Spring is here...

... the turkey toms have been letting me know, the spring peepers have given me their opinion. My hens were finally able to take walks again and instantly perked up in behavior and looks. But then, the happiness came to a certain halt today when in the middle of a playdate pickup, this scene happened in my back yard:

I gave the hen (Oreo) up for dead, and went to grab my phone off the table, then a broom to chase the hawk. Though I didn't think I could save the hen, I did not want him (I'm convinced it's a him, though I have no evidence) to think of our backyard as an all-you-can-eat buffet in the future.

As I approached him with my broom, he was entirely underwhelmed by me:

It's not that I'm an amazingly fast photographer to snap this picture. It is that this bird was one hundred percent in control of the situation. He stared me down, probably judged me for my inability to keep my composure even half as well as he did, and did not let go of the hen. When I started actually bumping him with the broom, he let go of one talon, but the other held on tight to the hen's head, dragging her along with him. At that point I realized that Oreo was alive.

I finally chased off the hawk, though he did not leave entirely. He continued to stalk us as we hurriedly got the rest of the flock into the pen (which is covered in the top, bottom and around). He attacked a second hen, who was saved by my daughter's interfering. Then he sat for over an hour on a tree and waited. Two hens were still in hiding and we were unable to find them. I wrapped the injured Oreo, who was limping around now, in a towel and put her in a cage we keep around for times like these, for further evaluation.
By the time we sat down to take a better look at Oreo, the hawk had spied and attacked one of the last 2 hens, but again we were able to chase him away. The hen, though, was not to be found for another few hours, such patience and self preservation instincts, she stayed quiet as a mouse under the neighbor's handicapped entrance ramp.

I decided for the first time in my 6+ years as a chicken keeper that I should take the striped hen, Oreo, to the vet. She was seemingly well, but at the same time injured to such a degree that I was sure she would soon die of infection if left in home treatment only. And then there were the little humans to consider, who had been incredibly brave and patient, keeping a watch on the hawk until all hens were safely in the pen again. I was sufficiently impressed with them and Oreo's will and ability to walk away alive from this situation that I found a vet and took her in for the night. The vet thought her lung might be injured beyond the superficial skin wound I had found and cleaned on my own. Only time will tell the severity of that. For now, she should be resting and be medicated, it is praying time.

Good news!

The oldest and I were having a rough morning so we set out to get some sun, exercise and hopefully good news. We knew that almost precisely a year ago we found skunk cabbage pollen in a spot close to our house and our hearts.
But this year, we were not confident to find much, being that we are still under about 2 feet of snow.

And yet, look!

S'isch zum Baimschneida.

This is how you say you're just about to lose it, in my Southern corner of Germany. It is also how I feel about the snow. Yes, yes, we're nearing spring, and we sprang forward and hope springs eternal.

But that snow, it is hard to remember how much of it there is. I took my kids to the sledding hill, and went to look for the bench to sit on. As it turns out, a person with a daintier behind than mine could just about perch on the six inches of its backrest that stuck out of the solidly packed white mass.

Back to the title, it literally translates to 'It causes one to prune the trees' and that is just what I did this weekend. No ladder needed, I could get to the 10 feet tall branches of our old apple tree that needed a trim.

OK, in the end things were a little sketchy, but the job got done, nobody got hurt, and the tree is in better shape than before. I am calling it the official beginning of the outdoor gardening season.

{this moment}

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{this moment}

A Friday SouleMama ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see 

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A visit to a foreign world

Sometimes you just have to break out of your world, and go visit someplace else. Except there is that pesky carbon footprint thing, and that money thing, and that time thing ... so we 'get away' to a few local hide-outs once in a while. This time, we went to South America. And by that, I mean the excellent Maya exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. Insta-transport into a totally foreign world. 

We learned about glyphs, kings and calendars. We sat for a while (too long, say the littles - too short says the oldest) drawing, reading, learning, in the peaceful darkness of the exhibit.

Then we took a quick stop in the tropics on the way to lunch - the butterfly room is always a treat for the senses. Then, from far away across the world, we smelled good things to eat.... and went to have lunch before returning to our own little world.

Two little crafties

We have come a long way since moving into our 'housie' in the suburbs. When we first moved here, the lot looked like this:

and we had a lot of what we simply called The Vine. The Vine was the villain in our landscaping efforts, always working against us, and sprouting seven new sprigs any time we ripped out one. We were very united in our hatred of The Vine. 

Now, 10+ years into this journey, I had to stop on the side of the road to clip a few branches of what we have since learned is called 'bittersweet'. Not sure about the sweet aspect. Even in winding this wreath, the juice of the fruits stung my hands. Wear gloves if you can stand them (I never can, except in beekeeping). 

The other offender does have a redeeming quality more obvious to the eye: Rose multiflora. The weed of roses, an invasive species of dubious ecological value. Grows everywhere and is almost as hard to tame as bittersweet, plus it has thorns! Its redeeming qualities include flowers, which can be made into delicious rose petal jelly, and cute little red rosehips in fall. Which I made into a wreath for the kitchen entrance: 

please ignore the filthy window and screen, I'm more crafty than cleansy

view from the back through the screen

How's that for making those invasives work for me, huh? Haven't I shown them who's boss?

{this moment}

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{this moment}

A Friday SouleMama ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see 

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Cloudy on a Sunny Day

The story starts last night, when I couldn't find our oldest laying hen, Cloudy. After a while of walking the yard, I found her snuggled in a little nest in the bushes near our stone wall. I picked her up and carried her home to sleep in the safe coop, noticing a questionable poop and her very calm state. She didn't seem in pain but I thought she might be egg-bound again, as she was last year.  

Well, sadly, this morning she was lying motionless on the floor of the coop. I called the two younger children to say good bye. 

We talked about how we don't know exactly how old she was, since we got her at an auction. She was molting when we bid on her, and looking bedraggled. We just needed a warm body to fill in space in our coop after a few losses. She has turned out to be such a reliable hen, friendly (but not overly affectionate), good at getting out of the way of predators (once it took me a whole night to locate her in her secret hide-out under the coop after a doggy scare), and pretty to look at in her snow white feathers, like a picture book hen. We will miss her!

The next generation of layers is providing solace to the middle, who was the most upset.

Immigration!!!

I'm simply going to give a pictorial timeline for how yesterday went. I know you're all waiting for the conclusion of what is now a trilogy.....  Picture credit goes to Kaat, who was an amazing team mate on all of this. It was a long day, and almost all about bees. 

Kaat and I got to the DeCordova at 9am and met up with Sam. No change since Thursday. Jarrett had suggested drizzling some honey into the top hole, trying to avoid gluing up the bottom entrance in the process. Anita from Beverly Bees also suggested lemongrass oil, which I had on hand (Of course! It's sun & bug lotion season!), so I filled a drinking straw with honey and a few drops of lemongrass essential oil, and squeezed that into the top hole. 

To add a bit of stick to that offering of carrot, I smoked the bees in the screened installer a bit. It created a stir at the top hole, but no general upwards movement. 

We stayed and watched for a bit...

No dice. Bees are staying put.

So we left for a bit, and Kaat and I took a trip up to Rick's to buy a bunch of bee supplies (I'm looking to create a split off my two hives, you'll hear more about that soon), and we got a chance to pick his brain on the situation. Rick and Jarrett had met a few weeks ago, so Rick was familiar with Jarrett's project and general approach. We all agreed that we needed to somehow do something different, being that the bees showed no inclination to make the first move. We were getting concerned that if for some reason, the bees couldn't or wouldn't move out of the installer, they would run out of fuel and starve. We also ran into some logistical deadlines from the side of the museum. A change of plan was needed!

After checking with Jarrett on the phone, we abandoned a few more drastic ideas and decided to add more honey through the top hole, create a honey trail from the top hole to the installer, and then pry a small plexiglass screen off the top of the installer, hoping that the bees would follow the honey into the hive and make it their permanent home.

I'm only barely tall enough to reach the front entrance of the Haven hive with the squeeze bottle of honey. Luckily it wasn't a very windy day ...

I had a small assortment of razor blade, small screwdrivers, a pocket knife and a letter opener with me, to try and get the screen off. I was happy for my old climbing gear with lots of loops and hooks. After breaking the razor blade, I succeeded with a small screwdriver and opened the top of the installer. I was mentally prepared for the motherload of bees right in my face, see how close I am?

When that didn't happen, my first impression was relief. The bees didn't do anything crazy, like take off and abscond. They stayed surprisingly peaceful after being meddled with so much today. I unhooked myself from the top, climbed down and we took the ladder off.

A trail of bees developed. 

There was a definite trend ...

Sam took this picture later in the day... bees still there, still crawling up the front wall of the Haven hive.

 

Et voila. Sam snapped this peaceful shot as the dark rain clouds moved in this evening. That is all I needed to call this one a One Good Day. Kicked back with friends, good food, craft beers and great conversation. On Sunday, I will go and take down the installer, and go back to waiting by the phone for the next swarm ...

 

{this moment}

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{this moment}

A Friday SouleMama ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see 
.......

Immigration???

I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for a Haven bee update. All three of you. Well, on Wednesday there was nothing much to report because it was in the fifties here, and very rainy. Predictably, the bees sat tight and did nothing, and we (Jarrett, the artist, Sam from the DeCordova, as well as us four local beekeepers who are helping out) decided to follow their example.

This morning, the air was warming up and the day was sunny and full of promise. I went out there at 9:30 to check, and saw a bit of buzzing in the installer, but no traffic out of the top entrance of the white hive body. After a short run on the gorgeous trails near the DeCordova, I returned to little change and decided to come back later in the day. 

After picking up the two littles, we returned to the sculpture park to have lunch. A picnic at the DeCordova is always a wonderful idea, if you're in the area! At this point, quite a few bees were moving through the hive body and exiting at the top entrance, some came back to enter at the top as well. Alas, until 5pm, there was still a good size cluster in the installer, telling us that Her Majesty, the queen, had not walked into the hive body yet. 

     

So it's been a day of full time waiting and patience, not exactly my strong suit. We will return in the morning to try a few more beekeepers' tricks to lure the bees into the hive, if they haven't moved in when we show up.  It's a real cliff hanger!

Haven - the immigration

Today, I got a phone call from Jarrett. Funny how when you're waiting for something to happen (in this case, I was waiting on swarm calls.... swarm season hasn't really kicked off yet around here), when it does happen, it's sort of surreal. Jarrett told me that his bee contacts from the North Shore had collected a swarm and would I come help set up the install device at the museum? Of course I was happy to do so!

Packed up some gear and went off to the museum. We installed the ladder and a rope, mostly for my nerves. I did not want the box of precious bees to get dropped by accident! (see me holding the rope in the picture below). It was a cool and windy afternoon, so the pole swayed a bit in the wind.

The swarm, in a 5ga bucket. For a moment, I saw the queen walking on the netting. It's harder to tell when you only see bee bellies, but her size and way of walking gave her away.

Brian, the catcher of the swarm, did the honors of pouring them into the 'installer' and then climbed up to attach the installer to the hive.

The installer is a very cleverly designed piece of bee equipment - it has window screens for walls, so that the bees can't escape but at the same time can still breathe and spread pheromone to their sisters who may have flown off during the initial 'pour'. Further, the screen prevents the bees from liking this enclosure too much. Bees like a dark cavity for a permanent home, something Jarrett has emulated with his HAVEN hive design. The installer has small windows all over, and only one exit, giving the bees no other choice to leave than through what we all hope will be their future home.

My friend and bee mentor Kaat came as soon as she'd heard, too, some of the photos are hers. Here you see me checking for any 'moving in' but the bees were cold and just clustered in the corners of the installer.

Hopefully, that last ingredient listed on the plaque is now in place! It was fun to see quite a few of the museum staff poke their noses out of the buildings and car windows to catch a glimpse of the action. Bees have a way of connecting people! Tomorrow we will be back to see if the moving in has happened overnight or in the morning... stay tuned...

What's Growing On?

A garden update, mostly in pictures, while I sit by the phone waiting for a swarm call ...

Strawberries flowering under their rhubarb canopy. We already had a rhubarb knotweed cake, using this recipe, but substituting half knotweed for some of the rhubarb.

Baby Malabar Spinach, that was a winner last year, and will grow as the weather warms up more and more.

Some of my tomato starts are sturdier than others this year. Still got room for improvement there!

Garlic is going strong, and the lettuce will grow to surround it.

One of the two baby cherry trees flowered a bit but I doubt will set fruit, having no buddy for pollination :-(

Gooseberries grew a ton, and have more berries than last year, but the real winner are ....

.... the red currants. Going totally gangbuster with all the fruit set, only waiting to swell and redden.

Snap peas on a netting trellis, just about to take off. Other crops in the back include dragon tongue beans, scarlett runner beans, kale, broccoli (purple early), kohlrabi, swiss chards.

We planted a new row of asparagus in last year's 'new garden' this past weekend, and reinforced the fence. We had a lot of small bunny babies sneak through the 2x4 gauge and eat the bottoms out of the pole beans ... grr....

A blueberry bush under attack from the sky ... see that 'green stick'? That's an inchworm, and we're in the two weeks of 'inchworm buffet season' that grace us every year around here...

Some gratuitous perennial flower shots

My tomato tunnel between the two new beds in the front this year. Hopefully I will get my rather sad looking "Matt's Wild" seedlings to take off. The "sungold" I got as a present from a friend is doing best and sending out the first flower buds. Do you like my recycled maple buckets that I found at the dump? I am using them as flower buckets this year, three in the front, 5 in the main garden, after the handy husband drilled a few drainage holes in the bottoms.

I'll close with a picture from yesterday's nature walk: I hope you'll spend at least some of your day lazing in the sun with a fat belly full of delicious food, like this reptile: