Oscar is the third farm dog here. He is now ten years old, and moving toward retirement. In the past we got a pup when the working dog turned ten; the older dog helped train the younger one. But with Loyal’s older dog here, and my desire to travel, it doesn’t seem right to get a pup Oscar has seen many changes: he lost Ken, his main person, adapted to Loyal and his dog, Pilgrim’s …
It’s around midnight. This ten year old farm dog just treed a small bear. Loyal has secured his hives and I just want to say a good farm do is a real asset. Thanks, Oscar for being on duty 24/7. We appreciate it
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has cabbage, kohlrabi, potatoes, green peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, onions, and parsley Field Notes. Ken got a new area set up for the pigs, and we moved them Friday. Ken is also irrigating green houses, planting fall crops, and more. The soil is dry, but I am careful what I wish for – some friends just got six inches of rain! Ken checked his …
Ken has had bees for years. At first having bees was fairly easy – hive checks, routine maintenance, taking off honey, preparing for winter , and such. Then he started losing bees, and it has been a struggle to maintain a healthy hive. Large honey producers ship hives south and west for the winter. People are paid to pollinate crops like almonds in California. Many bees in one location …
Ken has bees here. He is most concerned with having a healthy hive to help with pollination of our crops. Honey bees also make two useful things for us:honey and beeswax Ken has been saving wax to make candles. I got him some molds and wicks a while back. While cleaning, Ken came across his beeswax stash and decided to make candles. He melts the wax in a pan of water …
Pollinators are crucial to a garden. About a third of our food requires pollination. Think of all those flowering plants that produce a “fruit” for us to eat – peas, beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, apples, plums, raspberries, strawberries, etc Ken keeps honey bees, and we encourage all pollinators. We try to have something blooming for them . Now the anise hyssop is blooming. It is a …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has salad and braising greens, Carrots, snap peas, herbs, green onions, the first of the potatoes, beans, and green top Walla Walla onions Field Notes. The key words for the week are green manures and mulch! Ken is nearly done mulching. And he has green manures coming up all over – field to the former flower garden! Last weekend Ken traveled to the Mother Earth News …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has salad and braising greens, garlic scapes, green onions, snap peas, beets or carrots, European turnips, herbs, the last of the asparagus Field Notes. Green manures and mulch. Ken is juggling the usual sequential plantings of greens, tying up tomatoes, irrigating the greenhouses, cultivating with a push to get areas either planted with green manures or mulched. Green manures are like living mulch – they lessen …
Tuesday Morning we arrived at the designated location at 6:30 a.m. to pick up our bees. Why so late? We were really happy to find bees that were overwintered in northern Minnesota. The over wintered bees are ready later than those that come from warmer climates and are often coming from large colonies in bee ghettos pollinating crops like oranges or almonds. The southern and western bees we have gotten recently have been weak, full …
