The Harvest

Well, Fall is rapidly approaching here on the farm and that means we get to harvest. Our garden this year never got put in with other things going on, so there's nothing to get from that but it doesn't mean there isn't work. We've been putting stuff to compost in the garden all summer long so we need to till it all under and put the garden to bed for the Winter. Our chickens are doing well, but we'll have to start thinking of replacing some of the older laying hens next year since they will begin to peter out on their laying by then. Our sheep have been growing nicely, and we've observed our males doing their jobs as well! The lambs will be ready for slaughter in another 4-6 weeks and they are all already sold. The plums are heavy on the trees right now...both our red/yellow ones and the purple ones. The red/yellow plums are just a few days from maximum sweetness (just before they start to drop from the trees) so we'll be picking them this week and making some jam (maybe some jelly as well) from them. The purples usually go into October before they are ready. Because the bee hives are situated right out by the plums they get pollenated very well in the Spring...in fact standing out by the trees then is a strange experience. The trees look like they are alive because of the amount of bees in them...each flower may have more than one bee in there trying to swill nectar. The honey harvest started on Saturday and was completed last night. The apiast we have who takes care of our bees came by on Saturday to remove the boxes of honey that are for us (the bees get to keep some) and took them home to spin out. Out of our two hives this year, we realized about 17 gallons of honey! What a great return on our investment in the beehives! We're going to let the honey settle inside the house for a few days so all the little bubbles can get out (they cause the honey to crystalize earlier) and then we will be canning honey for a while. Some will be for sale, but most will be kept here for us. We find ourselves using honey instead of sugar in recipes and to sweeten things and just as a treat for the kids.

It always seems like there's more work than time, but this year hasn't been as hectic. Maybe we're finally getting on top of the farm this year. There's work to do to put this place to bed for the Winter, but nothing overwhelming. I know where I'm going for hay to keep the critters over the Winter and I need to till the garden under, but other than those couple of items, there is really no pressing work to do. Things will certainly get busy in the Springtime though! We'll be lambing around March. We will need to give haircuts to all the sheep in Spring as well, then get the pasture subdivision fences back up and operating, get the garden ready and planted...ugh, I'm going to not worry about that stuff until March!