"Sweet Dreams are made of this..."

The gear arrives on site, brought by "The Bee Man"

More than three years ago, before we moved to Montana, the dream was planted in our oldest daughter's heart to pursue beekeeping as a hobby.  If I remember correctly, she mentioned it casually in a conversation one day.  That week, I grabbed a book from the library for her — "Beekeeping for Dummies", I think (though she's certainly no dummy).  From that point on, she began a voracious appetite for knowledge about bees... an "independent study program", if you will.  So naturally, upon arriving in these wide open spaces, she wanted to take the plunge and acquire a colony of her own, ASAP.  Being big fans of local honey, the Dear Bride and I agreed we would help her pursue the matter, in God's timing.

As it turned out, we have become acquainted with a wonderful family with much experience in the the Bee-o-sphere (among many other skills like canning/preserving, gardening, etc).  The Dad is someone I also happen to work with at my job with the Martin City Water District, near Glacier National Park.  Anyway, to make a long story short, this "Bee Man" (not his real name, of course :-) has hooked us up with his supplier, and our adventurous daughter now has her own colony!

The two boxes with the removable frames inside, will make up Emily's hives.  The other box — the screened one with the can of sugar syrup in the middle — will be discarded once the colony is transferred to the hives.

The queen was lucky enough to get her own little "travel suite" for the journey, which the workers are quick to cluster around

Look closely... the queen inside the box has a green dot on her back, indicating that she's young, and ready to do her job.

Getting ready to shake them in

The stragglers need a little more persuasion

Mama and the girls look on...

Emily is fearless!  :-O

Looks like the girls want to join F.B.K.A....

"Future Bee Keepers of America"  :-)

"If you build it, they will come."

 The next day, we went to check on "the ladies" to see if their queen had situated herself... She had!  The weather was cold and breezy, which helped calm the hive, it seemed.

Congratulations, dear daughter.

Ransacked!

Yesterday, I used the word "ransacked", and my 4-year-old daughter ("Little Miss") asked me,

"What's ram-sapped?"

I explained to her that it's when someone breaks into your house, and leaves a big mess, while looking for something to steal from you.  (One of my favorite little mental games is trying to break down complex words or ideas into a sentence that even a 4-year-old could accurately understand.  What can I say, it keeps me occupied.  ;-)

Well, that same afternoon, it became obvious that our garden had been "ram-sapped"!  You see, yesterday was, in the words of Winnie the Pooh, a "very blustery day".  Apparently our deer netting had blown down at some point in the last 24 hours, and our all of our kale, carrot tops and some of the outer leaves of our red cabbage were stripped bare by some wild and reckless herbivore. Even some of the parsely was gone... I guessed that devious creature wanted to have sweet breath after such a bountiful feast.  So, we pulled the carrots -- a fine lot of orange, yellow and purple specimens -- pulled the worst-hit cabbage and prayed that the kale plant, with its stalks intact, would continue to grow more leaves.  Yes, it is the end of the growing season, and the nights here are dropping below freezing, consistently, but the kale has been thriving in spite of the cold, and was producing some very dark, sweet leaves that we were thoroughly enjoying.  We'll see what comes of it all.

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Saturday, November 9th will be "hunting day" with my 14-year-old son (the "Man Cub").  I've read that the cattle on a thousand hills belong to our Great God... I'm hoping he'll bring one or two near to our muzzles, for a harvest.  Should we be blessed in such a way, I'll post pictures here.

Have a blessed day, and remember, "my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Gardening, part 2

 
When last we left our intrepid gardeners, they were doing all the manual-labor/prep-type stuff.  You know — pulling up weeds and grass, building raised beds, shoveling manure. 

The sweaty stuff.

After all that, the little girls needed a "silly break":

Though we were not quite planned and ready to sow the seed and plant the "starts", we were able to get a "lovage" plant in the ground.  (Now, we have a strict "Rule #1" in our garden: everything must be edible.)  Having heard that celery (one of our favorite veggies) is a challenge to grow in the Flathead Valley, we decided to plant lovage as a celery alternative.  After it was planted, I chewed on a piece of the tube-like stalk, to see what we were in for.  It was supremely celery-y ("celery-ish"?) — so much so that I fear I'm the only one in the family with a palate for such a strong flavor.  No matter... it still complies with "Rule #1"!

We started to lay out how everything would look, taking into account that certain plants have their preferred "buddies" or companion plants that they like to grow up with.  The laying out is what took the longest, and while I was chomping at the bit to "just plant something" (!), my dear, thoughtful bride — the family "Garden Queen" — took the necessary time to make sure there was a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Then, on May 23rd, I woke up to this:

"Winter's Last Stand" (hopefully!)

Well, Winter's threat proved an empty one, and by the end of the day, it was all melted.

So, this afternoon, after a nearly perfect-weathered Sunday fellowship and potluck, we came back home to start digging and stuffing.  Here's what we have so far:

Clockwise from Left:
Nasturtium (edible) flowers, Lovage, various lettuces and (edible) flowers, Red Cabbage, Lavender, Rosemary, Garlic, Spinach, Sugar Snap Peas and Strawberries.


Still to come later: Tomatoes, Bush Beans, Cucumbers, Squash, Celery, Rhubarb, etc.

What are you planting this year?

Gardening, part 1

("Carrots" sign, by Sophia,age 6)

A couple of weekends ago, we started our first Montana gardening experience.  We marked off a 8' x 20' section of our "backyard"...

...plowed the ground and got rid of the grass and rocks...

 
...and built a couple of raised beds at one end.


Then, we went to our favorite local dairy, the Kalispell Kreamery, where we snagged a ton (literally!) of composted manure for $10.  (Most of our materials thus far had been salvaged for free, or next-to-nothin'.)  Here are a few pictures of the process:

(Of course, we had to stop and "see the girls"):

Then, we hauled the S#$% back home.  :-)

(Now, some of you may be thinking "HEY!  How come Ric's conspicuously absent from the working pix??"  Rest assured, I only stopped shoveling the stuff long enough to snap these pix, then it was "back on the chain gang".)


Finally, everything started to come together...

...and then it was time to take a cloud-watching break!

Planting will happen soon, as we have already amassed quite a set of "starts" in the house, which will be planted outside over the next few weeks.

We're learning as we go, and having a great time together.  It's no wonder so many of Jesus' parables have agrarian backdrops!