*our dairy queens are doing great!

 Nefertiti, also know as Neffie is so loving and affectionate.  She has this way of demanding  your attention with  face.  She is notorious for lifting her long Roman nose up to sniff your breath or sniff your face. Nubians are know as being very social and vocal goats.

This is Cleopatra, also known as Cleo and I can never get any good pictures of her because she is my constant companion.  Stuck to me like glue. My side kick. A leach.  Upon picking her up in Alabama on that first day her personality was obvious and we knew that she was going to be trusting right away.  She took to me without reservation, which I , of course loved.  She is a talker, we will be walking towards the barn at feeding time and call out to them with a "maaa" sound and Cleo will call back, "maaa". It is quite entertaining. 

Bodica, also known as Bodie has grown so much since we first brought her to our humble little farm.  Both Neffie and Bodie were a bit cautious in letting any of us care for them in any way, except feeding of course.  Bodie is just as sweet as the other two dairy queens, but she does not like to put up with getting her hoofs trimmed.  She constantly nips me while I am trimming her. I am constantly correcting her with a firm "no" and a light tap on her head or side.  In the mean time, Cleo is right up in the middle trying to get my attention! 

 We left this dump wagon that attaches to our lawn mower in the barnyard one day and now it has become a permanent ornament as the goats love to hop in and out of it throughout the day as well as take naps in it.  I sometimes lay branches in it as well and they munch them up straight away!

Can't you just see her sweetness? 

Again, I was trying to get some sweet pictures of Cleo, but she was up in my grill. I tried to push her back just a bit so I could get a good view of her in my lens..but to no avail she kept forcing her way back to me.  So, I give you, Cleo (in this fashion). 

Nubian Goats are great for milking purposes (and are a dual purpose goat -meat), and great for the small homesteader or hobby farmer.  You need much less land than you would need if you were raising a cow.  The goats are MUCH easier to handle and manage than a cow - just think of the size comparison!  Your feed to production ratio is much better with a goat.  You are thinking, EW, goat milk!  If  you have ever drank goats milk from the grocer, you are not tasting true goat milk.  If you are interested in the WHY of our choice for Nubian (dairy) Goats as our sustainable source for milk instead of a dairy cow, check this out.

More and more families are starting to get back to the basics or you at least can read some hype on this subject. The decisions our family has made towards sustainability has nothing to do with a whim decision or a sudden concern for our future food source although it is a concern. My dear husband is a survivalist at heart. Much of this comes from his upbringing, who he is and some from his mode of operation in the military.  These things that you see our family taking part in at the present have always been at bay in his mind, the Lord has brought some of it to fruition and some are still on the planning board.  We are enjoying the land, working it (well most of the time), what it brings forth and the ability to share with others as well as store some for a later date.

I was just speaking with a lady last week who was inviting me to join in a co-op that will operate on the barter system.  I encourage you to start one in your area!  This is how they are going to work the barter co-op here: Each person will plant one crop in excess. It will be harvested by that person and the excess will be brought to the meeting place along with every one's excess crop harvest. Each member of the co-op will take what they desire with no money exchanged.  This is such an easy thing to do even with a small suburban lot. There are crops that can be planted year round providing you with many fresh veggies void any herbicides or pesticides for your family dinner table!  Start taking some of the food provision for your family into your own hands, you can do it!


I shared this today at Homestead Revival's Barn Hop! Come check it out!

*all cleaned up!

Bees are great housekeepers!  Remember I reported to you on our honey harvest? After Henry and I extracted as much of the honey as we could from each frame, we laid them out on a make shift table about 100 feet from their hive.  Sure enough the bees had the frames cleaned within 24 hours.  The honey bees did a great job as well as a few lucky bumble bees who got in on the goods!

I made the rookie mistake of leaving a honey covered plastic bag inside the barn on our way into the house with the full frames in hand. We discarded or tossed aside the plastic bag when we went through the barn.  I also left two frames in the barn when I had meant to go back and get them to put on the make-shift table to get cleaned up by the bees.  Eric and I later went out to the barn to feed the animals for the evening and WHOA!  We were met at the barns entrance with numerous bees swarming around that had been busy cleaning those two misplaced frames as well as investigating the plastic bag with great interest!   I had to now carefully removed the bag as well as get those two frames out in the field with the other ones.

I have read A LOT about managing a hive, keeping bees, being a good beekeeper, and the likes. I however have not given the same amount of time to learning HOW it is that the bees make the honey.  Today out of a healthy respect for the bees and a grateful heart for the flow that they produced for us,  I decided to do a bit of reading on this topic. I am amazed the amount of laborious efforts that have to be put forth to simply produce a tablespoon of honey.  Check THIS link out with some curious facts about the worker bees process of making honey.

When I went out to check on the frames to see how the cleaning was coming along I saw many dead bees. I was, as you can imagine, a bit alarmed.  I also saw all the bumble bees and thought perhaps a fight had ensued over the honey, and thought perhaps the bumble bees had won.  This was not the case at all.  I later found out that the life cycle of those bees had come to an end. I thought, well it is a good way to finish up life!  In the midst of what they OWN, that honey.

Tomorrow will be the day we open the hive one last time until spring!  I am excited to work the hive and see my little sugars one more time before they begin spending the next few months getting ready to weather the fall and winter months. 

*abundant harvest over flowing

I have said this before and I will say it again, we NEVER thought we would have honey to harvest this year.  God has really blessed our hive to literal over flowing! Even the local bee master, Mr. Bundrick is surprised that we got 50lbs of honey from our hive that we started the second week of May.  He had a nuc prepared for us the weekend of Easter, but Henry and I flew out to North Carolina to help pack up the rest of our things and finish our move.  Upon returning we were exhausted for several weeks, as you might imagine!  We finally followed through with a call and Mr. Bundrick came out to set up our hive mid May of this year!

We were supposed to finishing taking the honey this weekend but some of my family members were here visiting, so we put it off until Tuesday.  Henry and I went out on Tuesday morning, smoker in hand, with full gear on, ready to finish the job we started last week.  We took 10 frames full of honey, stirred up the bees and worked the rest of the afternoon away processing honey. Henry's help during this whole process was invaluable.  Eric usually helps with all the hive operations, but you have to work a hive in the middle of the day and Eric would not be off again until Saturday.  Hence, we have no pictures while working the hive.  I do wish we had a picture of when Henry had to leave the area because a single bee got after him. I assure you he did NOT look as silly as I must have looked the day I ran crazily away from several bees that were chasing me.  No stings again today! WOOT!

We have to do just a few things as regular maintenance on the hive this weekend.  Once these precautionary measure have been put in place, we will not make any changes on the hive until Spring 2012.

Henry is starting the extraction process. Mr. Bundrick has two extractors he lends out to his customers when harvest time arrives.  

Surely you can see that harvest time has arrived!  I would take each frame from the hive, give it a hard shake up and down to dispel any bees that were on the frame working when I pulled it from the box.  Any bees that were still on the frame had to be gently flicked off.  When you have the frame bee free, success has been reached.  The next step is to get that frame into a container or a clean plastic garbage bag.  

You can see the comb that the bees attached to the bottom of this frame. I had removed one of the frames in the box below the top one to give the more room (because I had read to do this.. don't do it!!) The bees made a beautiful comb but it cause chaos in your hive.  

Henry looked pained as he tasted the honey, but he really was enjoying it. He later told me he ate way too much honey and that he felt sick. 

Inside the rim of the home made extractor you see the delectable honey spinning out of the frames. 

Again, a good view of the honey being pulled out by force of the centrifugal extraction device. 

Like I said before, Henry's help was indispensable to me on this day.  We both took turns working the extractor. It was my turn to work the camera.  

Here Henry opens the spout for the first jar to be filled.  Oh what a day! 

The wax from this extraction was minimal, but what we are able to clean out will be used for lip balms.  We have made lip balms in the past with some success, but we hope to make a far superior product with the wax that our young bees have provided. 

Ah, I gotcha! Proof that you were eating wax filled honey since it is on your chin.  He looks a little intoxicated doesn't he. It is the honey, I'm telling you.  He had way too much. 

We will not have comb to put in our jars of honey as a general rule, but since I had created that mess in the hive by removing that frame, we used what we harvested in a few jars. I think having a bit of the intricately designed honey comb in the jars makes them simply beautiful.  A work of art! 

This particular jar reminds me of the honey we used to see at my grandpa's and grandma's when we would visit. Momma told me that Granddaddy used to rob the bees in the wild and this is what their jars of honey looked like. 

I visited the hive the evening after we took the honey.  This is normal activity if the hive is full and they are trying to keep the queen cooled. I am a bit concerned that I may need to put a supra back on for the bees but Mr. Bundrick told us when we harvested the honey to go ahead and take the supra off until Spring.  What you see here is now their hive. We are going to give the supra (the smaller box on top)  to the queen as well so she can use it for brood or whatever she desires.  We will remove the queen extractor (the silver sliver) this weekend, which currently sits between the hive box (larger bottom one) and the supra (above it)

We set the extracted frames (and the supra box) about 100 feet from the hive so the bees will be drawn to it and clean it up. Once they have cleaned it up we will store it inside the barn until next spring. Then we will do it all over again!

Sharing over at Deborah Jean's Dandelion's blog hop.

*got milk?

Well we don't have milk yet, but we have EGGS! 

Who would have ever thought that raising fowl would be so much fun. I am serious.  I suppose you could say that I live too far out, see too few interesting things to think that chickens are fun.  I used to live in a rather large town with every possible restaurant at your finger tips, as many theaters as one can imagine and shopping galore! I no longer have those things available to me (45 min drive one way to get to them). I don't miss them. At ALL.

Our hens and their two roosters were all ready for bed by the time I finally made it out with their kitchen scraps. I was a bit delayed in getting out to the barn before I realized that it was to late for them. They are early to bed and early to rise!

This little sugar cracks me up!  Goldie's comb is so large and floppy for her tiny feminine frame.  She always looks as if she is sporting a do of the fowl kind!  I imagine she can hardly see from her left eye. She has a twin (Rebel,the other Buff Leghorn in the bunch) and she doesn't have this same "problem".  Goldie and Rebel would rack up beside each other each night but as you will see Rebel has found a new spot.

Of all the nesting boxes my darlin husband built for this large group of prissy girls, only about 4 boxes are being used, fought over and even double nesting is going on.  We have this one Deleware Chicken that refuses to wait to lay  her egg. If she is ready when her desired nesting box is busy, she will just go stand over the hen that was there first, make a bunch of noise and lay her egg on the other one's back. Just  yesterday I was watching this strange behavior and the egg rolled out of the chicks vent into my hand because I was afraid it was going to roll off onto the ground.  

If you look just above the coop you will see a chicken.  This is Rebel, she has given us great proof for the giving of her name. She does things her way. This is her new way of sleeping.  (I just remembered: Henry and I clipped the wings on all the chickens just a few days ago. All that is except Rebel.. because she was  out in the garden area all alone and could not be caught.  So she still has her wings to fly whenever and where ever she pleases.

 I currently have 4 dozen eggs in our fridge.  We have several "customers" buying eggs from us but we need to bump that up to 8 families a week.  Our 19 hens are now all laying on a regular basis which is providing us with enough eggs to sale for profit.  If we are able to sell 8 dozen eggs each week the cost of  supplemental chicken feed, rabbit feed and goat feed will all be covered by the hens  hard work!

*the fiber of our lives

Cotton.

160 days frost free needed for growth.

I am not a cotton farmer, I do not know anything at all really about this important crop or how to properly grow it.  What I do know is my dear friend, Jen, gave me some seeds to plant for fun and plant we did.  We have watched these beautiful deep green plants grown and bloom for months now.  The bolls on the plants have been waiting for the right moment to show the beauty that lies within!  Just this past week the bolls started opening to show forth the beautiful white cotton.

Are you raising young children? Are you home educating your children? Or are you just curious like I was about the cotton plants stages of growth? Either way, I have numerous seeds that I would like to share with some of you.  If you are interested in a few seeds please leave me a comment below and I will get in contact with you.  Here is a great link for educators about the cotton crop.

I am going to allow the cotton to dry out nicely and use it as part of our decor somewhere in our home. I will use some of the nicely opened bolls to make some cotton angels and other crafts.

This is the last crop in our summer garden spot. This week the area will be tilled for the fall crops!  We will be planting broccoli, cabbage, beets, onions, late corn, some more tomatoes, and more. Are you planting a fall garden? If so, what are you planning to plant?