Well, here we are up and going in the summer!  There are less than 26 days left until the wedding and things are moving right along.

On the bee front, we have put our second deep brood boxes onto the hive and the bees have completely filled them up.  They even started putting some brood in the top feeders that were sitting on top of the hive, so we grabbed up some more equipment and put the first of the honey supers on.  We started each set of boxes with some of the frames having bare foundation, some foundationless, and some were completely drawn with wax (both with and without foundation).  The bees don’t seem to care and continue to build up the missing parts, clean up the old stuff, and are bringing in tons of materials to build with.  We are really excited to see where we are in the next week or so.  I am hoping that they will fill the supers up with honey within the next few weeks so I can put another super on. Since I have put the blacksmithing projects on hold until after the wedding, there isn’t anything to report on that side so let’s move on to the farm.

The garden has been tilled and part of it was planted.  We covered the whole thing in a layer of straw to help keep the weeds down.  Just in case you are wondering, the straw helped, but I think we needed about twice the amount we used. In the parts of the garden where the straw is thick, there are little to no weeds.  In the parts where it barely covers the ground, the weeds are much more prevalent.  I did notice, even between the thinly layered areas and the non-covered area around the garden, that there is a noticeable difference between the amounts of weeds.  The layer of straw likely needs to be about 2-3 inches thick to prevent the bulk of the weeds from getting through to the surface.  If something does make it through, the leaves will be elevated off the ground so the weeds are easier to pull.  The straw has helped to keep down the ground covering weeds, though.  It just didn’t do much about the upward growing weeds. The tomato plants are already starting to bear fruit and the deer is already picking through the garden.  I guess it only makes sense that that stupid thing has come back. I went out and spread an organic pest deterrent in the walking rows the day after I noticed that the deer was out there.  It’s a combination of egg and garlic.  I’m not sure what it is supposed to do other than offend the deer’s sense of smell, but if it works it will be just fine.  I may have to resort to seeing if I can get a pest license for my farm, but I will hold off on that until I see if this works. The chickens have also been growing like crazy.  When I get home, they come running from across the property to see if I am going to give them some scratch to play with.  They don’t seem really interested in the garden.  I’m not sure if it is the straw or the fact that the forest has more bugs and better overhead cover from predators, but I am perfectly fine with their choice of preferred foraging. I guess that pretty much covers the farm activities, since most of my time is spent on wedding prep.

I started the renovation of the wood shed and it is turning into a total disaster.  Let’s just say that it is really difficult working with existing stuff from six decades (or more) ago and trying to make it into something that will last for the foreseeable future.  It doesn’t help that the guy probably didn’t exactly do things “to code”, whatever that was at the time it was built. The studs we about four feet apart and modern building codes require twice that, the footings are pulling away from the slab so I will need to repour those (which I wasn’t expecting), and things are just going at a snail’s pace.  At any rate, I am proceeding with the project and will make the final determination of whether I was too ambitious with it, on the fly.  I also cut down a few trees in my north forest to make room for the ceremony.  Even though I am not a seasoned lumberjack and, according to my dad “cut them all wrong”, the trees fell where I wanted them to and we dragged them out of the woods with the tractor.  I will be cutting one or two more trees down to finish the area and use the wood to build benches for the wedding guests to sit on.  I need to rent  a stump grinder to get rid of the remnants of the trees I cut down, but that should be comparatively easy when matched up against all the other stuff I have been doing. I will also need to build a platform for the altar. I don’t expect it will be that difficult to do, but I know enough to prepare for the worst possible circumstances when starting a building project so I will allow double the time I estimate it will take. We did end up hiring a gardener to come help with weeding and barkdusting the flower beds around the property.  He and his crew did an amazing job and everything looks great.  They even edged in around all the trees in the yard, that didn’t have flower beds, to make them look nicer.  I think the investment was well worth it because the property is starting to look really good.  The chickens don’t seem to understand that we don’t want them moving the barkdust, but they only seem to be messing with it in the back by the pump house so I guess I won’t make soup out of them yet. In the non-labor arena, we have neglected to send out our invitations until just this past week.  I’m not too worried about it as the guests already know they are invited and when it is, so really it is just a reminder with last minute notes.

I guess that about wraps things up for the month.  Sorry I haven’t put out the normal two to three blogs this month.  With everything going on with the bees, the garden, the wedding, and a few other things that came up it’s a wonder anything else is getting done at all.  I guess I was right about the “whirlwind” summer.  Hope everyone is enjoying the weather. I may blog maybe one more time before the wedding…but I may not get to it since the activity will only ramp up in the remaining weeks leading up to the main event. Try to stay cool and, as always, be awesome!