Bounty Everywhere!

So far this summer, everything seems to be growing well.  In fact we anticipate a bumper crop of fruit this year, and honey, too.  Our bees are working hard on wildflowers, and our apple tree is loaded with apples like never before.   The gardens and flowers are also looking better than ever.  We are so blessed!
     We have three apple trees (Prairie Magic, Zestar, and Cortland apples), but only the Prairie Magic tree is putting out apples this year.   But oh!  There are hundreds of apples!

Every branch is just loaded with apples.

Here's another area - look at all those apples!

A close up of Prairie Magic apples.  They are good for eating and for pies.   But they are not good winter keepers, so I preserve them by drying what we don't use, or eat in pies.   This year we will probably sell some at our farmer's market booth.  They are a large apple about 3 or 4 inches across and somewhat tart. 

And our grapes are really prolific this year!  If we don't get the fungus that we have sometimes had in the past, we should end up with about 2 bushel baskets of grapes.   When ripe, they turn a deep purple, almost black, and are somewhat like a Concord grape.  They are called Northern Valiant grapes.  We eat them as is, and also use them for jelly and for grape juice, which I can up.  There's nothing better than opening up a jar of home canned grape juice in the winter time and remembering the taste of summer!

Look how heavy the grape crop is!  They have a ways to go yet before they are harvested - usually mid to late August - but every section of the grape vines look like this. 

We also have gooseberry bushes.  They make wonderful pies and jelly.  Unfortunately the birds love gooseberries, too!   These bushes (4 of them) were given to me by a neighbor.  Since we were busy building our new home and didn't have a place for them yet, I temporarily planted them in a spot next to the trailer we were living in then.   And then, guess what??  I forgot about them for 11 years!!  Yep - I forgot that I had planted them.  The poor gooseberry bushes managed to survive on their own with no care or watering.  I dug them out of the tall weeds and brought them to the yard and they have graciously rewarded me for rescuing and replanting them!  They are doing well, too. 

Gooseberries.  When ready to eat they turn a nice rosy pink and get very sweet.

I don't have a photo of them, but I recently found a patch of wild raspberries on our land.  It is a very thick patch, too, with raspberry canes about 6 feet tall and loaded with berries.  If I can beat the bears to them I will have thousands of berries to pick for raspberry jam!

     Our bees are in a "honey flow" right now, which means they are bringing in nectar by the pounds.   The yard and fields are buzzing with them.  One of their favorite wildflowers is birdsfoot trefoil.  It is a yellow wildflower that grows everywhere here.  And they are working the flowers like crazy!

Here is a great photo of one of our bees with her head in a blossom of birdsfoot trefoil!  She will gather pollen on her hind legs and fly back fully loaded to the hive.

As you can see, birdsfoot trefoil grows everywhere.  This is the path to our pasture land.   This entire area is buzzing with the sound of hundreds of bees.

Another favorite of the bees is sweet clover.  We planted 2 acres of sweet clover and crimson clover and pollinator flower mix in our old horse pasture.  The sweet clover will take two years to go to seed and keep producing.   The clover we planted is up and growing, but will be better next year. 

Another favorite of our bees - sweet clover!  Clover honey is really good.

All the flowers I started from seed are doing so well too!  This year I decided to grow snapdragons from seed.  I am amazed at the lovely colors they are producing! 

Check out this gorgeous snapdragon flower!  Can you believe that all those colors are on ONE flower stem?

The hanging baskets of petunias are in full bloom now.  I started these from seed I saved from last year's plants.   It is so satisfying to know that I can make up my own baskets of hanging flowers without having to buy them from a garden shop!

With all this beauty and abundance surrounding us, we feel like we're living in our own special paradise.  The world may be a crazy place right now, but not here on Honey B Farm!

Harold's Sawmill

Off and on for about 4 years, Harold has been building a sawmill!  It's been a dream project for him for quite some time.    With few funds to work with, Harold gleaned parts and motors and supplies from various pieces of "farm junk" and got a Kohler motor off of an old riding lawn mower.  When funds were available he bought iron pieces, and the band saw blade.   Lots of planning and welding and conversation with the neighbor guys, and today was the trial run!  Harold says there is lots to do yet on this thing - he has to make a governor, a throttle, and some log chucks (no idea what that stuff is, it's all Greek to me) - and he has some other things to make and tweak on it.  But he wanted to see if it would actually run AND actually cut wood!
     We have a lifetime supply of wood to cut on our 100 acres, both dead trees and live.  Plenty of wood to saw up into lumber!  Today Harold brought in a big sawlog of ash wood to try out on the mill.

A piece of long dead ash tree.  Until he can get a better way of handling logs, the old tractor and a chain worked for today.

He lowered it close to the sawmill rails.

The log is in place and ready to secure on the rails.

Harold makes sure that everything is lined up right.  I was in a panic that the band blade would fling off and de-capitate us!  Harold told me not to worry. 

The very first cut, and the sawdust is flying!

A closer view.  Almost through the log's length and still going!

Finished!   A beautiful cut!  The sawmill works! 

A close view of the beautiful grain on the ash piece.

Look at how straight the cut is!  Not a dip or a bend!

A smiling and happy Harold proudly admires his first cut log with the sawmill that he built!!  Way to go, Harold!!

The band saw blade runs on tires that spin.

You can see how much work Harold put into this sawmill and all the welding.  Once he gets it all finished and running perfectly, we can make lumber!   Then we can build that chicken house, and make our own hardwood flooring.   I asked Harold how he plans to dry all the wood that he cuts.  He says dead wood is already dry, and green wood will take about two years to dry with spacers in between the lumber boards, covered.   Or, a person could take the lumber to a lumber yard to get kiln dried.  Anyway, he can now show the neighbor guys that his idea does work - one neighbor was quite skeptical.  When Harold sets his mind to something, he is pretty good at building things!