You can watch the bees go in to the hive here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyulhSpe3z4&feature=channel

Some days I wake up thinking that I am going to get all of the things on my checklist done. I know that might seem like a tall order but I often come fairly close. Well, this morning I was up bright and early. I had a list and Brian was home with the kids. I was going to get a whole list of errands ran and chores done too!

Then I got a phone call from a friend.

Don’t get me wrong. This was not an unwanted call. In fact it was quite a pleasant surprise. This friend of ours, Alex, is a great guy and our entire family likes him (even though the kids have nicknamed him the Ringmaster of the Nerd Circus) But this morning Alex had a special problem that he called me to help him out with.

He had a colony of bees in his wall.

To make a long story short, I ended up bringing him my bee suit and a bee vacuum and talking him through the job. I left him to do it because he had to cut away a large portion of his wall.  In the end, poor Alex has a huge hole in his wall that he now has to repair but that isn’t even the most challenging part. He has to remove as much as he can of anything “bee” or he may end up with more bees or worse, wasps!

He brought the bees to me this evening. There must have been at least six pounds. They are all in the hive now and seem to be doing okay. The vacuum methods can stress the bees so I hope that they survive.  We are also not sure he got the queen. All I can do is wait. I will know within a day or so.

In the mean time, enjoy this video. I will update you with more as soon as I am able.

High 61 Low 45  Drizzly but warm. ( Our seedlings are loving this!)

Farm Camp

http://songcroft.com/index.php/farm-camp/

This month has been busy with all of the usually Spring chores of getting the cover crops turned in, garden planted, pullets out to forage, hens in their Spring/Summer home, goat kids birthed and settled in, does milked, cheese made, rabbits bred and the post-construction landscaping started, all the while enjoying the flush of green that has taken over our land.

Although these things have me excited, it’s Farm Camp that has been on my mind. In August we will be opening SongCroft up to those who would like to live and learn about how to run a family farm. This is so exciting that I am finding it hard to concentrate on other projects. We’re going to have a lot of fun!

You’ll experience instruction on dairy goats, chickens, ducks and rabbits as well as growing your produce year-round and preserving the harvest. Mushroom logs, the basics of permaculture, food forests, alternative energy and home arts are all part of the program. It’s great to read books and dream about living a more self-reliant lifestyle but it’s a rare opportunity to be welcomed on to a farm where you are able to learn and try things out for yourself!

Checked out the Farm Camp page. Tell us what you think, what you would most like to learn and if you intend to enroll don’t wait because space is limited.

High 51 Low 43 Misty morning with sunny afternoon

About a month ago, our family had a beautiful salmon dinner. As we were eating, my 9 year-old son Simon looked up from his plate and said, “Pretty soon Mama, I’m going to put the fish on your plate.” He said this in a deeper than usual voice and with all sincerity. He is my little man.

This Saturday was the opening of fishing season. The lakes in our area are clean and well stocked. Simon got his gear together and at 6 a.m. came in to our room to wake up his Daddy so they could “Get a move on.”

The two of them went off into the morning with sandwiches and fishing gear. They met up with our good friend Derrick, who Simon has decided is his best fishing buddy outside of his Dad. Simon just turned nine and was given a beautiful fishing pole and gear by Derrick.

Having come from a long line of fishermen and having many of my best childhood memories of catching my own meals off docks and jetties, I was secretly elated that my child has fishing in his blood.

About mid-day, as I was working on chores around our place with Sofie, the guys came back. I waited patiently and refrained from asking if they had a good catch in the case that they got skunked. I instead asked if they had a good time, which they said they had

Simon looked at me and smiled his sweet “I’ve got a secret” smile and then disappeared out the door. When I went back to the door to meet him, with my camera in hand “just-in-case”, he was standing there with the biggest grin and eleven trout on a line! Some were quite large.

He had me call his grandmother and invite her to dinner. Simon set a table with floating candles and flowers that he picked. He was one proud boy.

He and his Daddy cleaned the fish and used the innards to fertilize some of our fruit trees. I cooked up a dinner of baked beans, corn bread, salad and the best pan fried trout I have ever tasted.

This was a day that will never be forgotten, by Simon or by the rest of our family. Self-sufficiency can start at a very young age.

This week I taught a class on edible wild plants of the Pacific Northwest. It was a lot of fun. I love the topic but most of all it was fun because I love spending time with our second-year apprentices. There is a special bonding that takes place after spending a weekend per month together over a couple years. Also, we are focusing on a common passion and building community.

This month we spent time walking our land identifying plants and their uses. Many were edible, some are good medicine and many are good for both. We picked dandelion and made marmalade as well as stinging nettle pasta. Rolling out the green dough was very gratifying.

We talked about the abundance of wild plants in our area as we sat down to a meal that included a salad of wild greens and blossoms we had collected, nettle pasta, and maple blossoms sautéed with garlic, shallots and butter. It was a fun and delicious meal.

I look forward to more of these types of relationships over the years. Yes, my life is blessed.

High 43 Low 35  (Heavy rains all day mixed with hail)

It’s been a windy and wet week. Twice I have been trying to get work done outside only to have a shower of hail come down on me like it was raining bb’s. That’s when it’s smart to wear a hat with a brim. Hail can hurt when it pings against your cheek.

We have peas and spinach started in the garden as well as quinoa, lettuce, leeks, garlic, onion, radishes and beets. I placed tunnels over them as protection because the hail has been the size of  small marbles. It’s hard to watch our vegetable garden be pummeled when things are just starting to come up.

There is celery, cauliflower, leeks, collards and kale still growing in the greenhouse from Winter. We have tomato, pepper, ground cherry, celery, basil, cucumber and basil seedlings in the house. We are running out of space so I’ll be getting them in pots later this week. Whatever can withstand the cold evenings will go in our unheated greenhouse.

Everyday, I look out the back doors that overlook the vegetable gardens. I long to be weeding with the sun on my back and the buzz of honeybees around me. But for now, I will sit in my chair, waiting for the weather to warm and our vegetable garden will be lonely.

Have you planted anything in your garden? Do you have seeds started?

Write a comment and tell us how things are going.

Harpo is 15 minutes old

Shugs Birth (click here the title to see the video)

High 42 Low 38 The sky is shifting between sun breaks and darkness.

It’s cheese making time and the kids and I are ready with the molds! Part of our path towards having a self-sufficient lifestyle is to raise dairy goats. Raising dairy goat be very rewarding. Goats have milk high in cream which makes good cheese and the medicinal benefits are well documented. My son, Simon, can chug a quart down right after it’s left it’s maker.

If you are trying to live a self-reliant lifestyle in the city, you can check your local ordinances to see if it okay to have goats. In Seattle, it is legal to have miniature goats and I have met lots of folks who raise them.

Last Thursday, one of our does, Aggie, had two beautiful kids. We now have a little buck and doe. Baby Goats are so cute it is unbelievable!
Every generation receives names from either a literary great or from the live of one of our favorite musicians. The buck is named Harpo and the doe is named Shug. The names came from one of my favorite books. I’ll let you figure out which one.

I had been up the night before thinking Aggie was going to have her kids but she never progressed. I kept checking and finally fell asleep around three in the morning. The next day I ran the kids (the human ones) to their Spanish Class and various other commitments. When we came back, Aggie still wasn’t close. I cooked dinner and cleaned up before falling asleep around ten.

Simon woke me up around eleven saying he could hear Aggie in the goat shed and it was time. I threw on my clothes and ran outside with the lantern. (Luckily, I had the forethought to wire a light in the kidding stall the day before.) Sure enough, Aggie was in the process of birthing Harpo. I looked up and both Sofie and Simon were peering over the stall wall. They weren’t going to miss seeing the kids born. Brian showed up a few minutes later.

When Harpo dropped to the ground, Aggie just looked back like, “Gee, where did that come from?” I helped clear his throat and calmed her as she got ready to birth the second kid. Within five minutes she birthed Shug and all was well. I stayed with her until both had had some milk and were clean and dry. I also waited until I knew she birthed the placenta.

Brian brought the iodine for the umbilical chords and Sofie brought a nice warm bucket of raspberry leaf tea with a bit of molasses and Aggie sucked the entire thing down at once.

I left the mama and babies to bond. It was almost three in the morning and we were  all tired.

It’s been four days and the kids are strong and healthy. Aggie has recovered and if the kids weren’t there, it would be hard to tell she just birthed.

All is calm here. Cheese making has begun. We are working to be a self-sufficient farm.

High 55 Low 31

Overcast Morning with blue skies in the afternoon but it’s pouring now!

Wow, what a busy day. It has rained and even hailed here most of the week so when I woke up this morning to mild weather, I put my working clothes on and got busy!

After getting the kids breakfast and the house semi-settled, I got busy collecting eggs and checking on all of the chicks and ducklings. Our eggs are such beautiful colors that they are really the best naturally “dyed” easter eggs!

In the goat shed. I mucked the kidding stall and the main loafing area. After putting down fresh straw, I cleaned out the water feeders and feeder racks. Then I brushed the herd down and fed them. They were very happy.

I checked Aggie, our three year-old black Nubian doe, to see how close she is to kidding. Sure enough, I could feel all the way around her tail so the time is very near.  I offered her some herbal tea with raspberry leaf and she sucked it down in one long draw. I have been keeping my eye on her all day. She should have at least one kid by late tonight.

Next, I ran a hose through conduit across some paths to the goat shed. This will be buried when we bring in some fill dirt to level out the area a bit. Yeah, no more tripping on the hose!

I then mucked out the chicken yard and laid out fresh straw for them. They were hilarious as they ran around snatching up all of the worms that were hiding under the old straw. When I muck, it is really funny because the chickens are watching me and darting around, trying to get worms and trying to keep out of my way. I call it the chicken dance.

I used most of the old straw mixed with manure to lie down on the uneven paths and surrounding ground. I am using it to level out the terrain, which is really difficult to walk on when it’s slick. It is slowly becoming more even. My goal is to be able to wheel a hand-truck with hay bales across this area without wrestling it at a 60-degree angle.

The ducklings and young pullets were out in the chicken tractor today. They got a breath of fresh air, grass to eat as well as some nice bugs. We put them back inside for the night because the temperature is dropping and because we don’t want them to be anyone’s snack.

One of our ducks is on a nest of 12 eggs. She just sat on it today so the clock has just begun ticking. We’re on day one of 26 to 28 days. I’ll post photos when they hatch.

We also have a hen on a dozen or so eggs. They are not all hers but she didn’t care. She just wasn’t getting off the nest. We will show them to you soon too. They will be a mix so it will be fun to see what kinds they all are.

The bunnies were all given “green chop” and alfalfa to munch on. They are all such nice bunnies that we haven’t been able to come up with names for the does. Our buck’s name is Mr. Clementine T. Bunny The T. stands for Trustworthy. He was named by the kids. The three does were all going to be called Easter Bunny but that was just too confusing!

Now it’s time to feed the kids dinner before I run-off to play doula and mid-wife to our goat. We will be having homemade chicken rice soup and rosemary flax baguettes, all fresh from our kitchen.

This is a typical “stay-at-home” Spring day on our croft.

If these sort of topics and activities interest you, you’ll love the Spring issue of the Newsletter!

http://songcroft.com/index.php/the-songcroft-self-sufficiency-newsletter/

The kids and I will be dying eggs this weekend. It is kind of funny since our hens lay blue, green, pink, brown, white and tan eggs it always seems like we have Easter eggs anyway.  Some years they just stuck stickers and colored on the eggs because they liked the colors as they were but this year they want to color them.

We will use onionskins, spirulina powder, beets and red cabbage to make our dyes. One of the tricks to make the colors really work is to let them sit in the dye with a little vinegar added for about an hour. Allowing them to sit makes all of the difference! The colors are really amazing and quite vibrant. You can use your own creative ideas as to what to try as a colorant. Simmer your dyes for 15 minutes before using them and of course, don’t forget to hardboil the eggs! (Even if April Fools is close to Easter this year)

I’ve included a couple links incase you would like detailed instructions or a video to see how it id done. The photo is of our eggs before we dye them. Aren’t they beautiful!

http://www.ehow.com/how_4825511_dye-easter-eggs-naturally.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/natural-easter-egg-dyes/33289.html

Enjoy!

It’s early March and Seattle just got snow. It was just a light dusting but it was enough to make me worry about my peach and apricot trees which are in full bloom.

A hard freeze after the trees are in bloom can destroy all hope of those sweet succulent morsels ending up on our menu.

The past week has been a rush to get compost spread, livestock fencing up and other farm chores done. One bit of hard work was an accidental discovery: our nephew was digging in our yard and discovered a boulder which after six men and a few large poles (used for leverage) worked on getting it out of the ground, it became a nice addition to the landscape.

I also started more seed so that we can get an early start on the growing season. We have a nice set up for seed trays to germinate and then receive the light they need to thrive. Our tomato, pepper, and ground cherries have already got their true leaves and are doing well. Seeing them makes me long for warmer weather.

In the greenhouse and cloche there are beets, celery, lettuce, cauliflower, mustards, collard greens and radishes all ready for harvest. We took the bunny tractor out and turned the rest of the cover crop in to the soil but not before eating all we could. Check out our Facebook fan club page to see the conversation on chickweed. http://www.facebook.com/pages/SongCroft/232174564481?ref=sgm

We are getting lots of amazingly rich and butter duck eggs as well as chicken eggs with whites perfect for meringues. I was so inspired by the quality of our eggs that one of the recipes in the upcoming issue of the newsletter will have eggs as a main ingredient. If you subscribe, you’ll get a recipe for a rhubarb tart with a meringue top. This is one of my signature dishes. If you make it for a gathering, people will be amazed as it has a beautiful presentation as well as being incredibly delicious! You can tell them were you got the recipe. http://songcroft.com/index.php/the-songcroft-self-sufficiency-newsletter/

High 52    Low 38     Overcast with rain from mid-day on

Okay, so I’m going to blatantly brag about my kid. What can I say, I’m a mom who loves her kids and like most moms, I’m proud of them. So bear with me while we both experience one of my proud mama moments.

First, a little background, our fan club on Facebook has been experiencing a lot of activity lately. Folks have been really getting in to sharing their favorite ways to use different wild plants that are harvestable this season. The creativity has been really fun.

Harvesting wild greens is a fun pastime for the kids and I, so Sofie, our twelve year-old daughter, has been enjoying reading what others are posting on the Facebook wall. She has always been a really creative girl and has become an exceptional cook.

In fact, her cooking skills surpass those of many adults.

While I ran to the market one day this week, she made me lunch. Upon returning, I was pleasantly surprised to find maki sushi awaiting me on a plate complete with wasabi and soy sauce. Maki sushi is the name for sushi that is rolled, typically in a sheet of nori. The presentation was pretty with the black nori, white rice, bright yellow of the egg she gathered from our hens and vivid green sprigs peeking out the end. When I took a bite, I was surprised and delighted to realize that the greens were chickweed.  It was such a lovely fresh combination with the rich egg cooked Japanese style, tamagoyaki, and the brightness of the taste of Spring carried in the chickweed. I ate the whole plate!

It’s always a good feeling to see my children become accomplished at something. It feels great to know that they will not only leave our house with the basic skills of being able to cook for themselves but it is a blessing that they will also know that they can identify, gather and use wild plants from season-to-season. And admittedly, it is sheer pride I feel when I see their creativity and ingenuity manifest itself into something as wonderful as chickweed sushi!

Chickweed is not only delicious but it also is nutritious and has been used in herbal medicine for centuries. If you are interested in more information, check out the SongCroft Facebook page to see what others are doing with this wonderful winter perennial.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SongCroft/232174564481?ref=sgm