Works & Storms In Progress

Yep, the blog is going through a design change. The main content area was just too skinny for my liking.  So, I'm playing around with some layouts to find a best fit for the Smith's Creek Farm site.  We appreciate your patience during our construction phase.

Storm after storm after storm has tromped through our area the past week or so.  No damage at our place but Brady's truck took a beating during this week's hailstorm.  I quickly snapped this pic of our peonies before the winds took it away forever.  Wasn't so lucky with the snowball bush.

The 2011 garden is officially in the ground/mud.  Looks like we're experimenting with hydroponics, lol! If we can get anything to grow in this soupy Ohio soil it'll be a miracle.

While others celebrate (maybe "commemorate" is a better word) the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, we're staging our own reenactment right here on Smith's Creek Farm.  Our GC rooster has waged a vicious turf battle over the past couple weeks with our neighbor to the north's rooster.  Blood and feathers have been shed in this gruesome campaign but I think our rooster will be victorious in the end.

The GC hens are working overtime on egg production.  This weekend we'll set out our "eggs 4 sale" sign.  If the bees are overachievers like the hens, we'll need a "honey 4 sale" sign too.  Any good recipes that call for large quantities of eggs + honey?

Bee hive count is up to 10 as of this posting with more cutouts scheduled this week.  Should reach our max of 20 hives soon.

The throw from the last posting is finished!

Katy Daley posing with
the finished throw

Now if I could only get around to working on those original design patterns ....

What's Blooming

Peonies, Black Locust, Roses (I think they're heirloom roses - need to research this weekend), some strange purple flower in the back yard, Dame's Rocket

Coming Up

Finish blog design, continue hive construction, change out winter/summer clothes, start egg business

Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers

UFOs on the Farm

This afternoon my Blackberry went kaput with an ominous "JVM Error 102" message.  I suppose this is the smartphone equivalent of the Windows BSOD (blue screen of death).  Long story short - I'm writing this while my phone's OS gets updated.  I can restore my contacts but I'll probably lose my pictures.  For the record - this is the last picture taken with my BB:

I was thinking this afternoon of what knitters call UFOs (UnFinished Objects) - those projects that were put away for various reasons.  Most projects become UFOs when other projects demand our attention.  Such is the case with the couch throw project.  Despite my best intentions, I never found the time to finish the edging - things are crazy busy on the farm lately.  So it joins the fair isle sock project (complicated pattern), the silk lace scarf project (need more yarn) and the basic sock project (sheer boredom) in the UFO pile.

The fencing project has become a UFO victim of mother nature.  Last weekend Brady & I added the tension wire to the support posts so we can finish the last stretch of fence.  The back field is a mud bucket - we don't need the auger to dig post holes, we can scoop it out with our hands.  The garden is another UFO although Brady was able to get it tilled during a rare dry afternoon.  Most of the plants are in and I intended to finish the tomatoes and cucumbers today but - you guessed it - it rained.

Fortunately the bee project doesn't depend on the weather.  We now have 8 hives in the bee-yard.  As fast as we can build and paint hive boxes we put them to use.  The next batch will probably be light blue to match the barn.  :) 

The GC rangers are egg-laying machines!  Our combined egg intake is roughly 1 1/2 dozen eggs daily!  I should set up a stand on the road - "Farm Fresh Eggs for Sale".  Maybe I'll paint it light blue, too.

UPDATE:  The BB is fixed and all my pics saved (woo hoo!). 

What's Blooming

Mulberry (who knew we had mulberry trees in the back field), goldenrod, dogwoods

Coming Up

Finish the garden, beehive boxes, clean the chicken coop

May Day

Our May Day weekend was quite active - we added 16 Golden Comet hens + 1 GC rooster to our little flock for a total of 30 egg laying machines.  For now they're in the barn coop but in the next day or so they'll become free-rangers.  (pics coming soon)

We also acquired another swarm of bees for a total of 3 active hives at Smith's Creek Farm.  Brady & Cody captured the queen and her girls and set up the new hive in our growing hive field.  We tried planting a patch of wildflowers for them to enjoy but ending up tilling mud clods instead.  Guess we'll wait a few more days for things to dry out.  Brady has the swarm pics - I'll post later.

Same issue with the garden - it's broken into mud clods as well.  Need another couple passes when the weather FINALLY returns to normal.  Our annual rainfall to date is 7 1/2" above normal!  But ... we stay hopeful for sunny warm weather....

Not one but TWO rainbows!  :)

What's Blooming

Dogwoods!!!  Apple trees, Redbud

Coming Up

Set GC rangers loose, clean chicken coop, work on garden (weather permitting), hive inspection, more sock knitting