I Can't Believe I Forgot About Mason Bees!

When I wrote about our list of endeavors for 2013, I completely forgot about mason bees! We've been thinking about getting bees for a few years now and finally took the plunge. Mason bees are supposed to be a great for pollination, which is critical for production in the garden. We're hoping that they'll also inspire our pear trees to bear fruit this year. We're yet to get pears from the two trees that we transplanted several years back. This is the year, I hope.

We purchased our mason bees from this awesome local business called Wild Bird Nest. The delightful owner of the shop called us in February to let us know that the bees had arrived. Last summer we made sure that our names were on her special bee-buyer list because apparently these buggers are a hot commodity and there's only so many to go around.

The 24 or so bee cocoons came in two tiny, little cardboard boxes that we kept in the fridge (with a little water for humidity) until we were ready to set them out. Michael saved us $50 by building the bee house out of wood scraps that we had lying around the yard.  But we still had to purchase the plastic thingy with holes where the bees will build their nests and a predator guard to keep out the woodpeckers. All in all, we've spent about $75 on this project so far. We're optimistic that the investment will be worth it. If all goes well, we should end up with 80 or so mason bees next season.

Finding a spot for the bee house that Michael and I could agree on was a bit of a challenge. We settled on a spot under the eaves of our chicken coop. This spot gets a nice amount of morning sun and is sheltered from the rain. I have to admit I worry a little that we're doing something wrong and that these baby bees are doomed to die. We're amateurs at this, so it would be easy to mess it up. That's a risk we have to take, I suppose.

For now, we wait and hope for the best.

-Trisa

Updates and Future Endeavors

While we have neglected our blog for a very long time, our adventures in urban farming and sustainable living are alive and well.

A few highlights since our last blog:

Garden

• In and effort to start seeds indoor, we purchased grow lights from the local hydroponic store  Last year's effort was an epic failure. We had maybe 10 little plants out of the hundreds that we had hoped for. So much for our plans to sell plant starts at our driveway market.
• We planted 9 or so dahlia bulbs last year and enjoyed fresh cut flowers all summer long. At the end of the season, we dug up the bulbs and stored them in our garage. It's amazing how much those buggers multiply.
• We're still eating the potatoes we harvest last year.
• It was a great year for our strawberries. We still have some in the freezer.
• Thanks to some calcium amendments to the soil, we had our best broccoli crop ever.
• We didn't have nearly enough driveway markets.

Food

• We got a butter churn for Christmas. Michael made butter without me. When we bought some cream to make some more, the cream went bad. I can't believe I still haven't made butter.
• Those frozen chicken carcasses became the makings of yummy chicken broth and homemade chicken pot pie.
• For the sake of convenience, we shopped at the grocery store a lot more and the markets a bit less.

Chickens

• I can't believe we ate Lucy, Gigantor, and (what was that other girl's name...?). We've come a long way since Rita (Michael's first backyard slaughter).
• A chicken or two died (from sickness/injury), but I can't remember their names.... funny how that happens when they die.
• Spot hurt her leg and now she's all out of alignment. Her tail leans to right (or is it the left?).

Well, there you go. That's your 2012 year in review.


Endeavors, adventures, and goals for the coming year:

• Preserve more, waste less. Use our money more wisely.
• We're trying to start seeds again this year. I thought we had it dialed in this year, but now I'm not sure. Those little plants aren't looking so lively lately. 
• This year we plan to sell our beautiful dahlia blooms at our driveway market (that is if our bulb preserving efforts work in our favor).
• Michael wants to add a few dahlia flower beds in the front yard and maybe a fruit tree or two. 
• Make butter a little more often before the cream goes bad. Maybe we'll milk a cow.... or a goat. I think we should try making yogurt and cottage cheese.
• Market Harris Farm & Garden a little more, sell a little more, and maybe make a little spending money. We picked up some old cupboard doors from an architectural salvage yard. These are going to make some really cool signs to advertise when we have veggies and flowers for sale.

-Trisa

"Work" after work

I always look forward to coming home after a long day at work. Not because I hate my job. I love my job. I also love my farm. Inspecting the garden is always the first order of business upon arriving home. Today I was pleased to find 5 fresh strawberries ready for picking. We've had very little luck with our strawberry production this year, so I was pleased to find these 5 berries before the squirrels ate them for dessert.

After changing into my farming clothes (consisting of my worn out jeans, favorite hoodie, and rubber boots), Michael and I (with pinot gris in hand) let our chickens out to graze in our side yard. Our every broody Lucy refused to leave her nest, but the remaining 12 were eager to get out of the coop. Before we knew it, Audrey had made her way to the opposite end of the yard to scratch and peck in our front yard garden. Audrey knows where to find the best worms. She also knows that she's not allowed in our front yard garden. So she waits for the moment when we aren't looking, running as fast as she can to reach the garden boxes before we realize she's gone. We don't have to worry about the other chickens. They tend to stay in the same general area. If Audrey's missing, we usually know where to find her and then how to guide her back to a more appropriate scratching site.

After an hour or so in the side yard, we were ready to guide the chickens back to their coop. When I opened the gate, I was surprised to find an egg in the path. I'm pretty sure Wilma laid an egg on the way out to the side yard. Wilma is yet to learn how to lay in the nesting boxes. She also hasn't figured out how to climb up the ladder to the roost at night. The ladder is the key to finding the nesting boxes....

Speaking of eggs, it's time for dinner. That's all for now- Trisa
-Trisa

Cheese delayed another week

Drat. Just when I was all ready to go with the cheese, a business trip came up. So we're postponing cheese until the weekend or sometime next week. We also have to postpone Survivor Night. I hate missing Survivor Night. Next week, my friends. Next week we will have both Cheese and Survivor.

For those of you who don't know: a little background. I work (the day job, that is) at a third party Power Plant Operations and Maintenance company. I write procedures, assess procedures, operations and maintenance, and do all sorts of various and sundry other things that an Analyst does at a 3rd party PPO&M company. I've been asked to go to Sonoma - literally the HEART of CA wine country tomorrow and Thursday to "find out what they're doing with solar-power-generated steam at wineries and see if we can sell them something." Well, alrighty then. I'm an analyst, not a salesman, but for some reason they picked an analyst to go and I happened to be their pick.

Who gets lucky enough to get paid to do THAT?!? Once again, I must say I really do like my day job. I don't like that they informed me I'd be travelling Wednesday on the Monday prior. Had I even a week or so notice Trisa would've probably been able to make this trip with me. Now, I have even more motivation to find some way to sell my company's services. Chances are good that if we can sell them some service that an Analyst would perform there will be more business trips to Sonoma and Napa...

This afternoon, I'm helping a coworker chop down four or five trees in his yard. In return, he's going to give me the pick of the Alder logs and rounds that we collect after the carnage. I have just the box to put the wood in to season them for a year. I have a big wood box that I got from work that was used to ship something. It's about 3' square and 2' deep. I'll put the Alder in there for just under a year and it'll be PERFECT for smoking. Alder smoked Gouda, here we come. I'll also smoke some fish and other meats to cure them for storage as well as because it just tastes good. This way I can avoid buying wood chips at Joe's or another outdoor store. AWESOME!

I feel like my posts are too long sometimes, so I'm going to try to post more often, but shorter posts. Please feel free to give us your feedback in our comments section. Let us know if you've a particular interest you'd like us to talk about more, or if you have questions about gardening/farming/locavoring, etc.

One last thing: check out northwest coupons connections on the web (www.couponconnectionsnw.com). A our neighbors a few houses down from us run that blog. It's not too applicable for Trisa and I as we don't buy food from grocery stores, but for those of you who do, this website will save you a TON of money. I check it often for coupons for non-food items.

That's all for now.

Mike

Well, I've gone and done it

I've officially become obsessed with urban farming and (self) sustainability.

I've been on the cusp for quite some time, but I find my mind wanders more and more to the ideas and ideals of that sort of simple life. So while I'm working - writing procedures for power plants, pouring over financial information to glean if they're covering up any maintenance issues, drawing plant instrument and flow diagrams, I find that in VERY short order I'm distracted and reading Grist, or looking at Amazon for a new kitchen gadget to help make better use of our harvest, or thinking of where else to put in a new garden bed, or how I could use the small green patch between a sidewalk and a street...

Today, I bought some educational materials to once again step up our farm's production. I'll read it and review it on the blog as soon as I'm done, but it's giving me all sorts of ideas. Since start of work this morning, during my lunch and breaks, I've read 3 of 7 "chapters" and also bought those new kitchen gadgets from Amazon.

Which brings me to another conclusion - we're going to have to go to a cash/envelope method of handling our personal finances. We definitely spend way more than we need to. I just looked at our monthly bank statement and in about 4 weeks we spend like crazy on lunches, beer/drinks/movies - etc, small store purchases, gas, consumables, and all sorts of various and sundry items. Seriously there's probably about 75 transactions that average $7.50 that we can and SHOULD do without. By we, I mean me. I'm horrible when it comes to using my debit card and I'm finally convinced that the cash/envelope method could be the answer.

Today, at Amazon I bought some things that we really could use, things we've been thinking of purchasing for a while and just haven't yet. I ordered a sauce maker - basically it's a food mill to process our fruits and tomatoes. In the long run it'll save us tons of time when we're making red sauce, jams, jellies, fruit mush, etc. No coring of apples is necessary with this bad boy. Simply quarter and drop them into the hopper and twist the crank and whammo: apple sauce. So, we do "need" it and it was time to order it as harvest is quickly approaching.

I can't wait until it comes in the mail and I get to go to a market for 100 lbs of tomatoes to make 100 quarts of spaghetti sauce.

I also can't wait to start utilizing the tips and techniques I'm finding in this urban farmers guide.

If anyone knows of someone who wants to install a small scale intensive farm, or wants to learn how to do it at their own property, or wants someone like me to farm their property (or a piece of it), please please please let me know. I'd love to get started soon teaching/coaching and working on more space(s) soon so we're ready for next year.

That's all for now.

Mike