May – Swarm Frenzy

May 17, 2020 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Beekeeping, Chester County, Farm, Homestead, Uncategorized

We have three bee hives. One survived the winter, the other two needed new bees this spring. The one that survived the winter is strong and busy – too busy. They raised a new queen and split. Half of the hive took off looking for a new home. They got as far as a tree about 40 feet from the hive – and 40 feet in the air. So we watched and we waited – for days. They just hung there.

Finally we decided to attempt the impossible. Chris attached a bucket sprayed with sugar water to a really long pole, I grabbed a rake – and we both “suited up” with gloves, a bee veil and in my case – just about all the clothes I own. The first problem was getting to the tree. It’s up a steep hill, overgrown with berry brambles and wild roses (the only thing those wild roses grow is thorns!). Then we had to fight through vines that were climbing the tree. Once we were on the “up-side” of the tree, Chris could reach the swarm with the bucket. But just holding the bucket in place next to the swarm apparently wasn’t enticing enough. I reached up with the rake, snagged some vines and started pulling – hard enough to make the branch shake and the bees to fall into the bucket – except for the ones that didn’t fall into the bucket. Those took flight, and seemed to most enjoy the flight path around my face. Worse yet – there was no easy escape. For as difficult as it was to fight the hill, the brambles and the vines to get in there – it was even harder to get back out with bees flying around your face – yikes! Oh, and did I mention while doing all of that I was also trying to film it on my phone. I’d share it with you, but most of what you would see is the ground as I was trying to run away – and the audio (I definitely shouldn’t share that).

In the long run – we had success! We captured about 3/4th of the swarm, poured the bees into a small hive, put the lid on – and sighed a big relief. We weren’t really looking to add a fourth bee hive, so this one will stay in the small hive and hopefully live over the winter. That way, if we have a hive that doesn’t survive ’till next spring – we will have replacement bees ready to move into a full-sized bee hive. Here’s hoping!

Our bees – just hanging out – way up in a tree.

A five-gallon bucket full of bees – need I say more?

We hope they make this their home and don’t take off on any more adventures!

April – We dug up a barn and planted carrots

April 22, 2020 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, Farm, Garden, Homestead, Uncategorized

Every year when it’s time to start digging in the garden, we hit rocks – more like boulders, and we dig them out. This year was no different – in fact – even worse.

I bought a broad fork – a pitch fork looking contraption with an ergonomic handle that’s made for gently lifting, fluffing, aerating the soil so that you don’t disturb the soil layers and all those earthworms as much as you would with a tiller. That was the plan.

Last weekend I started with just one bed in my vegetable garden – it’s 4′ x 20′. With the first thrust of my broad fork, I hit a rock so I went for my favorite shovel – the pink one that my sister gave me. It’s narrow, pointy and just the right size for me to get some leverage. I dug down and pried and prodded until I got the rock out. Whew. And then it happened again and again and again and again. I don’t know if the broad fork tines are longer than the reach of the tiller, or if the winter weather had heaved the rocks closer to the surface, but I think we dug up the foundation of an old barn. The rocks ran in a straight line – right down the entire length of the bed.

Chris said I was digging too deep – that vegetable roots only go so far, and the vegetable bed would be just fine if we left the rocks there. But I rotate crops in the garden – and this year – carrots need to go in that plot. And carrots won’t grow if they hit a rock. He pulled out his tractor with the front end loader – and as we dug, we filled the bucket – four times!

And then I started on the next bed… and there were more rocks, more tractor loads to haul out, and one rock in particular that won the prize. It was too big to haul out. We worked for about 4 hours and finally got it upright to take up less space, but now it looks like a tombstone in the garden.

The soil is gorgeous now. All the digging and prying and prodding may have disturbed the soil layers, but we mixed in compost and wood ash and planted the carrots. They better appreciate all that hard work and grow like never before!

Prying up a rock with my favorite shovel.

I needed help getting some of these out.

The broad fork just kept finding more and more rocks

We filled up the front-end bucket 4 times and hauled those rocks out of the garden. They better not be back again next year!

This one is staying put – right smack in the middle of one of my garden beds. It looks like we buried someone there!

February – Where Summer Meets Super Bowl

February 2, 2020 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Uncategorized

We grow a lot of beans in the garden – mostly green beans. Last year, I decided to try to grow some dry beans. You just grow them – and don’t pick them! During all of those hot summer days when I was busy picking fresh green beans and freezing them on a daily basis, I would look at those “other” beans and think – wow – this is so great! I don’t even have to pick them. They can just keep growing and dry up. How easy is that!

Until it wasn’t. All of a sudden they did dry up – and there were a LOT of them. Black and white Calypso beans, red Kidney beans, red and white Christmas beans, Black Valentine beans, purple-ish Cherokee Trail of Tears beans and dried Navy beans. But, they still needed to be picked (at least all at one time), set to dry a little more on a shelf in the greenhouse, and then shelled.

And now, it’s a cold, dreary February day with snow flurries and there is nothing better than our dried Kidney beans, frozen diced peppers and canned tomatoes – all from the summer garden – to make an awesome chili for Super Bowl Sunday!

And a pot of chili for a cold winter night.

January – It’s time to garden – right?

January 2, 2020January 2, 2020 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Uncategorized

We have several black walnut trees on our property. One tree in particular is huge, it slants at a precarious angle, shades my garden and drops those hard green balls all over the yard where we walk between the house, the chicken coop, the barn and the garden. Even worse, the tree has a substance called juglone which is toxic to my fruit-bearing trees and bushes like apples, pears, raspberries, blueberries AND toxic for some of my annual vegetable plants, too. So the tree had to go.

This was no easy project. Not one that Chris could handle with his chain saw. This required a crane, a crew and a monkey. It was both fascinating and scary to watch. Even getting the crane up the driveway threading precariously through our tall Linden trees had me holding my breath. Then it had to get turned around in the tight space between the greenhouse, garage and house so that it could back across the front yard and get positioned next to the tree. Then the monkey showed up – this guy who climbed to the top canopy of the tree with a chain saw in his hand, wrapped ropes from the crane arm around the branches and started cutting. The crane then swung huge limbs and 12′ lengths of trunk up and over our porch roof to the driveway. The crew chipped and shredded the small stuff and left Chris with MOUNTAINS of logs.

Now we have STACKS of logs and a shed full of split wood ready for the wood stove and the fireplace. We are all set for a toasty-warm winter in front of the fireplace, and I can’t wait to plant my garden with full sunshine!

The crane came rolling in – and it was just about as big as our house!

This guy just climbed up the tree and started cutting.

The “small” branches were cut into fireplace logs and little stuff got shredded

One big branch to go – and then it’s just down to the trunk.

The trunk was so long it had to be cut into three lengths and lifted to the front yard.

Three big logs got sold for black walnut lumber.

What a difference it makes having the tree gone.

More logs to split – and a wood shed full of firewood!

December – Making Cookies is Exhausting

December 16, 2019 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Uncategorized

It’s that time again – time to make the cookies. We make a lot of cookies around here, mostly to give away because otherwise I would eat them all. And we make a wide variety of cookies from boring oatmeal-raisin, traditional chocolate chip, favorite chocolate covered peanut butter balls to “fancy” decorated sugar cookies.

While I can tackle most of the drop style of cookies, it’s always nice to have extra hands for making the decorated sugar cookies, and fun to have little (and big) hands helping with all the “sprinkling” of colored sugars, tiny snow-flakes and silver balls. I had help this weekend and we tackled a double batch! The cookies look beautiful, but I think we wore out the youngest helper.

Arianna and Rebecca helped with the “sprinkling.”

We made buckets and bags full of cookies!

November – Let the Sun Shine

November 27, 2019 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Uncategorized

We have an old stone farmhouse. It was built in 1853 with thick stone walls, deep window sills and small windows. We love the charm, but we don’t necessarily love how the stone walls stay cold in the winter, the lack of sunshine that comes in the small windows or how stuffy the house can be in the summer. Just because they didn’t have solar energy panels in 1853 doesn’t mean we can’t have them now.

We embarked on this process back in the spring – hoping for “free” electricity to keep the air conditioning cranked low all summer. That didn’t happen. The application process took a long time and PECO took issue with the plans. Eventually we got a modified plan approved and it was installed a few weeks ago.

The solar panels are on the roof of our the garage. It faces south, has no trees obstructing it and it’s not affecting the historic look of the house. It’s now connected to “the grid” and whatever electric we are not currently using gets sold back to PECO. I can’t wait to see that meter rolling backwards! And – the handy little app that came with the system says we’ve already saved the equivalent of 8 trees from our own power production.

Now we just need sunny days to keep us powered up – and on days that it’s not so sunny, we’ll just fire up the wood stove. Buckle up – here comes winter.

thumbnail_IMG_1146 — Then the solar panels

thumbnail_IMG_1149 — Now we just need a sunny day!

November – Move over Jimmy Carter

November 22, 2019 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, Garden, Uncategorized

There’s a new peanut grower in town. Yep – we grew our own peanuts this year. I bought a small packet of peanut seeds – well – not exactly seeds, just raw peanuts in the shell. We planted them and they grew! Peanuts aren’t really nuts; they don’t grow on nut trees. They grow in the ground – like potatoes. Makes you wonder why no one has potato allergies – they grow the same way.

Our peanuts didn’t produce a whole lot – maybe slightly more than the amount we planted, but this is No Rhyme or Reason Farm. We do things for no rhyme or reason around here. Actually, the reason was to prove we could do it, and to show Arianna where peanut butter comes from (besides the jar)!

Will I grow them again next year? Probably not. But it has given me a new appreciation for where my food comes from too. It takes a lot of peanuts and a lot of space to grow enough peanuts for even one peanut butter sandwich!

November – A Chicken Play Pen

November 12, 2019 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, chickens, Farm, Homestead, Uncategorized

We’ve had mesh netting around the chicken coop for a year or so now. It gives “the girls” a safe place to roam during the day when they aren’t on their supervised excursions into the yard-at-large. We always have to be vigilant because the fox and hawks like our chickens as much as we do! Chris decided it is time to build something more substantial so that if we are away for part of the day, we don’t have to be concerned that something can get to them.

It’s been a big project – digging holes to sink the 4”x4” fence posts, building a supporting framework at the top, building a door – and last but not least – getting the fencing around the side and over the top.

But that wasn’t enough – we decided they need to have fresh grass. But anyone who has a pen full of chickens knows you can’t have fresh grass unless you move them every day before they peck, scratch and claw their way to the dirt. Not to be outsmarted by a bunch of chickens, Chris built a raised bed for grass, covered by hardware cloth that they can’t peck through. This way, the grass will grow up and out the top, the girls can keep their lawn “mowed” by chomping away each day, and the underlying grass plants are safe from their voracious appetites.

Now they have a nice, big, safe space – which should soon have green grass. They should be quite content in their new playpen.

thumbnail_IMG_1166 — The mesh fencing worked well for a while, but the girls needed something more permanent.

thumbnail_IMG_1181 — And they needed fresh grass – all the time.

Finished Chicken Coop — So they got this beautiful, big chicken pen with a grass patio.

Chicken Coop with Chicken Grass Box — And everyone seems happy with their new chicken yard.

November – What IS this thing?

November 8, 2019 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, Farm, Homestead, Uncategorized

A cucumber? An out of control zucchini? Actually – it’s a sponge. A loofah sponge; and it’s growing in my garden!

It’s taken a bit of persistence. Loofah’s need a long growing season. I tried growing these last year and I got the tiniest little sponge that I harvested right before our first frost. This year, I started my loofah seeds in February, in the basement, under a grow light. They were soooo slow to germinate, and even slower to grow. I planted them outside in late May and they sat there for months, barely rising above the weeds around the edge of the garden fence. Slowly they started to climb the fence and I kept training their tendrils higher and higher. All of a sudden – they took off climbing over the six foot fence and FINALLY made some tiny loofahs. For as along as it took for the plants to grow, the loofahs seemed to double in size over night.

Our growing season is still barely long enough and frost was approaching; not all of them were ready to harvest. A few had turned yellow, they felt squishy and noticeably lighter than the dark green ones. I chopped them down, peeled one open and there it was – a perfect – sponge! Hopefully the others will dry a bit more so I can harvest a bathtub full of sponges.

It’s bigger than some of the zucchinis that grow in the garden!

Slowly it turns yellow and gets squishy-soft.

I peeled it open – and look! It’s a sponge!

November – Things that Make Me Smile

November 2, 2019 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Uncategorized

It’s been six months. Some people know that, some people don’t – but it seems to be the way I keep time in my life now.

It was six months ago that I buried my son on his 38th birthday. He passed away from an opioid overdose. I won’t deny that it’s been a tough summer. I’ve spent a lot of hours in my garden working hard – really hard – kicking at the dirt and yelling at the sky, trying to work out my grief and make some sense of this.

I’m finding a new balance in my life and learning to more fully appreciate the positive things. It’s a work in progress – and there are days that I fail at it. As we approach Thanksgiving – I’m thankful for what I do have in my life. I’m thankful for the support from my family – my husband, my daughter and my sister. I’m thankful for my friends who check in on me, give me a shoulder to cry on, or just give me space. I’m thankful for the sweet memories of a little boy who loved to go fishing, play with his dog and grew into a young man who fiercely loved his nieces and called himself their “funcle” (fun uncle). And I’m thankful for the things here on our farm that keep me grounded and make me smile.