This summer while the chickens snuck into the garden,
and Rainbow Girl and I milked Betty the Goat,
on the milk stand built by The Mister of the House,
where if you kept a watchful eye you would catch frequent summer accidents averted by toddlers-with-initiative;
and even wobbly-headed newborns became bright-eyed infants before your very eyes (although you're not quite sure how),
...well while all of this happened at The Olsen's over this summer, the flowers bloomed and dangled pollen like candy-bait for kids.
Except pollen isn't bait for kids, just bees. And boy did they work!
Out of two hives we set up this spring, we harvested just ONE this week. The other hive swarmed, and we lost the majority of that hive (plus their delicious honey). But how could we be too sad when we pulled in this harvest?
Have a looksie!
We borrowed this honey extractor from a like-minded neighbor. What a blessing to have like-minded neighbors! The Mister of the House donned his special bee jacket, smoked the bees a bit so they would be nice, and pulled out 7 panels of honeycomb.
After shaving the tips off the combs, we placed the panels into this extractor and cranked the heck out of it!
I pulled some nylons off from my fungus-ridden feet and put them over the valve at the bottom of the extractor.
Those were clean, Gomer. What're you thinking?! But see all the waxy crappy that comes out with it? We used clean new stockings to serve as a filter.
We didn't have the specialty bee cutting knife, so for a second we worried that our cuts were so sloppy we would be wasting too much honey. So we set up more filtering over bowls, just to be prudent.
I think people used to chew this wax back in the olden days, which was probably a healthy alternative to chewing tobacco. Look how much there is! In the future we may try to make some candles or chapstick or something, but for now, it was enough of a sticky mess just to process the honey.
We had TWO pitchers that we hoped we could fill with the honey. Here's us happily filling our second pitcher. The progression of the slow but steady fill went like this:
so in the end we filled THREE pitchers full of honey, plus some here and there in extra bowls. All in all, we pulled out about 30 POUNDS of honey! Isn't it absolutely GORGEOUS?
The next morning we put out the sticky spent panels by the hives, and the bees went to work pulling in the wax and leftover gooey. What good little bees.
I totally facebook-bragged about this haul and heard all sorts of ego-inflating comments. In reality, this is truly the work of The Mister of the House. He is an AMAZING farmer guy. I am his biggest cheerleader! Love you dude.
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...the pigs and chickens got some new neighbors!
Last week, while still detoxing from hospital baby trauma, we had some exciting developments on the farm. Betty, our miserably pregnant goat, surprised us all by birthing triplet baby kids. Unlike last year's birthing, we didn't even aid (or even cheerlead) the birth. The Mister went in the back to check on the animals, and 3 little baby goats were scrambling for their first steps.
Little Rainbow Girl got stuck hanging out with the goats for a couple hours to make sure all the baby goats were nursing from their mother. Because one thing is for sure, Mrs. Olsen already has her own kid to feed, and didn't want to be stuck on bottle duty with a furry kid.
Wait a second...how did that get in there? Only machinistic institutions tag human kids. Who did that?
Back to the furry kind...
Betty on the lookout. Our other goat, Millie, tries to head-butt these baby's against the wall. What is her deal? But seriously, she is asking for it. Betty will quickly put her in her place.
Later in the week, we tackled (by "we" I mean The Mister) our new farm project of 2011. Here's a hint...
We ordered these back in February/March, and they finally arrived! There were 2 packages of bees, each 3 pounds. Nothing quite like hearing the pitter-patter of thousands of bees getting dumped into their new home. I was a little nervous.
Our neighbors got a hive last year and harvested 16 pounds of honey. We'll see how productive these guys are...and if we happen to get 30 pounds of honey, we will be more than pleased (and possibly so will anyone getting Christmas goodies this winter).
And lastly, our rooster. This guy's got it out for Rainbow Girl. He has attacked her a couple times while she was unawares, flying and pecking her knees and causing her to bleed (through her clothes. punk!).
So I've got his number:
it's
1-800-HEAD-OFF
happening later this summer.
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So much has been happening here that it's almost a relief to have them done before the baby is here. Correction: it's a relief that The Mister has these projects done so Mrs. Olsen has him for few days after kiddo arrives to boss him around, change all the diapers, and get pampered.
Check out all our beautiful eggs! The speckled egg is from our blue slate turkey, who takes forever to become Thanksgiving worthy.
Our goat Betty is due any day! There is a birthing kit ready in the garage for the moment she goes into labor. I tease The Mister that his first love is having a kid soon, and his second love had a baby due yesterday. This is just my super effective methods of getting extra sympathy for harvesting his exploding seed in my gut.
And check it! We have pigs again. This time we're trying to raise them for the fair, which means Rainbow Girl has to become their buddies and be able to lead them around an area with a tap of a stick. Should be interesting.
Also, coming soon to the farm and for the first time: HONEYBEES. I can't wait!
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