Harbingers of Spring

I don't know about the weather in your neck of the woods this winter, but I certainly have felt deficient in the Vitamin D department lately. Here in Tennessee, we are having much more distinct seasons than I remember growing up. We used to only get snow that actually covered the ground twice a year, if that, and never enough to really sled on. In recent winters, the school children have had so many snow days, they have been working at their studies later in the summer than normal. Accumulations of snow are happening often enough that my neighbors are actually learning to drive in the stuff. One of the results of all this wintery winter is that Tennesseans are in desperate need of Vitamin D. 

From the National Institutes of Health: 

Vitamin D is also known as the "sunshine vitamin" because the body manufactures the vitamin after being exposed to sunshine. Ten to 15 minutes of sunshine 3 times weekly is enough to produce the body's requirement of vitamin D. 

Yesterday and today were a really nice break from the normal winter stuff. The weather has been gorgeous, with clear skies and temps in the mid-60's. I've been able to tend the fence some. Today I re-stretched a section that was looking a little saggy. Next, I have a new gate to hang and a string of barb wire to put around the top. These repairs and upgrades will happen over the next few weeks, in anticipation of stocking TRF with a new herd of goats. 

Today's photos are from a long walk around the farm. I tried to look for colorful things, the first signs of spring. In the order of appearance: Berries on a thorn bush, a vibrant patch of moss, a shoot of honeysuckle, an extreme macro shot of the buttercup patch, and the single deepest post hole I've dug. 

I hope you have been able to catch up on your Vitamin D production, and I hope the worst of winter is past us all. Here's looking forward to a productive season on the farm. 

Country Ham

So The Gentleman Farmer has helped cure hams before (see original post of this blog), but never made his own. The other day, my friend and I built a box for my hams. 


Uncle ordered the hams and brought them from the grocer. Each one has to be trimmed up so that the edges are neat. This year we are curing most of the hams in the way that Uncle has taught us, and trying a new process. 


The "traditional" way is to coat the surfaces of each ham with a salt cure mix, turning them over in the box and re-salting about every two weeks from mid-January until about the time we quit having frost. 


The "new" way we are trying is very different. Uncle was polite, but I know he was skeptical. These hams (two of the sixteen we are curing this year) are "glazed" with a fine layer of salt over the skin, and the hock and meaty sides are packed with a pre-measured amount of cure mix. The ham and cure are wrapped in brown paper, wrapped again in cheesecloth, and then hung hock side down from the roof of the shed. These hams won't be disturbed at all until the last frost. The reason I want to try curing hams this way is because it feels like there is more control over how much salt is used and absorbed into the meat. Now that we started them, they definitely have that country ham look. 


When the job was done, good luck and tradition demanded that we each partake in a splash of vodka. The Gentleman Farmer is not one to go against good luck or tradition. 


I'm so excited for spring to start here. Upcoming chores and projects will include maintaining the fence and adding a string of barbwire to the top of it, planting a heckuva garden, stocking the farm with goats and bees, and clearing more of the back forty for projects to be determined. 

Goodbye 2009...

Hello again, from Tennessee Renaissance Farm. 


It's been some time since I wrote last. Things slow down a lot as we move from fall into winter. And some things have happened that are frankly hard for me to write about. Thank you for your interest and encouragement. Bear with me through this update. 


The late fall and start of winter have been much colder than recent years. With the onset of really cold (for us that's low's in the teens at night) weather, neighboring dogs seem to roam more. Some of the neighbors' dogs and some strays basically formed a pack, which is never a good thing. And so it was on the Sunday before Christmas. The dogs killed six of my nine goats that night, and one the following night. Howard the llama, normally the protector, was unable to stop what happened. It was a devastating thing. I just don't have the words. It was really heartbreaking to bury the seven of them. 

Since those bad nights, the fence has been repaired and strengthened. I am reasonably confident that no more dogs have been inside the fence since then. The dogs have become wary of being around the farm, which is probably best for now. 

We've had another, colder cold snap lately. I don't think it's been above freezing for the last week or so, and there are several more days of similar weather in store. It's unseasonably cold, for middle Tennessee. I sold one of the remaining goats at auction, but the other is too ornery to be caught lately. I can understand how he (Leviticus) might be wary of other creatures, lately. He seems to be in a better mood, and he's starting to at least hang out closer to Howard most of the time. Even in the snow, Levi joyously comes running at feeding time. 


Carrying warm water for the livestock several times a day is tedious. 


Having snow on the ground makes it easier to see the surface of the ground back in the trees and brush. I can see much clearer spaces inside the fence where the goats ate up alot of the brush. Being able to see more space open turns my mind to plans for spring. Some more fence will be built. Maybe a small building project or two will take place in the summer. It'll only take another day's rental of the tractor and much of my back forty will be walkable. I really enjoy that thought. 


Thank you for your support of Tennessee Renaissance Farm in my first year of blogging. I will need your continued encouragement and ideas going forward. 




Things I'm looking forward to in 2010: 

• Fresh vegetables from the TRF garden
• More goats!
• Harvesting my first honey! (I need your best biscuit recipes, by the way) 
• Inventorying plant and wild life on the Farm 
• Sustained above-freezing temperatures
  
• More bees!
• Fencing on flat ground instead of the hillside
• New used farm equipment! 

Dog days are early... This stuff is for the birds...

Many of you are local, and know the weather here on the Farm was really hot the past week or so. Like August hot. I'm still working on the place a little at a time. I've been able to move around some brush, and burn some off. Somehow chainsawing and dragging limbs and logs, etc, just doesn't seem picturesque to me. So I don't take pictures of that work. I've also feared for my camera, with the amount of sweat my body produces on these hot, hot days. Maybe I should invest in a watertight case for it?

It won't be long before I bring the tractor over for a day of good dirty fun. The space on top of the hill that I bush hogged this spring are about knee deep with grass and weeds. And some poison ivy, if I'm being honest. Part of the goal of clearing brush from the hill is to open up more parts of the hill for bush hogging. So I will probably put off renting the tractor as long as I can stand it.


So far this spring and early summer, I have marveled at the wildlife on Tennessee Renaissance Farm. I gave it a whole post not long ago, and that just scratches the survace. Here's another example: the woods are apparently so full of birds that they are forced to nest on my back porch, in my hammock chair. I suppose they can stay a bit. My Mom thinks they are sparrows, but I've only see the beak and eyes of their mother, so I can't say I'm sure at all what type of birds they are. These two photos were taken 3 days apart, which explains why the chickies in the first one are naked (one still hadn't hatched, at that point), and in the next photo, they have that little fine chickie fuzziness on them. Using the macro setting on my camera so far has let me get close enough without scaring Mama away.

For now, the heat has broken, and the daytime seems almost pleasant, at 92 degrees, Fahrenheit, and only 88% humidity.

Good and bad.

Today I checked the beehives from top to bottom. Meagan, Taylor and Emily are all busy with activity. This is the bees' prime season. I could see all three hives are developing well. Emily seems to have more honey put up at this time. Taylor has more baby bees. Meagan has a balance of brood and pollen and honey. All three are disinterested in the syrup I was putting out for them. They strongly prefer real natural nectar and pollen that they gather themselves. The Gentleman Farmer can understand that feeling. It won't be long until Meagan and Emily need to expand like Emily already had. So far, I'm very proud of all three of these hives. My knowledge is admittely limited by my experience, but all signs point to good things.

You'll notice Hive #4 so far is not included in today's update. Hive #4 was started with a queen that ended up being extra. Instead of just letting her die or releasing her to probably die, I attempted to put her with some bees from Emily and start Hive #4. Today there was no life in the hive. Regulars here will know that I have nursed it along as best I could. I don't know if the queen was possibly damaged in shipment, or the amount of bees that stayed with her in the hive just weren't enough to make a go of it. In any case, I'm saddened.

My niece Meagan (not the hive of the same name) built a sweet birdhouse in shop class and donated it to the Tennessee Renaissance Farm. She chose its spot, and I installed it today. I meant to ask her what type of birds might nest in this box, but so far I haven't. With so many birds on the farm this spring, it won't be long before I get a definite answer.

I also weeded the garden this evening and I'm trying to decide where to put the berry bushes that I've been buying on clearance lately. I should get them in the ground Tuesday.

To the people who are reading and interacting with me on this blog: I really appreciate your encouragement. Some of you have written from countries The Gentleman Farmer had to look up on the atlas. Your moral support, curiosity and friendship all encourage me to keep on working and improving the farm.

Today's Photos:

• Emily has this frame almost 2/3 full of honey.
• Click on this photo to see it in full size. In some of the cells, you can see larvae in advanced stages of development, just before they are to be capped by the nurse bees and finish their final stages of growing into little bees. (The dark spots on some of the larvae are their eyes.)
• Capped brood on the left, larvae in the middle cells, and eggs toward the right. Some of these eggs are late in development, on the in-between stage between egg and larvae. Also click on this photo to see it full-size. These are good examples of nice, healthy bees. Their wings are almost clear and they have that really fine fuzz all over them. Fuzz is one way to distinguish bees from similar-looking hornets.
  
• Meagan's bird house.
  

Antici. . . . . . -pation

I thought today would be the day of truth for Hive #4. I started this one with a queen I got that turned out not to be needed by Taylor. I took a frame of brood and honey with some bees from Emily and put them in Hive #4 with the new queen about a month ago, now. It should be all she needs. I figured if I end up with another productive hive then great, and if not, I tried.

She's keeping me in suspense. Like she enjoys toying with me. She's taunting me, I think.

For the third week in a row, I have opened the small nuc box that houses Hive #4. Each time, I expect to see this queen laying thousands of little bee eggs, and each time so far, there are none. But there are other positive signs. It seems that the bees who are tending the queen have somehow grown in number, even though they are obviously not her offspring. Maybe they are expatriates from Meagan, Taylor and Emily. I honestly don't know. But these bees are in the hive, and the queen is still alive and seems to be as lively as her friends. They are not yet drawing out comb, which I think is the hitch with getting her to lay eggs, because they go in the cells.

So I put some honey and pollen supplements on this hive today, hopefully to stimulate the girls as they build up comb.

Today's photos, from the top:

• Ian assisted me today. It seems wrong to teach someone his age to smoke.
• Hive #4, with honey supplement hanging on the front and the entrance reducer in place to keep it easy for a smaller number of bees to defend.
  
• Frames in Hive #4's nuc box.
• Proper smoker fuel (pine needles), rather than the charcoal that caused an incident previously noted here.
  

A fence takes shape...

This is hard work. Rewarding, but hard. Thursday I had some help come over and we worked on the fence some more. We hammered in 46 more steel posts and planted 11 cedar posts (this time with the post hole diggers instead of the auger I rented last time). The fourth side of the fence that goes from the shed toward the barn wasn't laid out at all, and it is set.


Does this strike you as more or less fun than beekeeping?


I'm hoping that the greater part of the work toward finishing the fence is done. I'm taking a few days away over the next week and hitting it hard after that. I'm hoping maybe two more good long days out there will be enough to get the bracing on the corners complete and the fencing attached to the posts.


Tennessee Renaissance Farm should be goat-ready in just a couple of weeks. Not bad, considering it rained the whole first half of May.

Fencing progress...

My friend came over today and helped me work on the fence some more. Last week, we dug holes with a machine I rented and put the corner posts in them. Today, we hammered in some metal posts. The driver I bought is basically a heavy reinforced sleeve of pipe that is capped and has handles on both sides. you position the tip of the post where you want it on the ground and slide the post driver down until it slams, hammering the posts in. While this is definitely hard work, it is much faster and easier than installing wood posts.

I'm probably going to hire out much of the rest of the labor for this fence. I've thrown out some feelers to find trustworthy help. I really want to get the fence done this month and bring over the goats.

I hope my arms are functional tomorrow.

Almost time to go out to the garden...

These are the plants that I started indoors so they will be ready to plant with a head start this spring. For the new herb garden, I have basil, oregano, dill, parsley, thyme and spearmint. I also started 2 cultivars of strawberries, some rhubarb and spinach.



Herbs




Strawberry

The Buzz

Not much to tell today, but on break I talked to the gentleman who is selling me my first bees. Looks like I'll get the nuc from him and I'm having two more packages delivered around the same time.

Awesome!