Backyard Chickens & Bees

 Nat brought over some very nice apples today that I added to the 98 lbs of crab apples, and I spent about 4.5 hours grinding and pressing them all out for cider. Well, 604 lbs of them were pressed. There were some Newtown Pippens left over, but I just couldn’t squeeze them into the press. [...]

I think that sometimes it’s OK to be that grumpy old man who yells “get off my lawn!” Particularly when it’s directed at three raccoons that are standing on top of your fish pond, trying desperately to get in for a goldfish feast. I built the grate on top of the pond this past summer [...]

I went up to Battle Ground, Washington yesterday morning with my neighbor Matt to pick up about 715 lbs of apples from a grower. These were ‘B-grade’ apples, with some worms, some scab, fully organic, and only costing us $0.40 per pound. Nonetheless, they looked fabulous with only a few worms and a few bits [...]

I promise that I haven’t forgotten about this, or am giving it up after only a few months. This summer has been very busy (as noted in my last few posts) and V and I have been taking some well-deserved vacations, including an absolutely fabulous trip to Vermont! Still, some things that are stewing in [...]

Once again, too much going on and not enough time to write about it. A few recent things that merit some mention include: I rebuilt the water pond after seeing that two of the fish survived the raccoon assaults. The additions made to the pond include a red water lily, several clumps of hortwort, two [...]

This month has been super BUSY, what with the bees swarming, the chickens getting bigger, and all the salads and peas that have been eaten. This past week gave us a nice respite via a road-trip vacation to Park City, Utah to see Veronica’s cousin be married and to party with the rest of her [...]

Two things have been going on recently, somewhat behind the scenes, that have been taking up a lot of my free time. They’re both things that incorporate many of the pastimes that I really enjoy doing: yard work, planning and building small contraptions,  and playing with computers (which is why/how you are reading this). Well, [...]

We participated in a second bee-keeping class yesterday, this time with Glen Andresen as the instructor. He’s a local (as in, about a mile from our house) master gardener who has a bee yard on his property, has raised bees for close to 15 years, has some 35+ bee colonies in three locations, retrieves bee [...]

Q: How do you get chickens from the coop to the pen without fear of them being attacked by dogs, raccoons, or other varmints? Also, how to do that when you’re not there to watch them? A: A Chicken Habitrail™!

Well, today was the day that we’ve been waiting for! The bees arrived at Ruhl Bee Supply on Monday, and I took some time off from work this afternoon to go down and pick them up (I picked up packages both for us and for Matt and Kristin). The pick-up was very well organized, as [...]