A Bountiful Year

Ive abandoned my Blog entirely too long to really write about what we have been doing over the past couple months....Lets just say its been extremely Busy, and we have been extremely Blessed at our homestead.. THe gardens thrived despite all the rain ( this year was nothing but rain, the rainiest year on RECORD in our area),  and the berries actually LOVED IT! Between strawberries, wineberries , raspberries and blueberries, we probably picked 16 gallons of berries this year. We even picked enough peaches to make some Jam :)
We didnt have much of a summer, and it already feels like Fall is setting in.............


Our off grid system is still at a stand still,, all we have to do is run the wire and hook up the batteries,controller, inverter.... but bee season has just kept my husband too busy to anything else..
Hopefully Ill be blogging up hooking all of that up in the next month!!! all good things in all good time.............

 For now Ill leave you with a few ( of many )Pictures of our blessed n Bountiful summer.................

We Come from the Earth, We Return to the Earth, and in between, We Garden ...<3 br="">
Blessings
The Cool Family

and so this is Farming...............

My husband and daughter left early this afternoon for some much needed time together. So as they headed of to do some bike riding at the park, I decided to hit the big garden which is so so so weedy, but after 20 minutes of weeding its started pouring rain, which forced me into the house, and onto the computer to Blog ( its either that or laundry and since I cant hang anything on the line right now....;)



This is our 4th  season as beekeepers. We started in 2010 with 3 hives, bounced up to 6, then up to 20 back down to 9 up to 17 back down to 14 and  are now up to 30 hives( and growing).

.This year I really feel like we are on our way to small time/part time farming..........and its tiresome but feels good!

 Beekeeping is tough. There have been many bumps along the way. and even a time early this year where my husband unintentionally participated in the failing of some hives, and was thinking about giving up on beekeeping. I had NO idea this was going through his mind. I knew he was distraught early in the season after a few big mistakes, but had no idea how much. And then,, things really started repairing themselves ( as nature tends to do despite  the mistakes of humans!) and Robb jumped back on the Bee Bandwagon, :)
I havent seen much of my husband since the beginning of May. We are Not full time farmers ( and I dont really know if we ever will be, although its nice to have a goal and dream) . He is gone 50 hours a week at his day job. He comes home, eats dinnner, talks briefly about his day, and heads out to the bee yard.  When the sun sets he heads to the shed, building hives, building nucs, priming , painting, and building frames..
Lets just say he has been pulling 80-85 hour work weeks since bee season has started.... and lets also say  , IT PAID OFF. We pull and enourmous AMOUNT of honey this spring!!!Nearly 5- 5 gallon buckets! Thats approximately 320 lbs of honey ,, and that was only off of 6 hives ( you dont always pull honey off of all your hives, some are weak, some needs queens replaced , some are new splits,, etc)
We are getting ready for our summer honey flow now!

This was a serious VICTORY for us. We actually went out to lunch and celebrated that afternoon... Might as well bask in the victory and relax for a hot minute :)

I have been been pulling my weight too , now ;). I have been busy Bottling, Labeling, bookeeping, taking care of all internet sales, and packing/shipping.

Now we are learning the business end of it.. selling the honey. We are only doing 2 markets right now. But are also getting in touch with some stores. and actually have one store carrying our honey right now...

My husband is tired. I mean tired....
Last night he looked over at me and said " One more month of hardcore bee management and things should slow down a bit.... but right now all I can think about are bees, I have bees on the brain, big time"...

Our goal is to reach 100 hives....Im really trying to wrap my head around what that would be like, if we are this busy now......

As my dad told me the other night  " Tommorow is a new day"... so I guess we will just wait n see what tommorow brings <3 p="">



Also if you are interested in purchasing some of our delicious Honey, You can do so at :

http://www.beekindfamilyfarm.etsy.com


Some Photos of our life lately here at Bee Kind Family farm




Cutting our larvae for Queen rearing

 Queen cells

Newly hatched virgin Queen

Mating nucs

Hive bodies and supers,, My husband makes all of his equipment..

HONEY!!!!

The man behind it all, watching his girls :)

Compost Tea

Woah! look at me,, Im blogging like 2 times in one week ( or 2 weeks or whatever,, either way its unusual for me ;)
I am going to try and do more " how to" blogs.... I receive so many question on homesteading.. and in our busy schedule its hard to answer all the questions individually..... So as I feel inspired to do so, I will put some how to's up here for y'all....

For some reason this spring, my front Garden looks "blah"..  as in "blah" I mean,, kinda a yellow hue, small leaves, etc... just "blah"Nothing like it did last year... We did add compost which had chicken manure in it, leaves etc..,, but I am thinking maybe we did not add enough..
Our Front garden was the first garden we started when we moved here 7 yrs ago,, so as you can imagine,although Ive added nutrients, Im wondering if I have  depleted  the soil and not replaced with enough earthy goodness.....

Photo of front garden,,, so its still filling in, and while it doesnt look awful, certain things ( like me beans) really could use some help.. and while I would like to blame it all on the weather........... its probably isnt TOTALLY the weathers fault,, my babies needs some nutrients!!!

My usual regimen is compost around the plants and fish emulsion solution..... ( which I totally recommend!!! it will help your plants tremendously!)

This year I decided to try Compost Tea and "Garret Juice" ( developed by "THE DIRT DOCTOR" Dr. Howard Garret)

What you will Need
~ Compost ( your own compost is fine, although Ive ready worm castings work amazing)
~ a 5 gallon bucket
~ Pantyhose
~ fish emulsion or seaweed extract
~ an aquarium pump ( about 5-10 dollars at a pet store, you will also need to purchase the hose)
~ Molasses
~apple cider vinegar
~ A garden fairy if at all possible ;)

* check the garden or strawberry Patch..... the garden Fairies are usually there and totally willing to help ;)

** Fill your 5 Gallon bucket up with Rain water ( or from the hose, but we all know rain water is better..;)

*** Fill the pantyhose with about 1 lb ( I used about 3 cups) of compost...

** Place compost filled panty hose in  the 5 gallon bucket, and then add 1 Tbsp Mollasses and 1 Tbsp Fish Emulsion or Liquid Seaweed...

 

 

** Attach hose to Aquarium pump, tie a rock to the hose to keep it at the bottom of the bucket.... Be sure pump is about 12" above the level of the water, but not directly over... ( just read directions on pump before using :) Turn on the pump and let aerate for 24 hours!!

SHAAZAM~!*!*! you have Compost Tea! Use within 8 hours..

 

 

 

 

 

To use Compost Tea,, fill your watering can about 1/3 the way full with the tea, and fill the rest with water.. water around base of plant or on leaves.....

 

 

TO MAKE "GARRET JUICE" Foliar Spray....

 

Mix

1 CUP of Your Compost Tea

1 Ounce Liquid Molasses

1 Ounce Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Ounce Liquid Seaweed ( I might just use the fish emulsion, although the recipe DOES call for liquid seaweed, I just couldnt get my hands on any this week.. its says to add the liquid seaweed AND fish emulsion for "Garret Juice PLus" :))

1 Gallon Water

 

Use this as a Foliar Treatment for your plants ( on the leaves)...

 

 

I am going to Spray the "Garret Juice" On my Plants this evening, hopefully I will have some amazing results! I have read extensively about this and its has amaaaazing reviews!

 

Now go take care of your garden, and it will Take Care of you!!!!

 

 

 

 

Blessings

 

The Cools

 

A labor of love

yep, its that time of year, where you spin in circles, so busy, and hope that you can just keep everything afloat and running smoothly. I often Joke with my Husband and say " maybe we should just move into a condo." hehe,, of course he looks at me like I am absolutely crazy.:) Not that condos are a bad thing ( trust me, some days I do fantasize) but Its just not "us"....
This time of year has both Robb and I exhausted.  Trying to balance everything and still find peace in it all is tricky...But there are so many moment throughout the day where I exhale,look around, and realize this IS the life I LOVE... this Labor Of love **************

A few ( ok a bunch) of photos over the past month,,... I am picking gallons of strawberries, the bees are bringing in honey, and the garden is really starting to finally take off ( its been a cold wet spring here)
Right now we are still planting, inspecting hives ( and pulling honey soooon) weeding, mulching , composting, harvesting, (almost) canning, and attending the market... Our Off grid system is still where it was last month......such is life... the last peices of the puzzle will be finished up soon, when we have time to exhale. Ohhhh and we ALWAYS make time to go to the Creek behind our house too, no matter how busy ;)

 

 

 

Back gardens really filling in....

                                                               Harvest

                                                                 Herb boxes for the Market

                                                                  My lil peanut helping harvest greens for the Market

                                                                          :)

                                                                     My husband in Bee yard #1

                                                             until next time


                                                                 The Cools

spring is here and we are busy!

well, its been a long long while since my last post....
Spring is here and things are busy!
so here is what we have been up to ( I call this Blog post consolidation) since I havent had much time to Blog!


*** solar stand is built and Panels are up.. had a bit of trouble with the stand, which resulted in Robb having to put up, take down, and then completely take down then put back up stand.. before mounting panels.. but its up!

 

We have innoculated 40 Shitake logs, 5 more to go..

Robb got our solar batch collector hooked up! this will heat all of our indoor hot water in the warm months, ( the cookstove heats all of our water in the winter, you can read about that on a previous post)

 

 Decided to try out our Honey wine (mead) making skillz... seemed like a win win since we are beekeepers,, yay for free wine!~

 

and of course  ...  beekeeping,seeding, planting mulching tilling, composting, planting, weeding, planting, loving, living, learning.............

 

 

 

Happy Spring!

(The busy, and tired, but Happy family)

The Cools