Setting up the homestead to grow my own food. It's August and I am going to start experimenting with learning how to grow Red Beans or Kidney Beans or Red Peas.
The journey is to grow the things I actually eat first the branch out and experiment with new flavors
August 27 :- location Toronto apartment
Put 10 beans in a bottle of water to soak overnight. Then totally forgot about them so they were soaking for 24 hours.
Then put them them in a wet paper towel and and a zip lock bag . Blew air in the bag locked it and put them by the window.
They all turned to mush and we're really stinky.... so let's they that again.... without the forgetting about them part >.<
Bee Obsessed!
I love bugs. I did a course in Entomology for my zoology degree and I loved it. What I found the most fun in the course was the bug display we made. The assignment was to travel around the Island (I was living in Jamaica at the time) and collect various insects. We were to identify them by General name and scientific name, state the location they were caught and state a few interesting facts. Oh I had so much fun seeing what our friends caught and trading our bug collection. I think the most fun was traveling around the island with my dad collecting all those bugs. We both had a great time and it is one of my fondest memories. That and my other assignment for my Business Environment course where we went to visit the Shrimp Farm. Me and my dad had some great times. You will see him around here on my vblog where he helped me build my shed.
I look back on those days quite happy as I go on my journey.
Random Bee Picture: The Eastern Carpenter Bee
Well unto my bee obsession. As you can already tell I get obsessed frequently :)
Watch this video :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxQvqOcZt94&t=251s I took it on my property to watch the bees there. I also wanted to track the bees to their nest like i saw a scientist do in his video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAt0pkag9YY&t=338s but the bees did not take the bait... they just went along foraging the flowers and totally ignoring my tastey sugar water....as If to say you want me to eat what!...absurd!
I have a lot of bumble bee on my property this year. I love those big fuzzy bees ...they go perfectly with the yolybear image ....lol
But I also have a wide variety of bug life.... some more annoying than others for example I am not crazy about the horse flies but I am super excited about the Dragon flies. I will try and solve the horsefly issue later. they bite .... ouch
Algonquin Dragonfly guide
High Park Native Bee Club
I joined the native bee club at High Park in Toronto. We spend our Saturday mornings learning about and observing the native bees.
The club leader is Susan Frye and right now in 2017 she is a PhD candidate from the University of Toronto with a passion for our native bees. She carries the below book The Bees in Your Back Yard that she will pull out form time to time to tell us about a particular bee or to show us an up close amazing picture.
Bumble bees , digger wasps, Andrea Integra miner bees
Here is a video of what I found interesting at bee club this year 2017.
Associations:
Toronto:I have also found the Urban Toronto Beekeepers. In 2017 , They have meetings held on the first Tuesday of every month at the Faculty of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.
Anthropology Building, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2S2. Check the website just to be sure. I put this here so I can remind myself too ...LOL I will be attending the next meeting.
Near Perth: Limestone Beekeepers Guild: Active on facebook. so I will check them out there until I get a chance to join them in person some day.
The Dream
I would love to have a honey bee hive but i need to do some work first getting their food source ready. So first thing next year i will be getting the flower garden started. For now i will have fun planning the flower garden and learning about. I hope to find a Class this spring and figure out what this master beekeeping exams is. http://www.easternapiculture.org/
I have also been listening to some beekeeping pod casts on Sticher Radio
Links I hope to have as I expand my knowledge on bees.
Link to flower garden planning:
Bee food
Building the hive
Bee by products
Bee diseases , pests and pesticides
Record keeping
Winter hive maintenance
Exploring Different Beekeeping Methodologies
Random Honey Bee spotting : What flower is this
Food :
Native bees like the bumblebee and the honey bee compete for the same food source and so you need to plant enough flowers so all can thrive.
Look up hive feeders
Honey bee food: sugar mix = 1:1 sugar water
Wetland flowers: jewel weed
Hives:
To encourage native bees you can build solitary bee hotels: watch out for woodpeckers and airways you may just be feeding them.
Mount them to a fence as this is not natural to the predators.
Make sure your hives are level or the bees will build unevenly and this will be bad for inspections and keeping an orderly hive.
Bee diseases , pests and pesticides:
Be careful of the pesticides and fertilisers you use on your crops as they will spread to your flower gardens and affect your bees.
Record keeping:
To keep track of what is going on in your hives.
Box name, occupants name, track the deminor of your hive usually based on the queen,
Winter hive maintenance:
Check hive numbers of bees
Check for the mites and their numbers
Build new frames and boxes
Check their food stores
Two for one Sundays :) Both The Honey Bee and Monarch
Exploring Different Beekeeping Methodologies and Theories
Slow beekeeping methodology
Slow Food International and the British Beekeepers Assoc. (BBKA).
Using the detailed scientific study of bees to care for bees. Balance between what the bees need and the needs of the beekeeper.
Temparate bee Ecotypes in temperate bees explores the relationship between bees and flowering plants. Bees are distinguished by nest architecture, brood pattern and swarming patterns. Flowers adapted with displays for their reproduction at it is important for the reproduction of bees as well.
Internal and external stimuli that make bees swarm such as food resources in a particular area.
Tracheal mites and veroa mites cause wide spread loss of bees and genetic diversity and increased medication of bees which makes then increasingly less effective at pollination.
Sustainable approach practices
Bee health and adequate nutrition. Need a range of flower pollen. Different plants will pass on variety of nutrients.
Bee foraging and assess the forage in the local area. Planting up for the bees to bridge the gap of the seasons.
Feeding the bees their own sealed honey.
And so when does the beekeeper harvest. Harvest the following spring. One bar of honey for every 2 frames of brood. Stores should be close by so they don't need to go far during the winter and adjust the size of the hive to as small as possible.
Hive density and distance to keep colonies further apart is better for the bees.
Swarming allows the bees to propagate.
Hive requirements of the bees is dry cubic capacity preference is a top bar hive for natural practice of less imports and natural comb Building promotes diversity in comb that may help pest decrease. And allow a few seasons for the bees to build. May Avoid chemical complications of industrial chemicals in the wax or plastics as the bees spend a lot of time in the development stage.
Queen selection no importation of none local bees. Unless it is your intention to import genes and characteristics but be careful of importing bad characteristics and diseases and suseptabilities.
Inspection frequency and methods such as smoking and alternatives such as water spraying and damp cloth covering.
Its october: --I will work on getting these thoughts together ...notes from the association meeting lots of information to chew on
Just gonna Write some notes here: Lots of considerations from pod casts and meetings:here goes
OMAFRA - bee registration - december - article on winter management
Intergrative pest management
B-L discussion board
Canadian Honey council
University of montana online course
OBA - new Apiology 101 - online introductory course
Winterizing:
Bees can survive -30 degrees
Winter bees (lifespan 150 days) are significantly different from summer bees (lifespan 30 days), dont feed winter bees pollen they may start producing more summer bees and cause bee die off. feed sugar water. bee feeding options build a box to put the sugar water on the hive cover the sugar water (4 gallons per collony) with straw. bucket with sugar water away from the hive top with grass. cute: if you feed bees grape soda you get purple honey
need: high quality queen adequate honey and pollen stores, and brood
recommended 7 frames of bees
wrap hives in hive wrap: availiable at wellington beekeeping association: correogated black plastic shaped like a box to cover the bee box. remeber they need ventilation holes bottom entrance reducer and drill a intrance hole near the top of the hive and protect that too helps with ventilation: cover those well so snow doesnt block them
the bear fence came up again
Honey labels: gourmet honey: plant their gourmet flower diet.- apple orchard blossom honey , lavendar field, hemp/marijuana field happy honey....they going to test the honey for the benifits. havest often will encourage the bees to forage. store in freezer and give them back if they dont have enough stores for winter level it out away from the hive they will bring it in
how was your year section:
Treat for mites very well or your hive numbers will magically disappear. the member seem to use alot of chemical treatments and sometimes it kills the bees :(
raining alot is bad for bee forage
wax moths are a pain - what eats wax moths
discussed catching swarms and preventing swarming and checking your newly aquired swarm for mites
discussed queen loss is a mystery problem
wasps will kill bees- and there are alot of wasps this season, wasp traps? do they also catch bees?
what is a good brood pattern
Is there control over honey prices by OBA? what about other bee products, honey as a medication for infections and bites
easier ways to harvest honey
Aveloa - bees as a mothers day present?
Worksops in the spring get ready: honey tasing workshop january $300 (yikes)
most people inspect bees every 2 weeks
bees will move the honey down into the broad box...maybe give them space to do that?
spoke about drying rooms to get moisture out of uncaped honey
illegic reactions to stings:epipens benigril,zentac natural plantain lee valley has a battery operated thing for the swelling
Orchard Setup for my Homestead May to June 2017
To recap I have a few fruits planted already. I bought them from home depot.
The tress and bushes and vines I have already that cost me total of $70 are:
1 cherry, 1 apple, 1 grape vine, 1 blueberry bush
Ok that's enough of that buying plants nonsense! Momentary Insanity. I am thinking ....If I buy all my plants I would be spending a fortune that i don't have
July - August 2017
I know that planting seeds that come from the grocery store are unpredictable and the usual case is they will not fruit and if they do the fruit may not taste good. But until I can find the seed packets to buy I will try the supermarket seeds. I will do this to practice and increase my Germination skills.
Cherries::Germination experiment
I ate a some yummy cherries ... and got 138 cherry seeds to play around with. ... ha ha ha
I started these in my apartment. I don't have a greenhouse yet
I cracked the seeds on half of them to take the seed out
Took 10 seeds and straight germinated then using a towel and ziplock bag and put the rest in the fridge:
Results for the 10 germinated with no fridge time : 2 germinated the other 8 molded ...eww
Lesson 1: Cherries need a period in the fridge to sprout
The picture shows the different stages i saw
first the seeds (cotyledons) turned green and they split
a tiny root emerges from the bottom and tiny first leaves emerge from the middle
I then take it out the paper towel and planted them in a cup and cut out some drainage holes
After 8 weeks in the fridge (took me that long to baby the 2 that germinated not to die)
Took 5 more seeds out the fridge and towel germinated those
Results for the 5 germinated with 8 weeks fridge time : 4 turned green and are looking promising
To be continued:......... I will start naming them so I can keep track.
August 2:
I am super charged and ready to do some projects this weekend... however 2 days ago my husband hurt his knee and had to wear an ice pack. I twisted my knee on the subway, no ice pack but I and still limping and careful when going up and down stairs cause I still feel a little pinch. Although I feel better than yesterday I feel like this weekend we will only have 2 working knees between the 2 of us.
In other news: Mom found a picknick table top so all we need to do now is make the legs. Mom also found an old dolly which she said needs some love but we should be able to use it. Let's see what we can do with it.
August 4: Today I have a cold and it snuck up on me our of nowhere. I sense it going to be a whiny baby sort of weekend. But still going to have a great time. The plan is to scale back on the projects and get some rest and relaxation and test the theory that the country air is good for you.
August 8 :
Back home from our trip....here is the video. Enjoy :)
The drive is long but this weekend I will have more visitors :) I will take it and be hsppy while I can get it cause after this I don't think many relatives and friends will take the 3 1/2 hours drive just to pop in and say Hi :)
So the visit date is 1 week away.... yea I had to even schedule it. I am thinking what I would like to accomplish on this trip. My vast experience has taught me (3 visits to the property) that I should pick my battles wisely as although I would love to just knock out my 10 item long to do list each item takes time and I also have to allow for camp site build up and tear down. Cooking And keeping the guests entertained. Also I have to avoid activities that waste time. Like going off property to eat or get supplies.
So I have been thinking of this I want to do before hand and some of the lessons I have learned.
This week I want to focus on Gardening.
PREPARATIONS
Volunteered at High Park
This was a great experience i will do it again for sure. I live the look of my little forest and I am seeking some education on how to conserve the look as well as do a little subsistence farming and fishing. High Park has a volunteer program that runs twice a month. On my first visit they were clearing invasive plants that were good for somethings but bad for the other species of plants that the park wanted to conserve. Our focus was the tall sweet white clover. Good things: it's nitrogen fixing and has good tasting polen for bees that makes yummy hunny. Bad stuff: about this plant it's reproduction rate, growth rate and coverage area was faster and wider than the plants High Park wants to keep. I think I will try it out see how I like it read about it some more.
VegetableandHerbGarden
Mint
One thing I love in this world is tea. And my favorite tea is mint tea. I come from a world where when I woke up in the morning and felt like having a nice fat mug of tea , I would go outside in my back yard and pick off a few leaves off my mint bush , wash them and brew. You can't get fresher than that. I miss that. So the first order of business is plant a mint bush and see what happens to it through the winter.
I have been doing some internet reading and Mint should be winter hardy depending on the species. The bush will die back during winter but grow back in spring time. So we will see.
Day1 I purchased some spearmint seeds for $2. I put them to germinate using the paper towel method. Day7 I saw no signs of life none of the seeds sprouted and so I got anxious and a little disappointed. I went just went to my neighbourhood florist and bought 2 plants. Luckily they were on sale and I got 2 of them for $3 total.
I bought spearmint and apple mint both yummy.... i tried them. I made a few cuttings and put them in water to root. They root easily I have done it a few times.
Day9 I decided to check on the mint seeds again. To my surprise 6 germinated ....very tiny little things. I was extatic. Day11 days after that I think I had 9 more that sprouted. I carefully planted the 9 to see if they would take to the soil this early and left the 6 in the paper towel to grow up a little more. I checked on the cuttings. No roots yet.
I think the plan will be. Plant the original ones I got from the florist when I got visit the property next weekend.
.
Orchard
To recap I hsve a few fruits planted already. I bought them from home depot. Plants there are expensive by my standards so buying all the trees I want will be very expensive for me.
The tress and bushes and vines I have already that cost me total of $70 are:
1 cherry
1 apple
1 grape vine
1 blueberry bush
I know that planting seeds that come from the grocery store are unpredictable as worst case they may not fruit and if they do the fruit may not taste good. But until I can find the seed packets to buy I will try the supermarket seeds.
I ate a some fruits ... one apple and got 4 seeds and ate one pear and got 5 seeds and 138 cherries. ... ha ha ha ... that was my lunch one day 138 cherries while i read about how to grow cherry trees from seed.
I put the apples and the pears to germinate and the cherry seeds to dry for 2 days.
SolarPower
I was checking the Canadian tire website for deals on solar equipment. The panels and inverters full price are expensive.
I bought a 150W solar panel on sale.
PROPERTYPROJECTS
Planting
I will plant the crops I took with me. And check on the ones that are there.
Bedrelocation:
It was out in the sun and with the lack of water shade and too much heat all the plants were not having a great time. So this week I will get more materials to move and make a bigger bed
Checkonthesolarpathlights
I forgot to pack them up last time so I hope they still work and the rechargeable batteries are doing ok.
Treecheck
I would like to make a note off all the different trees I have on the property. I would like to find a suitable evergreen tree to plant at the fence the start propagating that.
More canadian tire shopping.
IT'S FINALLY THE WEEKEND!
So what happened?
I must say I have been better organised this trip. Woke up early rented the SUV, packed it, picked up my mom and picked up a few things from home depot and got out of town by 10:30am. What's a new record usually it's like 12 and one of clock.
Oh boy I was so excited. We just finished our first visit to the property had a great camping 4 day camping experience. My mind was busy thinking of
.... the things that I didn't have that may have made the camping experience more comfortable
.....the things I needed to change to make the camping experience more comfortable
.....the things I could leave there so I didn't have to carry them all the way back
On the list was
.... better cooking pots and utensils and mittens (I got burned a few times)
.....some dry food stores like rice and oatmeal and noodles
.....more tools like saws
Another exciting thing that was coming up was my dad was coming to visit. I was through the roof with excitement. He would get to see the property. I was nervous what he would think of it. Like I said it does need some love but I was excited because I knew he would be proud of me for making this big step. And I was following in his footsteps a I watched him build our own house back home in Jamaica. In the two weeks I had to wait for him to arrive it couldn't come fast enough.
Now I was thinking what would make my dad comfortable camping on the property with us?
Well he is an older guy and i was later to fi d out that this would be his first camping experience. And even though I was quite content with sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground.... I bought my dad
. ....his own tent
.... his own air bed with a car pump
.....some blankets
Storage and Wood Shop Shed Plans and wishlist
Tool wishlist: Jig Saw and Jigsaw blades: T144D , T101d Clean cuts, T244D carved cuts
Solar attached to a side wall: panel, battery, inverter.
Gardening tools:
Greenhouse attached to the back
Watch my Dad comes to visit and we worked on building a storage shed
And I haven't done any improvements yet. I need to go there soon before it gets too cold and all the leaves are gone.... it's getting close the maple leaves are starting to fall
It was my 36th Bithday and it's my custom to treat myself and buy a present for me. Happy Birthday Me.
This year like every other year I thought... what do I really want what would make me really happy. Then I thought....what did I get for me last year? Not being able to remember I thought was not good. So I thought let's make this Bithday mid life crisis present count this time please ....lol
I thought long and hard and asked myself what are you struggling with and what would make it better? I was struggling with the need for space and the ability to do what I needed to do with my space.
My husband moved in with me this year from his childhood home which had a lot of space to move in with me in my rented bachelor apartment . ..I'm good but for him he needs more space. My wants last year was a place to work on my current loves Clay and to be able to adapt my space to hold the equipment I need like a kiln.... and I would need more space. I was really getting into plants and nature and for this I needed more space and more nature than I found the city was providing. I also wanted to get into new hobbies and new loves like woodworking and for that I needed more space. I was also thinking gee I an 36 years old and at this age my parents had a 5 year old and they owned their own space. I had the feeling of falling behind.
So it may be I was craving a space that was mine. My own spot on the earth that I can call my own....then I remembered didn't I try this already? What went wrong ....I tried to remember....oh that's right I let's people discourage me instead of going with my gut.... and maybe I wasn't ready to go through all that it would take to do this dream.... and maybe I felt I couldn't take such a big project on by myself.
Ok well ....I'm no longer alone.... so let's see if I can find some courage and work through the scary discouraging things.
I set to work. Went to realtor.ca and started searching through all the listing near and far .... big and small....with houses or bare land.... commercial,residential and rural..... inexpensive and totally out of my league expensive.
Now I knew what was out there it was time to focus. What do I want and what can I afford?....after 2 months of searching and asking the realtors and the city property departments the properties were located lots of questions. I finally found one I liked. I know...I know don't just hug up one chicken in your basket... but that's all I had left.... I had 2 that I wasn't really totally in love with as back up ... but this one I wanted to focus on. And I said to myself if he doesn't work out for me then I will go back to the drawing board and wait till something else shows up.
So I was ALL IN! ... I put all my efforts into buying this one property. Now it's not perfect at all ...I like to describe it as the runt of the litter and it needed some love. The realtor description of the land was "Vacant land swamp and rock close to WestPort and Perth. Hydro at lot line" . Ok let's see what it looks like. I went there for a visit in winter in March. There was still a lot of snow and I tried to walk as much as I could safely. I liked what I saw but I wanted to see more but I also understood that a may have some competition so it may not wait for me to have a perfect view when the snow melted. My budget was small and and he fit my budget is liked what I saw and hoped for the best when the snow melted and so I was going to work with it and give it all the love and affection I could to for it to make me smile.
I bought it. And we closed May 5th. So more snow.... let's go see :)
