Nothing is constant in life but change, right?

So after digging out a lot of lovely fill dirt from the previous owner, we decided to use the extra 8 feet dug out to solid footing soil to build a basement under the garage, move the root cellar around to under the entry way and I don't think we can say any longer that our square footage is under 3000'... Oh well, I'm sure we'll appreciate the extra storage space and opportunities for a finished basement later on, but it's meant more work with the engineer and Jon out here digging into darkness with a jackhammer to get things ready for the inspector.

The cement footings started going in today!

And the digging begins...

Don't ask about the extra eight feet of dirt dug out of the entire layout... Yay extra concrete and our own private stream running through the foundation! All will be well though, just a few thousand extra in concrete walls and some nice sink-hole mud to play in until then. Here's Jon filling 100 sand bags to hold down our 20,000 square feet of plastic over the dirt piles. 

A Cause for Champagne!

Well, it's official, because we decided it was about time! We opened our 2.5 year old champagne at the farm, after a few obligatory digs with the golden shovel, and to calm the adrenaline of me hiving my two colonies of bees today!


It was a busy morning, as I got last-minute word that my bees were in and impatient to be in a hive, so I dug out a platform for the hives (so many fat worms in our soil, yay!), got all of the last things ready, and then sat in the shop with my mom and the bees as a hail squall swept through the valley. Once it slowed to a slight drizzle, out we went, with Jon taking so many pictures it's like a flip-book, and my mom fearlessly helping. Thankfully it is supposed to be sunnier tomorrow, though not above 60 (so excited for summer!).

Click here to see more pictures of the hiving...

Spring has sprung!

Yes, this is the first day of spring in Washington... What you can't see are the 30+ mph winds that kept us hunched as we headed for the summit of McCausland, a peak near Stevens Pass. Thanks to Lisa for the pic...

In other news, our permits for the house came through, and we're planning on breaking ground April 4th! Already spring seems to be racing by, with too many things to do in too short a time. The bees are to come shortly after, any volunteers to come take pictures as I dump them in the hives?

Hope you're all enjoying spring!

The buzzing of bees (in my head)...

Any guesses what this is?

I really had no idea how much of a world beekeeping is, populated with many new enthusiasts, a few old beekeepers, many conflicting theories, burgeoning new research... Knowing that CCD has demolished most feral bees and many hobby and commercial hives and in keeping with the permaculture philosophy of a sustainable homestead, I want to keep bees for pollination and some honey. After sitting through a local beekeeper's meeting, talking with a couple of family friends with varying views of conventional beekeeping with Langstroth hives, and reading oh-so-many blogs and forums about bees, there is about an entire hive buzzing in my head...

A few interesting things about bees:

• A busy summer hive can have as many as 60,000 bees
• A hive will only have a few hundred male 'drone' bees, and they get kicked out of the hive in autumn, no dead weight to drag the hive down in the winter
• Hives used to survive basically on their own, my friend's hive producing 160lbs of surplus honey each summer
• Bee hives now have to be nursed along, many producing only 20-40lbs of surplus honey and many dying in the winter.

Anyway, we'll see what I've decided after my beginning beekeeping class tomorrow, but I'm thinking now that I will go with an alternative hive setup, the top bar hive, originally from Greece and used in many developing countries because of their low cost and self-containment. The benefits of this hive over conventional Langstroth hives is they allow for a more organic experience for the bees (no drugs or medicinal treatments), they don't require storage of the many boxes and extra tools required for the life cycle of bees in Langstroth hives, and they allow bees to more naturally create their own combs. Hopefully they will lead a life less stressed by chemicals and pesticides, pests, and disruption than those in conventional hives. They do require more regular intervention from the beekeeper in keeping the free-hanging combs straight and don't usually produce as much honey. If you're interested in this, check out these links: http://www.biobees.com/ and www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm. So, we'll see how it all works out, stay tuned for pics of me hiving bees for the first time in April!

The sun still exists!

Some pics from a snowshoe with a friend Wednesday, just east of Snoqualmie Pass... With a late start, we sipped tea for an hour on Domerie and soaked in the peaceful late-afternoon views, while directly south on the Oregon/Washington border, wind gusts were up to 70mph! You've gotta love our mountains for the inversions and crazy weather they bring, as well as adventure ;)

Dawn with the goats...

Here are a couple pictures of the goats I work with a couple days a week, milking and sanitizing the raw milk certified St. John's Creamery. The milk is delicious, tasting basically like cow's milk because we get it on ice within an hour of milking. It's always a little hard to get up at 5am to drive to the farm, but then I drive against traffic and I'm always grateful that I'm not in the long string of cars driving from the suburbs to work in the city in the hours before dawn. Instead, I get to see happy goat faces eagerly following me as I bring around the food and feel the satisfaction of emptying udders.