Putting down roots.

We planted two gardenias by the gate in November, but this weekend we started our orchard with two fig trees we received as a gift and two blueberry bushes.   The fig trees did great in the greenhouse over winter and we moved them outside a couple of weeks ago.  The first leaves opened at the start of this week, so this was a good time to get them in the ground.  The roots were less pot-bound than we thought and there was a good soaking rain overnight.  I think they will do well.  We are so looking forward to adding the trees we ordered from Arbor Day Foundation -- hopefully over spring break.

Our plans for the house change from minute to minute, but we know where the RV will go and we plan to watch the woods go through the seasons from there before we make a final decision on the house.  Every time we visit the farm, we see reasons to place the house in one place, then another, then another.....  It will all work out in time.

We cooked supper and breakfast in the RV and had my brother-in-law (BIL) over for both meals, which was fun, even if I clearly don't yet have the oven figured out.   It didn't help that I thought I heard BIL yell yesterday while he was using the table saw (he just sneezed), so I turned the gas burner and oven off and ran to check on him and then couldn't relight the pilot light on the oven because it was too hot.  So much for biscuits...   Then I burned the biscuits this morning, so I need to find the middle ground between barely cooked and black next time!

As usual, leaving was difficult.  Daylight savings time stole one hour of our day, and then we fiddled around doing bee stuff with BIL until 2 hours after our planned departure.  It was worth it to see how his hives are growing and then to see a series of beautiful rainbows on the drive back home.

Life is good.  We have redbud trees in full bloom down by the creek and more surprises to come, I'm sure, in the coming weeks.

Bee ready

It's official -- if we are going to expand the bee business, we need to build a workshop at the farm!   We have bee boxes everywhere, and we have locations to set them up when the bees arrive at the end of the month.  It's been a lot of work getting everything painted, but it's been fun and stress relief, too.

As you can see, we have no room in the garage and we still have boxes in the dining room.  We have to put foundation in a bazillion frames over the next two weeks, and I'm hoping we can do that sitting in front of the TV because it sounds like tedious work.   So tedious, that grading essays might be more enjoyable, especially as my students are writing very well right now.

The existing hives are doing well and we have had to add to each of them.   I like seeing some of the new colors out there mixed in with our original blue boxes.

We realized that we will need to make multiple trips to get everything we need to move down to the farm before spring break, so we're hauling a load of supplies down there later today.  It will be good to stand on our land and see the early signs of spring for the first time.    We've seen it late summer, fall, winter, and in torrential rain that was more befitting a hurricane coming in than a winter storm.    If we can fit them on the truck, we'll take a few plants down and get them in the ground too.

It will be a very quick trip there and back because we both have a bunch of deadlines for projects for our day jobs before spring break.  It's been too long since we sat around a camp fire with family, so a quick trip and a day dream is better than no trip at all.  Of course, I'm hoping to find that giant gold nugget in our churned up soil so that I can be a step closer to sitting in our workshop, painting hive bodies and bird houses to my heart's content.

One Bee of a Headache!

We've had a good weekend working in the yard and painting hives in preparation for the bees we're getting from the South Carolina Beekeepers Association on March 19th.   We have enough hive bodies built and painted to accommodate the newcomers, and I'll spend evenings this weekend decorating them and using the wood burning tool to permanently add our name to each piece of equipment.  We did some hive maintenance and found good supplies of nectar, pollen, and brood and no evidence of mites or wax moths.  After I cleaned up a little, I decided to take one last look at the hives before coming in to grade essays.  That's when a bee got itself tangled up in my hair band.  I'm used to bees buzzing through my hair when I'm standing near the hives, but they have never stopped to say hello before today.   When I pulled my hairband off, the angry little critter was still saying hello to my headband with its pulsating stinger!   Now, all previous stings have been minor nuisances, but this one is giving me a headache like I haven't had in years -- despite the toothpaste rubbed into my scalp.

But, back to positives.....  we have almost everything painted that needs painting, just in time for the nucs that were on backorder to arrive on Tuesday for next weekend's painting marathon!  I am getting closer to finding a good sized font for the name of our farm and I'm even getting better at painting the farm name free-hand.   This kind of work outside in the spring sunshine is the perfect antidote to the stress I felt by the end of last week.   It's not that the week was much different to others, but at one point I thought I was caught up on the tedious side of teaching, such as filing paperwork and grading, and then I received a stack of essays to evaluate by Tuesday.....   I will be able to score them relatively quickly, but I did so want to feel caught up for just one afternoon!

The seeds I planted last weekend are also trying my patience, but I checked the seed packets and saw that germination time for all of them is anywhere from 7 - 14 days, so I've resisted the urge to dig around in the potting soil to see what they are doing.    But while painting I've been able to look at the first daffodils and crocus blooming.  The bees are bringing in four different colors of pollen, and lots of it.   Yes, my head still hurts, but it's still a beautiful day and I look forward to seeing our bee business grow.   (And to spring break and a week on the farm!)  Life is good. 

Painting Hive Bodies

After weeks of cold weather and a sinus infection that wouldn't quit, I was so happy to see the sun come out and temperatures to rise above 50 degrees this week!   My husband had been putting together hive bodies while I slept the previous weekend away, and they were stacked up in the garage just waiting to be painted.  I arrived home Tuesday and grabbed the paint can with the green dot on the lid and headed out to start painting. 

The green dot and label lied -- the paint was actually the interior paint we are using in the living room, but I used it anyway.  A lack of exterior paint was not going to send me back indoors!   I painted a couple of boxes with that and a couple with some ancient paint I used in the upstairs bathroom after our youngest daughter moved out after high school.  (She's since completed her degree and has been working for two years, so the paint is old!   It was also the consistency of old milk, but it served as a primer.)  On Wednesday I stopped at Wal-Mart then Lowe's and purchased some pistachio spray paint, and yellow and almond paint.   I'm not very good with spray paint, so the pistachio also ended up being a primer.    But, I am well on the way to having a quart of paint's worth of yellow bee boxes.

I found two sketches of magnolias I like, and used the line drawing one with transfer paper with minimal success to decorate one box.   I haven't been able to find a stencil I liked, so I decided to make my own stencil.  I also decided to try wood burning.  As luck would have it, the wood burning tool I bought on Friday comes with a tip designed for cutting out stencils and it worked for the first one.  I  ended up hurrying the second one and melted holes all over the plastic with the barrel of the tool, so I'll revisit that in a few days when my patience level has refilled a little!

I know I won't have time to decorate every box, especially as hubby is on the way back from Georgia with a trailer full of boxes that need to be cleaned and painted in addition to the new ones still waiting in the garage.    I figure I'll girlify a few at a time.   All of our current boxes are painted with a baby blue paint that is the result of mixing lots of left-over cans in a big bucket, so a few splashes of color here and there will at least be a break in the monotony! 

I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow and I also hope it does rain.  I still have 40 essays to grade before Monday morning, and painting magnolias is just so much more fun!   Somehow I just have to find a balance between getting my students the feedback they need and indulging in the creativity that gives me the mental strength to keep teaching literary analysis and writing!

What I've learned while making fondant for bees

Let me preface this post by saying that I know some of these things should be painfully obvious, but I hope that some of my readers are, at times, as distracted as I while trying to do many things at once -- like playing SimCity while cooking. 

Lesson 1:  Respect the capabilities of your equipment.  Five pounds of sugar cooks quite nicely in my largest pot and cools quite nicely in my mixing bowl.  A few weeks ago, I tried to make a 7 1/2 pound batch.  The time I spent trying to get the sugar up to temperature while not letting it boil over ended up making the process take longer than it took me to make two, 5-pound batches today.  I was able to start cooling the first batch in the mixer while bringing the second batch to a boil.  Five pounds of sugar yields around 9 each 6" small paper plates full of fondant, and each hive eats 4 plate fulls in 3 - 4 days. 

Lesson 2:  Paper plates work well, especially the small, 6" size ones.  We can fit four plates to a hive.  We have a spacer between the brood chamber and the super so that the plates fit without letting in cold, winter air.   Only two dinner-size plates fit in the same space.  I've tried making fondant on baking trays, but it ended up a soupy, sticky mess that wouldn't hold its form, which is why we switched to plates.   However, today we poured a batch onto a wax-paper covered cookie tray, which leads to lesson 3.

Lesson 3:  If the sugar mixture goes above "soft ball" on the candy thermometer, it is likely to set up very quickly and very hard.  If you notice the fondant getting hard when it is still hot, get it out of the mixer (or, worse, saucepan) quickly.   My first or second batch of fondant turned into a giant sugar-cube in the bottom of my pot in about 30 seconds while I was searching for my pan.   However, you can add water and slowly bring up to a temperature at which the sugar will dissolve again to get it out of there.

Lesson 4:  Drape your counter tops with beach towels!   The YouTube videos we've watched all seem to feature organized people not making a mess in their kitchens,  but hot fondant drips.   It's so much easier to throw towels in the washing machine than to dispose of newspaper.  We like to recycle, and I don't think anyone wants us to recycle sugar-coated newspapers.  Plus, you can drape the towels over the edge of the counter for added protection.  I guess you see why I blog instead of making YouTube videos.  Plus, no one (except maybe my husband) wants to watch an old lady dance to "I Love Rock and Roll" while stirring boiling fondant.

Lesson 5:  Hot fondant burns about the same as hot wax.  If you get some on your hand, remember which faucet is the cold water and which is hot.  It doesn't help to run hot, hot water over hot fondant.   This is why many people recommend using oven mitts, but I don't like wearing gloves unless I have to -- like when I pick up the hot mixing bowl.  There's a time and a place for everything, but stirring the sugar water while wearing gloves doesn't work for me.

Lesson 6:  If you take the plates out to fill the hives, the bees will find them (and you) in about ten seconds, especially if you've added Honey B Healthy or essential oils.   If the fondant is soft, it's easier for the bees to digest, but not good for hugging to your chest to keep the bees off.    If you do end up with a t-shirt covered in fondant, head indoors quickly and make sure none of the bee-knee babies is following you!

Lesson 7:  Don't be surprised if the bees eat your paper plates.   We weren't, because my brother-in-law had the great idea (and I don't mean that sarcastically) of leaving notes about how many frames had what on them in the hives, but when he went to show my husband his system, there were no notes in the first three hives.  The half-eaten index card was proof of his sanity -- a big relief to us all. 

Lesson 8:  Softer fondant is easier for the bees to digest, and as we're giving this to them when nature is making life difficult for them, my goal is to get the right consistency.  However,  if it turns out "wrong,"  the bees will eat it anyway.   Too soft, and it will absorb water from the air and turn to syrup.  "Too hard", and it's easy to stack, store, and transport.  Don't stress about it.   If the fondant ends up just right, we can't stack the plates, but we're fine with our dining table looking like we're expecting the Edgar-eating roach from Men in Black to come for a tea party and the plates of sugar never stay there long.

Lesson 9:  It's worth the time and effort.   Bees are stupid and will go ice-skating on a bucket of sugar water when they are hungry.  Our bees are out and about when temperatures rise above 45 degrees, but the buckets take a long time to warm up and often have ice on them until mid-afternoon.   I've been experimenting with ways to let them wet feed without becoming hypothermic, and may have one successful method.   I'll blog about that once we're convinced it actually reduces bee loss. 

Thinning Trees

While we are hesitant to lose our privacy, we know that our trees are overcrowded and therefore not healthy.  We could probably have left them alone for another year or two, but as we need egress for the power company and a space on which to start building our cabin, we decided to have the trees thinned now.   Heathier trees are more able to withstand pine beetle attacks and thinned trees will grow faster the remaining trees have less competition for nutrients.

This is a good time for us to thin as we will not have to deal with having the heavy equipment and tree branches once we start living there -- whether on a permanent or vacation-only basis.  We plan to mulch all of the trimmings, although we realize all may be an unrealistic goal!   We just think about how much mulch we were able to generate from one downed Bradford Pear tree a couple of years ago and envision a thick mulch carpet under the power lines along "Bee Lane."   A little voice keeps telling me that there are going to be more branches than we can possibly grind up over spring break and that those branches are ideal hiding places for snakes, but I'll put on my snake boots and we'll do what we can!

We have heard some horror stories about more trees being removed than agreed upon, damage to land, and missing hardwoods when "only pines were harvested."   We strongly recommend using a certified timber harvester and asking neighbors who they would recommend.    Our harvester, Scott Smith, was recommended by many people that we and our brother-in-law know and we have  not heard a single negative comment.   Scott originally came out and tied pink tape onto trees to keep in a small section of our land so that we could see what his recommended thinning would look like.  We liked what we saw, so, before his team showed up, he painted every tree that is to remain and painted boundary lines where the harvesters should stop, which is especially important to us as the land transitions to hardwoods as it nears the creek.    We walked our property boundary on Saturday -- something we had planned to do over winter break but could not do due to the incessant rain.  We looked at the marked trees and tried to envision what our land will look like by the end of this week.  We found some more springs, some amazing boulders, and a couple of open areas that will be perfect for planting our seedlings.    Our long-term plan is to transition the land to half pine, half hardwood, but our plans are constantly evolving so may change again in the next five minutes -- or at least after we see what the land looks like.

I headed straight back to the city on Monday, but my husband took a side-trip to see the harvesting in progress.  He got to see the first load of trees leave our land and took pictures of the harvesting process.  The way he described it, the man running the loader was able to snap a branch off with the grapple on the loader  more accurately than I can do with my little chain saw!   He was simply amazed at the skill and efficiency of the team.    We did not realize that they would even out the loading deck and driveway with a bulldozer to make their lives easier, and we are very happy with that added bonus.

I know we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we will take a load of daylilies with me spring break and start to turn the loading deck into a garden.   We have already taken our leaky RV and turned it into a home, although we may not be able to move it to our land until summer.  The proceeds from the trees should be enough to pay for electricity and a well.  Our home site is more visible from the road now, but we know we are heading in the right direction.   The dream is becoming a reality; life is good.

Magnolia Seedlings December 2015

A few months ago, I soaked and peeled magnolia seeds and placed most of them in the vegetable drawers of the bee-supply refrigerator as I read that they need to undergo months of cold temperatures before they will germinate.  I planted some directly in seed starter pots and left those outside the greenhouse to naturally go through the seasons.  Apparently they don't need 3 months of cold temperatures. The tender seedlings that sprouted in our abnormally high temperatures last week would probably not survive next week's temperatures without the shelter of the greenhouse, but the few cold nights we've had this year followed by temperatures in the high 70s were enough to get them growing.   While only one in the above picture has obvious leaves, two others are about to unfold leaves today.

I pulled the containers out of the refrigerator and dumped all the seeds into an aluminum pan which I placed in the greenhouse.  Two of the containers were bone dry and one had a patch of mold on top, so leaving the seeds out in the elements is clearly the better option for someone like me who doesn't remember to check what's in the refrigerator in the house, never mind the one in the garage with the bee supplies!    

I know I'm placing a lot of faith in the greenhouse, but we'll see how well it fares this week with predicted record lows and two light bulbs burning in there overnight.  The day time high in the greenhouse only reached 64 degrees today and the magnolia seedlings are not supposed to germinate until temperatures reach the high 70s, so I don't expect to see 50 seedlings pop up in the next day or two!   I really am far too impatient to be an effective gardener, but sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised -- as with the 30 Goldenraintree seedlings that are still thriving.   School starts again in two days, so I'll be too busy to check the greenhouse five times a day.   As well as the plants did without me for the past 10 days, I'm sure they can grow without me watching them!