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!

Winter Farm Days are a bit boring & repetitive and can be very cold!

 

Every other day, I lay out & hook up 200 feet of hose to fill the stock tank for the 5 larger steers. After filling the tank, I have to drain all the hoses so they won't freeze up.  Give them a bit of corn mix & fluff their hay. Fluffing is our word for pitchforking out the center of the round bale feeder so the steers can get to all the hay better and finish it all off before we give them another round bale.  When it's cold enough, I need to use the sledge hammer to break their water for them. 

 

The group of 12 smaller steers usually need their water filled every day.  Their tank is closer to the house & has a heater in it, so I never have to break ice on their water. 

 

The chicken's water usually freezes so I bring that waterer into the house to melt it and refill.  The chickens do not like to go out in the snow, so I toss some scratch into their coop & also kitchen scraps, if I have any.  Collect eggs & fill their feeder.

 

That's about it.  I assist Dan when he puts out a big round bale of hay for each group.  We set the bales on pallets so the hay doesn't sink into the mud or freeze onto the ground. 

 

That's about it.  Nothing to exciting in the winter.  No excitement is good.  Last year, we had a couple of jumpers.  They kept ending up in our neighbor's field.  That kind of excitement, I can live without!

It's the little things, really.....that make me so happy.

 

Like new waterproof boots, with no holes!

Especially when I'm in ankle deep mud-manure-mush.  The warmer weather has been nice because my hens have been able to go outside and get some fresh air and peck around a bit.  Chickens certainly do not like to walk around in the snow.  If the ground is covered in snow, I don't even bother to open their door.  But, the warmer weather has turned everything to mud in the pastures. 

Very Messy.

 

 

 



This morning we split up the cattle.

 

It was very windy at 7:45 this morning and so I anticipated a miserable experience coming along, but the wind died down and it really wasn't too bad.  Of the 17 steers, 5 of them are much older and therefore, bigger.  Dan thought we should seperate them from the other12 so we could start giving them a scoop of grain everyday.  He thinks they will be finished and ready for someone's freezer 5-6 months from now.

 

Things went really well.  With Abby & Dan cutting the steers away from the rest of the herd, and me working the gate, things went quickly.  The five are now set up in pasture #1 where the red lean-to is.  They have their own water & hay bale out in that paddock.  The bummer is that waterer doesn't have a heater/melter in it so at least twice a day, I'll be out there breaking up the ice on it for them.  Also, I'll be draining about 200 ft of hose after I fill their water every day, so that the water won't freeze the hose solid.

 

The 12 will be happier now and be able to get to their hay easier.  The 5 bullies would push them away from it quite often, even though it seemed there was plenty of space for everyone.  Steers don't "share" very well.