30 March 2008

New penthouse


My wife checked the beehive last week and found great news. The super (that's the top box above the brood chamber) is full of honey after a winter of feeding them sugar water. The colony seems very healthy and ready to have a go at the spring pollen. The danger is that with the super full, it may be too crowded and you risk some of the bees leaving to find another place to live. We don't want that to happen so today we put together another super and put it on. Now the bees have a brand new vacant penthouse to fill up with furniture (or at least honey).

23 March 2008

A man and his eggbeater


I got out today to make some more raised beds for the vegetable garden. As you can see, the tiller attachment for the weed whacker looks like an eggbeater on steroids.

If you'll notice, the area behind me which was lawn has been tilled as well. The eggbeater couldn't handle this job so I rented a tiller from the local supply house and turned the grass under. This will be my pumpkin patch for the season as well as some cucumbers for pickles.

04 March 2008

Side with the Seeds

"Side with the Seeds" isn't just a track off the newest Wilco record. It's also what I did today with the help of my four year old son. He and I got out the seed starting kit, some sterile soil and the seeds that we had saved from last year's garden. Today's planting was the first of the year. Instead of using plastic cells, this year, I decided to go with peat pots, which can then be planted directly into the ground without disturbing the root system when they get removed. It's early yet to start too much but we did several varieties of peppers and tomatoes, which will go outside in the wall-o-water protective insulator when it warms up a bit. We also started some yellow onions. All these are now under the light in the laundry room. Let the growing begin.