It's Not Yet Winter?

The storm delivered just as the meteorologists predicted. It's very, very cold today, even though the sun is shining. Snow is trying to melt, but having a difficult time since temperature is not quite 34 degrees. It was a beautiful snow. Our animals were all warm and snug under lights (chickens), blankets (mules), and inside the house in their beds (dogs). We have the fireplace burning all day, until we go to bed at night.

Winter arrives on December 21 and we are expecting another cold month - or three! No tree, rose bush or vine will be trimmed until the freezing is complete. 

Just finished ordering our seeds for Garden 2020 and we expect to eat all organic vegetables and fruits from our upcoming harvests. And this year we're adding a microgreens planter. 

Remember, when planning your garden be sure to include mostly what you like to eat, but please try to add something new. 🍅

Picnic anyone?

Bees Swarming Today

We had a swarm of honey bees fly through the garden, orchard, pasture (where our mules were grazing) and chicken pens (with 18 hens). We were not concerned and they headed south. The noise was a treat and we know to stay calm and stand still as they whizzed by.

Swarming occurs when a colony has outgrown its current hive and is preparing to separate into 2 or more new, smaller hives. When bees swarm looking for a new place to call home, they are usually at their calmest. When they get tired or at the end of a long day, they will often rest in a tree, culvert or other place they feel safe. You might get to see this resting in your yard and they may stay as long as a week. This is not the same as an active bee hive.

I wanted to send this reminder to all neighbors and ask that you please do not respond by calling an exterminator. Honey bees play a vital role in our ecosystems and food supply. As organic gardeners we appreciate their important role.

Bees have been struggling in recent years due to many unnatural stresses which include habitat disruption, monocultural & genetically engineered food provisions, and invasive pathogens & parasites.

If you have a resting swarm of bees and wish to have them removed you can call one of the expert beekeepers below. They will most likely charge less than an exterminator and the wild bees can be kept in new, safe hives.

Tracy. 928-899-2720 - Williamson Valley Area

Ken Miller. 928-300-1260 - Located in Rimrock (Verde Vly)

Nancy J. Deane. 941-815-1588 - In Prescott, PV, Dewey

Mark Gregory - Kirkland area - 928-830-8770

Tom Veatch - 928 925 2096 - Areas south of Prescott

Some interesting honey bee facts:

• In order to make a pound of honey, a hive of bees must fly 55,000 miles 
• Honey is 25% sweeter than table sugar. 
• Honey is the only foodstuff that contains all of the necessary nutrients to sustain life. 
• Bee venom is used as a treatment for several ailments, including arthritis and high blood pressure and beekeepers rarely have arthritis .
• The darker the honey, the greater amount of antioxidant properties it has. 
• Honey has antibacterial properties and can be used as a dressing for wounds. 
• Due to colony collapse disorder, bees have been dying off at a rate of approximately 30% per year. 
• Bees are being used to study dementia. When a bee takes on a new job usually done by a younger bee, its brain stops aging!

(Thus ended the lesson - sorry to be so long winded, but I LOVE BEES.)

Thought for Food

Not every place you fit in is where you belong.

Mother's Day Flowers

Its early in the spring, but it's Mother's Day. Many of our garden plants are only a couple  inches tall, but the Iris are beginning to put on a show. Here is Sotto Voce. I also adore my cold tolerant stocks, violas and snapdragons. Enjoy.

Cold Camping

Had a wonderful time exploring and hiking, and then it became too frigid to enjoy the woods. Packed up and headed home a day early, but time spent in the forest was well worth it. Plenty of beautiful Clarets Cup (chinocereus) tucked in and around the rocks.

Here's what a Clarets Cup cactus looks like in bloom. Stunning!

Good, Bad, Beautiful

The beautiful red-stem Filaree, Pinweed, Common Stork's-Bill (or Mexican alfalfa as it's affectionately called in Arizona and New Mexico, is in full bloom . Its creating quite a stunning roadside display. BUT it is an invasive plant introduced in the 1800. Beauty or the Beast?

s.

Unimportant Questions

 

• Do twins ever realize that one of them is unplanned?
• What if my dog only brings back my ball because he thinks I like throwing it?
• Which letter is silent in the word “scent.” The s or the c?

From YOUR library

Shy Moon Poem

There.

I see you hiding,

Floating between cloud islands. 

Searching for the sea,

Open dark waters where

You illuminate my garden

With your bright,

Steady beam.

Finally.

You are in place,

Like a great ship

Sitting on the ocean

Of dark blue silence.

Surrounded by a mass

Of tiny, twinkling rafts.

Your starlight companions.

Celebrate Banned Books Week

The last week in September is Banned Books Week - 2018. Time to Celebrate!

Read a book that’s been banned. Here's a potential list: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, To Kill a Mockingbird, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Red Badge of Courage, The Catcher in the Rye, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Moby Dick.

The books shown —along with many others—have been targeted for removal from bookshelves around the nation. Find out what all of the buzz is about! Join us as we celebrate Banned Books Week and encourage your children to read a banned book.

Watch Out for Blister Beetles

It's that time of year again... 

The blister beetles are doing their dance to make more blister beetles, and I suggest we all put on our old shoes and stomp until they are all flat and dead! You can ID them by their flat head, long bodies and legs, and thread-like or beaded antennae. Here are photos of species we see most often around Paulden, in Yavapai County, Arizona.

 

Every horse owner should know what they look like because it  just takes a few in a flake of hay to cause a horse to suffer digestive and urinary tract damage, inner hemorrhages and even death if they are unlucky enough to ingest too many. The beetles are capable of synthesizing cantharidin, one of the most poisonous compounds known to humans AND this chemical causes terrible blisters on the skin (see last photo).

The last (sorry it's gross) photo is when one got to me while I was cleaning out an old shed in NM. I never even knew I rubbed against its body until later. I had seen the beetles in the shed and did not recognize the species. The blister lasted 3-4 months and the doc felt it was at risk of infection if she lanced, so I kept it clean, bandaged, covered with a pants leg.

Beautiful bugs aren't always beneficial. This one is not one of my favorites.