Aug 2nd Garden Update

Yesterday I went out and did a quick couple of garden videos. I have been pretty happy with the growth over the past couple of weeks things are just taking off. I don't have any ripe tomatoes yet but I have plenty headed that way and several of my plants are taller than me climbing up the trellises. They are a little pungent and after pruning I have green all over my fingertips but I honestly love the smell and feel of tomato plants. I would be a sad gardener if I ever became allergic. lol

Honey for nothin' and Wax for free!

As a novice beekeeper I had initially read many books that stated not to expect too much honey the first year. However we had a pretty late honey flow this year due to colder weather in the spring and early summer so when they started pullin it in boy they started pulling it in! Even with the one swarm we had this year I still have frame after frame full of Honey and Honey comb. A few weeks ago I cut out a small bit of comb to bring in and see how it tasted being a first year beekeeper and let me tell you... It was sweet! I went out today to do an inspection on my hive that swarmed earlier in the summer. About a week ago I did an inspection on the other hive. I had so many frames full of Honey in this one I checked today I decided to Borrow one from the bees. (Well we probably won't give it back.) There are a few different ways to go about getting the Honey. The most common way is to use an extractor. An extractor is basically a centrifuge that you place the frames into, and it spins the honey out. Initially you scrape or cut the protective outer coating of beeswax and this will leave open cells for the extractor. There are both hand crank and electric extractors but regardless of the power most are a little out of the price range of novice beekeepers. The second method is crush and strain. And this is the method I used today. For every beekeeper you will read or hear a different method, and or opinion about doing certain things. Some say crush and strain adds hardship to the bees since they are always having to remake new comb to replace what you crushed. Some say its good because the bees naturally make wax anyway and this way they are continually providing clean wax to raise brood and store honey and pollen in. This is said to limit some of the diseases that can spread in old wax. Regardless, for now I am going to stick to the Crush and Strain method. For one I like the idea of clean and new wax. And I don't really plan on extracting all my honey out to sell it. I will probably fill a half dozen to a dozen bottles to use personally and give away to family and friends. The rest of the Honey I will leave for the bees to make it through the winter. I have read and heard that this also will make for healthier Bees. A lot of beekeepers will take the majority of the Honey in the fall and leave the bees sugar water to store to survive on for the winter. While this has been successful, it is said that Honey provides a much better pH to keep the bees healthy through the winter. And I like healthy natural bees. The Picture above is how much Honey I got out of "1" frame. Yes "1" frame! I scraped the honey filled comb into a 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bag (that you can pick up at your local home improvement super store)and squeezed till all the honey came out and I was left with a big ball of soft beeswax. Thats Right Honey for nothing and Wax for free! All I had to do was secure it from the Sultans of Sting. And in that department I am in no Dire Straits!

Troof in Advertising!

I purchased my "Huckleberries" from a small local nursery. They were an impulse buy, I've never grown huckleberries before so when I saw the pony flat with four plants I thought it sounded pretty cool, and for a buck how could I go wrong right? Well after I got them home I planted them and let them grow. Well after awhile I started to look up "growing huckleberries" to see if there was anything I could do improve the harvest etc. And I was initially kind of surprised that most info I came across said that Huckleberries are closely related to Blueberries. And I thought to myself... boy these sure don't "look" anything like blueberry bushes. So today I started looking again and I realized that I was growing "Garden" Huckleberries. Which are not even related at all to real Huckleberries. Years ago they were cultivated as "sunberries" or Wonderberries, and just recently many home gardeners have been bringing them back. The Garden Huckleberry is a cousin to the Tomato which is part of the nightshade family. And the berries need to be cooked before they can be used and apparently they aren't near as tasty as real Huckleberries as they require a fair amount of sugar to sweeten them up. Ah well they look purty and they are growing like nobody's business.

Garden "Huckleberries", a.k.a Wonderberries, a.k.a Sunberries.


Genuine Huckleberries.


So when Doc Holliday said "I'm your Huckleberry" He meant the latter because he was a genuine article too!

In for a Penny In for a Pound

Eating whole natural fresh foods just seems to make the most sense. They are tasty, quick and easy to prepare. And they are are just good for you! In for a penny? I suppose that to invest in good food may seem like it costs a little more at times. Especially if you count buying fresh meats over pre-packaged meals. But then again the Penny's you save now will add pounds later. and I imagine in the long run eating the crap will cost us all health problems and health care costs. Anyhow, regardless of the cost I just enjoy eating basic whole foods. Yesterday we had grilled turkey breast that had been marinating for awhile. Along with grilled Zucchini cut up and tossed with fresh oregano from our garden and feta cheese. In addition we also grilled up some bread slices on the grill with some olive oil for some Bruchetta made with fresh tomatoes and garlic from the local farmers market and fresh basil from our own garden. I can't wait for our tomatoes to ripen but the locally grown ones are damn good, let me tell you. Tonight we had grilled new york strip steak, with some fresh Pollenta. I also sautéed up some baby portabella mushrooms with some fresh garlic and my baby tossed up a salad with fresh greens from the garden. That was some good eating! Uh Huh!!

Here are a Couple Videos from my Garden that I took last week.



Also a few snapshots of the garden and bees I took yesterday:

Come on Maters! Blush for me!

These are Tie Dye Maters, They will be Purty.

"I'm your Huckleberry!"... Doc Holliday

Peeking at the Bee Ladies through the fence.

Mmmmmm! Blackberries!

You say Po-tato, He says Poe-ta-toe, I say Taters and grow them in a can!

Awhile back a scientific study was conducted on synergistic planting, and found that sunflowers and huckleberries seem to do pretty damn good together. Well actually this "is" the study... who knew?

Hey wait is this a postcard for square foot gardening?

Little Peppers in a square box, little peppers all the same... Theres a Green one, and a Yellow one and a Red one and an orange one and they are all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same!

Contrary? Quite!

Rodney,Rodney, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With assorted berries, peppers-cherries,
And pretty maters all in a row.

Hi folks just a quick garden update, things are growing along quite nicely even with the month or so of less than advantageous weather that we had. Below is my latest Video update from last week. and remember: its not who you know its what you grow!

... you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

...Why yes, yes I do Mr. Dirty Harry. Yet even with all my luck sometimes things are out of my control. I've had at least a couple of those things happen to me this past week. Last Thursday I decided to do an inspection on my beehives, it had been awhile and probably a little too long. Let me explain, below I have some video posted (second one) and in the first hive I'm looking at I mention a few queen cells that the bees have made. Well bees will make queen cells for a few reasons. One they are not confident in the Queen they have and will raise a new one to replace her. Two they don't even have a queen anymore, this can happen due to her either dying, or flying away. The third reason, and the reason that is most important to this tale of mine, the hive becomes too crowded and some of the bees need to move out. Bees love their Momma, as a matter of fact they love her so much the ones that are moving out usually want to take her with them. This is why they start to raise a new queen so that the hive won't be left without a Momma when the rest head for the hills (or the Apple tree in this scenario). I'll come back to that... So I finish with the inspection, clean up for the day and get ready for my weekend trip to visit my Dad with my kiddos.

We had a really good visit with grandpa. As a matter of fact my son had such a good time he decided he wanted to stay for another month or so and sprung the idea on us at the last minute. We were all getting ready to head out when he said "Umm hey Dad, how do you feel if I just stay for awhile?" It was kind of sudden, but I talked to my Dad and Kathy his wife to make sure it was okay. He will be turning 18 in a couple months and I realized he just doesn't have that much time left to be a kid and enjoy "Summer". We said our goodbyes and me and the girls loaded up and headed out. This is when the first out of control thing happens this week.

We were about 10 miles out of Price Utah, this would be about 2/3rds of the way back home. I look down and notice that my battery light is on. My first thought is oh great my alternator must be going out. I had just put a new battery in about six months back. I figured at least it is running and I can make it into Price before I shut it down and see if it will even restart. About a minute later I look down and my temperature gauge is redlined, at the same time radiator fluid just shoots out the side of my hood. I concluded right then well two things went wrong it must of been a belt. I had figured the overflow cap had sprung to release pressure on the radiator... thus the fluid shooting out. I pulled over, got out and popped the hood. Well yea... sure enough there was the broken belt, the one for the alternator and fan, that answered that one. Unfortunately however the radiator did not conveniently vent to let out the hot fluid. Instead the entire top of the radiator blew off. Long story semi-shorter. I spent the next three hours pulling the radiator and belts out while Teresa brought me some new parts with her Parents. We got everything put back in and working and made it home safely at some ungodly hour of the morning... And that adventure was over.

Later that next day as we were laying around recovering, working in the sun and subsequent all night drive home left us feeling like we had a hangover, The other out of control thing happened.

Remember I mentioned the bees and queen cells and reasons behind them existing in the hive? Well we were laying there around 4:30 in the afternoon and Teresa thought she heard a sprinkler on in the backyard. She got up and looked out and I hear her say "Oh My God Rodney...The Bees!" I get up and look and there is a literal cloud of bees. They were almost beyond description. I have seen swarms in movies, and in videos I watched before getting bees but watching one form 30 feet away in front of you is very surreal, and amazing. Luckily I had read a lot about swarms and knew what was going to happen. Basically when the part of the hive that decides to leave, leaves, it is all at one time. They will rush out of the hive and form a swarm in the air, thousands and thousands of them. The queen who is not used to flying will soon settle down to rest. And this is where we were lucky. If the queen rests at a spot that is reachable, the beekeeper can recover most of the bees. And luckily for us she landed right on a branch on our Apple tree. When the queen lands all the bees in the air will settle on her and form a clump. When bees swarm they have just gorged on Honey and do not have a home to defend, so surprisingly enough this is the time when they are the most gentle and they are pretty safe to be around. As soon as they landed I knew I needed to act fast.

Even though I knew I could save my bees, I do not have room for another hive at this time. Usually you can not put the bees back in their old hive, they will just try to leave again and find a new home. I called a number that I found a while back for "bee rescue". Basically these are usually bee keepers that will come and collect a swarm because they have the room for them, and they don't want to see the bees harmed or killed by unbeefriendly peeps. Anyway I called and since he was at work and couldn't leave he said he'd send his son to help me capture them. I collected up a ladder, and my beesuit and a box to put the bees in and went out to get my bees. I was able to get up and get half of them in a box before the guy's son and his wife showed up. They helped me get the rest and I was able to send my bees off to a new home with little effort and only one small 8 foot fall from my ladder lol.

Anyway those are my adventures this week. The remaining bees seem to be doing good and I will give them a little extra attention with some more frequent inspections. The garden is doing well especially the new area, that receives lots of sun and heat.

First Inspection Video from Last Week:


And the one showing the queen cells:


Video of the Swarm:


Some swarm Pics:

Dear Mother Nature... Can We Bump Fall and Winter Now Too?

Hi Folks, Just thought I'd do an update to all of Y'all (yes that is proper grammar for a boy that spent 8 years growing up in Texas)that are following the blog here. The title of the blog is a little begging to the gods on behalf of my poor Tomatoes! They say that April showers bring may flowers. But April... May... Going into June now... Showers bring stunted Tomatoes and other Sun/Heat loving plants like peppers, basil, etc. Well I suppose I can pick up the peppers and basil from the store but there just is no substitution for Home Grown Tomatoes. To borrow a few lines from John Denver here "Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes. What'd life be without home grown tomatoes. There's only two things that money can't buy. That's true love and home grown tomatoes." So here is keeping my fingers crossed for a lot of sun and heat through the rest of June, July, August, and God willing September! At the end of this post I have included two new Videos showing my garden boxes that are growing, and getting ready to grow some plants. Several of the bare spots that I mention in the video that I had just seeded, have sprouts already this week (I filmed at the end of last week)especially the radishes. Radishes love to grow, let me tell ya! In addition I did a beehive inspection the weekend before last and I included a couple short clips on to the end of the first Garden video. Even my bees are not liking the rainy weather, they do not have near the comb and honey production that they should have by now. (look at me trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about). Anyway, Hope Y'all (there it is again) are having a good week. And until next time keep it fair to middlin!