I Have a Dream

As the New Year and my 40th birthday approaches, I realize that I am on the back side of life, and I am okay with that.  But one thing that struck a chord, a very loud, off-key chord, with me was a letter in one of my magazines from a lady in her 60s who talked about still holding on to her homesteading dream. 

Admittedly, this scared the bejesus out of me (forgive the Irish).  Oh, no, there is no way I am going to be like this lady who has a 30-year dream unfulfilled, a dream that has the potential to be a reality, yet never has come to fruition.  No, my dream is not a dream, it is a goal, it is an ultimate goal with subgoals already planned in my head and even written out, somewhere, probably on scrap paper stuffed in the secretary desk.  Nope, not me.  Sinking in my chair, I thought, that could SO be me.  My flippant attitude about certain responsiblities and procrastination, (mine and my family's), my impatience, my fickleness, you know, all those good qualities one wants to exhibit in onself, very Jekyl and Hyde qualities that most of the fairer sex possess anyway. 

How am I am going to assure that I do not fall prey to this horror?
Sorry, Asics, but Nike has the answer this time-Just Do It...

I feel assuredly that this letter was printed to inspire and uplift an older generation to carry on, not give up.  But in me it has welled up an urgency to not take life so lightly and get my butt in gear!

Old Dog, New Trick

Sew, I am going to attempt to sew.  This is not an easy task as the nightmare of 8th grade home-economic sewing keeps popping in my head, sending me to a corner in the fetal position.  Well, maybe not that bad, but the 20 year old sewing machine that my mother got for me when I first got married is in pristine condition from no use. 

Well, here goes my first project - a pillow case.  I am loving these mix of crazy colors and patterns that I see on homemade pillow cases.  Of course there are fancy ribbons and embellishments that are beyond my current capability, but gives me a goal.

So a trip to a local Wal-mart produces these combinations for 4 cases.  Being a beekeeper, I decide to start with the bee pattern, but I will use the zebra stripe as the main case, just in case I totally mess up, a very high probability.

A little ironing, a little cutting, a little matching up. Oh, dear, I have got to learn to cut a straight line!  Time for a grid and fabric marker, me thinks.

Well, at least the pillow fits, sort of, could probably fit my king size pillow in there.  Now that I have the basic down, it's time to work on proper technique and hone my skills...a LOT!  But at least there may be hope. 

Merry Christmas!?!

Wow!  Where has time gone this year?  It was just summer, and now it is officially Winter.  What the heck?  How did I miss it?  Hmmm.  Time for some serious reflection.  Excuse me while I reflect for just a moment.  I will be right back...

Almost Summer

Summer is just days away and this year Lost Arrow Acres has taken a different path this year because of my finances and "paying" jobs; admittedly, the homestead has not lived up to its potential.  This was also a busy year with proms, graduations, teaching teens to drive, etc. Nonetheless, we got most of the chickens butchered.  Bruce gave skinning them a try.  It seemed to work pretty well (for me at least) as I just rinsed them and put them in the freezer.  Flower, our New Zealand White had 9 bunnies her first liter.  They were all healthy and happy little critters.  I feel it is too hot now to try and breed Thoretta, (originally Thor), Emmy, and I have a feeling that Snow is too old as she did not take earlier in the spring. So we wait until fall.  We had 2 swarms land in the oak tree by the pond and orchard, about 30 feet up.  We got the smaller one.  It is such a great feeling to get a swarm-free bees!  Bruce constructed a bucket on a stick with duct tape (Red Green would be so proud) and it worked splendidly.  We extracted one super and got about 9 quarts of honey from our established bees.  We have a couple of more supers to go.  The garden this year only consists of several tomato plants, asparagus that came and went, my garlic and then we have our berry bushes that did give us a few blueberries to munch on as we walked to the  four hives.   We have two apple trees that did not survive.  The rest are in need of some fertilization and water, which I plan to do today.  The peach trees are coming along nicely.  I am not going to get any more animals, i.e. chickens or goats, until the killer dog is gone.  It is too much time, effort, money and emotions for him to just eradicate for fun. Unfortunately, the greenhouse is in need of new plastic.  It is about 5 or 6 years old and has turned opaque.  That is another expense that will need to be saved up for.  Right now my main objective for this summer is to get the garden weeded, fenced to protect from the wildlife having free lunches, and to keep our bees happy and healthy.  I also want to "purdy" up the yard a bit more.  There are lovely herbs and perinnials, but I would like to have a few more splashes of color.  I did get a spring flower catalog (bulbs, such as daffodils and hyacinths) and have chosen a few that I would like to order and get in the ground this fall.  With the long summer days being upon us, I have more hours to work and plan on improving the homestead. 

The Bees

You may remember that we had two hives abscond last year, leaving us with two fairly weak ones.  One we know left because we did not feed them enough; the other ?  As of now, our two original hives by the chicken coop are 50/50.  One hive, the mean girls, are doing well (don't we always) and we added honey super #3 yesterday.  The other hive, the one that tried to swarm, is not faring so well.  We now know why-a failing queen.  This was her 3rd year, so it is understandable.  There was no brood but at least two queen cells.  So we will be keeping close check on that hive.  Our two newer hives in the front yard are still doing well.  We transferred the frames from the nuc into a full-sized hive body today, as well as a honey supper.  A little bit of capped brood and a lot of honey production going on there.  The  other hive was already in a normal deep super, so we just added the honey super.  Our newest addition, is a nuc that we obtained from a fellow bee club member.  We found the marked queen and her brood pattern is nice.  We will probably give her a couple of more days before we transfer her to the deep.  We also still need to buy a screened bottom board and inner cover, as well as maybe stock up on some honey super foundation.  But so far, our girls are hanging around and working hard.  I am confident that we will have a fair amount of spring honey this year.  I do need to plant some more bee friendly plants around the homestead though. I feel bad if they have to fly TOO far.

The Otter

There are some afternoons when I have to get out of the house and just sit on the swing by the pond. I am lucky enough to have watched ducks swim around fairly closely and this week I was a bit unnerved by the red tail hawks mating season. My mother informed me why they were making such a fuss...guess she finally told me about the birds and the bees.

But it seems all the really neat stuff happens while I stand in my office, staring out the window through binoculars. Just the other day I was standing up for a minute and looked out at the pond and saw a head swimming across it. Great, I thought, another pesky beaver going to chew down some more trees. But then something a little odd happened. It dove down into the water in a very odd fashion. I didn't see his wide tail either. I grabbed the binoculars and followed the the little air bubbles here and there. It's head surfaced again and then back down. More air bubbles. That was not a beaver. Then it came up again and had a fish. He laid back almost floating supine while munching on his catch; it must have been a very chewy fish, it looked almost like work to eat it.

The way he swam on his back made it official...an otter. There was an otter dining in my pond. I am not sure how long I stood there watching through those binoculars, but it was not long enough.

I just hope next time I can sneak down to the swing and watch him through my own eyes! Nonetheless, it was amazing.

How Was February?

This has been such an odd "winter." Mild temperatures. I have had to wear my winter coat just one day so far this year. Sweatshirts and pullovers have sufficed otherwise.

As of today, my kitchen table and another table is full of vegetable and herb plants, as well as zinnias, marigolds, cosmos and nasturtiums. I have broccoli, kale, collards and cabbage ready to plant. Actually, a few of my tomatoes are needing to either be planted or put in gallon pots. I have basil and dill at a good stage. I still do not have any sage or parsely and am a little upset about that. I was hoping to have that at least started. I am also behind on my bell peppers. I have hyssop, clary sage, borage and blue sage up but that is for our honeybees. I may have went overboard on the "bee mixes" this year. I think I have 3 or 4 packets of seeds to scatter this spring.

We are getting about 3 eggs a day and I have ordered "rainbow" laying pullets to come in late fall. I am not ordering in the traditional spring months anymore. So far, all the baby chicks that have come in January and September have not fallen prey to snakes-knock on wood. Right now, the roosters we got the last week of January are doing great-haven't lost a one yet. They are almost one month. I am keeping the heat lamp on them just a few more days, as the temperatures are supposed to drop back down into the 30s for a couple of nights this weekend. After that, I am going to shut 'er down. They are almost fully feathered.

I have more double digging to do. I only have 2 1/2 beds done. I am not going to complain about the rain, but it has hindered my beds a bit. Wet clay can be quite heavy-ugh!

A bit of slow month so far. But as the daffodils are in full bloom and the rosemary is covered in purple flowers and honeybees (not to mention the wasp I saw), I feel time will be flying by shortly.