We all know that when the men in white suits come for you – you must be crazy. But this crazy man was wearing a white suit – and installing three pounds of bees and a queen in each of two hives. CRAZY, I say.
The fact that the bees arrived on April 1st gives yet another dimension to the craziness/foolishness of this endeavor. And yet, here they are.
Perched on the hillside – far from the house, facing south/southeast with some trees and shrubs to protect the back of the hives from wind, we think they are in the perfect place. Now they just need to get busy and pollinate my garden, fruit trees, blueberries, raspberries and the like – and a little honey would be nice too.
A bit nerve-wracking for a first time beekeeper.Opening the package of three pounds of bees.Making room in the hive for the queen cage.Shaking the bees into the hive.Giving them some sugar water to get them started.Whew. Glad that’s over.
Those of you who follow No Rhyme or Reason Farm know we named it that because it had been known as the “Reason Farm,” the last name of the people who had lived here for decades, and because there was — No Rhyme or Reason for us to have a farm at this stage in our lives when we should be considering assisted living options and not shoveling horse poop and roto-tilling gardens. It comes with a bit of irony that in abbreviating the No Rhyme or Reason Farm, it becomes the No R or R Farm — which is so true. We could have named it the No Rest or Relaxation Farm.
But, we are determined to have some rest and relaxation — right after a lot of hard work. We’ve been busy trying to clean out the insides of the spring house where rocks (actually boulders) have tumbled into it. We’ve been hoisting them out, cleaning away debris — and building more rock walls, because that’s what I do with all the rocks around here.
We cleared the brambles and vines away from several trees adjacent to the spring house ruins and we realized… this is the perfect place for some R and R. Chris’ niece brought us a hammock from her recent trip through South America, so with the addition of a couple of hooks on the trees — I’m ready for some R and R this summer. I think it will be a great place to read a book while Chris cuts the grass.
Clearing out the bed of the spring house so the spring can flow again.Cleared away a tree stump wrapped in old fencing and barbed wire — ouch!My new stone wall for a flower bed between the trees.A perfect quiet place…To hang hooks…For a hammock!
I’m extending my garden 8 feet x 8 feet. It’s not that big of an extension – but it’s a big deal. This expansion comes with a door, a thermostat, a fan – and glass!
My 8 x 8 greenhouse should arrive next week. We decided it should go adjacent to the garden. It’s a relatively flat spot with bright sunlight and close enough to take plants back and forth between the two. We bought some 4×4 landscape ties so we will have a frame upon which to place the greenhouse when they deliver it. Chris got busy with the shovel and the level. The problem is, it isn’t really level at all. In fact, it’s very NOT level. It took several attempts and a 2nd trip back to Home Depot to get more 4×4 landscape ties – and now it’s level!
I love my garden and I never can wait until the appropriate time to start planting it. I’ll confess to having to replant things every year because I jump the gun, heel-in the tomatoes and basil, and come out the next morning to find them DOA.
So, not only am I expanding my garden size… I’m expanding my growing season. Now I can start those plants early and keep them toasty in the greenhouse. And just think of the advantages when fall creeps in. I can probably keep basil growing at least until Thanksgiving! And maybe some containers of lettuce and spinach too!
It slopes more than we thought.Squared up and getting tilled.
That is definitely a question that I would answer – not to bee. But Chris has a bee in his bonnet, and thinks this will be a good idea. I do love that our farm produces “things” – vegetables, eggs, and maybe – honey. I don’t love the idea of getting stung.
I’m not unfamiliar with the idea. My family used to keep bees. I can build bee equipment, and I know how to extract honey. It’s the stuff in between – actually tending to the bees – that I have no idea about, nor do I want to. So Chris is now attends the Chester County Beekeepers Association and he is also enrolled in a beekeeping class to get an overview of the ins and outs of a hive.
He came home with a collection of beekeeping catalogs and a Beekeeping for Dummies book. I’ll leave it at that…
Coffee Table reading on the farm lately.Stay tuned…
We have quite a few Black Walnut trees on our property and they create several problems. First of all, there are a lot of things you can’t plant near them because they have toxins in their root system and bark that things like apples and pears don’t like – so we have to keep them apart. Then, the bark or chipped wood is also toxic to horses – so we have to keep them apart. And then, they provide food for the squirrels who are multiplying like rabbits on our property – so we need to keep them apart! I’m not sure how.
In addition to those problems, they drop these green-husked balls the size of hand grenades all over the yard. They are like ball bearings. If you step on one, it’s likely to take you for a ride. And trying to cut the grass with all these hand grenades all over the place sends them shooting in different directions and/or dinging up the lawn mower blades.
I spent the better part of a day raking them up, filling a 5 gallon bucket and moving them into some of the underbrush where we don’t cut the grass. But it wasn’t “a” 5-gallon bucket, it was 20 trips with the 5-gallon bucket, and that’s only from two trees, and more are continuing to fall as we speak.
Putting them in a pile is like creating a squirrel grocery store. That isn’t going to help solve the squirrel problem, and over time – we’ll have thousands of new black walnut trees sprouting from the black walnut patch.
I contemplated husking them, shelling them and picking out the nut meats – for about two seconds until I remembered that:
I’d need a corn sheller to run the husks through to peel off the tough green outer layer
I’d need rubber gloves because otherwise my hands would be permanently stained black (well, almost permanently – it takes a long time to get those nails clean again), and
I’d probably only get a pound or two of nut meat for all my hard work.
So, I called the cooperative extension service and left a voice mail to find out if anyone has a commercial black walnut shelling operation around here. Since they still haven’t called me back, I guess the squirrel grocery store is open for business.
It’s a beautiful tree, until it starts dropping green tennis balls all over the yard.They’re everywhere.Bucket by bucket, I moved them……into a pile of black walnuts where the squirrels can find them.
We’ve been in the house for just over a year now – and other than some spot cleaning, I haven’t really washed the windows! The year just flew by, we were busy with other things and you could still see out of the windows – so it just never crossed my mind. Now that it’s time to close up for the winter, the spots from rain, dead bugs and dirt looked pretty bad.
When we renovated the house, all the old windows came out and new, energy efficient windows went in. Not only are they energy efficient, they are cleaning efficient. They have a magic latch that allows me to fold the window into the house so I can clean both sides without even contemplating a ladder (because if a ladder was needed, they still wouldn’t be getting cleaned).
Still, I hate washing windows. You get one side clean, and then when you do the other side, there are streaks, and you can’t tell which side they are on, so you end up doing both sides, and then there are different streaks. It takes FOREVER.
I told Chris I was about to clean the windows and he recommended, more like insisted, that I use his auto glass cleaner and old towel rags. I’ve cleaned with Windex-type cleaner and paper towels my whole entire life. What’s with auto glass cleaner and old towel rags? He even demonstrated how I needed to do it (one window down, 16 more to go). I thought about saying, can you show me that again (then there would only be 15 more to go) – but I figured I had the concept down. Spray stuff on, wipe stuff off.
And that was it. Done. Sparkling. Finished. I threw out my Windex-type cleaner.
I think men everywhere must be keeping this a secret. They say, “honey, I’m going in the garage to wash the car windows, I’ll be back in HOURS,” and we believe them!
Dirt and dead bugs!The windows fold in! What an amazing invention. No ladder needed.
The upstairs of this house was a mess. The carpet was filthy. Walking across it left footprints in the dirt that had rained down from the attic. The bathroom was disgusting. The toilet had a rag stuffed in it. The tub was falling off the wall. The linoleum was peeling. It wasn’t very pleasant.
As with everything else, it just took a plan. We knocked down the wall between the two small rooms and turned it into one gracious space. It was definitely one of the better decisions we made. The Master Bedroom is spacious and full of light with two windows facing the front yard and two windows facing the back. Out the front window, we watch the activity at the bird-feeder (we have Nuthatches, Cardinals, Wrens, Blue Jays, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, and squirrels who apparently think they are birds). Out the back window we watch the deer who graze their way through the backyard at dusk every evening. And I can use the tiny “back-stairs” to go directly from the Master Bedroom to the Kitchen, should I have a midnight snack attack — how convenient.
We reconfigured a closet that was in the bathroom and opened it up in the bedroom instead. It wasn’t an easy task for John and his crew. The wall was two feet thick and solid rock; it took some muscle to knock it down. In the bathroom we converted the nasty tub into a walk-in shower, added a floor to ceiling cabinet for a linen closet and a bathroom vanity with lots of drawer space!
And then here was the tiny room at the other end of the hall. It’s wasn’t really big enough for a bedroom. It was a little too big for a closet (though visions of a wonderful room-sized closet did cross my mind). It became the perfect spot for a quiet retreat and a home office. The ceiling is low in this room. It’s only 80″ tall (that’s 6’8″). We bought bookcases that are 78″ tall. I held my breath as we moved them in to place, I wasn’t sure they would fit. But they did, just barely. In fact, they look like “built-ins,” and they are the perfect place to display tchotchkes from our various trips. It looks like it was meant to be just like this. Not just the upstairs, but the whole house. It was meant to be our home.
The “Master” Bedroom was two small separate rooms. We pulled down the wall.A mess of a master bedroom.The Master – spacious and clean!We added a closet!A really disgusting bathroom.The Master Bath – no comparison to what it looked like before!Our walk-in shower.A very cozy office.Not much room, but it’s functional – and a nice retreat.A great view out the office window to watch the deer.A dingy hallway.Not so dingy now.
No Rhyme or Reason Farm 