Snake Scarves anyone?

So what do you do when a precocious 8 year old calls you to ask if your pet snakes need scarves to keep them warm throughout the winter?

Well, you find a way to get the scarf on the snake, of course.

Here's Arthur decked out in his Sunday best...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Robbing the bees. . .

The honey harvest is upon us. We estimate that our 400,000 or so bees produced 15 gallons, or 180 pounds of honey this year, not including the stacks that were left on the hives to provide winter stores. We still have a few trays of Ross Rounds (trays for comb honey) left to gather. The pissed off honeybees still haven't completely evacuated our garage, but no stings or injuries to report during this process!

Overall, the extraction process took 2 days, but I'm sure it will be about 2 weeks until we uncover every last sticky doorknob and droplet of honey that managed to escape the tarp. Here is Rog's mini-photo-journal of the process:

OK, no matter how many times I edit and re-save these photos, I cannot for the life of me get them to stay vertical. Tip your head to the right for the full effect. . .

These are the boxes of honey trays we collected. Special screens are placed under the honey boxes and above the living quarters of the hives to allow the bees to move down into the hive, but not back up into the trays of honey.

Rog has officially taken over my milk processing corner in the basement. Not one rogue bee managed to make it into the house. . . yet

Three similar weighted trays are selected first. A heated knife is used to un-cap the honeycomb before placing it into the extractor.

Hold on tight! The extractor spins at high speed and the honey is forced out of the combs on to the walls of the extractor, where it runs down the walls and into a collection vessel. The combs are then rotated and the process is repeated for the other side of the tray.

The spigot is opened and the honey flows into a food-grade plastic 5 gallon pail over which a very fine sieve is placed to filter out the flecks of beeswax. The filter is very fine and takes hours to drain, so a lid is placed and it is allowed to sit over night before bottling. The 5 gallon pails also have a spigot to make bottling significantly less sticky and very clean.

We do not pasteurize or process the honey in any way. We do store bottles and combs in the freezer to help delay the crystallization process, which is common with raw honey. Raw honey will last for years if properly stored. Crystallized honey can be gently heated and will be restored to its liquid state.

Raw honey has a few medicinal properties as well. It contains amylase, which occurs naturally in the pollen of many flowers, and helps the body to digest starchy carbohydrates. Raw honey is also gaining popularity as a homeopathic cure for seasonal allergies. It contains residual amounts of plant pollens and molds that, when ingested in small manageable doses, can boost the immune response and eliminate the histamine induced allergic responses to these plants. To get maximal benefits, you have to buy local- ideally within 5 miles of your home.

Info about available honey, ie, sizes, prices will post soon. . . 

"No bees, no honey, no work, no money..." Unknown

“You don't have to have a professor's dome Not to go for the honey when the bee's at home” Unknown


“The pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy.”
Emily Dickinson 

“His labor is a chant, His idleness a tune; Oh, for a bee's experience Of clovers and of noon!”
Emily Dickinson 

“The careful insect 'midst his works I view, Now from the flowers exhaust the fragrant dew, With golden treasures load his little thighs, And steer his distant journey through the skies.” John Gay 

“Bees work for man, and yet they never bruise Their Master's flower, but leave it having done, As fair as ever and as fit to use; So both the flower doth stay and honey run.”  George Herbert 

Slithery September

We are the proud parents of baby corn snakes! The eggs started hatching about 3 weeks ago, and within 24 hours we had seven. Six were red-orange in color, one almost-albino cream and white, and one dark brown with lovely orange markings.

We’ve taken a liking to the brown one, very unique markings, the photos do not do it justice. I named it Arthur, though I don’t have a clue if its male or female, nor is the task of sexing corn snakes on my bucket list, so it will be a mystery for now. 

Five have already found new homes, there is one large red still for sale, any takers?

Summer is winding down. . .

Sadly, the days are already getting shorter and I'm in complete denial. We've worked hard this summer and haven't had enough time to truly relax on the porch. Soon enough the porch will be obscured by drifts of snow. Again, why have I lived here my whole life???

The goats are milking like champs, it's hard to believe breeding season is right around the corner again. Our first Linear Appraisal session went well, with several does scoring in the high 80's with Macy, Cammile, Elina and Emilene taking top honors. We learned a lot,  by the end of the day I thought my head would explode. The tough part will be applying this newfound knowledge to our future breeding program.

The garden is bursting! Goat and chicken poop have done wonders for our soil. Despite tomato blight and and scary looking red potato beetles, this year's harvest has been bountiful so far. We did realize recently, that our self-proclaimed, "self-sufficiency" goals rely on our freezers. Even with all the fresh produce, meats, etc,  I've neglected to learn the art of canning up until now, I'm strictly a blanch and freeze artist. Time to set a goal for 2012. . .

Happy to report that I have 10 less birds tormenting my mornings, evenings and sometimes the nightmares of my friends (you know who you are). The broilers went to "market" last week. What disgusting creatures they are. Fat legs, waddling 2-3 steps then plopping down in their own poop for most of the day. Boy are they tasty though. After eating farm raised chickens for a couple years now, you realize the grocery store brands really don't taste like chicken, in fact, they don't taste like much at all. From eggs to 63 pounds of meat in just 7.5 weeks on just 2 bags of feed. Round 2 coming soon, we have more feed to use up before winter.

Save me the comments. . . this isn't gross, they tasted great!!!!

Late summer update. . .

It's hot. Really hot. Daily chores seem to take on a whole new level of misery when you add in a whole lot of sweat and a whole lot of flies. Speaking of flies, though, we have seen a tremendous improvement overall since starting to use Fly Predators. They are little tiny bugs, like gnats, that apparently seek out and kill fly larva to stop them from reproducing. They're a little gross, since they come to us in a bag and we have to let them hatch in the bag indoors before taking them out to the barn. Also they smell horrific when you open the bag. Simple to use though, we just sprinkle them around trouble areas in the barn and wait. .  .

Photo credit:  ValleyVet.com

In goat news, many of our friends are off to the ADGA National Show this weekend, we wish them lots of luck! Our goats are loafing a bit, shockingly some are already coming into heat, which I thought was pretty unusual with the recent weather. Generally heat cycles aren't common until the weather breaks and it cools significantly at night. Our smelly bucks have kicked into high gear, the new young'uns are starting to figure things out as well. So far they've only been interested in trying to play with our chickens.

Can we help? Can we help? Is it time to eat yet?

We have our linear appraisal session coming up in the next few weeks, hoping the weather will break so the dreaded clipping process will be more tolerable.

I know soooo many of you are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby corn snakes. None yet- looks like about 6-7 of the eggs are still viable, should only be a few weeks to go.

Recently we completed the great fig harvest of 2011, pic is below. Yes, I realize there is only one, but it was perfect! Look at it! In another 10 years I can invite people over for figs. Our trees are only 2 years old, so I'm thinking one perfect fig at age 2 is something to be proud of. I did  cut it into 8 tiny pieces to share with my family. . .

Another recent failure of mine is in the cheese department. I'm convinced I should at least be capable of producing soft ripened or aged cheeses at the intermediate and advanced level. Maybe I should have read another book....

I had worked on converting my 6-bottle wine refrigerator into a cheese cave. I cut new racks, dutifully placed my pan of water and set and checked the thermostat at 45 degrees. The next day I snuck a peek and low and behold it was warm inside. I know nothing about refrigeration so I thought I'd just leave the door closed and wait it out for a few days. My lovely thyme and peppercorn chevre rounds were so furry and so smelly with undesirable molds I tossed them in the trash, along with the wine refrigerator. I didn't want to get close enough to take a pic because I was gagging from the smell. So back to the drawing board for now. I did make some kick-ass feta to redeem myself.

Pics of the garden coming soon, we are quite proud of it this year. . .

Update and Pics

We finally get a breather from show season.... 3 weeks in a row is tough! Now we have a break until August, our linear appraisal session with ADGA is Thursday August 11, and most likely our final show of the season will be at the Delaware County Fair.

Last weekend we had fun at the ODGA Buckeye Classic- we did not attend the junior show Saturday but we did bring 3 milkers on Sunday. Cammile finished 2nd and 3rd.

Emilene was 1st place 2 y/o and 1st place Toggenburg in state in the ODGA Futurity class, where goats are nominated as kids and compete as 2 y/o in the show ring at the Buckeye Classic.

Elina, queen of the barn, finished her permanent championship by going GCH in both rings, and Best of Breed in Ring 2. I guess we need to tolerate her pigheadedness a bit longer now so she can make more beautiful babies for us!

As promised here are pics of Mallory and Echo.

Lastly, a pic of Samantha, the corn snake, who will soon become the mom of 14. Good news is, no one was bitten while gathering her eggs. They are being safely incubated at Findley State Park in the nature center where they will be raised then sold.

Here is our 'oops' araucana white tufted layer, Francine. She stands our amongst her pals, Alice, Gladys and Tilly. No eggs yet, Rog said we have a few weeks to go and they will start laying when their legs lighten up. . . 

Quick Update

Things have been extremely busy around here now that the weather has been cooperative. The bucks and bucklings are all settled into their pens in the old barn, new pasture and runs are complete. We just started a new batch of white leghorn broilers today, we were told their growth rate will "blow our minds". I think I may want to stop eating chicken if they grow so freakishly fast. Our new layers are still about 5-6 weeks away from laying their first eggs. They've been dubbed Alice (comets), Gladys (rocks), Tilly (ameraucanas) and Francine (white araucana).

Since we aren't crazy enough already, Rog decided to breed our corn snakes, Cornelius and Samantha-Who. So today he received a call from one of the park volunteers and Samantha laid 14 eggs. 14!!! So now he's planning an incubation area and in 50-60 days they should hatch. I imagine these babies won't draw as many visitors as the "kids".

A quick show update: no pics yet, we're lagging behind and most of the show results pages aren't posted yet. First the NEODGA show in Wooster on June 10-11. True farmers, we spent our wedding anniversary getting sprayed by urine at a buck show after a night of fine dining at Arby's. But it was worth it - Bugs Moran, our new junior French Alpine herdsire, was Junior Champion in all 3 rings!. Enzo was 2nd place in 2 rings and Reserve Grand Champion (RGCH) in one ring. Very proud of our boys. Enzo is for sale, as we have several of his daughter and have recently introduced Mickey into the herd.

At the senior doe show, Elina was RGCH in one ring, while her daughter, Emilene was RGCH in ring 2. At the junior doe show, our alpines brought up the middle, while Luci was second in her class in both rings. Echo, our senior Togg kid was RGCH and thankfully did not throw herself on the ground and play dead as she does at home. Mallory, our senior Togg kid was GCH in both rings, earning her dry championship leg. She then was awarded our very first Best Junior Doe in Show against all the class winners of the other breeds. We are very proud to have our first best in show award go to an animal with the Capra Lane herdname!

This past weekend we travelled to London, OH for the MODGA show. Emilene was awarded GCH in one ring, earning her second championship leg. Now she and Elina only need one more leg to complete their permanent championships. At the junior show, Luci was 1st place senior kid twice. Echo was RGCH in one ring then GCH in the second. She nearly placed Best in Show as well, the competition was down to her and the alpine, but ultimately the award went to the alpine- so close!

Next week is the state show, and then I think we are done for the year. It's been hectic, but having all the shows so close together means I only have to clip the goats once! Photos soon, I promise. . .