Country Mouse Monday: at home in the dirt

You know that way that people worry that their babies and toddlers are going to take their first step, utter their first word, at day care, and they'll miss it? How they'll miss that precious, once-in-a-lifetime moment?

That's how it is for me being away from our farmlet in the month of August.

For a creature of habit like me, super-grounded in the ground of my garden, being away for a few weeks at the peak of productivity was hard. In fact, I don't really recommend it, as much as we did truly enjoy vacation.

Getting away is important, but now that I'm back I find myself wondering how things might have been different had we been here, observing, cultivating and harvesting. And had we been present to prevent the near-catastrophic irrigation failure that started one week into our absence, at the very hottest time of year.

Now I finally really feel home, now that my hands have been in the dirt.

Today was such a treat, taking advantage of the holiday Monday to work in the garden before the big heat -- getting re-acquainted.

Winter Seeds

Even though it's in the low 80s for most of the day, there's a hint of fall in the air, leaves on the ground. Respite is coming!

But while we've got these temps, I sowed some winter seeds this morning -- golden beets, kale and arugula. They'll be along in 40-55 days (especially since the irrigation is now fixed). I'm not even sad thinking ahead to shorter, darker days and cold mornings when I know there's the prospect of roasted beets and kale chips!

The Split Hive

We also opened up our home-hive today, the split we made from Reba's bees way back in March.  I'm a little sheepish to admit that we went a *long* time between inspections.  I checked them early July, but then the husband and his broken pelvis, then the vacation, added up to 5-weeks' neglect.

The good news is they're strong. Their numbers are really good. We saw tons of capped brood, fresh larvae and lots and lots of bees. They look good, no deformities. They were reasonably annoyed with us as we made our way through the entire hive, frame by frame. 

The bad news is that we saw very little stored food -- little nectar or pollen, no capped honey at all.  And this despite the fact that I can sit outside the hive and watch pollen coming in and many foragers with, I assume, bellies full of nectar.  There's no evidence that they're putting up stores and being robbed, just no capped honey at all. It's almost as if they are expending all their energy on their numbers, and eating every bit of what they bring in to sustain themselves.  

As of tonight, we're adding a bottle of sugar-water to the hive, just to provide a boost in sustenance, ensure that they don't stress out, and have at least something put by for the winter.

From here out, we're inspecting the hive weekly, and replacing the sugar water as needed.  If our other split is any indication, we'll be changing that bottle out every other day. All we want is for them to be healthy and numerous enough to survive the winter, set up for a strong honey season in Spring.

What a great bonafide Country Mouse Monday. So good to be really home at last, hands in the dirt and the hive, not missing one bit of the action! 

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