My First Honey.

Maybe not technically mine, the hive had been given to me but the honey was from the 3-4 years prior to my getting it.  But, my hive, my honey!  I'm going with that. 
The honey was very dark and not sure what it is from but a mix of everything that has blossomed over the last few years I suppose.  It tastes OK. 

When I first saw it I thought by the dark colour that it might be Jarrah and it probably has some in there but it's not as strong flavoured as the pure Jarrah that is my favorite.

I ended up with 5kilo of this honey.  The bigger bucket was given to the bloke that gave me the hive and he will get a few more as he asks for it.  The deal was he gives me the hive and I give him half the honey that was in there but we will give him what he wants until he moves away.

This first honey was extracted by carefully scraping the frames, they were not in good condition, draining out as much honey as would come then crushing everything and straining it through a strainer and some netting over a bucket.

 This was then strained again into another bucket.

All too hard and time consumer according to husband so the next lot will be extracted using the new extractor that he bought for me.

Getting My Hive.

The day had come, husband was home and we were off to get my hive.  I wore a pair of his overalls, an old bee hat of his with 2, yes 2, nets over that.    He gave me a pair of gloves too so I was well covered. 

 This is the hive, a 2 decker and in such bad condition that when husband saw it close up he was a tad concerned about moving it.  It actually wasn't that old, a few years, but it hadn't had anything done with it since this bloke set it up here in his paddock.  The boxes are smaller than what I consider normal hive size.  I have been told that these are WSP size.  They are 10 frame boxes.

 
Up close to this hive it was easy to see that there was woodrot, or something, affecting the boxes and when husband tried taking the lid off the box did break.  The box was so full and stuck together that when he pried a frame out the box broke some more.
Our first plan was to take some of the frames from this top box and put them into another box so we could take this box of frames home but because of the state of the hive it was too big of a job.
It was just as well that we had spend the day before putting together new boxes and frames because we needed them to replace this.   It needed  lot of work

This is husband, looking at the box and deciding what to do with it.  There is a hole in the bottom box too, the whole hive is rotten.

Finally he gets the lid off, it was stuck tight.  He needed to scrape it off to be able to get the lid back on.

The excluder wasn't sitting flat because the hive was so full.   Notice where it is rotten and breaking up.  Notice too how he isn't wearing gloves.  He doesn't like working in them and does get stung.

We were going to take the top box and replace it with a new one and pick it up an a couple of days but because it needed so much work we decided to come back that evening and pick it up so we could work on it at home.  We did leave another box in it's place so any straggler bees would have somewhere to go when they came back and found there home gone.  We picked that up early the next morning and added them to the original box.

Home and in place.

This original top box broke, it is rotten all the way through and needed to be replaced.

The bottom box has similar issues but is still being used at the moment as it is full of brood, and the queen, and needs work.  A new top box replaces this one.  We have a new box ready to replace the brood box as the husband works on getting the whole hive in order.

March Mulchness.

We're midway through March and the gardens are nearly bare.  We can pick Capsicum, Tomatoes and Zucchini.  One little chook keeps escaping and that has eaten all the Lettuce and Silverbeet.  A different chook to the last escapee.   There is Sweet Potato and normal Potato if I want to go did them up.   Eggplant if we get desperate.  I had to buy a Lettuce yesterday because husband wanted Tacos for tea.  Bad foodgrower, I need a slap.
The grapes are just about finished, we have had 3 small watermelons and there are a few left, nearly ready to pick. The Granny Smith apples are still OK though the parrots have had a lot of those, what is left out there next week will be picked and brought in.   The chooks are not laying enough to make it worth keeping them.  It's all a bit sad. 

But!  I have Luffa.  Quite a lot of Luffas and that makes me smile whenever I go out there and see them.  I don't know what I am supposed to do with them yet, I will need to research that but Luffas.  How cool is that.   Daughter has bought these from markets and uses them in her shower and for washing her dishes so if I can get them to that stage we will all be pleased.  There are big ones, smaller ones, small ones coming on, heaps of flowers that the bees seem to love...It's all good there.

Soon there will be Chokos and that will make me smile too.

I also have mulch.  Or stuff that I will use as mulch.  There is a lot of it.  Too much?  Maybe.  But probably not.  You can never have too much mulch can you?  The bloke up the road had rolls of silage in his paddock.  It was old when he got it and in the 2 years that it has been sitting in his paddock it has started falling apart.  His sheep wouldn't eat it and he needed to get rid of it.  I offered to take some of it off his hands.  Another friend offered to bring it down for me, using his tractor.  Bonus.  They brought it down and dropped one bale over the fence into the chookpen. 

The rest was dumped outside the fence in the verge.  Bugger, now what do I do with it.  Because there is a lot.  Too much even.  I spent a day and a bit getting one roll pulled apart and wheelbarrowed out the back and onto the gardens.  The silage was wet so was very heavy.  I then spent a couple of days cursing myself for not getting them to drop it all over the fence.

Then these people came to visit me and I may have moaned a bit about it all.  He brought his tractor back and most of these are now over the fence and in the chookpen.  Two of them are out the back waiting to be pulled apart and spread out under some trees.    Thank you SO MUCH C and T.  I appreciate you doing that for me.
I have a bit of a problem in that the first roll that I put on the tank gardens was full of slaters...so now the tank gardens are full of slaters.  HoHum...Something else to work on.  I need to pull the other rolls apart so the chooks can get the bleedin' slaters that are in them.  Only 6 rolls and if I manage 1 a week...I'm hoping they'll all be done by Spring.

My Hive. My Apiary.

I now have an apiary.  It consists of 1 hive.    I have registered and that makes me a registered beekeeper.  With 1 hive.  How funny is that.   Pretty cool though, aye.

To Bee or not To Bee

Husband works with a beekeeper.  It is hard work and he gets stung many times every day that he works.    He has been stung so many times but it still bothers him.  They fly near me and I run and squeal...like the SookyLaLa that I am.  No wonder he shook his head and laughed when I said I might get myself a hive.

But some things are meant to bee, haha, and I have been offered a hive, just one but I said to husband that I would do all the work with it myself.  More head shaking and funny noises.

We have been to look at it and it is chockers, the bees look OK, they weren't aggressive.  The bloke giving it to me hasn't worked it for a long time, he is not well, his house is for sale and he wants to travel...He has extra frames and a few boxes he says I can have too.  How nice of him so I told him that he can have the first lot of honey I get from it.  I have found a spot to put it and have cleared that so it is ready as soon as husband has time to pick it up for me.

Another thing to show me that I am supposed to get this hive is that the husband is working in the area and coming home every night.  Earlier this week he brought home the *dogs vomit* which is what they call the scrapings from the nukes they do.   A couple of buckets of smooshed up wax and honey.    I rang the boss and asked, pretty please, if I could have it.  He said I could so I pushed my luck and asked if I could have it all the time when they are working this area.  It's only for a month or so a year and there wont be a lot, maybe a few buckets full.    They do put it through the plant but when husband works by himself doing the nukes it's easier for him to bring it home here.  My *processing* it actually saves it having to be stored here and taken to Perth sometime.

I reckoned it would be a good opportunity to see if I could handle bees flying around me and the stickiness and mess that goes along with the job.

I must admit that the husband set up the buckets to drain into a second bucket.  He also squished all the wax to get the honey to come out.  It had live bees in it and I didn't like having to squash them but because they were covered in the honey they wouldn't have lived anyway, they were damaged and struggling to move.  It's not nice though so shows that it will be important to keep everything covered and away from bees flying in.  And they do fly in. 

And what better than filling up a jar to take home with you.  Or fresh honey on bread for a quick snack.

Hundreds of bees are hanging around the shed still but that is because there are hives in there that need to go back to the processing plant in Perth.   I will have to walk through these bees for another few days, until the hives are gone and the shed has been cleared of honey and wax smells.   I haven't been stung yet, I am wearing shoes when over that way but no bee gear, no overalls or bee hat and net.  Like I keep being told, the bees aren't wanting us, they want the honey they can smell.




We used an old deep fryer to melt the wax.  We half filled it with water then put some now emptied and washed wax in, brought it to the boil, turned it down a bit while we used a bit of mesh to scoop off all the cruddy stuff from the top.




Husband cut some cans down and we scooped the wax from the top to make 5 of these.  The next lot I did by myself, alone, with no help...my wax is nowhere near as clean and I need to remelt it and do it again.
HoHummm.

I don't know what I will use this for yet.  I have some wick and will make a few candles but we don't use candles so don't need a lot.  I'll probably just bag it up and leave for the mice to eat but I hope not.  I hope I put it away properly and use it so it's not wasted.

There are beauty products that can be made with this, or furniture polish...I use neither so don't know if I will try that at all.  Do you use wax like this for anything?  Do you have a hive and collect your own honey?  Tell me it's a great thing to do and I will learn to not mind the stings too much...

Why am I so slack lately with posting here.  Maybe because I am so busy out there *doing* that I just haven't the time...I wish!  No, it's my usual reason, I'm too lazy and just can't be fagged.  I'm pretty sure I have been busy though...I just can seem to see any results from it.  Most of the gardens have been trimmed, weeded, cleaned up but they are still messy looking, not at all like I see other peoples.  The grass needs mowing again but I think I will get on top of that by next week.  If I don't start the painting that I want to get done.    The inside...well lets not go there, that will never be the way I want it to be, again, because I am too lazy.  And too tight to spend money on getting it fixed up so it would be easier to tidy and clean.  Choices.  Sometimes the choices I make aren't the best for how I think I want things to be...But they work for how things are.

I have had heaps of cucumbers and zuchinnis this month.  I have blended a lot of the zukes with capsicum, onion and chilli and frozen it for soups during Winter.  A batch of Bread and Butter Pickles has been made though I am one jar down.  And after 3 washes there are still sticky bits on the floor.  I like the idea of using glass jars and getting rid of all my plastics but when this happens I wonder why I didn't use the Peanut Paste jars instead.

I have powdery mildew on some of the zuchinnis and have pulled up a couple of too sick cucumber plants because of it but after cutting off the worse looking leaves and giving everything a dose of Molassas they have started fruiting again.  Hubby wonders why I bothered, he says I should have pulled them all up.  Ha, not likely fella, you will eat them again.

Speaking of husband.  He is still working in the area so I am still needing to make lunch for him every day and have a halfway decent cooked meal for him at night.  This good wifey thing is hard work.  Last night he brought back some *scrapings*  If I get around to doing them myself I will write about them.  It is the wax that has been scraped from the hives.  I need to strain it to get the honey out, smoosh it down and strain it again and then somehow get the wax seperated and cleaned.    I was hoping to do that today but haven't started yet so will ask for instructions again tonight and do it early tomorrow before the bees start hanging around.  I need to get used to the bees though as I have been given a hive from the bloke up the road.  It is chokkers so Husband will pick it up for me but I need to get a spot ready to put it and learn how to look after it myself.  Doesn't seem right when he is the beekepper but that's how it is.  Again, have I made the right choice or should I have said no to it.  I will give it a go, I think it will be cool to eat honey I have done everything myself for.  

I came in for lunch, didn't realise it was so late so will have something then a coffee then back out for some mowing and more weeding and mulching before I call it a day and have a shower and start inside.  




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Draughts, Checkers, TicTacToe, Noughts and Crosses

Call them what you will but I think they are great games.  Easy to play even if you don't have a bought board.  TicTacToe can be played in the dirt with a stick, use paper and pencil or a board with the noughts and crosses or different coloured *pieces*

I haven't played these games for a long time but recently thought that they would be good games to teach the grandkid.  We don't have a board in the house here though so how could I teach her Draughts/Checkers...I know.  I'd make the game, using whatever I had around here.
What did I have around here?  ummm, Some lids from husbands Coke habit, cardboard box, a no longer needed wooden lid...

First off I had to choose my weapon.  OK, not a weapon but a saw to use.  So many and I had no idea which would be best so tried a few and decided on a pretty red one.

I smashed the handle off the lid with a small hammer, cut the edge off the board to square it up, found some sandpaper and made it smooth and clean.

Get the lids to make sure that the board was the right size.  I seem to have plenty of red ones but will need to look for some other colours as I need 12 of each.

I found a spraycan of silver paint so decided that I wanted a silver board.  A couple of coats of paint, measure up so I have 9  squares and there you, or in this case I, have it.  A TicTakToe board.  And as you can see below, I beat myself so I won.

 The draughts side was harder, I had to use my brain and work out how big the squares needed to be to fit in 64 same size ones.   Managed that and used a permanent marker to draw them in.

I was going to colour the squares in with a marker but couldn't find the thick one I wanted so thought that paint would work just as well even if it did mean a bit more work. I found some black paint but not the foam brush I wanted.  Husband suggested a stamp and made me one from a potato.  It worked OK so with using that and a small brush I  now have a finished game-board.  I have since found the foam brush, hohumm, not sure why I don't put things away where they go.

It's a long way from being perfect.  A long way from being good but it will do what I want it to and it is finished and usable.  If I waited for perfect the grandkid would have a job and could buy one. 

I have a black drawstring bag that I got from the free market and this board and all the pieces fit in that.  The bigger board that I intend making will also fit as will the chess pieces so that free bag that I was unsure what to use for will be a bargain buy for sure.

I have an idea on making the chess pieces so might work on those over the next month or so.  I'm going to make a bigger board as well, one that will use lids from milk bottles.  It saves stuff from the rubbish, gives me something to do and will keep me off the streets.

January.

Was wondering what has been happening over the last few weeks and as usual was having trouble remembering.  Seeing as this blog is my diary I will try and remember and record.  I should write things down as they happen but I don't do that often enough.

January.

Camera.  I have an older camera, nothing flash.  It uses an sd card and when they are full I put it away and buy a new one.  Went to our post-office to get one and they sold me what looked like the right thing.  It cost twice as much as the last one I bought there but she assured me it was right.  I put it in my camera but it didn't work.  Turns out it's an sdhc, or some such thing, not an sd..  It works in daughters camera though so I borrowed that.  We go down to Margaret River, I take photos...My card reader doesn't recognise this card so I cannot upload them to the computer.  Bugger!   I go over to Mandurah to get the right one for my camera but everyone tells me that they no longer make that and they don't sell them.  I buy a new camera, one that will take the new cards. It seems that I also need a new card reader so that I can upload photos easily so I buy one of those too.  My card in daughters camera fits the new camera.  Somehow though, after putting the card in the new camera all the photos are wiped off.   Not sure what happened or what we did wrong there but all the photos of Nannup Free Markets and our MR trip are gone.  Bit sad about that but I see it as meaning that we need to go again.
But!  After buying the new camera, as I was coming out of the shop another customer comes up to me and says that Camera House sells the older card, the one that I wanted in the first place.  I wander over to CH and buy 2 cards that fit my older camera.    And...the new card reader is only small but doesn't fit the usb port in the front of the computer so I can't use it so any photos taken with new camera are still stuck on that card.  I've been told that it should fit in the back but as that is too awkward to get to I  haven't tried it yet.  Why does technology have to be so complicated.

Hero Husband.
On the 12th, or thereabouts, we went down to Nannup to the first Really Really Free Market for that town..  It was good and 1 woman had put some of her things on the wooden seat there.  I went over to have a look, notice something on the ground under but behind...put my arm through to pick it up...I couldn't get my arm out.  I was stuck.  Forever.  I am useless at times like these because any little sense that I have just goes and I start to panic.  Of course the more I panic the less I am able to think.  I tried getting my arm out, even dropped whatever it was I had picked up, but it was stuck.  My fat arm was stuck between the seat and the backrest.  And I was stuck.  Forever.  Of course there were other people around but no-one close so I called out that I needed help.  Daughter heard first and came running from the garden, husband jumped the fence and they get to me around the same time.  I am nearly in tears.  Because I am stuck.  Forever.  Husband pushes down on the seat and daughter helps me get my arm out.  Phew, so not forever but that was a loong 2 minutes.
Same day, after the markets, we get directions to a dam just out of town and plan on going for a swim before coming home.   Husband finds the place, parks, we get out of the car. There is no-one else there and it looks like a lovely spot.  I take a few photos then go back to the car and leave the camera and get a towel, down to the jetty, drop the towel, dive in.  Ouch I say as I come up and tell husband that I misjudged the distance and smacked myself in the head with the water.  Swim, swim, swim, it was lovely.  Swim to the ladder, climb out, get dry, go to get my glasses and...can't find them.  Seems it wasn't the water smacking me in the head but my glasses.  My $1000 glasses.  That are now somewhere at the bottom of this dam.  I am nearly in tears, my phone rings and I am talking to a daughter, just about crying and telling her how these ones cost so much and took nearly 2 weeks to be ready...I have no idea how I will manage 2 weeks without them.  No reading, driving, watching tv, seeing much at all.  Husband calls out and is holding something up.  He had walked into the mud and felt around with his feet until he found them.  My hero.

Free Markets.  Went to these in Waroona again.  I really like the idea of these and though I am too selfish to get too involved I do help out a bit on the day.   I need to get serious about getting rid of some stuff from here though, we have too much for our little house and it makes it hard to tidy and clean. 

Crabs.  We have had a couple of feeds of crabs.  A benefit of Summertime.  The crabber people have been out in the boat and caught their limit.  Husband cleans our share and lets me have some even though I don't catch, cook or clean.  Isn't he lovely.  He is talking about going out again so hopefully we'll soon have some more.

Fish.  Netting season has started up again so if husband is home on a Wednesday he goes out and gets us a feed or two of fish.  Mainly mullet but these are an oily fish and very good eating.  Good for you too so double points to him for this.

Australia Day.  On the 26th we went to a party around the corner.  It was at friends house but they invited people from the whole block, most who we didn't know.  There were a couple that I know and like, a few that I wouldn't mind seeing again and a couple that I wouldn't worry too much if I never saw them again.  So many different personalities but I think if you have a dodgy one to start with then you shouldn't drink too much and make it more dodgy.  Just saying...

Roadkill. At this block party around the corner last week a few people from that area were saying how bad the foxes were.  It just so happened that the next day I found a dead rabbit on the road just up from our place so I set the foxtrap up with it.   It was a fresh kill so wasn't too bad to pick up and wire into the trap but isn't quite so fresh now.  If a fox doesn't take it soon it's going to be very stinky down the back of the dam area.

 Luffas.

 And look what I have.  I have been trying to grow these for a couple of years now but it seems they grow better if you actually put some seeds in the ground and water them.  Who knew!  I have lots of pretty yellow flowers now and there are a few small Luffa as well.  I hope I get them to maturity as using homegrown and processed myself luffa will be the height of coolness.













February. 
KaBooom!  Yesterday I was sitting here quietly, husband was sitting over there watching TV when suddenly there was an almighty explosion. Made me jump, bigtime.   I looked at him, he looked at me, we both looked at the mess on the floor, walls and ceiling.  He drinks coke, 2 litre bottles that he likes it cold so puts them in the freezer to get icy.  Only last week he was saying that he didn't like the new lids on these bottles as they didn't seal properly, they leaked, he didn't like them.  Yesterday proved his point.  The ceiling will never be the same and it's just as well we're going to replace it but until we do the coke splatters that he missed cleaning off will add to the other cruddy marks up there.  I rang Coke, left a message but will do so again tomorrow during office hours. 

Gardens. 

The gardens are looking good.  Full of food.  Fruit last month and this one too was/will be mainly apples and grapes but there are a few strawberries as well.
Plenty of cucumbers, zucchini, capsicum.  This is the last of the onions until the next lot are ready.  There are still potatoes, sweet potato, not many tomatoes but enough.  Lots of lettuce.  I have 1 carrot left out there.



This is some of the tank gardens out the back and to the right is grapes growing over the pig pen.  These are the main ones that are ready now.  Two other varieties are finished and we have some Red Globe that aren't quite ripe yet.

Farmers Markets.  We have these in our town but until this morning I hadn't been up to see what they were like..  Not sure that I will go again, they weren't very big though both husband and myself bought a couple of things.   The thing is if we, the people of the town, don't support them then they may shut down...but if they are small with not a lot of stalls then the people wont go back.  It's probably a problem that a lot of small towns would have.  I am always clearing out stuff to take to the Free Markets but maybe I could have a stall at these first.  It might bring in a bit of pocket money and it would be a way of adding to these.  It's something that I will look into.


It's hot again this week and as usual there is so much to do but I am not out there doing it...because it is hot...  I have been doing a bit, jobs like mowing, mulching, cleaning out chooksheds.  It seems that outside jobs are like housework,  You do it and the next day it needs doing again.  I sometimes whinge about it all but it keeps me off the streets.

Garden Update.

Daughter T came out this morning and I offered her a zucchini.  And a cucumber...she said she had some...THAT SHE HAD BOUGHT!!!  When asked why she was buying what I had a fridge full of she said that she didn't know that I had any because it wasn't here on this blog and maybe it was time to do an update. 

So, I am picking zucchini and cucumbers.  Capsicum, assorted lettuce, silverbeet, tomatoes but not many.  Heaps of comphrey that I add to my smoothies, mainly for the iron but also all the other good vitamins and minerals.  There are potatoes and sweet potatoes out there for when I feel like digging a couple up.  Still have onions but not enough.   Picked all the garlic a few weeks ago, it is small and there isn't a lot but enough for us as we don't use it much.
The spinach grew 6inches, went to seed and died so I need to get more in sometime soon but will go with seeds from here from last year and see if they do better. 
There are a few eggplant that I don't eat so need to give them to someone or learn how to use them.  I have added a couple to smoothies but I tend to forget that they are out there.
Strawberries, grapes, passionfruit and apples.

Lunches this week should be green salads with eggs or fish and teas can be assorted veg with fish or rooster meat but in reality they will be whatever I feel like when I get hungry so I need to make a big bowl of salad today that I can dig into over the next week and I will also make a big quiche as that too is an easy thing to have handy in the fridge.

If I could kill chooks then an old Isa would be in the pot for tea as the bleedin' thing is out again.   I don't know how it gets out, it's wing is clipped, there is plenty of food in it's pen...It keeps scratching up the gardens so I need to fix it before it gets our food.  This time I will put it in a different pen and if it gets out of that I will try something else.  My gardens are worth more to me that this old chook.