keljonma's Front Porch - Settling in and adjusting

[keljonma]

I have bee envy also. But not sure I could do the work around those buzzing critters. It is on my list to research though.

PCH - I researched chickens, goats and bees for 10 years before we got chickens. All the research in the world never seems to really prepare me for the creatures actually being in my care!

ETA: And the creatures NEVER read the books!!

 

[keljonma]

Hard to believe September is just around the corner. That means Sunday Classes will be back in session. These are the blurbs from the newsletter about studies this fall..

I am usually in the women's class. TR is in the LUDI (Latin word for training school for gladiators & warriors) class.

Women's Class -
Women of all ages are welcome in the class. We will be starting another Beth Moore study Believing God. Beth is an excellent teacher who definitely knows how to reach women's hearts!

Originating from a concept introduced in Isaiah 43:10, Believing God examines what it means to believe God rather than only believe in Him. Participants study the lives of Abraham and others from Hebrews 11 as examples of people who believed God. This study parallels a personal journey Beth took in coming to understand what it means to believe God.

LUDI - will begin this year's course of study with completing the second half of the book, Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. We'll be discussing various spiritual disciplines, starting with Submission, and including others, such as worship. If you'd like to join us, stop in for coffee and donut time in Wesley Hall in our gym, and then well go to our classroom. Also in the first weeks we'll take suggestions for our
next study. Our Mens Ministry vision is Men Helping Men to be a part of Gods light to the world. Our mission is to be a valued team of inspired Christian male role models, demonstrating our desire to improve the lives of others.

There are two other adult classes...

The Parlor class - We will be studying David C. Cooks Bible-in-Life studies. This quarters series is entitled, "The Inescapable God. Its a study of Exodus and Psalms. This small group study is open to all adults.

The Siblings in Christ class - Lord, Change My Attitude Before It's Too Late by James MacDonald Need a tude adjustment?? Reverse the negativity that sabotages your happiness, and learn to foster attitudes that bring you joy! Learn how habitual thought patterns can be changed---not overnight, but over time. You'll be amazed at what happens when you replace complaining with gratitude; criticism with love; doubt with faith; and rebellion with submission. This small group study is for men and women.

 

[keljonma]

Erin sent me a disc of vacation pics - including a bunch of beek pics. I will be downloading and sharing some pics soon!

 

[keljonma]

The bishop of our conference has assigned a new Associate Pastor to our church; Quincy Wheeler. Quincy is 26 with a degree in communications and is a seminary student, so he will be a part-time pastor. He started doing the WOW2 service at the biker bar a couple weeks ago, and is doing a wonderful job. He is very enthusiastic! Instead of a sermon, Quincy is leading us in a study of the book of Phillipians, which he has been studying for 3 years. The attendance for WOW2 is averaging 30 people, up from last year's average of 20.... God at work.

Our friend Ron is coming home from Liberia this week; he has been gone since June. Pat says she will be glad to have him back home, not only because the "honey do" list is 1/2 mile long!

TR is working this week-end, so I will be going with Ron and Pat to WOW at Roaming Shores on Sunday. This is the last WOW at the Lake for the year. (WOW2 at Harassments is year round.)


More rain - rain - rain! TR washed the car the other day while we had a half day of sunshine. Since then, we have gotten 1 gallon of water (TR left the car washing bucket outdoors). The garden appreciates the rain, the honeybees do not.

If the sun ever shows its face for a day or so, I'm going to put the escape board under the top super and harvest the 7 frames still left in there. Goldenrod is just starting to bloom here, so I want to make sure that one super is just goldenrod honey.

The temps here have fallen too - our highs are in the upper 70s and lows in the lower 60s. Thankfully, nothing at all like the 100 at Jon and Erin's place or at Kel's...in Texas. Kel said the grands are going through the frozen juice pops like mad.


Yesterday I cleaned out the church refrigerator. Someone had left a bag of Christopher Ranch White California garlic in there. Most of the garlic had started to sprout and some was moldy. The bag wasn't in there last month when I cleaned out the fridge, so not sure when it showed up. Anyway, Pat told me to take the garlic home, since the Christian Cafe and Table Talk groups only use that pre-diced jarred garlic. (yuck ) So today I roasted the 15 good heads of garlic with some olive oil. I then pureed it and put it into a pint canning jar. I will use this instead of fresh garlic in recipes.

I also froze another couple quarts of green beans, harvested some more scarlet runner beans (dry beans), dried some apple slices, dried some sage, roasted 3 pounds of fresh beets (olive oil, balsalmic vinegar, salt and black pepper). I also made 4 more batches of basil pesto, which is now in the freezer.

I still have about 2 or 3 pounds of green and banana peppers to do something with....I haven't decided what yet.

Have fun!


edited for typos

 

[Farmfresh]

You should have planted the sprouting ones. This is the best time of the year to plant garlic.

 

[keljonma]

You should have planted the sprouting ones. This is the best time of the year to plant garlic.

and that is exactly what I did today!

Great minds and all that....

 

[keljonma]

This morning was cloudy, but by late afternoon, we had some sun. The high temps have hovered around 75 and the low tonight is forecast in the upper 50! This is August?! The rest of the week the high temps are supposed to stay in the upper 70s and our lows will be in the 60s.

The great news is that we haven't needed any fans on for the past week or as much for the past month and our electric bill came yesterday. It was $41 instead of the usual $98!! Needless to say we are VERY happy about that!

The bees were very happy to get out and forage today. This afternoon they were all a-buzz going in and out of the hives.

TR and I both do MYPOINTS and had enough points saved up for gas cards. And today we got our cards worth 2 tanks of gas for the Saturn.

TR is off work tomorrow and I am beeking to harvest some honey and check on hive #2.

I tried to do a quick check of hive #1. I couldn't get the telescoping cover out without making a great deal of cracking noise - which the bees HATE! Obviously the girls have propolised the telescoping cover to the inner cover!

I have a quart jar of propolis and wax scrapings and burr comb in the freezer to melt down. I also have some cappings to melt down as well. TR and I were thinking we would make some beeswax ornaments for Christmas baskets.

Have fun!



edited for typos

 

[Farmfresh]

Man do I wish we lived closer. We have had a great absence of bees around here this summer. My squash bloomed and bloomed, but I have VERY few squash to show for it. My cucumbers were in the same boat.

I cannot have bees where I live either. I think Sheldon on Big Bang Theory said it best. I am stuck between a "rock and a crazy place".

Glad you got the garlic planted. Now you have two years worth!

 

[keljonma]

I wish we lived closer as well. I think we should all live nearby. As far as SSers, I think PamsPride is closest to us; then Sylvie, MyGreenGravity, Quail_Antwerp and BeccaOH. I have family in Arkansas and Texas...probably as close I will get to your fine state these days.



Are you sure you can't have bees? That is just terrible! I know a couple people in city that have them here in NE Ohio; even in Cleveland a person is allowed 2 hives. One of the fellas in our beek association lives in a nearby village and he has 5 hives at the end of his yard. He gives honey to his closest neighbors.

Maybe you could contact someone at the local beek assoc and find out where the nearest member is.... maybe their bees are close enough to do you some good. You have those wonderful fruit trees, which bees love.

Honeybees will travel as far as 5 miles from the hive to find pollen and nectar. But they practice flower fidelity, which means that a honeybee working dandelions will not go to any other flower, same for any of the flowers they visit. A cucumber pollen collecting honeybee won't go visit the fruit cocktail tree, just cukes. Wonderful for our food supply, unless there aren't enough bees in the area.


As for the garden..... We had the same situation with the viney-gourdy plants this year as well.

Lots of blossoms, lots of bees..... BUT
Out of 3 pumpkin vines we have 2 (count 'em!) just 2 pumpkins on the vine.
Out of 3 buttercup squash vines - same thing - only NO fruit formed.

I just thought the pumpkins were because the seeds were 2 or 3 years old (although that hasn't been an issue in the past), but the buttercup squash seeds were for 2011 expiration (as posted on the seed envelope).


edited for clarity

 

[Farmfresh]

Yes I have checked. You must own at least 5 acres to have bees. AND they have set back limits as well! Stupid people.

Well maybe it is not a bee problem then since you have had similar problems. I wonder if others are having the same problems?