Winter landscape from a different porch

I had a lovely long weekend at Porches where I restructured the opening 20 pages of my novel and also enjoyed the company of a friend from high school who is also a writer. I think the sheer number of stories we told over meals held the space for the work which was in some ways difficult but oh so much fun once I dug into it. I came home with the new 20-page opening and a wonderful reconnection. Already looking at doing this again.

As usual Porches Writing Retreat was amazing. The above sunset over the little church off the upper porch is just one nourishing scene I witnessed. It is so beautiful there and so quiet. (Not in the kitchen at breakfast and dinner though! But we were the only writers there so we didn't even have to close the kitchen doors.)

a word for the farm, a word for the world today

Feb. 09, 2017

muckrake \MUHK-reyk\ verb 1. to search for and expose real or alleged corruption, scandal, or the like, especially in politics. Quotes There will continue to be room, of course, for some kinds of traditional, thoroughly sourced reporting: exclusives, certainly. Investigations, certainly. that's something extra. Yahoo isn't in a position to muckrake. -- Mitchell Stephens, "Beyond the News," Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 2007

First beekeeping decision: package or nuc?

I'm well into beekeeping school now, with so much yet to learn, but I'm starting to have enough information to think about proceeding. I know I can buy the parts for the hive itself and put them together properly, but will likely purchase the frames already assembled with wax. I have a good idea what I'll use to paint the exterior of the hives (I'm going with milk paint and possibly tung oil once I do some more research on that) and where I'll put the first two hives. 

Next week we'll be learning to use the smoker, so I'm getting one so I can practice. Thankfully I have a spot in the front pasture that will be an endless supply of pine straw, which is the fuel of choice around here.

The options for starting out with bees are these: buy packages, buy nucs (short for nucleus), or buy an entire hive.

My understanding from what I have read and learned thus far is this. Packages are small cages holding about 3 pounds of worker bees. There's a tiny cage suspended inside the larger package which holds the queen. When you get the bees home you remove the queen, put her (still in her tiny cage) into your empty hive, then open up the "package" of worker bees and gently shake them into the hive around the queen. If all goes well the workers begin to feed the queen, chew through the queen candy sealing one end of her cage, and let her out. 

Nucs are 5 intact frames of worker bees with a queen. The frames have cells with eggs, larvae, pupae, pollen, honey, etc. In other words, the nuc is the "nucleus" of a working hive. Everything is already in process. You bring the nuc home, put the frames in your empty hive, and off you go. 

An entire hive is exactly that. All the parts of the hive, full of bees and comb and honey, usually purchased from someone who is either downsizing or getting out of bees altogether.

Each of these has pros and cons. Buying an entire hive assumes you know enough to go into that hive before purchase and check for mites and any signs of poor health. I'm not quite at that point yet, so I've ruled this option out.

Initially I was thinking in terms of packages, because they're slightly less expensive and seem to be more readily available. But then I learned that bee packages are made up by people going from hive to hive, shaking some bees into the package cage, and then putting a separately bred queen with this newly-created colony. My first reaction: given what I've learned about bees and their biology, along with their social aspects, isn't this a recipe for disaster? It's convenient for the beekeepers selling packages, and for anyone buying packages, but apparently there are some losses in transport, frequent queen deaths due to worker bees stinging her to death, and sometimes other casualties of the process.

I like the idea that a nuc is a group from an actual working hive. The worker bees are the actual daughters of the queen. They are already a team and have achieved frames with all they need to survive. In my mind, they're family. That's all it took for me to determine that nucs are what I want to start with.

Now the hard part is finding nucs! Who knew how far in advance one has to put in orders! I have leads on a couple of options but may have to wait to get started. In any case, I've made my decision and I'm (almost) ready to go. Meanwhile I have to get two hives purchased, assembled, treated and painted, and set up. And it looks like it's going to soon be time to purchase the coveted beekeeping suit I found online. More details as the process unfolds! 

sometimes, when I'm overwhelmed...

the best thing to do is take Bear Corgi for a walk and look up:

First sunset of February, 2017, November Hill. 

November Hill farm journal, 26

After a lot of warm weather and even more rain, we have finally cooled down to below freezing temps at night and found sunshiny days again. The wind has also been blowing, sometimes hard, and that has made it feel colder and harder to be outside, but has thankfully helped speed the drying out process. I was sinking ankle deep into mud in several spots out in the paddock but now the mud peaks are dry and trodden flat beneath hooves and muck barrow wheels.

It's definitely midwinter here. By now I've gotten up a decent amount of leaves and mixed them in with manure and stall waste to compost. The wind has carried a fair amount of the leaves that were left out of the pastures, which made me smile as that is work I won't have to do!

The bones of the November Hill landscape are the most visible right now than any time of year. The contour of the land is clear, and we have our first winter view of the now-heavily-timbered 100-Acre-Wood. Although I miss the forest that was there before, it is interesting to see how that land lays. My husband took a photo from behind what will be our new property line looking this way toward the barn - what a sight! 

The other prominent feature of midwinter are the birds: crows and red-headed woodpeckers, and many sparrows and finches and cardinals. We were at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science last weekend exploring their huge collection of bird nests and finally, after many years not knowing, learned that the tiny nests built of hairs from the tails of our horses are made by chipping sparrows. It's nearing the time of year when we'll find them on the ground, blown down by the wind. The recent ones we have found are conspicuously devoid of Salina's black tail hairs, distinguishable from Keil Bay's by their thick/coarse texture. It seems odd that finding a tiny nest makes me miss Salina but it does.

I remain behind on projects but this weekend's sunshine after several days of dry weather allowed me to chip away at my painting. I put two very nice coats of soft white milk paint on the support beams for the final porch screen, the post and porch rail beneath, and got about halfway through putting one coat on the screen itself. I considered finishing it today but decided horse hooves need touch-up trims and Keil Bay needs his full trim, so hopefully on Wednesday, a sunny day with forecast of 60s, I can finally complete this project!

Then it's on to the front steps which I need to sand, make one small repair, and then paint and tung oil (which will be the second coat of tung oil). I'm looking forward to that day when I can say DONE and place the order for my new porch light!

We have been replacing barn lights with LED bulbs as the old ones burn out and we had four to replace this weekend. It's nice how something so simple makes such a huge and pleasant change - LIGHT! It's nice and bright in there again. Cheerful on gray days.

In other news, I am pondering how and when to start my beekeeping in earnest, though I'm only a few classes into bee school. And on Friday I went to Bear's first obedience class and got some terrific tips that have already proved useful. I feel his biggest lesson in this class will be learning to do things with the huge distraction of being with 7 other dogs he doesn't know. I hope we'll sail through pretty well and then move on to Canine Good Citizen in March. 

I would be misrepresenting life on November Hill these days if I left out concern about our country and what is happening here. Thankfully the farm and the season and the animals both domestic and wild keep me busy and grounded. But the peace and calm I feel here is also like a treasure to be guarded and protected and I'm making regular phone calls to state and national senators and representatives. It makes me both sad and upset to see the chaos this administration brings, but I hope, in a bigger, deeper way, that we are in the midst of a needed change. I feel the two-party system is not serving us well, and I feel our nation has lost its focus. We need to get in touch with what we as a country want to "be about" - I hope we can find a way to be a nation focused on protecting humans, animals, the environment, and making it a point to prioritize good lives for all citizens. With the arts and science given huge support. A lofty hope, perhaps, but I think it's possible. 

I see recently how valuable living on our little farm is - how much joy and peace it brings - and I think there has to be a way to help people find their own November Hills in the world - whether it is a small piece of land and a lively, loving menagerie of animals, or an apartment in the city with a window garden and a sketch pad on the table by the window. It's really a state of mind, finding what sustains us. But it seems we have, in the big picture, lost the ability to find that in our daily lives.