♪ Settling In for Winter ♪

The days are shorter, the temperature is colder, and the garden is done for the season. Carla and Oz, our doberman dogs, enjoy sitting in the sun, dreaming about chasing bunnies and warm summer days.

Oz is red, Carla is black. They are brother and sister. The little birds right outside the window fascinate them, but bunnies are really their favorite to scout and chase.

Snow settled on Colorado this week. It didn't mess around either. Our area got about 6", while neighboring towns got up to a foot. Our oak tree had already lost its leaves, but other local limbs fell on power lines, impacting electricity and internet connections for a day.

So it is time for pumpkin bread, soup from frozen vegetables, and hot drinks. The chickens are still trying to figure out the new temperatures. They don't seem to want to lay many eggs when it is cold. Hopefully they will get back to it again once they understand the situation.

For me, I think it is time to start knitting hats and crocheting decorative snowflakes. I'll add these items to my etsy shop in the coming weeks. I hope to see you there ! Stay warm everyone.

༺ Garden Treats ༻

Besides having cantaloupe everyday, we are eating, freezing and canning bounty from our garden. One favorite is salsa, which I make from garden tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers. Here are the tomatoes that will go into the next batch !

My 15 plants are just starting to produce. At the same time the tomatoes were turning orange, I had a few days of struggle with hornworms.

Each morning, as I was watering, I had to search the tomato stems for worms. These fellows can strip the leaves off the plants really fast. Luckily, they seem to be fewer in number now, so my tomato plants should thrive for the rest of the season.


The nights are getting cooler, the plants are getting crunchier, and the horn worms are moving on! Yeah for Summer Bounty!

❤ Honey Day ❤

Last week we took the plunge and extracted honey from our bee hives. The bees have kept to themselves for the most part, since they came to the farm a few years ago. I grow flowers for them, and faithfully put out water for them every day. They chose this blue dog bowl as their favorite watering hole. So with much anticipation, we borrowed the necessary tools from our local bee association, and set out to see what the bees have been making in their hives.

The extraction site included buckets, a hot blade, an extraction tank with motor, towels, and a suit to visit the bees in. Here's the work area before we started.


My work included scraping the frames, spinning them in the extractor, and changing the bucket when it filled with honey. The frames have two sides of combs. Each side needed to be shaved with the hot blade to remove the wax cap over the honey filled cells. Once both sides were exposed, the frames went into the extraction tank.

The tank holds 4 frames. They rest in a big wire cage, so that when the extractor is turned on and spins, the honey drips down into the tank and comes out of the spigot.

We used a strainer to filter out any wax that make it through. The liquid gold was so beautiful as it poured out !! The last step was to put honey into smaller containers. Here's a picture of the final product.


The effort was really worth it. The honey tastes fantastic. I'll use it in my granola recipe and we will enjoy it in all kinds of other foods and recipes. Thanks honey bees !

༺ Zinnea & Violin ༻

As the long hot days of summer continue, I'm active with gardening as well as learning to play the violin. It isn't unusual to have a daily salad this time of year full of goodness such as fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots. The cantaloupe and watermelon are getting ripe too ! In addition to the vegetables, I also planted some flowers. The bees enjoy them and so do I ! Here is a picture of some zinnea flowers that I grew from seeds I saved last year.

Later in the day when it is too hot to be outside anymore, I turn to the violin. I get music ideas from a few online violin tutors I follow. Recently I heard about a song called "The Lover's Waltz".

I decided to try playing it after hearing how lovely it was. YouTube is a great resource, and here is one version of this piece that is a good one to follow along with. The melody gets stuck in your head, so listen at your own risk !!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer season.

♪ Large Moth ♪

This time of year I'm usually watching for rattlesnakes, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this large moth instead. It was trying to stay in the shade during the hot part of the day, finding a nice spot under our deck to rest.

The moth probably measured between 4 to 5 inches long. It was a large one ! I saw it from inside at first, and for a second thought it was a bat hanging on the screen.

By morning it was long gone. I enjoyed seeing something unusual and interesting.

༺ Lightening Damages Turbine ༻

Here on the farm we generate electricity for ourselves using solar panels and wind power. Recently our wind generator suffered a near hit from lightening, which required lowering the turbine and troubleshooting the issue.

Here's our wonderful turbine, made by the Bergey company.

The storm was a fast one, but did apparently produce a lightening strike close enough to the Bergey to impact the electronics inside. Luckily, the components protected themselves just as they were designed to do. Up the 104 foot tower, the turbine suddenly started turning very very slowly. This was the sign that something was not working properly.


In order to diagnose the problem, we had to use the 30 foot gin pole to assist with the lowering of the turbine to the ground. This is always a little scary to do, but the few times we've done it there have been no problems. The process involves anchoring one of the four sets of wires to the bobcat instead of the ground anchor, then allowing the turbine to lower away from the bobcat side. The bobcat slowly moves forward until the pole comes to rest on awaiting supports which hold it just off the ground, allowing the turbine to be worked on.

Once the turbine is available to examine, we discovered there were some broken parts inside. The Bergey company was very helpful in explaining what the parts were, and very quickly shipped us some replacements (2 gas tube arresters, at $3.50 each). These little parts attach between the frame and the recifier, which converts the wild 3 phase to DC power (so I was told). I guess these parts were affected by the storm and died doing their job protecting the other components of the system. While the turbine was down, we also took the opportunity to clean it up and give the blades a new coat of black paint.

What I missed most while the turbine was down was the ability to look up and instantly see which way the wind was coming from. This knowledge helps me with deciding which windows to open in the evening to cool the house down. It gets to be very habit forming !

To raise the turbine back up after the repairs, we pull with the bobcat on the south side, leveraging the gin pole to the ground while lifting the full tower up to position. 3 of the 4 sets of wires (north, east and west) rise up slowly to support the whole thing. My main job was to watch the wires for any problems, and keep alert for any snakes in the area. Luckily we didn't encounter any of those. After securing the south wires back to the ground, it was quite a relief to see the Bergey spinning again.

♪ The Chicks are Growing ♪

Our six chickens are growing up so fast ! I would call them teenagers now. They are busy exploring their world, discovering bugs and miller moths. With all that food, they are building strength to lay eggs later this year.

This group is particularly friendly. When I am out in the garden they come up to the fence and talk to me. They cluck peacefully and really seem to enjoy my company. I certainly appreciate taking a break from my weeding chores to visit with them !

We have been lucky over the years that our chickens have not been attacked by coyotes or foxes. The only time we had a problem was with a raccoon, which was odd since we had never seen a raccoon before that incident, or after. Coyotes are much more visible to us as they trot by the barn.

Let's all hope these chickens live a long and productive life !