Saying goodbye to “Big Claws”

Saying goodbye to “Big Claws”

Two years ago a salamander wandered into our garage. Little did he know, he would stay in our kitchen for these past two years. The kids were quite fascinated by this worm-gulping creature. Evan thought he had big "claws"...

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Fast-serve ice cream

Fast-serve ice cream

What's not to like about a 'homesteading' ice cream post. We take our ice cream seriously here...sometimes churning it in secret, doling out the coffee-flavored tub after the kids go to bed, and of course, being pleasantly surprised to...

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Pumpkins!

Pumpkins!

The kids were with me outside the other day, so we decided it was time to collect the pumpkins. They were obviously quite orange and we could not tell how many we had because of the weeds and buckwheat...

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Honey Harvest part 5 – final totals

Honey Harvest part 5 – final totals

We thank God for a bountiful honey season. There are always a number of factors and things that can come up out of your control that will reduce or negate the honey that you can spin out. This time...

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Honey Harvest part 4 – field trip

Honey Harvest part 4 – field trip

Jana organized a super field trip experience that took advantage of the honey extraction that was going on. There were 5 stations that different groups of kids rotated through in our house and garage. station 1 - honey extraction -...

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Honey Harvest part 3 – Extraction

Honey Harvest part 3 – Extraction

We actually began extracting the night before we planned - Labor Day night - after the kids went to bed. Jana described it as two kids the night before Christmas or two kids in a candy factory. We just...

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Honey Harvest part 2 – removal

Honey Harvest part 2 – removal

On September 6th, the day before Labor Day, we went to the bee yard to pull off the honey supers. It went real well, but perhaps involved a bit more moving of the boxes than turned out to be...

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Honey Harvest part 1 – Bee escapes

Honey Harvest part 1 – Bee escapes

On September 5, we went out to the bee yard on my folks property to prep the hives for honey super removal on the following day. My brother Cory drove up from Colorado (near Boulder) for the weekend, so...

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In the news – KTTC airs segment

In the news – KTTC airs segment

I'm not sure exactly how they found out, but I got the call the morning of our launch that they were interested in doing a feature. Had to juggle some things, but we made it work and I got...

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