Ah, that first fire. Over the weekend DH and I hauled a bunch dried fire wood from the woodpile to the screened porch, and I cut up a lot of kindling. It was my first go with the small electric chainsaw that a friend gave us. It does the job! Another friend commented “My favorite …
Monthly Archives: October 2012
Making Simple Mead
I started my first mead – fermented honey wine – Â today. I used my own honey, of course. This little jar was from our last extraction (09/26). All the air bubbles that were “invited” into the honey when spinning it had risen to the top, taking the wax and propolis that had hitched a ride …
Two Ferments: Sauerkraut and Comfrey Liquor
The first one is sauerkraut. It is my first deliberately fermented food. A huge cabbage head came in our CSA box a couple of weeks ago. What to do with it? As I was reading Sandor Katz’s The Art of Fermentation, I couldn’t resist. My mom and I went looking for a good crock, but all the right …
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Chicken TV
Best telly ever! Up the volume for some delish schmecking. Makes you hungry just looking at them. One missed out as she was in the nest box laying. These three didn’t leave anything for her.
Robbing Honey and Fall Hive Manipulations
Woah, I just did the most stressful honey robbing yet. A warm (80F) and sunny day, the bees were busy. Hive 3, my Super Hive I brought the super with the frames we harvested last week (green in the image). You return harvested frames to the hive so the bees can clean out the honey …
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Riot for Austerity – September 2012 – Month 47
This is the Riot for the month of September 2012 for the three of us plus my parents for two weeks, so 4 people. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers! Gasoline.  Calculated per person. DH’s shuttle started running so he hasn’t been driving …
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Fall Harvests
Here’s the West Garden, put to bed with the indispensable help of my mom and dad, who were visiting from Belgium the last two weeks.  Thank you, Oma and Opa, also for helping me extract another 25 lbs. of honey, totaling the honey harvest from Hive 3 to almost 50 lbs! I keep saying this is …
Huge Dead Pine Tree Down
A pine in our backyard started dying two years ago. You could see the needles falling, the woodpeckers going after one particular spot, pitting the bark there. The bark stated falling off. Then dry, dead branches started crashing down. It was time to take it down, because Amie’s swing stands only ten feet away from …