Lavender Labyrinth

The second spring on the farm we decided to create a labyrinth in memory of my oldest brother who passed away.  It was quite a project and that winter some of the plants were too exposed to the wild and crazy King Ferry winds and died.  Some grew back and the past two summer drought conditions didn't help matters.  This spring, though not real wet, has given the lavender enough warmth and moisture to green up beautifully.  This year we ordered some replacement plants from our favorite wholesaler, Stonegate Lavender in Oregon. The labyrinth is going to be stunning this year as are many of the changes we have in store for our customers this season.  We are working furiously to get the farm ready for a wedding amongst our lavender in June.  We are also working to get the gypsy wagon completed.  The walls are up and hopefully this week we will get the roof on. Everything thing on this farm is a labor of love, but this time of year the planting, and pruning, as well as all the other spring farm work, can be a bit overwhelming. In the midst of summer though we will remember it was all worth the effort. Remember to check here and Facebook for upcoming events and activities on the farm as well as what we are harvesting.

The scent of lavender is just a step away at Purple Dog Farm.

Gypsy Wagon Update

Now that spring has sprung, we are beginning to get more work done on our farm store gypsy wagon.  Recently we finished making the form that will be used to bend and laminate the rafters.
The form will receive 12 foot long strips of ash that will be glued up to create our rafters for the wagon.  After they are laminated we will run them through the planer to even them up.
The other part of the wagon we have been working on is repairing the stained glass windows that will be used for the dutch door on the wagon.  These windows, donated from a friend, needed a few pieces of glass replaced and Serviente Glass in Ithaca was gracious enough to advise us on how to make the repairs and supplied us with the glass and other components.
Next, it is on to working on the walls and getting the rafters in place to receive the roof.  If all goes well (and that is mostly dependent on the weather) we hope to have it done by Memorial Day.

Windows repaired and cemented

  

Nugget

Five years ago when the farm was just a wish, a hope, a dream, my fiance decided to buy six chicks.  All in an effort to live more the way we wanted to be.  I had a little experience with hatching chicks but raising them to full grown layers was a bit different. We were successful, all six made it into adult henhood.  Right  from the start there was one chicken that had attitude and she was literally top of the pecking order.  We named all our first chickens after food.  Chicken Cordon Bleu was named Blue. Chicken Patty was shortened to Patty, Chicken Rosemary was Rose, Chicken BBQ was named Barbie and Chicken Marsala became Marcie.  Chicken Nugget became Nugget and she was the queen of the henhouse.  She ruled the roost.(pardon all the puns, but I couldn't resist)  This Rhode Island Red was not fearful of anything.  She would walk right up to our three golden retrievers and not back down.  One day she hopped up on my lap as we were sipping wine in our Adirondack chairs.  She would greet us in the morning at feeding and pick out bugs while we were gardening.  Nugget passed on to the great henhouse in the sky.  Her personality and attitude will be missed.  We no longer name our chickens, it makes it all the harder when they do pass on.  We raise our chickens for their eggs not their meat.  We let them live out their lives in relative ease, realizing that as they age they give us less eggs and just eat our feed. We live in a co-existence together. The chickens give us eggs and we give them a place to live with freedom to be chickens and enjoy what they may find on the farm.

 

The Hive and the Honeybee

The Hive and the Honeybee is a website.It is one of the largest collections of material on the etomology of honeybees and beekeeping maintained by Cornell University.  Recently a friend shared the information with me that many of the books and material has been scanned digitally and placed on line for viewing.  What a resource for the novice, the oldtimer and the curious.  Many beekeepers and especially those looking to keep bees more naturally are looking to the old treatises for information that may to keep bees more chemically free.  I am on a quest to do the same.  Some of the chemical free beekeepers I read about are looking at doing this I think by shear overpowering of numbers.  Raising healthy hives to replace not as healthy hives, to selectively breed stock to develop natural resistances to some of the pests that plague bees.  Just as a natural beekeeper has their bees draw out their own comb instead of using pre-made foundation that may have trace amounts of chemicals in the wax, beekeepers are raising multiple nucs to have on hand as replacements to strengthen a weak hive or to replace failing hives.  This summer I will be experimenting with adding my own nucs(small nucleus of bees and queen that will eventually develop into full hive).  I'll be looking to split stronger hives and try to raise some of my own queens.  I want to build on some of the hearty stock that has survived here on the farm.
I have one hive that I re-queened once(and I forgot to record where I purchased the queen and what type of bee)  but this hive in the back of the property seems to have smaller darker bees than my other hives.  These bees seem to weather winters better and though seem to bulk up slower in the summer than the others, they still seem to marshal their resources better and survive on less.  I wonder if they crossed somewhere with feral bees as their smaller size suggests.  I plan on taking splits from this hive and another hive and see if I can develop more hives.  We are also working at developing our acreage to have more nectar and pollen sources available for the bees.  All this to help the bees, but also to make the farm more naturally sustainable in the life force that uses our land. 

First Plantings for the New Year

Spring is in the air or at least we hope.  One sure sign for us of spring is the beginning of our seed plantings.  Some of the first plantings for us are herbs.  They seem to take the longest to develop and need the most care.  Today we cleared out our back office and decided to make that our early spring nursery this year.  We also cleared it out as we are getting ready to repaint the room so the bride that will be using the farm this summer has a nice place to prepare.  In years past we have tried a lot of ways to get our seeds started. grow lights in the basement, placing flats on the radiators in the rooms of the house.  This year we will probably have them still scattered through the house on radiators.  The steam heat warmth really kickstarts the seedlings.  We will then transfer them to the office which is well lit and warm and once the hoophouse is warm enough(it is unheated) we will transfer our seedlings to harden off and finish getting ready for sale there.  We have increased our varieties for sale this year.  We will have new varieties of tomatoes, more melon and watermelon varieties, a whole bunch of herbs and some new sweet pepper varieties.

Nor'Easter

Ugly weather. Steady, blowing mess of sleet and heavy snow.  I had a three hour drive in the mess last night driving around people who should learn to drive in the snow if they are going to be out in it.  Today chilly with winds and drifting snow, we've decided to hunker down and get some indoor projects done and save the fun outdoor activities for tomorrow.  The storm has blown past and now we just have to deal with digging out, but things are not quite as bad as they projected.  A good book, sitting by the fire is in good order for the day.  The gypsy wagon is in the next stage of building getting ready to laminate the curved roof supports.  Pictures to be forthcoming as the laminating begins.

Winter Check of the Hives

Today was a mild day of 43 degrees.  The wind had died down and cold single digit temperatures are expected to arrive.  I am a newbie when it comes to keeping bees and I have worried each winter.  Did I leave them enough honey stores for winter?  Did I close them up adequately? Will I have any hives alive in the spring?  We had some leftover comb honey I figured I could feed them if need be.  So I trudged out the hives and low and behold each one was more active then the next  they all seemed to still have a good amount of stores left.  I removed a couple empty frames and placed a few of the comb honey in some of the ones that seemed like they could use a bit more.  Now to hope for an early spring!

Decking the Wagon

I spent the weekend working on the deck.  First I had to secure the crosspieces with lagbolts into the main beam support.

Next I had to mill the oak decking from oak boards a friend gave us.  I milled a simple overlap on the edges to minimize spaces and gaps.

 

I had enough boards to nail down half the  deck. We nailed down the boards with square nails from a company called Tremont which still make nails like they did 100 years ago.  Now to procure a couple more boards and  finish the deck so we can start working on the walls.

Windows

Friends are a wonderful thing.  As life goes on we cherish our friends new and old all the more.  Especially the ones that are supportive and cheer you on as you begin projects and ideas.  Allison a wonderful art teacher I work with is one of them and her mother a new friend and contributor to our wagon of some beautiful stained glass windows that will become part of the entry way to our wagon.  They will be the split windows above our dutch door.  Thank You, Thank you!

Carving

I started carving the supports of the undercarriage.  I stopped at my favorite woodshop (Pittsford Lumber) and picked up a beautiful Swedish antique carving gouge to help with the job.  I then proceeded to roughly cut the ends of the cross supports into the design I envision.  Four carvings on each of 8 crosspieces made for a long Saturday.   Next step is to secure these to the main beam support and I will sand the curves once they are in place.  A friend donated enough oak boards from a tree she took down on her land years before which I will mill to be the flooring for our caravan.
I read, research and peruse the net for images and details that will make this a unique carriage.  Look enough online and you will find that the true beauty of these wagons are in the details.  As I think about that I realize this project is just beginning.  I have many more things to acquire and many new skills to learn.

Building the Under-carriage

I have begun working on the under-carriage to support the gypsy wagon.  I have spent the past few weeks gathering the materials.  The main support piece I needed was taken from an old 1830's barn that was being salvaged in the nearby town of Groton.  I had to split this massive 12 inch by 10 inch beam  in half which though straightforward in my head, proceeded to take me more than 2 hours to split the 12 ft length.  The first struggle was to get the great timber from the demolition site to the farm which was assisted by my neighbor John and his pickup.  We had the beam precariously perched on the cab and the bed of the truck and made it the 15 minute ride back to the farm.  Today I proceeded to chisel out recesses for the stringers that will support the floor and bolt the main beam to the chassis. The next step is to carve decorative scrolls to the end of each stringer.  Sixteen scrolls in all.  When the wagon is completed these small decorative features will give the wagon the semblance of a gypsy wagon while not quite being a traditional wagon.  What I have enjoyed with this wagon is how it has come together with support from so many avenues.  The chassis as previously stated is from a 1930's farm wagon.  Four Oak windows we salvaged from Significant Elements, a local architectural salvage company in Ithaca. The old barn beam and in our basement we found an old dutch door which is the perfect entrance for a gypsy wagon. Lastly, my wonderful in-laws, Lottie and Gene, knowing I always have some project going on the farm, gave me a gift card to Lowe's  for my recent birthday,which paid for the hardware and miscellaneous tools I needed to assemble the base. The support of friends, neighbors and family, odd mix of materials truly make it a "gypsy wagon."

Good Bye Sandy

We battened down everything in preparation for Hurricane Sandy, but this being my first year with so many beehives and making sure all the animals were safe I forgot to secure the hives.  It was dark and too windy before I realized it, but with the sunrise this morning all the hives were intact.  I have situated them to be sheltered from most winds.  They are situated in the orchard and the rear lavender field in a way where they get a good amount of sun but stay sheltered form the elements.  All and all we weathered things well, no loss of electricity and no downed branches or trees.  Lucky, and next time the hives will be battened down as well.