Duck Pen

Ursula... no you are not a duck! Yesterday I checked on all the critters after work. And there was Ursula, one of our chickens in the duck pen! I don't know how she got there but she was there with her friends... the ducks. I think she may be confused and dealing with some 'issues' because I found her in the duck pen once again today. We keep reminding Ursula... you are not a duck...you are a chicken.

The pumpkins are sprouting, the winter squash is sprouting, the peas are growing tall, strawberries are delicious and I think I'll have some zucchini *wink*.

We discovered that moles love pepper plants. We are reaching a point of diminishing returns on this crop. We plant, moles eat. Not what we had designed. I found some organic mole remover. We hope this works.

Duck pen photos below.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have entered the busy season! The girls are playing community league soccer and swimming for a summer swim league. There that should keep them busy. But no... let's add: "Mom, can I try out for volleyball?" and "Mom, marching band practice for the 4th of July parade starts at the end of the month." Just email me or call my cell, because I don't know where I'll be or when I'll get there. *wink*

Onto the farm.
This weekend we moved the ducks! I didn't realize this would traumatize them as much as it did. I guess I kept them with the chickens too long. I wanted to wait until the pond got some water. While we did receive rain this past week it wasn't enough to fill the pond. So, Emily and I filled many buckets to fill this little(?) pond. I went to Agland on Saturday and bought some chicken wire fencing with some metal fence posts. Then we unwrapped the fencing, pounded in the posts and viola!...a duck pen! We caught the ducks and put them in the pond. Shall I say the word "attitude". The ducks are in a snit. They don't understand why they can't be with their buddies...the chickens. They give me the evil eye and quack when they can't see the chickens. Good thing I didn't move them to another part of the farm. It's been two nights since we separated them. They don't like-- not seeing the chickens at night...but what is nice is they quack when the chickens go into the coop at night. Now we know when to go shut up the barn. We have a coop alarm! I will post a picture of the new duck pen soon.

In the Garden: The peas are progressing nicely, Jim replanted the beans and some peppers (something been eating them). The eggplant has disapparated! I didn't replant it. The dill is coming up nicely as is grandma's sunflower garden. I'm nervous about the pumpkin patch as we haven't seen any sprouts yet. Jim says to give it a while as it has been cooler this last week.

Pumpkin patch

Over the weekend, Jim cultivated a piece of ground 'out back' for our pumpkins. I hope they will grow as they are out near the wildlife. This is another experiment for this growing season.

Nice video about Saving the Honey Bees

Beekeeping for beginners

Sunday I had an opportunity to explore beekeeping- hands on. About two months back I joined the local beekeepers association (Mahoning-Columbiana Beekeepers Association). At our last meeting I asked for a mentor and was introduced to Don Kovach. He keeps bees in my 'neck of the woods' and has agreed to be a mentor for the association. He called me on Sunday to visit and look at two of his hives (he has twenty hives!). He showed me how to create smoke for the smoker, how to put the beekeeper gear on with a hood and all the basic tools to get started in beekeeping. Once the preliminaries were understood we approached the hives. He identified the drones, the larvae, and we found one of his queens! He allowed me to open his hive, lift a few frames and showed me how to feed the bees. He suggests to feed the bees until there is enough pollinating plants to support the hive. The sweet smell was divine. I have to remember to move more slowly when working with the bees so I don't excite them. Don is quite knowledgeable and a very good teacher. I am excited to put hives on our farm so I can add the word apiary to our eclectic farm list. This is what I will be preparing to do this fall and winter. Anyone wanting to get me a birthday or Christmas present... I'll create a list of beekeeping supplies that I need to begin this new journey. *wink*

My inner Farm Chick

I found an old "Atlas" blue canning jar in the garage. So I made a lamp out of it. I put in some plastic strawberries, bought a lamp kit at Pat Catans and voila'. My inner Farm Chick is creeping out again.

The ducks need their pond!

We escorted the ducks to the ditch today to see if they would enjoy a little splash. And did they ever! My daughter's friend Austin, said they really need their pond. So the group cornered Dad,broke out the rototiller and started digging. They said they felt like the kids from the book/movie "Holes". I told them they only needed to dig one hole though. *smile* Here are my pond diggers on a milkshake break.