I can’t believe it’s almost over….summer, that is. Where has the this glorious season gone? It has been a time of wonderful sun and warm temperatures and sun and warmth and more sun and warmth! I remember wishing for this heat last winter and promising that I wouldn’t complain of the heat no matter how hot it got; and I didn’t (well maybe a little while I was wearing the bee suit and sweating and getting stung and sweating). We have been eating so many fresh veggies from our garden that I can’t stand the thought of having to buy veggies at the grocery store. Makes me want to run out and build a greenhouse. I do love the cooler temperatures and luscious lack of humidity of fall, but I do not love or even really like winter. Not at all. Right at this moment I can think of only one thing about winter that is positive: it means we are closer to Spring and Summer! I am looking forward to having some of the tomato basil bisque I made this summer when it gets cold…a little reminder of our garden, summer and the sun. Since I have a freezer full of Kale, Swiss Chard, Green and Wax beans and Zucchini, it will also be a winter of making soups and such! If I can’t go out and get it from the garden, at least I can get it from the freezer! One of these days I will tackle pressure canning. Maybe. It kind of scares me. Actually, it really scares me. Probably why I haven’t attempted it. But I will. One day. This would give me some more storage options than just the freezer.
We (really it was mostly the Hubs while I mowed) did a clean out of the garden this past weekend which included pulling out all of the wax bean plants, pulling out all of the tomato plants and weeding and pulling the grass out. Seems we can only grow grass inside the garden! We will be tilling the soil where we pulled these things out and will be planting some beets and garlic. The garlic won’t be ready until next Spring/Summer, but now is the time to plant. Since we goofed on the tomatoes and waited too long to stake them, they were just growing out rather than up and were no longer doing well, so out they came! The chickens had a feast for sure! I had pulled up the zucchini plants a few weeks ago as they had stopped producing and were just rotting and that gave the chickens which gave them something to do in the heat. Chickens love some zucchini!
The next things that will be harvested this year are the Lima beans! So excited about these as I have never grown them. They are doing well and I am ready to see how they taste. Should be ready in another two weeks or so. We had to harvest some butternut squash about two weeks ago since some of the vines died, but I think they were ready or pretty close to ready so they should be pretty good, too. We still have some growing in the garden and I will leave those in until right before our first frost. The sweet potatoes will be ready in late September or early October. Just a note on the sweet potatoes: they are viney and will take over the garden, so keep that in mind.
Summer has been rough on the bees only because it is a time of little to no nectar for them, so they are bored and testy which in turn means it has been a rough summer on me when inspecting them. Been stung a few times and while it doesn’t hurt quite as much as that first time, it still puts a bit of a damper on things. However, there are lots of bees which is good and at least one hive is starting to draw some frames out again which is a good sign. I have been putting a quart of sugar-water on each hive every couple of days and they drain it in less than 24 hours. I am feeding them again to get them drawing out frames in preparation for the fall flow. Hopefully we will have a good nectar flow this fall and they will beef up their honey stores for winter. Remember my goal: Keep them alive over winter so I still have them in the Spring! I will have to treat them for nasty little buggers called varroa mites pretty soon. These things can destroy a hive overnight if you don’t keep ahead of them. I will use an oxalic acid vaporizer in the hive and do 3 treatments 7 days apart so as to get all stages of the bees since the vapor won’t penetrate the capped brood. Oxalic acid when vaporized is lethal to the mites but doesn’t harm the bees. If I had any honey supers on the hives that I wanted to extract for human consumption, I would need to remove those before I do the treatment. While there is a natural level of oxalis acid in honey, “they” say to remove them. Since I am going to leave all the honey that is in the hives for the bees, I just vaporize as is. Pretty nifty contraption and it only takes about 3-4 minutes per hive and the vaporized oxalic acid will usually continue to work for about a week in the hive. Hopefully I will only have to do this once this fall, but we have to monitor this and see if we need to do it again in November/December. Unfortunately, with these suckers it’s not a matter of IF you have them it is a matter of how many you have. Having a strong, healthy hive helps to keep the numbers down, but not out.
It has been a bit of a squirrely summer for one of our canine family members as well. We have grape vines and we actually had some grapes again this year. We think Miss Abby decided to chow down on those grapes. If you have pooches, you know grapes are bad for dogs. She came down with a very inflamed bowel and belly and was at the vet for three days on IV antibiotics and fluids. Before we took her in she couldn’t keep any food down. Poor thing. But thankfully we have a terrific vet and they took care of our little angel (his words, not mine)! She is back to normal and perfectly fine now, but she did not like having to be accompanied outside on lead for a week and honestly, neither did we! The plan is to fence in the orchard in the Spring to prevent any further grape snacking next year. Jake must have an iron stomach since we know he ate most of them and didn’t become ill.
I, too, have ended the summer a bit worse for wear. Unfortunately about six weeks ago while working out, I hurt my foot. Houston, we have a problem. Turns out that I have a small stress fracture on the top of my foot and am now in a boot. Again. Yes, I have been in a boot before. About 5 years ago in fact, I was in a boot because I broke a bone in the same foot doing the same thing. I was in a boot for several weeks before they figured out that I had broken this particular bone that wouldn’t heal and had to be removed. So I wore the boot for a while and then had surgery and wore the boot some more. I had the bunion on that foot fixed during this surgery as well (it was really a “while you are in there, you know, cutting it open and such, you might as well”). Since I had the right bunion fixed, five months later I had the left one fixed, so I was yet again in a boot. It’s all about symmetry, right? It took me three weeks to make this doctor’s appointment and then another three weeks to get into the doctor. Yes, I am stubborn and was walking around and working out in pain for six weeks. Yes, I know. I have now been in a boot for a grand total of one day for the third time in my life. Only 32 more days to go in the boot until my next doctor’s appointment. Yes, I have finally learned that the workout I was doing is bad for me to do. I won’t do it again. I promise. Boot=not fun, but no pain. At least this time I don’t have to sleep in the boot!
Let’s end on a more positive note, shall we? As today is National Dog Day, here’s our Abby with a smile for you!
Over and out, chicken little!