Amazing Transformations

How far the farm has come in 2 summers! As I sit here and count my blessings, I am truly amazed.

From this:
to thisto this


And this:
to this

Our chicks grew into chickens and happily give us eggs(as long as we can keep them alive). Our strawberries flourished and we were able to make jam this year. Our garden is maturing and should have a high yield. Raspberries, blackberries and blueberries are ripening. We found new surprises on the land....a currant bush and a mulberry tree. The apple orchard survived a tent caterpillar attack and has gone on to produce hundreds of apples that are maturing with each passing week.

Our horses have been fairly healthy and are back in the swing of working in the arena. The goats seem to be used to their new habitat. The ducks and chickens are few in numbers however due to the apparent skill of the local predators. This remains a problem for which we are still researching and trying solutions.

All in all we have seen many blessings. How wonderful to now be able to enjoy the fruits of our labors! My thanks to all who help to make this dream a reality!

What I did with all those strawberries....

This morning's picking produced 8 more quarts of strawberries. After cleaning and hulling them I turned them into:


I had an earlier unsuccessful try at making Jam last week which ended up becoming strawberry syrup.....and to think I followed the recipe. So today I threw caution to the wind and concocted my own recipe....so far, so good...it seems to be jelling nicely. I believe I may have found the solution, and the bonus is: my recipe has less than half the sugar as the other recipe.

A Perfect Weekend

This was perhaps one of the most beautiful weekends at the farm yet this year. The weather was perfect (only interrupted by an intense display of lightening during a magnificent thunder storm Friday evening). The farm is still so very green and lush. The animals are all healthy and happy. The long awaited arena is finally finished and the riding surface is perfect! Briggs and I have much work ahead of us...but we have a perfect place for long hours of practice!



This weekend marked the true beginning of our BeeHaven Acres Farm harvest. Our strawberries are producing a very high yield. A couple of minutes' picking Friday night and Saturday morning quickly yielded 15 quarts of strawberries.


Our meals included a salad of fresh-picked lettuce, spinach, onions, broccoli and radishes topped off with a dessert of fresh strawberry pound cake with ice cream and fresh strawberries. We consumed as many of the berries as was humanly possible and froze the rest. If time allows, I will make homemade jam. Last weeks' jam-making fiasco produced strawberry syrup instead (which, by the way was great on our pancakes Sunday morning).

Finally, I had a bit of time for some goat bonding. Here is a picture of our little Princess.....O'Malley. What a sweet soul she is.

Travels.....Off the Farm

I am sitting here catching up on all that I missed over the past week. Jack and I spent a restful week in Vero Beach Florida...catching up on reading and soaking in the sun (in healthy doses, of course.) Vero Beach is a quiet mid-East coast Florida resort town and we caught it on an off-season week. As a result, the town was very quiet, the beach was deserted and the sidewalks were rolled up by 5 PM each evening. The weather was perfect: each day being sunny and warm (85) with a cooling breeze blowing in from the sea. Because of the sea breeze, there were no appreciable bugs to pester us.

On Saturday we took a road trip across Central Florida to Fort Myers on the West Coast to see Ryan play in the College Club Baseball World Series. He was brought in as relief pitch in that game and their team ended up winning the game. Jack was so proud of him....what a great pitcher he is. His team continued to play throughout the coming week and as of Memorial Day, they were still winning. Ryan pitched the entire game on Memorial Day and the other team scored no runs.....way to go Ryan!

But back to the roadtrip....we encountered swarms of icky, gooey bugs that splatted all over our car. It was like driving through black hail. Apparently there is this twice-a-year phenomenon in the South called the LOVE BUG

Good food and great company made the week complete. I am posting a picture of me on the beach....the apron I am wearing is not my own, but rather one that belonged to the condo in which we stayed (sadly, I forgot my own). My friend (Georgeann) at Mary Jane's farm is collecting pictures of farmgirls "off the farm"....so here it is. I must also add that Dorothy was so right...."there's no place like home!" It is so great to be back home and back on the farm!!

A journal for Melody

I thought this was the best place to post this picture. ANewYorkMelody contacted me thru etsy asking if I could create a vintage-look journal for her. This is what I came up with.....It is 5 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches. It has unlined paper inside, but I equipped it with a moveable line guide to make writing straight much easier. It is bound together with gold ribbon and embellished with an antique skeleton key. Check out some of my other creations.

Notes from the cabbage patch - or - Have I bitten off more than I can chew???

If all goes well, we should have plenty vegetables to get us thru the winter. Last week's garden work yielded the planting of the following plants (most of which I started from seed in the greenhouse): 19 cabbages, 19 cauliflower, 25 broccoli, 12 brussels sprouts, 12 zucchini, 10 cucumbers, and 4 summer squash. Add that to a 30 foot row of snow peas, 30 foot row of onions, lettuce, radishes and spinach seeds; all of which have germinated and are growing by leaps and bounds. The asparagus that I planted a month ago has finally taken hold and pushed numerous shoots through the earth to find their way toward the sun. Next year should be an excellent year for asparagus at this rate. My question is this, however: whatever was I thinking with 19 heads of cabbage. One can only eat so many stuffed cabbages. And although I love creamed coleslaw, preserving it seems to be a problem. A roadside cabbage stand may be the next project. I failed to mention that there are also at least 36 tomato plants and half as many pepper plants still in the greenhouse and in need of planting. (Oh did I also mention that there are seeds for corn, green beans, limas, peas, beets, carrots....and I can't remember but perhaps something else.....oh yes, giant pumpkins.....yet to be planted) I believe that by the end of this week every inch of our garden will be filled! I cannot wait for this harvest. Am I nuts? We'll have to find a way to preserve all of this food! Actually, I am prepared. I have my Foodsaver vacuum packer ready to go. What a great feeling it will be to have a freezer full of home grown vegetables, and a refrigerator stuffed with....CABBAGE! (Oh my goodness, I forgot.....cabbage causes flatulence (look it up)!

I have opened an Etsy!

Well, after weeks of thinking about it, I finally did it. I sat down yesterday and opened my Etsy. For those of you who are not familiar. Etsy.com is a place to sell handcrafted items. I listed my Princess Mater bags and also tea towells with the same design appliqued and embroidered on them. I have also listed aprons and will be putting my jewelry on as well. You can find my shop at www.honeybeez.etsy.com. I opened shop yesterday afternoon and within an hour had sold 2 items.....to my best farmgirl friend, Mima, in California! Where would we be without our friends!

My Etsy is dedicated to my Mother and my Grandmothers who taught me a love of handcrafting. I learned to sew, stitch, knit and crochet from these three amazing women.

All Dressed and Ready for Farm Chores

So, what does a farmgirl wear to do her daily chores? Well, the best dressed farmgirls have 2 essential items on with any outfit.... an apron with lots of pockets and a straw hat for keeping the sun off the face. I've completed my farmgirl accessories for this summer: two aprons, both made from the same vintage flour sack material...each with lots of deep pockets for carrying eggs or the day's harvest. Note that one was made with a pretty fancy front pocket(made from an old doily).....that's my "all gussied up" apron. The other is a chore apron that will come in handy for working in the garden, the henhouse, or the wood shop. These aprons are my own creation...no pattern used, just a little imagination. Of course, no outfit is complete without a matching hat!

Princess Mater Meets Mother Earth

Well, farmgirls, I overheard a discussion this morning between Mother Earth (see my Mother Earth Musings blog) and Princess Mater, who just happened to stop by for a chat. They were discussing ways to live a more "green" life. One unnecessary piece of trash that we always seem to be accumulating is plastic grocery bags. Well, the girls got their heads together and came up with a plan for reducing the number of bags that ever leave the store. Stay tuned for pictures of their collaborative project......Susie Seamstress has to get moving....(Oh....I just ordered my new Mary Jane's Farm book - Mary Jane's Stitching Room. Can't wait for it to arrive.....more projects to look forward to!)

Finally, finished....here it is - Princess Mater's "Green" Grocery Bag

"Project Grape Arbor" Launched

An entire day's work, Saturday, yielded one very sturdy 8 X 12 outdoor room with walls of latice and ceiling of ladder rungs....strong enough to withstand grapevines. Imagine, if you will, several years from now....it is a sunny afternoon. There is a gentle warm breeze and the rustling noise that it makes as it tickles the leaves in the nearby woods. The birds are singing in the distance. A few industrious honey bees buzz past your ear, headed to drink of the sweet nectar that also beckons you. You enter the lush outdoor room that our grape arbor has become. You feel a welcome coolness from the shade of surrounding grape vines robustly covered in vegetation. You look overhead and delightedly find cluster upon cluster of sweet ripe grapes. You raise your hand and pick a bunch and place a plump, juicy fruit on your tongue. You bite down and your mouth is awash with both sweet and tart rivers of fresh grape juice that escape across your lips and drip from your chin. Oh what a lovely fantasy......another step closer to reality.

Today I planted 9 grape vines that will hopefully cover our arbor and bring this fantasy to fruition. Among the varieties are 3 Concord, 3 Mars and 3 green seedless table grapes (Niagara, perhaps). Now we wait, ever hopeful that their fragile roots will take hold to harness the nutrients of Mother Earth and send currents of growth thru their awaiting armlike limbs...ever grasping towards the warmth and energy of the spring and summer sun....climbing higher and higher still....


This picture is one that I took last summer on vacation in Napa Valley. It serves as my inspiration for "Project Grape Arbor"

Soon time to ride again.....

The ground is drying, the arena is almost finished....time to get back in the saddle. 2006 was a year of breaks, bruises, etc. I sure hope 2007 goes smoother.

Duckles,duckles.....

Due to the current imbalance of male vs. female ducks on the farm, Mike had obtained 8 new Campbell females. These adorable khaki ducklings have taken residence in a horse water trough in Mike and Becky's garage. With daily handling, "Daddy Duck" as we affectionately call Mike has his brood following him all around his garage and back yard. "Peep, peep, peep" you hear them call when they hear their "Daddy's" voice....knowing that shortly his gentle hand will appear offering them yummy treats of bread. It will be fun watching these girls grow. Once their primary feathers have appeared, they will be introduced to the pond and the rest of the flock.

The "Girls"

This is a tribute to one woman's best friends. These two gals are my closest friends and who I share my days with. We do just about everything together. They love to go for rides in the car and walks in the woods. They never offer any criticism. They are never moody....just always happy to be with me. They do compete for attention, however. Sadie is our 3 year old Bernese Mountain Dog. Maddie is our 1 year old 130 pound Newfoundland. They are about as different in disposition as two big dogs could be. But they have one huge thing in common......an unlimited supply of love and affection for those that they love. Sure, they are big and hairy and make my life more complicated as a result. But, I would not trade one slobbered up piece of clothes, or one hairy sagebrush blowing across the hall floor for one day in an empty, (lifeless) clean house. Our vacuum works hard , our petfood bills are large. But it is all worth it, for these girls are an endless wealth of enthusiasm. They are the best example of what "Joy" looks like and acts like.

Where have all the bees gone??

This week Mike is picking up 5 new hives and their accompanying colonies from a gentleman who is retiring from beekeeping. He also has two colonies on order to replace the two that perished over the winter. We are all concerned. In doing research, we have learned that there is a huge incidence of honey bee death in what concerned researchers are calling "Sudden Colony Collapse". Please read the following article.....

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032307EA.shtml



"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
-Albert Einstein

Green thumbs, dirty fingernails

Spring is here....finally. A long winter of just watering the houseplants has left me with nice nails but a deep longing to dig in the dirt. A warm weather teaser over the past couple of weeks put me in the mood to garden. I spent weeks during the winter pouring over seed catalogs. I ordered new garden gloves, soil cubes, a potmaker; and cleaned out the greenhouse. With everything in order, it was now time to start planting seeds. I placed a small heater in the greenhouse to help with the chilly nights that we still have. Daylight hours are toasty warm inside. This year I have started cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet peppers, hot peppers, several varieties of tomatoes, zinnias, cucumbers and summer squash. I figure these will be good sized by the middle of May, when I can transplant them into the garden.