Beekeepers Renting Property

 Commercial operations of beekeeping are hired to set up and maintain their hives for farmers, but then there are the avid beekeepers who's hobby has expanded beyond their yards. If you have the space and the flower power, but not the resources or zeal to take up tackling hives, try looking for local bee clubs.

 The bee clubs are a wonderful and often unknown resource. If you have a rogue swarm, look for local beekeepers before contemplating calling an exterminator. Honeybees are really too useful to unnecessarily smite. Bee clubs are all going to be different, have various levels of expertise, various sizes.. you get the idea. Calling them to see if they want the swarm can benefit both you and them. Your bees get removed (usually free of charge), the beekeepers get a new colony (and new genetic stock), and the bees get a lease on life.

 What is also not very well known.. is that sometimes beekeepers are needing a place to put extra hives (hive splits, not enough blooms in an area which requires relocating hives, etc.) Sometimes they will pay with a percentage of honey to rent land to put their hives.

 It does entirely depend on the beekeepers in your area, but you won't know unless you ask. If someone is interested, they will ask to see the property. Things that they would be looking for:

• minimally disturbed area - a quiet location where the hive will not be in the way
• pollen providers - what is blooming, when it is blooming, and how much is available
• water sources - pond, water trough, stream, bucket.. you get the idea. the girls gotta drink
• safety - pesticides, predators, protection from the elements.. they don't want their bees poisoned so what chemicals you do use, have used, intend on using in you yard.. they need to know. 

 The beekeepers maintain the hives.. so they need access.

 This isn't something for everyone, and zoning rules must be minded.. but it is a potential possibility.. especially for those with large yards, vacant lots, etc.

 If you are lucky, you have a bee club/ beekeepers near you.. check them out.. support them.

  

Farm

 I figured.. what the heck.. I'll put up a picture so you have an idea of the farm. 

 Still nothing set in stone.. even semi set jello would be some sort of progress. 
Interesting thing about this too.. by changing the south field.. it could almost spell out u r screwed.

 Sometimes life has just wicked dark humor.
 

Move to the Farm?

 Right about now I wish I could see into the future.. if I choose this, what will happen? If I choose the other, what will happen? 

 Sometimes I kinda look back and laugh. You have a child and it is a radical shift in perspective, approach, personality. I can divide it up like a time line.. BC (before child) and PC (post child). How my Mother survived.. I am guessing in part is because ignorance is sometimes not just bliss.. it is the only means to retaining sanity. I suppose when you have a bunch of kids it is easier to let things slide with only 1 set of eyes to watch a small band of troublemakers all headed in opposite directions.

 She just turned 13 and is towering over me as she is just shy of 5'9" with feet to match. When I look back at all the insane things I did at that age, I can't imagine letting go enough to see her do the same without a helmet, full body armor and an armed guard that has special forces training. 

 If we move.. she will be unplugged and no longer micromanaged. Going to hang with some friends no longer means crossing the cul-de-sac and having 6 options on just 1 block alone. It would be transformed into hop on bike, ride 1/4th mile down the way to see if the two sisters on the sheep farm aren't busy. 


 I haven't seen my Mom in a few years, since she stopped by on her way to Vegas to help my sister with 1st baby.. and then the second. Last time I did she was a whirlwind as always, but then she had a spell that at first they thought was a stroke, but thankfully wasn't... and now at 70, the whirlwind is tamed to a gentler gust. My sister, her husband and their 2 daughters have moved back to NY. NY was the first place in the States my Mom lived.. and 20 years ago she would have jumped without looking to head back there for awhile. Times have changed, NY has changed.. and the excitement, bustle, energy there for her registers more like overwhelming chaos.

 She needs help on her farms. Like major help.. 95 acres worth. A farm that is left minimally attended can get swallowed up fast. She wants to be on her farm, but doesn't want to be alone, and can't swing it solo.

 Dream choice for me, right? 2 farms that I would have carte blanche to do as I will.. 2 organic farms as neither has seen a drop of any insecticide, herbicide, etc. since they were purchased in the 80's.  Already has solar panels on the big house, ancient orchards that are still producing despite decades of minimal at best care, without planting anything you can gather enough to live off the land.

 If only it was that simple. It'd be rural.. uber- rural. I mean I could walk to the mailbox naked and the only thing I would permanently blind by my so white I'm blue, pasty Irish complexion is a herd of sheep. What to do with our house? Rent it? Can't sell it right now without losing everything.

 I am going through the pros and cons.. the major stumbling block is my husband would leave a job to go to somewhere that we are not sure if he'd find work. Although out there, we'd have a chance to go back to school (and the schools there are better than here for our daughter).. but that would only be possible if we were almost entirely self sufficient. Then what.. 

 I'll be mulling this over pretty much every waking second. Time to grab a pen and list the mess swirling in my mind. 

Fruit Tree Propagation

 If you are looking to reproduce fruit trees... you may want to take a course on grafting. Even though my daughter knows this.. it in now way slows her down from shoving apple seeds or peach pits into her pocket after lunch to experiment with later. Or forget about it entirely until Mom discovers her little treasures in the washer or dryer.

 A lot of fruit trees like apple, citrus, peach, pear, plum, avacado are reproduced by means of grafting.  Haas avacado trees.. came from 1 mother tree.. which actually died just a few years ago.

 Anyways, apple in particular is one that offers rather squirrely odds. Apple trees require another tree to pollinate, and preferable of a different strain. That makes for a lot of genetic possibilities in the following generation, especially with the fact that the next generation is able to produce something that is not anything like the parents! 

I know.. it seems odd. Apples are crazy like that, which makes them fascinating to me. Just their scale also makes it out of my reach to mess with... for now. Heirloom.. when it comes to apples.. means an old cultivar.. it does not mean it is open pollinated. No such thing as an open pollinated apple! Aside from grafting.. some apple trees send out buds (or suckers) which hold the possibility of actually being different from the parent.

 If you are limited on space.. seeds are not the way to go. If you have tons of room and just as much time.. then go for it. Keep in mind you could plant thousands of apple seeds and potentially only get 1 good tree out of the lot. By means of seeds however is one way new apple tree cultivars are created.

Just expect the unexpected. Russeting, varying storage capabilities, yields, coloring, shape, tartness, acidity, sweetness, size, disease resistance, etc. etc. are all a big gamble. You won't know the pay off for quite a few years until it fruits.

Just something to think about when you see an apple and all the varieties. Now maybe you'll see them like I do.. an amazing moment of genetic luck and truly something special.

Seed Bank Suckers- make your own instead

 To say this guy irritates me.. would be putting it mildly. I shake my head in disbelief at the ad, and cringe at the dweebs posting their testimonials about how safe they now are on youtube.

 Really.. the fleecing is offensive on so many levels. To avid gardeners who look at the "diverse" selection and realize that not every crop works in every area (hence serious potential to fail).. to avid seed savers who by their sheer effort are keeping thousands and thousands of strains alive (and realize that without basic knowledge of how to keep a strain from out crossing.. or how long seeds keep, how to store them, etc.) that this "bank" is laughable at best.

 The ones who should really be offended are the "preppers".. as there are sooooo many that have bought into this and have donned rose colored glasses of security. This man has made a mint off ya.. and he is laughing all the way to his bank. 


 All out laughter.. the man is in hysterics as he is cashing in hand over fist.


 Let's get this out in the open..  It is not uncommon for seeds that are in packages with a "sell by" date to already be SEVERAL YEARS OLD. Especially with ones like peppers, tomatoes and other crops that have a longer storage vitality.. they often already are 6 years older or more. Age is not a restriction on seed sales. They have to pass a germination test then if they pass, they are marked with a "sell by" date that is well over a year from the date of the test. He's repackaging seeds with no idea of their age.. I doubt he's testing their germination and he's counting on the fact that no one is actually going to call a spade a spade when they dig up the container in 20 years to find not much sprouting. The fact he has onion seeds is a glaring problem.. it screams to a seed saver that this guy doesn't actually save seeds.


 The strains... ok let's just start with there is a reason thousands and thousands of different strains came about. Every spot on the planet is a micro climate. Altitude, soil structure, nutrient content, weather, prevalent diseases, humidity, precipitation, winds, wind breaks... this is why sometimes it takes multiple tries of different strains.. why sometimes 1 variety does better or worse some years than others. When you maintain a strain and select for qualities repeatedly all of this plays a role. Know what to pick, and pick a variety suitable to your climate.


 He uses heirloom like crazy.. huge buzz word. It creates tunnel vision. It should be Open Pollinated (OP)... think Optimal Purchase. In general.. heirloom strains tend to be more finicky.. often less disease resistance.. sometimes later harvest dates.. and tend to be more known for their flavor vs productivity.


 Does this matter? If you are a prepper.. right about now you'd be yelling HELL YEAH IT MATTERS! Open pollinated strains are stable and can be perpetuated, they often just don't have the lure of the lore attached to them like heirlooms. There is no exact requirements for a strain to be "heirloom" either other than some proof.. vague or otherwise.. that it is old. Even the "old" is not defined and varies.


 Don't be a sucker.. if you put the effort in to "prep" and this is a key part of your planning.. grow it, save it, learn it and know it. Placing your faith in someone because he's able to rouse panic and offers quotes from scripture to pry funds from your pocket is not security. 


 Some basics to consider:

• get books and learn to identify/ treat plant pests and diseases
• "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth is a seed saver's bible for crops
• learn how to compost and build soil now, as well learn to spot deficiencies in nutrients by plant growth

 When you are gardening.. crops are roughly divided up into cool and warm season plants. Select crops with several factors in mind.. seasonality, works in your region, diversity, productivity, nutritional content, storage qualities, how soon until crops are able to be harvested.. to give you an idea.

 Make a garden and learn. Then realize if things go crazy.. those that bought the plastic pipe dream of delusion are most likely going to be the same people raiding you for food.

Gourd ID Chart

Digital Gourd chart © Dan Dunkin 2003
This chart is used courtesy The Gourd Reserve

Cucumber beetles & Gourds

 Little, yellow, different... it is the ever pesky Cucumber beetle. If they flourish in your garden, even Advil won't help minimize the pain. They attack an assortment of plants and in their larva stage they are also known as corn rootworms. In some zones these bugs have even figured out crop rotation so the whole soybean to corn to soybean trick is no longer effective.

 If you are battling these bothersome beings.. take the time to read this link. 

 I have a few that pop up in my yard from time to time but not a lot. I will drop whatever I am doing to squish these bugs.  Aside from staggered plantings and rotating crops as best as I can, I try to mix up plantings to further make things less easy for them.

 In the fall to early winter, many gourds, jack-o-lanterns and the like end up in the compost pile. Even through freezes and exposure to the elements, tons of volunteers appear every spring. I have only ever planted pumpkins and gourds once and that was a few years ago, but ever since we have had several pumpkins and too many gourds.

T

This would be one example.. most likely pumpkin x gourd. The original gourds had this coloring, were quite small and bottle shaped. This one in the picture is bigger than a basketball and has escaped into the yard about 5 feet away from where it sprouted. The vines are over 12 feet long easy. 

 I almost sent it to compost camp, but the flowers on it stayed open so late into the day that getting past the bees was proving tricky. The corner garden is sporting another 4 pumpkins that don't seem to be crosses. Also quite a few warty round ones and small striped ones.. yeah, there are a ton. 

 I had hundreds and hundreds sprout.. I tried to weed them out but even more would appear just a few days later. I thought with the late surprise snow I was in the clear... not so much. The snow wiped out only a few seedlings and these evil monsters are the remnants that survived.

 I gave away over 200 various gourds last fall. It is no easy task, and you have to quickly say "here! Halloween or Thanksgiving decorations!" .. shove the bag at them and then run like hell to an awaiting car that is still running.. before they can protest.

 One of the gourd plants last year threw out rather suggestive fruit. They were quite round and had a nipple on the bottom. One weekend my husband and his buddies, after a few too many beers, decided to get in the Halloween spirit. They grabbed some of those gourds and gave Michelle's scarecrow decoration a breast augmentation. The tin man woulda ditched Dorothy in a New York minute for that scarecrow. 

 What I always wanted to try and do... but never got around to it.. is carve up a bunch of the gourds into jack-o-lanterns and somehow string them up on a lit pole. It would look like a jack-o-lantern totem pole. That's what I would want to line up the pathway to my front door... a hallway made up of menacing flickering faces. A whole arbor tunnel of them would be sooooo cool. 

 Knowing me though.. after carving the 4th one I'd just settle for hopping out from behind the pine tree at the kids. Sometimes it is good to be easily amused. I will do it at some point.. it is one of those creative visions you just HAVE to bring to reality.. if even only for one year.

 This year... I am still working on it. I have a few ideas.. but for now I have to count how many gourds I have growing just as soon as I can find them under the vine jungle.