New Fence

 A new fence across the back of the yard.  The old fence was built by Shawn, Cody and me in about 1986.  That is 26 year ago.  It held up a long time.

 The little play house is gone.  Some of the little ones will miss it but not the spiders.

 New fence seen from inside the back yard.  That is the new beehive awaiting the bees, in the front.

More of the new fence.  The sun is going down and so the shadows.  Make for a dramatic photo.

Beekeeping Hive Changes

 I am changing to what are called Top Bar Hives this year.  We lost all our bees last fall but collected a lot of honey.  So after some intense reading and study, I decided to move to this type of hive.  Here are the boxes arriving from Maine.

 These are the pieces of the hive,  The white parts are the cover.  Instead of a box, it is like a long trough with wedge shaped bars across the top.  The bees build their wax comb on the bars down into the hive.  It ia more natural method.

 This is the inside of the hive looking down at the bottom.  There is a screen at tht bottom and the lower board can be dropped down to increase ventilation.  At the top left of the picture you can see one of the topbars and the wedge shape of the lover part.

 This is the completed hive with the legs it stands on.  It even has an observation window on the back side. 

This is the label on the hive from the company that makes them  This is a cleaner "greener" way to raise bee and produce honcy.  The bees will be coming in a package in early April.  Watch what happens.

Chickens in the garden

 We now have a chicken house in the garden along with 4 chickens.  A week ago we bought a chicken house and put it together.  Then last Saturday, Cheryl went out and bought 4 hens, broght them home to roost in the new house. 

 There is a black one, a white Leghorn, a white with black feathers, and a brownish red one. 

 The grand children have been over to see them even though they have their own chickens.  See the tow boys on the other side trying to get in.  Thats Asher and Hayden.

The first day brought 3 eggs already.  We have gather a dozen in the first week.

Summer time, time to make root beer.  I had some help at the start but they left and wanted to wait for the finished product.  Like the little red hen. 


Alicia bought up all the Root Beer Extract in the valley.  It is hard to find nowdays.
Yeast is also required for this type of root beer.  I got my yeast from the wine and beer making shop.  Also, bottles and bottle caps are needed.  They can be purchased from the same shop.

4 pounds of sugar, 4 gallons of warter, 1 bottle of extract and a package of brewing yeast.  Mis well.



Pour root beer into the sterilized bottles.  I run my bottles throught dishwasher.

Place sterilized cap on bottle

 Crimp the cap in place.

Finished product.  Incubate to get it fizzy and then refrigerate, aerve and enjoy.

Beekeeping 101

On Saturday, February 19, Cheryl and I attended a beekeeping class in Cotati, CA.  It was  a great class and we took in preparation of taking care of the beehive my children bought for me on my birthday some time ago.  The lady teaching the class, Randy Sue,  took a very natural approach to beekeeping that was a bit different that I had learned in my reading.  Anyway, the next Friday, we had the beekeepers that we got the bees from originally come and open our hive to see how things were going.  We had a very full hive of angry bees, they didn't want to be disturbed.  There was lots of bees and lots of honey but not ready to be collected becausse it is still winter.

Later that afternoon, we went to Concord to pick up some beekeeping supplies and hive material to expand our hive and also to prepare for another hive.  We have been putting the hives together and are almost ready to transfer the bees and split the hive.  Then we will have two hives too take care of.

A New Granddaughter - Faith Goodfellow

Shane and Amy Goodfellow had a new baby girl this week.  She was born on Monday, September 5th and weighed in at 8 lb. 9 oz. and was 20 inches long.  Her name is Faith Malae Goodfellow.  Shane and Amy came down today with their family so that the rest of the family could see the baby.  We had Joel and Evelyn Parker (Cheryl's parents), Tiffany and Louis with Hayden, Ryan and Meghan and their 5, Natalie, Brooke, Maggie, Cole and Quinn.  Shane and Amy have 4 now, with Payge, Cade and Lanie.  They came and swam and then we had pizza and ice cream.  It was a fun afternoon.

A very productive garden this year.

 The raspberries are getting ripe and are so good to eat right off the plant.

 A beautiful and very fragrant rose adds beauty to the garden.

 The tomatoes are hanging upside down and are slowly turning red.  We have harvested a few and they are very juicy.

 We have had a good crop of strawberries this year due to the bees.  Click on this for a close-up to see how delicious it looks.

 Our corn has been great.  We are getting towards the end.  One more weekend of corn-on-the-cob.

The pumpkins are growing.  Will it be orange by Halloween?

Summer 2011

The garden has changed since the last post.  We are enjoying strawberries, lettuce, carrots, raddishes, cucumbers, an occasional raspberry, peas and some snow peas.  We are also getting flowers for the house.   The corn is really growing well and the tomatos are coming but slow.  

Garden and Flowers of Spring 2011

This year, I have prepared 5 potato bags.  I have planted red, blue, yellow, Yukon Gold and russett potatoes in these bags.  We will have to see how they grow and develp.

 The onion sets I planted last week are starting up through the ground.

 The mums are bloom in the front year.

 The Granny Smith apple tree is in bloom.  Lots of apples in the fall.

Spring Flowers 2011

The daffodils are blooming, they are so pretty but don't not last long.