An Alabama farm girl remembers her rural upbringing as she becomes more self-sufficient on her little patch of land. Join her journey toward self-discovery and self-sufficient living.
The Langstroth hive that I ordered from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms because it was a complete beginner's hive, fully assembled with two large supers (for the hive), one small super (for me), 30 frames ready to hang with wax inset and painted with a top has arrived here at 2-Dog Farm. All for a little over $200. I have scrubbed my top bar hive with bleach, killed a few overwintering japanese beetles in it and have it ready to go as well. I will move both the Langstroth hive and the top bar hive into a permanent bee yard and set up a solar water fountain for them close by.
Yesterday I was up on top of our roof cleaning gutters. We have sprung a leak in our kitchen ceiling. This is the same place that the roof debris from winter storms gathers and sits. Our gutters were completely clogged with leaves and sticks. I am not a great heights person: I have a fear of falling but it was a warm sunny day and you could see the creek below the bluff and it was such a gorgeous view.
Still waiting to get out to plant vegetables. My clover is doing great. Hope the nitrogen it adds to the soil really makes the garden take off once planted.
Everytime I work outside, I work with my Dad. Images of him bending over his tractor and banging it when he got frustrated with it or cleaning his tools in an oil-soaked bucket of sand or just standing and looking out across his garden to the mountain in front of the house. His eyes a brilliant surprising blue against a sun darkened face. I loved my Dad so much and I miss him but I thank God for ending his life at the home he built with his own hands with his son and wife beside him when he breathed his last. He was a good, good father and a good man. He loved and was loved. He gave me so much love of the land and nature. God's Blessings to Art Oden this Sunday morning. Love you Pop!
Getting over an ugly virus this weekend so I am staying inside and inactive as much as possible. But I have my office window open and the breeze is blowing cool air into the house and I hear leaves falling and rustling. Ah, Fall is in the air!
So, here is my Fall To-Do list:
Clean up the electric push mower and store it in the shed. Make sure it is fully juiced for storing and then check each month until spring. Clean out and organize the shed so something as large as the electric push mower can be stored in it. Make sure there are shelves and hangers aplenty. Crack last year's black walnuts and hazelnuts to make a holiday nut torte (yum) and to provide space for this year's harvest of nuts Move my farming equipment (including my beekeeping equipment) to my shed from wherever else it is on the property! Put finished compost into garden Plant clover for a nitrogen fix into garden soil Mulch the fig bushes, blackberries and blueberries. Apply some of the finished compost around these plants. Plant some ornamental dogwoods and fruit trees along our property line. I want some pear trees for pear preserves in a few years. Clip the chicken's wings. Cull Prissy the white orphington and Pick the broody speckled sussex hen that is no longer laying from the flock. We'll be down to two chickens for the winter but we'll have lots of good tasting chicken & dumplings. Order next year's flock. Start the mushroom logs Find the copperhead snake that has taken up home around my shed and eliminate him. Thought long and hard about this one as I hate to kill snakes but a copperhead is bitey critter - no warning, all bite. It has to go before it gets me or one of my loved ones. Get the big lawn tractor ready for winter storage. Winterize the chicken coop for Peck and Penny and the new batch of pullets. Start the bees on syrup for winter food. Once started, I'll have to keep it up all winter. Look for parasites in the beehive and treat. Sharpen my garden tools Clean up my flower gardens. Open up the bluff from the rotten tree debris and put some sitting benches along the scenic overlook. Find out the cost for livestock fencing around one acre (through the woods, down hill and uphill) Reconsider building a "true" chicken house - I have the plans - just need to do it.
All these tasks will take me well into Winter. I'll be lucky to have 1/2 of them done before fall is over.
My summer garden harvest was great. Good year for cukes and cherry tomatos. The heritage tomatoes I tried bombed. I had lettuce almost all summer and it did not get bitter. Next year we'll have a even better garden.
Our garden's leaf lettuce is holding up to the 100 degree temps in Northern Alabama. We had freshly picked lettuce salad for lunch as well as day lily fritters, home grown and canned pickled eggs and salmon croquettes. Amazing what you can find to eat if you just look. Were the day lily fritters any good? They look a bit like a soft shell crab when cooked and they fry up very fast. See for yourself in the pictures below if they were any good - nothing was thrown away! Yum!
Part of the self sufficient life style that I'm wanting to attain includes making goat cheese and other goat diary products like milk. I have a time commitment issue to resolve as goats take more time than say chickens and they are more habitat needy. I do not have an enclosed protected area for milking and I am not particularly fond of working outside in the dark and cold, which I would have to do without an enclosed protected area. Goats require a diet that is fresh and readily available so there is some expense to maintaining a herd of does and their offspring. Then there is the issue of culling the herd as goats become less productive. A chicken is a bit easier to manage for meat than a goat. Quite a size difference and could I do it without help and get the meat saved before it spoils. So many considerations. Taking it slow in deciding whether to get goats or not. Dairy Goat Breed Standards
