WORMS!!

We are now the proud parents of, um.....LOTS of eisenia foetida, otherwise known as red wiggler worms!! My mom was the inspiration on this one actually. She almost couldn't go on the chocolate factory tour a few weeks back because a friend of hers was coming over to help her set up her very own worm bin. I thought, hmmm......worm bin...... and said, well, gosh....as long as you're going to get worm bin construction supplies for yourself, might you pick up some extras for me?? And of course, being the ever-selfless supermom that my mom is, she provided me with the instructions, the bins, and all the necessary parts - right on down to the teflon plumbers tape!! Now all I had to do was find the initiative to put it all together. So....after a few weeks....I read up on the directions, realized I would have to use some power tools, and called in for reinforcements. Usually, at this point, I would just give the job over to the power tool guy, but this time I was determined to do it myself (mostly). Once Paul helped me decide which of his three drills I should use, showed me how to put the drill bit in and how to hold the drill, I was READY. The 1/4 inch drainage holes were pretty easy. The 1 inch hole for the spigot thingy didn't go quite as smoothly. I guess you have to pull the trigger ALL the way back even though it makes a loud and scary noise. :) Paul pinch hit for the two 2 inch holes on the lid, but other than that, my first ever drilling experience was a success! Now I just needed to find some good bedding material and some worms! After way too much research, I settled on a combination of soggy newspaper, cardboard, straw, and a couple handfuls of sand and compost. Now for the worms. Turns out that Kurt Hawley 's mom lives right up the road from us, so instead of having to drive out to Sumas, we got our worms hand-delivered right to our doorstep. Thanks, Kurt! Thanks, Mom! Here's a picture of Paul giving them their first PJ's Patches meal! Mmm mmm good!

The Fun Guys

So the other night, in between episodes of "The Wire", in the waning light of the evening, we made ourselves be productive. What on earth are they, you say?? Why, they are mushroom towers of course! Layers of wood chips, straw, and mycelium (courtesy of Jerry, of course!) all wrapped up in tall hoops of plastic! My innate landscaping senses told me they would be a unique eye-catching addition to the "side garden". Plus, mushrooms need shade and water, so there weren't many other places for them to be. These better be some tasty fungi!

I Break for Baker

I think I might try to hike more often. :) This is Baker from almost the top of Skyline Divide. And this is just the view on this side. Talk about A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

PJ's Patches is Jammin!

We harvested our first blackberries of the season last week. Paul triple-juiced three bowl-fulls of berries while I took an extended trip to the store for no-sugar pectin and now we are seven pints of tart but tasty blackberry jam richer! There's quite a few more berries out there, so come on over and pick with us if you can!

Bees on the Move

The bees have begun their Incredible Journey. At one foot each day (on the days we remember, anyway) they should make it to their new sunnier spot in about 3 months according to Paul's precise measurements (see below). We picked blackberries AND blueberries today. The blackberries were ours, and the blueberries were from the Koskela berry farm right around the corner from us. After running the blackberries through our juicer three times, we were left with some delicious blackberry sauce for jam and some tasty blackberry seeds for the chickens. Speaking of which.....apparently Rosie is a rooster. She's the second one from the left - the big one with the comb on her head and the big tailfeathers. Oops. I guess that means we'll be able to make chicken babies ourselves! (Well...not exactly ourselves, but you know what I mean!) Patches says hello from the farm! :)

Ruffin' it in the woods

We took yet another break from the farm (summer harvest season is pretty slow when you don't plant your garden until July) and headed to the hills with the B'ham (note the well-placed apostrophe) gang. It rained on us a little but luckily Julie and Jerry brought the castle tent so we could all (sans dogs) play cards, take naps AND stay dry! Juneau, Julie & Jill had some harrowing canoe adventures, not helped by the 40 pound puppy trying to escape into the lake, but eventually made it safely back to land. Adam and Paul took on religion and everyone pitched in a few words for the crossword. Adam kicked our behinds in Bananagrams, but Paul and I plan to hold training sessions for our victorious comeback. Meals were pretty impressive: locally grown (REALLY local) pesto garlic scape pasta with zucchini and chicken sausage; rice, bean & fresh corn burritos with all the trimmings; french toast, scrambled eggs & sausage; and breakfast burritos with more zucchini, pepper jack cheese & pork sausage. There was even ice cream and of course S'mores. All-in-all, a pretty darn good trip.

Bee Day

When we bought our house there was a empty hive on the back of the property. We thought it would be fun to try beekeeping sometime but we were in no big rush to get bees. Well, a few weeks after we moved in I was walking by the hive and was amazed to see bees busily buzzing around the hive. I was excited and concerned. I had looked inside the hive when it was empty and knew that there was a certain amount of disarray in there.

I learned that one of my co-workers, Stan, kept bees and started quizzing him about what to do. Over the next several weeks I read up on bees and bought the basics of equipment.

Everything was ready and Stan came over today to show me what to do and help me straighten things out.

First we decided that the hive was not in the best spot. Since the hive is right next to the trees it doesn't get sun until 10:30 or 11:00 in the morning. That means the bees are mostly just sitting on their butts all morning waiting for it to warm up. We decided to put the hive on a piece of plywood that I will move a little bit each day until they make it to their new, sunnier location. It will be a kind of Incredible Journey for bees!

We also straightened out some frames that were not racked in the hive correctly and added another deep hive body. As the bees build upwards into the new deep they will move out of the old boxes which can then be removed and cleaned up.

The pictures show the hive before we started, me in full regalia, me blowing smoke into the hive, Stan levering apart some frames, and the hive put back together with a new deep on top (but not necessarily in that order, I'm tired of fighting with this thing trying to sort them out).

Livin' it Up

Wow - fun times these past few days. First, there was Erin's Birthday Brunch @ Harris Ave. cafe with Erin & the girls. Then, there was the tour of America's only Fair Trade Certified Organic Chocolate Factory in Fremont with Mom, Jac & the kiddos. After that was Cheesecake Factory cheesecake for $1.50 with the Bennetts!! (Did you know July 30th is National Cheesecake Day?) Bet not! Then, I got caught up on "So You Think You Can Dance" before embarking on a day-long "tour" of The Cannery and IKEA with my intrepid shopping partner-in-crime, Shannon. Friday brought a 25 mile tour of Seattle's coolest sights (UW, the Arboretum, the I-90 bike tunnel & path, Qwest & Safeco stadiums, Pike Place market, SAM sculpture park, Myrtle Edwards park, the Ballard Locks, Fremont & Greenlake) by bike with my biking partner-in-crime, Jason. And the piece-de-resistance.....6th row seats behind home plate at the Mariner's game complete with free all-you-can-eat & drink yumminess with good ol' Mar-star, Maja & Just Will. Man, that girl has got some CONNECTIONS!!!!