Honey!!

This was a long awaited event... Dylan started raising bees with his dad about 3 years ago.  He invested his own money in some of the hives and equipment.  And the first two years had many ups and downs.  Even the most seasoned bee keepers have hives that die, or swarm and are lost.  It's an expensive business to be in, and the bees don't always cooperate.

But we are glad that he was so diligent and did not get overly discouraged - even when he lost one of his best queens earlier this year (despite great efforts of capturing them and re-homing them.  See that story here.)

So today, the boys went out and took two frames from each of the remaining hives and extracted their first batch of honey!

It was a crowd gathering event because we've waited so long to have our own honey, and because we've never done this before so there is always an interesting learning curve.

First, getting the new equipment unpacked and learning proper use of it:

Finally, it's all set up and ready to go!

They pulled just two frames from each hive so they could be sure to leave enough honey for the bees to overwinter.  It's a fine art as I understand it - you must leave enough honey for the bees to overwinter, but NOT too much because with too much honey they will not get rid of any bees over the winter and end up so crowded that you'll get half the hive leaving in a swarm the following spring.  Leaving you to wait for a new queen to be raised up.

First a hot knife is used to get the "caps" off of the honey.  The goal is to take off the caps but leave the honey comb in place so the bees can reuse it.

 Then the frames are put into the honey extractor and the handle on top is used to gently spin them around, releasing the honey to fall to the bottom.

And finally, honey came pouring out.  I was amazed that they had over a gallon of honey from just 4 frames!  And so thrilled for Dylan who has put so much time and money into this.  He will now get to sell his first batch of honey.  And we all get to enjoy our own honey this winter!

 

Endurance (vs. Giving-Up) - The inward strength to withstand stress to accomplish God's best.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. - Galatians 6:9
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Homesteading Field Trip Day

Home. Farm. Beauty. Peace. Work. Country. Family. Church. Friends. Animals. Guests. Gardens. Canning. Cooking. Hosting. Summer. Hot. MISSOURI.

 

That sums up our summer here on the farm.

 

So what a wonderful way to celebrate Fall, but to have a homesteading/farm field trip at our house!

 

When we moved into this house that God brought us, the first thing we did was dedicate it and all the property on it, to the Lord.  We purpose to share what we have and what we have learned with others whenever possible.

 

This is our first event and we had such a good time!

 

We invited homeschooling families from the city to come to a homesteading day at our farm, where they would learn about sustainable, pasture-based farming, about animals and soil.  We also gave the hands-on experience with canning tomatoes and provided a soap-making demonstration. 

 

The response was so great that we had a waiting list of families wanting to attend, so we will definitely have to plan another event like this.

 

Old friends were reacquainted and new friends were made.  And we were SO blessed to have local friends give up their Friday in order to work on our farm and help us serve all these visiting families.  They made it all amazing.

 

Even better was that we shared a little slice of our testimony and how God brought us to this farm, and had a chance to encourage families to trust in the Lord through what He has done in our lives.

 

Here are some photos of the day!

 

We have perfect weather!  A little cool at first, but the tomato canning and fire pit made the cool weather a joy.

 

 

Friends setting up our farm-y casual lunch tables on the deck.

 

A tour of the farm - learning about the greenhouses and the rotation of animals from summer to winter.

 

Of course the baby chicks inside the greenhouse were very popular!

Out on the pasture with the 1-3 year old chickens and learning about how the egg-mobiles work...

 Probably the kids favorite was visiting the goats - in particular our new arrival, a 8 week old doe we named "Sochi".  She sure got a lot of attention this day, and she loved it.  She cried and cried when everyone left!

 

Even the littlest of hands got to give Sochi some loving...

 

Setting up for tomato canning lesson and hands-on experience. 

Everyone got to help with something.  The little kids were busy shaking jars of cream to make butter for our lunches. I wish I had gotten a picture of those little balls of butter, but they were eaten up on the homemade bread we had from a local Mennonite family.  YUM!

Snack time for the littles while tomato canning was going on...

Campfires always area  draw for the boys.  They were drawn like magnets to the fire pit.  :-)

Lunch on the deck, served up by our grandmothers and family friends who came to help.  What a huge blessing they all were.  We couldn't have pulled this off without them.

 

Nearly all the food was prepared from things we grew on our farm, or neighboring farms, right down to the grass-fed beef in the stew and chili.

 

Wish I had a photo of all the food, but it was gone so quickly!

After lunch, my (Sheri's) mom gave a soap-making demonstration and everyone was able to take home a couple of bars of homemade soap.  We are so glad she is willing to share her skills with all of us.

One of the finished soap products... oatmeal lavender.

 

What a fun day we had working and playing together.

 

"Use hospitality one to another.... "

1 Pet 4:9

 

We are as blessed as those who came!