How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Guest Posts by Powell River Books Blog

As most folks know I will be adding in a number of different mason bee and Native Pollinator hotels and nesting box’s here on the farm. I am also placing Nest Box’s at some community gardens as well as private garden/yards.  I was very excited to see a post on Powell River Books Blog talking about their Mason Bee Hotels as they are a number of years worth of working with them. I wrote and asked if they would be open to doing a guest post series here on the blog. Thank you so much for saying YES!

Part Two of Three –  Putting your Hotel Together

I love this upcycle idea of using a older or new bird house to create the base for your mason bee house. I have noticed that “birds houses” are a faction of the cost compared to buy a Mason bee wooden house. Frugal is always a good thing.

I started with an old birdhouse and went from there.

 

Don’t you love to save something and then find a new use for it? Remove the front wall and clean out the house

Give the old birdhouse a facelift with new paint.  A darker color helps them warm up faster in the morning sun  Some kind of container for the drilled nesting blocks protects them from rain.

Preserve the new paint and exposed surfaces with Acrylic spray. Some folks choice to only paint or burn the wood on the front to get the darker color to help warm up the house in the early morning sun.

Place your drilled logs into the house.  Place your house facing the morning sun, approx. 3 feet above the ground on a solid surface ideally within 300 feet of the area’s that they will be feeding in. Remember they do need a source of clay/mud to help make their coons.

 

 

These post’s was written between 2015 – 2018  They have a had great success with getting their mason bee’s to like their new home! 

 

Margy Lutz and her husband Wayne discovered Powell River, BC, during an airplane camping trip in 2000. They purchased an off-the-grid float cabin on nearby Powell Lake that has become their home since retiring from careers in education in Southern California and becoming Canadian permanent residents and citizens. Margy is the author of the Powell River Books Blog and Wayne is the author of the Coastal BC Stories series of books.

http://powellriverbooks.blogspot.com 

www.powellriverbooks.com 

 

 

 

Posted in Mason Bees, Native Bee's | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Creme Carmamel – Made with Sheep Milk

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

The first of the Sheep Milk is coming into the house, Carmel only had one lamb who is nicknamed Shady Lady and she is old enough to be put into a nice little lamb creep with water/hay/lamb crumbles for the night so I can milk her mom in the morning for fresh house milk.

Crème Caramel Recipe

Brown Sugar Topping

  • 1/2 Cup of Sugar
  • 2 Tbsp of Water
  • 1/2 tsp of Fancy Molasses

Making a good Caramel Sugar is tricky.  So tricky..   I am going to put a video in here to give a helping hand to seeing how its done.

Farmgal Tip: Add your 1/2 tsp of Fancy Molasses and even if you just slightly under boil it, you will still now have a nice golden hue to it.

Crème Custard Recipe

  • 2 cups of whole sheep milk
  • 2 tsp of Vanilla Extract
  • 1/4th cup of sugar
  • 3 eggs (lightly beaten)

Heat up your milk, sugar and Vanilla together till its steaming hot but not boiling.. very slowly, carefully using a whisk add the egg into the very warm milk.  If you do it slow and steady with lots of movement by the whisk, it will come out so smooth and silky when cooked.

In your baking pan, pour the sugar into the bottom and let it cool. Then start making your Custard and at the same time put your tea kettle on to start your boiling water and pre-heat your oven to 350.

When your crème custard is done, gently pour it the cooled brown sugar topping and place your pan or small custard cups into a larger cake pan which you will fill to the half way point with water.

Cook for 20 to 22 minutes, allow to sit to cool, then place in fridge and serve very chilled. Run your knife around the rim and then place your plate over the top and Flip it over and Serve as is or with a touch of whipped cream, if you like.

 

 

Posted in Food Production and Recipes, Sheep Milk | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Guest Posts by Powell River Books Blog

As most folks know I will be adding in a number of different mason bee and Native Pollinator hotels and nesting box’s here on the farm. I am also placing Nest Box’s at some community gardens as well as private garden/yards.  I was very excited to see a post on Powell River Books Blog talking about their Mason Bee Hotels as they are a number of years worth of working with them. I wrote and asked if they would be open to doing a guest post series here on the blog. Thank you so much for saying YES!

Part one of Three –  Drilling out your logs/wood

Last spring I noticed small flying insects going in and out of a little hole on the pedestal of our weather station’s solar panel. After taking several pictures, I identified the small insect as a bee.  Most likely an Orchard Mason Bee, a type of solitary bee that nest in holes or tubes.

This year I decided to make the bees a more permanent home, a Bee Hotel. I started out by using an old bird house that was no longer needed because John built us nice new ones. I took the front wall off and glued all of the joints. A new coat of green paint on the roof really spruced it up.

I cut four sections of driftwood and Wayne drilled the 5/16-inch holes for me. The holes only go part way through, creating tubes that the bees like to nest in. The larger stick got six holes, the rest four each.

I’ve already seen Mason Bees flying around the cabin. Hopefully they’ll pick the nice new home this year. We placed it on the south-facing porch post right under the solar panel they used last year. Maybe they’ll get the hint.

This post was written in 2015 and we are going to move forward with the rest of the series from then till 2018.  They have a had great success with getting their mason bee’s to like their new home! 

Margy Lutz and her husband Wayne discovered Powell River, BC, during an airplane camping trip in 2000. They purchased an off-the-grid float cabin on nearby Powell Lake that has become their home since retiring from careers in education in Southern California and becoming Canadian permanent residents and citizens. Margy is the author of the Powell River Books Blog and Wayne is the author of the Coastal BC Stories series of books.

http://powellriverbooks.blogspot.com 

www.powellriverbooks.com 

 

 

 

Posted in Mason Bees, Native Bee's | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Dogwood 52 Week 12-Trash

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Such a odd subject matter this week.. trying to find and take a picture of trash..

These cushions are going to get a second life by being rescued and turned into soft spots for the kitties to sit in the sun and nap here on the farm.

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Muck Boot Season is Here!

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Hello Folks,  So I have decided to step into the modern world and create at least one proper pin for each post and I am slowly learning how to use the graphic system I choose to work with..

However having said that, I still want and plan to use my own photos in them.. yes it means it’s a bit more work for me because it would be faster to use their “pre-made” ones with just a fast word adjustment.

However that would mean breaking one of my “blogging rules” which is that I use my own farm, my own photos and that what you see is what you get.. LOL

Look at my new Muck Boots.  On sale at 40 percent off and I sure needed a new pair as my old wear worn to the point of no return, not even my foot repair glue was going to get them though this season.

They were not found in the rubber boot area, which are your standard black and with orange bottoms. I find those have a rubber that really bothers my feet after a good hard workout.

There were found in the hunting section, amazing treads for hiking, meant to put the miles on in them, rubber up to a certain point and then into the softer tops. That is my other pet peeve with standard rubber boots, I want the height of them but they are straight legged the whole way up and that works just fine for my hubbies skinny leg but for me with my “fuller calves” I really dislike that they rub on my leg in the same spot again and again.

The new boots with their waterproof but soft half top hugs the leg well, its snug to help keep out spring ticks, its soft and mobile for when I am going up and down on pens to check momma’s, babies and or milking etc.

In many cases, its worth passing the “farming” section and heading right to the hunters, this goes for coats, gloves, boots and more..

Last reason to head that way.. its rare in my neck of the woods to find things on sale at the local feed stores in the farmers area.  I mean they had a rubber boot sale and their on sale boots were 2.5x more on sale then what I paid.

However in the Hunting/Fishing/outdoor lifestyle area.. you can find the gear, you can find them in all sizes, from super small to those XXX’s sizes and they go on an amazing sales and they tend to be really good quality and built tough and to last.

While I woke up to -7

I know that spring is coming! And with it comes lots of mud, Muck and so much wet melting mucky poo that needs to be cleaned up.. Fun, Fun

So what is your favorite brand of muck boots? Have you ever wrapped your socked foot in a plastic bag and stuffed it into a leaking boot to get the job done ? I know I have!

Posted in homestead | Tagged , , , , | 16 Comments

Farmgal’s All About the Nettle’s

Posted on March 16, 2019 by Just another day on the farm


Local Folks that are interested come on out in Mid-May for an amazing afternoon learning about the Nettle Plant.  You have gotten stung by it and its on the bad plant list..

Let me tell you honestly, you are missing all the amazing things about Nettles.

We are going to cover some of the known plants history and its been used since the roman’s times and most like even before that!

We are going to talk about it as an eating green and there will taste testing and detailed recipes given out.

We will be talking about it in detail as a herb, both for in the kitchen (cooking) we will talk about its cottage uses and then we will dig down into some studies that have some solid backing on it in the modern sense. We will talk about how to use this plant in your homestead animal health kit and why it should be there!

We will do a small color dyeing show on my own sheep’s wool as this is very much a plant that has been used world-wide in this way!

Last but not least! We will take go step by step on how to make it into a wonderful green salve for your own use.

Each person will go home with one tin of Farmgal’s Nettle Salve, 4 oz of freshly dried crumbled Spring 2019 Nettles as a pot herb for use in their kitchen and if they want, they can take home a 4 inch pot with their own nettle plant in it to start their own patch!

Want to learn more? Want to sign up for the class?

Facebook Event Page 

 

Posted in Farmgal's Classes | Tagged | 5 Comments

Friday Rambles around the Table – Snow and Melting.

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Come on in!

Watch out for the puddles, the melt has started.. sorry, can you come in by the farm porch, Mud season has started.. If you want to sit in the living room, give me a moment to take off the covers for all the wet prints from the indoor/outdoor time.

We had a leak on the pipe coming in from the well.  Thankfully it decided to tell us about it earlier so we were able to get a repair patch on it before it really hit the spring thaw, the real question is will that patch hold for the whole spring thaw and I am not looking forward to adding that job on our list to do this year.. we will need to move the rocks, clear out yet another one of my gardens(WHY.. shakes fist at the sky) and dig down and repair it from the outside for a longer term fix and while we are at it.. update the seal on the underside.. it is pretty much year 21 since it was made, its the new part on the house, it got its new roof 2017, it will need a new window in 2019 and I guess some repair work as well.

We are not the only one’s the house just across the road up on the hill has had the foundation repair trucks there for a few days this week as well. Its just the year.. the hardware stores says folks are having issues all over the place.  Heck, every morning this week, the local radio has had a time set for bringing in the experts, I was all excited this morning when they said they were going to be talking about basement window seeping.. the advice, shovel it away and cut a drainage channel.. ah.. duh.. yes I would if I could..

Thankfully only one window seal in the cellar (we have the old cellar and the newer basement) is seeping, the other two do not have the same snow build up. (And with today’s melt out, its now below the window seal and that means no more seeping there)

Speaking of water and seeping, on the one side of the older roof, we have a lifting happening on the metal roof.. bugger.. that will have to be looked at.. so far its just the one tiny spot where the screws have lifted but it will grow so that at least must get done this weekend.

So before we had the melt, we had more snow and they say more is coming yet! We got a solid six inches in the first go and other inch or two on the second.

I am really wanting to get some butchering done this month, I should be already done my first one and showing all kinds of fun things on the blog, but we have a issue.. we can’t get to ground to dig the pit to put the extra’s in. I can’t draw in the crows/ravens or the coons or coy-wolves by trying to do a top coat and cover, they will just dig it out.. It really important that its properly down and if we could get under the snow pack, the ground itself can normally be quite able to be dug right now.

Its still very much on my list..  a few things will be cleaned up to a point and then some frozen and then use the mealworms to help clean them up for other uses.

I am excited about trailing a number of different mason bee housing types and for a coming guest post series in regards to their Mason bee’s and houses/homes. I think it will be very interesting for you guys as well.

So I had had joined a homestead/green living group and I have been learning this and that, some things I like and other things I have struggled with but I have pushed myself to learn more things and try new things.. somethings got a trial and then I went nope.. other things are taking a slower more careful.. hmm.

It was interesting when I have been talking to someone and I went I can help with that and at the end of it, I laughed and went look at that, I was paying attention! I will be trying few more things and we will see if they stick or go to the side..

I opened up some classes this week and made the events pages on the Just another farm facebook page and I was thrilled that my Cold Process Soap Making Class filled up and was fully booked within 24 hours.

I will be promoting the other ones at some point here on the blog for locals and I am now at the half way point on the Master Rain Gardener Class and its keeping me busy on learning and homework that’s for sure.

I have been working on my new business cards, labels and so forth, my order is shipped and I am quietly working behind the scenes getting things ready for the launch of Farmgal’s Spring Soap and Salve Collection.

I am learning how to work Zoom and I am building my first “online course” which is taking me way longer then expected but I promise you even if it takes me a good while yet, my “Farmgal’s Adapting in Place” based on C5 Dark Green Mountain Research Center’s Adapters Series.

It will hold to his core values but will have my own spin on it, with my own examples and idea’s, and in keeping with working as a community, I will not be offering it as e-book, I will be offering it as a multi weekly gathering where you can see me, hear my voice, interact live asking questions and with follow up in a working facebook group for those that are interested in it.  Its a work in progress.. wish me luck on it! Please 🙂

There are moments it seems simple and then there are times I spend far more time then I want to admit re-reading C5’s words and then mine. I know that it will have my voice but I really want to make sure it stays true!

I am thinking of doing a small test run on using Zoom with a shorter subject and hopefully a few of you will be willing to give me a helping hand and be my beta testers when the time comes.

That’s a Wrap for Today!

 

 

 

 

Posted in At the kitchen table, Life moves on daily | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Chaga Poppyseed Salad Dressing Recipe

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Chaga Poppyseed Salad Dressing Recipe

Guest post by Adagio Naturals

Chaga poppyseed Salad Dressing (1)

CHAGA POPPY SEED SALAD DRESSING

This salad dressing is as simple as it is nutritious. It little bit of a tart creamy dressing that works very well with lighter greens but holds up to stronger flavours well.

INGREDIENTS

1 oz of Rice Vinegar
1 or 2 Chaga Chai Tea Bags (if using your own Chaga tea 2 tsp of ground powder steeped)
2 Tablespoon of Mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon Sugar (or Splenda)
1 teaspoon Poppy Seeds
Salt and Pepper to Taste

In a bowl soak the tea bags in the Rice Vinegar for about 20 minutes. Then squeeze the tea bags to extract as much as possible of this precious liquid. Add the Mayonnaise, Sugar and the Poppy Seeds and whisk with a fork until completely blended. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Stir again. Pour over your favorite green salad and enjoy.

Don’t have chaga of your own but want to try it.. Head on over to Adagio Naturals to see their wonderful Chaga Collection. Our chaga is sustainably harvested from deep in the pristine forests of Northern Ontario. Free from heavy metals and pesticides.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Crispy Cornmeal Baked Brussel Sprouts

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Crispy Cornmeal Coated Baked Brussel Sprouts

Looking for a new way to serve roasted Brussel Sprouts?

  • 1 pound of Brussel Sprouts (baby full size) or full size trimmed and cut in half
  • 1/4th cup of cornmeal
  • 1 tsp of course fresh cracked salt
  • 1 tsp of Paprika
  • 1 tsp of seasoning salt
  • If you want a little more kick, 1/2 tsp of crushed Chili pepper flakes can also be added!
  • 1/2 tsp of course fresh cracked Pepper
  • 2 tbsp. of light Olive Oil

Take your sprouts and put half the oil on them and toss them to lightly coat them, then in a small bowl mix the cornmeal, salt, pepper and Paprika together and then put it over the sprouts and toss them till well coated

Take shallow roasting pan and use the other half of your oil to lightly coat it, then add your  coated sprouts in a SINGLE layer (don’t overfill your pan, they need space LOL)

In a hot oven at 400, it will take approx. 20 min or so for cooking, shake your tray a few times at the ten minute mark to make sure you get both sides crispy. Serve hot and if you want with a bit of Ranch dipping sauce on the side!

Posted in gardens, Recipes from the Root Cellar | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Farmgal’s photography March 14th

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

For days I have had a single wild turkey hen hanging around..

They finally found the deck feeder, dance of joy!! new flocj of sparrows are coming every day now.. and then take turns between the deck feeder and the bigger tree feeder.

Hubby called me out to see the trails in the sky in the sunsets.. wow!

and then on a different day, farmgal, if you take photos of the moon, the back lite rim at this stage will show amazing craters..

Last one for this week! the amazing thing is these were taken free hand on a cold bitter moment. I really like them and when it is warmer, I will try again with the full set up 🙂

Posted in photography | Tagged | 11 Comments