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Thursday, May 24, 2012

May 2012 Update - Lots of Prepping!

Life moves too fast!  Rachel is off to Borden next week.  The kids and I will miss her terribly. Me and the kids were swimming at Crowe River on the May long weekend.  I even dove in.  It was Sunday May 20 the earliest I have ever been in swimming. Rachel was at a course - Igatsu.  She took a spinning course two weekends before that.  Busy!

Updates from the farm

Apiary
- March 18?? Two hives made it through the winter. I opened them up in March when we had temperatures in the 28 degree range for a week.
-May 1?? One hive went queenless.  The other hive was bursting in May at the dandelion flow.  I split it into two and gave a few frames to the queenless hive. They had reproduced several queen cells and I am waiting to see if they hatched out properly.  Unfortunately I crushed one of the queen cells when I opened it up to have a look
- May 16 Acquired two nucs from Dancing Bee started feeding them.  They seem to be doing well and I am feeding them as per his instructions until the next flow starts.

Chickens
- Sunday May 20 we also received 6 layer chickens - they are Rhode Island Reds.  They are in a coop in the ban and the heritage breeds are loose in the barn.  The reds are producing 1/2 dozen a day

Solar Panels
- Solar panels were in place on May 14.  Not hooked up yet

Gardens
- Corn went in along with potatoes and peas and beets and other stuff.  I planted seeds from Kendall Nicholson's pumpkins.  Garlic is doing well.  Not enough time to plant much more.  Maybe this weekend.
- Trees from Rhora's were planted along north fence row near where the volleyball pit was.  I forgot about the poison ivy and got it all over my arms, neck and legs! I planted Persimmon, Northern Pecan, Korean Pine, Hazelnut,
- Trees that I overwintered using Mike McGroarty's system have done so so.  It is difficult to make them sprout.  I will let them grow south of the greenhouse and then sell them off next year.  The maples that I germinated are doing well.
- Lou Biano's concord grapes: only a few made it from using the heat mat. The others that were in the ground - only maybe one made it.
- I am slowly getting the watering system in place for the east garden near the solar panels. The tank is up and I just need to run the eaves trough to it.

Defense
I am off to my PAL course this weekend. It should be interesting.

 I know there is more but soccer and report cards and watering and chores are calling me.  It is 5:16 AM on May 24.  Rachel was up at 4:00.  The dog got out of her shed and was chasing coons at 2:00 and I have got a lot to do!!


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