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NellieBelle Posted - Sep 23 2019 : 09:24:06 AM
Good morning! Nellie and calf are doing well. I just checked on them and they are resting inside the weathering pen. Mom in the shade and baby in the sun. I'm bottle feeding, not sure he is taking anything from Nellie. He sure downs a bottle. Both ends working. :) Released my young guineas from their pen. They're going all over with the one remaining guinea. Noisy here as we are weaning the two calves, Otis and Estella. I planted 75 bulbs this morning, grabbed some fresh raspberries from the vines and now back inside to start laundry. September is flying by.
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NellieBelle Posted - Sep 25 2019 : 09:29:10 AM
Good morning! I was working with bee frames this morning too. My full honey frames are still in the freezer though and probably won't put back in the hives until end of October. There is still plenty of flowers in bloom here for them to feed from. "I can see clearly now the rain (trees) is/are gone." Quite a difference. Beautiful sky and view in the distance. It rained here last night so I won't be planting bulbs today, but will start in again tomorrow. The new calf, Oliver (Ollie for short) is doing well. I didn't bottle feed this morning. I saw him trying to nurse Nellie this morning so will leave him and see how things go by this evening. I don't mind bottle feeding either but if momma can do it then that is great. I like spending the time with the little ones, they grow up too fast. The other two, Otis and Estella are coming along good too. Millie will dry up and we will continue to milk Darla and Nellie. That's more than enough milk. Walnuts are falling to the ground as are some of the leaves. I had to get my post driver and drive a post next to my fig tree. It has grown so fast it was starting to lean so I have it anchored and tied. Just doing jobs that need tending to before winter graces us. Pick a handful of raspberries every morning when taking dogs for morning walk down the road. They are huge, and this is their first year.
maryjane Posted - Sep 25 2019 : 08:38:40 AM
Frames full of perfect honey (14 of them going from freezer back into hives today) make life sweet.

maryjane Posted - Sep 24 2019 : 10:09:29 AM
Bottle feeding. For some reason, I've never minded that, even though it's just one more thing in an already busy day. Hope he continues to do well.

NellieBelle Posted - Sep 24 2019 : 04:11:24 AM
Cows and bees and trees. Plenty to keep you hopping. Interesting to watch them cut down the trees and I imagine quite a change at the kitchen windows with all the light streaming in now. It will be more bulb planting here and bottle feeding little guy. Still haven't put a name to him yet, but I will. Stars and moon still bright, but it will be breaking light soon and we'll be heading out to chore. Enjoy your day!
maryjane Posted - Sep 23 2019 : 7:00:39 PM
Such sweetness. That's quite an iconic photo of a momma cow and her calf. Glad to hear all is well. Nellie is such a beautiful cow.

Poor Otis and Estella.

It's that time of year again. Sugar water and winter bee prep. This year I'm using Pro-Sweet again from Mann Lake Ltd. Love it. I got so tired of spending the time it takes to make sugar water only to have it mold. Pro-Sweet from Mann Lake doesn't have anything weird in it but somehow it lasts and lasts.



I've harvested all the honey I'm going to take this year and so letting them build up more stores. They have quite a bit in storage this year plus I have plenty of full frames in my freezer. My smaller new hives that I created from swarms and queen cells from my other hives this year haven't had much time to prepare for winter but I think the Pro-Sweet will help. They've been guzzling it (putting it into storage, actually).



Today was the start of our big tree-shakedown/takedown. So far, they have two trees skinned, the ones right behind our building.



A guy climbs to the top of the tree, hooks up a pulley system and then slowly works back up to the top with a chain saw dangling from his belt. (View from my kitchen window this morning.)



As he cuts the branches he wraps a lasso around each one and lowers it to two guys below who feed them into a chipper. (Yay, more winter mud control for my cows.)



Tomorrow, he'll start cutting at the top and lower 18-inch rounds of firewood via rope to the ground below.

Four more trees to go. You can see how close these trees have grown to our buildings. A couple of these have started growing into our pump house, buckling the roof--time to go!



Let there be light! Our kitchen windows used to look out onto almost a solid screen of pine branches. Now we can see to the top of Paradise Ridge.