enjoy eating these & then I'll head down the road to Coad Potatoes and pick up a 100 sack for the winter.  We love our taters!



It's hard to tell, but that's me (Wendy) standing next to my (now) queen-less hive.

We had just opened it in the hope of pulling honey, but found instead - not enough honey and what's worse.....no larve or eggs.  The queen does slow down laying this time of year, but still expected to see some eggs/larve.  First we saw some drone cells, which I didn't expect to see this time of year, as the drones will be dying off now or be kicked out of the hive before winter.

Then, we found the queen cells.  2, maybe 3 queen cups on the bottom of one frame.

Now I have to decide whether to re-queen quickly with a proven layer, or let the bees finish a queen.  The queen cells weren't capped, so my guess is it would be another 2 weeks before she'd start laying.

Yikes!  time to talk to a veteran bee-keeper!

Still it was fun:) with my dear friend and bee expert Laurie Cellar!

 



Meet Hansel & Gretel: our first piglets!  

 They each weigh about 60 lbs. and should finish out at the end of this year.

They settled in without complaint.  I haven't heard a squeal yet.  

Farmer Dan getting everything all set up.  

We are pretty excited about this new addition to the farm!

 

One of our calves, happy to enter a new pasture (about a month ago; I'm behind on my posting!).

Darn, those flies...  We have 2 steers sold and going in to the butcher in a couple of weeks.  We have 4 of the 7 steers sold that will be going to the butcher in December.   That will leave the last 5 of this group to go in June, approx. 

 

Right now, the 12 are all together: after the 2 leave the farm, we will be separating the calves into the groups of 7 and 5.  That's always a challenge and we depend on the Lord's help with that event!

 

 

Higgy Baby and some of his lady friends.



Now, if I only possessed a cherry pitter.....................

I am so excited about picking these many cherries off of our own trees!  I missed picking the cherries last year, and in 2011 I certainly didn't get this many.  I need to do some research & see if there is anyway to find out what kind these are.  They are tart, that's for sure!  

Black Raspberries should be next.

 

This is the first hive in our "bee yard"!  I saw some neat pics online of how people had painted their hive boxes, and painted the one with grass at the bottom.  I intend to paint Chestnut Hill Farm & flowers on the other boxes.  That project just did not meet the bee installation deadline.

 

 

 

Above is a pic taken two days after installation.  First, I was checking to see if they were alive.  I installed damp, sprinkling weather, and was concerned about that.  Secondly, I was checking to see if they needed more sugar water. 

 

 

 

My smoker.  I only had a little bit of trouble keeping it lit the first time. 

 

 

Saturday, I opened up the hive to check on the queen and make sure she was released; with a little help from me, she was.  It was very exciting to see that the bees are drawing out comb.  I don't know if you can see in this pic, the curve up of the little circles - but that is the bees drawing out the comb so they can start doing business!



 

Lots of fun things are happening on the farm now.  These 5 steers think it's fun to get out onto fresh, spring pasture!  Three of these will be going to their new homes (customer's freezers!) in June and the other two in July or Aug.  All of these five are sold, and we are ready to take orders for the other 12 that will be finished toward the end of this year.

I think it's fun (and exciting) that I'm getting my first package of bees soon!  I've got my hive painted and my bee yard cleared out; most of my supplies and my courage are ready for this new adventure.  I dare a bee to get through this bee suit.  

Today I 'fluffed' the hay again.  These are a few of the 12 smaller steers.  It's fun to be in the feeder when they are all around it and distracted by the fresh hay.  I managed to scratch a few heads.  My favorite, the smallest - ear tag #1, usually won't let me touch him.  Today, he was laying in the sun in a soft pile of old hay, chewing cud, and didn't even mind when I was scratching his head & neck.

So cute!