September 24, 2013

Honey Harvest 2013

We went to Scott's house to harvest our honey this year. Alden was more interested in the lake than the extraction process, but the water was too cold to swim in, so he spent his time taking off his clothes, looking longingly at the water, getting cold, and then putting his clothes back on. He repeated this cycle a few times.
The extractor broke after the first 10 frames so Scott's handy friend Dana spent several hours MacGuyvering a fix. He did it, the extraction proceeded and we ended up with 133 lbs all together split across 3 five-gallon pails.
It wasn't a great year in terms of quantity (only 4.75 boxes from 4 hives and 3 of those boxes came from Ponyo), but the quality of the honey is superb. It's rich and floral and fruity and even better than last year, in my humble opinion. We promptly sold it all in the coming weeks to family, friends and colleagues, who clamored for more long after the last bottle was spoken for. We need to find a way to keep the bees from swarming so we can increase our production. Everyone seemed to want more than we had to offer!

September 19, 2013

Sophia Birthday

The family attended Sophia's birthday today, at the Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. 

Not much to report, other than it was a fun time and very enjoyable.

September 16, 2013

Apple Picking

We went to Rikers Orchard to pick apples and eat fresh doughnuts. We were also excited by the offerings like the corn maze and animals.
Elliott was a good sport and liked crawling in the grass (no walking yet). He also LOVED the wagon ride when I pulled him and Alden through the apple orchard.
On top of apples we also picked grapes at the farm.
Fun Fun.



September 12, 2013

Favorite Fruits

We have our first harvest of plums, peaches, and pears this season. One of the four plum trees finally decided to give back, and made a bunch of fruit. Elliott loves eating the fruit straight from the tree
Both peach trees had so much fruit that the branches almost broke. Next year we will need to thin the fruit back.
Only three pears this year... but that is better than nothing.

September 5, 2013

Half Birthday

Alden's friend Evelyn had a half birthday this week. Her real birthday is just over a month past Alden's and she was tired of the snow.
Instead of snow there was running around and water balloons.
Cady was there, who Alden is especially sweet on, and they hang out for most of the party together.