ADMITTING DEFEAT AND SAYING GOODBYE.

We made a hard decision this week to cut our fall CSA short. In September, we got about half of the members we'd hoped for going into it, and so I got a seasonal job cooking to make up for the loss in income.This job has been fun, and a lifesaver. It's kind of a treat to actually get paid for every hour I work for once (farming does not always oblige). And there have been many hours, but that also means lots of hours away from Bugtussle. We are living full-time at the new farm and have been commuting back and forth to pick veggies and drop off our CSA shares. Every Monday, we pack the family in the car, drive three hours, take care of business, harvest, go to market on Tuesday and then drive home late, only for me to have to wake up early on Wednesday to be at work and start all over again.When we originally planned this - which yes, as crazy as it sounds, was our plan - we expected a frost by now which would have helped with the pest damage. We expected some rain, too, which would have been nice. The deer have ravaged the garden, which we hadn't considered enough, but without Wendell there shouldn't be surprised by. They ate all the spinach, chard, and beets - gone! - and destroyed the carrot tops. And we simply didn't account for that much loss - we just didn't think about not being there to protect stuff.So with heavy hearts, we cut out fall CSA short, and collaterally, our time in Bowling Green. Next Tuesday will be out last at our beloved market.We will dearly miss our market and our CSA, but felt we are doing the right thing even if it's the hard thing. We feel guilty, but know we would feel even more guilt giving bad food.  We just don't have the quality of vegetables our CSA members purchased, and wouldn't feel right forcing them to just take what's left.This is the latest in a series of hard decisions which we hope are leading towards sanity on our new farm. We feel good about the new farm - great about it, really. The garlic is planted.  The compost arrived on Wednesday. We bought 60 blueberry plants on Monday. I ordered a bunch of trees for the spring on Tuesday. We have already talked to a couple restaurants about sales and are looking into a cool program called Bluegrass Harvest which could be Godsend for us, should it work out. So yeah, the new farm is coming along nicely.But we will always love and always cherish our Bowling Green family, which we wish we could just bring with us. Everywhere. You have been so good to us, and we love you all. We say it often, that there is always a lot of sacrifice in staring a farm, but that doesn't mean it's every easy. So thank you for everything. Thank you for making it hard to wanna leave.With love,Jesse (and Hannah and Further)

LATELY....

It has been quiet on the blog because of all the usual reasons, but mostly because we are splitting our time between two farms that are three hours apart. Also, we have no internet.But in case you were wondering what we've been up to: getting the garlic patch planted, hiring someone to till a little over an acre for next years main garden, planting Walla Walla onions, ordering 10 tons of compost, and just generally doing all of the unpleasant things that come along with moving. But I promise we will be back to some semblance of regularity soon!

HOW (NOT) TO TRANSPORT BEES.

I often find myself walking outside to our front porch, standing there and looking out at the farm, not knowing where to begin. Moving is always difficult….moving a farm is another thing entirely. Our plan so far has been to simply move one small load at a time, making sure we never drive in the direction of the new farm without a full truck, in hopes of lessening the prospect of one enormous move at the end. One of the more stressful things we knew eventually had to be moved was the beehives – so we decided to just go ahead and get it over with this week.Well.Everything went well in terms of the transport. We sealed up the hives and moved them all in one night. I waited til dark (when all of the bees were inside the hive) to seal up the hive openings with some wire mesh, cloth, and duct tape. I also wrapped a ratchet strap around the entire hive to keep it nice and snug. We then made quick work of the three-hour drive and easily got the hives set up in their new spot, placing them on cinder blocks.At this point, well past midnight, I debated opening up the hives or waiting til morning. There was a scattering of bees that had escaped bumbling around, and I could hear many more very shaken and angry bees inside the hives. I didn’t exacly feel like further bothering them, but I knew they were hot and bothered and cramped. Just go ahead and get it over with sounded good to me.I pulled out the cloth from one hive entrance and let loose quite a ferocious tumble of bees. Retreating quickly to let them calm down. Returning to second hive,I peeled back a corner of the duct tape and grabbed the cloth that was plugging the entrance and started to slowly pull. The swell of sound told me that a LOT of bees were going to quickly pour out of there, so I decided to rip it like a BandAid.WELL.The duct tape held tight, and so instead of the cloth pulling out of the entrance, I essentially PULLED OVER THE ENTIRE BEEHIVE. I saw it tumbling towards me and did not for even a second stick around to see what was going to happen. I retreated inside and it was too dark to see from the window, but picturing the chaos that I had just unleashed – I knew there wasn’t much to be done at that point. I went to bed, frustrated at myself and unable to sleep.I got about around four and told Jesse that if by any miracle the hive was still intact and not in fact broken up into its separate parts, maybe we could set it back up while it was cool and still dark and the bees were calmed down after their eventful night. I walked outside and turned on my headlamp. My first thought was that somehow everything was fine – the hive was sitting there, right next to the other hive, completely fine! A miracle! But OH WAIT. Nope. It was actually sitting there completely flipped upside down. Covered in bees, the entrance was now open and the bottom of the hive (now on the top) had been jostled enough to create another opening. But, it was quite cold and the bees seemed very calm. Jesse came out and we used the BLESSED ratchet strap that was still attached (and was the only reason the hive was still all in one piece) to slowly tip the hive onto its side. We then lifted it back onto the cinder blocks and…..everything was totally fine. We had a few bees crawling on us when we came inside but we never even got stung.ADVENTURES! This is always how I feel about the bees. While this was perhaps my most dramatic bee experience to date, every time I work with the bees I feel like I learn something new. Whether I am examining the hives, harvesting honey, catching a swarm, watching bees in the garden, or even when I’ve lost a hive for one reason or another….I am still just as fascinated as I was the first time I fell in love with beekeeping. I am always learning something new.Latest lesson in beekeeping: don’t yank the duct tape.- Hannah.

VIDEO: AFFECTION.