Bee Pictures

I promised lots of pictures of the installation of the bees, and here there are.  I do have one request and that is that you don't snicker or judge the outfits, it turns out that the only downfall of beekeeping I can find is that the outfits aren't worthy of the pages of Vogue.  While I did opt not to go for the I just landed on the moon bee suit look, the veil I have isn't tons better.  In order to tie the veil properly so that bees can't get up into it I have to criss cross it around my body so that it looks like I am wearing a boob harness. 

You also don't want to wear anything too baggy so bees don't get under your clothes.  Unfortunately the hunching and bending over with the tight clothes doesn't necessarily highlight the best features of one's figure.  I am not immune to the universal woman's opinion that she looks fat in every picture.  And honestly I was focused on not dropping the 3,000+ bees all over my yard over and nothing else.  So I am shelving my vanity in order to share our exciting experience of putting the bees into our very first hive!  I can however promise that I will be looking for a more flattering and useful bee outfit for the next photo shoot.

Many thanks to our friend Michelle who is another fellow beekeeper and came over to provide moral support, expertise, coaching and photographer.  All of these pictures are courtesy of her.  Michelle are you sure you aren't a professional photographer?  My camera could never take photos with this wonderful detail.

 Andy was a bit nervous at first, obviously.  But by the end he was picking the bees up and couldn't get enough of them.  Look at the brand new beekeeper's smoker billowing beautifully.

 Spraying the bees down with sugar water so that they can't fly off.

This picture beautifully shows the can of sugar water that feeds the bees in transportation with the queen cage next to it.  You have to slam the box down to get the bees to the bottom then pry out the can and queen cage before putting the bees in the hive. 

Introducing Queen Victoria, yes we named our queen.

Placing the queen cage in the hive, you can see the duct tape holding it next to a frame.  The queen is in a cage because she is not the original hive's queen.  She and the hive need time to take on each other's scent and then the worker bees will accept her.  During this time the bees will eat away at the candy and by the time they eat through it everyone should be loving on each other!  I will take the queen cage out sometime next week.

The typical method of installation entails lots of shaking the bees out of the box.  We opted for the less traumatic version of placing the bee box inside the hive and letting them come out on their own.  This does mean that within 24 hours I have to open the hive back up to fish out the box.

 Putting on the feeder and filling it with sugar water.  The bees need food until they are able to go forage on their own.

The happy couple and their hive filled with bees!

  

 Yep we are nerds, doting on our bees as if they were our own newborn child!

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day today we are recognizing our need to take care of our planet.  In reflecting about what to say I have realized that in the last year the Kennedy's have made many changes to help lessen our impact on the Earth.  Here are our significant 2010/2011 changes:

*Using canvas bags at the store.
*No longer using chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.
*Buying as much local food as possible.
*Supporting and buying from sustainable farmers.
*Keeping Bees.
*Using less chemical cleaning products inside and making our own counter cleaner.
*Composting.

We definitely have many more changes to make and aspects in which to improve.  In 2011 I would like to transition from many of our plastic food storage containers to more glass containers, reduce our water usage, and RECYCLE.  Yes many of you might find it surprising, I do too, but we actually don't have a recycling bin.  We never had to set up our trash service since the city works it into our water bill.  In order to have recycling service you have to set it up yourself and we just never got around to it.  It's a lame excuse but its the unfortunate truth.

I hope all of you are finding ways that fit into your life to help our planet.

BEES!

The bees have arrived safe and sound.  I picked them up this afternoon after work.  It was a thrill and interesting driving home with a box filled with over 3,000 bees in a box with a couple on the outside next to you.

We lucked out with the weather.  This week it has been raining all week.  Really hard ridiculous rain, tornado sirens and the whole shebang.  It is also going to rain all weekend.  But today, the day we got the bees it did not rain, it held off long enough for us to be able to get them into the hive.

The installation went really well and was exciting!  They are now making their home in the hive and we couldn't be prouder of our new pets and garden workers.  My friend Michelle came over to help supervise and provide moral support for our first installation.  She also was the official photographer and Andy was the videographer.  I will be posting an onslaught of pictures and the video soon!

First Sprouts

The onions and garlic starting coming in about a week after they were planted.  This picture was taken a few days ago, more and more keep popping up everyday.  To give you an idea how little they are this guy is only about a half an inch.  It's exciting when the garden is no longer a big patch of dirt!

Preparing

Well we haven't gotten the dreaded phone call yet that we got last week.  So it looks like the bees are actually coming tomorrow.  We are all prepared, the sugar water is ready and I have practiced lighting my smoker.  Now all we need is the bees, keep your fingers crossed!

Happy Tax Day

Today is the deadline to file your taxes and pay any balances due.  A day dreaded by many but rejoiced in our house.  We get excited for tax day, normally April 15th, because it means I am free of my evening job until next year. 

I work at H&R Block part time in the evenings in addition to my day job.  I started working at H&R Block 5 years ago for extra money and haven't been able to leave since. The extra cash is nice and I like having the knowledge.  So today is my last 12-14 hour day of two jobs, Wahoo!  We will miss the extra paycheck but are more looking forward to the extra time to tend to the bees, garden, and let's be honest just some free time to relax. 

More Plantings

Since the bees didn't come on Thursday I had time to get the rest of our the seeds for Spring in.  I planted all the lettuces 10 different varieties, parsnips, 3 types of carrots, 3 varieties of radish, cilantro, and dill.  I used the dial seed sower for the first time.  It took a bit of practice to get used to how to lightly tap it so that too many seeds don't come out.  But once I got the hang of it the seed sower does help to space out tiny seeds of carrots and lettuce more efficiently than sowing by hand. 

I covered all the rows of seeds with an organic soil that I bought from the store. My soil forms a crust after it rains which makes it difficult for seedlings to break through. The soil that I bought is loose and crumbly and perfect for the seedlings.  Eventually it will get mixed into the rest of the soil.

   

The six leaf lettuce varieties at the bottom I planted closely together because I harvest them as cut and come again and they don't need too much room.  I left a section empty for a succession planting in a week or two.  Then the lettuce head varieties were planted a bit farther apart to give them the proper growing room.  I did space the spinach quite closely together in the upper right because we like them more as a baby greens. 

On the right I planted a decent amount of parsnips about an inch apart in rows four inches apart.  This year I am trying to extend our growing season and the times of year in which we are harvesting food.  I wanted to try parsnips since you can keep them in the ground all winter and harvest them as needed up until the following Spring.  I had never seen Parsnip seeds before, they looked more like dried pear blossom petals than seeds to me.

On the left are the three varieties of radish (purple plum, cherry belle, french breakfast) and carrots (half long danvers, red cored chatenay, cosmic purple) closely together.  Radish grow very quickly and will get pulled about the time that the carrots are needing more space.

Delayed

We have been busily preparing for our bees arrival this Thursday.  As the day has been approaching we have been getting excited and are anxiously awaiting their arrival.  I have made plans to have a friend and fellow beekeeper come to the house to provide moral support for our first installation of bees.  And then yesterday afternoon I got the call . . . the bees have been delayed.  They will not be arriving until next Thursday.  Needless to say we are quite disappointed, it feels a bit like someone canceled Christmas.  However it will allow me to finish all the Spring plantings and complete all of our other chores so that we can focus just on the bees when they come.

Spring Planting

Over the weekend I was able to get some of our plantings started.  It rained so hard Saturday it was too muddy so I waited until Sunday afternoon when the ground had dried out enough.  Unfortuneatly it got dark before I could finish everything.  I wasn't going to get the lamp out again, I do have my limits.  Hopefully later this week I will be able to get the rest of our Spring seeds in. 

Broccoli transplants and a new Rosemary plant in the back.

It's a very unexciting picture.  But behind the four sticks are the rows of onions and garlic I planted.  The onions are Yellow Stuttgarter.  I planted them 4 inches apart which seemed a bit close hopefully they get big enough.  This year I decided against growing red onions since I don't use them as often and the variety I chose last year did quite poorly.  We go through yellow onions much faster so I decided it would be better use of our space only to plant yellow this year.  The garlic variety is California and those were planted 6 inches apart. 

  

The asparagus patch, I planted 16 plants.  Each is marked with a stick so I know exactly where they are and can watch for the new growth.  I planted mostly Jersey Knight and some Jersey Giant.  Even though I normally prefer heirloom plants I opted against the heirloom Martha Washington so I don't have to worry about self seeding.  I only put a couple of inches of dirt on top of the roots.  You aren't supposed to completely cover them in the beginning.  As they grow rest of the dirt gets filled in around them.  I have read differening opinions on spacing ranging from 12-18 inches.  I wanted to fit as much in as possible so I went with 12 inches.

And people wonder why I don't love our neighbor's Magnolia tree.  If you need a reminder look a couple of posts down at the pretty, clean mulch of last week.  This is only half the petals the other half has yet to drop.  They are slippery and the leaves in the Fall are even worse.

Food Revolution

At the Kennedy household we are looking forward to the beginning of a second season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching Jamie change the attitudes and eating habits of Huntington, West Virginia last season.  It is amazing how dependent we have become on quick, easy, and crappy food.  Jamie is trying to prove that eating fresh, whole food is affordable, just as easy, and delicious.  You can watch it starting tomorrow on Tuesdays at 8pm on ABC.  If you are at all curious about the show you can see more here.

THOSE people

We have become THOSE people.  THOSE people are the ones who are always in their yard picking at something, working on some project, and you wonder do they have a life, do they do anything else?  That has now become us.  We have always teased that our neighbors think we are crazy since we are constantly extending the garden, planting, watering, transplanting or trying to improve something year round.  Neighbor's politely comment on it but you can hear the undertones of, "Are you really at it again?"

This Saturday solidified that we are THOSE people.  We finished the bee stand, Andy mowed the yard and it began lightly sprinkling but we continued to work.  The weather was cool and we were on a roll so we decided to put down the grass seed we bought to fill in the patches that died in the drought last year.  While we were working on the seed it proceeded to begin pouring, however we just continued on.  A few people stared but I figured it was already half done and with the rain I wouldn't have to water the seed.

Then in the evening we started a project that has been on our list for almost a year now.  Fixing up the front porch.  The porch needs repainting, the railings are chipping and rusting, and the front step's top layer is chipping off.  So since it had been a successful day of projects we thought we could check one more off by repairing the steps.

We bought quikcrete to complete a patch/spackle job on the steps.  However we used too much water and had to go buy another batch.  It was apparent once we got into it that we didn't have enough.  As I spread and smoothed the concrete Andy went to go get more.  When we started the job it was completely light with plenty of time to complete the job or so we thought.  By the time we finished it was after 10pm, pitch black dark.  It took us over three hours.  Of course part of the reason it took so long was we were meticulously trying to smooth out every line.  But in smoothing one line you create another.  And of course there was that being dark thing.  In order to finish we used an extension cord to get a lamp in the front yard so we could see what we were doing.  We have become THOSE people.

Andy using a bit of extra concrete to patch part of our side walk using the lamp we had in the front yard.  We definitely looked silly.

 The crumbling steps before and the patched slightly imperfect but much improved steps after.

However according to Murphy's law and as our luck would have it a cat walked through it after we left.  So it seems we will be at it again next weekend.

Bee Stand

This past weekend was another working weekend where we checked a bunch of our projects/chores off our list.  First was creating a stable bee stand for the hive.  We had already leveled the sloping ground and built a mini retaining wall but we needed to build a sturdy and stable foundation for the stand. 

Our stand is 9 cinder blocks, 6 which have been painted white to match the hive.  It's important to have the hive off the ground so that moisture doesn't ruin the hive and critters can't get in it.  We dug a hole to bury 3 of the bocks as the "basement" making sure that they were level and secure.  Once the foundation was placed we just stacked the rest and filled in the soil around the blocks. 

We also determined that the mini retaining wall needed reinforcements since the blocks would move a bit when you stepped on the soil next to them.  We laid the same blocks that formed the wall down on their faces against the privacy fence.  We tamped down extra soil around them and in between the fence to fully secure them.  We now have a very secure, stable and level stand for the bees.

With the mulch raked back into place and ready for the hive.

This is what happens when you don't wear gloves, but sometimes gloves just get in the way :)

More Seeds

My other seed order that I have been waiting on finally arrived just under the gun.  It looks like I am going to have a planting weekend!  I also stopped by my local garden center to pick up onion sets, asparagus crowns/roots and garlic bulbs to plant this weekend.

I also got the dial seed sower that you see in the picture.  I am hoping it will help me plant carrot seeds more efficiently this year.

In Bloom

Everything around here is in bloom, the temperature is higher, and it finally feels and looks like Spring!

Our ornamental tree in the back.

The neighbor's Magnolia that hangs over our garden.  This is the only time of year I like this tree when it looks so pretty. 

Our large Bradford Pear tree and the tulips that look like tiny yellow dots in front of the porch.

Seeds

My first seed order from Johnny's came in.  Hopefully my order from Pinetree gets here before the weekend.  As long as the weather continues to cooperate I will get all my seeds in the ground then.

First Harvest of 2011

In order to turn over the old garden and work in the compost I had to harvest all of the over wintered cilantro.  I will definitely be finding ways to use it all up this week.

Working Weekend

On Saturday we were in the garden placing and leveling the raised beds, filling them with soil and spreading mulch from 9am to 7pm.  It was a long day and hard work but we got it all done in one day which was exciting.

We ended up having two deliveries.  The first delivery had a 50:50 mix of topsoil and composted manure along with as much mulch that would fill the rest of the truck.  But we ran out of mulch partway through the project and had a second delivery of mulch and composted manure to work into the old garden and top off the raised beds.  We ended up having enough compost to spread over the landscaping before spreading mulch.  In total we had 4 cubic yards of mulch and 4 cubic yards of soil and compost.

The raised beds filled and mulched.  We intended on only mulching a 2 foot border around all of the beds so as not to need to mow around them.  But once we mulched the garden and all of the landscaping on the property we still had plenty of mulch and decided to make the garden free of any mowing.  I have to admit that the leaves are driving me crazy and I resisted the urge to go pick them up off my fresh mulch one by one.  However many of our neighbors haven't finished their Spring cleanup and so new leaves would just blow right back on.

On the left is the prepared spot for the bees next to the old garden.  Andy built a mini retaining wall to hold up the soil we leveled.  A little more work has to be done in compacting the soil and making sure the bee hive doesn't become a leaning tower.  On the right is the old garden with a couple inches of composted manure worked in.

The overall finished garden!  Everything left of the driveway from the street to the garage is now garden, bee yard, or compost pile.  Now all I need are my seed orders and transplants.



The Next Step

The last two days I have been hard at work digging up sod, turning over, tilling up and leveling soil.  The next step in our garden expansion is complete.  The entire space for our new garden is prepared and ready for the raised beds.  In the tilling process I know that I have most likely awoken sleeping weed seeds but I did not want to put down weed blocker under the raised beds for two reasons.  One, I don't want plastic permanently under the raised beds, if plastic food storage containers leach chemicals into our food wouldn't  it the same be for the plastic weed blocker leaching chemicals into my organic garden?  Second I want plant roots to be able to reach deeper and when planting tomatoes I dig a hole at least 12 inches, weed blocker would inhibit these abilities.  In a couple of months when I am fighting weeds I might be feeling differently.

We are ready and prepared for our big soil and mulch delivery tomorrow!

All sod and soil dug up and turned over.

All tilled and leveled ready for the raised beds!

The spot for the bees slopped towards the fence but has now been tilled and leveled.  It is now waiting for a thick layer of mulch.

Painted

This week is Spring Break and as you might be noticing I have been working on my project list.  One being painting the hive.  The hive is finally painted and waiting for bees!