Sowing the Field

The Shelter just needs a roof now. Next comes my outdoor grill/oven/smoker.

We have been hard at work trying to survive the heat and yet get something done before the growing season is over. The bees are doing good but the extra cold winter, the move out to the land and some of them being new hives has really limited the amount of honey that we got so far this year.

The buckwheat "field"

There are two times a year that there is a honey flow. One is in the spring this is where probably about 95% of all honey that you eat comes from. Sometimes in this area there is a really good fall honey flow. Usually this honey the beekeeper lets the bees keep. That honey will give them something to eat through the winter and ultimately can be the deciding factor as to whether the hive lives or not. However the last few falls have been really bad and there has really been very little nectar for the bees to make their honey. So in an effort to try and help the bees we planted a high yielding nectar source, buckwheat. We planted about 1600 square feet of it to see how it does. But if all works accordingly it will give the bees a big boost going into winter.

Planted last Friday, sprouting today, in four to six weeks we should have flowers.

We also tilled up another area that we are going to plant a fall/winter cover crop. The idea behind the cover crop is that the "weeds" will grow all winter long adding lots of nutrients to the soil. Then when spring comes we will mow it all over and let it compost right where it is, again adding nutrients and smothering out weeds.

New garden spot

I also have had to add a layer of what is known in the camper world as "cool top" to the old Nomad. It had a slight leak, we were planning on redoing the roof but it just came a little sooner than expected. This new stuff is some sort of silicone stuff that is energy star rated and has a ten year warranty so hopefully we wont have to mess with it for awhile. The old roofs and cheaper sealer is black, this stuff is white thus reflecting the sun and heat, ergo "cool top". The only pain is that you have to do it in coats and you have to wait 24 hours between coats. So if anyone is going by the farm and wants to paint a layer let me know. :)

Before picture. Did you know you can stand on the roof, seems a little sketchy but i do it.

After two coats i think i have about three more to go.

Lastly we have as of tonight installed round two of the guineas. This time we are going to keep the little peepers in the coop for a few weeks before releasing them. We also moved them into the woods and more near to where we usually are. We want them to eat the ticks in the area near us. So we will see how things go with them. The people that we picked them up from said that at the beginning of this year they started with 12 and as of today they only had 2 left. So it seems like we might have to make plans for getting them to procreate pretty fast.

the peepers in a cricket box, it was a tight squeeze but they have plenty of room now.