Another week has passed us by. It is amazing how quickly time seems to slip away. When I started this blog back in December 2018, I never really took much stock in what we seem to accomplish each week. I am a very much live in the moment girl, so it takes a bit of thinking and day planner checking to see what we actually Did do during any given week. I have always maintained that we seem to run out of day before we run out of things to do. And the list might have certain things crossed off it, but more often than not, a few more things get added onto it!
Between rain falls, we are keeping up with the yard and gardens. We were finally able to harvest our Haskaps this year. The past two years have left barely a handful to share. This year I picked 2 full cups. Not enough to make a jam or anything big from, but enough to make Haskap turnovers. Omgosh! They were absolutely amazing! This is all we will get for this year so I am happy with my decision to just enjoy them fresh and not try to preserve them in any way. Hopefully we start getting more and more as the bushes mature.
 |
| 2 Cups of Haskap berries harvested this year |
 |
| Haskap turnovers for dessert. They were awesome! |
The bees are happily doing their job. This little fellow was one of dozens visiting the onion scape blossoms. They have certainly been busy little bees! Our Bee Keeper tells us that the hive is currently supporting 20,000 bees! I find this incredible considering it came with about 6000 not too terribly long ago. I was curious as to how he came up with that number and he explained that each frame will hold "X" number of bees. "Y" number of frames times "X" number of bees equals 20,000 - give or take. Wowzers!
 |
| Busy Happy Little Bee |
Papa is making some Compost Tea Concentrate. You start by putting raw fish into a bucket and covering it with water, the let it ferment until it is good and ripe. Yup. It is nasty! Then you break down the slurry - he wanted to use my immersion blender stick for the job - that DID NOT happen. Next he added several litres of compost, Epsom salts and about 1/2 a cup of molasses. This needs to be stirred for several days until it quits foaming up and is done fermenting. He will end up with about 1 quart of concentrate after he strains it. It is a highly concentrated fertilizer which he will dilute to 1 tablespoon of concentrate to one gallon of water, as needed. The plants love it, but you have to stand down wind when you get near that bucket. Even the steers were offended and left the corral when he stirred it up one day! Needless to say, that bucket won't be used for anything other than this ever again!
 |
| Fish Compost Tea Fermenting |
I have been having fun with smaller quilts lately. These are great for table toppers, wall hangings or any accent piece. This one measures 25" square and will be embellished with vintage buttons. Sew much Fun!
The yard is just beautiful right now. The irises continue to bloom. They are just gorgeous! Papa has several different types of Irises in his growing collection. Some of them are so unique.
 |
| White and Purple frilled Iris |
 |
| Mottled purple/white Iris |
 |
Yellow Iris
|
And we have been so enjoying the greenhouse bounty! The peppers are big enough to eat and the tomatoes are beginning to ripen. Papa has the second planting of Long English Cucumbers planted as this first planting is coming to its end of production. We have been enjoying the greens from the garden - when you can get out to get them between showers. We so love our summer food!
 |
Long English Cucs, Green Peppers and Ripe Tomatoes
fresh from the greenhouse |
We think the chickens must be coming to end of their production time. We used to get 10-12 eggs per day from our 13 hens. Then 8-10 became the norm. Then 6-8 eggs. We are currently at 4-6 eggs per day. We used to have enough for our own use, then sell the surplus to pay for the feed, shavings, replacement birds, etc. With production down, the surplus eggs are getting fewer and fewer. We had really hoped that our new flock of heritage birds would be in production mode before we have to dispatch our current flock, but if things keep getting worse, it might be sooner than later. I am not looking forward to having to purchase eggs, but we just might have to during this transition. Papa has given the current team a pep talk - something along the lines of "chicken pot pie" and that usually perks them back up again and back onto task. The pep talks are happening far more frequently now. It is an unfortunate part of farm life, but part of the responsibility. I would really like to wait until the new team takes over before we dispatch, but time will tell.
 |
| Current production team |
We took His Majesty for a bath today before his annual trip to the vet. It was a very much over due and muchly needed bath for sure. He smells so good now. All shots are caught up and he got a clean bill of health. He got another good brushing after he got home since he was leaking a bit of fur. He should sleep for the next 24 hours now after his big adventure! Oh, to have the life of Wilbur!
 |
| Completely zonked after his big day! |
 |
| What a Goof! |
And the bird feeder is like the United Nations as of late! We have American Gold Finches, Red Finches, common sparrows, a pair of Red Winged Black Birds, Downy Woodpeckers, some Cross Bills, Chickadees and I can't even remember them all! And for the very first time, we have Cedar Waxwings visiting our ornamental fruit trees. It is so cool to see so many different species enjoying the feeder at the same time. If onlywe humans could get along as well.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.
Until Next Time,
Gremlynn
No comments:
Post a Comment