Stung, But Not By A Bee

This past weekend we finally had a warm, clear day on which we could do a hive inspection.  I had quickly slipped a couple of empty bars in earlier, worrying that the girls might have been responding to the warmer weather with thoughts of expanding, but I was nervous about opening things up in the cool evenings......

My trusty co-beekeeper....

We opened the hive, not knowing what we might find.  There was some wax debris, a small bit of mold, and dead bodies on the hive floor needing to be cleaned out, but minimal insect damage or visible mite issues.  The colony had smaller numbers than I would like, and we had no visual on the queen - but everyone was calm and occupied with work implying that a good queen remains in control....

Some of the girls were busy cleaning and building a bit of new comb, others with the very minimal pollen and nectar stores in last year's storage.  I put out some of their honey, directly in their flight path, to give them a boost.  They've ignored it for 2 days.

We took the bottom board off the hive, to allow for better air flow now that the nights aren't getting too cold. The ventilation should help to help clear up the small amount of moisture that is causing some edges of comb to mold, and I will examine the comb in a week or two to judge the hive's process on their cleanup.  We're keeping 2 of the 3 access holes blocked, until the hive builds its numbers and has adequate guards for the entrances.

Then I got stung.  We had received 5 yards of mulch to pretty up the pathways and top off the perennial beds, and were moving some of that to the garden.  Having picked nettles the day before for our first serving of stir-fried greens, I guess I got  a bit thoughtless around the prickly plants. I put my hand down on a root, and came away with a mildly throbbing finger for my trouble.  

Intoxification

The long wait for warmer weather sometimes makes gardeners do silly things.  Adrian and I had some cleanup to do over the weekend, and a rainy Saturday made for a longer than intended day of work on Sunday.  By the time we finished the majority of our chores list and the daylight was waning, we ate a very well-deserved take-out dinner (oh the irony), and then slept like the dead.  The aches and pains this morning reminded me how I can bite off  bit more than I should at this time of year.

Still, the rabbits have an upgraded manure collection system (we needed the buckets back!), and we bred two of our does in the rabbit run in full sunshine, giving them some personal time as well, to eat some fresh grass, dig, and lounge about.

The potatoes I had kept for seed from our harvest last year (red, white and purple) went into our potato buckets, along with some local, organic, fingerling potatoes which had sprouted even in our dark spare room.  I'm still waiting for my fingerling seed potato order, and have 4 larger buckets waiting for planting. As Adrian noted, Russet and Yukon Gold potatoes cost a dollar or two a pound, but the fingerlings are up to five dollars most of the year - focusing on growing specialty items saves us money at the market and makes us more appreciative of our 'treats,' since the fingerlings taste wonderful smashed and fried.

Barley and wheat went into the beds prepared last weekend, and are covered carefully in weighted-down row cover fabric, to deter all of the wildlife that is currently scrounging for food.  With all of the rain we were having, I was reluctant to sow my grain seed too early.

Our first round of Snap Peas is also in, assuming the aforementioned rodents and crows don't dig them up.

The mason bee trays are soaking, and the bee house is being aired, in anticipation of this year's crop of cocoons - which are temporarily being stored in the fridge.  With the bushes and trees breaking bud, our masons will hopefully help us to have another good harvest of fruit this year.

Lastly, we had one more trick up our sleeves in our efforts to protect our fruit trees.  They had sticky traps for the fall and winter, wound around their trunks and slathered in petroleum jelly, then we managed to spray them weeks ago, to try and knock any overwintering pests and fungi back.  Yesterday afternoon, we took some white interior latex paint, and covered the trunks up to the lower branches with sparkling bright paint, to act as a further deterrent to animals that might nibble on the bark, or bugs endeavoring to burrow into the wood.  That last chore is probably what made for the most aches this morning.  It's harder than you would think to paint a tree!

We intend to move our top bar hive back under the old apple tree, but we also need to finish pruning and top up the mulch under there, so for now it remains in its temporary location.  the bees have been quite busy, and the days are getting warmer, so I decided to take a quick look inside the hive to assess what's going on.

My concern was that the colony population might be swelling in response to the season.  I took the lid off this afternoon, in 12 degree weather, and had a brief peek in each side of the hive for the first time - not opening up the hive fully and risking cooling things down.  The hive was absolutely buzzing, the bees largely ignored me (which was perfect, since I wasn't wearing any gear), and were actively making daisy chains and building new comb.  I added two extra bars to assure them that they have plenty of space, and closed the lid, with the heavenly smell of fresh beeswax in my nostrils, and a smile on my face.  I've been watching them for weeks now, and I'm thrilled that the girls made it through their first winter.  Adrian and I will need to get geared up and do a full inspection (though we're looking at 6 days of rain starting tomorrow).  I need to know what the whole hive looks like soon - was there any mold or insect damage over winter, what do the stores of pollen and honey look like, are there are any drone cells... I especially need to know if the colony is starting any queen cells - we may need to speed up our hive-building plans.

Smells like spring!

Feeling The Burn

With a short break in the 'Spring' weather, this has been a time of starting things up in the garden. After our surprise snowfall (which made house-hunting just that much more difficult), the crocuses are again showing some color, the buds are starting to burst, and the tulips and peonies are pushing up through the mulch.

At the beginning of the week, when I realized we would have a few days without rain (a window we missed last year), I was determined to get the fruit trees and the fruit bushes sprayed.  Because of our mild weather, many pests overwinter here on the coast.  Even some non-edible species of plants and trees are hosts for insects and fungi that can do real damage in the garden.  Living in the suburbs with many gardens around us, we have scab, aphids, rust, borers, sawfly - you name it - and some of these pests can be minimized by an application of 'Dormant Spray,' which is a combination of horticultural oil and lime sulphur.  The trick is to get it applied to the plants and trees when there will be several dry days for the application to rest in the nooks and crannies of the bark to kill pests and spores, but before the leafy buds actually 'break' and are damaged by the sprayed oil.  On the 'Wet Coast' we sometimes don't get the chance.

So, at the end of the day, I assembled the ladder, the spray pump, the hose and the Dormant Spray Kit, picked Adrian up, and expected a quick round of him prepping the water/oil/fungicide mix while I clambered up and down the ladder and sprayed the rotten-egg-smelling mixture all over the back yard (and myself - can't be helped with a breeze).

Except the pump wouldn't hold pressure.

So there we were, in the fading light, switching to a plant mister each, and straining to reach as high as possible with our application of the stinky mix. What can I say - I love him!

My minimal seed order was placed last week, and arrived yesterday, so this weekend will involve starting some tomatoes and lettuces - as soon as I pick up some sterile Starting Mix, and purposely ignore the seed selection that will likely be in evidence at the hardware store.  The dry spell meant that we could get at the first few garden beds to pull weeds and the remaining cover crop of winter rye, turnip and mustard (rabbit snacks!), which was what Adrian helped with last night.  Three beds weeded, and the top layers prepared for my wheat, and barley planting.  The timing is good - Mother Nature should helpfully water it all in for me this weekend (that's one way to make a positive out of the weatherman's report that we have our normal, rainy, seasonal weather on the way again).  The timing for a rainy weekend is also good for the tending of one's aching muscles after a long-unused set of gardening muscles have returned to use!

Don't Count Yer Eggs......

A handful of days ago, I was delighted to recognize the tulip leaves which were beginning to emerge from beneath the winter accumulation of leaves, gently-used straw and rabbit poop, with which we had amended the perennial border along the fence. My eye had noted the garlic planted last October had started to peek out of the soil, and the crocus plants, which had been greening up for some time, had finally started to sport their unopened blooms.  I giddily rushed outside with a spoonful of our salvaged honey, to offer to the foraging girls I saw emerging from the hive in response to the sunshine.  Mentally, I started ticking off the list of things I needed to tend to and clean up during the weekend. I'm all for leaving seed heads standing for the birds in the fall and winter, but when the promise of spring is on the wind, you have to admit it looks messy. I ruffled the leaves of the parsley plants that had made their dormant way through the winter in my make-shift greenhouse - despite the wind's valiant efforts to strip the plastic off of the support beams on several stormy days - and felt the smile spread across my face.

We went out to Chilliwack for a second round of property viewing Saturday morning, having heard that there might be some small amount of snowfall for the Lower Mainland over the next few hours.  I crossed my fingers that the driving would be unaffected, and the snow would abate.

The snow seemed rather insubstantial that morning, but for the drive home along the highway it gusted and limited visibility. The rabbits were happy with the some extra grain and sunflower seeds, and only one water bottle was frozen by the time we got home.

But the snow didn't stop.

By Saturday evening, the white stuff had been coming down in earnest. That's my track out to the bunnies in the snow.

By Sunday afternoon, the neighbor's little Miniature Pincher had to literally bound through the drifts to bark at me.

And it hasn't stopped.....

Right now, I'm just checking the water bottles regularly and tapping off the branches of the blueberry bushes before accumulation snaps them off.  An unexpected surprise this 'late' in our coastal year, but I guess those chores will have to wait.

Kitchen experiments

I treated myself to some Meyer lemons from the store a couple of weeks ago, and had been using them slowly until this weekend.  Appreciating them for the treat that they are, I tried to make the most out of my purchase.  I made a couple of apple crisps, and some zucchinni lemon bread.  I also saved the seeds, and am trying to start plants both in soil and in dampened paper towels.

 

 

 

I used some of the rind to make citrus vinegar, along with some clementine rinds provided by Adrian's co-workers - and a couple of limes that were squeezed for hand-cut salsa.  I've just decanted and strained the citrus vinegar and will be using it as part of a home made cleaner when I finish the last of the Windex in my cupboard.  I've dried additional citrus rind for use as a simmering mix (to scent and humidify the house), or to add to sachets and scent my sheets and drawers of clothing.  The last two lemons will be skinned, and the rind dunked in vodka for some homemade citrus extract - it can be buddies with my vanilla bean extract.

 

We both have come to appreciate Korean food, and love kimchi.  We've enjoyed our home made, traditional sauerkraut over the past few months, but the 'Krautchi' cross that I attempted turned soft, and lacked the crunchy cabbage texture that we like. For now, I've switched gears and turned to a fermented daikon radish 'kimchi' - known as 'Kkakdugi'

We had a taste yesterday after I made it, and have high hopes for enjoying a different ferment with our meals, to change things up from the Saurkraut.  I have the jar out on the counter for monitoring and a mild ferment, and then will cap it and move it to the fridge when we like the amount of sour taste. 

The daikons were peeled and cubed, rinsed, patted dry, and sprinkled with salt and sugar (this encourages some release of the vegetable's juices, as with kraut).  After 30 minutes, I drained and held the juice aside.  Diced garlic and ginger were added, with several green onions, some fish sauce, and hot pepper flakes.  There are a ton of recipes on the net for reference and optional ingredients.  The whole shebang went into a jar, and I weighed down the daikon with a water-filled jar, then covered the whole thing with a clean towel to sit and mellow.

 

Another two items I have been meaning to replace forever - Nutella and nut butter (this is Honey Almond Butter with Sea Salt - doesn't that sound gourmet?) Both are quite easy to make on your own.  There are fewer ingredients (like 3), and though they need refrigeration and the consistency is a bit granier, I'm quite happy with the results - and Adrian was pleased to have them for breakfast this weekend. 

Tastes Like Cabbage Rolls...

Much like the 'cheater' casserole I worked up for the taste of Greek Dolmades without all of the work, I've now made two attempts at a casserole version of Cabbage Rolls.  Adrian tells me that these two dishes top the list of his favourite weeknight dinners.

On this day, I was making Cabbage Roll casseroles as well as a batch of pasta sauce for the freezer - onions, carrots, celery, garlic, dehydrated zucchini and tomatoes from the garden (rehydrated overnight in tomato sauce), herbs and spices, ground pork and beef bought on special, and diced canned tomatoes also bought on special. Everything was cleaned chopped, sauced, browned and cooked up en masse, and what didn't get used in the casseroles went into the pot with some extra diced tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, sage, and dried garlic powder, then was frozen in blocks to quickly feed guests with minimal prep work.

 

 

The meat and vegetables for the casseroles, with rice added.  Adrian said he would be fine with less meat and more rice and vegetables.  This time, it worked out to a little under 1/4 pound of meat per serving, but I will adjust to make the meal less expensive and less dependant on grocery store meat. I'd like to try this with ground rabbit as well.

 

I browned the cabbage to encourage some deeper, sweet flavor, and for ease of layering in the dishes.

 

Cabbage, sauce, cabbage, and there you have 24 servings for the freezer, with no questionable ingredients.

Chilliwack?

I've been teased by a few people about the fact that I haven't posted anything in a while.  I've been carried away with schoolwork and looking for our new home - realtors everywhere have been extremely frustrating to manage (and, really, are you supposed to need to manage a realtor?), and I must say I've spent more time than I like to think about searching city websites, calling, emailing, and generally leaving messages for people who are supposed to be 'in the know' about city zoning, bylaws, and specifics regarding the properties involved.  I've become quite adept at viewing city maps and tracing property lines visually on Google, to determine whether that's a 'slight slope,' or a cliff at the back of a house.... I want questions answered before waste time or fall in love with an unsuitable place!

This past weekend we drove out to Chilliwack (about an hour and a half outside of Vancouver proper), to have a look at several properties.  Unfortunately, the owner of the home we were most interested in pulled out at the last minute - because she had company coming (hunh?) -  so our main interest went unseen.  We're trying to lock in a viewing for next weekend.

 

This house was the front-runner of the day, meaning that out of the 6 properties we saw, it was the only one that we would consider useable and liveable.  Still, at $600,000.00 and 3 hours worth of commuting each day to work, we're not jumping on board just yet.

 

 

The view over the fence at the back of the property - the remnants of the neighbour's corn harvest, and a peek at the misty mountains in the distance.

 

This is me looking back at the house (center), with Adrian and the realtor walking towards me - the neighbouring houses to either side are closer than I would like, but huge, established cedar hedges around front and sides of the 'yard' allow for quite a bit of privacy.

 

 

The inside of the aged but clean and fairly sound barn - this is one of two sides, with a divider wall down the middle, a tack room, and a small workshop area.  Decent cement floor with foot-high cement sides for the exterior wall footings.

 

 

The barn's inhabitants watching me take pictures out of their back loafing area.

 

The second-story hay door to the barn's loft area, which would probably hold 100 bales of grass and straw.  I just wanted to get in there with a broom for the cobwebs, and several vats of whitewash. This is also a  view of the back of the house, with an enclosed back porch/mudroom (12x19), featuring a huge single-pane window to ensure it receives lots of light (and on that day, a fair amount of the cold.  Useful during the mosquito season, and for company's coats and shoes, but not really liveable in the fall and winter).

 

Still the view from the barn loft - the back of the garage (larger building on cement slab, with 220 power - summer canning kitchen and entertaining space?), and a smaller shed with metal sheeting for the roof and walls.  Dry and clean, but I'm not sure of its intended purpose.  The property boasted several areas of concrete that weeds and grass were attempting to retake.

 

The chicken coop/garden shed, with what appears to be a stolen Federal Parks and Recreation sign hanging over the door.  A few broken panes of glass in the windows, but this has definitely served to house chickens - ask me how I know.  Behind the flag pole is a hazelnut tree (bonus!) and a severely-pruned apple tree.  This grassy yard, bounded by cedars, is likely where the septic is located.  Unfortunately, the history of the septic system is not documented - but the realtor knows a guy *wink wink.*

 

 

Excited by the viability of the outbuildings and the outdoors space, we went inside to find a combination of renovated and non-renovated living spaces....  The kitchen was decently outfitted with cabinets and an island with good storage, where stools could be added for a few people to pull themselves up to eat.  The dining area (table at front) would likely only seat 6 in the space afforded.  Some of the light switches served no purpose/were faulty/were wired to burnt-out-bulbs.

 

Several well-built and sealed hatches opened up to show a crawl space filled with cobwebs which was floored in dirt.  I would definitely want someone down there to assess the area.

 

The owners had installed new flooring, and hookups for a surround-sound stereo system, but the intended area for the TV was oddly positioned right next to the propane stove (which had obviously just replaced a wood-burning appliance).  I don't favor putting expensive electronics directly beside a heat source.

 

The laundry room and water treatment area were newly-outfitted, though I didn't think to check which way the doors opened.

The two bedrooms on the main floor where acceptable though small, and a 9x9 'office area' led off of the smallest of the two.  The listing, however, noted an additional 8x10 and 13x11 bedroom, which we found through a small door, up a, well I would say extremely-angled, narrow, staircase.....and that's where the renovations had stalled...

 

Hmmm.

 

The search continues.....