I am in the front, there is duct tape on my knuckle from a rough spill earlier.
Waynegregg1@gmail.com
5one7-six55-one556
1/21 I used this fish finder to check out depths. I have good 10 to 12 foot spots but didn’t mark fish. I was not out there long and the fish are tight to the bottom, but still concerning.
1/21 I drilled some holes in the pond to put air in the water for the fish. Lack of oxygen in the winter and snapping turtles are my biggest problems keeping fish.
1/21 New straw in the coop. Corn Flakes is in a bad way, he isn’t suffering, but barely moves around and sleeps on the coop floor instead of roosting.
1/21 The animal water tank needed to be filled. I moved it outside for the rabbits, I think they were reluctant to go into the coop. This also forces the chickens to come out too.
1/19 I made these tinctures years ago. I have quarts of these and am getting back to using them daily. I take them under the tongue.
1/18 The “new” rooster takes care of the hens, but doesn’t look around and protect the flock. He runs from me rather than fight. Hopefully he gets better at protecting and alerting everyone from trouble when spring comes.
1/18 My rooster “Corn Flakes” is dying of old age. He lost his spurs a couple of years ago. About six weeks ago he stop crowing, chasing the hens and taking care of his feathers. He also stopped guarding the flock and is one reason I lost a hen to the hawk, he was in the coop. Normally he spots trouble and alerts everyone. He is very old for a rooster. We used to fight each other all the time when he was younger.
1/16 This is the last day of a three day hard fast. I have had nothing but water and coffee for 72 hours. I highly recommend a three or four day fast a couple of times a year.
1/16 Woke up to no water in the house, I had to tap on the well pump solenoid. It only took a couple of minutes to fix. I am going to start looking for a replacement pump at some sale so I have a backup.
1/16 Wild rabbits come into the backyard just before day break and drive my colony bucks crazy.
1/15 A red tailed hawk killed a chicken. I did not shoot it as birds are having a hard time. It happens.
1/13 I completely cleaned all my cast iron pans and seasoned them at 400 for an hour. Only cast iron should be used for cooking, all other pans are unsafe.
1/11 Homemade cornbread, fruit, honey and cinnamon is almost daily meal for me with so much fruit in the freezer. I have not had to go to a doctor or to the hospital since I was born. It’s really quite amazing. Eating quality food is a big reason.
1/10 When heating a home with wood heat, I spend quite of bit of time in the wood room. Restarting the fire is the first thing I do when I get up.
1/8 Splitting wood is good exercise. The many of the logs are 50 to 80 pounds. I like to take advantage of the nice weather when splitting and throwing wood in when it is dry out.
1/6 Giving away eggs to the senior center.
1/4 The ice fishing chainsaw needed to be replaced and I fixed this old saw to use. I took it apart, cleaned the bar oil off everything including the bar oil tank. I made five large holes to test the saw and make sure there was no oil on the water after cutting the hole. It’s ready to go.
1/3 I sold 12 dozen eggs at the auction. My eggs are in the brown box with the flaps open, one of the smallest groups.
1/2 The two rabbits like the cold snowy weather. They have the whole yard to run around in, as the chickens stay right in the coop.
12/29 A strong winter wind knocked out a large limb from the pine tree. It fell on the flag pole.
12/27 The chickens gave me 19 eggs today. I counted + estimate of the next few days, about 4,665 eggs this year.
12/26 The yellow hive was the other hive that died. It’s higher because it was weak and I added sugar to the top. It didn’t matter, the queen died when the hives were treated in August from formic pro.
12/26 Without using formic pro there will be hive loses of 30 to 80+ %.
Formic Pro itself causes about 5- 10 % loss. I treated 21 hives and had 2 hives die.
This is a photo of my hives being treated two years ago with formic pro, the vapors even kills the grass in front of the hive.
12/26 The fumes kill mites, eggs, and brood, resulting in loss of brood pheromones. The bees think the queen is failing and move to replace her, killing her themselves. A strong, well breed queen’s pheromones should be able to handle this for a couple of days. A weak queen for whatever reason can’t, so the thought is these queens would die over the winter anyway.
The queen is the best fed/well cared for bee in the hive.
This squirrel likes to collect nuts, sit on this stump and watch chickens while it eats.
12/23 Vaporizing oxalic acid into the bee hives. This covers everything inside of the hive with crystals. The bees are forced to clean themselves and it hurts the mite’s mouth. Mites don’t really hurt honeybees, but the viruses they bring do. You want to do this on the warmest day, 10 days plus or minus from the winter solstice. The queen should be laying zero eggs and the mites cannot be protected by being in capped cells.
12/23 I put the battery on this dolly to move around to each hive.
12/23 Water, wet rags and gloves are a must for this job.
12/23 The vaporizer is filled full and pressed down no matter the size of the hive. (doubles, singles or nucs)
12/23 The vaporizer is heated by the battery for 2.5 minutes, the vaporizer is left in the hive unheated for 2.5 minutes and then the hive is kept closed with the wet rag for another five minutes.
12/23 If you keep track of the time right with the timer, I can start another hive before the last one is done. It still took three hours.
12/23 Oxalic acid is dangerous and you should were a respirator, but I stand a bit away and upwind.
12/23 I lost this double nuc and one two deep hive. It happens. I will go into winter with 15 double deeps, 2 single deeps and 2 double deep nucs.
12/23 Very warm weather today, so I cleaned the coop.
12/22 Charging the extra battery in the barn, I needed at full charged to vaporize the honeybees tomorrow.
12/22 I fixed the ten dollar garage sale stihl weed whip with a three dollar part.
12/22 Firewood stacked three rows deep. It takes a couple of years of burning wood to know how to keep the temperature just right. You really notice when the weatherperson is off a lot.
12/21 My homemade cornbread using water not milk, aluminum free baking powder, an extra egg (that have extra omega 3 in them) and 2 cups of flax seed for omega -3. I have to freeze it because it has no preservatives. All bread from the store is ultra processed food.
12/20 I took 14 dozen unwashed eggs to the auction.
12/20 I want to buy some ducks or raise some just for the cooking fat next year.
12/18 Taking ashes out, it amazing how little ashes I get compared to the wood put in the stove. Taking the ashes out right away outside really helps with dust. Many people put ashes in a bucket and then take them out, that causes too much dust in the house.
12/17 Filled the basement with wood. I try to do this before a rain or snow so that the wood comes in dry.
12/17 The group of bucks have been coming into the backyard daily.
12/17 With a wood stove there is no thermostat and one of the best ways to adjust the temperature is to open or close the heat ducts in the basement. This house is way too big for just me.
12/17 Filled the water tank and cleaned the chicken coop.
12/17 The water comes from the house with food grade hoses.
12/16 Riding before a rain storm comes and melts the snow.
12/15 Stacking firewood in the basement. When heating with wood there is always something to do and it’s good exercise.
12/13 Woke up to no water in the house and had to go into the well pit to find out why.
12/13 The well pit had power and all I had to do is lightly tap on this switch. It happens when the humidity and temperature is just right in the pit, maybe once or twice a year at the most.
12/12 Four 8/9 point deer came into the yard today.
12/12 These deer should have quality racks next year.
12/12 Bucks group together based on their size this time of year.
12/12 Does are in larger groups based on location.
6/9 Splitting wood and getting it into the basement.
12/8 Feeding turkeys and wild birds. All bird numbers are down.
12/7 This deer has had a rough few weeks. First mom took off and has not come back and likely won’t if she has not by now. Its sibling was hit by a car a couple of weeks ago. It has not joined up with other deer yet and is sleeping right behind the barn lately.
12/2025 I enjoy watching all the wildlife from the kitchen table.
12/5 The chickens don’t even leave the coop on cold days.
12/4 This chainsaw is just for ice fishing. I need to get it ready as it looks like a real ice fishing season. The bag holds rain pants to wear when cutting the hole.
12/3 Getting the wood splitter out.
12/2 Cornbread with flaxseed for the omega-3.
11/2025 Covered all the strawberry rows with 3/4 inches of straw.
11/2025 Started the snowmobile and took it for a ride. This is a nice sled.
11/2025 When the wood stove is running, I dry clothes, in the wood room, on a rack. I will put them in the dryer for a minute to take the wrinkles out.
11/2025 A big storm and cold weather are coming in a couple of days. I like to clean out the wood stove before it comes.
11/2025 This eight point will be a nice deer next year. I am done hunting bucks.
11/2025 Cleaned the chicken coop for winter.
11/2025 One of the water spouts on the water barrel came off and needed repair.
11/2025 I took some roosters and eggs to the auction down the road. I got $17 dollars per rooster and 2.75 per dozen eggs.
11/2025 My eggs are in the paper bag. I got there early and this area will be filled with eggs when the auction starts.
11/2025 They sell everything at the auction, wood to eggs to hay and many animals.
11/2025 Turned off the outside water before freezing weather.
11/2025 Deer Hunting.
11/2025 Deer meat is divided into steaks, hamburger or slow cooker.
11/2025 Chickens do the final cleaning of the deer.
11/2025 Deer fat is feed to the birds.
11/8 I am getting almost 20 eggs a day. This two days worth. I wash them to take to the auction.
11/8 I took 11 dozen eggs to the auction. There will be a couple of hundred dozen eggs at the auction.
11/7 #1 Michigan State vs #3 Penn State in hockey. It was a great game with many moments that got people out of their seats. Michigan State won 2-1 in overtime the winning goal was right in front of my seats. #72 for Penn State will be the #1 draft pick next year in the NHL draft. Many many talented players in this game.
11/7 I love the game. I would only play again if Alex or Nate played. I do want to go to open skate more often.
11/6 Hunted two spots for over 12 hours today and saw two flocks of turkeys. I saw about a dozen deer, but they did not come close or were not what I was looking for.
11/6 All hunting gear is kept outside on the picnic table when I am not hunting, to keep house/human smells away.
11/5 Cleaned the gutters of leaves with a leaf blower. It does a good job and prevents many problems.
11/5 Took the camper off the truck.
11/4 I covered the fig tree with straw for the winter. Fig trees are very hard to grow this far north and get fruit.
11/3 I cut all the meat from the deer and filled a six gallon bucket.
11/3 Today’s hunting location. I have taken at least 10 deer at this spot over the years.
11/2 This is some of the lures that have been added this year to my musky lure collection.
11/1 The wood stove started making loud noises from the fan motors.
11/1 I had to take the return air duct work off to get to the motors. I completely cleaned the duct.
11/1 This stove has two fans and can heat the house with only one working.
11/1 One of the motors went bad and the other motor needed the fan adjusted.
11/1 There was two spare new motors in the basement. The spare motors have been in the basement for at least 20 years, the motors last a long time. This is the old motor.
11/1 I got everything working again. I really like how the wood stove hooks up to the regular furnace. It uses the return air ducts for input into the wood stove.
10/31 I put three to four inches of peat moss around the blueberry plants to get the soil ph right for them.
10/31 I collected 17 eggs today as more leghorns start laying even with the declining daylight.
10/31 I watched some turkeys come to the pond.
10/30 Good luck today.
10/30 Taped the bottom of the hive wraps. It is too hard to tape the bottom when putting the wrap and hive hats on as they are on guard and stirred up. I got stung three times without any protective gear on.
10/30 Homemade bone broth.
10/29 This homemade buck lure will stop a buck every time for a few weeks.
10/28 There is a skunk around the house and they have been pulling the entrance reducer out of the nucs to reach in and eat bees.
10/28 Its important to be sited in at a number of distances.
10/27 Feeding the rabbits. With only two rabbits, this container and a big arm full of hay lasts along time, weeks. They will start eating more with cold weather consuming more feed.
10/26 Filled the water tank inside the chicken coop as it is getting colder. The barrel need to be on blocks because the coop floor gets high from all the straw and manure over the winter.
10/26 I put a water tank heater in the barrel and it keeps it unfrozen all winter.
10/26 The chickens like a freshly cleaned coop and the eggs are cleaner.
10/25 I went to the Michigan State vs Michigan football game.
10/25 Very good seats for the game, but it was a “dull” game and the most exciting part was the drone show between quarters.
10/24 Taking the chainsaws completely apart to clean and sharpen is important when heating with wood.
10/23 Went to a sale and got a a deer blind that looked like it had never been actually used. At the same sale there was a shelf of Automotive oil and miscellaneous for free. Almost all of this was unopened including the five gallon container of new oil.
10/22 Today’s hunting spot. It is still early.
10/22 Twin deer came into the yard this morning. Their mother has left them to go “dating”. Without supervision they came to this oak tree during the day vs at night with mom.
10/21 Deer like acorns.
10/21 Todays tree stand hunt, waiting and enjoying nature.
10/20 Getting the bee hives ready for winter.
10/20 The bottom entrance is wide open in the summer for the bees to go in and out faster.
10/20 A entrance reducer is installed with the opening up. This helps the hive stay warmer, less wind chill and keeps mice and shrews out.
10/20 Five of the 22 hives do not have enough honey stored for the winter and I add a screened box with newspaper and eight pounds of sugar to them.
10/20 I add a “hive hat” of 2″ foam insulation to the top. It is taped for a good seal. I want the bees to control the temperature and humidity in the hive.
10/20 I wrap reflectix around the hive and tape it shut at the top. Trees that bees normally like have an r value of about 7.5. The hive boxes have an r value of about .75. Natural honeybee trees have about 10 times greater r value than traditional wood hives.
10/18 I purchased this couch on the last day of an estate sale. It is in very good shape and not very old.
10/18 Cleaned out the rain gutters with this leaf blower. It only takes about 20 minutes but prevents many problems.
10/17 After the party ended, I spent some time by myself around the fire. It’s good place to reflect and think about things.
10/17 The party turned out well. I didn’t get many photos. Everyone had a great time and told me so.
10/17 After awhile everyone sat around the campfire. Good friends, good times.
10/16 Sweet peppers are an underrated spice to meals. I freeze them cut, ready and easy to use.
10/15 I got the first white egg from the small white leghorn chickens.
10/14 The front entrance looks so much better without the ramp.
10/13 Deep cleaning the entire house.
10/12 Painted the basement steps, the stairs had worn out the paint in places. It looks much better.
10/2025 Watching the sunrise from a tree stand. I was in the stand well before daylight.
10/11 I putting new lights in the sauna.
10/11 I am having a party Friday and got the grill cleaned and a campfire ready.
10/11 The consignment auction down the road, is always a bit interesting. I did not buy anything. Price are either way too low or way too high in my opinion. Boats sold very cheap and chainsaws went too high.
10/10 Removing an old ramp from the front door. It was old, slipperly and not needed.
10/10 I won this sprayer at an auction. With this many fruit trees and plants a sprayer of this size is needed. Saved at least $100. I need to convert it to a tree sprayer from a lawn sprayer.
10/9 Cornbread, fruit and a spoonful of honey is a almost daily meal with all the fruit in the freezer.
10/8 This was the first day that I started a fire as soon as I got up for heat. Three years in a row on October 8.
10/8 I am adding two cups of flax seed to my cornbread rather than one for the omega 3.
10/7 This is a young monarch and will fly all the way to Mexico. They can be caterpillars up to four times during the summer, the last one has to make the long flight.
10/2025 Deer hunting in a few nice spots in tree stands. Deer hunting is tough right now with many young deer with their mom, hard to shoot them.
10/6 One of the triplets of deer is much, much smaller then the other two and still has white spots that the others have lost.
10/5 Stacking wood in the basement.
10/4 Added more nesting boxes in the chicken coop. The white leghorns and Brahma chickens will be laying eggs soon.
10/4 This barrel needs to be filled every two weeks with 34 chickens and two rabbits.
10/4 Getting the wood stove cleaned and ready for winter.
10/3 This area is in a major drought and the pond is way down. All the animals in the area come here for water, so I put up a temporary blind to watch wildlife and to hunt deer.
10/2 When I hand sharpen this chainsaw, it cuts like a hot knife in butter, even on the biggest of logs.
10/1 Picked up a load of wood, most of this load can go straight into the basement.
10/1 The opening to throw wood in the basement is the exact same size as the door opening to the wood stove. If a log can go into the basement it can fit in the stove.
10/1 There is a large pile of wood that needs to be split.
9/30 Trees do not always fall where I plan them to. This tree pinned the chainsaw to the ground and I had to get another saw to get it out. The chainsaw came out without damage. Years ago I dropped a 15″ tree right on top of this saw with another chainsaw. They build stihl chainsaws with this in mind.
9/30 Replanted about 15 strawberry plants from the 100 started a couple of weeks ago. Strawberries are a fragile plant.
9/30 I try to spend a couple of hours weekly with my aunt Shirley who has dementia.
9/29 Cleaned the chicken coop. The coop is built for about 25-30 chickens and I have 34. The compost from the coop is saved till spring. The good life.
9/28 It was a poor year for raspberries and the yield was about 1/2 of a normal year.
9/27 Picked two different types of pear trees.
9/27 I like to dehydrate pears. They make a wonderful snack. I also picked some Jalapeno peppers to also dry. I like to take dried hot peppers and grind them into a powder to use like salt & black pepper.
9/26 Picked up large logs to split near the house. These big logs will heat the house for a while and is a solid workout loading and unloading.
9/23 I hand sharpen the chainsaws. A shape chainsaw can cut a lot of wood in a few hours. I cut three loads of wood, but only picked up one.
9/21 The drought this year effected the raspberries and grapes hard. They are smaller in size and quantity than usual.
9/20 I put another box of drawn frames on the one remaining nuc. All the nucs are ready for winter in two deeps. I have always kept hives in double/triple regular deeps. It will be interesting how and if they overwinter.
9/20 I have 12 ISA brown chickens and get 12 eggs almost every day.
9/20 The meat chickens can be harvested as needed now. The 10 small white leghorn chickens will start laying large white eggs within a month.
9/19 This water barrel makes taking care of the chickens easy.
9/18 Two of the three light weight bee hives had no queen. I took two nucs with young queens and merged it into the hives. I have to get all the bees into the bottom box, add newspaper and put the nuc frames into the top box. By the time they eat the newspaper away the hive should be happy and work together. I put the empty nucs back where they were and the bees that were out foraging when I combined are confused.
9/16 The sauerkraut is done. I put it into quarts and into the refrigerator.
9/14 Jarred up honey to sell and give as gifts.
9/12 Golfing today. We were the only people walking the course. When I started playing, most people walked now everyone gets a cart.
9/11 I had a couple of fires to burn the spruce tree trimmings and still have more to burn.
9/10 I took out all the mite treatment/chemo from the hives. All of them seem to have made it. I smoke them so hard this time of year they think smoky the bear is at the front door.
9/9 Two spruce trees in the yard have been killed by the spruce beetles. This one is close to the house and needs to be cut down.
9/9 It’s always a little scary cutting down a tree this big this close to the house. It came down exactly where I wanted it to. Only 95% of trees fall were one plans on it landing.
9/9 This tree could hit power lines, the chicken area and a couple of trees. It fell where I wanted it to.
9/7 Early in the morning before many bees are flying, I went behind each hive to lift the back of the hive. The weight of the hive is a indicator of the health of the hive. 15 hives were heavy to very heavy and 3 seemed slightly below normal weight. When I take out the mite treatments, I will look into the lighter hives to see what going on.
9/7 I have three extra queens. The small one box hives will not make it till spring and need to be merged soon with another hive and kill one of the queens.
9/6 Freezing white peach slices. The freezer is full of fruit and hunting season starts soon.
9/5 Melting bee wax to clean it and to put on honeybee frames.
9/4 Planted more rows of strawberry runners. If they all take it will double the number of strawberry plants.
9/3 Cleaning the wood stove chimney. It needs to be done every year and only takes about 45 minutes, including the clean out in the basement.
9/3 Blowing out the rain gutters, before it rains, when it is dry keeps problems away.
9/2 Planted strawberry runners in a row next to the existing row. Strawberry plants produce berries for only a couple of years.
8/31 Red, white and blue picking today.
8/31 Sold six 5 gallon buckets of honey for $200 a bucket. I lowered the price because they purchased six.
8/30 Started to harvest the neglected garden. Sweet peppers, I freeze many of them.
8/30 Red onions.
8/30 Picked the Red Cabbage and made sauerkraut. It takes about a month to make and lasts a year in the refrigerator.
8/29 Michigan State vs Western Michigan. It was kind of a boring game 23-6.
8/28 The fox and what predator birds are left are having to work hard to find food right now.
8/28 I found this paper wasp nest on my travels today. They feed on caterpillars including monarch caterpillars.
8/27 Pear trees, like peach trees, tend to over produce on long fast growing branches. I supported this pear tree with a ladder. I need to prune trees better this winter.
8/27 I stored the honey supers till next year. There is a fine screen on the top and bottom with moth crystals every six boxes. Bees produce a great deal more honey when they only have to repair comb vs building new comb.
8/26 Fall Raspberries have started to get ripe.
8/25 The decapping tank is where the capped wax covering the honey is cut from the honey supers with a heated knife before putting the frame into the spinner.
8/25 I get 3-4 gallons of honey from the tank when drained from the bottom.
8/25 The wax is then put in a wax melter to get clean wax in a usable form.
8/25 Treated all the hives for mites. This is like Chemo to the hive for two weeks and is the single most important thing to do for the bees to make it past winter and into the spring. The “winter” bees that live six months will be eggs starting in about two weeks. I need the mite numbers to be as low as possible when their eggs are capped. Mites jump in just before it is capped and weaken the young bees. Summer bees that live 4-6 weeks are feed a balanced omega 6/3 feed. Winter bees are feed only omega 3s. Formic acid is a natural product, I still never put any treatment on when my honey supers are on.
8/24 Most of the hives are in two deep brood boxes. They need to fill the most of the top box with honey before winter. Many hives have too many bees to fit in with the honey supers off. Bee population starts to slowly drop in the fall.
8/24 Bees clean up the supers for a few days before they are put in storage. It attracts all types of bees not just honeybees. It’s interesting to walk into thousands and thousand of bees to put another empty super on the pile, they don’t sting or attack.
8/21-23 Spinning honey and cleanup is a three day process. I ended up with 60 gallons of honey.
8/21 Japanese beetles have attacked an almond tree, I had to brush them off into soapy water.
8/20 Pulled a total of 20 supers with a one or two more to get. Each super produces between 3 to 4 gallons of honey. Screens are on the bottom and top to keep bees out until I am ready to harvest.
8/20 I use a leaf blower to get the last of the bees out of the honey supers.
8/20 Pulled the honey supers from the hives, they are very heavy.
8/20 My hands get stained from all the berries when picking. The blackberries are slowing down. Blackberries taste best when they ripe for a few days, some get over ripe and stain.
8/19 This chicken is molting, replacing all its feathers. They stop laying eggs when molting.
8/18 Made bee escapes and put them on the hives to get the bees out of the honey supers for harvest.
8/18 I use an old inner cover to make them. Bees can go down but have a hard time going back up for a few days, then they figure it out.
8/17 A very strong, short storm with powerful winds caused this peach tree to split. Peach trees are know for this problem. I should have pruned some of the fruit or supported it somehow. It was very windy and might not have made a difference.
8/17 I am going to wait and see if the peaches get ripe before I cut off the broken branches. It is hard to say if I need to replace this tree.
8/15 Picking Blueberries.
8/14 I hope Alex and Nate have a good life, as my father did.
8/13 I picked another peach tree.
8/13 This is a white peach tree. Its inside is white instead of orange/peach color and has a little different taste from regular peach trees.
8/13 Peaches will continue to get ripe after picking.
8/13 Picked 23 containers of blackberries. My hands were stained from all the berries.
8/12 The Monarch cocoon hatched. It turns completely black, then clear and then it comes out. It happens fast. I put it outside near where I found the caterpillar.
8/10 The monarch butterfly cocoon is starting to change color. The weather is more consistent in the house than outside and they develop quicker.
8/9 Jarred the sauerkraut and put it in the refrigerator.
8/8 Started the blueberry harvest. I set this place up for a family and get way too much fruit for one person.
8/6 Installed new security cameras. They were not really needed as there is no crime here at all, but with tariffs and and the unbelievable AI on these cameras I got them anyway. They can zoom in very well, have great detail and range. They are wifi cameras with solar power and two way audio.
8/4 The monarch butterfly caterpillar made a cocoon.
8/3 Blackberry picking. They may look ripe on the vine, but I pick them when they come right off into my hand vs pulling a bit. The flavor changes quite a bit on that last day.
8/2 Picking raspberries every other day with blackberries picked on the other days.
8/2 Frozen peach slices ready to use.
8/1 Picking blackberries.
7/31 Harvested some of the garlic.
7/30 The first monarch butterfly of the season. Growing up there were hundreds of them and many other butterflies, also by the hundreds.
7/30 Monarchs really like to land on the milk weed flower and so do the honey bees.
7/30 All the blackberry plants are going to produce very well.
7/30 Another peach tree is close being ready to pick. Peach trees turn fast and when they are ripe you only have a few days to pick them.
7/30 Cooked three rabbits at a time in the pressure cooker. They were young rabbits that aged 10 days in the refrigerator.
7/30 I would like to see a study of the weight loss drugs vs eating only rabbit meat as a protein.
7/30 The chickens get the final clean up.
7/30 The rabbit colony’s doe died. Colony’s are very hard on does, old age and the heat – humidity were too much. I was only able to save one of her last kits.
7/29 Picking Peaches.
7/28 I check the sauerkraut ever other day and with a clean hand push the plate down.
7/27 I enjoy meals that came from here. Fermented asparagus and 100% ground venison burger.
7/26 The pear trees have a lot of fruit on them. They can break branches with too much weight.
7/26 It looks like the three different types of peach trees are going to be ripe at different times. Looks like a good crop this year.
7/25 Cornbread with water not milk. There is some medical thought that milk for humans after a certain age causes health problems. Ever person alive in michigan in 1973 has traces of pbb still in them from milk.
7/25 Dinner with people I went to high school with.
7/24 It’s very warm and humid outside. The honeybees are at peak population and not all the bees can be inside with this weather. This is not a good time to get them mad.
7/22 Only one type of raspberry is producing a summer crop, but it is plenty of berries. The raspberries are filling up the freezer, I am going to have to make something with them.
7/22 There are only two mature rabbits in the colony, the white buck and brown doe.
7/22 Rabbit feed is about 50% more expensive than chicken feed, if the demand for both were the same, the rabbit feed would be 50% cheaper than chicken feed. There is limited demand for rabbit feed. I give both chickens and rabbits flax seed in their feed so the meat and eggs will have high omega 3 in them.
7/21 Picked cabbage and made sauerkraut. Easy to grow, easy to make and so good for health. You can’t purchase real sauerkraut from the store.
7/20 A normal grape vine vs one attacked by Japanese beetles. I have not seen many beetles the last two years and now everyone has them around here.
7/20 They attacked the oldest grape vine hard.
7/20 With honeybees around and with honey supers on, I used Neem oil on the plants-trees to kill the beetles. The bug has to eat the plant for this to work. Honeybees don’t eat the plant/vine and the plants are not flowering so there is no reason for the honeybees to come to the problem areas.
7/20 Butchered rabbits from the colony and filled a six gallon bucket. I can process a rabbit at a normal pace in about 8-9 minutes.
7/19 I opened a can of turkey that was canned in 2018 and still is pretty good. I have a ton of home canned foods.
7/18 Picking summer raspberries.
7/18 This doe rabbit dug a burrow and had kits. She completely buries the entrance shut between feedings and reopens it when she feeds them. She attacks other rabbits, chickens and myself if we go near the burrow hole.
7/18 These are some of my “meat” chickens this year. A traditional breed that I hope gives a better tasting chicken and good bone broth.
7/18 I put queen excluders on all hives making honey. I will be harvesting in about a month and want the supers “clean” and just have honey.
7/17 A lightly used off brand chainsaw with a gas can for $5 at a sale.
7/17 A gate was put on the chicken/rabbit area.
7/17 There is stronger evidence that aspirin prevents cancer than there is for smoking causes cancer. It’s just hard to prove. Not all smokers get cancer, aspirin doesn’t stop cancers but does many before they every become cancer.
7/16 One of the triplets is smaller than the other two. The other adult deer is likely a doe she had last year.
7/15 A new gate was put on the orchard entrance.
7/14 Filled the water barrel. This water barrel for chickens and rabbits last months in the winter and only weeks in the summer. This is one of the ways to keep bird flu away from my animals. Wild birds are not drinking this water and it stays clean and fresh for the animals. I also keep both the chicken feed and the rabbit feed inside to keep wild birds away.
7/14 Sometimes it’s what one doesn’t eat that keeps one healthy.
7/13 The chickens make a ruckus when the fox is in sight. The chickens and rabbits know the fox can’t get in and the fox knows he can’t get in, so the fox just moves on and doesn’t try to check the fence.
7/13 Part of the fox’s daily route is to check the wood piles for mice or rabbits.
7/12 One variety of raspberries decided to produce fruit, usually I don’t get berries until September 1.
7/12 The peach and plum trees are dropping extra fruit.
7/12 The peach trees are looking good even with a bit of peach leave curl.
7/12 I took a chance and purchased jeans my size at an online auction in Illinois. Six new pair for $30 in auction costs and $32 shipping. It worked out to about a third of retail price.
7/12 This blueberry plant is doing well, all the blueberry plants are a few years from being mature plants.
7/10 I caught a woodchuck off guard about 7 am and about 45 minutes later a fox found it. It was too heavy to move so the fox had to eat it on the spot. I was watching it for over two hours.
7/10 The fox came back at dusk for more.
7/10 Checked the new nucs to see if they were successful at rearing a new queen.
7/10 This is not a good laying pattern for a new queen. I have too many hives and if she is not better later, this hive will be merged with another one for winter.
7/10 The merged hives all look great. They are the ones with newspaper between the boxes.
7/10 The swarm I caught is now queenless. She likely took off again. Swarms are only worth getting for a 3/4 week period. Anything outside of June 1 is no good and a old queen or a queen that got kicked out by the hive. Even in the right 3/4 weeks it is no guarantee it will be a good hive.
7/9 The mother doe has started to ween these twins. It keeps her moving.
7/8 I put an electric fence around the orchard area. Two wires at the bottom for rabbits and raccoons. The top wire is for deer.
7/8 The fence charger is in the barn and I put it on a timer so that it only is on at night.
7/7 I stopped picking asparagus weeks ago, yet am still eating fresh ones. They last a long time in the refrigerator when stored upright in water.
7/4 My sister was born on July 4. I am very lucky to have a special, wonderful sister.
7/2025 Put the camper on and visited my sister and her husband.
7/2025 I have never really liked this lure, but it seems to always get fish.
7/2025 Tim and Kathy have a wonderful home.
6/29 The heat has caused stress in animals and plants/trees. Some of the hens are laying “regular” size eggs, vs the huge eggs they normally lay.
6/28 Flax seed for the omega 3 in my cornbread. I get my omega 3’s from salmon, my eggs and homemade cornbread. Omega-3 are essential for good health. All breads in the supermarkets are ultra processed foods and should be avoided IMHO. Omega 3 is the fat needed by the brain and cannot be made by the body.
6/27 A garage sale had two weed trimmers for sale. It took an half hour to get both running, they are a stihl & cubcadet high quality trimmers. It was at a almost million dollar house moving sale, not something I run into often.
6/27 A day in the nineties with a strong thunderstorm coming.
6/27 Won some golf shoes at an auction for $15. It looks like they had been worn one time. They came with the shoe box they were purchased with.
6/26 I went out to pick strawberries and they were all gone. A different raccoon came and ate them. Like the cherry tree coon they rubbed it in with a big dump of all strawberry seeds right were I would find it.
6/26 Changed the oil on the F-250.
6/25 It has been very humid and hot out, all an animals were not moving much. A rain came and dropped the temperature 5-7 degrees and everyone was moving for a bit.
6/25 For some moving around was a mistake.
6/24 I picked up 13 eggs from 12 hens. One hen laid two today.
6/23 Golf, the game that gives one the illusion that one could be ok playing the game. Bogey, par, bogey, par, bogey, par, bogey, par, bogey round today.
6/23 The heat wave is hard on all the animals domestic and wild. The deer and all fur animals are doing minimal movements for a couple of days.
6/22 The buck rabbit (white one) is sterile when the temperature is above 80 degrees. It gives the doe a break for the rest of the summer. The doe usually gets pregnant again 24 hours after giving birth.
6/22 The doe rabbit dug a hole under the chicken coop and had a littler in it instead of the area that was made for them to give birth in. It is likely cooler for them.
6/22 The doe stands guard over the nest a couple of feet away under the coop.
6/21 The raccoon that ate the cherries is history. They come back until they eat everything. I am getting some strawberries.
6/20 I ran into my bridge buddy Alice at the local festival in town. I really admire her, she is 90 something, lives on her own, drives, smart, has a very active social life and plays bridge better than me! Everyone wanted to talk with her.
6/19 The three almond trees are coming back after the damage from rabbits. I cut back all the growth except for the tallest one and put a larger cage around them. I am happy they came back and as they would be hard to replace, they came from Ukraine and Iran. They can handle colder climates. The fourth almond tree might produce nuts next year and is doing very well.
6/19 These poppy plants are huge and as high as my nose.
6/18 A couple of hives are very strong. Next year I will make the all the new queens from the best one or two hives, instead of all the hives.
6/18 A large raccoon got into the orchard area and the into the best cherry tree. She ate all the cherries and broke branches with her weight.
6/18 To rub it in the raccoon took a huge dump of cherry pits just outside the 8′ fence. The raccoon will be back tonight.
6/18 I set two traps for the raccoon one inside the fence and one outside.
6/17 I added a second box to two nuc that were full of bees. There are four nucs making a new queen.
6/17 Mowed off the asparagus as the six week season is over. It is the good way to keep the weeds down. Asparagus is mowed twice a year – just before the season and just after. I set the lawnmower as low as I can.
6/17 I ended up with 19 jars of fermented asparagus, two jars of pickled asparagus and all I could eat and give away.
6/16 Melting wax to coat new bee frames. Bees take to coated frames much quicker than plain frames.
6/16 Frames from suppliers come in plain plastic, or a single coating of wax, or two coats or three coats. Each with an increase in price. Most beekeeper get frames with a wax coating. These are equal to many, many coats compared to frames from stores.
6/16 Cleaned the coop. The chickens spend almost no time inside in the summer and it stays clean for a long time.
6/16 This cherry tree is loaded with fruit and I put netting around it to keep birds away.
6/16 This cherry tree has almost no fruit. It has cherry leaf spot disease and I did not spray during the dormant season. I should have.
6/14 Purchased a couple of honey supers and painted them blue. Bees can only see uv, blue, green, purple, yellow and white colors.
6/14 Getting honey super frames ready. This is one coat of wax on the frames from a bee supplier.
6/13 Lifted the track on this sled, started it, washed it and sprayed the entire sled with silicone. This sled should be good for Alex or Nate someday.
6/12 I see this doe with triplets everyday. I also see one with twins, a single fawn and 3 young bucks daily. They all live in an amazingly small area of about a 75 yard circle. There is a golf flag in the background. I may put a two or three hole par 3 golf holes in once the pond is expanded and the beach is done.
6/11 Its berry season.
6/11 The painted rocks really do look like strawberries and I have not seen bird damage since they have been put down near the plants.
6/11 Went into every hive to check things out. It took three hours. Some hives had filled their supers with honey and needed another honey super. A couple of hives were queen less and I merged a nuc with them. A hive that somehow lost their queen sounds different from other hives and they are grumpy/mad about it. Started a new hive with a queen cell. It seems like 80% of the honey will come from 20-30% of the hives. Each hive is different, a new chess game each time one is opened.
6/11 Some of the very strong hives were laying eggs in the honey supers. There are a couple of way to handle this. One, push the bees down and add a queen excluder. Another way is to push the bees down and add a full honey super above the brood box. A queen will not go above a honey barrier to lay.
6/11 Some hives need the frames manipulated, they will fill the middle frames with honey/brood and not the outside frames. I take the full middle frames and move them to the outside and put empty frames in the middle to get them fill out.
6/9 A few strawberries right off the plant makes a nice snack.
6/9 I usually scrap with this rooster a couple of times a day for a minute or two.
6/9 I watered and fertilized the strawberries, blueberries, grapes and the garden. This blueberry plant looks great.
6/9 Even with netting, birds sometimes peck at strawberries, a friend reminded me of this trick. Painted rocks the color of strawberries and put them with the berries in an “easy” spot. Birds learn quickly that red is not food.
6/9 Some of the plum and peach trees will have to be pruned of some fruit or the branch may get too heavy and break.
6/9 All three peach trees have some peach leaf curl. Its a fungus that needed to be sprayed on the tree when it is dormant in the fall and spring. It will reduce the crop.
6/9 Hummingbirds come to the feeders and this bush many times a day.
6/8 Purchased this trash pump at the consignment auction. I hope to use it to suck up the algae from the pond to keep it clean and use as fertilizer. I also am going to try it as an aerator. There were many people who buy items to flip at the auction, so prices are just below online prices. Paid $100.
6/7 I took some of the chickens hatched from the incubator to the animal auction.
6/6 A meal all grown right here, except for the salt and pepper.
6/5 Nothing like using fresh garlic when cooking.
6/4 The first picking of strawberries. Not a single one made it into the house, they taste wonderful.
6/4 I went back to letting the mature chickens free range. I think the the fox is too worn out/busy with little ones to hunt during the day now.
6/4 Three hives are so strong that it would get too hot for the queen if everyone is inside, so some have to wait outside until the temperature drops.
6/3 Put up hummingbird, oriole and butterfly feeders. 6/4 A hummingbird showed up.
6/3 A doe with three fawns was walking to the pond area.
6/3 Asparagus had a new flush of spears. I think when there is a big asparagus spear day it is the same day morel mushrooms pop up.
6/2 Time to look at the nucs again. The new colony’s will not be happy with their hive size soon. I have to steal brood (eggs) from successful nucs and give them to other hives or nucs. That way they don’t have enough troops to swarm.
6/2 New queens lay in a wonderful pattern, it is one way to tell the age of a queen, the laying pattern.
6/2 A hive swarmed and it took me three hives to find the one that swarmed. This is a virgin queen just leaving her cell. It is very, very rare to actually see.
6/2 I found another couple of queen cells in the hive and started another nuc to raise a queen.
6/2 Mowed around the pond.
6/2 My sister and her husband let me borrow their pond rake and I put a pool noddle on it to get the scum on top of the pond.
6/2 The location naturally causes this pond to get too many nutrients. I will have to work on solutions. One, I need to buy an aerator.
6/2 The rake worked well. I will need to do it a couple of times to get it all.
6/2 One half frog and one half tadpole.
6/1 A fawn came walking into the back yard after mom thought it was going to lay down for awhile. It was fun to watch the fawn and it’s mom find each other after the fawn moved.
6/1 I see many does with fawns everyday for about three weeks now. There are a lot of deer here and the population is growing.
6/1 I fertilized the strawberries, blueberries and most of the garden. I noticed that a couple of strawberries had bird damage. I put netting up over all the strawberry plants. If it moves it wants to eat strawberries.
5/31 I had to add air to all my trucks tires. There were at 50 PSI and need to be 80. I purchased this truck because when I researching trucks and googled the internet about this truck, I found almost nothing. It was very noticeable the lack of comments on this truck and year, which is very good. No one was complaining about any problems with this truck and I agree. It appears that this was a very good year for Ford F-250.
5/30 The fig tree had significant damage from rabbits and deer. I am going to change methods. It is too close to the ground to keep animals away. I am going to grow them in large pots and bring the inside the basement or garage each winter. I will put them inside the orchard fence from now on during the summer.
5/29 For many reasons I have not golfed in three years. I pared the first two holes and then my lack of playing showed. There was one summer many years ago that I golfed everyday.
5/29 Weed whipped the apiary, which gets the bees riled up. This is not swarming, but 1000’s of bees from each strong hive taking their first flights. The need to remember this location. They fly up and down for awhile in front of the hive, it’s really amazing.
5/29 The swarm is staying in the box I put them in.
5/28 The asparagus crop has been below average this year. It is half way into the six week season.
5/28 I put straw around garden plants so I won’t have to weed much.
5/28 I made a small entry for the rabbits to use this as birthing area. It has been an ice shanty, a deer blind, a chicken feeder and now a rabbit house. Chickens would attack young rabbits as they left their nest. By the time young rabbits can get out of this house they will be fast enough to get away.
5/28 Cleaning rain gutters, it only takes about 25 minutes. I usually clean the breezeway with the blower after the roof.
5/27 The other three hives that failed at queen rearing, I merged with a nuc that was successful. Newspaper is put in between the two boxes of bees and by the time they chew past the newspaper the box without a queen will smell her perfume and accept her.
5/27 All the frames from the nuc are put in the top box.
5/27 Fertilized the strawberries and blueberries.
5/27 It could be a good year for strawberries. The fruit trees look very good too.
5/27 The swarm I caught has stayed in the box they were put in. I need to sell some bee hives.
5/26 Memorial Day.
5/26 It has been three weeks since I put a queen cell and bees into these nucs to make a new hive. It is time to look inside.
5/26 As I was getting ready to look into the new colonies, a hive swarmed. There is a tornado of bees just in front of a hive and make a sound that a beekeeper knows. There is nothing I can do to stop them now.
5/26 This is the hive swarming. This actual is great timing for me. I know some of the new hives will not have a queen. Only 75% of queens survive mating flights. The hive that swarmed will have queen cells I can take and put into the nucs that failed.
5/26 I followed the swarm to this tree.
5/26 I get a ladder setup by the swarm and try to hold the box with one hand and brush or shake them with the other into this box.
5/26 I got them into this old hive and hope they stay.
5/26 Getting into the new hives.
5/26 This new hive was a success. I do not need to find the queen, if there are capped cells she is in the there somewhere. Of the 13 new hives, 8 were queen right and 5 nucs had no queen. I found three queen cells in the hive that swarmed and left one in it and put the other queen cells in the nucs that failed and let them try again.
5/25 The new leghorn chicks are smaller than the other chicks, but are fitting in well.
5/25 The rabbits have no problem going into the chicken coop.
5/24 I purchased fish food but the new fish don’t seem too interested. I think the pond is full of natural food. There have been no dead fish on top of the water so the stocking was a success.
5/24 Purchased 10 leghorn chicks at an auction, because I want some white colored eggs.
5/24 The auction had a large number of animals this week. Just as the livestock changes week to week, so do the buyers. There were many from eastern europe and asia, none from africa or south america.
5/21 Collecting 12 eggs every day.
5/20 This chicken feeder holds 50# of feed and lasts quite awhile. Most days I only have to pickup eggs.
5/18 Cutting and gathering wood is good exercise on a cloudy overcast day.
5/17 I found this fawn today. Even by fawn standards this was a small fawn.
5/17 I mix flax seed with the chicken feed so the eggs have a high omega 3 content.
5/17 I watched this fox for twenty minutes while they were looking for wild rabbits to eat. Wild rabbits come up to the colony area to check things out and the fox has figured that out.
5/16 This is my kitchen sink view of the chicken/rabbit area. As I was cooking lunch a hawk came down and attacked a chick. I chased it off and went in to turn the stove off and the hawk came in a took off with the chick.
5/15 I never feel bad about overeating raspberries, cornbread and honey.
5/15 I could not see the other end of this rainbow, so it must be right here.
5/14 Stocked the pond with hybrid bluegill, perch, catfish and minnows. It will take two years before they are eating size.
5/14 I put up rope around the garden to hopefully keep the deer out.
5/13 Fermented asparagus, today, five days in and ten days in. The ten day one is ready for the refrigerator and will be good for about a year. Fermented food is brain food. The brain spends 50% of it time figuring out what one ate and what to do with it. Fermented food frees up the brain to fix other things.
5/13 I had to put chicken wire around the bottom of the orchard fence to keep rabbits out.
5/12 I found this nest of five baby wild rabbits, their eyes are not quite open. The deer are picking out places to give birth in the next couple of days.
5/12 Fertilized the blueberry plants.
5/12 I could make cornbread in my sleep. Flax seed is added for omega 3. Bread from the store is an ultra processed food.
5/12 The asparagus is a week late and the quantity is lower. It has a month to go so it might jump soon.
5/12 Weeded the blackberries and they look good.
5/12 I planted two squash types, acorn and butternut. I also planted watermelon and regular melon plants.
5/12 I put up three swarm traps. It is swarming season.
5/12 The rabbit colony is getting big and they are using up the rabbit food.
5/12 There are ten rabbits about six weeks old running around the colony.
5/12 I checked the new kits in the doe’s box, she has ten kits and their eyes are not open yet.
5/12 I took down the barrier to keep the chicks in the coop. They are old enough to go out in the yard with the other animals.
5/11 I moved the straw away from the strawberry plants to help the ground around the plants to get warmer.
5/10 The strawberry plants are looking strong with a potential large crop.
5/10 The almond trees are growing from the root after the winter damage from the rabbits. I would normally replace the trees, except one almond tree is doing very well and they need a another tree to produce better almonds. I cut the old tree off and put protection around them.
5/10 I trimmed all the old blackberry vines. Blackberries only fruit on two year old vines, the vines trimmed were three years old.
5/10 Blackberries after trimming.
5/10 Cut the new blackberry plants from their vine and planted another long row of blackberry plants. I might sell extra plants.
5/10 These two geese had three goslings somewhere around the pond.
5/7 Plenty of life in the pond, I plan on stocking fish next week.
5/7 Weeding the raspberry rows now leads to almost no weeding the rest of the year. It also helps get bigger berries.
5/6 The two doe rabbits had another litter of kits, one in the chicken coop.
5/5 I made 13 new hives from the 11 demaree hives.
5/5 These new hive boxes are called nucs and only hold five frames. They are smaller to help the bees keep the brood warmer.
5/5 Many hives had plenty of honey left over from winter. Each new hive gets two frames of honey each on the outside of the box. The middle three frames get brood and a queen cell to raise a new one. After all the bees are in the new hive, I put reflectix on top of the hive to help them keep warm. (the silver/white sheets)
5/5 Going frame by frame to look for queen cells. If I miss one there could be a swarm a day or two after they are put back together.
5/5 This is a nice queen cell next to a group of drone brood (male eggs). I put the entire frame in a new hive.
5/5 This frame has many queen cells. Many beekeepers destroy all but one or cut some out, I did not. The first born queen will usually kill the other queen cells.
5/5 The queens should hatch in 2 or 3 days. Another 1-2 days for her to get strong and dry off. Then she will go everyday, on average of a mile away, to get mated for 7-10 days. Then she will start laying eggs. So I won’t look into these hives for three weeks. It is important to not open them at all until then. Only 75-80% of the queens will make it back from mating flights, a ton of things can happen to her from birds to her getting lost.
5/5 The hives are now in their regular setup of two deeps with two honey supers on top. I may do a demaree later this year to replace all the old queens, I want young queens in every hive going into winter.
5/5 When I am done working the bee hives a cool shower is a must. I sweat like a hockey game. Sweating is an important part of good health.
5/3 Fermenting and pickling asparagus.
5/3 I dug up the fig tree from winter. I am going to try to grow this tree parallel to the ground and bury it each winter.
5/2 I found a few morel mushrooms on my walk.
5/2 I found the fox den that stopped the free ranging of the chickens. I might sit near by at night fall and try and catch a young one. They have at least two holes to go in and out.
5/2 A nice large patch of ramps. It takes seven years for them to reach maturity. If you pick just one of the two leaves and dry them, it makes a wonderful spice.
5/1 The cracks on the screen finally caused the iphone to not work. I changed the screen myself and works great now.
4/30 The first picking of asparagus. I am going pickle and ferment most of this years crop.
4/30 Burned all the sticks/limbs that came off the trees in the yard over the winter.
4/30 Finished planting the garden.
4/29 Replaced the overflow hoses on the diesel tractor that had worn out.
4/29 Another oyster mushroom tree on my walk today.
4/28 I started planting the garden.
4/27 The young rabbits are running all over in the colony, getting along well with the chickens.
4/27 I went on a short morel mushroom hunting walk and only found these oyster mushrooms.
4/27 Moved the chicks into the coop with the other chickens.
4/25 The apricot and plum trees are looking good. I have high hopes that they do well this year.
4/25 I worked the up soil in the garden area.
4/25 I put up a ramp up for the young rabbits. The young rabbits are going to have a hard time finding water from the water barrel. I put water bowls under their hutch for them to find. In a day or two I will put the bowls near the water barrel for them to figure it out.
4/25 Turned off the incubator and all the chicks are in a box for a few days before they go outside.
4/24 Finished the demaree on the beehives. It was more work than I thought and will be interesting to see how it works out.
4/23 This is the bee hives after a demaree split. The bottom box has the queen and all the bees that can fly, the middle two boxes are honey supers and the top box has all the brood (eggs) and nurse bees. The bottom box queen thinks she has swarmed and does not have enough bees to swarm again, the top box thinks they lost a queen and will make queen cells. They really want to swarm in years 2 & 3. This hopefully prevents it. There is a queen excluder over the bottom box and another one under the top box, to make sure they keep separate.
4/23 When I can’t find the queen bee, and just shake them down into one box, sometimes the queen will not go in. One queen did fly off and I was able to get them to go into this empty hive.
4/23 All the baby rabbits are doing well, this is the only rabbit that is not black.
4/23 After 24 hours I move the chicks to a box with a heat lamp. There are still chicks being born.
4/22 There is a queen bee in this queen catcher. I have to go frame by frame to find her. If I find her the demaree is easy to get done. If I can’t find her, the demaree method takes two days to separate brood from the queen and flying bees. I move all the bees to one bottom box, add a queen excluder and then the second box is filled with the brood. The nurse bees go up into the brood box to take care of the young bees. The queen is forced to stay in the bottom. The next day I put two honey supers between them.
4/22 The demaree beekeeping style uses two queen excluder’s per hive.
4/22 Most of the time I use nitrite gloves instead of bee gloves.
4/22 Pine nettles and or burlap make the best bee smoker material.
4/22 Having two smokers makes beekeeping easier with this many hives.
4/22 I took the winter protection and mouse guards off the hives.
4/22 The chicks have started to hatch.
4/21 I watched four tom turkeys courting two hens. They put on a good show, it was almost like they wanted to impress the other toms more than the hens.
6/21 The chicks are making piping noises in their shell. They are going to open very soon.
6/20 I cleaned up the barn and there is a raccoon somewhere. It could be the raccoon I played with last summer or more likely his mom going to have babies in the barn again.
4/20 Turned on the water to the well pit water spigot. I started and got the fishing boat ready to go.
4/19 A pair of geese have a nest somewhere around the pond.
4/19 The honeybees are working this tree hard.
4/18 The baby rabbits opened their eyes. They are full of energy and won’t stay in their hutch area much longer.
4/18 I had to put up a 1′ chicken wire fence around the colony to keep the young rabbits in.
4/18 A fox came in during the middle of the day and took a chicken. She is feeding young foxes, that is the only reason they hunt in the middle of the day. No more free ranging chickens.
4/18 Three days before they hatch the eggs are taken out of the turner and set flat in the incubator. The chick will then move around to get ready to hatch.
4/18 Most of my hives are very strong, I am looking forward to next week to get into them for splits.
4/16 The peach and apricot trees are blooming. Growing these trees this far north, I get a crop only if it does not get a hard freeze when they are in bloom, about every other year. This year looks good for a crop.
4/16 The rabbit kits are one huge ball, it seems to be working out ok with the two does.
4/16 I generally let the chickens free range from 10 am to 6 pm when all the predators are sleeping. There are no predators birds, they are all gone. Bird flu.
3/16 I needed to solder this fitting to finish the new bathroom sink.
4/15 This lavender buff orpington rooster is old, but a beautiful bird. This was the rooster on cover of Corn flakes cereal for many, many years.
4/15 I see this fox a couple of times a week between 7 and 8:30 am. The fox was checking out the eggs from the incubator that were not growing today.
4/14 Planted a new row of heritage red raspberry plants, my favorite raspberry.
4/14 I covered the new raspberry plants with the straw/manure from the chicken coop.
4/14 I moved some blueberry plants and fertilized all of them.
4/14 There are basically two types of fertilizer for blueberry plants. One with Aluminum in it and one without. I always use the one without Aluminum.
4/14 The chicken that was having egg issues seems to have everything worked out. I am getting 13 eggs from 13 hens the last six days in a row.
4/14 The two rabbit nests have been combined into one and they are sharing nursing. They will be opening their eyes in the next two days.
4/13 I candled the eggs in the incubator that were started 4/1. Of the 56 eggs only eight were not growing. If you can’t see through the egg it is on its way.
4/13 This egg was not fertile.
4/13 I had to fill the outside chicken/rabbit water tank and took this photo of the the three adult rabbits. Two palomino does and the white and black buck, yet all the baby rabbits are black.
4/12 The chainsaw was cutting nice, I hand sharpened it just before starting. I used a whole gallon of gas/oil mix.
4/11 Dinner with people I went to high school with.
4/11 I cut, filled, and unloaded this trailer three times. I got a good sweat going at least nine times today.
4/10 All the young rabbits are black in color.
4/10 I really enjoy this cuckoo clock. The ticking reminds me that time is not to be wasted.
4/9 Planted 50 Patterson onions. A variety known for its excellent storage potential, large bulbs, and good flavor.
4/8 The two rabbit nests are almost one and seem to be getting along fine this close.
4/7 I watched turkeys and wild rabbits in courtship for about an hour each in the backyard. My buck in the colony was not happy watching the wild rabbit’s romance.
4/5 The second doe rabbit had 6 kits in the common area next to the first doe.
4/4 One of the rabbits had kits in their common area. The buck rabbit is leaving them alone.
4/4 She had nine young rabbits.
4/1 Eggs have been put in the incubator. There are 56 eggs in this box and it takes 21 days. Chinese incubator temperatures are not accurate. The right temp needs to be checked with a poultry thermometer and then adjust the machine’s temp. It turns the eggs every two hours.
4/1 I made more pickled eggs as I gave some away to friends.
3/29 I went to the livestock auction to look for a quality young rooster. There were few roosters and all were old or too small of a breed. I have seen past auctions with 40/50 roosters. It’s kind of a small zoo that changes every week.
3/29 There were high numbers of ducks and goats at this sale.
3/29 Watching the people at the auction is part of the entertainment. I heard four different languages while walking around.
3/28 A couple of geese were visiting the pond.
3/28 One of the hens is having problems laying eggs. She was skipping a day and then laying a double yoke egg the next day. Today she had a very small egg. This is double yoke egg, a normal egg and the very small egg.
3/27 A pair of ducks checking out real estate on the pond.
4/27 I just noticed that the buck purchased last month has been tattooed with the number 27 in it’s ear.
4/27 Put straw in four nesting boxes under the chicken coop for my two doe rabbits. I expect them to have babies this week.
3/27 The bees are flying strong. I leave the winter protection on until I am ready to find the queen in late April.
3/27 Woodchucks are hard to drop, you have to be accurate. They do a lot of damage to the floor in one barn.
3/26 Cleaned the chicken coop, always a “fun”, dirty job. I put the straw/manure mix on the raspberry rows. I am ready for chicks if I decide to raise them.
3/26 I uncovered the strawberry plants from winter. I only lost a few plants and have 95 or so growing. The average strawberry in the store has traces of 10 different pesticides, many with much more. Everything that moves wants to eat strawberries.
3/26 Happy birthday Alex!
3/26 Stacking next years firewood and sharping the chainsaw.
3/25 A friend had walnut trees cut down and I picked up four loads of heavy wood from the tops.
3/25 The walnut wood is fresh and needs to dry for a year before it can be used for firewood.
3/24 I filled this chain saw with oil and gas six times today cutting wood.
3/23 The pond should be ready for stocking fish this year.
3/20 Garlic is off to a good start.
3/19 Pruned the grape plants. I need to train them to the wires better this year. These are two of the old plants. The 15 new grape plants are all doing well.
3/19 Two geese are hanging around the pond. I need to get out this way daily.
3/19 I lost a chicken while I was in Florida and get 13 eggs each day now.
3/19 Chickens taking a dust “bath”. They try to get as much dust on them as they can and then roll around a bit. When they shake off the dust it is a small cloud.
3/18 The pickled eggs turned out great.
3/18 Thirteen very strong hives have made it to spring. The yellow on the bees legs is pollen and this triggers the queen to increase egg laying.
3/17 Filled the basement with firewood, it’s good exercise.
3/17 I went into the two bee hives that died over the winter.
3/17 The hives had plenty of food.
3/17 A low total number of bees. I still think the queen ran out of eggs at a bad time, but it could be mites/virus. No mite treatment is 100%.
3/17 One hive was in great shape so I put into storage with moth crystals.
3/17 One hive needed to be put in the freezer to kill off possible wax moths and other problems.
3/2025 Boating and fishing. We didn’t catch any fish worth talking about, but my right arm was tired from fighting fish.
3/2025 Ten Thousand Islands.
3/2025 I would like to camp out on one of these islands for a few days someday.
3/2025 Ten Thousand Islands.
3/2025 Marco has million dollar second homes with nice second boats.
3/2025 The tidies were not good for fishing and March is not the best month for fishing Marco. This was true for shelling too.
3/2025 Very good shelling on Marco Island. I was fishing very early in the morning and a person with headlamp and flashlights was walking the beach before daylight.
3/2025 Marco has many unique animals and plants.
3/7 Marco Island an interesting, wonderful place.
3/7 Tiger tail beach.
3/7 Nothing but beach as far I can see in both directions.
3/5 Installed a new bathroom sink.
3/4 I put pollen and a honey patty to feed the bees early. When bees bring pollen into the hive it is a signal to the queen to increase egg laying. Pollen is feed to young bees when the are first born. When bees can find fresh maple pollen they wont come to this pollen. Maples are a week or so away, so this hopefully give the hives a week head start on their build up.
3/4 I put the pollen and honey patty in a unused rabbit cage to keep the rain off it and to keep animals out of it.
3/3 I pruned all the fruit and nut trees, just before the first “spring” rains later this week. It takes awhile with this many trees and it’s amazing how much pruning should be done each year.
3/3 I cut all the raspberries plants down, so that I will have one large crop in the fall, rather than two smaller crops during the summer and fall.
3/3 The raspberry branches have to be raked up and burned well away from the plants. The cut branches can get a fungus that can effect the plants/crop.
3/3 Somehow rabbits got into the orchard area and damaged 3 of the 4 almond trees and a couple of blueberry plants
3/3 I painted the damaged almond trees and hope they recover.
3/3 I cut the brush away from the area I want to expand the pond to. It will make the pond almost twice as big and should provide a nice area for wildlife and a nursing area for young fish to grow.
3/2 I went ice skating on the pond.
3/2 I really enjoy skating. This is a nice size for skating but hope to make it bigger this summer. I got a good workout and never did fall down.
3/1 I went to the Michigan Rabbit Breeders state conference.
3/1 There is every type and size of rabbits at the show. Most are just for show and looks, not for eating like I raise them for.
3/1 Just like dog shows, good rabbits can fetch a high price. Most people have their own grooming stand, like dogs shows. The hobby seems to be dominated by women.
3/1 There are about 20 different judging stations all going on at the same time, there are that many different breeds. Judging can be hard and I wouldn’t want to be a judge.
3/1 There is a cull truck that buys rabbits that can’t win and /or for people with excess rabbits. They pay the people per pound for their rabbits, most of it is for dog and cat food.
3/1 I stand near the cull truck and look for meat rabbits. You don’t want to buy does from the line, they have problems. I will and did buy a buck from the line to breed with my 2 does. This is a nice size Californian buck. I had to pay $20 for him, as the cull truck is paying more per pound than they did a couple of years ago.
3/1 I went to the Michigan beekeepers conference. Beekeeping is dominated by men. There were many seminars on ways to raise bees, it can be complicated and is always evolving/changing.
3/1 There is a vendor area with many items/ideas. There are so many different ways of beekeeping for many reasons.
3/1 The Amish people like to make beekeeping hives and wood items.
2/28 It is easy to tell when I get a double yoke egg.
2/27 Pickled eggs with apple cider vinegar, water, honey, onions and pickling spices. They have marinate for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.
2/26 I gathered 15 eggs from 14 hens today. One hen laid 2 eggs. I did see a raccoon in the backyard late at night, maybe my coon is still around.
2/25 Pulling logs out of a swampy area so I can cut them up later. I could only get to them when the ground is hard enough to drive in the marsh. It gives the tractor a good workout, some were stuck and I had to yank/jerk on them 4/5/6 times to get them out.
2/25 This oil stick was pulled out by brush as I was pulling logs out of a marsh area. I didn’t see it right away, but was lucky to notice before the oil got too low to hurt the motor. There was just enough snow to trace back to were it started and I found the stick, It was down 1.5 quarts of oil..
2/25 The temperature got into the 50’s today, so all the hives should be flying. It looks like 2 of 15 hives died out over the winter.
2/25 The two hives that were not flying, I opened them up to see if they were alive. They both died out, likely because the queen ran out of eggs and /or the winter was too hard on her. The better a queen is mated, the longer she will live. The two hives that died were queens that were at least two years old or older. Two to three years is about as long as a queen lives. The demaree method I hope to use this year should give me young queens each year that are well mated.
2/25 Picking up and unloading a couple of trailers of firewood is a good workout.
6/24 It got up into the mid 40’s today and 11 of 15 beehives were flying. They are going to the bathroom and go back in. All the yellow spots in front of the hive are the waste.
2/24 I raised and filled the chicken water tank. The straw is getting piled high on the floor of the coop.
2/23 The turkeys come in to the back yard in groups. One tighter group of hens and yearling turkeys and one loose group of older tom turkeys. This is part of the tom group.
2/22 Just like I can count on hearing the rooster every morning, I hear the hens getting into arguments about a box to lay in sometime every morning. They will cackle at each other with 14 hens with 8 boxes.
2/21 Cutting wood and riding.
2/20 I had to replace the clutch on this chainsaw.
2/18 My go to food when I can’t decide what to eat is raspberries, cornbread and honey. I don’t buy chips, candy or ice cream.
2/2025 I enjoy hearing the rooster before dawn, the rabbits playing in snow and watching the deer/turkeys out my kitchen and dinning room windows.
2/13 This sled is a beast. Many snowmobile people consider this sled one of the best ever made in its class, they don’t break down or have problems. It is the same motor Yamaha put in motorcycles and quads. It has all the bells/whistles and with a 1000cc motor that is powerful. Even the passenger has hand warmers. Its a “touring” sled and has a very smooth ride.
2/13 My last jar of fermented asparagus. It is still firm with nice flavor. I need to make 12-15 jars of fermented or pickled asparagus every year and not dry it.
2/12 Happy Birthday Nate!
2/11 The pond is frozen. I hope to take my generator and a sump pump out to the pond, making a skating rink.
2/11 The chickens were taking over the rabbit hideout/feeder area, so I made a new opening that only the rabbits like.
2/11 The chickens get excited when I put new straw in the coop.
2/11 Cornbread with flax seed for the omega 3.
2/10 Getting new laying chickens last summer is looking better and better. People are calling/contacting me about eggs. Fourteen eggs everyday.
2/10 Filling the basement with wood.
2/7 With the bird flu reducing predator bird numbers and the large deer herds has caused coyote numbers to get strong, with healthy packs. It is coyote mating season and this is likely a male that has left his pack to try and start another. They take many young fawns and are hard to hunt.
2/5 The chickens and rabbits are getting along just fine together.
2/5 I had to fill the chicken/rabbit water barrel it lasts about three weeks with 14 hens, 2 rabbits and 1 rooster.
2/3 Everyone I give eggs to, comments how big they are. I got a double yoke egg today and I only get 2 or 3 of these a year. Usually there are just two yokes (twins) when I open one, this one the yokes were barely attached and would have been identical twins?
2/2 A famous TV fishermen, Babe Winkelman, had an auction and I purchased a large quantity of fishing line. I got it delivered for a great price about 1/10 of the retail price. Almost all of it unopened. I am sure he was paid to use certain lines and just didn’t use this. This is one of about 8 lots of fishing line at the auction.
2/2 There are three factories in the world that make almost all the fishing line in the world. Two in Asia and one in Germany. Triple Fish brand is the direct from the factory brand in Germany. It is sold here under different brand names as top of the line premium fishing line. It is made differently than the factories in Asia and is of much higher quality. It is made of Perlon and more than 1,300 IGFA world records have been achieved using Perlon fishing line. Fluorocarbon fishing line is almost 100% pfas which I don’t want to use.
2/3 These are huge rolls.
2/2 I am drinking two cups of chicken bone broth a day, it’s a nice break from coffee.
2/2 This is three years of bone broth and I want to use it up in the next couple of months. Like many foods it doesn’t look great in the jars but it is just great taste wise.
2/2 Chicken bone broth vs rabbit bone broth. The rabbit broth is not worth doing. Chicken broth is worth making every time.
2/1 A little honey and spices can make rabbit tasty.
1/30 The good news is the hawk looks like it will recover from the bird flu. The bad news is the barn raccoon, that I played with most of the summer in earlier posts, likely was hit by a car just down the road. It is raccoon mating season and males have to roam. If it was a female would have just hung around the barn and waited for a male.
1/28 Cutting wood for heat is only worth it if you don’t get hurt. I always wear ear plugs, a face guard, chaps, keep my feet apart and always cut two exits when cutting a standing tree.
1/26 I harvested all the rabbits in the colony earlier this year. Three young small rabbits got out and have been around to the house for months. I trapped two of them this week. They are females and I put them in the chicken/rabbit pen. I only want two maybe three in the colony, as they will produce more than I need. I will get a buck somewhere or likely at the Michigan state rabbit breeders show in March. It is easy to get too many rabbits and I have cases of canned rabbit already. It is kind of a backup, the bird flu could get bad and chicken prices could really go up.
1/25 It seems like turkey numbers are slightly down. I have never seen a turkey with the bird flu, they must do something different.
1/25 I put a deer carcass out for the sick hawk and to see what comes to it. I have not seen the hawk in a couple of days.
1/25 This is part of a herd of 75-80 deer just a little ways from a hunting spot. These are all female and yearling deer. The bucks have their own much smaller group.
1/25 I like to think burning wood saves money on heating costs and health care costs, with the amount of exercise you get.
1/24 #2 Michigan State vs #4 Minnesota in hockey. State won but there was not that many lift you out of your seat moments.
1/24 I would still like to play again, I have got to go to the rink and skate. I love to skate on good frozen lakes.
1/22 This stove is generally great for this house, but when it stays near zero during the day, I am filling it every four or five hours. I always save the biggest logs, 10-11 inch size, for the very cold parts of the winter.
1/22 It is very cold out, so deep cleaning of the house and reading with chicken bone broth.
1/21 Fourteen hens = 14 eggs. These chickens are very productive.
1/21 Below zero all day today and wind chills under -10. A good day to open a jar of homemade chicken bone broth. Good stuff.
1/20 I organized my books into three bookcases. This is one of them.
1/19 I reduced my board game collection to two shelves. Just the ones I like, very old ones and classic ones. My huge board game collection is worth very little, but my musky lure collection has increased in value.
1/17 Splitting wood is good workout.
1/16 Getting the diesel tractor and wood splitter started and ready to split.
1/16 This hawk that had the bird flu is looking much better. The feathers are cleaner. I had a chicken get the bird flu four or five years ago and I removed it right away and had no problems. I have been lucky, as the bird flu has been found in 3 counties close by in the past two months.
1/16 This opening is very handy for many things. I will run a food grade hose out to the chicken coop to water the chickens.
1/16 The chicken are using more water and feed now that they are laying. This tank lasts quite awhile.
1/16 Getting the basement ready for more firewood. This house uses 16 face cords of wood a year, maybe 17 or 18 on a really cold winter. Burning dry, warm wood that has been in the basement for a bit, makes the wood much more efficient. This is about 30 days worth of wood and as low as I will let it get.
1/15 I am going to have a lot of friends with this many eggs most days.
1/14 “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. – Hippocrates who is considered the father of modern medicine. A large part of my diet is grown or produced right here. It is especially satisfying when the entire meal is. Eggs on a bed of mushrooms, garlic and onions with picked asparagus and red cabbage sauerkraut.
1/13 The hawk with the bird flu is still alive. He is too weak to hunt and is lucky to have found my deer scrap pile. He comes every other day to the pile.
1/11 A rich doctor in town had an auction with modern equipment except for this Allis Chambers “all crop” combine. This the same combine that my dad had when I was growing up. He must have had the same memories as myself for him to keep this around.
1/11 My job usually was to stand on this step to watch and fix things as we were combining crops and to empty the bin when full.
1/11 Looking back, these combines were noisy, dirty, dusty and very dangerous. Back then most farmers including my dad did not keep the combines in the barn (usually a lean-to) and they rusted up. The barn was for hay, grain, animals and the tractor. I have not seen one in decades.
1/11 I add this amount of flax seeds to one fifty pound bag of chicken feed for the omega 3. The eggs should have higher omega 3 than expensive eggs in the store and higher or equal to salmon. I buy flax seeds in bulk.
1/10 The new chickens have started laying. I collected 42 eggs and will get 12-14 everyday. The reason there is so many was because I only was going into the coop once a week. Now I will have to collect eggs every day. When they are picked up daily, they are usually very clean and I don’t have to wash them.
1/8 I eat homemade cornbread and raspberries at least 100 times a year. The time with honey and cinnamon.
1/7 It is nice when the whole meal is grown here or raised here. A large part of my food is from right here. Pulled venison, canned carrots and green beans. I think my very good health over the years is from what I eat and what I don’t eat.
1/6 I have been watching this hawk. I think this bird has the bird flu and may recover, most birds will die within a couple of days, but some make it.
1/10 The hawk is still alive.
1/2 I finished processing the deer meat. I do not add bacon or pork to my burger when grinding, most people do. My burger is very very lean, the minimum fat.
1/2 This grinder is top of the line and I got it at an auction. I have never even had this grinder slow down on anything. I filled two trays of burger to bag up and put in the freezer.
1/2 Making cornbread, one of my weekly chores. I make it with water, not milk with a cup of ground flax seeds for the omega 3. I also use aluminum free baking powder and three eggs. Every plant and animal with a lower omega 6 to omega 3 ratio lives longer.
12/28 Processing the deer. The weather has been good to age the deer and they should be tender.
12/28 I have never found a good way to use the hides and I have tried many ways.
12/28 I got over 60 pounds of rough cut meat. I eat about a pound a week and have not purchased red meat from the store in decades.
12/28 The deer had noticeable amounts of fat. Usually this means a cold winter, but with all the food for the deer around here it is hard to say if this means anything.
12/28 The bees have reduced their numbers to just over a softball size in the hive. These dead bees are the last of the “summer” bees and a few remaining males, who are not allowed in. The hives are 100% female now. Also there are no longer “undertaker” bees to take out and move the dead. That is why the entrance reducer is facing up not down, so bees can walk over dead bees to get out and the entrance won’t be clogged.
12/28 All the hives are treated for mites on the warmest day, 10 days plus or minus from December 21 the winter solstice. The queen has stopped laying eggs and the mites have nowhere to hide. Oxalic acid is vaporized in the hive and then cools in the hive and covers everything in the hive with crystals. The crystals get on the pads of the mites feet and they can’t hang on to the bees and also damages the mites mouth. Mites do not really hurt the bees, but the viruses they bring with them do.
12/28 The oxalic acid is very dangerous and it is recommend to wear a respirator mask. I stand 3/4 yards away upwind. If I were teaching Alex or Nate, I would make them wear one.
12/28 The vaporizer is on for 2.5 minutes, off for 2.5 minutes and the hive is then kept closed for another 10 minutes. The mouse/shrew guards are then put back on.
12/20 I made a better musky lure retriever, known as a “dawg” by fishermen. It works very good from a boat, it doesn’t work for shore fishing. The top carabiner is opened and put on the fishing line. It is then send down and the weight will knock the lure off and/or the chains will tangle with the hooks. It is pulled up with the white rope. This dog can hunt.
12/17 I played bridge with three 90+ year women. It is hard to find people who know how to play this great game. For many years the four richest men in the world would get together and play bridge for a weekend. Buffett, Gates, Bezos and Musk who can do anything, playing bridge says something about the game.
12/17 I do most of reading for the year during the winter, starting about mid December.
12/16 This is a doe that had twins one here one is in the barn. They are the twin fawns I found in my post on 5/16 and that I saw nursing on 6/4. The deer was alone and I didn’t know at the time it was one of these deer.
12/16 I only use my dryer for bed sheets and everything else is dried on racks in the wood room.
12/16 The lid switch came and that solved them problem with the washing machine. It took 30 minutes to find the problem, $10 in parts and 20 minutes to put back together. I have a lot of laundry to do.
12/14 A very good shot.
12/10 I like to make a bed for my eggs. Onions, garlic in bigger cuts, hen of the woods mushrooms and green peppers. All completely change their taste when sauteing them about the same time it takes to cook eggs.
12/10 I only use cast iron for cooking. A person needs iron in their diet not chemistry.
12/6 Deer hunting sure has changed over the years. It can be hard to sit daylight to dusk in a blind, when they are right in the back yard.
12/2 I changed all the filters on the reverse osmosis system. My water does not have any problems that I know of, but I still think it is better to use this water for anything that I eat or drink. I think an RO system is a must for anyone on municipal water.
11/30 Michigan State football, good seats- terrible game.
11/29 The frozen green peppers and hen of the woods mushroom make meals taste wonderful. The mushroom flavor is outstanding.
11/29 The onions and garlic were taken from the breezeway to the basement for winter. I sorted them, not many but some are bad and have to be taken out before they ruin others. They are put in the very dry wood room.
11/27 Chicken hearts are tasty and make a interesting meal.
11/26 The washer stopped working and I had to take it apart to find out why.
11/26 On this washer the circuit board attached to the motor tells you what is wrong. It can blink from 1 to 10 times. The light blinked seven times waits six seconds and blinks seven more times. This is a problem with the lid switch. I ordered one.
11/23 Michigan rabbit breeders state show.
11/19 I turned off the water to the outside facets.
11/19 Years ago the outside facet was not turned off and this had to be patched with part of a hose in the middle of winter.
11/18 Last cleaning of the rain gutters for the year.
11/16 Michigan State vs Notre Dame.
11/16 I miss the game.
11/15
11/13 About 15 doe deer came running out about 10:15 followed by an eight point that was not acting right, then another eight came out and did the same. Then this guy came out, walking. He is king of the hill and gets his pick before the eight point deer do. The deer did not see me much at all their eyes were on him. It was just outside my range and was something to see.
11/13 The new chickens are doing well and should start laying in a month or so.
11/12 My hunting location. I heard a screech owl that was very close and loud at twilight.
11/10 My spot today. At the end of the hunt after daylight as I was about to leave coyotes yelped about 50 yards from me. It still sends a “chill” in me that close. It only last five minutes.
11/8 This is my spot tonight.
11/7 Bees are escorting a male bee to the door. Male bees are no longer welcome in the hive.
11/6 I have increased my range with the bow from practice. It would be very unlikely I would take a shot the far, but its good to know I can.
11/5 I played bridge with three 90+ year old women today. This was the most exciting hand of the match and I was the one playing it. The bidding was eventful and my partner made good responses. I was in five diamonds and everything needed to break my way and it did. I took 11 of the 13 tricks. From the bidding, I knew my partner had the Ace & King of diamonds and one other ace.
11/4 I am adding lighted nocks to my crossbow bolts. They automatically come on when an arrow is shot. It should make a huge difference at last light and tracking a deer.
11/3 I always like to see Sandhill cranes in groups of three this time of year. They were successful raising offspring.
11/1 I buried the fig tree.
11/1 I can see I need to grow it almost parallel to the ground and built a mound for the roots.
11/1 I like to fill 6 to 7 five gallon containers of gas a week before the election and another 6/7 in early February. Its just in case gas and I usually save $30-40 between the price of spring – summer gas.
11/1 Tonight’s hunting spot. The young deer are still with their mothers so the rut is not going quite yet. The mother deer will outrun or run the young deer off when things get going. Right now grunt calls work well because other bucks think someone is getting lucky and they will come in to check it out. The bird population is only 10% of what is used to be, but I did see a huge barn owl. I miss the birds.
10/31 Cleaned the rain gutters as fall rain is coming. The leaf blower does a nice job.
10/30 I was in this blind an hour before the sun rose. The stars were fantastic.
4/30 This is as close as I can get to barn raccoon now. Males can’t be pets they are hard wired to be roaming around and to be a bit of a loner. I took this photo at 4 in the morning. He is still around, all four of his siblings died over the summer from this and that, one at a time.
10/29 Mouse/Shrew guards placed on the bee hives.
10/28 Today’s hunting location.
10/27 I cut bee hive mouse/shrews guards for the hives. Shrews eat bees and mice want a warm place for the winter.
10/27 I organized and checked the bee equipment to plan for next year. I am going to try the demaree method on 12 hives and hopkins queen rearing on one hive and 2 hives to take bees from to make nucs..
10/26 It finally got cool enough to get the deer moving. The next three weeks will be should be exciting. It has been too hot for the deer.
10/25 Chicken gizzards from the chickens butchered this spring. They are ok, not something I would go out of my way to eat.
10/24 I moved some of the deer stands to better locations.
10/23 The barn raccoon is very wild now. I put dog food and water on top of a water tote to see if he is still around. This keeps the skunks and possums out of it and I saw him about 1 in the morning. All light will scare him off.
10/23 Deer hunting and waiting for the right deer takes time. I saw the young muskrat at the pond, so I think he is going to try to winter here.
10/23 There are two large red maple trees in my back yard that are about 60 years old. Male red maple trees generally turn red in the fall, female red maple trees generally turn yellow in the fall.
10/21 A day on the river. I like to canoe as quietly as possible using the minimum ore paddles and just go with the flow of the river. I see more wildlife going slow.
10/21 A canoe seat with a back rest makes the trip relaxing.
10/21 There were a couple tight spots and three very small rapids.
10/21 There were places with many large boulders.
10/21 The colors were good, not great. I saw many deer, turtles, ducks and one bald eagle.
10/20 Fall colors behind the house were below average this year. Could be lack of rain around here.
10/19 Sitting in a tree stand watching animals waiting for the right deer.
10/18 A young muskrat is looking to make a home in the pond. Muskrat populations have declined 50% across the country and in some states over 90%. They were plentiful around here years ago and this is the first one I have seen in quite awhile.
10/17 Spending time in the woods mushroom hunting, deer scouting and blind making.
10/17 There almost no mushrooms growing of any kind, edible or not. It has been too dry. This is turkey tail mushroom and the leading expert on mushrooms in america claims this cured his mother’s breast cancer. It really should be studied more. I have quite a bit of it dried.
10/17 This is the view from a natural blind I made. It is right between two deer scrapes and off to the side 20 yards. It should be a an excellent spot.
10/15 Dehydrating apples and pears.
10/14 My buck deer lure works. They really worked my mock scrapes hard. I think I put too much of my lure in it and they wanted their smell there not my lure smell on the scrape.
10/14 This is the view from tonight’s tree stand. No shots were taken, I only saw does with young deer.
10/12 I went to a chainsaw carving competition. As someone who cuts wood for heat, I can appreciate their skills.
10/12 The carvers had two hours to make these items from a fresh cut log for an auction.
10/12 I went to the animal auction looking for bargains on livestock people don’t want to keep for the winter or don’t want to butcher. It used to be really good deals, but no more. Just when I thought there couldn’t be more immigrants bidding there were. There was at least 10 different ethnic groups including some women in full burkas. They have tripled the price of all animals but rabbits, it really is interesting to see. This auction, you never know whats there from peacocks to emus and everything in between. Immigrants eat a lot of goats!
10/11 I made three mock deer scrapes on the ground where I want them to be when I shoot and put my buck lure on them. One of them was on this deer trail.
10/11 This is the shot from one of the scrapes.
10/11 I put a branch near the scrape so they can put the eye glands scent on it.
10/11 This area is in a huge drought and the pond stayed high until a couple of days ago. It has dropped 18 inches or so.
10/11 The basement windows from 1960 are not built to hold heat well. It causes condensation on the inside of the window. I put left over reflectix over the windows. This keeps the temperature in the basement uniform and keeps the whole house warmer. I had six windows to do.
10/10 I wrapped the hives with reflectix. This may not be needed, but a tree the bees like has an r-value of 5.6-7.5 The wood bee hive has a r-value of .75-.84, so the wrap can’t hurt. I have not lost a hive the last two mild winters.
10/10 I planted a large bed of garlic. It doesn’t take much space to grow a lot of garlic and they were cloves from the bulbs picked earlier this year.
10/9 I filled the chicken – rabbit water barrels. One is outside and one is inside the coop. This gives them all clean water for about two months.
10/9 This bulk chicken feeder can give them food for a couple of weeks. It makes taking care of them easy.
10/9 The barn raccoon is coming around almost every night for a few minutes. He is getting wilder and doesn’t come up to me right away anymore. If I spend time he will let me pet him just a bit. I give him some food just to see him, but I know he can find food on his own. Many first year animals can’t find enough.
10/8 This was the first day that I made a fire in the wood stove for heat as soon as I got up. It is the same date as last year.
10/8 I put hive “hats” on the hives. I have 11 2″ foam boards and 4 boxes that will be filled with straw for 15 hives.
10/8 Two inch foam board insulation is put right on top of the reflectix. The seams are taped with masking tape and the top is put back on.
10/8 The boxes filled with straw, the reflectix is pulled up and put it on top of the straw.
10/8 It didn’t take too long to get the hats on and I did not have to smoke them.
10/8 Burning a campfire over one of the stumps.
10/7 I went to a friends house that told me about the blight resistant Dunstan chestnut trees that I have planted. His trees are 3-4 years older than mine and one of his trees has started to drop nuts. I picked them up as they will be eaten by deer quickly and there were signs of deer under his trees. These trees are so prolific when they are mature that they marketed to trophy deer people.
10/7 I love the taste of chestnuts, my favorite nut.
10/7 The chestnut husk are very sharp and if it is not open, the nut is not ripe.
10/7 I put bee hive entrance reducers on, a bit earlier than most beekeepers. One, I want them in place while it is still warm enough for them to adjust to a smaller entry. Two, it gives the bees plenty of time to “glue” the entrance reducer in. Three, over the next few weeks the bees will kick all male bees out of the hive. With a smaller entrance it helps the bees to kick them out and block their entry. Bees in Michigan go 5 to 6 months a year 100% female. Four, a smaller entry makes harder for mice to enter and easier for bees to defend against them.
10/7 The reducer is put on with the larger opening and the opening facing up.
10/7 When I eat canned venison it is usually from 2017. I took many, many deer that year. I have quite a bit of canned venison stored.
10/7 This homemade buck lure from 2017. Deer nuts in DMSO and food grade glycerin. DMSO is what organ transplants are stored while in transport. I am going to try it on deer this year.
DMSO is an a amazing, powerful substance but dangerous because it will take almost anything with it through the skin.
10/7 The fig tree had about 75 figs on it that would not get ripe before the end of the growing season. I pinched all the figs off but these four to try and make the plant at least get them ripe.
10/7 I cut up bell peppers to freeze and then to bag so they will be easier to use as needed.
10/7 I pickled sweet peppers with water, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, salt and garlic.
10/6 It has not rained in two weeks and the forecast is for no rain for two weeks so I watered all the plants. It took six hours to water all the blueberries, strawberries, the new grape plants and all the fruit-nut trees. I also put straw around all the plants/trees and watered the straw to keep the soil moist and to help the plants for winter. All the swamps and low spots around here are dry and all the animals are coming to the pond!
10/6 The chestnut trees look great and will likely give me some nuts next year.
10/6 Making cornbread, a weekly chore. I don’t buy bread and or bakery items from the store.
10/5 Homemade fermented sauerkraut is brain food. Keeping the stomach happy keeps the brain happy. I made this red sauerkraut last November and jarred it February 1 and it tastes great. It is sour and still firm.
10/5 Bagged up the frozen hen of the woods mushroom bits, it should be easy to use as needed now.
10/5 Homemade soup from everything grown or found here. Chicken bone broth, rabbit meat, hen of the woods mushrooms, canned sweet and sour carrots, pickled asparagus, garlic and onions.
10/5 I was ready to stay up for the northern lights and knew the barn raccoon shows up about 10 pm and tonight he was really happy to see me.
10/5 I have no more rabbit remains to give him so I gave him an egg. He actually followed me in the house for about 30 seconds when I got the egg.
10/5 It was a wonderful night for walking and to spend time in the dark by the pond. I did not see northern lights.
10/4 I went scouting for signs of deer markings and mushroom hunting. Walking in the woods is very good for my mind. There is not many signs of bucks marking their areas yet. The bucks around here don’t have to work or really fight over does because there are so many of them. It is very very dry here for mushrooms and I didn’t find much. Three years in a row of dry poor mushroom hunting. The next good rain there should be large flush of them.
10/4 I did find a couple of hen of the woods mushrooms. Many people consider it the very best tasting mushroom. It is the only mushroom that can go straight into the freezer without cooking and can be used in many recipes. I broke them up into small bits and put them in the freezer and hopefully take out as needed. In asia many people think if you eat or make tea out of this mushroom daily you will never die of a “health” related problem. It has strong medical properties, I think it helps with communication between the brain and everything else. IMHO.
10/4 The barn raccoon is completely nocturnal now just like the big deer are. He comes out about two hours after sunset. I put out some dog food out to see if he was still around as I have not seen him in three days. He let me pet him just a bit. I know he is not moving everything around in the barn anymore and I can keep it “clean”. He is good size for his age.
10/2 It was too hot to deer hunt or walk many miles to mushroom hunt, so I put water barrier on the east wall. This flower garden needs to be replanted.
10/1 It is fall mushroom season. I found a chicken of the woods and a hen of the woods mushrooms today. These mushrooms grow a couple of days unlike morels that get as big as they are going to get in one day. I will come back in a couple of days.
Mail = waynegregg1@gmail.com
Phone = five one seven – 655 – one five five six.
10/1 Raspberries are still producing and a few pears are getting ripe.
9/30 This is my maximum range with this inexpensive crossbow, 37 yards. It is hard to spend more on a crossbow when there is so many deer here.
9/29 I used the disk and a drag on the garden area. This tractor I was unsure of when I first got it, but I have grown to appreciate it.
9/28 All the wonderful mature trees around the house drop a ton of limbs and I have to have a burn pile twice a year.
9/27 I wanted to check the temperature of the pond. I took a jug with fishing weights and let it settle to the bottom for a couple of hours. It is about 63 degrees which is warmer than I thought. It could hold trout, as this is as warm as it will get. This pond has nice shade around it, many ponds get too warm.
9/25 This guy came from behind the barn after the sun went down. We walked the pond-woods area till way after dark. His coat is sooo soft.
9/25 This is why the early deer permits do not work to reduce the deer numbers. Who wants to shoot mom in front of the kids?
9/25 Still picking raspberries. A blackberry plant decided to produce fruit, it may have been a plant I started this year.
9/25 I ran electricity to the chicken coop to operate the automatic chicken door and to keep the water unfrozen in the winter. This door, with the large water barrel and feeder makes taking care of chickens very easy. They are good for a couple of weeks.
9/25 The barn raccoon does not spent much time in the barn anymore, I miss him hanging around with me. I know he still comes by but I don’t see him. He is sleeping somewhere all day.
9/24 The beehives are very strong. All the hives I started this year will have a strong urge to swarm next spring. I hope to use the demaree method of beekeeping to hopefully control swarming next year.
9/23 The west wall also had blocks under three inches of dirt. The water barrier is slanted away from the house. This takes care of the basement moisture for awhile. Taking care of a little problem before it’s a big problem.
9/22 Inflation has come to prices at the consignment auction. I did not buy anything.
9/21 The west side of the house also needs a water barrier. The overhang is smaller, it has no rain gutters and the weather comes from the west and hits the wall. I threw the wood on the west wall into the basement. It was a solid workout. A key to good health is to get head to toe sweaty, and hold it for 20 minutes on a regular – daily basis.
9/20 This guy really likes to eat rabbit carcass, I put one out by the barn most days. I saved them in the refrigerator for him.
9/20 I had not seen the barn raccoon in a couple of days and was a bit concerned. I know he is going out at night carousing.
9/20 The leaf blower also cleans the breezeway quickly too.
9/20 Cleaning the rain gutters with this leaf blower it is quick and gets them very clean. It only takes about half hour start to finish including the setup.
9/20 I placed the blocks where rain would hit from the roof and also slanted the blocks slightly away from the house.
9/20 I took a muskie fishing weight and plum bobbed the edge of the rain gutter, where it could over flow if something went wrong on the roof.
9/20 I leveled the ground away from the house, put down plastic and covered with dirt also sloped away from the house.
9/20 These cement blocks were buried under 2-3 inches of dirt. They were put here in the late 1960’s and the tree above was planted about the same time.
9/20 I had to use the tractor to get this bush out of the ground.
9/19 This house is 64 years old. It was built very well, but the cement back then develops cracks over time. This and the ground settling in back of the house, where not much will grow, has caused moisture to get in the basement. It is not bad, but it won’t get better by itself. I am going to dig up the soil, slant it away from the house and put plastic water barrier down below the surface a bit. It will take a few days.
9/19 I checked out how deep the area I might expand the pond to and got to check out my waders too. It is waist high .
9/18 The combination chicken – rabbit water barrel is working well. They each use their own spouts.
9/18 I took down all the bee swarm traps.
9/18 The raspberries have slowed down with the lack of rain. I am still getting 8-10 containers each picking.
9/17 There has not been a good rain here in a couple of weeks. I watered all the plants and trees.
9/16 The “shallow” end of the pond gets more sun and is a bit warmer. It’s over my head where I am at.
9/16 This cordless saw was able to cut the few sticks that have popped up below the ground a bit.
9/15 I can cook three rabbits at a time in this pressure cooker. I stored this batch of rabbits cooked and in the freezer. I might make rabbit burger later.
9/13 I was visiting friends and went to two unadvertised garage sales and got six aloha shirts for a $1 each. I have close to 100 shirts like these. It is good for the person wearing them and the people who see it. I have a aloha shirt hobby that got too big.
9/13 This guy will kind of let you pet him for just a little bit. He’s a guy too much affection bugs him.
9/12 Taking care of business.
9/12 This pond is COLD, it had to have hit a spring. About one foot down it feels like Lake Superior. Between Marquette and the Soo I lived in the upper peninsula over ten years, I know cold. This changes what fish I might put in the pond.
9/11 I am still burning the tree stump.
9/11 Let the new chickens out of the coop for the first time.
9/11 I got into the two weak hives to combine them.
9/11 This was one of the weak hives, it appears that they have a good queen now and when I looked at them earlier they were between queens. It is too light to make it till next spring, but with good weather coming there is a good chance it can catch up. This is the only hive I will consider feeding to get to spring.
9/11 The other weak hive was not even worth merging and because there was not enough bees to protect the hive, wax moths and other problems get in. The hive needs to be frozen for three days before storage to kill off any problems. I started the big freezer up for the berries and hunting season.
9/10 Picked 18 containers of red raspberries and 7 of the golden raspberries.
9/10 This raccoon is not very good at catching frogs.
9/10 A “lucky” rabbit foot. I butchered most of the rabbits in the colony, it was time and it was getting crowded.
9/9 Raspberries with cornbread is something I eat close to 100 times a year.
9/9 Soon the chickens can leave the coop.
9/96 This barn raccoon that took my tractor key helped me find it. I was looking all over for it and was under the fishing boat when I saw him playing with something. It was the key.
9/6 This steam juicer makes outstanding grape juice with very good flavor.
9/6 I cut down the garlic hanging in the barn. Plenty for myself, planting and to give away.
9/5 I went to use the tractor and the barn raccoon took off with the key somewhere.
9/5 Picked grapes today. A small crop, the grape plants that produced are 60 years old and and way past their prime of 25-30 years. That is why I have planted 15 new grape plants the last two years. Plus I wanted all the grapes to be seedless and different than concord.
9/5 Infused honey I made years ago, on cornbread.
9/5 I took out all the mite treatments and there are 15 strong hives and two weak ones. The queen is in the bottom box and the second box is full of honey. Many of them I had a hard time lifting them to get the treatment out, they were so heavy. Which is a very good sign and it appears I didn’t lose a hives to the mite treatments.
9/5 This hive is weak, It is one of the swarms I caught and it is an old queen that is out running out of eggs. She never produced enough worker bees for the bees to raise a new queen. I will find the queen and kill her and merge it with the other weak hive.
9/5 My freezer is full with berries so I looked to get something out and found this deer heart, deer heart is a super food.
9/5 The raspberries are getting bigger, but it was an average year for them. I had hoped for a bumper crop, there is a ways to go till frost.
9/4 The strawberry plants look solid. One of many keys to good production of strawberries next year is getting the plants big and strong going into winter. The fig tree grew well and is starting to fruit. In Michigan it is hard for the figs to fully mature, these may or may not get ripe. As the tree gets older and larger they will.
9/4 I cleaned the wood stove and it’s chimney. The stove is ready for cold weather.
9/4 I water sealed the cement and sandstone chimney as there can be cracks over time and sandstone can absorb some water. I have not had any problems and doing this prevents them.
9/41 I put it on thick and it dries clear.
9/4 Waterproofing the sandstone window seals and in any small cracks also prevents having issues. One hour of water sealing once a year is time well spent.
9/3 The rabbits are happy with the colony setup.
9/3 A mushroom log I put by the back porch a couple of years ago.
9/3 This guy has gained weight and muscle. He wants to roughhouse sometimes and I have to wear gloves.
9/3 I try to walk by the pond twice a day, it’s quite relaxing and peaceful.
9/1 These chickens produce the eggs that are in stores. Regular chickens live 6-8 years, these live 2-3 years. They start laying in four months and give a egg every day with no break. Regular chickens lay at six months and produce 5-6 eggs week and then much less as they get older. They also take a couple of months off in the fall/winter. They are not a good looking bird.
8/30 Starting new blackberry plants. I can see myself selling extra blackberry and raspberry plants next spring.
8/30 I dug up the amaryllis plants to get them ready to go dormant and then bloom.
8/28 The rabbits were acting funny in the colony, it was because some of the young rabbits have left their box.
8/27 Four mother turkeys were in the backyard with their little ones for half hour, walking all over and around the chicken – rabbit pen.
This guy likes to play in the water more than catching things to eat.
8/26 The mite treatment is a natural product, however I do not treat for mites when honey supers are on just to be safe. I treat just before honey supers go on and right after they come off. The product is so concentrated that it kills the grass in front of the hive.
8/26 The chicks are almost fully feathered. It was so hot and humid today, I had to spend time in the basement man cave, it’s refreshing down there after working up a sweat doing things. The stones of this fireplace came from this property.
8/26 Today’s picking of raspberries.
8/26 The raspberries are getting a bit larger. The golden raspberries have a short window for picking and their shelf life is less than red ones. You will not see them in a store often.
8/25 I had to open the back of the hives because of the temperature. The mite treatments upper limit is 85 degrees and it is 87 and 89/92 the next two days. I have not lost a queen or colony to treatments, but I might this year. The high temperature releases the “chemo” too fast. It has to be done at this time.
8/24 The bees don’t want to go in the hive with the mite treatments on. The mite treatment is also hard on bees and like chemo it can kill a hive or cause it to swarm. It has to be done or the bees won’t make it till spring. Mites do not hurt the bees that much, but the viruses they give the bees do.
8/23 Butchered a rabbit today. Any rabbit that has lived on the ground and there has not been a hard frost, you must wear gloves. I can see why rabbit is not popular here and why it is very popular in other places, it’s an interesting meat.
8/23 This guy gets three meals out of each rabbit. When it is butchered, when it is cooked and when I eat it. I give him the guts away from the barn or he will drag some of it in and make a mess.
8/23 Treated all the hives for mites. This is like Chemo to the hive for two weeks and is the single most important thing to do for the bees to make it past winter and into the spring. The “winter” bees that live six months will be eggs starting in about two weeks. I need the mite numbers to be as low as possible when their eggs are capped. Mites jump in just before it is capped and weaken the young bees. Summer bees that live 4-6 weeks are feed a balanced omega 6/3 feed. Winter bees are feed only omega 3s.
8/22 Started a fire to burn the stump up and it turned into a nice campfire.
8/22 This fig tree and the horseradish grew well this year.
8/22 Fertilized all the plants. The strawberries need to be as big as I can get them going into winter, and I hope it helps the raspberries get larger.
8/21 Weed whipped about half the pond edge, I might put a small sandy beach in next year.
8/21 Raspberries are small this year and the plants are smaller in height. I hope they get bigger, as raspberries will produce until frost.
8/21 Put away the honey supers for the year. I put moth ice crystals ever six supers. When bees only have to repair comb vs building comb, they produce much more honey.
8/21 There are three places this raccoon likes to hang out at, one of them is the maple tree in the back yard.
8/21 Without a heat lamp the chicks are getting feathers fast.
8/18 Cornbread with 1 cup of flax seeds for omega 3. I grind the flax seed just before mixing.
8/18 There is almost too many deer now days. I remember when pheasants were in incredible numbers and now they are all gone.
8/17 I found this young snapping turtle in the pond today.
8/17 The chicks are doing well, in a couple of weeks they will be able to leave the coop.
This is my way of keeping this guy from following me, an egg. It takes a bit for him to open and eat them.
8/16 I need the honey supers completely clean before they go into storage. It is raining off and on for three days so staggered and covered them.
8/16 Instead of calling I stopped by six friends homes today.
8/15 It’s berry season.
8/14 Harvested the honey. I didn’t expect any this year because of all the splits, taking eight hives to eighteen. I got $1,000 of honey at the wholesale price and it is already sold. The bees do the final cleanup of the honey left in the supers. My net this year is about a positive $600. I think in the future years, I will net more than $4,000 (wholesale) or more if one wants to sell retail and make nucs for sale. I hope Nate or Alex will take up beekeeping.
8/12 These are called bee escapes. They are put on between the hive and the honey supers. For a few days bees cannot figure out how to get back up in the supers. I want all the bees out of the honey supers to make the honey harvest much easier. I checked the hives and two have lost their queen. It happens. I think I lost one when I did splits and one is from an unknown reason. A ton of things can go sideways on a hive.
8/12 Started picking raspberries, quite early this year. The chicks are off to a good start. When I get chicks in august, I don’t need any heat lamp.
8/12 Curing onions and poppy heads.
8/11 Harvested onions, I tried a new way of growing them and it didn’t work out and they are small. Still plenty for me for this year and I have many jars of dried onions.
8/9 They had chicks for 50 cents and I miss my egg laying chickens, so I purchased some chicks, ISA browns.
8/9 I got close to this buck on my walk, the elderberries are ripe.
8/7 Two rabbits had kits in the boxes and piled dirt in front of them.
I need to harvest rabbits this week.
8/6 I was in four clubs and made it. Bridge is a great game.
8/5 I cleaned up the old rabbit setup. Someday it will be used again, either by Nate or Alex, the bird flu or hard times.
Some bugs were circling for some reason in a few spots in the pond.
8/5 This guy was following me so I stopped at the edge of the pond for a bit and he came close. When he wasn’t paying attention, I threw him in the pond, he floats like a bobber.
8/4 This guy has caused me to keep the barn a bit tidy. He gets into or touches everything.
Cornbread with aluminum free baking powder and flax seeds. Every bread, cracker, cookie at the store uses a baking powder that breaks down to aluminum in the body, then if there is a break or weakness in the blood brain barrier it gets in. IMHO.
8/3 I moved my fire ring over this stump and hope to have a campfire over it and burn it away.
8/2 Blackberry picking.
8/1 I went into all 18 bee hives to really evaluate them, so I can make decisions for mite treatments and winter. This hive has between 40 to 50 thousands bees in it, so when working this apiary I am dealing with over 750,000 bees. They have no problem sending their whole army at the beekeeper. The key is to smoke all the hives first and that is why there is two smokers in the photo. Then go back and re-smoke the hive to work on and keep smoking them hard. You cannot smoke the hives enough this time of year.
7/31 This dried yarrow is very good for cuts and into a tea for colds. The hammock is good mental medicine.
7/29 The blackberries are going to come on strong the next couple of weeks.
Almost overnight this colony of gypsy moths was on a plum tree and I burned it off with a newspaper and almost caught the orchard on fire. I had to run and get the hose.
7/29 Trimmed the hedges and trying to make a rose arbor.
7/29 Fertilized the fig tree and amaryllis bulbs.
7/28 This is a common lunch for me, cornbread and fruit. Using different fruits allows me to eat cornbread all the time. My good health is half what I eat and half what I do not eat.
Hanging the garlic in the barn to completely dry.
7/27 I fertilized the blueberries, strawberries and grapes. The apple trees will give some fruit the year, but the most of the trees and plants are a few years from full production.
7/27 I jacked up the chicken coop for the rabbits to have more room under it. The nesting boxes were put in different spots in the fenced in rabbit colony/chicken yard.
7/24 I picked five containers of blackberries and all I could eat. It’s more than a week early this year.
7/22 Harvested the garlic. The bulb were large this year.
7/22 The cherry tree with leaf spot problems needs to be raked before mowing or it will cause the problem to be worse next year. The fungus over winters in the ground around the tree.
7/20 Every time I was able to catch the raccoon and he would let me, I would squeeze the large the large lump under his skin. I was able to push the lump to the somewhat healed opening and eventually this large maggot came out. It’s about 3/4 of an inch long and almost a half inch wide.
7/19 This is how many young animals die, from a bug bite. This was a open sore yesterday about 1/2″ by 1/4″. He has chewed the hair away and it has healed a bit. There is a large lump under his skin near this wound. I put iodine on the outside and gave him a bit of antibiotics. I hope that I won’t have to lance it, but probably will have to.
7/18 Some of the poppy pods are ready to harvest. I put some old car carpets on the fig tree to help it grow on a angle so I can bury it this winter.
7/17 One of my hives swarmed. I usually hear a swarm before I find it, they make sound beekeepers know. Swarms now are a sign of a healthy hive and natural. Swarms after mid/late July are not worth getting, they are queens going thru menopause and the hive has asked her to leave or kicked her out. This swarm was high in a apple tree and I could not reach it from the ladder. I tried to take a pole to knock it down lower or to the ground. Big Mistake. The pole I was using was a pipe and some of the bees came thru the pipe right at my face when I started to shake the swarm.
7/17 One peach tree is almost ready to pick and they taste fantastic. The garlic is also ready to dig up.
7/17 One of the cherry trees and a plum tree have “cherry leave spot”. I need to rake all the infested leaves and treat with the correct copper fungicide this winter and next spring before the leaves unfold next year.
7/16 So far the colony of rabbits is working out. I can see harvesting will be harder.
7/16 I am going to need more than one cup of coffee here in the mornings.
7/15 I made a quick check on all the bee hives. With this hive, it needed a queen excluder and a honey super added. All the bees that can fly are out of the hive right now and it is the reason people look in the hives during the hottest part of the day. In total, eight supers were added to the hives. One hive is incredibly strong, three are somewhat “lazy” and fourteen are as expected.
I found this caterpillar in my travels today. It is a Abbott’s Sphinx Moth and that green almost glows.
7/15 This is the last of the fruit in the freezer from last year. It is a couple of weeks from this years picking, and I am looking forward to trying my canned fruit. It looks like this years raspberries will double and the blackberries will be significantly greater too, so I will have to can quite a bit.
Cornbread, blackberries covered with honey.
7/12 I put this blind here hopefully to drink my morning coffee in.
I took some old dog food and threw it in a bowl of water and this guy was pretty excited about it.
7/7 I can’t out run this guy and he can track me by smell anywhere. He will not leave the blueberries alone if I am in the orchard area. I checked and this raccoon is a male and he will leave when he matures.
7/5 Sometimes you need to recharge yourself with a good sunset. I lived in Charlevoix for a few years and it had the very best sunsets.
FYI – waynegregg1@gmail.com
7/4 What is July 4 without a pie eating contest and boat parade! The pie eating event was a photo finish and ended in a tie.
The Detroit lions boat was the winner.
7/3 No shirt, no shoes, no problems.
7/1 The buck was the last rabbit to go into the colony. There are close to 25 rabbits in the colony now.
7/1 I put the rabbit feed inside this shelter. I will also put hay in there in the winter when there is no grass. The rabbit that got out, but I can’t catch, had a very, very close call with something.
7/1 I picked and am drying some yarrow. I have a very large collection of medical plants stored, that I have not really used or needed, just a hobby.
The garlic bulbs are going to be huge.
7/1 I cleaned out the chicken coop. The fast growing chickens grow in two months what a normal chicken would take eight months, but you get eight month’s of manure! I put it around the strawberries, grapes and the new cherry trees.
6/30 This rabbit setup was made for a family of 4/5 or if the bird flu wiped out chickens. For just myself, I plan to raise rabbits in a colony with 3/4 hens and one rooster all in one pen. The young rabbits have been in the area for a few days, today I added the 3 mother rabbits to the pen.
6/30 I drilled holes in the water barrel, so it can water both chickens and rabbits.
6/29 A bee working a poppy flower.
I took the amaryllis bulbs and put them in the hole for the fig tree for the summer. They need to be feed heavily now to get flowers in the winter.
6/29 I put weed barrier and then straw around the new cherry trees, english walnut trees, chestnut trees and last years grape plants.
6/28 Chicken bone broth is so tasty and filling, it does something good for my skin.
I caught a year old possum in the trap for the rabbit. I let it go and it is already very lucky, 95%+ possums never make it their first year.
6/28 I put wire under the chicken yard fence to ween the rabbits into. Young rabbits really run up the feed bill, with this set up they may grow out slower, but I don’t have to feed them or water them. I will water them but they can get all their water needs right now from just the grass.
6/27 I put weed blocker and then straw around the new grape plants. Once they get bigger, the small fence will be removed as the rabbits and deer will leave them alone.
I have caught all the rabbits that got out, but one. This rabbit might be too smart to trap and likes to watch me from a distance, so I see him 3/4 times a day.
6/25 I played bridge today, the bidding took me to five diamonds and I went down one. I was hoping my partner had the ace of spades. Its a great game.
I went to take a photo of triplets and twins playing, when another pair of twins came out.
6/24 I am still eating raspberries from the freezer from last year. I will have at least twice as big of a harvest this year, so I have to figure out what to do with them this year.
6/23 This guy is following me on my walks, so I have been walking to different areas.
Canned the chicken bone broth, it is the hardest canned item to get a good seal. Four cans did not seal and are in the fridge. I will have a cup or two of bone broth everyday for a couple of weeks. Like many canned items it tastes very good, but does not look good in the jar.
6/22 Rabbits have a really hard time above 90 degrees. I have only lost adult rabbits to heat never to cold weather. Male rabbits, wild and domestic are sterile when the temp is over 85 and stay that way for a bit. I didn’t lose any rabbits with this heat wave.
6/21 I am somewhat of a cured garage sale addict, but I still go sometimes. I went to one in a wealthy neighborhood where 2-3 people who were not having a sale put items out for free. This stereo was free, it is all pioneer and top of the line a couple of years ago. I had to get it, the guy even helped me load it. His son went to college and there is nothing wrong with it.
6/21 I make a bone broth using chicken legs. I wash them, cut off the nails and put them in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Then they are rinsed and new water is added with the leg and wing bones added. Just the bones no ligaments. Then I will bring them to a boil and simmer many times over the next couple of days. Chicken feet have all the healthy collagen and minerals but no flavor at all. Leg and wing bones have great flavor and not much collagen.
6/20 I canned the second batch of legs and wings.
6/20
6/19 This buck will have a nice rack this year. I have been improving the asparagus beds each year and it looks pretty good.
6/19 Cleaned and started this boat. This boat has been on every major body of water in Michigan usually many times. A few times I stayed out too late and had to spend the night on the boat because I couldn’t find the boat launch in the dark, thousand island lake near watersmeet and east grand traverse bay were two of them.
6/18 I looked all the hives and if it looked like the bees were filling the second deep hive box, I added a queen excluder and a honey super to start collecting honey. You never want the bees to feel crowded between may and late august or they will want to swarm. Now that the hives have been at this spot for a bit and settled, I then also balance the hives.
6/17 It is way too hot to do much outside, so I spent time in my man cave. Most people can guess what subject comes up often.
6/17 I canned the legs and wings from the first batch of chickens.
I sometimes use chia seeds instead of flax seeds to get the omega 3 in my cornbread. No bread from the store is safe to eat IMHO.
6/15 I had a bonfire.
6/15 I caught one of the young rabbits running around the house and put it back with it mother and siblings.
6/15 Harvested the rest of the chickens. I keep things very clean. One chicken was only about 2/3 the size of the others and after looking at it’s organs I didn’t butcher it. There may have been nothing wrong with it, but not for me. A chicken factory wouldn’t bat an eye at it.
The breasts are huge.
6/15 It took about five chickens until this guy came out of the barn to check things out. He would grab something go somewhere and then come back for more. He made quite a mess of himself.
6/15 I went to the egg auction today. They are sold by the box with between about 20 to 50 dozen eggs in each box or group. You have to buy to whole box/boxes, so lots of over 25 dozen I did not bid on. There eggs were big and FRESH went for between $2.10 to 2.60 a dozen. I have not purchased eggs in many years and the last time I paid .85 cents a dozen here. Three people bought over 100 dozen eggs each!
6/14 I got the fishing boat out and cleaned. Starting the motor the first time is hard and I use this homemade tool to get it going. After it is up running it starts with one pull.
6/14 Just a little fermented food (asparagus) with a meal makes the food that much better and better for your health.
6/13 Flying a kite is a hoot!
90 degree days are coming and I will be swimming.
6/13 Chicken breasts four to a package to the freezer.
6/13 I had to water all the plants and trees, it took half the day with both sides of the house.
6/13 I woke up to no water for coffee. I went to the well pit and turned on the light to check for power. Then I know the well pit is well insulated for winter, but in the summer, at times, there is too much moisture and the switch connectors will not contact, so I love tap this switch and it kicked on and everything is running. I will keep this door open for a day or two to dry the air in the pit. I changed this pump in 2019 and this is the first time I have had to do this. Over time the moisture will cause this pump to fail, over about 5-10 years, still with about $108 for water, heat and electricity a month it is a sweet deal.
6/12 I sold three buckets of honey. That payed for the russian queens and the mite treatments for all the hives for the year +. I really have got to work on selling honey this year.
The marshmallows are to distract the barn raccoon if I don’t a want him to follow me or I am working on something where he could get hurt. It takes awhile for him to chew them and he forgets everything for a bit.
6/12 A mother with three fawns coming to the pond. Elderberry plants are in bloom.
6/12 When I get a bit tired mid afternoon I take two or three spoonful’s of honey straight down followed by a cup of coffee. A new spoon for each spoonful.
6/11 The middle hive has a bunch of bees taking their first flights and they orienting to the hive location.
6/11 English walnut trees have been hard for me to get going, I think I have two trees that will grow now.
I stopped picking asparagus, harvest should only last five to six weeks here.
6/11 The chicken gizzards cleaned and ready to cook. The chicken coop has a six + inches of straw and manure. I am adding a light layer of new straw daily.
6/11 Some idiot (me) left a rabbit cage door open and a few young rabbits got out. I caught a couple of them , but there are two or three running around the house.
Getting to know the neighborhood.
6/10 Butchered half the broiler chickens. These are six gallon buckets, one for breast and one for legs and wings. I am always surprised how much meat is on each bird. This table is moved to keep in the shade as I work.
I have to let them rest for three days in the refrigerator and it can only hold two buckets at a time.
6/10 I also keep the hearts, livers, gizzard and feet.
This guy thought it was a wonderful day.
I put my contact info down a bit to prevent hackers/spam – waynegregg1@gmail.com and five17 six5five onefive56. If you know me say hi!!
6/10 I am surprised how many bees are getting water every time I walk around the pond.
6/9 I might get some figs this year.
6/9 The poppy garden was a failure, so now it is squash and pumpkin patch.
6/9 Some poppy plants did come up, so i didn’t weed them to get seeds to try again next year differently.
6/9 Something took a bite out of most of the new grape plants, so I put up this old fence for right now.
6/9 I have enough minnow traps!
6/8 I cleaned out the rain gutters with this leaf blower, it only takes about half hour to do and prevents many problems.
I tasted the fermenting asparagus and it was just how I like it, sour and firm, so I put it in the refrigerator to stop the fermentation.
6/8 I weeded the orchard area, it doesn’t take to long with this setup. Weeding has a therapeutic aspect to it.
Something is eating my heritage raspberry leaves, and not much of the other types of raspberries. I will have to do something if it gets worse.
6/7 The old cherry trees are growing fruit and the new cherry trees have taken well to transplanting.
6/7 I am still picking asparagus, at this time I only pick ones bigger than a pencil and let the small ones get stronger. I pickled today’s harvest with pickling spices, garlic and whole peppercorns.
6/7 I was working in the barn for an hour and went out to look at the bee hives. I didn’t see this guy follow me and he learned about beehives.
6/7 I wont have chicks being born for the first time in years. The fox family got my three older hens and rooster in mid May. They were old hens anyway. This is about when I would look for newly hatched chicks. I also had to buy eggs for the first time in along time. Also the rabbit running around the house died.
6/4 I was able to watch this doe and twins for over a half hour.
6/3 The chickens getting some exercise and sunlight. Factory chickens never see the light of day.
This is a rabbit that had a open sore at birth that never healed. Usually they die young, but this one I didn’t want to kill so I let it go and it is still alive a month later, living around the house. This is the barn raccoon that follows me around, they are meeting.
6/3 The young rabbits are growing fast.
6/2 I pulled all the entrance reducers out and the whole bottom is open for the bees to go in and out. It gets them a bit mad and you have to have a bee suit on and be ready, sometimes the reducer is stuck on and comes off with a jerk.
I am adding flax seed to the chicken’s feed for omega 3. I put this amount mixed in each 50 pound bag the last two weeks before harvest. With these chickens also eating grass the omega 3 should be equal to or greater than salmon.
There was about ten years when I went morel mushroom hunting almost everyday for about three weeks, after work and weekends.
My dad, a friend and myself filled these coolers in one weekend about this time of year.
6/1 I see this doe and fawn two or three times a day.
5/31 The strawberry plants all took off well and the raspberries are going to be very good this year.
5/30 I liked how the colored hives looked, so I painted the rest of the honey supers and nuc boxes different colors.
5/30 Fermented Asparagus with red onions.
5/27
5/25 Fermenting asparagus and garlic.
I am still eating venison from 2017 when I could shoot unlimited deer, so to speak, CWD. It still tastes great.
5/25 This is why I need a fence around the orchard – deer and rabbits.
The young rabbits are running all over and it is hard to get a photo of them, they run to the other side of the cage.
5/24 I treated all the hives for mites and put a second deep hive body on all the hives. I use biodegradable dish clothes, food grade glycerin and Oxalic acid. This is first time I have looked in the hives in almost a month, since the splits with the new queens.
5/24 This was the first hive I went into and had the least amount of bees of all the hives. Some hives were completely full of bees. All bees that can fly are out getting nectar and pollen, when all the bees are in this hive it is stronger than it appears. This treatment is popular in europe and is taking off here the last few years.
5/24 Second hive bodies go on and reflectix is put on top with no inner cover. The reflectix makes a big difference.
5/24 I don’t have to do anything to the hives now for awhile.
5/23 I put frames in all the new hive deeps. I am slowly switching over to all plastic frames in the bee hives. Bee comb collects all the “bad” stuff bees run into like pesticides and gets old from all the bees reusing and walking on it. The comb needs to be replaced after so many years, with plastic I can power wash the frame and reuse, wood frames are generally thrown out.
5/23 I try to make to fast growing chicks get exercise by chasing them out of the coop.
5/22 Cleaned, sanded and painted the second deep body for the new hives.
5/22 Watered all the plants and trees, it took four and half hours to get to everything.
5/21 I knew there were raccoons in the barn somewhere, so I turned the lights off and made a sound like a mother coon a few times and this guy came out. He has no teeth and was upset with me tickling him. The mom is starting to weening them.
5/21 I got to play bridge today with my 90+ year old friends.
5/21 I found another fawn, this time it took off after a bit.
5/20 The young rabbits have started to open their eyes.
5/20 I filled both the rabbit and chicken water tanks. Rabbits really use a lot of water when it hits 85+ degrees. I like to put a cup or two of vinegar in their water for good health.
5/19 The blueberries are setting fruit and the fig tree took right off.
5/19 Put wire fence around the new trees.
5/19 This was likely the trophy buck I was chasing last year. It is hard to see, but this is a very large deer body wise and has 6″+ velvet horns already. This is an old smart deer.
5/18 I replaced the apricot tree and planted three cherry trees ( 2 sweet and one tart) and one english walnut tree. I am done planting trees.
5/18 It is nice when the entire meal is from foods produced right here.
5/17 I moved the swarm to the rest of the hives. The chickens needed their water barrel refilled after just 7 days.
5/16 I found a bee swarm. I cut the branches they were on and the bees went to the ground instead of staying on the branches. After many attempts and a short rain I got them to go into this box.
5/16 The three onion beds are off to a good start. I had to prop up a couple of limbs on the fruit trees with tree branches.
5/16 This is a doe with twins and I found them.
They were about 12′ apart.
They were traveling on this path to the sunlight. One in the photo and the other in the higher brush.
5/16 The chickens are half way done. I went from a heat lamp to opening all the windows now. I might have to use a fan later.
5/16 A good nesting box vs one that needs to be repaired. The opening should knock the kits off in the box when she leaves. The other box has too big of an opening and I have had to put them back in twice a day. If this was winter they would not have made it.
5/14 I have been eating asparagus everyday. Just picked is very good for flavor. Still dehydrating most of it.
5/13 I found this fawn on my walk, a couple of days early. I saw many does still pregnant. I got close but didn’t touch, its front legs were still a bit wet.
5/13 I moved the chicken coop and put up a fence. I am not going to free range anymore for many reasons.
5/12 I have to give new straw bedding to the chickens every day.
5/11 I took the limb separators off all the trees. They did their job an all the trees look better with them off.
5/10 This diesel heater makes the camper good for all four seasons. I made this cover for rain and snow. It is a quick dry very warm heat that I could heat a tent at the same time with a t split. It has a remote control that can be controlled from inside the camper and it is quiet.
5/10 The fast growing chickens also drink a lot of water. This barrel keep gives them plenty of clean fresh water. All three doe rabbits had kits, I see the ball of fur moving.
5/9 Washed and checking the camper out.
I am trying to figure out what do do with old farm equipment. I pulled this wagon to the elevator many times with a tractor full of wheat, soybeans, rye, and corn.
5/9 The fig tree started to grow and the garlic looks great.
5/8 All the strawberry plants are taking off and the raspberries look very good.
5/8 Butchered rabbits and completely filled a six gallon bucket, just as 3 does will be giving birth tonight or Thursday.
5/6 I put up one of the swarm traps in one of the tree stands. All the bee hive splits appear to be working out.
5/6 I am very lucky in that I get to drive a tractor regularly. It keeps me young.
5/6 The asparagus is coming on strong. The only way I can keep up is to dehydrate. It will not can well and is too much to freeze.
5/4 Getting the swarm traps ready. My secret is use “fresh” old frames and to melt bees wax to brush on the inside of the box. Then as the wax is cooling I will almost wax the entrance almost shut. Bee can smell fresh wax.
5/4 The blueberry plants look really nice, so I fertilized them and put a light cover of straw around them to keep the roots damp.
5/4 A bleeding heart bush, it is the opium poppy’s red headed cousin. They are very closely related plant wise. The medicine is in the roots.
Trilliums rarely grow outside the woods, these grow behind the garage every year.
5/4 With this water barrel and large feeders setup I do not have to check on the chicks for days.
5/4 A Himrod white seedless grape plant that was planted a year ago. They really jump in years 2-5.
5/4 Cooking Salmon. I try to take selenium with all seafood. Salmon has just as much mercury as other fish, but salmon naturally has selenium in it that binds to mercury so humans do not digest it. I think the selenium also helps with PFAS removal. The key is they must match up in the stomach, so I take one after the first bite and the second one 2/3 of the meal.
5/4 I make this cornbread 50-55 times a year.
5/4 Asparagus is picked every other day. Soon it will fill this basket completely to the top twice in one picking.
5/4 Oyster Mushrooms I found on my walk. It is a carnivorous fungus, preys on small worms – slugs that crawl and live on the logs, by using a toxin that paralyzes the prey within minutes of contact. Cooking makes them safe to eat and they are popular but I don’t care for them. All the deer doe are as big as cows, they will be a ton of fawns to find and many first time mothers.
5/3 There is a reason they are called strawberries, I surrounded all the strawberry plants with straw.
5/3 I trellised the Blackberry plants on four wires. I did the same with raspberries four wires.
5/3 Apple blossoms.
5/2 I dug up a fig tree that i put under ground for the winter. I am trying to grow this fig tree on a 30 degree angle so that it can be buried each winter. It will be interesting to see how it grows.
5/2 The first flush of asparagus. I also think this times with the first morel mushroom flush, young owls on the ground, most turkey hens have mated now and the young raccoons are moving around often.
5/1 I planted three beds of onions, one red, yellow and white.
4/30 Planted 25 strawberry plants each of four types of June bearing strawberries. One kind that ripens a week early, two about in the middle and one that ripens a week later.
4/28 The chicks have adapted well to the coop.
4/27 I plant 10 grape plants near the back fence of the orchard in a mix of 50/50 soil and rabbit manure. Five are Marquis white seedless and five are Vanessa red seedless. These are good for table, juice or raisin grapes. There now are five kinds of grapes growing around the house.
4/27 While blueberries regrow most of their roots, they do it in only a couple of months. I am planning on feeding ever two weeks for two months. These plants are four years old and won’t be mature until they are eight years old.
4/27 This is the queen box put between frames for the bees to eat the sugar and release her. Just to make sure, I set the queen box on top of the hive for a few minutes to see if the bees feed her or try to kill her. I did not find all the queens so this is to double check the split. If there is already a queen in the box they will try to kill her.
4/27 There are two corks on each queen cage, one is a direct release and one has sugar also blocking the exit. I uncork the sugar end and run a small nail through the sugar before they go in the hives.
4/27 I moved all the broiler chicks into the chicken coop.
4/27 The russian queen bees came in today. I picked them up at the post office about 7:30 am.
4/26 Split all the hives. It might be the most stressful part of beekeeping. Each queen is different, each hive is different and you must make decisions on the spot with each hive. Its like a new chess game with each hive. I had little room for error making ten additional hives from eight over wintered hives.
4/25The chickens have grown quite a bit in one week, I plan on moving them to the chicken coop Saturday.
4/24 Mowed off the asparagus beds. Just in the nick of time, I found two up yesterday. These two beds produce an amazing amount of asparagus.
4/24 Cut refectix to put on the top of the new hives to help them keep warm and use less energy. I am thinking of using insulation year round on the hives.
4/24 I was teasing the rooster trying to get him to scrap. He got the best of me and has a big head now. I put Iodine, the great healer on the cuts.
4/24 Rabbits are growing fast.
4/24 Just walking by the pond is relaxing.
4/24 I put a 5 gallon bucket of rabbit manure around all the fruit and nut trees.
4/24 This is the last day I will pickup eggs. A hen always starts to sit around May 15 and hatches between 11-13 chicks. This year I think she will start early.
4/23 The blueberry plants are doing very good. I hope it won’t frost this week.
4/23 This is a white peach tree.
4/23 All the almond trees look great for coming out of their first winter.
4/22 I put my homemade miracle grow on the raspberries, blackberries and grapes. (rabbit manure)
4/22 The chicks grow faster when you take away the feed about 1/2 the time. It forces them to sleep more. They go crazy for a bit when you give them food.
4/22 I went into all eight hives and have just enough to do ten splits. Three hives can be split twice and four hives can be split into one additional hive and one hive cannot be split.
4/20 I could make this cornbread in my sleep. I have not purchased bread, milk or sugar from the store for myself in 20 years. I make this cornbread with water, flax seeds, an extra egg and aluminium free baking powder.
4/19 Moved all eight hives behind the barn and setup the hives for the 10 new queens that will be shipped monday. I moved the hives because I want to see nothing but nature out the kitchen table and sink windows.
4/19 I tape the entrance shut and leave it shut for a day or two when moving hives.
4/18 I went looking for morel mushrooms and only found wildlife.
4/16 I purchased my chicken for the year, these 30 chicks will be finished in about seven weeks.
4/15 I started to plug mushroom logs. These are oak logs that I cut one year ago that I hope the natural tree defense is gone. I have kept them off the ground and out of the woods so other mushrooms spores have not started.
4/15 Start a campfire on a non windy day with garage sale pots filled with water to sterilize everything.
4/15 After pouring boiling water on the log and work area, I drill 1″ holes about three inches apart all over the log.
4/15 I then with nitrite gloves and a clean hammer pound the plugs into the holes. I try to do this in the shade as the UV light is hard on the mushroom spores. This spawn was purchased, but I have made my own.
4/15 Melting wax on the campfire in water. The mushroom plugs are covered with wax.
4/15 I then put the mushroom logs behind the barn, so they will get water from the barn roof and will be in the shade. I water them a few times and in a day or two they will be covered with new dark landscape fabric. Next year at this time I will take these logs and put them in the woods and they will start producing.
4/15 Starting to get finished bees wax just in time to plug logs. Each log uses a lot of wax.
4/10 One chicken laid a “mini” egg. The other egg is a regular one..
4/10 Blueberries replace about 85% of their roots every year. They have very fine roots close to the surface. Before a good rain and just after the buds are breaking open I give each plant a tablespoon of acid loving plant fertilizer on top of the soil surrounding the plant.. The blueberry plants look very good with many flower buds.
4/10 I cleaned the chicken coop and put the straw/manure in the onion bed, garlic bed and raspberries.
4/9 Made holes for the new grape plants. I hope to train them on the back fence of the orchard.
4/9 Another Amaryllis plant bloomed and two more on the way. I think that I know how to get them to come back each year after many many attempts.
4/8 Breed the rabbits today, the day after I weened them from kits. You look for at least three “fall offs” like this to make sure they are breed well.
4/8 Weed block for the new strawberry plants coming this week. I am going to plant about 100.
4/7 The pair of geese have picked a spot for a nest by the pond. I saw a fox less then 40 yards from their nest, It looked healthy, yet thin, likely a mother fox looking for food.
4/7 Cleaned the rabbit cages and weened three groups of young rabbits.
4/6 There are seven very strong hives and one average hive and they ready to just explode in population.
4/6 Started melting the bees wax that didn’t get finished in the fall. I will clean this and run it in this melter a couple of times to get a clean wax.
4/6 Cleaned out rabbit cages to ween the rabbits tomorrow.
4/5 Sometimes in the spring the bees will get caught outside the hive when the temperature drops fast. They look dead but when the sun warms up tomorrow they will “wake up” and fly again.
4/2 The bees and myself enjoy all the flowers around the house.
4/2 Refurbishing deep hive frames for the new hives.
4/2 These two geese have been coming to the pond every day. It appears they want to have a nest here. I need to make wood duck boxes.
4/1 I started to work on finishing the sauna.
4/1 This apricot tree died. Two prior years it frosted hard when it was in bloom and it had very few leaves. This tree bloomed way before any of the others and was not right for my zone. I pulled it up with the tractor and will replace it. The good news all the almond trees made to spring.
4/1 The young rabbits still like the box even if it is crowded, I will ween them within a week. One young rabbit has issues and I had to put it in a separate cage.
3/30 I like the view from the kitchen table. The turkey opener is April 20.
3/29 Blueberries and the fruit tree buds have no frost damage and the weather looks good. I will have to trim the fruit on the trees so the branches won’t break with the weight of the fruit.
3/29 Planted six types of poppies in this area, they are not easy to grow here and you need just the right weather the first 10-14 days.. I hope to make the whole area flowers. I mix the seeds with sand to make it easier to spread out.
3/29 Mother rabbits use the box to get away from the young rabbits for a bit.
3/29 I pruned the grape vines. I had to prune more than I would normally to give the new grape plants more light.
3/27 The young rabbits are growing fast!
3/26 HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!
3/23 Someday I hope to explore the ten thousand island area maybe even camping somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
3/21 It’s fun to see the different animals around Marco.
3/21 There is very good fishing around Marco. This is my sister, myself and friends. We caught many small sharks in one area.
3/19 Plenty of excellent shelling on the island.
3/17 Marco Island is a special place. This is tiger tail beach.
3/15 Counted all the young rabbits, 19 were born.
3/14 The young rabbits have opened their eyes and it is getting crowded in the box.
3/13 The buds on the cherry, peach, apricot trees and blueberry plants look very good. Too good. Farmers think there is very good chance that frost will hit now that they are tender and their will be very little fruit. If there is no frost it could be a great year! This weather fooled the plants.
3/13 It looks certain that all my hives will make it through the winter. Two years in row that I haven’t lost a hive. There are many reasons, one I had a mentor, Phil, who let me make mistakes. I treat for mites three times a year three different ways. I have Russian/Saskatchewan queen bees, read bee magazines and my hive “hats”. Last year beekeepers across the U.S. lost 48% of their hives and 40% the year before. What I do in Michigan won’t work in other states. Each region has different issues, I am glad that I seem to have some of it figured out for this area or it could be luck.
3/12 Filled the rabbit water tank. I use water from the house and food grade hoses. This makes taking care of the rabbits very easy.
3/12 Put posts up to straight up the Chestnut trees and put weed blocker around them. They all look good.
3/11 Feeding the bees again with this very warm weather and they need to be strong soon for me to split. I have to make 10 new hives out of these eight when the new queens come in. They are taking very little commercial pollen feed now that they can find fresh pollen. They are taking the sugar water hard.
3/11 Painted more hive bodies. I will be colorful this year.
3/11 These two were shivering against each other this morning and I put them back in the box. This is a different kit from the group that were out a couple of days ago.
3/9 Painted boxes for the new hives.
3/8 Found some rabbits outside their box with some inside the box without their eyes open. I put them back in the box to make sure she feeds all of them. This mother attacked me as I moved each one back in. Some have started to open their eyes and will be ok to be anywhere once they are open.
3/7 Uncovered blackberries and raspberries.
3/6 I have to get new hens this year. The black ones are at least seven years old and have raised chicks for five. They will be too old to lay soon. The brown/black hen has a curved breastbone.
3/5 The garlic is off to a good start. I use garlic daily.
3/4 Pruned all the fruit trees. Two trees have recovered poorly from the deer damage in the past. This is an apple tree before and after.
3/4 With only one rooster, they will hang out right at the door to wait for the hens and try to charge admission to go in or out.
3/4 Just buried this trailer with wood. It took two chains and I barely got it out. Rain is coming so this is the last day for wood for a long time.
3/4 Wood for the winter of 2025-26.
3/3 Uncovered the strawberry runners and found that moles or mice ate all my plants. I will have to buy plants. I should have put the runners in the refrigerator for the winter, lesson learned.
3/3 Picked up four loads of wood for winter heat 2/3 years from now. With this weather, you got to make hay when the sun is out. Its a good workout.
3/2 I went to the egg/wood/hay/animal auction today for some entertainment. They sold over 200 dozen eggs and many animals today. The people bidding are just as interesting as the animals, they did not grow up here!
3/2 I was looking at these young goats. I had one young goat with horns like this one, they are trouble and but can be so much fun to mess with.
2/29 Eggs are usually my breakfast. The small circle on the yoke means the eggs were fertilized and would have hatched if put in an incubator.
2/27 I put my hand in each box to get an idea how many rabbits were born. All three had 6 or 7. I have seen up to 13 in a kit.
2/27 The wood for next winter is in the basement. I didn’t even pickup the logs that need to be split.
2/27 A record temperature today of 73 degrees in February! Feeding bees heavy syrup and pollen. Bee people think spring’s like this will cause swarming early and often. I may have to split hives earlier this year. There is not one male bee in any of the hives, they completely female right now. Drones, male bees, don’t have a father but they do have a grandfather.
2/26 I have seen geese, ducks and egrets at the pond. I will stock it with hybrid bluegills later this summer.
2/26 Picked up four loads of wood, most of which was large logs. I got stuck with a full load and had to pull it up to the house backwards.
2/25 Three rabbits had kits today.
2/24 I started stacking next winter’s firewood and filled the basement again. Every muscle from my big toe to neck is tired, a solid workout.
2/21 Very unusual weather, it got up to 59 and the bees are going to fly anyway, so i feed them heavy syrup and pollen. They jars are almost empty.
2/21 I had to make two dams on some drain ditches to keep the pond from getting too many nutrients.
2/21 Sanding used beehive boxes to repaint.
2/20 I never got to ice skate this year, one of the things I miss about the U.P.
2/20 Feed bees of heavy syrup 1:1, one quart of water to one quart of sugar.
2/20 Only one Amaryllis bloomed for me this year, so far.
2/20 I got two more loads of wood before 11 am while the ground was still hard. There were many “overnighters” in this load, I don’t split anything under 10.5″ I won’t be able get wood again until the ground gets very dry or freezes. I have only picked up at best a 1/3 of what I cut.
2/19 I filled this trailer three times and had to stop because I don’t want to leave ruts. I am going to try and start before daylight tomorrow while the ground is still frozen.
2/19 Plenty of wood for the rest of winter. Hopefully half of this will be for next year.
2/18 I spent three days trying to get this tractor started. Took the starter out and had it tested, and put it back in. I changed the ignition switch and checked all the wires. It turned out the problem was the cable from the battery to the starter. It would give voltage, but not the amps to start it.
2/13-14 I have at least next years wood cut maybe the next two years, and I still have a couple of areas to cut. This is very dry winter and I am able to get to areas that are normally too wet.
2/12 Happy Birthday Nate! Have a wonderful day and hope to see you soon.
2/12 Put a new flag on the pole, the old one had a rough winter.
2/12 I cut at least 2 months of wood today.
2/8 The bees took all the pollen in one day! I ordered 10 new Russian hybrid queens from Georgia for this spring. I will raise some queens but getting them from “pros” is the way to go in Michigan, with our short season.
2/8 The temperature got up to 57 today, so I feed the honey bees a heavy syrup and pollen. Pollen gets the queen thinking spring. All eight hives are alive and flying.
2/6 I have been cutting wood everyday. I likely have next years cut and want to get a couple years worth with this weather. It’s too wet to pick up now, so I am cutting and it’s too warm to ice fish.
2/3 Cut more than 30 days of wood and filled the chainsaw gas tank five times.
2/3 The bees don’t take their dead bees all the way out in cold weather. They can pile up and with only one entrance this needs to be cleaned in the spring. This is the tool i use.
2/3 I used to make maple syrup and had between 25 to 125+ taps. It is a mountain of work and made for a family to do. One year I got almost 1500 gallons to boil down. Sugar maple trees are 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of maple syrup, my maples are red maple trees and it is 50 to 1. I am glad I did when I could, it may never get cold enough in this zone to do again. This is the week that I would normally tap trees.
2/1 I put the sauerkraut, started in november, in jars and put it in the refrigerator. Sauerkraut is a so good for the brain/body. The brain spends 1/2 of all it’s energy talking to the gut, what is this food and what to do with it. Sauerkraut makes it so the brain can work on other things instead of digestion.
2/1 Canned Blueberries.
1/31 Canning red raspberries. I use a light syrup of 8 cups of water to 1.5 cups of honey which is about the natural sweetness level of fruit. Canned fruit and meat never look great in the jars, but turn out pretty good.
1/30 Canned blackberries in a light syrup of honey and water. I want to reduce what I have in the freezer.
1/29 I canned venison from the freezer. Each deer will use six quarts of steaks, five bags of hamburger, three bags of back straps for about 55 meals. I can’t get to all the steaks before freezer burn and they last forever canned.
1/25 This house has three chimneys, this bird went down the fuel oil chimney and was in there for three days before I opened it up in the basement to let it out. I then opened the wood entrance and it was gone.
1/25 Breeding rabbits today. I try to do this with a full moon. I also cleaned out their boxes and put new straw in each.
1/24 The chicken coop is shut 100% of the time now, another young hen was lost to something. “Corn Flakes” the rooster suffered some frostbite during the cold spell. Most of the time they recover just fine.
1/20 I used 30 days amount of wood during this nine day period of cold weather. Can never have too much wood.
1/19 I see this group of nine deer, a couple of times a day. I planted a food plot for deer on the path and they can get within 10 yards of me as I am sitting in the house. There was 10 deer but one got hit by a car.
1/15 The pond froze over. I still will wait a day or two to skate. I went through the icein complete darkness about 6 am on a lake 35 minutes south of Charlevoix. I was by myself, went all the way under and was far from shore when it happened. A long story and something you don’t forget.
1/15 It was so cold one egg froze.
1/14 This is not the deer I was chasing, but is a fine ten point and should be nice next year. I see many deer every day out the back windows and this deer often.
1/13 The wood stove heat helps when canning honey.
1/13 This is mushroom tea for cold days like today. Mushroom tea has a interesting “hardy” taste and is very different from leaf teas.
1/13 I have a well pit for water. When it gets bitterly cold out, I turn the light bulb on in the pit on to keep the area warmer. It is so much easier to prevent problems than frozen pipes.
1/12 A big storm is coming, so I checked out and started the generator.
1/10 This diesel heater will keep the truck camper warm and could work for ice fishing. A hot dry better heat, with less noise at a quarter the cost of propane.
1/7 This is a very rough draft of some of my plans for 2024.
1/6 Picking up a couple of wagons full of wood and filling the basement with wood is a solid workout. I had to be careful not to pull that muscle again .
1/6 Still waiting to ice skate.
1/6 I pulled a muscle taking a 6 gallon bucket of honey down the stairs. A pot of this tea sipped over the day with 4 aspirin for 3 days saved me a trip to er.
1/3 I found a use for all my canned mushrooms, it makes a great soup when mixed with water at about 4:1 ratio.
1/2 I played bridge with my 90+ year old friends at my house. We will not play again for 2-3 months as people go to Florida. I got good cards and played well.
12/22 After at least three hard frosts, the raspberries are cut at ground level and covered with straw. All the energy has gone down to the roots till spring. This will eliminate a summer harvest, but will produce a earlier and larger fall crop. All the blackberry vines that had fruit are also cut.
12/20 The older hens have started to lay again. It was about two months without eggs while they molted.
12/17 This homemade goldenrod tea tastes great. There were no deer trails in this area when the corn was up, now there are many trails like this, in shoulder high brush, that are used like highways.
12/16 I treated all the hives for mites by vaporizing acid in the hive. I try to do this on a 40 degree day as close to the winter solstice as I can. This the last time I will do anything to them till spring.
12/16 Deer heart is a super food and I save it for a special meal.
12/15 All eight hives were flying today. Most of these are cleansing flights, they go to the bathroom and go back in.
12/15 I hope to cut a couple of years worth of wood in the next couple of weeks.
12/14 I saw this fox on my way to cut wood and was able to watch for about 10 minutes. It was checking out the rabbit compost.
12/12 Blowing the leaves out of the eavestroughs, a half hour job, twice a year prevents many problems on the roof and in the basement.
12/8 I am at a pinch point area, but it is all shoulder high grass. It is very hard to see them, and it is full of fresh trails.
12/7 I canned all the rabbits.
12/5 I played bridge today.
12/4-5 A couple of “lucky” rabbit feet. I took the rabbit numbers from 36 to 5 and filled 4 buckets three quarters full of dressed rabbits to rest a few days.
12/1 Processed a deer. I got 5 bags of steaks and many bags of ground burger. I eat a bit over two deer a year.
12/1 My mushroom “salsa” really came out as mushroom spaghetti sauce. I got 22 pints and should go well with most meats.
11/30 The rabbits are ready when they get to five pounds, as far as feed to weight gain and tenderness. The bucket weighs a pound and the scale is off a pound, so they are right there.
11/30 I taped shut the top insulation on the hives.
11/29 I saw my deer again. It will be very hard now to get him.
11/29 I am making mushroom “salsa”. I took these mushrooms, added salt and let the juices come out overnight. Then I almost puree them. I added water, onions, garlic, ginger, black pepper, all spice, cloves, nutmeg and heat it all up in the slow cooker. Hen of the woods mushrooms are one of the few mushrooms the can be frozen just as it comes out of the woods.
11/27 I saw my deer today. I happen to be looking through binoculars the right way and saw him 3 times within 1/2 hour. He has moved more than a third of a mile from his corn field area. Most does have been breed and he was looking around, not walking as fast.
11/26 The rabbits are happy to see me in cold weather. When it gets below freezing, I have to give the rabbits water usually twice a day. Rabbits went from 15 minutes every 3 days to 20 minutes twice a day. Rabbits do better in cold weather.
11/25 Most days homemade cornbread and fruit is my lunch.
11/24 I don’t have to use the dryer much with the wood stove.
11/21 Checking the sauerkraut. It is off to a good start and should be ready in a couple of weeks.
11/20 Biologist and hunters think horns broken like this are from fighting. Did this deer tangle with the deer I am looking for? Their ranges were in the same area, about 200 yards from where I saw my buck last. A hawk was hunting the just picked corn fields right by me. There used to be a ton more predator birds, all bird numbers are way down.
11/20 The winter flock of two proven mother hens, two young hens and the lavender buff orpington rooster “Corn Flakes”. I wanted to keep four young hens, but lost two. These chickens free range and there can be losses. They were going down the pond path – too close to trouble.
11/19 They are cutting two large fields today. I saw 14 deer leave just on the one side I was on, but not my deer. Between the two fields there are at least 40+ deer looking for a new home. Tonight and Monday will be the last day I have a real chance at him. I sat by this fox hole? as I watched them cut the corn.
11/18 I took “Red” and another rooster to the auction today. I am in the first two cages which is important to get the best price. I went to this auction this summer one time, there were 50 people bidding, with only 4 or 5 americans, the rest were immigrants. It can be a bit of a comedy show when the bidder doesn’t speak OR understand english and the auctioneer has no idea what the bidder is talking about. Many are buying their meat for the week and have raised the price of chickens significantly. This has all happened in the last two years.
11/18 My mornings are 1. start coffee 2. get the wood stove going.
11/17 I went to a Michigan State hockey game tonight against the #1 team in college hockey. It was the biggest home game in 20 years, state won 4-2 in a very good entertaining game.
11/17 I was the worst player ever in the Soo men’s hockey league and had a blast! There were some very, very good players in the league and the way I played messed them up sometimes.
11/17 This was my spot for today. I think and hope the deer I am after is in corn fields that have not been picked. He wont come out during daylight now until it is picked.
11/17 These Amaryllis plants have been in this dark closet for two months without light or water. I hope to take one out and start them every two weeks and have a blooming plant most of the winter.
11/16 A flock of 17 turkeys walked right beside me about 4 feet away, you can see my camo in the corner. A squirrel trying bug me!
11/14 My deer gave me about 45 seconds. He was walking fast and steady, nose down right at me and I could not reach my bow. He saw me at 15 yards and didn’t smell me but knew something was off. We had a 30 seconds of both of us not moving, just looking at each other. I did not even move my eyes, I then moved my arm slowly about 1/2″ to get the bow and he was gone. I should have just picked the bow up as soon as I saw him, which maybe would have worked in those first 10 seconds. I should have seen him first, but he came from a unexpected direction at about 40 yards when i saw him. I was against a tree in brush and not in a blind.
11/13 I spending time waiting for one buck, I have over 30 hours hunting him. A deer like this you need to hunt a different spot almost every time.
11/11 Made sauerkraut today.
9/10 I spent 10 hours in this spot waiting for one deer. I saw many, many deer and had my safety off a couple of times, but decided to wait more.
9/9 I try to take these daily. I made them myself and whatever they do it is all good! I take it under the tongue and can feel it within minutes.
11/7 I don’t normally go after one deer, but this year I am after one buck. This is one of his rubs on a large tree for a rub.
11/5 Weened all the rabbits and sold a breeding trio for $100. I am thinking of cutting down to 3-5 rabbits for winter.
11/4 This why I have to replace “Red” my rooster. All his offspring have a curved breast bone.
11/4 Roosters born this spring have to be harvested. More than one always causes issues.
11/3 I have been spending time in the woods.
11/1 This fox went right by me as I was hunting. He did not smell me, but I had to move to get the phone camera and he saw me.
10/27 I have the bow sighted in. All the deer mating will take place in the next 10 days and they will be moving. Bucks that you will never see the rest of the year will be available. Most of the time you only have just a few seconds to get a shot.
10/26 I have two hives that are not heavy enough to make it past winter. I take a screened box, put newspaper down and fill it with sugar. I put this between the top of the hive and my hive “hat”. It is amazing how quickly a hive can go from strong to weak and the other way weak to strong.
10/25 Freezing weather is coming soon and the garlic needs to be cut into bulbs and put in the basement.
10/25 Before I tilled up the strawberries, I cut off the runners into groups of 20 plants. I cover them with landscape cloth and a thick layer of straw. There should be plenty of new plants to start new rows next spring.
10/23 The young rabbits are growing fast. I will have to ween them next week.
10/20 I get wonderful colors out my back windows.
10/18 A deer marked their territory just minutes before I got here.
10/18 I found more hen of the woods mushrooms. I never take all the mushrooms and leave some to spore.
10/19 I got over 60 pounds of mushrooms, it’s a lot of work to get them out of the woods.
10/18 This mushroom is called shrimp of the woods. They are in groups of fifty to couple of hundred. They are hard to clean. This mushroom cannot be saved for later and should be eaten the day it is picked.
10/18 Wrapped beehives with reflectix. The R value of a beehive box is .75 the R value of a natural tree that they like is 7.5. I also put a piece of wood to tilt the hive slightly. This is for any extra moisture will go out the entrance and not form a small puddle of water in the bottom of the hive.
10/17 This is one of my favorite mushrooms to find. It is Maitake or hen of the woods. In china, they think if you eat or have tea from this mushroom every day you, will never die of a “health” related issue. I think it helps the communication between the brain and the rest of the body. I am going to make mushroom ketchup and/or mushroom “bone” broth.
10/14 Sitting in a tree stand in the woods. Just being out there is so good for my mind. Plenty of deer here.
10/12 This is my new way of getting my omega 3. I take a can of Alaska wild salmon and put it into 10 ice cube slots and put it in the freezer. I use one slot a day. I am big on omega 3 and omega 3 to omega 6 ratio.
10/11 Planted a large bed of garlic. I am trying to grow a fig tree on a 45-30 degree angle so I can bury the tree each winter.
10/9 Won another auction of Musky lures. I have doubled my collection this year and I feel like it is now more or less “complete”.
10/8 Chestnuts from my neighbor/friend’s trees. I learned of these Dunstan Chestnut trees from him. All five of my trees have made it so far and they will produce a lot of nuts per tree.
10/7 Started up the wood stove and went to a hockey game, fall is here.
10/6 I cleaned the coop and put the waste in my garlic bed. I need to plant garlic in the next week. I am still picking raspberries.
10/6 This is a view from one of my tree stands. There is a deer laying down about 15 yards on the other side of the pond, it did not come my way.
10/3 I cleaned out all the strawberry beds. Strawberry plants only produce for 3 years and then have to be replaced. I have to plant runners or new plants next spring.
10/3 The rabbits have opened their eyes and are leaving the box. It is easy to spend too much time watching them.
10/3 This is how I help my bee hives make it during the winter. The bottom entrance is reduced and there is NO top exit/entrance. I take a small box, fill it with straw, put a piece of reflex on top of the straw, and then 2″ foam insulation on top with all the seams taped shut. The straw acts like insulation and absorbs moisture. The bees need water but not too much. I want the bees to control the moisture and temperature. This sits on top of the hive and acts like a “hat” and has worked for me in the past winters.
9/27 The young rabbits will open their eyes soon.
9/26 I am picking 5-8 containers of raspberries every 2-3 days.
9/22 Canning Grape Juice. I canned two different types of grapes, each with its own flavor. The steam juicer is great and gives a clean clear juice with wonderful taste.
9/21 I went into all the hives to take out the mite treatment and all the hives look good for this time of year.
9/20 Melting Bees wax today, this solar setup works great. The paper towel makes the wax come out very clean.
9/19 Finished spinning honey. I got 52 gallons this year.
9/17 I canned a bushel of sweet corn, about 55 ears. Picked and canned in about 24 hours.
9/16 Five rabbits had kits.
9/16 It’s always nice to see the sunrise from a tree stand. It seems like bird numbers are only a 1/10 what they used to be.
9/15 Cleaned the return ducts today, I cleaned the heat ducts last year. I had to clean the vacuum cleaner after every return duct. They have never been cleaned and had 60+ years of dust. There has not been a IGA in town since the 1960’s. I put new firebrick in the wood stove and patched a hairline crack in the back. Everything is ready for cold weather.
9/14 Cutting hedges around the house.
9/12 I get to play bridge with 3 ninety year old women a few times a month. This is my aunt Shirley playing.
I hope I can still play when I am that old, its a great game and should be taught in schools.
9/11 Cleaning and inspecting the wood stove. I have to re-firebrick the inside of the stove this year. I also did the yearly cleaning of the chimney.
9/11 This is how I store the empty honey supers until next summer. A small amount of moth crystals every six boxes, with window screen on the bottom.
9/10 Drying all the large onions. The small ones I use on everything I can.
9/8 I cleaned out and put straw in the rabbit boxes. There are does that will have kits this week.
9/7 I like how the orchard fence turned out. The blackberries are slowing down , as the raspberries are starting to hit their peak. The grapes will be ready in the next ten days.
9/6 Started the honey harvest. It is a long, slow process that takes many days to get done. I have 36 gallons so far and hope to sell them in 6 gallon buckets for $270-$300 each. My honey goes past three screens and a fourth if I bottle it. The screens need to be cleaned many times a day. The bees do the final clean up of the frames.
9/1 It was nice to get out on the water this weekend. There were three summers in my life that I was on the water 5-to 7 times a week. Good memories.
8/27 Harvested this years onions, a small crop. I did not take care of them much this year. Last year I had a huge harvest and still have 8 quarts of dehydrated onions left.
8/25 I am getting a few apples and pears. They will really start to produce starting next year.
8/25 The bees are cooling the hive instead of keeping it warm.
8/24 Raspberries are starting to get ripe.
8/22 Found this guy looking for mate, the female is much larger and bites the head off the male after mating. Be careful what you wish for!
8/21 Put up a 8′ Deer fence. A couple of years ago deer, over two nights, set the orchard back a year. Way too many deer in this area. I put weed block all around the bottom of the fence. Should make it look better than weeds under the fence.
8/19 The pond is looking good.
8/17 Gave myself a haircut.
8/15 Breed the rabbits today so I will can downsize for the winter in early December. This is a palmonio buck and it was his first time!
8/11 The grapes are doing so well they have pulled both of end anchors up on one side!
8/11 I make cornbread weekly with flax seed for the omega 3 and aluminum free baking powder. I have not purchased bread from the store in many years.
8/10 Blackberries fruit on second year vines. When the first year vines get too long and are going to be trimmed anyway, I take a peat pot with rabbit manure, break off a leaf, pin it, and cover it. After the fall frost, I will cut it off and plant it where I want a new plant to grow. I am getting six pints of blackberries every other day.
8/10 Taking the honey supers away and the mite treatment causes “bearding”. The hive is smaller with the same number of bees.
8/9 Taking all the honey supers off the hives the second week of August and giving the bees this mite treatment. This is the single most important thing to do make sure the hives will make it over the winter till spring. The mite count needs to be as low as possible BEFORE the winter bees are even eggs. This is like chemo to the hive for two weeks.
8/9 I took five full supers of honey from 1 hive! 60-80 percent of all my honey will come from just a few hives. Each box weighs about 60 pounds.
8/8 I have added over 100 muskie lures to my collection over three online auctions this year, this was one of them. I have not added to the collection much the last 30 years. I need to photo all of them for insurance.
8/7 I am seeing even more wildlife with the pond. Its a regular zoo sometimes!
8/7 Picking more blackberries with many more to come.
8/6 I purchased a very large amount of weed barrier at an auction so I put it all over the orchard and covered with straw. There should be very little weeding in the future and all the trees and plants will produce even more. Next spring I am going weed barrier the grapes. I hardly put a dent in the rolls of weed barrier.
8/5 Set new corner posts for a new 8′ orchard fence.
8/4 Blackberries are ripe. They are big and have great flavor this year.
8/3 Current flock of 2 hens, 3 roosters, and 8 young birds. I have to replace “Red” the orange colored main rooster. I have butchered at least 50 of his offspring and they all have curved breast bones. One breast is bigger than the other side. One of the silver roosters will be the new rooster.
7/31 The blackberries are getting ripe. I should get a nice crop. Still getting some blueberries.
7/31 Adding feeders to rabbit cages. Right now the chickens can go 2-3 weeks without adding food and water. I am trying to make the rabbits good for a week. I hope to travel more and make it easy for people to take care of the animals when I am gone.
7/28 Canned seven quarts of rabbits and five quarts of bone broth. I also sold five rabbits.
7/27 The garlic is hanging in the breezeway. I can smell it every time I go in and out.
7/27 My amaryllis is flowering, I love amaryllis flowers in the winter.
7/26 A nice thunderstorm today!
7/25 The pears, apples and peaches are producing some fruit.
7/23 Harvested Garlic today. A nice haul this year. A very powerful medicine.
7/24 The pond is filling up. I am looking forward to swimming next summer.
Blueberries are so good right off the plant. In a couple of years I should get a ton of blueberries.
I get about 100 bales of straw every three years. It is used all over – chickens, rabbits, bees and the orchard.
I see so many deer out my window.
Garlic and Onions are growing very good this year. I use both daily.
Sold some rabbits at an auction. Rabbits are not big sellers in this area, so I put them in groups of three.
I had this pond made in the woods, it will be a good size when it fills. The water right now is over my head. Small but deep in two spots. I am looking forward to many cups of coffee watching wildlife visit.
I won this at an auction. It reminds me of my grandparents home.
I like to take a shower under the barn roof during summer thunderstorms. The water is so soft.
Planted 60 Blueberry plants.
This post is for Nate who is in the Navy.
I have way too many rabbits, I thought the bird flu would come back and rabbit sales would jump.
Cherry trees are giving me some fruit. They are hard to prune, they want to do their own thing.
Remembering a very good life.
New rabbit setup.
I see all kinds of wildlife everyday. It’s a blessing.
This hen hatches chicks every year. She starts sitting on eggs around May 15.
The father of all the chicks. He is the “man” of the flock. He is a big bird. You can see one of his breast is bigger than the other.
Three deer had fawns on the path behind the house. One had twins, one of the twins wants to play more than the other one.
Many kits of rabbits this round.
New blueberry plants.
Home canned rabbit and chicken. It is better than any food that can be purchased in a store.
Butchering chickens and rabbits.
I caught three honeybee swarms this year, my queen rearing caused swarms, I will do it better next year.
Queen cells and my “queen mating” box.
I would like to cut down to 4-6 hives, in the future.
The fast growing chickens are almost ready, making them get exercise makes them better.
Many does had kits.
I am making improvements to the grape vines. I am going to can grape juice. Many health benefits to grape juice. I planted seedless grapes to make raisins.
These hives are powerful and making a a lot of honey.
Planted five blight resistant Dunstan Chestnut trees. They are big and will start giving me nuts in two years.
I very much enjoy all the flowers around the house.
I get this amount of asparagus every other day. I am dehydrating most of it.
A swarm of bees looking for a new home, I put them in a empty hive, but they swarmed again.
I planted four almond trees for northern climates, two are from Ukraine and two are from Iran.
I need to get out in nature more.
Swarm traps.
I stop collecting eggs around may 1, the hens will want to start sitting.
My rabbit water system.
Planted garlic and onions.
These chickens go from chicks to harvest in 7-8 weeks.
4/13/2023
These are all the new bee hives I hope to start from the 11 hives I have now.
4/11/2023
Separated some of the new rabbits by sex. Sold 4 rabbits for $100.
Had to switch boxes on all the bee hives. The queen is in the top box now and they want to work up. I open the hive, make sure the queen is in the top box, set the box on spare a bottom board. The I take the bottom box off, clean or replace the bottom board and reverse the hive. Some hives I put supers on. They all looked strong and the queens were large.
4/10/2023
Unwrapped the bee hives and checked out the quilts. The quilt wicked up moisture and keep them warm.
Moved the broiler chickens to the chicken coop from the basement. These will be ready in 5-6 weeks.
I only have 3 adult chickens, two hens that are proven mothers and a rooster.
I still get enough eggs for me.
4/8/2023
Bees have stopped taking my commercial pollen, now that the can get the real thing.
Breed nine doe rabbits the last two days.
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height: parentNode.clientHeight,
width: parentNode.clientWidth
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var parentRatio = parentClientSize.width / parentClientSize.height;
if (imageRatio > parentRatio) {
return parentClientSize.height / originalHeight;
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var targetWidth = Math.ceil(originalWidth * scale);
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Wayne Gregg 
Hi Let me know what you thing of this site Thank you