Bee Installation

Our bees arrived! Sadly, many of them didn't make it through the post office. We were only able to save three of the six hives that arrived, and one of those might not make it since we had to combine a number of them to have enough bees to support the queen.

Jen showed us how to insert the queen's chamber into the hive. We pulled out a cork to expose a sugar cube that the workers will eat through to free her. The time that it'll take them to eat it will be enough (hopefully!) that her pheromones will convince the bees we've put in her hive that she's their queen.

Installing bees is quite a sight: you need to scrape them out, bang the box on the ground and shake it to get all of them out and into the hive.

Glad we didn't get stung! And I hope that hive survives. More on that when we go back in a little bit to check on them!

Pride's a Mom!

Pride had her calf! And even she can't believe how big her udder is. When I took this picture he was less than a day old.

Our Very First Tomato!!!

Can you believe it? Can you even see it since it's so tiny and green? One of the early cherry tomatoes (a black cherry variety) that I planted a while ago has our first tomato of the season. It's right next to those three yellow flowers. Can't wait to eat it!

Independent Project!

So I'm building a pretty awesome portable (if you can pick up many pounds of steel) fireplace. I'm cutting out images on four panels which I'll weld into a cube. I'm assembling a base for it as well, so that it'll sit on legs above the ground and have a place for ash to fall through. I'm really excited about working on it and so far it's been pretty fun.

Into the Jungle

Turns out we have a jungle on the farm. We found that the electric fence was shorting and we headed out to find the problem. While fighting back the spring flush of brambles and grass that seem to grow purposefully to short out our fence, I visited a corner of the back pasture that I had never been to before. It turns out that two trees grew over the electric fence and this, combined with a tree that had fallen on it in the winter, meant that we had quite a bit of work to do.

Working around the poison ivy, we chipped away at the bark until we could snap the insulator that had once held the wire away from the tree. We then nailed in a board and new insulator, making sure to leave the nails out a bit so that we could adjust it in the coming years. Job well done, if I say so myself.

Gus

I'm beginning to think all dogs named Gus are invariably pretty awesome. This one likes to eat water from the hose and will wait until you walk by to eagerly jump up and persuade you to play. Never seen anything like it.

I Say Potato

We finally got to plant our potatoes this past week. We dropped them in their trenches, then went through with hoes (garden hoes, not garden hose) to cover them up and tamp them down. A nice, relaxing morning followed by some seeding in the greenhouse. Now if only the black flies would be on their merry way!

And the most important......

Tomato time! I planted these bad boys and they're happily soaking up all the rain this week (after Theo's helpful watering in). So excited to watch them grow outdoors!

Fire!

There's nothing like a good burn pile! And there's certainly nothing like having two going at once. We've been working all spring to clear a new pasture and finally have enough trees down to burn them and start a fence. We put high tensile fence back in the woods with Ben which was a blast. We got to choose the line it would take from tree to tree, then cut down the brush in between. Can't wait to do this on my farm some day!

Discing!

I got to use my first farm implement! It's been one of the mysteries of the year so far whenever I look at our collection of harrows and discs and whatnot. It's fun to actually know how to hook them up and use at least one. Hopefully I'll get more time on them.

Green green and green again

The clover we seeded has germinated!

We put the cows and sheep out to 'top graze' which means they go quickly through all our fields and chow down on the new grass. They're happy and the clover is happy since it gets more light. We're happy that the animals are so clearly over the moon (get it? cow? over the moon?).

And our veggies are all grown up and moving to the fields! We've been transplanting and seeding and discing and bed shaping. Spring is so exciting here! It was strange to get here in the fall and finish up another group's crops. It's been really nice to see the start of the process.

Welding!

My welding skills are growing by leaps and bounds. The manure spreader/ wood wagon has been really fun to practice on and the other day a piece broke off a winch that we needed to put up a fence. We threw it in the back of the truck and I welded it back on post haste. So much fun!

So Much Has Happened! Again!

As you can imagine, the farm is getting pretty busy this time of year. Our days have gotten longer, the work is getting harder and real life is catching up a bit. In some exciting news, Theo and I found a place near the farm and now have these two back living with us:

Our little guy got really sick and had to spend a few nights in the hospital. The other big news is that we have spent lots and lots of time driving around Massachusetts and might have found a farm of our own to lease starting this Fall! So exciting!

I have plenty of time this weekend to make up for past posts so stay tuned!