The first frost of 2014 at the homestead and the farm was on September 11, 2014. We had a bit of snow at the homestead which is at a higher altitude than the farm which is on the plains east of Denver.
Think it is time to dig the potatoes and get ready for fall leaf collection! I hope to cover the farm in leaves. A dump trailer would help speed up that process.
On Wednesday I finished the digging portion of the swale for the 2014 food forest. I added some more organic matter that I found in our neighborhood including: grass clippings, aspen limbs and even some worms.
This first photo shows the organic matter that makes up the woody core of the swale mound.
Here are some photos after the digging.
I dug this half of the swale with a skid steer with a straight edge bucket. The other half was dug with an excavator with teeth on the bucket.
Having dug Swales with an excavator and a skid steer I found the skid steer to be quicker. I do wish the skid steer had teeth on the bucket so I could rough up the soil. The skid steer has a five or six foot bucket making it really quick to dig this swale. I’m sure a large excavator with an experienced operator would be quicker than I was on the excavator I rented.
Seeing a hawk eating one of the chickens made me realize the chickens always need to be enclosed. This is my first method which is taking the fence and laying it over so as the tops touch to form a triangle. I covered the end where the top is open with wiring along with the opening by the door to their pen.
I’m thinking about making some wooden triangles to replace the metal fence posts which the metal fence lays on. Thinking it wold make it quicker to move the run to fresh grass.
I’m also hoping I can cover this with plastic to form a kid of greenhouse for the chickens in the winter.
Today I planted the comfrey I dug up from the past residence over a week ago. I kept it in a rubber storage bin with some dirt and water. Some of the larger crowns started producing new leaves since they were cut and dug up.
The blocking varieties of comfrey can only be propagated from root cuttings. Thus I cut some of the roots and divided some of the crowns.
I cleared a while section of the garden thinking I was going to plant the comfrey there them I remembered that removing Comfrey can be difficult and there is already some in the garden so I decided to use some space just outside the garden. I think we will have enough nocking 4 comfrey and surely common comfrey to sell some next year.
Last week when I was headed on a road trip to Lincoln Nebraska I thought it was a good time to spread some of the Common Comfrey seeds that are on my property.
The road we take next to the interstate has some bare areas so I’m hoping the comfrey will establish near there. I threw seeds out the window as I drove by. I also took some seeds all the way to Lincoln to see if thy would grow there. Time will tell if the seeds grow.
These seeds are very sticky in that they are like Velcro when they touch fabric.
In this climate the comfrey produces seeds and mostly does during the warm months and then starts growing again when it cools off.
The raspberries have been transplanted to the homestead near Castle Rock Colorado.
I dug them up and ha to let them sit for a few days as I was out of town. I dug up about a six foot by 3 foot area that grew from two plants that were planted maybe two years ago. So I you plant them near a water source like sprinklers for a lawn they will spread quickly.
I planted them along the fence thinking they can grow along it which will prevent me from mowing there.
The shipment of sea minerals showed up yesterday. Today I spread some out at the garden area at The farm. I was told it is best to dissolve it in water and spray it this time of year but it was raining so I threw it out.
The idea is sea water has a good mix of all the minerals. The water is evaporated and the salt removed ,along with another element, and you are left with a lot of minerals.
The plan is to first use them on the Swales and plants we planted to help the nutrient density then on the grass areas.
They recommend a 200 gallon tank to mix and spray from. I doubt I get anything g that large unless I can borrow or rent one.
Mixing a sea mineral solution with biochar sounds like a winning solution. Adding molasses and microbes and maybe some comfrey or compost tea should help as well.
Check the search engines and youtube for sea mineral information. Sounded like a great fertilizer to me.
Just a few days ago I thought I should order some plantain. Probably because of the mosquitos that like me. When I saw photos of it I went out side because I swore I saw some growing.
Looks like I have some at the new homestead. Anyone think this is not Narrow Leaf Plantain?
The long leaf with lines running down it
The flower (made me rather certain that it is plantain)
The long leaf plantain plant.
Other updates –
Hazel Nut Bushes
I noticed how dry the soil was around the hazel nuts that were planted this year so I added them to the drip irrigation of the 2013 food forest. Since I premade the 1/4 inch micro tubing pieces with dripper and connector the process for 20 plus bushes went rather quickly. Both at the farm and the home stead I’ve been surprised by seeing plants that are totally leafed out drop all their leaves. I then think they are dead only to find a new shoot coming up most of the time. The “champion” plant at the home stead was about 18 inches tall and died back to the ground and has a new stem coming up now.
Bees
The bee hive now has a ‘honey super’ on it. I was told that once the bees fill in a second box that I could put a honey super on the hive for a while. The honey super is for honey for us. To get only honey on these smaller frames I put a queen excluder in between the top box and the super. I think I’m supposed to remove it by the end of the month to make sure the bees have plenty of honey for the winter. I’m tempted to buy some hives with bees for the farm. Originally I didn’t think there would be enough flowers out here for them but now that I see all the flowers I realize they would do great out here. So at some level I see the farm producing honey. Oh seeing pallets of bees in an empty field the other day gave me even more confidence in having bees at the farm.
Condensation
I was a bit surprised to see so much condensation at the home stead a few mornings in a row. As I learned in the Permaculture PDC, condensation can add a significant amount to total condensation for an area. These berry leaves has the water droplets around the edges.
Sun Flowers
The sun flowers are in full bloom. Bumblebees, small bees and some other kind of bugs are enjoying them.
Other Flowers
Other flower seeds were also thrown on the swales along with some vegetables.
Goji berries at RegenFarms. Mature but small goji bare root plants were planted this spring and this one is already producing fruit. Probably 10 so far.
Vegetable on the food forest swale, we seeded the swale with some vegetables as well as clovers, wild flowers and sunflowers.
And I now know what a split head of cabbage looks like.
I found some more wood for the other half of the 2014 swale that is above the 2nd food forest. Hopefully I can get about twice this much before covering it up as it becomes part of the swale.
Yesterday the 10th of August I added a honey super to the bee hive. The honey super is used to collect honey. It should only have honey placed inside of it because the queen been can not get to it since I added a queen excluder between the honey super and the hive.
I only put five frames inside the honey super instead of all ten. Was this a mistake? Would the bees like it better if it was all filled in with 10 frames instead of 5? I’m not sure.
I added the honey super after seeing that the bees had filled most all of the 2nd hive box I added a few weeks ago. I was told that the bees fill the outside frames last so I pulled one of those out to make sure they had filled it. It looked filled to me!
This morning I headed downstairs to get the camera I used to film the adding of the honey super and I found a bee on top of the bee hive separator piece I removed. Then I moved my bee veil thinking I’d put it on and take the bee back to the hive when I discovered another bee. I’m not sure how to tell how old a bee is but one looked rather small and neither of them flew. I’m assuming they were young. So I took them out side on top of the veil. By this time they had made contact with each other. I sat them by the hive. When I came back several minutes later I realized they were still there so I placed them inside the honey super so as they are back in the hive.
Here is a great BBC special on bees. I learned a lot like how bees have different jobs as they age with gathering nectar and pollen being their last job.
The bees are now on a stand. Seeing ants in the hive was the driving force for getting the stand. I have the legs in cartons so I can put oil in them to keep the ants out. The ants definitely discovered the sugar water and maybe the honey.
I also read about sprinkling ground cinnamon on the ground around the hive so I did that ad well.
I need to upload the video because I caught my first sting on video. I returned with more layers and done smoke. The bees were a bit upset when I separated the hive. Hopefully they are happier now with a raised hive and new sugar water.
I was told that I can put a honey box on top once the two boxes are full. So I have one but the new top box is not yet full. Reasoning is the bees can only maintain two boxes during the winter and I’ll have to provide some supplemental heat as well.
When I add the honey box I’ll be adding a queen excluder to keep her out of there.