Well well well. I have been busy. Though I think I have had more fun than school lately.
The garden is doing well, though the dreaded aphids are back again, and silk worms are eating my brassica. The silk worms seem to come in patterns. I am assuming the moth or butterfly lays the eggs and they are hatching every 1-2 weeks. I experienced this last year when I tried to grow cabbage. But the soil didn't have enough nitrogen (other than that the soil was awesome) and the silk worms came every week and it was all I could do to keep them off.
My chinese cabbage is doing quite well, I think we should be able to eat it soon. My peas are actually flowering, my cousin said they are probably doing this because the plant is under stress, so it seeds sooner than usual. So, I will probably get a small crop of peas. I am hoping to get a better crop this fall.
I actually found out something that surprized both me and my cousin. My black currant, that I bought just a few months ago, is flowering! This is the first year I have had it, so it looks like I will be getting a small crop of berries this year!!!! I am amazed!
My tomato plants seem to be doing well. My potato plot has not come up yet, though I am not very anxious, I planted most of them before many eyes came on them. Most of the other fruit is doing well, though I don't see any flowers. My niagara grape vine has reached the top of the fence, and will soon reach the ends of the fence. I hope that next year, or the year after that I get a few bunches of grapes!
The other grape vines I planted are doing well. Most have sprouted. My beans are doing quite well.
The bee keeping business seems to be coming along well. I am hoping to get together with my friend sometime this week so we can get everything organized and do some stuff together. We have not gotten bees yet, he talked to another person who was cheaper and he has not talked to me yet if he has answered him. Tomorrow we should be setting a time, and hopefully have a better idea of where we are getting the bees.
Well, its time for me to go have some sparkling juice and raspberry trifle!! Celebrating my sisters birthday tonight! I made one of the angel food cakes (from scratch!) for the trifle!
English Vintner
Saturday, 8 May 2010
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Raspberries
Raspberries. They are probably one of my favorite fruits (though currants and gooseberries may soon be my favorite). Last year I got 45 plants. And we did not plant them in the best place. We didn't dig the holes very well. As with most things, if you have mass than you tend to not pay as much attention to each individual one. Well, only about 6 survived last year (a lesson learned, and thankfully not TOO costly).
This year I ordered 3 black raspberry and 5 red raspberry. My cousin than brought another 5 or so black raspberries and 8 or so red raspberries. I made a bed for the red raspberries and than my cousin helped me make a bed for the black raspberries. I then recently received from a good friend of mine, 3 yellow raspberries, 4 black raspberries, and several more red raspberry plants. So, I have quite a few raspberry plants this year! Around 15 black raspberry plants, 18 red raspberry plants, and 3 yellow raspberries. So, I hope that next year I should get a small harvest, and the year after an even bigger one.
I was recently doing some research on raspberries. I had wondered about yellow raspberries and purple raspberries. Raspberries like other berries are related to blackberries. The four main cultivators of raspberries are red, black, purple, and yellow. I have not found much information on how they got yellow raspberries from red raspberries, but somehow they did. The yellow raspberries grow quite similar to red ones. Purple raspberries are a cross between red and black raspberries. Purple raspberries tend to grow more like black raspberries. Black raspberries canes tend to be more curved, arched, while red raspberries grow a little more straight.
The other difference found in raspberries is that you have everbearing and summer bearing raspberries. Summer bearing raspberries tend to produce fruit fairly early on in summer, bearing once. While ever bearing raspberries bear fruit a little later and than have a few weeks where the do not bloom, and than they have another harvest. Some everbearing raspberries will continue to produce fruit until a frost.
Raspberries are a great berry to grow!
For more information on them, and where I collected most of the information on them, go to this website. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1421.html
English Vintner
This year I ordered 3 black raspberry and 5 red raspberry. My cousin than brought another 5 or so black raspberries and 8 or so red raspberries. I made a bed for the red raspberries and than my cousin helped me make a bed for the black raspberries. I then recently received from a good friend of mine, 3 yellow raspberries, 4 black raspberries, and several more red raspberry plants. So, I have quite a few raspberry plants this year! Around 15 black raspberry plants, 18 red raspberry plants, and 3 yellow raspberries. So, I hope that next year I should get a small harvest, and the year after an even bigger one.
I was recently doing some research on raspberries. I had wondered about yellow raspberries and purple raspberries. Raspberries like other berries are related to blackberries. The four main cultivators of raspberries are red, black, purple, and yellow. I have not found much information on how they got yellow raspberries from red raspberries, but somehow they did. The yellow raspberries grow quite similar to red ones. Purple raspberries are a cross between red and black raspberries. Purple raspberries tend to grow more like black raspberries. Black raspberries canes tend to be more curved, arched, while red raspberries grow a little more straight.
The other difference found in raspberries is that you have everbearing and summer bearing raspberries. Summer bearing raspberries tend to produce fruit fairly early on in summer, bearing once. While ever bearing raspberries bear fruit a little later and than have a few weeks where the do not bloom, and than they have another harvest. Some everbearing raspberries will continue to produce fruit until a frost.
Raspberries are a great berry to grow!
For more information on them, and where I collected most of the information on them, go to this website. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1421.html
English Vintner
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Plants
I just read March Action by Will Sutherland. It is encouraging to hear what he is doing, I always try to savor each section that he writes. If you don't know the website (forgotten or other) than I can send you the link.
I have killed a lot of the aphids by spraying with garlic oil, dishsoap water. I just hope that the peas will regain strength to grow some more from the damage done by the aphids. I also hope that the oil in the water that is now coating the leaves is not causing any 'burning' on the plant. I know it said to not spray on sunny days, but I figure, either they get eaten by aphids or they might get burned? I found that the peas up here in the bed had aphids TOO!!! Why peas??? I also sprayed the strawberries. But with the strawberries I was able to concentrate the spray on the stems and lower down verses the leaves. I have heard that ahpids don't like garlic (next year I will interplant garlic with EVERYTHING! :) so I did that, I can still see the bodies of the dead aphids, but I can see more on the peas again. So, I will be spraying more this evening.
The grapevines came last night. I planted 4 of them on the fence already, hope to get the rest of them planted. It appears that I got an extra 2 Muscat grape vines. So, I will split them, give you an extra one and me an extra one. I am not altogether sure what grapevines you get, so I will go back and check. I will be putting your grapevines in pots and bring them to you when I see you.
This was taken from an email to a good friend and gardener of mine, incase it sounds a little bit more odd than some of the other posts.
No time to dilly dally. I still have more stuff to plant before the sun goes down! Bee hives are coming along well! Cheers!
English Vintner
p.s. Here is the link to Will Sutherlands website: http://www.self-sufficiency.net/index.htm
I have killed a lot of the aphids by spraying with garlic oil, dishsoap water. I just hope that the peas will regain strength to grow some more from the damage done by the aphids. I also hope that the oil in the water that is now coating the leaves is not causing any 'burning' on the plant. I know it said to not spray on sunny days, but I figure, either they get eaten by aphids or they might get burned? I found that the peas up here in the bed had aphids TOO!!! Why peas??? I also sprayed the strawberries. But with the strawberries I was able to concentrate the spray on the stems and lower down verses the leaves. I have heard that ahpids don't like garlic (next year I will interplant garlic with EVERYTHING! :) so I did that, I can still see the bodies of the dead aphids, but I can see more on the peas again. So, I will be spraying more this evening.
The grapevines came last night. I planted 4 of them on the fence already, hope to get the rest of them planted. It appears that I got an extra 2 Muscat grape vines. So, I will split them, give you an extra one and me an extra one. I am not altogether sure what grapevines you get, so I will go back and check. I will be putting your grapevines in pots and bring them to you when I see you.
This was taken from an email to a good friend and gardener of mine, incase it sounds a little bit more odd than some of the other posts.
No time to dilly dally. I still have more stuff to plant before the sun goes down! Bee hives are coming along well! Cheers!
English Vintner
p.s. Here is the link to Will Sutherlands website: http://www.self-sufficiency.net/index.htm
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Busy
Well well well. I had a great time with my cousin here. We got a lot done. Cleared a lot of brush and got planted a lot of things. He and my grandparents left yesterday morning. For some reason I got it into my head I wanted to learn more about the Coral Castle down in Florida. I then had a choir awards ceremony at 3:15, that went well. I got home and had to eat supper fast and headed over to drama where we did a rehearsal with another one of the cast.
When my cousin was here we planted up on the other side of the fence I would guess over 30 pumpkin mounds, 15 squash mounds, 12 watermelon mounds, and maybe a few other things thrown in here and there. Along the fence we planted around 20 cucumbers and quite a few squash plants. My order for the grape vines should be arriving soon. I got an email saying something had shipped, but never once did it mention where the 3lb package was shipping from. My cousin brought with him some black raspberries from his property, some red raspberries from his property and some blueberries and apple and pear cuttings. My order which was sent to him had 1 each of black currant, red currant, white currant and champagne currant. Also 1 pixwell gooseberry and another kind of gooseberry. I also got asparagus and rhubarb. We planted the black rasberries and red raspberries. But most of the other fruit he brought I put in pots. I will transplant in the fall/winter when they are dormant.
The Coral Castle is an amazing piece of work. And though some people try to say that it was all about levers and pullys (how Ed built it) there is no doubt that he had something more to it than that. If it were just levers and pullys, than why did Ed ONLY do his work when no one was watching him. Why did he only move his blocks at night? No, I believe he understood something that we do not today. Why he wanted to keep it a secret, there may be many reasons. He was a bachelor, from Latvia, and at his max weight he was 125lbs. He was born in 1881 (I think) and in 1905 he came to the states (this is from what I have read, not all of it is nessasarilly true, so be careful in what you read here and else where). He worked as a lumber jack in California and as a coal miner up north. In 1912 he came to Florida. From one book I read (putting fiction and facts and making a story) he arrived at this couples house weighing 85lbs and a little over 5ft (at his full height he was 5.4 I think). After several months he started exploring the area around where he stayed. After 2 months he decided that the back yard of where he was staying was best. He was given the land. He cleared all brush and weeds from the place, leaving only the trees. He than cleared the shallow top soil until he hit the coral rock, or limestone. From the story after several weeks the husband of the couple came out to check on Ed. He came upon Ed just lifted a rock out of the ground. How he cut it he didn't know, how he got the chain up underneath the block to get it out no one knows. Ed liked people, whenever someone came by he would stop whatever he was doing and come by to greet them and answer any questions. You never got the feeling he didn't want you to come by, but he would stop whatever he was doing and come talk to you. He wouldn't work while people we're watching, and often when people watched from afar with telescopes and binoculars he could sense it and would stop work. (Scientist say their is a snydrome that masons had in ancient times that they could sense when someone was watching them work. The work they did was highly secret, and they didn't want people to find out how they did it. They think Ed might have had the same sense.) Finally Ed had his house. It was built entirely of stone, and no cement. His cuts were perfect and he never chipped or broke a stone. The edges were smooth, which is rare for coral rock. Ed did a lot of thinking and reading. He liked to watch nature. A rumor went around town that he had money, lots of it, and that he didn't trust banks. A gang of boys beat him up and it took a few days to fully recover. Almost immedietly he decided it was time move. He moved his whole house, piece by piece to a new place 10 miles from here. No one saw him load the trucks because he did them at night. One time the truck driver dropped the truck off and returned unexpectedly in 30 minutes. Ed had already had 4 stones on the truck. How he did this non one knows. Finally Ed had moved. He started building not only his house, but furniture, and wall around his property. No one ever saw Ed build but he gave tours of his coral castle while he was building it (just not while he was actually building, just in the process). In 1951 Ed died, after a month of being in the hospital. Before neighbors could get to his belongings and writings someone had already stolen most of his papers and some of his tools. In the last 15 years of his life he did a lot of experiments with electricty and such. We know that the smaller stones he could have lifted with pulleys and levers, but the big ones, he didn't have a pulley big enough to do it. Ed said he had discovered how the Egyptians built the pyramids. Some of the things Ed built out of rock are amazing. He has two gates, one weighs 9 tons, you can open it with a finger, it is pivoted just right. How Ed new the exact location of where to drill a hole (and drill a straight hole through something that big) we don't know. It is hard enough for scientist to do it with smooth surfaces and all. About 30 years later the gate pivot broke. It took 20 men and a 20ton crane to fix the pivot. Now it doesn't open with a finger, because they don't have it pivoted exactly. About 20 years after that it broke again. This time they had to cut the walls on either side to get the gate back in.
How can a man of a 4th grade education know all this? God given genus. He said he was a Mason, though he never went to any meetings in Florida. There are quite a few questions as to why he did some of the things he did. Some people think that Ed was able to flip the magnetic fields on the rocks so that the the rocks would instead of gravity pulling them down, because he flipped them it would force up. A magnet needs a + and - to work. But when you have a + and + they go against each other. Their are energy grids all over the earth. When Ed moved, he placed his house on exactly when on of the grids meet. Was their another reason he moved besides the attack? Besides mystery some conspiracy has gone on about him. Some say he left Latvia because the government didn't want him in the country. Something about what he was doing with his work, or working as a spy. All this is quite amazing. Ed died without writing down how he built his castle. However he did publish some stuff on electricty and magnetics and such. To learn more on Ed Leedskalnin do your own research on the internet. Youtube has alot of stuff on him. But remember one thing. Don't believe something just because you read it. A lot of stuff on him is speculation, but you will also see some interesting things about numbers he wrote on his house, how they conincide with other things, and why did he only move the rocks at night? Do your own research if you are interested. And if you are interested in that maybe you would be interested in sound levetation. The tibetins used it. They have monastaries hundreds of feet up on the cliff, with no possible way to get the rocks up. The amount of stuff that modern man doesn't know is amazing. If you think we are smarter than ancient man, think again. In Jesus time we have found batteries like the ones we have today (made a little differently). So, do your own research and learn more about the amazing inventions that God has given man! If you look at a lot of the amazing feets of humans, often the geniuses watched nature to learn how to invent them, most of the time we are just copying what God has already done.
The choir ceremony went well. It is sad to see so many seniors leaving this year. But what was most unexpected was to find that our choir director was leaving. Quite startling, but I think it will be good for her to have a break. I am planning to join choir this year again. If this year is not how I expected I may not do it my senior year. But God has his plans, we are to follow them.
Drama went quite well. We are doing puppets, so we rehearsed scenes that we're in with them. The play is definitely going to be fun. :)
Well, that was a LOT of writing. I am making a trip with a friend to see about buying beehives this evening. So, I'd better go.
God bless!
English Vintner
When my cousin was here we planted up on the other side of the fence I would guess over 30 pumpkin mounds, 15 squash mounds, 12 watermelon mounds, and maybe a few other things thrown in here and there. Along the fence we planted around 20 cucumbers and quite a few squash plants. My order for the grape vines should be arriving soon. I got an email saying something had shipped, but never once did it mention where the 3lb package was shipping from. My cousin brought with him some black raspberries from his property, some red raspberries from his property and some blueberries and apple and pear cuttings. My order which was sent to him had 1 each of black currant, red currant, white currant and champagne currant. Also 1 pixwell gooseberry and another kind of gooseberry. I also got asparagus and rhubarb. We planted the black rasberries and red raspberries. But most of the other fruit he brought I put in pots. I will transplant in the fall/winter when they are dormant.
The Coral Castle is an amazing piece of work. And though some people try to say that it was all about levers and pullys (how Ed built it) there is no doubt that he had something more to it than that. If it were just levers and pullys, than why did Ed ONLY do his work when no one was watching him. Why did he only move his blocks at night? No, I believe he understood something that we do not today. Why he wanted to keep it a secret, there may be many reasons. He was a bachelor, from Latvia, and at his max weight he was 125lbs. He was born in 1881 (I think) and in 1905 he came to the states (this is from what I have read, not all of it is nessasarilly true, so be careful in what you read here and else where). He worked as a lumber jack in California and as a coal miner up north. In 1912 he came to Florida. From one book I read (putting fiction and facts and making a story) he arrived at this couples house weighing 85lbs and a little over 5ft (at his full height he was 5.4 I think). After several months he started exploring the area around where he stayed. After 2 months he decided that the back yard of where he was staying was best. He was given the land. He cleared all brush and weeds from the place, leaving only the trees. He than cleared the shallow top soil until he hit the coral rock, or limestone. From the story after several weeks the husband of the couple came out to check on Ed. He came upon Ed just lifted a rock out of the ground. How he cut it he didn't know, how he got the chain up underneath the block to get it out no one knows. Ed liked people, whenever someone came by he would stop whatever he was doing and come by to greet them and answer any questions. You never got the feeling he didn't want you to come by, but he would stop whatever he was doing and come talk to you. He wouldn't work while people we're watching, and often when people watched from afar with telescopes and binoculars he could sense it and would stop work. (Scientist say their is a snydrome that masons had in ancient times that they could sense when someone was watching them work. The work they did was highly secret, and they didn't want people to find out how they did it. They think Ed might have had the same sense.) Finally Ed had his house. It was built entirely of stone, and no cement. His cuts were perfect and he never chipped or broke a stone. The edges were smooth, which is rare for coral rock. Ed did a lot of thinking and reading. He liked to watch nature. A rumor went around town that he had money, lots of it, and that he didn't trust banks. A gang of boys beat him up and it took a few days to fully recover. Almost immedietly he decided it was time move. He moved his whole house, piece by piece to a new place 10 miles from here. No one saw him load the trucks because he did them at night. One time the truck driver dropped the truck off and returned unexpectedly in 30 minutes. Ed had already had 4 stones on the truck. How he did this non one knows. Finally Ed had moved. He started building not only his house, but furniture, and wall around his property. No one ever saw Ed build but he gave tours of his coral castle while he was building it (just not while he was actually building, just in the process). In 1951 Ed died, after a month of being in the hospital. Before neighbors could get to his belongings and writings someone had already stolen most of his papers and some of his tools. In the last 15 years of his life he did a lot of experiments with electricty and such. We know that the smaller stones he could have lifted with pulleys and levers, but the big ones, he didn't have a pulley big enough to do it. Ed said he had discovered how the Egyptians built the pyramids. Some of the things Ed built out of rock are amazing. He has two gates, one weighs 9 tons, you can open it with a finger, it is pivoted just right. How Ed new the exact location of where to drill a hole (and drill a straight hole through something that big) we don't know. It is hard enough for scientist to do it with smooth surfaces and all. About 30 years later the gate pivot broke. It took 20 men and a 20ton crane to fix the pivot. Now it doesn't open with a finger, because they don't have it pivoted exactly. About 20 years after that it broke again. This time they had to cut the walls on either side to get the gate back in.
How can a man of a 4th grade education know all this? God given genus. He said he was a Mason, though he never went to any meetings in Florida. There are quite a few questions as to why he did some of the things he did. Some people think that Ed was able to flip the magnetic fields on the rocks so that the the rocks would instead of gravity pulling them down, because he flipped them it would force up. A magnet needs a + and - to work. But when you have a + and + they go against each other. Their are energy grids all over the earth. When Ed moved, he placed his house on exactly when on of the grids meet. Was their another reason he moved besides the attack? Besides mystery some conspiracy has gone on about him. Some say he left Latvia because the government didn't want him in the country. Something about what he was doing with his work, or working as a spy. All this is quite amazing. Ed died without writing down how he built his castle. However he did publish some stuff on electricty and magnetics and such. To learn more on Ed Leedskalnin do your own research on the internet. Youtube has alot of stuff on him. But remember one thing. Don't believe something just because you read it. A lot of stuff on him is speculation, but you will also see some interesting things about numbers he wrote on his house, how they conincide with other things, and why did he only move the rocks at night? Do your own research if you are interested. And if you are interested in that maybe you would be interested in sound levetation. The tibetins used it. They have monastaries hundreds of feet up on the cliff, with no possible way to get the rocks up. The amount of stuff that modern man doesn't know is amazing. If you think we are smarter than ancient man, think again. In Jesus time we have found batteries like the ones we have today (made a little differently). So, do your own research and learn more about the amazing inventions that God has given man! If you look at a lot of the amazing feets of humans, often the geniuses watched nature to learn how to invent them, most of the time we are just copying what God has already done.
The choir ceremony went well. It is sad to see so many seniors leaving this year. But what was most unexpected was to find that our choir director was leaving. Quite startling, but I think it will be good for her to have a break. I am planning to join choir this year again. If this year is not how I expected I may not do it my senior year. But God has his plans, we are to follow them.
Drama went quite well. We are doing puppets, so we rehearsed scenes that we're in with them. The play is definitely going to be fun. :)
Well, that was a LOT of writing. I am making a trip with a friend to see about buying beehives this evening. So, I'd better go.
God bless!
English Vintner
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Power
I did a much better job at stick shift today. I've done it off and on, and the problem is, each time is so far a part I forget exactaly how I did it last. But I finally have it down pretty well. I started out by stalling out on Union street with cars coming. They very graciously went around while I started the car (It takes some practice since it tends not to hold, as soon as you let the key fall into place it will stop running). And on the way back from choir I stalled through one green light (didn't make it through, but didn't get out in the road and stall so that was good), every one behind me was honking. :) And I finally realized I was trying to start up in 2nd. So the next green light I go it. Though the guy right be hind me tailgated me, wanting to go 45mph in a 25 mile zone. And finally passed me (I was happy to have him past me) and turned south on 485. I got through both lights and did well. I figured out that the trick is to stay calm and do it easy. Trying to ram the gas and jump off the clutch just won't work. But, God has been good and I think I have it down.
I am looking forward to tomorrow. Not only because fresh coffee and biscotti. (I only drink coffee 3-4 times a week, partly cause I don't want to get addicted, partly cause I have to roast it and don't have it readily at all times) :). My cousin Jether is coming tomorrow bringing all the fruit and stuff to plant! Also, my friend, Powel Andrews who wants to start up the beekeeping business is coming over! We will more than likely be figuring out if we need to order bees from the place in Texas, or getting them from someone in Albermarle over Craig's list (don't you love craigs list?). We will also be ordering bee equipment. We are looking at spending about $1000 for start up (though about 1/3 of that is for his hive alone. Basically he supplies the initial money to get it started and I am supplieng the labor. And when we start selling honey we will put it back into the hives so that eventually we will have paid off it and are getting a little income from it. If we go for the bees from craig's list we might get enough for four hives. I don't want to do more than four this year. But it will be nice to have more than one to compare the other hives too. Plus it means more honey overall that we can get. This year we might only get a gallon two. But next year we should get a lot more. I am looking into other things as well such as, propolis and pollen traps. I have not decided what we should do with the wax from when we harvest the honey. It saves quite a bit of money to ship it to a place and have them make it into foundation and ship it back than buying foundation. I have looked into getting a mold for foundation, but it was $300+ just for a small plastic mold!
I have been looking and doing research on how to use my creek water in a way to pump water from the creek for my garden. Right now I am doing it manually with 5 gal. buckets. And when it rains (like it is doing now) it gives me a break. But not only do I want to pump up the water, but I want to build a fairly good size dam. Just enough to have a foot or two deep of water in it. But enough so that I still have some during the summer months when this part of the creek dries up. I made a dam with the help of my younger siblings and dad. Mostly mud and sand, with some 100lb rocks thrown in. I have a pvc 3" pipe that is the drain to keep the dam from over flowing and ruining the dam. But I would like something bigger than that eventually.
I have been doing research and am very interested in solar, wind, and water power. Water power is the most reliable source of power from those three. Sun being next. Wind is good if you live in a windy place, but still it is not as consistant as water. And, since I have water a plenty (most of the time) I thought that would be the most useful. Plus, solar energy usually is complex in the way you harvest it to make electricity or heat water. So, I have been looking for something that does not require electricity. The best thing would be to have water pumping water. And you don't see a whole lot of stuff on that. I have looked into a manual pump, and I am open to it (looks easier than hauling water), but the best thing I am looking for is water pumping water.
I just recently came upon something that looks like it might be promising. What I orginally had in mind was a water wheel But a water wheel turns something, and doesn't really pump, plus they have to be quite big. So, next I am/was looking at water turbines. I saw one where a guy got his bodies together and they built one from scaps they had around. They hooked it up to his trailer and provides all the electricity that he needs (3 light bulbs and a radio). :) But still, it was from a creek a little bigger than mine!
I will probably not post much for the next week as my cousin will be here. We will probably either working for my dad delivering bread, or working down in the garden planting and organizing and such! :) So, I guess I leave you with this.
Bread is like a good book. While some breads look like they are good the inside is just white fluff, like some books. But the good ones are the ones that have a dusty cover, the ones baked in a brick oven. They might not appear at first to be good, but once you get into them, you wont put it down. :)
So, cheers to you all! God bless you!
English Vintner
I am looking forward to tomorrow. Not only because fresh coffee and biscotti. (I only drink coffee 3-4 times a week, partly cause I don't want to get addicted, partly cause I have to roast it and don't have it readily at all times) :). My cousin Jether is coming tomorrow bringing all the fruit and stuff to plant! Also, my friend, Powel Andrews who wants to start up the beekeeping business is coming over! We will more than likely be figuring out if we need to order bees from the place in Texas, or getting them from someone in Albermarle over Craig's list (don't you love craigs list?). We will also be ordering bee equipment. We are looking at spending about $1000 for start up (though about 1/3 of that is for his hive alone. Basically he supplies the initial money to get it started and I am supplieng the labor. And when we start selling honey we will put it back into the hives so that eventually we will have paid off it and are getting a little income from it. If we go for the bees from craig's list we might get enough for four hives. I don't want to do more than four this year. But it will be nice to have more than one to compare the other hives too. Plus it means more honey overall that we can get. This year we might only get a gallon two. But next year we should get a lot more. I am looking into other things as well such as, propolis and pollen traps. I have not decided what we should do with the wax from when we harvest the honey. It saves quite a bit of money to ship it to a place and have them make it into foundation and ship it back than buying foundation. I have looked into getting a mold for foundation, but it was $300+ just for a small plastic mold!
I have been looking and doing research on how to use my creek water in a way to pump water from the creek for my garden. Right now I am doing it manually with 5 gal. buckets. And when it rains (like it is doing now) it gives me a break. But not only do I want to pump up the water, but I want to build a fairly good size dam. Just enough to have a foot or two deep of water in it. But enough so that I still have some during the summer months when this part of the creek dries up. I made a dam with the help of my younger siblings and dad. Mostly mud and sand, with some 100lb rocks thrown in. I have a pvc 3" pipe that is the drain to keep the dam from over flowing and ruining the dam. But I would like something bigger than that eventually.
I have been doing research and am very interested in solar, wind, and water power. Water power is the most reliable source of power from those three. Sun being next. Wind is good if you live in a windy place, but still it is not as consistant as water. And, since I have water a plenty (most of the time) I thought that would be the most useful. Plus, solar energy usually is complex in the way you harvest it to make electricity or heat water. So, I have been looking for something that does not require electricity. The best thing would be to have water pumping water. And you don't see a whole lot of stuff on that. I have looked into a manual pump, and I am open to it (looks easier than hauling water), but the best thing I am looking for is water pumping water.
I just recently came upon something that looks like it might be promising. What I orginally had in mind was a water wheel But a water wheel turns something, and doesn't really pump, plus they have to be quite big. So, next I am/was looking at water turbines. I saw one where a guy got his bodies together and they built one from scaps they had around. They hooked it up to his trailer and provides all the electricity that he needs (3 light bulbs and a radio). :) But still, it was from a creek a little bigger than mine!
I will probably not post much for the next week as my cousin will be here. We will probably either working for my dad delivering bread, or working down in the garden planting and organizing and such! :) So, I guess I leave you with this.
Bread is like a good book. While some breads look like they are good the inside is just white fluff, like some books. But the good ones are the ones that have a dusty cover, the ones baked in a brick oven. They might not appear at first to be good, but once you get into them, you wont put it down. :)
So, cheers to you all! God bless you!
English Vintner
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Wow
I hit a deer on the way home from church. It is amazing how fast it takes for something like that to happen. Before you can even think about the situation it is over. It took about 3 seconds from the time I saw it, hit it, and stopped.
Anyway, to lighter topics. I am planning on making a light beer for the summer months when I am working hard in the heat. :) Looking at an American Cream Ale or an Irish Light Ale. Not sure what kind of yeast I want to use, but want to do that in the next month.
Bees. For lunch we had a friend over from church. I showed him my garden and we talked about gardening and grapes and fruit. I mentioned that I was planning on doing bees this year. And he asked if I wanted to do one for him. He would buy the hive and bees and I would keep them, he would get the honey. I thought that sounded great. He also suggested that we get a third hive and sell the honey from that one and turn the money back into the bees. So, I will be doing some researching bringing up numbers and stuff and doing some email and will call him up probably tomorrow and talk about it. The initial investment for doing three hives, one for each of us and split the third would be around $300-$400 each. But, I have already spent the money for one hive, my hive, all I need are the bees. So for me it would only cost me around $200 more or so. For him it would cost him a bit more since he would be buying the hive instead of making it. I am willing to do it, but I am praying about it and am looking at numbers. I actually might be able to make more hive parts than I thought I could since the bees will ship in mid May. But we need to order soon, which means an up front price for the bees of about $350 total. $160 each and split the third.
Anyway, its rather complex right now, but is in good hands. I have a busy week ahead of me, and my cousin comes on Wednesday! The joys of homeschooling is the liberty to pursue your interests while doing school. :)
English Vintner
Anyway, to lighter topics. I am planning on making a light beer for the summer months when I am working hard in the heat. :) Looking at an American Cream Ale or an Irish Light Ale. Not sure what kind of yeast I want to use, but want to do that in the next month.
Bees. For lunch we had a friend over from church. I showed him my garden and we talked about gardening and grapes and fruit. I mentioned that I was planning on doing bees this year. And he asked if I wanted to do one for him. He would buy the hive and bees and I would keep them, he would get the honey. I thought that sounded great. He also suggested that we get a third hive and sell the honey from that one and turn the money back into the bees. So, I will be doing some researching bringing up numbers and stuff and doing some email and will call him up probably tomorrow and talk about it. The initial investment for doing three hives, one for each of us and split the third would be around $300-$400 each. But, I have already spent the money for one hive, my hive, all I need are the bees. So for me it would only cost me around $200 more or so. For him it would cost him a bit more since he would be buying the hive instead of making it. I am willing to do it, but I am praying about it and am looking at numbers. I actually might be able to make more hive parts than I thought I could since the bees will ship in mid May. But we need to order soon, which means an up front price for the bees of about $350 total. $160 each and split the third.
Anyway, its rather complex right now, but is in good hands. I have a busy week ahead of me, and my cousin comes on Wednesday! The joys of homeschooling is the liberty to pursue your interests while doing school. :)
English Vintner
Saturday, 17 April 2010
What a busy day. Started out with a fresh cup of coffee and biscotti. I than started research for a supplier that would ship bees this late in the season. Bee season begins early and they ALWAYS run out. I don't know if they just can't keep up with the demand here in the US or what, but it happens every year. I found a place yesterday and emailed them. I got the email last night, but went to bed before I got it. In the morning I found out that I could order with in the next 36 hours to get a package of bees with queen from CA. The price would be $120 for the package, I checked shipping, I knew it would be high. But I didn't quite expect it to be $88! But, I consoled my self with the fact that I had built my whole hive for not a cent. And was willing to pay it. I called my dad to see wether or not I could use the credit card (we are all under one credit card, but we have separate debit cards). He asked the price and I told him, he said wait till he got home. I than even more anxious than before starting doing more research. This was one of the few that still sold bees this late in the season. I managed to find a place in Texas that would ship them, the total price being $162. $45 less than from CA. The Lord is good and he provides for his children. I am learning to pray for even the smallest things in my life. I am planning on ordering next week and should get the bees sometime in mid May they said.
Meanwhile inbetween researching I was down in the shop fixing my beehives. My cousin and I made them at Thanksgiving and made a mistake. Fairly easy one and I was fixing them mistake so that my hive would be ready. It took me a little while to figure out how to make the cut, but once I had it it was easy.
A little before noon my dad came home and the family went to Memorial Gardens for an hour or so. I took my camera and took over 100 photos. It is a beautiful place right near downtown Concord. It has rock paths, benches, fountains and TONS of flowers.
Around 9am a friend came by to use the tiller. They brought it back around 4pm after they were done tilling and planting. They also gave me some sugar snap peas. In exchange, I gave their daughter a dozen or so pumpkin seeds. I got around 500 from one pumpkin I grew last year and I was more than happy to give them a few.
I made a batch of sticky bun dough around 5pm and worked on the bee hive some more. I found some exterior paint I got from the trash ( wonder where that came from?) :) and it works really well. I had painted the hives white with interior paint and I painted over with the beige exterior paint. It looks really good. I also made a hive stan and put everything together. The only thing I have to do is some how wire in the wax foundation for the brood chamber.
I dug up a blackberry plant from last year that I bought and put it in a pot. I am hoping when my cousin is here that we can plant it.
I should be going now though. I have to be up early for cooking breakfast.
Have a blessed Lord's day!
English Vintner
Meanwhile inbetween researching I was down in the shop fixing my beehives. My cousin and I made them at Thanksgiving and made a mistake. Fairly easy one and I was fixing them mistake so that my hive would be ready. It took me a little while to figure out how to make the cut, but once I had it it was easy.
A little before noon my dad came home and the family went to Memorial Gardens for an hour or so. I took my camera and took over 100 photos. It is a beautiful place right near downtown Concord. It has rock paths, benches, fountains and TONS of flowers.
Around 9am a friend came by to use the tiller. They brought it back around 4pm after they were done tilling and planting. They also gave me some sugar snap peas. In exchange, I gave their daughter a dozen or so pumpkin seeds. I got around 500 from one pumpkin I grew last year and I was more than happy to give them a few.
I made a batch of sticky bun dough around 5pm and worked on the bee hive some more. I found some exterior paint I got from the trash ( wonder where that came from?) :) and it works really well. I had painted the hives white with interior paint and I painted over with the beige exterior paint. It looks really good. I also made a hive stan and put everything together. The only thing I have to do is some how wire in the wax foundation for the brood chamber.
I dug up a blackberry plant from last year that I bought and put it in a pot. I am hoping when my cousin is here that we can plant it.
I should be going now though. I have to be up early for cooking breakfast.
Have a blessed Lord's day!
English Vintner
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Life
God has been good, life has been full. I cleaned up the garage with the help of my younger siblings. It badly needed it, we use it as a wood shop and it gets messy. I can now work on a few projects without danger of serious death or injury. ; )
After that they helped me fill two rain barrels in trade for me helping them build a terrain for the LotR models they are into. I agreed and they hauled the water to fill 2 55 gallon barrels. I filled up the one with the hose first and than filled the other. I checked on the one with the hose and it was half empty. The spigot is broken, no matter which way you turn it water comes out. Rather than bother to return it I will probably just place the hose where I need water and fill it up. Its what I do half the time anyway.
The fruit order arrived at my cousins house today. I talked on the phone with him about how to keep everything from dying until next week when he comes. He put the asparagus and rhubarb in the fridge and put the others in pots. One of the raspberries was dead upon arriaval. Sent an email. If it is to complex I will not bother with refund. He is already planning on bringing me several apple cuttings, more red raspberries from them, and black raspberries. More blueberry cuttings, and grass seed. We will be working hard in the garden while he is here. Along with having to work a few days on the bread route, though I might be able to get my two younger siblings to go. That would be nice. Give us more time to work.
Anyway, can't talk a whole lot. 8.5 hours of sleep and about the same last night doesn't give me enough. And I am getting about the same tonight. But, I have fresh coffee and biscotti to look forward to. I have a deadline to till (the owners have to use it), so I will be doing the tilling I have put off until now tomorrow. Along with trying to fit in school. And probably end up doing some research about something on the internet. I love it!
Good night dear friends! Sleep well in peace, and God be with you!
English Vintner
"Such stuff as dreams are made on"-Shakespear, The Tempest
After that they helped me fill two rain barrels in trade for me helping them build a terrain for the LotR models they are into. I agreed and they hauled the water to fill 2 55 gallon barrels. I filled up the one with the hose first and than filled the other. I checked on the one with the hose and it was half empty. The spigot is broken, no matter which way you turn it water comes out. Rather than bother to return it I will probably just place the hose where I need water and fill it up. Its what I do half the time anyway.
The fruit order arrived at my cousins house today. I talked on the phone with him about how to keep everything from dying until next week when he comes. He put the asparagus and rhubarb in the fridge and put the others in pots. One of the raspberries was dead upon arriaval. Sent an email. If it is to complex I will not bother with refund. He is already planning on bringing me several apple cuttings, more red raspberries from them, and black raspberries. More blueberry cuttings, and grass seed. We will be working hard in the garden while he is here. Along with having to work a few days on the bread route, though I might be able to get my two younger siblings to go. That would be nice. Give us more time to work.
Anyway, can't talk a whole lot. 8.5 hours of sleep and about the same last night doesn't give me enough. And I am getting about the same tonight. But, I have fresh coffee and biscotti to look forward to. I have a deadline to till (the owners have to use it), so I will be doing the tilling I have put off until now tomorrow. Along with trying to fit in school. And probably end up doing some research about something on the internet. I love it!
Good night dear friends! Sleep well in peace, and God be with you!
English Vintner
"Such stuff as dreams are made on"-Shakespear, The Tempest
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Gardening
On Sunday night I picked up a few pot containers, probably 35-40 gallon size, along with planting pots and hanging containers. This evening I put one outside the greenhouse and filled with a mix of dirt I made up. Bottom 2 inches had some sand than top soil with straw, than leaf mold with horse manure for the top 10 inches. I sifted the leaf mold and horse manure for fine soil. I planted out an Amethyst Purple Basil plant. I will direct seed a few more soon. After getting it filled up and before planting in I watered it with 8 gallons of water. It thoroughly soaked the soil and drained out tons. I thought about this, and saw that the resulting liquid was brown from the manure. So I quickly dug a small trench down to the garlic bed. I than placed rocks all along it, filled it with sand, and covered with soil. Now whenever I water it any that drain will go down into the bed, conserving water!
I made labels for the raspberries and hops. Several of the raspberry plants from last year are coming up from the root, though the original canes are dead. And two blueberries made it through last year with absolutely no care. My cousin brought up with him on spring break 10 plants of one variety, and is bringing up 6-8 more of another kind. They are just cuttings. All the ones he brought are budding. So, if all survive I will have 18-20 blueberry plants. In 3-4 years they should be producing well. And when I have my own house I can take cuttings from here. I ordered a few red and black raspberries that my cousin is bring with him in two weeks. I think three of each. I will probably make a deep bed and plant them in a deep bed, I have heard good results from it. Also, I have a friend whom I should be getting some more raspberries from soon, maybe even some golden! The strawberries are doing VERY well. They are getting quite big, and flowering!!! Yes, so we should be having some fruit by May! I don't know how much to expect this year, but next year I am sure I will get even more. Probably in 2-3 years from now I will replant strawberries and take out the strawberry bed and turn it into a vegetable bed. What I will more than likely do is take runners from these plants and plant in new.
I just ordered grape vines. I am hoping they come in time for my cousin and I to plant. I also ordered a few for him, so I am hoping that they come for that reason too. I ordered a few table grape vines (a few seedless, but thinner skin and less sweet). I ordered a Chardonnay for white grape vines. I ordered for red grape vines, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Concord, and a few others. I plan on planting all of them along the fence of our property, but I might plant a few some where else. Along the fence provides a slope, which is good for drainage, and is what grapes are typically grown on. I hope in a few years to be making some wine from these.
Another thing I recently ordered was currants, gooseberries, rhubarb, asparagus, I also ordered the raspberries from the same place. I ordered black, red, white, and champagne currants. I ordered pixwell and the other kind of gooseberries. I ordered a few crowns of rhubarb, and I think 20 crowns of asparagus. This is a big example of something I am planting here, and plan on taking cuttings when I have my own house. Currants and gooseberries are not easy to buy (plants), and are expensive. Not only to say it is almost impossible to buy them in the US. (Makes me want to live in Ireland or Scotland!).
I am feeling anxious and some what discouraged with some of the things that are not coming up in my garden, or are doing poorly. But I need to remember, that most people around here don't even have any plants in! So, I need to keep that in mind when I get discouraged, that I am still doing better than most people, so be thankful.
Bees. I have not fixed the hives yet. But it is easy to do, it will just take an hour or two to do all of them. The frames are all built, but the frames that hold the brood I cannot put in the foundation (wax) because I don't have wires or pins to hold them, so I am a little bit at a dilemma.
Anyway, enough rambling. :) My brother is telling me it is time to go watch a movie, so I will go! Have fun, enjoy life, and live it for God!
God Bless you!
English Vintner
I made labels for the raspberries and hops. Several of the raspberry plants from last year are coming up from the root, though the original canes are dead. And two blueberries made it through last year with absolutely no care. My cousin brought up with him on spring break 10 plants of one variety, and is bringing up 6-8 more of another kind. They are just cuttings. All the ones he brought are budding. So, if all survive I will have 18-20 blueberry plants. In 3-4 years they should be producing well. And when I have my own house I can take cuttings from here. I ordered a few red and black raspberries that my cousin is bring with him in two weeks. I think three of each. I will probably make a deep bed and plant them in a deep bed, I have heard good results from it. Also, I have a friend whom I should be getting some more raspberries from soon, maybe even some golden! The strawberries are doing VERY well. They are getting quite big, and flowering!!! Yes, so we should be having some fruit by May! I don't know how much to expect this year, but next year I am sure I will get even more. Probably in 2-3 years from now I will replant strawberries and take out the strawberry bed and turn it into a vegetable bed. What I will more than likely do is take runners from these plants and plant in new.
I just ordered grape vines. I am hoping they come in time for my cousin and I to plant. I also ordered a few for him, so I am hoping that they come for that reason too. I ordered a few table grape vines (a few seedless, but thinner skin and less sweet). I ordered a Chardonnay for white grape vines. I ordered for red grape vines, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Concord, and a few others. I plan on planting all of them along the fence of our property, but I might plant a few some where else. Along the fence provides a slope, which is good for drainage, and is what grapes are typically grown on. I hope in a few years to be making some wine from these.
Another thing I recently ordered was currants, gooseberries, rhubarb, asparagus, I also ordered the raspberries from the same place. I ordered black, red, white, and champagne currants. I ordered pixwell and the other kind of gooseberries. I ordered a few crowns of rhubarb, and I think 20 crowns of asparagus. This is a big example of something I am planting here, and plan on taking cuttings when I have my own house. Currants and gooseberries are not easy to buy (plants), and are expensive. Not only to say it is almost impossible to buy them in the US. (Makes me want to live in Ireland or Scotland!).
I am feeling anxious and some what discouraged with some of the things that are not coming up in my garden, or are doing poorly. But I need to remember, that most people around here don't even have any plants in! So, I need to keep that in mind when I get discouraged, that I am still doing better than most people, so be thankful.
Bees. I have not fixed the hives yet. But it is easy to do, it will just take an hour or two to do all of them. The frames are all built, but the frames that hold the brood I cannot put in the foundation (wax) because I don't have wires or pins to hold them, so I am a little bit at a dilemma.
Anyway, enough rambling. :) My brother is telling me it is time to go watch a movie, so I will go! Have fun, enjoy life, and live it for God!
God Bless you!
English Vintner
Monday, 12 April 2010
Hops
I got the hops from a friend at church, picked them up for me at eBrew (the wine/brew store in Charlotte). I didn't get around to planting them this morning, cause I was working so I stuck them in the 'root cellar'. Did I tell you about that? I dug a hole 18" in diameter and about 3 3.5' down. Put a few rocks in the bottom, and stuck a metal trash can inside with a lid. So I will use that for keeping my water cool, or like I did last night, I stuck the hop rhizomes (female root stock hops) in the bottom to keep cool since I could not plant this morning. Anyway, it stays below 60º in it, probably closer to 50º right now.
We stopped by Aldi today after work, I was hoping to get another hose. They did not have them, but they had raspberry plants, ever bearring for $6.19 with tax, for two plants. So, I thought it was a good buy, and raspberries are probably my FAVORITE berry. Though currants and gooseberries I am thinking might surpass them. :) Anyway, back to raspberries. I planted them on the fence.I planted both of them on it. I dug a pit pretty deep for the first one, and quite wide. Added 3 buckets of kitchen scraps, a shovel full of manure, mixed dirt on, and put bone meal that I had made. (I dried bones and used our old blender (doesn't hold liquids) to grind them up, worked well!) I put in a drain from the hole that I dug, as I am doing with all the plants I am planting on the fence. The drain for the apple tree goes down to a herb I have, the drain from niagara grape vine leads down to the comfrey I got. The drain right near the manure pile leads down to silverdollar, a ornamental plant of some sort I think. And the drain I put in under the mulch, that leads to the top deep bed where we planted onions. Well, it keeps the soil right there nice and moist. I love doing drains! I dig out a trench, put rocks in the bottom, and then sand on top, then soil on top of the sand.
Alright, hops. I got two kinds, Casecade and Mt. Hood. It sounds like I will get about 3lbs from each this year, but a lot more next year. And next year or the year after that I should be able to give you quite a few hop rhizomes and plant more my self!!!! Not only can hops be used for beer, but you can make tea, or even flavor wine with them. You add them fresh to a white wine and it gives it a nice flavor and aroma. Hops are only bitter when you boil them. Hops can grow up to 40+ ft high in one growing season! Though more tipically 25ft. I cut down branches from a poplar tree, and cut down one long one in particular, a 12ft long one, about 3 inches diameter at the bottom. I stripped it of branches and tied two strings to the top of it. I than dug a hole where I am planting them (really hard to explain where, best to show you when you come) and put the branch in the hole about 18" down, I put two rocks at the base and filled in with some dirt, tamped the dirt around the pole and than added more. I added two 5 gallon buckets of horse manure to the dirt around the hops (they need to be well fertilized). I did about the same for the other one. I am more than pleased with the hops, and look forward to a fun growing season with them. They should be really fun to watch and grow!
On Saturday my dad helped me finish up putting shingles on the back wall of the greenhouse. That should add a little more insulation this winter, and hopefully catch some sun and warm up the greenhouse. The peas in the greenhouse are flowering (4-5 plants) and I am hoping to get some pods pretty soon.
For more information on growing hops, go to: http://www.growinghopsyourself.com/ also do some searching around. I am planning on doing some research on the benefits of hops, if there are.
English Vintner
We stopped by Aldi today after work, I was hoping to get another hose. They did not have them, but they had raspberry plants, ever bearring for $6.19 with tax, for two plants. So, I thought it was a good buy, and raspberries are probably my FAVORITE berry. Though currants and gooseberries I am thinking might surpass them. :) Anyway, back to raspberries. I planted them on the fence.I planted both of them on it. I dug a pit pretty deep for the first one, and quite wide. Added 3 buckets of kitchen scraps, a shovel full of manure, mixed dirt on, and put bone meal that I had made. (I dried bones and used our old blender (doesn't hold liquids) to grind them up, worked well!) I put in a drain from the hole that I dug, as I am doing with all the plants I am planting on the fence. The drain for the apple tree goes down to a herb I have, the drain from niagara grape vine leads down to the comfrey I got. The drain right near the manure pile leads down to silverdollar, a ornamental plant of some sort I think. And the drain I put in under the mulch, that leads to the top deep bed where we planted onions. Well, it keeps the soil right there nice and moist. I love doing drains! I dig out a trench, put rocks in the bottom, and then sand on top, then soil on top of the sand.
Alright, hops. I got two kinds, Casecade and Mt. Hood. It sounds like I will get about 3lbs from each this year, but a lot more next year. And next year or the year after that I should be able to give you quite a few hop rhizomes and plant more my self!!!! Not only can hops be used for beer, but you can make tea, or even flavor wine with them. You add them fresh to a white wine and it gives it a nice flavor and aroma. Hops are only bitter when you boil them. Hops can grow up to 40+ ft high in one growing season! Though more tipically 25ft. I cut down branches from a poplar tree, and cut down one long one in particular, a 12ft long one, about 3 inches diameter at the bottom. I stripped it of branches and tied two strings to the top of it. I than dug a hole where I am planting them (really hard to explain where, best to show you when you come) and put the branch in the hole about 18" down, I put two rocks at the base and filled in with some dirt, tamped the dirt around the pole and than added more. I added two 5 gallon buckets of horse manure to the dirt around the hops (they need to be well fertilized). I did about the same for the other one. I am more than pleased with the hops, and look forward to a fun growing season with them. They should be really fun to watch and grow!
On Saturday my dad helped me finish up putting shingles on the back wall of the greenhouse. That should add a little more insulation this winter, and hopefully catch some sun and warm up the greenhouse. The peas in the greenhouse are flowering (4-5 plants) and I am hoping to get some pods pretty soon.
For more information on growing hops, go to: http://www.growinghopsyourself.com/ also do some searching around. I am planning on doing some research on the benefits of hops, if there are.
English Vintner
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