On April 21st, the phone rang early in the morning.  It was the post office letting us know that our chicks had arrived and were available to be picked up.  Yes, these cute little baby chicks got shipped from the hatchery to our post office in this box.

Our order this year was the following:

• 18 Jumbo Cornish Rock Hens (meat birds)
• 2 Partridge Cochins Hens
• 2 White Polish Hens
• 1 Aracuana Hen
• 2 Dark Brahmas Hen
• 1 Free Rare Exotic Bird

We picked them up at the post office and quickly got them settled into their new home – a box that we will keep in the house for about a week so that we can keep a close eye on them to make sure they are all eating and drinking.

Initially, we keep all the chicks together because they are about the same size and the numbers help them stay warm.

Another reason we keep them in the house at first is to protect them from their primary predator – our cats.  When I opened the windows for some fresh air on a nice day, Tiger heard their little peeps and could hardly resist trying to jump through the screen.  He spent a good part of the day gazing longingly into the sun room at the chicks in that box.

Just in case he slips into the house unnoticed, we keep a screen on top of the box as a second line of protection.  I am happy to report that unlike every previous year we have had chicks, to date the cats have been unsuccessful in scoring a tasty chick snack.

After about a week in the house, we moved the chicks out to the chicken coop and separated them into two different boxes:  the meat birds in one and the new laying hens in another.  The meat birds grow at an alarmingly fast rate and quickly outsize the layer chicks.  In fact, they grow so fast that we only kept them in their separate box for about another week before moving them into the barn where they have a lot more space.

The meat birds basically spend their days eating, drinking and messing up their pen.  These commercially developed hybrid birds are bred to only be interested in eating so they grow fast and tender.

They have already grown very big and are starting to fill in their feathers.  The cruel reality however, is that in another 3-4 weeks, we will load them all up and take them to a farm about an hour away for processing.  We will go pick them up about a week later…and they will provide many wonderful meals for our family.

Our new layer chicks on the other hand…well, they are still pretty darn cute.  They are growing steadily and all seem healthy.  Their feathers are starting to fill in and most of their chick fuzz is gone.

The White Polish hens are starting to sprout their crown of feathers now and they already make me laugh.

We have only lost one of the layer chicks.  I found her dead by the feeder one morning when I came out to the coop.  We know it was not the cats, but have no idea what caused her death.  Thankfully, everyone else seems to be doing great and in a month or so, their larger size should minimize the threat of any cat attacks.

Once they are bigger, we will slowly start to introduce them to the rest of the flock.  These gals should be laying eggs beginning some time in September or October.  We will have to start selling our overflow of eggs!

Maybe next year I will resist the urge to order more chicks…or then again, maybe not.

-Lynell

Heavy summer rains can also cause it to rise unexpectedly and flood during the hottest months of summer.  During those types of summers, we are not able to go down and enjoy the river much at all.  I’m a little freaked out by the power of a flooded river and have always forbade my children from going near it in those conditions.

We have often talked about getting some kayaks or a canoe to explore the river beyond just walking along its bank on our property.  During some of the summers when the water has been low, we have actually walked in the water a ways up-stream to explore.  The kids have also navigated it a little aboard our oldest son’s scow boat creation, but that was pretty labor intensive and they never really went that far.

With the early spring and low water levels (remember, we haven’t even had a real winter here in Minnesota), we decided to finally take the plunge and buy some kayaks to explore this winding river.  We took them out on our maiden voyage this weekend.

We decided to head upstream first to see how difficult it was to paddle against the current.  Floating downstream first, only to discover it was impossible to navigate upstream, seemed like a bad idea.

Keep in mind it was April 1st yesterday here in Minnesota.  The sun was shining and the temperature was in the 60′s.  Crazy.

We bought two single kayaks and one double.  That way, the kids can each have their own vessel to maneuver, and theoretically it will prevent them from bickering and blaming each other when they go floating into a tree or slam into the river bank.

The double kayak works out well for me because I can just sit back and enjoy the scenery while Jesse paddles, or, I can blame him when we get off course.

We were all real excited about the new kayaks and about being on the river.  It is something we have talked about for so long and yesterday we were finally doing it!

The river has a lot of fallen trees in its winding path.  Most of the time you can navigate around them, but sometimes you have to get out on to the river bank and go around.

After going upstream quite a ways, which was new territory for us, we ran into a tree jam that we weren’t able to navigate through with the double kayak (the kids managed to push themselves through with the singles).  We decided to head back downstream since we were just out for a leisurely afternoon paddle to explore.

Going downstream is a breeze.  Paddling is only required to keep the kayak on course.

In a few weeks, the river will look much different as the leaves fill out and form a canopy.  And then, the mosquitoes will hatch…and the whole experience will become very different. We will have to figure out how to deal with that aspect when the time comes.

After our maiden voyage on the river, we were very pleased that we finally decided to buy some kayaks.  We are hoping that was just the first of many lazy weekend days spent together paddling along the river.

-Lynell

On February 29th, only two and a half weeks ago, this is what it looked like outside our window.

The snow started during the night and by morning, we had almost a foot of heavy, wet snow.  School was cancelled and we were officially all “snowed in.”  It was the first snow day of the school year and nobody was complaining around here about staying home.

March rolled in the next day and as quick as it had arrived, all that snow started to melt away.  The temperatures soared and before too long, there was no trace of snow left.

When the temperatures started hitting the upper 60′s and 70′s several days in a row, we started to notice some interesting things happening around the farm.

We checked the bee hives and were happy to see that they are definitely still alive.   This good news means that we have successfully wintered our bees for the first time!  (Most likely due to the warm winter temperatures we have had, rather than our beekeeping skills).

We also noticed the bees were out foraging.  They seemed to like the sap leaking out of the maple trees that we pruned in late February.

Since they are active so early this year and there is little food supply available yet, Jesse decided to start feeding them some sugar syrup to get them through the next month or so.  He also took off the black winter hive covers because of the warm temperatures – we don’t want them to cook in there!  The hives both seem really strong, so we are excited to see how this season turns out.

After a week of continuous March temperatures near or over 70F, we also noticed that my gardens are starting to wake up and spring to life.  These poppies were hiding under the leaf mulch.

My tulips have also decided it is time to make an early appearance.

With our warm weekend temperatures (more 70′s), we spent most of our time outdoors and in the gardens.  Although we realize it is very early in the season by Minnesota standards, we started the process of cleaning up the raspberry patch anyways.

After digging up all the rogue plants to reduce the rows back down to about 12″ wide, we cut our all the old canes and re-strung the wire that holds the plants upright.

We then trimmed all the remaining canes to about chest height, applied a 10-10-10 fertilizer, and lightly tilled along the sides of the rows.  When we get around to it (hopefully within a week or two), we will put down a chopped straw mulch to try controlling weeds.

Since the frost was already out and the soil was so dry (we have had very little snow this winter), Jesse went ahead and tilled the whole garden up.  We like to work it up several times in the spring if possible, before we do the bulk of our planting.

And finally, the last crazy thing we did on this 18th day of March here in Minnesota, was to plant some lettuce (mild mesculun mix) and spinach.  These crops can handle some colder temperatures, so even though I know better, I am taking a risk and giving it a try.

(Last spring, my first planting of lettuce was on May 7th, after a very cold and wet spring.)

So, the madness of this Minnesota winter continues into March.  I’m hoping we have seen the last of snow, but after living here my entire life, I know that just about anything can happen yet this spring.

But whatever happens, I’ll be ready.  I couldn’t be happier to be back out in the gardens.

Hope you are enjoying some March madness wherever you are too!

-Lynell

We are not having a “normal” winter though, so the land is still accessible and we are trying to take advantage of it.

Despite the flood waters that come every spring, we have some enormous old trees among all the smaller saplings and brush.  This one looks like it may not be standing too much longer.

We came across the monster tree below, as well.  I cannot imagine how many years it has stood there, and all the spring floods it has seen come and go.

Taking a closer look, you can see a small area of daylight through the trunk of this tree.  I wonder how long it will take for the critters and the weather to chisel away at the heart of the tree until it finally succumbs to gravity.

Sofie, our Golden Retriever, is always beyond excited when we head towards the river bottom.  There are so many things to explore.  She was particularly excited about this hollowed out log.  Fearful of the possibility that a skunk could be residing within, we quickly encouraged her to move along.

Our goofy cat, Nina, also followed us on our walk.  She seemed annoyed the entire time and was meowing loudly as she trotted behind us.  She eventually gave up on us and turned around.  We met up with her again when we reached the house porch.

The warm temperatures of December have left the river open in most areas.  The open water certainly must make life easier for the wildlife that roams the river bottom.

Since we took this walk a few weeks ago, all the snow has melted.  We need to get back down there soon to enjoy the peace and tranquility while we can.

-Lynell

Normally, at this time of year we are putting a lot of effort into keeping our chickens warm.  With our average January temperatures usually in the teens, it can be a real challenge.  Not this year – not so far.

This year the chickens are having a really great winter.  They typically will not set foot outside the coop once there is snow on the ground.

In the bright sunshine and fifty degree temperatures today however, they enjoyed several hours of free-ranging around the farm.

They cover a lot of ground scratching, pecking, eating, or whatever they are doing, as they wander around the yard, into the woods, and through the gardens.

After the new hens from this spring started laying egg in the fall, we culled the old laying hens.  Down to just ten hens, we gave two away to Jesse’s brother, and then lost one to some sort of predator.  So, we now have only seven laying hens.

They are really dazzling and healthy looking birds.  All of them are prolific layers.  With our oldest away at school (he ate a lot of eggs), we can’t keep up with eating all of their eggs and we so we try to give some away when we can.

The black speckled hen on the left below is a Barred Rock and she lays brown eggs.

This gal is one of our three Araucana hens.  I always try to make sure we have at least one Araucana because I love the spectacular light blue and green eggs that they lay.

The white hen is a Light Brahma.  The feathered feet on this breed are so cute.  And even better, they are very reliable brown egg layers throughout the winter.

We ordered this assortment of laying hens last spring from Murray McMurray Hatchery, like we always do.  We have never been disappointed by the chicks we receive from them.  Our plan is to order more chicks for this spring – a few more laying hens and some meat birds.

It sounds as though our warm weather might end in the next few days.  Snow is predicted to fall as early as tomorrow and the chickens will inevitably choose to stay in the confines of their coop until the ground is bare once again.  Based on our winter so far, I am hoping they won’t have to wait until spring.

-Lynell

Besides the honey that we enjoy all year long, another byproduct of beekeeping is the wax that you collect from uncapping the frames to harvest the honey.  The first two years there was just not enough to do anything with, but we decided after this season that we finally had enough to attempt making candles.

Our storage method for the wax has not been anything elaborate.  After letting the cappings drain for several days to remove as much of the honey as possible, we just placed the cappings in a plastic grocery bag and put it in the pantry.  Each year we just added to the grocery bag.  Here is what our collection of cappings looked like when we started the candle-making process.

The cappings are by no means pure wax.  Mixed in with the wax are plant particles, bee parts, etc.  The challenge is to clean the wax and get it ready for making some lovely beeswax candles.

The first thing we did to prepare the wax was to rinse it under hot water.  We placed the cappings in the nylon mesh bag that we use for draining the honey out of the cappings after harvesting.  The purpose of the rinsing is to try to remove any remaining honey.  Based on the color of the water, it appears that some honey was rinsed away.

After much on-line research, we concluded that the next step was to melt the cappings in a pan filled with some hot water.  Once the cappings were melted, we removed the pan from the heat and let it cool.  The wax rises to the top to harden and most of the miscellaneous particles either settle on the bottom of the pan, or float at the top of the water and then stick to the bottom of the wax.  Using a knife, we scraped away the bottom layer of the wax.

Because the wax still appeared “dirty”, we repeated this process in the hot water two more times.  By the third time, it was finally looking fairly clean after it cooled, with just a few remaining particles present.  We then used a double-boiler to melt the wax.  Beeswax is flammable, so it is safest to use indirect heat for melting.  (And make sure to use an old pan and utensils, because the wax is impossible to remove once you are finished with the project!).

To remove the remaining bits in the melted wax, we took an old nylon and stretched it over a plastic bowl to use as a filter and it worked fabulous!

We had previously ordered candle-making supplies from Mann Lake, Ltd., our favorite beekeeping supply company.  We ordered a votive candle mold, wicking supplies, and small metal discs to put on the bottom of the candles.

To prepare the mold for the wax, we threaded the wick up through the bottom of each mold and held it centered with a bobby-pin.

It was a little tricky pouring the hot wax into the molds.  I think we will look for some type of container with a spout next year to help with the precision when we are pouring.

We were surprised at how quickly the wax cooled and hardened in the molds – they were usually ready in about 30 minutes.  In the meantime, we just left the hot wax in the double-boiler on the stove turned on very low, just enough to keep it liquid.

To remove the candles from the mold only required a little twist of the mold and pulling it out by the wick.  We then just clipped the wick with a scissors and put the bobby-pin back to hold the wick centered for the next pour.

We only had one votive mold so the process of pouring the candles was quite lengthy.  In the end, we ended up with 30 lovely beeswax votive candles.

As with all of our projects, we did research and planning in advance, but had to improvise along the way to try to achieve our desired result.  The candle-making process turned out to be a time-consuming one, partly because we struggled to get the wax clean and also because we only had one mold.  For our next venture in candle-making, we will definitely purchase another mold.  We may try tapers next time.

Based on the amount of time and effort it took to make these 30 votives, I can certainly understand why beeswax candles are costly.    It was a great project for our Christmas break though, and one we all enjoyed.

The sweet smell and slow burn of these will be enjoyed each time we light one in the coming year.

-Lynell

We woke up this morning to a very windy and gusty 2012.

With sustained winds of over 30 mph and gusts of up to 50 mph, we are under a wind advisory.

The high winds are not unique to Minnesota, as much of the Midwest is experiencing the whipping wind.  It is forecasted to continue through Monday for much of the country.

Thankfully, the temperatures are not our typical January frigid ones.  Although I usually complain a lot about Minnesota winters, I actually don’t mind finally having some snow on the ground.  I will be just fine however, if our usual cold temperatures never show up.

The good news is that it is already January 1st, and no matter what happens, winter here in Minnesota is going to seem shorter than usual because of the mild fall we have enjoyed.  And because of that, 2012 is already looking good to me!

Happy New Year!

-Lynell

In preparation for winter, we have the farm all buttoned up and ready for the snow.

The vegetable garden is tilled and ready for spring planting.

We are going to attempt to winter our bees again this year.  The hives have their black cardboard covers on to help absorb some of those rays from the sun.  We have failed the last two years and have hopefully learned a few things along the way.  We are hoping they make it to spring!

Each fall we put white plastic protectors on the young trees that line our driveway.  Our main reason for doing so is to protect the tender bark from the deer that like to rub their antlers on them in the fall.

Although we have managed to deter the deer from our trees, this year they targeted my little lilac bushes that I planted two years ago.

The deer systematically went down the row and stripped the bark and in many cases, broke off the lilac.  They spared a few of the plants, but most will need replacing in the spring.

We have talked about putting up a flag pole for several years, but just never get around to doing it.  With our oldest leaving for West Point at the end of June, we decided to finally tackle this project before the ground froze.  Knowing that we would be putting up a flag pole, we picked up a West Point flag on our trip out to visit in August.  We realize that we are not entirely following proper flag etiquette by not having the U.S. flag larger, but we do it anyhow, justifying it to ourselves because our intentions are good.

We located the flag pole so that we can easily look out the kitchen window and  see the flags flapping in the wind.

My perennial gardens have also been trimmed up and put to sleep for winter.

The wood pile behind the house has been replenished and is ready to supply our fireplace all winter long.  There is nothing quite like a roaring wood fire on a subzero day in Minnesota to warm your home and heart.

And with everything ready for winter around here, now all we can do is just wait.  For those of you who need to prepare for winter in your part of the country, I wish you good luck!

-Lynell

The seeds eventually sprouted in the spring and I set them out to keep growing.

I eventually moved the seedlings into the garden.  One of my favorite flowers are foxgloves (digitalis) and I had tried direct sowing the seeds into my perennial garden a few times with no success.  Using the winter sowing method, the germination of the foxglove seed was excellent.  Last summer, my new foxgloves were thriving and the plants looked like this.

Foxgloves are classified as a biennial and do not typically flower the first year, as was the case with mine.  This summer however, they put on a spectacular show and graced my garden with their beautiful spikes of tubular flowers.

I’m not sure what to expect next summer.  I did not get around to doing any winter sowing this past winter, so I know that I won’t have any foxgloves ready to bloom next year.  Because they often re-seed themselves however, I am hoping that I will have a lot of them sprouting up in the spring and I will be able to enjoy them in 2013.

In the meantime, I have a renewed motivation to make time to do more winter sowing this year.

-Lynell

After missing the harvesting window on so much of our garden bounty this summer, we finally managed to be productive today and do some canning.  We set up a summer kitchen out on our back deck for sterilizing and processing jars in a hot water bath.

It worked fabulous because all of that moisture from the boiling water that usually ends up saturating my kitchen stayed outdoors.  We used the two-burner propane stove that Jesse purchased for making maple syrup this spring and it was perfect!

We started out with our tomatoes.  I don’t know about all of you, but our tomato plants suffered from a serious case of blight this year.  We have nonetheless still managed to enjoy a good harvest.  Cheating a bit, we use a package mix that has all the spices and all we have to do is add the freshly chopped tomatoes.  We processed 35 pints of salsa.

After the tomatoes, we started processing our apples.  This turned out to be a lot more work than I had anticipated.  This is really the first year that our tree has produced a decent amount of apples and I’m not sure how I feel about harvesting apples after today.  Peeling, coring, cutting up, boiling until softened, grinding up in the food processor, heating again until boiling….what a mess!!

We processed 7 quarts of applesauce and approximately 8 pints of apple butter.  Based on the amount of work that went into these jars, I sure hope we enjoy them.
So, finally…a day of productivity here on the farm.  We have managed to preserve some of the produce from our garden.  It makes me feel good…giddy…happy…satisfied.

Some time this winter, probably in January, I will be feeling even happier as I pop open a jar of salsa or apple butter for us to enjoy.  It will remind me of summer and of how grateful I am to live here.

-Lynell