R-I-P, Summer Garden 2010! Tilled it up last weekend and am ready for a fresh start. Spent a Saturday with the tiller and wiped the slate clean. Wouldn't dare think of pulling out the patch of Zinnias bordering the garden though.. It is supplying every butterfly in a 5 mile radius with nectar, so it's comforting to know they can get one last sip of sugar before fall really sets in! Its not uncommon now to see a few butterflies fighting over a flower. Notice the little skipper butterfly in the background? They are small but very fiesty and will chase other bigger butterflies away.
One of the highlights of the week was a visit from fellow blogger Erin and her two farmer boys Finn and Loch (ages 5&7) they came out to buy some eggs and pick some flowers. The boys got to hang out with the hens and made this darling observation..." Chicken butts are cute! "Have to say I agree - and here is a close-up of our birds little fluffy, downy, cushy behinds!
What? not impressed?? Might not look like much - but couldn't be more stoked that we are going to pick it up in a few days. About a 4 hour drive to nab this little baby, but it's hard to find these in our neck of the woods... It is the moving parts to an old hay wagon - which will be the foundation to our farm project "The Eggmobile!" The Eggmobile is the invention of Joel Salatin, a well spoken, forward thinking, Virginia farmer featured on the movie - Food Inc. (if you are into farms and food - watch it!!...)
Monarch season is in full swing here and I have witnessed monarchs flying past me on their way to lay eggs on the Milkweed plants. Here is a shot of one laying eggs, and a caterpillar in the background- cool!
Love the caterpillars. They are poisonous to birds, and their bright color alerts predators to the yucky taste. These bugs are amazing and fly all the way to Mexico to overwinter!! Just crazy to me how they can fly that far, weighing less than a paperclip!
They grow so quickly here is one a few days old and another about a week older.
Now that the temps are cooling down a bit, you can find bumblebees out in the field falling asleep on the flowers. Literally stopping to take a little nap. kinda cute! Here is a big fuzzy bee on a tithonia - mexican sunflower.
Ma and grandma picking the remaining flowers left on the zinnias. Starting to putter out - both the flowers and the flower pickers! haha!
Starting to take shape. Can't wait to see it with the roof and decking all done. Another reason why we need the hurricane to take a detour!!
Not to mention Our field of 10,000 sunflowers are really going gang-busters here, Lets hope they make it through our the windy friday of Earl passing by. about 30 days left til blooming.
Mowing around the field.
Jeruselum Artichoke blooming in the garden. Kitty in background.
Last pic is our Basil in full swing. Has been such a delight to go out and pick all summer long and toss into salads, tomatoes, pizzas, sandwiches and pesto. As soon as the first cold front hits next month, this stuff will be toast, but still plenty to enjoy for now!
One of the highlights of the week was a visit from fellow blogger Erin and her two farmer boys Finn and Loch (ages 5&7) they came out to buy some eggs and pick some flowers. The boys got to hang out with the hens and made this darling observation..." Chicken butts are cute! "Have to say I agree - and here is a close-up of our birds little fluffy, downy, cushy behinds!
It is as fluffy as it looks! The boys are learning a ton about gardening and homesteading through their mix of backyard gardening adventures, 4-H camp, and visits to local farms. If you have little ones, Erin's blog is a must read. http://gardennow-thinklater.blogspot.com/
Have to admit i am pretty addicted to watching what the kids are up to on any given week as they are learning and exploring a ton of fun activities. Hope we can have some similar adventures with our own little farmer kids one day!
Well with all this fuss about chickens lately, glad we have our own backyard birds and fresh eggs.... which leads us to our next project on the horizon!! We have been expanding our flock and have been looking all around and finally found this on craigslist ---->
What? not impressed?? Might not look like much - but couldn't be more stoked that we are going to pick it up in a few days. About a 4 hour drive to nab this little baby, but it's hard to find these in our neck of the woods... It is the moving parts to an old hay wagon - which will be the foundation to our farm project "The Eggmobile!" The Eggmobile is the invention of Joel Salatin, a well spoken, forward thinking, Virginia farmer featured on the movie - Food Inc. (if you are into farms and food - watch it!!...) We are re-creating this movable hen house so we can give more structure to the girls day outside and in turn they will be improving the farm and providing our customers with more free-range eggs.
One thing I have learned in the last year regarding keeping chickens is that no matter how many acres of property you have, they always prefer to be where they shouldn't be, preferably scratching through a freshly mulched flower bed, pecking at a prize-winning heirloom tomato ripening on the vine, pooping on the driveway or standing by the butterfly bush to get some easy prey, ... ack- no more!!
The great thing is that they will have an official "job" to do on the farm after this is complete - we will rotate them to specific areas of the property with their portable fence and hen house on wheels - in order to clean up the bugs, aerate the soil, and eat the young clover... and the best part -they will leave their fertilizer where it should be (aka not on our driveway:lol). Yippee! More pictures to come as that project progresses!
Monarch season is in full swing here and I have witnessed monarchs flying past me on their way to lay eggs on the Milkweed plants. Here is a shot of one laying eggs, and a caterpillar in the background- cool!
Love the caterpillars. They are poisonous to birds, and their bright color alerts predators to the yucky taste. These bugs are amazing and fly all the way to Mexico to overwinter!! Just crazy to me how they can fly that far, weighing less than a paperclip!
They grow so quickly here is one a few days old and another about a week older.
Now that the temps are cooling down a bit, you can find bumblebees out in the field falling asleep on the flowers. Literally stopping to take a little nap. kinda cute! Here is a big fuzzy bee on a tithonia - mexican sunflower.
Ma and grandma picking the remaining flowers left on the zinnias. Starting to putter out - both the flowers and the flower pickers! haha!
Of course, one unstoppable force is in the next photo - dumpling, coming along on his building project.
Starting to take shape. Can't wait to see it with the roof and decking all done. Another reason why we need the hurricane to take a detour!!
Not to mention Our field of 10,000 sunflowers are really going gang-busters here, Lets hope they make it through our the windy friday of Earl passing by. about 30 days left til blooming.
Mowing around the field.
Jeruselum Artichoke blooming in the garden. Kitty in background.
Last pic is our Basil in full swing. Has been such a delight to go out and pick all summer long and toss into salads, tomatoes, pizzas, sandwiches and pesto. As soon as the first cold front hits next month, this stuff will be toast, but still plenty to enjoy for now! 
C.E. posing with a hive.
Fellow TBA members checking out the apiary
Funny how I remember passing by this place as a kid and always wanting to know what was going on there. It only took 25 years or so, but I got a private tour of the place!
We arrived at 6pm so we were just in time to watch hundreds of thousands of bees heading back to the hives as the sun began to set. Was awesome to feel surrounded by them all, just the vast numbers of them wizzing about was so cool, his yard is one busy bee airport -! Wish i would have made note of the number of hives he had - but I would estimate he had between 25-30. Probably well over 250,000 bees there! Despite the numbers, looked like everyone knew which hive to go to...sort of a calm chaos as they flew back to their entrances for the evening.
Tour of the grounds. Here is a Brown Turkey Fig tree, CE had just picked a few gallons that day and let us sample some...yummmm!
Tulip Poplar Tree - this is a very important nectar source in the spring for the bees.
Huge Tree with leaves shaped like a tulip flower. 
As we entered the honey extraction room we were greeted by this honey sign. He even had customers knocking on the door and asking for honey as he was giving the class. 
Once we got inside the extraction room - I realized it was alittle toasty, actually.... it was dang hot in there. The dehumidifier was on too. The dry heat helps preserve the honey and prepares it for extraction. Despite the temps - here are some cool photos of C.E. in action!! He took out frames one at a time and with a knife -he cut through the caps of the comb, using a gentle sawing motion...prepared the frames for the extractor.
Uncapping the honeycomb - C.E. is using an electric heated knife he's had for over 35 years! 
Slicing through the capped comb. 
Note the lady in the window... She was cracking me up. Just appeared out of nowhere and was stalking C.E. to get some comb honey. He told her he was out - and even gave her the name and number to someone in the club who did. But I think seeing all the frames there, she didnt want to take no for an answer. Haahaa then she proceded to make herself at home in front of the window watching the extraction process. Suddenly, it- felt like we were part of a museum exhibit. hummm...C.E. has one serious fan club :) After a few minutes his son was able to help her out with a bottle of honey. One more person to add to the 220 tba members!? 
Here is dumpling giving it a whirl. Looking like a old pro already!
Loading the frames into the extractor. 6 frames at a time.
Cranking up the spinner -thankfully it had a motor, not a hand crank so It only took about 10 minutes to get all the honey out of the frames. 
Lifting the lid filled the room with the scent of warm honey. 
Ahhh...Finally my favorite step- Turn the knob and let the honey out :) 
Keeping the cycle of sunflowers going - The last week of July we planted 10,000 sunflowers after tilling under the buckwheat field. Was alittle worried about timing the field for bloom perfectly for our wedding day. Luckily I had stumbled upon an article about doing mass sunflower planting in a way that will give cuttings and blooms for up to 30 days. It advised to create a mixture of sunflowers with 3 different varieties of bloom times. 60, 70, 80 days til bloom. So I ordered away and We were 78 days out when the field was planted with the mix. Also mixed in some sunflowers with darker sunset colors, rust, dark centers, which will work well for the October themed bouquets. 
Here is dumpling on one of the hottest days of the year. We had put down the irrigation lines. and then he used the earthway seed planter to put them in neat rows. Didn't plant in the middle as the tent will go there.
Here is a close up - of them popping up after a heavy rain. 
More Rudbeckia - perfect for fall bouquets. 
