Hive check today.

 I checked my bee hives today. 1st time for both swarm hives.  Both doing great! Lots of honey and pollen. I couldn't find the queens but I know they are in there.


This is the big hive. The 2nd swarm came from this hive. These frames are FULL of honey! Not 100% capped yet, but will be ready to harvest in a few weeks! It is SO good too.

                                                   Look at that! Just a beautiful sight to see.

This is the 1st swarm hive. I had to scrape off all the burr comb, loaded with honey. I had to run get a bowl first. They weren't all too happy about this at all. But had to be done. I had to put another box on for them. And I had to inner cover put on wrong, so they were building comb too high. All looked good in this hive too. But they were a pissy lot of bees in here!

This is a frame from that hive. They are hard workers, these girls! Lots of pollen and honey and I think I saw brood.

They other swarm hive looked really good too. It's been 2 weeks today that I caught them. They were building lots of comb and generally happy laid back bees in this hive.

I love this picture.  That's the bowl with the honeycomb, a smoker and a hive tool.

So my bee yard is looking good so far. I'll wait awhile to add another box on the other hive. They still had 4 frames not drawn yet.

I LOVE having bees! I never would have thought I'd be a bee keeper. But I really do enjoy having bees here. I love walking by them, telling them good morning as I'm looking for dandelions. I talk to them during the day when I'm out in the garden. They are just fun to have around. Everyone should have a hive of honey bees.

The last kid...

just left Outback Farm this morning.

Little Sorren went to another farm not too far from here a little while ago. Wow. I had 4 little kids, now they are all gone. Now I will be milking 2 does twice a day. Getting 2 gallons of milk a day. What will I do with all this milk?

I need a bottle calf. And a few pigs. Because we cannot possibly drink all this milk. Or eat so much feta and chevre. Or make soap all the time. I only have 1 1/2 gallons a week going out to friends too. I really need to get certified to sell milk now. I am feeling just a bit overwhelmed right now. I put about 4 gallons of milk in the freezer for soap making. But that hardly made a dent. I am going to have a cheese making workshop here in a few weeks too.

                         Here is a fence full of honeysuckles. It smells SO good around here right now!

I am frantically getting ready for a big show down at Mt. Cove Farm at the old barn this weekend. Friday and Saturday, all day, I will be there with my soaps. And I hope to have some of my pottery too. And I will be spinning a lot of this sheep and alpaca wool for those 2 days. So no market for me today. Gotta go to the pottery studio and do some things there this afternoon.

Y'all have a great Monday!

Making something pretty out of ugly.

I made these 2 the other day. They are both really wonky and I should have just smashed them and started over. But I didn't. So I let them dry a few days.

And this is them today. I feel like they are both really cute pieces of pottery now. Something that can be used. I just like them. I etched little flowers on the inside of the bowl, all the way around.

This one, I used a different tool to get the deeper lines. Then etched little flowers along the rim. Very cute now. Sometimes, you just never know how a bowl or mug or plate will turn out.

This is another bowl I thought I should have smashed. But I made little scallops and added flowers too. Turned another wonky ugly bowl into something that's cute and functional.

The pot with the lid I made the other day too. I had made a different lid for it, but couldn't get the handle to stick. So I watched a few videos on how to make lids and did this one. It's from a video of a guy who was making garlic pots. That's what the holes are for. I wish I had his little hole making tool. Maybe I'll have one some day.

I hope I can do something with that really wonky bowl in the left back now. It was a mess.

Sometimes I feel like I should not be at the wheel. Then some days I can make some pretty cool things. I will not give up!

Thursday. At home.

 I have SO much goat milk right now! The whole bottom of the fridge is full of jars of milk. So I decided to make some Chevre and feta today, in between planting tomato plants and making soap.

This is the feta draining here.

And the chevre. This is a really easy cheese to make. Just get the milk to 80 and add buttermilk and diluted rennet. It sits ALL day, then I drain it 6-8 hours. That's about it. Very easy cheese. I have some basil and chives I'll add to it tomorrow. I need to get garlic. I am out.

                                           I made these Tuesday and got them trimmed last night.

I made these today, when I was finished with everything else. I don't think it was a good pottery day for me.

I made 2 batches of soap. A rosemary-mint and cucumber-melon. They both smell so good. I thought I better make some more because the big barn sale is next weekend. I need to get busy getting ready for that. I'm a little upset that all the things I took to be fired last Saturday had not been fired yet yesterday. So no new pottery to take next week. Unless they get it fired by this Saturday. Then maybe I can get it glazed when I go back Saturday. But I doubt it. I really do need my own kiln here. Just a small one.

I've also been planting in the garden. I got those 47 tomato plants in the ground a few days ago. Then went to get a flat of more tomatoes and peppers. So I got 18 Rutgers and some marigolds planted down where I put all those others. Then got 8 Better Boys and 12 Celebrity planted up by the new kale. Also got a rosemary plant. I want more of those. Put it in the flower-herb bee garden.

I thought we were going to get some rain these last few days. Today we got a few sprinkles. Do you think God took me seriously when I said I'd be ok with never seeing rain again after this past winter? I sure hope not. We really really need rain!  I wanted to get more ground tilled if it rained, to loosen up the hard dirt out there, so I could plant beans and okra. But that'll have to wait a few more days.

I do hear thunder toward Lookout Mt.

So I have had a good productive day here at home today. I don't get many days to srtay home all day, so I take advantage of my time here.

Swallows

My birds are back! They are building on the same nest they had last year. I love these birds. They aren't at all afraid of me. It's like they know me. They are in the milk room, so i talk to them all the time. They sleep in there at night, so when I come in to milk when I get home late, they just sit up there and watch me and the goats. They are so sweet.

I need some names for them. I can't keep calling them just birds. Any suggestions?

This snail was on the door one morning. I thought it was pretty cool, just hanging there upside down.

Last night when I went in to milk the goats, there was just 1 bird in the milk room, up near the nest. I was so sad. I thought for sure something had happened to the other one. Then this morning, same thing, just one bird there. Then I got to looking closer at the nest and saw a tail sticking out one side! Oh my goodness, I am SO relieved!  It would have been awful to lose one of these sweet birds.

Around the farm Tuesday...

My bee hives are doing great! I am so happy that I have 3 hives here. Soon will have a 4th.

This is the flower garden I planted for the bees. I don't know how much they'll actually use it, being so close to the hives. But there will be some bee activity here. I will also have cut flowers for markets and I hope to sell to florists.

I planted 47 Cherokee Purple and Orange Valencia tomatoes yesterday. Got them all mulched good and watered. I planted some marigold seeds next to them. I'll probably get more seeds and more tomato plants soon.

The apples are growing! I have 6 young trees below the garden.

And the 3 pear trees are loaded with little baby pears! I love pears.

                                                          These are the 6 younger apple trees.

This is a patch of thistle I am going to let grow. For the bees. Also to make cheese with. I'll harvest some flowers to dry, then make a powder that is rennet. I am excited to try this now.

I let several places go wild in my garden. This is where all my daisies grow free. I love them!

Some more garden beds. I planted more squash and zucchini this morning where the dirt is darker. I'll wait til it rains and makes the ground a bit softer to til, then I'll plant beans and okra. Might find a few rows for some corn too.

This is the dandelion row. I actually bought seeds to plant. They all came up too.

The 3 old apple trees in the yard. They all have apples on them, despite the sheep gnawing on the bark. They are tough old trees.

This wisteria is growing like crazy this year. I'll have plenty of vines to make baskets with this winter!

I've been making a lot of pottery here on this wheel. I took 32 pieces to get fired last Saturday. I'll go this Saturday to glaze them all.

Looks like rain today and the next few days. We actually are 3.5" below normal right now. We need rain. But please not on Monday and Friday afternoons!

Going wild!

This morning I'm getting ready for St. Elmo farmers market. I picked poke and henbit and lamb's quarters and mint. All wild edibles! And some kale too. Also picked a bunch of daisies for my table. I love daisies! My 2nd favorite flower. Zinnias are the 1st favorite.

Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day for a market! It's been freezing the past few days, but hopefully will be in the 70's today. Or by this afternoon. The wind is cold though.

Y'all go out and support your local hard working farmers ok!