Blueberries. . .

Picked 15 lbs of berries at a local U-pick/Orchard, it was a good time with good friends and the kids.

Now to get to work. . .
These bad boys will be frozen, made into jam, and eaten fresh.

Where'd June Go?

Whew! I dunno about you guys, but June flew by for us! All kinds of good stuff.

I've gotten my bees settled in their new apartment. They are industrious little beings! In less than 4 months, they've filled 2 deep supers with brood (baby bees) and honey! This morning I went out to check on them and decided I'd better put a medium super on or else they'll run out of room fast and swarm.

I've gone from this:

The original hive boxes that were in baaad shape.

Fast workers!

The Queen Bee (the long one in the middle of the picture)

 To this in just a few months:

All moved in!

 I plan on harvesting honey in the spring. Commercial beekeepers, and many backyard beekeepers, harvest honey in the fall, after the bees have had all summer to gather pollen and build up their honey stores for the winter. Only, that's the problem - the bees work all summer to gather food to get them through the winter. If the honey is harvested in the fall, there's no way to predict how much food the bees will need to get through the cold weather, especially since there's no way to predict how hard of a winter we may have that year. That means that the beekeeper has to feed the bees all winter, usually with sugarwater - an artificial food source. Just like with people, when bees eat junkfood they aren't as healthy and can't fight off illnesses as well. Many bee experts believe that this is why there is a huge honeybee shortage - fairly new (and by new I mean within the last 50 years or so) diseases coupled with beekeeping practices that are hard on the bees, means that the bees aren't thriving as well.

So the plan is to follow the traditional route and harvest honey in the spring once the pollen starts flowing again. The bees have a fresh food source, any honey that is harvested is surplus that the bees can quickly replace, and I hopefully won't have to feed my bees through the winter. This will help keep my bees healthier as well and hopefully I won't have to deal with common bee problems as much either. 

Sounds good in my head, anyway.

I also hit my first goat show showing my own goats last weekend! I've gone to one other show back in May, but I was using my goat buddy, Jennifer's goats. Jennifer is who I bought Baerli and her mom, Paprika off of back in 2011. (Check out her site here: http://www.edgewoodlakefarm.com/) She's become a good goat buddy and mentor of mine.
So, last weekend we loaded up some girls and a friend of Jennifer's who shows goats in 4-H and headed about an hour away to Elnora, IN.
First up was Bri, one of my newer does. She's what we call a French Alpine, she's a purebred alpine who's lineage can be traced all the way back to goats that were originally imported from France. She's a 2 year old, first-freshener (meaning that this spring was the first time that she has kidded, and boy did she! She had triplet bucks!). She started out giving me 10 lbs (1.25 gallons) of milk a day at just 2 weeks post kidding!
Bri didn't do so hot. . . she placed 5th out of 5 goats in the class, but I knew that we weren't going to do fantastic. Not sure what her problem is right now, but she's not eating quite so much, she's lost weight and her milk production has dropped off. My hunch is that she misses her buddy Piper who went with Jennifer. Since I've gotten her home, she's done much better and her milk production is coming back. I just need to get her condition back up and we'll be in good shape. Just gotta work out some kinks, but I'm still in the learning curve.

Yea that's us (at the end of the line. . .)

This show was to be about learning, and learn we did!

Next up was Miss Kay. I was a little more excited about showing her because she's developed quite nicely and she was looking good.

Lookin' good Miss Kay!

Apparently the judge thought so too b/c she won her class! Then we went back in for the Grand Champion Junior Alpine and she won AGAIN!! I couldn't believe it! I was pretty stoked when she won her class. This was the first show that she'd been to! But then when the judge picked her for Grand I nearly cried!

But alas, all of my ups usually have a minor downer to them. . .

See, when your goat wins at a show - the judge checks the tattoos in her ears to make sure that they match what it says that her tattoos are on her registration papers to make sure that it is indeed the same goat. Goat people for the most part are good folks, but you still get some bad apples that will try to pull stunts. Well, Miss Kay wasn't very cooperative when I tattooed her and part of her tattoo didn't set in right and had faded so the judge couldn't for certain verify that it was the right goat. Now, I still got to keep the ribbon (and little cash prize), but that meant that she couldn't get her dry leg. 

"What's a 'dry leg'?"

When you show dairy goats, and your goat wins Grand Champion - they get a 'leg'. When your goat does this 4 times, she becomes a permanent champion and you get to put it on her registration papers, signifying to others that this is a doe that consistently does well in the show ring - she's a champion. You can get one of these "legs" when the doe is still a junior - meaning that she hasn't freshened (had kids) yet. So Miss Kay didn't earn hers. :( Mega pouty face.

BUT! I did not throw a fit, I was a very good sport about it if I do say so myself. I shook the judge's hand and smiled and said "Thank you". Because that's what a good sportsman does. I'm an assistant leader for the local 4-H goat club and I have kids and friends to be a role model for.

BUT MISS KAY WON GRAND CHAMPION!!!

I'm SO excited still! This doe came out of my Baerli whom I love dearly - she was one of the first set of triplets ever born on this farm (even when FIL and Hubs were raising goats as kids they never had triplets), and she was the product of a breeding that I planned with some good advice from knowledgeable goat breeders.

When we realized that her tattoo had faded, the judge looked me in the eye and said, "Don't worry about it. Go home, retattoo her so that you can see good and clear, and show her again. I have no doubt that she will win again." Good enough for me! So now to pick out another show to go to. . .

I just re-tattooed her again - and my other doeling born this year, Penelope - and it's loud and clear what her tats are so there will be no mistaking it again. 

 This is the first project that I've come up with on my own, that I have done all the work (with help of course when I come up against something that I don't have the knowledge about or that I physically can't do alone) day in and day out, that I'm passionate about and that I look forward to growing in - that I have succeeded in. In my entire life. This moment right here is why I started this little hobby farm of mine. Not for the ribbon, or 'legs'. . . but to prove to myself that I can do something that I set my mind out to do. I've always known it was there, buried deep down inside. I never had the self-confidence, dedication, or stamina to ever see any of my little pet projects through before. But I did it this time. I got over being a weather wimp and trudged my butt outside through suffocating heat, pouring down rain, bone-chilling cold, an ice storm. . . you name it - 2x a day to feed. I've carried hot water down an icy driveway to thaw a frozen spigot enough to get fresh water. I've dragged myself out to the barn to milk when I was sicker than I've ever been in my entire life. I've learned to wake before the kids (anyone whose known me through my childhood knows that I LOVE my sleep) so that I can get chores done while it's still cool in the morning and I can then concentrate on my children and the day. 

I promised myself that I would not throw the pity party that I did the last time The Husband was deployed. I feel like not only have I survived this one much better ('course we're not outta the woods yet!) but I've thrived. My kids are thriving. And not that we don't need Husband around, we always need him, we always miss him - but seeing my kids happy and healthy is a good foundation for giving us the strength to deal with the stress of having Daddy gone. 

And the best part of all? Three-year-old has decided (all on his own!) that he wants to show goats just like those big kids and his Mommy. <3 <3 <3

The Land of Milk and Honey

I've been trying to come up with a really good opening post for this new blog, but time has not been my friend lately. By the time I get the kids in bed, the milking done, the dishes washed, maybe a quick shower and send off an email to The Husband, it's 11:00 and I'm dog tired. So instead I think maybe I'll try to do shorter, more photo-oriented posts. There's just so much greatness about farm life that can't be touched with words.
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