Pea Pickers

Phil finally fell asleep at 4am. He was up at 6:30, though, and plugged away doggedly at a range of tasks all day, with a much better attitude than I would have had, if I was running on less than three hours sleep. I was impressed.

He unloaded over a ton of feed, then moved it 15 feet away, dodging large hay bales. He brought hay bales to both sets of cows. He picked up all the cattle panels he recently took down along the road. We talked about the minimal amount of fencing we need to get the cows grazing as soon as possible, and he ordered more grazing electric wire. The 1300’ we have on a reel isn’t enough.

In moving the sheep, he noticed that the apple trees are producing suckers (shoots up from the ground). He pulled off a white plastic wrapper that we’ve had for mouse, vole, and rabbit protection, only to find that the graft of the tree was rotting and ant-infested. He pulled another plastic wrapper and found the same thing. So he pulled wrappers and pruned suckers, as well as removing fruit and leaves or twigs that appeared distressed. He didn't get through all 300 apple trees, but made good progress where the sheep had already grazed.

We moved the next batch of broiler chicks outside (currently we have 94 out of the original 102 yet living). We moved the 14 (or is it 15?) ducks in with the laying hens. The guinea asserted its dominance and the ducks stuck together, quacking.

The ducks have an entirely different body than the chickens. It is odd to pick them up. Their torsos are squishy and feathery (so soft, with all the down); their wings almost nonexistent, their feet kicking. Rather than carrying them around dangling by the legs, as you can with chickens, we boxed them up, except for the largest which we carried under our arms. They tried to bite my hands as I carried them, with their little bills. That amused me.

When opening hives, the beekeeper is well advised to go in on biodynamic fruit or flower days, and to do so between 10 and 3, the earlier the better, and only in sunny weather. More bees are out foraging in the middle of the day, and I’m not sure why morning is better than afternoon, but it is. So right at ten I suited up and headed down. The bees have been clustering around the entrance to the hive. They are over crowded, and not utilizing the space in the upper “deep” (or hive body box).

Gunther had told me to take frames out from near the edges, like the second and ninth frames, and swap them for the empty middle two frames on the second level. This will draw the bees up properly.

With a swollen, clumsy pointer finger, and slightly puffy hand from my sting yesterday, I was a little concerned about my dexterity in handling the frames. The Celadon hive was a bit touchy, so much so that I ended up taking two frames from one side and closing it up again as quickly as possible.

The Celestial hive continues to try to grow bee frames from the bottom up. They had made a beautiful half circle, working against gravity. I scraped it off, apologizing. Each worker bee can make eight flakes out of her abdomen each day, and it takes nearly a million flakes to make one frame of wax. To take even a small amount represents a great effort on the part of the bees, and I want to be sensitive to that.

Happily, no stings (which makes sense, because I had almost no body exposed). I moved four frames up in the Celestial hive, in hopes that they will build well and correctly from now on.

I was in the garden and found something I had never seen: a fungus that looks like a pile of eggs.

The boys had an outstanding day. They all helped me pick peas (even Joe, who would point out peas to Abraham, who would pick the peas and hand them to Joe, who would put them in the bucket).

I think we all had fun.

Jadon even noticed me with the camera, and allowed me to take his picture without grimacing. He picked into his shirt pouch, then would dump 50 or so peas at a time into the larger bucket.

Bitsy, always eager for an adventure, came, too. She would eat peas out of the bucket. Or at least chew them. I don't know if she swallowed. (I did give her chicken heads after using them in my stock. She gobbled those with good will!)

Isaiah found a tadpole swimming in the pond. Then he found a bunch of them, and somehow strained water or something with my kitchen towels and glass storage containers. I’m not sure what, but it appeared creative and scientific, of a sort. (With all the rain, we have frogs and toads all over right now. Isaiah carried around two he found under his bike, until he found one the size of a Clementine orange. That one won out.)

Our new school books arrived today, and Abraham and I read the stories and poems from the first two weeks. He was pretty pleased with himself. (And I was pleased that Jadon and Isaiah hung around and listened, too.)

Isaiah and Abraham did good, creative work with pattern blocks, and then Jadon and Isaiah both learned a few pages on the recorder. By dinner time, they were playing (very simple) duets. I’d hear them count “3, 4” and then begin, and it was, overall, just so, so precious. Their excitement, their ability to work together, the absence of competitiveness.