Lughnasa Waning Harvest Moon Today we moved from conjecture to certainty. The top person at English Gate Academy, Ahmed, e-mailed Mark and said he would write a personal note to the Saudi Embassy asking them to speed Mark’s visa application along. His papers cleared the Saudi Cultural Mission today and are at the Embassy so […]
Read the rest of this entry »Pick and Plan Eating
Mid-Summer Waxing Honey Flow Moon Kate and I have decided on a pick and plan eating method. That is, we’ll pick fresh vegetables, then build a meal around what we have. I picked this morning, for example, green beans, beets, golden and bull’s blood, lettuce, dill, and 7 garlic bulbs. We still have onions from […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bee and Garden Diary
Mid-Summer Waning Garlic Moon Today I performed partial hive box reversals in all three colonies. The second hive box of three gets rotated to the bottom and the first or bottom box rotates up to take its place. This means that all the hive boxes have to be moved, so it is a labor intensive […]
Read the rest of this entry »And Yet More Planting
Beltane Waxing Last Frost Moon Cherokee Trail of Tears. Hutterite. Soup beans and green beans. Vidalia onions from sets grown in Georgia. Purple passion and white asparagus. Three varieties of tomatoes. Golden beets. Pretty much the last of this year’s non-succession planting. Mark’s been a big help, letting Kate and I focus on the things […]
Read the rest of this entry »The Early Growing Season
Spring ( it even looks like spring today!) Waning Bee Hiving Moon This morning or early this afternoon I pull the grass out of the entrance reducers and the bees will be free to navigate from their new home. Tomorrow I’ll check on the hive to see if the bees have remained focused in the […]
Read the rest of this entry »A Busy Week Ahead
Spring Waxing Bee Hiving Moon Business meeting this am. Looked at our IRA and Vanguard balances. Both healthy thanks to good planning and the recent surge in the market. Theses glances at our assets won’t be as much fun when the market heads south again, as it will. Right now though they’re cheering. I […]
Read the rest of this entry »Getting Things Ready
Beltane Waning Flower Moon After checking the parent colony with the queen excluder in, I found larvae in the top hive box. That’s evidence of the queen. That meant I shifted the middle hive box over to the new foundation and bottom board. A syrup feeder pail went on top of the new, child colony. […]
Read the rest of this entry »Fall Clean-up
Fall Waxing Blood Moon Out in the garden this morning taking down plants that have finished their labors. Large cruciform vegetable plants grew from the seeds I started inside, but they never developed any fruits. They’re in the compost now. All the tomato vines save one have come down. The last tomato harvest went inside […]
Read the rest of this entry »Kate the Earth Mother
Fall Waxing Blood Moon Kate made pasta sauce(s) from our tomatoes. She also made an eggplant (ours) parmesan that we had with one of her sauces along with a toss salad of our tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. Pretty tasty. Kate has preserved, conserved, cooked and sewed on her two days off. In this environment where […]
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Chicken Pot Pies and Memories
Fall Waning Back to School Moon Before the Vikings game on Sunday I made two chicken pot pies, whole pies filled with chicken, vegetables and a thickened vegetable broth made in the process. These are my second and third meat pies and I find I enjoy making them as much as I do soup. Something […]
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