A Really Busy Time

October is a very busy month for us here on Honey B Farm!  Husband Harold is busy cutting winter wood, preparing the bees for winter, doing yard chores, and also working the sugar beet harvest.  When we built this house in 2005, there was a huge pile of dirt from the excavation.  It has been sitting there all these years in need of being moved - one of those things we always wanted to get done but somehow never did.  Now that Harold has a good powerful tractor/loader he is finally getting that pile moved!  We will use the dirt to fill in around the house and in low spots in the yard.

Digging into that pile of dirt from 2005!

Harold got about half of it moved and leveled out.

The tractor comes in handy for wood loading, too.  Harold usually takes the tractor into the woods, cuts down the tree and loads the cut wood into the tractor bucket to take home.

Getting the wood pile a little bigger every day!

Harold has also been busy building special winter beehives.   We will no longer take our bees to California for the winter as they come back home too late, too weak and too diseased.   We will winter the bees in our own backyard.  Harold designed very thick insulated boxes for the bees that will accommodate a heater, thermostat and thermometer.  They are about 3 times the size of regular bee boxes with thick insulated tops covered in a rubberized plastic to keep moisture out.   We discovered that the heater plates on coffee pots make a good hive heater, too.  So Harold wired up some to a thermostat and they just fit into the bottom of the hive.   He also designed new bottom boards and top covers for the hives.   If this works, we will buy more hives next year and build more of these special winter hive boxes.  We have a lot of customers who love our honey and we sell a lot of it.  Would you believe we are almost sold out already of this year's honey?

The new winter hive boxes, about 3 times the size of regular hives.  They are about 3 inches thick all around, instead of the usual 1/2 inch thick.

The winter hives are 3 inches thick and insulated.

The middle section in the screened bottom board is to accommodate a heater and thermostat.

The thick top cover has a rubberized plastic covering to keep moisture out.

As for me, I've been busy finishing up canning.   This year I canned up pears, peaches, cherries, several kinds of jellies and jams and ice cream toppings, green beans, tomatoes (both plain and seasoned), spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, cuke relish and pepper relish, grape juice, potatoes and sauerkraut.  In the freezer I put carrots, peas, rutabagas, turnips, corn and apple slices.  The only thing we have left to harvest is popcorn, which we will do this next week. 
     In between all these chores, Harold has been working with the sugar beet harvest driving a truck in the field from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. and hauling beets to the piler station.  He probably has another week to go yet on that.
     Before the heavy freeze sets in we need to dismantle the gardens, mow them down and till the soil.   So what do we do in winter?  We relax, sleep in, eat a lot and get fat!  Well, maybe not quite like that - but it IS a more relaxing time!  And much needed.