We decided to clear a few more trees close to the new cabin site. Some of the cedars, pines and sweet gums are big enough to mill. I’ve got a nice stack of dimensional lumber ready for building with. I should start building soon…finally! Using a Haddon Lumbermaker attached to a chainsaw to make 6×6 […]
We have already had our first frost, but a really hard killing frost is coming soon. So, it’s time to harvest our peppers, ginger, turmeric, sweet potatoes, and parsnips. We still have kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic and onions that we will be overwintering to harvest in the Spring. The cold weather strains of shiitake
Sarah set up to sell her homemade soaps, lotions and more at the Saltillo Community Center today to celebrate Saltillo River Days. 😊
Anyone who knows me well will know that I am severely allergic to poison ivy. One of my earliest memories is of me wearing only my underpants and covered in calamine lotion twirling around in front of a large box fan with my arms straight out trying to dry the pink goop that’s been applied all
This year, from our three pear trees, we harvested well over 400 pounds of fruit. We did can some pears to enjoy later, but we were left with loads! So, we decided to try (again) to make Perry, or pear wine. We have tried to make it once or twice
We had a medium sized Hickory tree that was leaning towards a future home site. We decided to fell the tree and I milled the logs into 2.5 inch slabs for air drying. I plan to use the Hickory for table or counter tops. It ended being approximately 260 board feet of Hickory milled for
Sarah planted 2 different Luffa varieties this year. We have never grown them, so we didn’t really know what to expect. She wants to use them in her soap making. We are still experimenting on how best to finish them for use….so far so good though. comparing a dried luffa with the skin removed to
We harvested about 18 lbs. of grapes from our 2 Mars grape vines. We decided to make red wine with it. We’ve made red wine one other time from grapes given to us, but this is the first time from our own grapes. Just like with blueberries the birds will let you know when it’s
Here are some pictures of our summer gardens. We are just starting to harvest many of the tomatoes, peppers and squash. View of the main garden from the top. Picture taken about a month ago. Our 3 Layens horizontal hives down in the little orchard are finally full of honey bees. Sarah did a wonderful
5 weeks ago we caught a swarm in one of our 7-frame Layens swarm traps. This morning we transferred the colony from the trap and into our 3rd 20-frame Layens hive. Never again will we wait so long between catching the swarm and transferring the colony into a full hive! The swarm trap was so
Another Swarm Trap of Local Honey Bees Installed Read More »