I spent the weekend making various goos.  I started out with rosemary mint hair conditioner and toothpaste.  The conditioner recipe is found here and the toothpaste is just a combination of coconut oil, baking soda, and essential oils (peppermint, lemon, and orange).

I put the bulk of the toothpaste in a storage jar but put a small amount in a little container for daily use.  I hate, hate, hate regular toothpaste (don’t make me give you details or you’ll puke all over your keyboard) but am loving this homemade version!

Then I made some chapstick/lip balm.  I used this recipe and went with the lemon/orange/peppermint essential oils again.  It’s another hit and I’m pleased with it.

I wanted to make a hard lotion bar so started with this recipe and this one.  Then I remembered this one.  Now this is where I started getting a bit cocky.  I ended up using 75 grams beeswax, 250 grams cocoa butter, 100 grams shea butter, 75 grams avocado oil, 75 grams sweet almond oil, 10 capsules vitamin E (snip the capsules and squeeze the oil out), and some lemon & orange essential oils.  Having never made lotion bars before, I wasn’t completely sure if this would end up hard enough to be a bar, most especially in the heat of the summer.  Thinking about carrying gooey lotion bars around in my purse in July made me go the container route.  It turned out pretty hard and I think it would be good as a bar but not so sure it would hold up to that July heat terribly well.  I filled several small travel containers plus one big jar for keeping in the bathroom.  I love, love, love this stuff and will never, ever go back to storebought lotion.  I’ll tinker with ingredients, of course, to experiment but I am completely thrilled with this version.

(FYI:  The lotion wasn’t yet cooled & set up in the big jar below.)

For melting the wax and butters, I used a ramekin for the lip balm and a cleaned-out tomato juice can for the lotion with a rednecked double boiler.  They both worked well.

I got this beeswax from a local friend and am ga-ga over the smell.  I could sit & sniff this stuff all day long.  But grating/chopping it up for measuring/melting?  Not so much.  I tried a potato peeler.  No go.  I tried a chef’s knife.  No go — it worked but I was going to end up losing and eye and/or finger.  Finally, I settled on a cheap serrated knife.  It mostly worked but I had to work too hard at it.  I’ll have to think up the best way to do up our wax from our own harvest later this year.  I’ve gotta make it easier!

I wonder if the bees will try to eat me when I use the wax-containing goos this summer.

The excess roosters from this spring’s chicks were finally butchered late one recent evening.  After stuffing the skinned & gutted birds in a cooler for an overnight brine soak, we completely forgot about them.  Oops.  Today, we discovered that they’ve been frozen into one giant chicken ice cube ever since.  Lucky.  Now we’ll have to have one big chicken cooking day and put them in the freezer already cooked.  I’m cool with that.

Wintersowing finally began this past week.  In jugs are landrace tomatoes, cilantro, brown mustard seed, dill, orange star calendula, mystery aronia, Aunt Molly’s ground cherries, wildflowers, zinnias, marigolds, and chard.  Charlie also wintersowed several jugs for his garden.  There’s more to wintersow but I’d better get on it quick.  It’s almost March!

Steve got one of the raised beds (4′ x 40′) along the front walk built.  This one has sunchokes and a few mints in it from last year.  I’m not yet sure what its permanent use will be.  There will be another one between the sidewalk and the house when he gets to it.

Another bed going up, this one the first of six 4′ x 40′ in the front yard.  These will give each of the kids a garden bed of their own to do with as they wish.

So we did a quickie check on the bees a while back and concluded that the Carniolans were toast.  Then the $%@&@&$ snots decided to make fools out of us and come back to life right after we announced our conclusion to several folks.  Really, I just do not get these Carniolans.  Not that I get any bees but still…  Anyway, so I felt sorry for them being such a pitifully small cluster and yet impressed that they’d made it so far into winter.  I decided I’d make them a treat — some Bee Candy!  Only, like much of my cooking since moving here, things went wrong.  Terribly wrong.  Being a heartless SOB, I made the kids take it out and feed it to the bees anyway.  That’ll teach them for faking death

A couple of weeks ago, our homeschool group got a chance to hang with Hannibal’s mayor & city manager in the council chamber.  They even got to do a mock council — very cool!  That’s Charlie there to the mayor’s right and Duke & Isaac to the mayor’s left.  (The mayor is the fell in the center of the council seats.)

And just you wait until you see what I’ve been up to today!  Messes made & pics taken…

Below is a copy of the email I’m sending out to folks who have expressed an interest in beginning beekeeping over the past several months.  I’ve promised to send them info on the beekeeping class out once it was settled.  I thought it might be a good idea to post it here as well.  Feel free to give me a holler if you’d like further info and I’ll pass on the contact info for the class.  Leave a comment below, email, Facebook me, or send a smoke signal.

The Mississippi Valley Beekeeping Association is holding their annual beginning beekeeping class on Saturday, March 3, this year from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.  The cost is $30 but it is well worth it.  That fee gets you not only the class but a beekeeping basics book, a year’s membership in the MVBA, a year’s membership in the Illinois State Beekeeping Association, and a few other minor perks such as donuts & drinks during the class, door prizes, and coloring books for the kids.  $30 is not an individual price but covers your entire family so you can bring everyone.

Around that same time, the MVBA goes in on a group buy for packaged bees.  The packages come from a disease-free area in California and they’ve been great, healthy bees for everyone.  They offer two different breeds:  Carniolans and Minnesota Hygenics (an Italian strain).  The bees come in three-pound packages and include a queen.  I believe the cost will be $88 per package this year, payable when the bees are delivered to the Hannibal area at some point in April.

The class is what got us started in beekeeping last year.  The folks putting on the classes have been amazing mentors & friends to us over the past year.  You’ll not meet a better, more giving group of people ever.

(For those of you who stumble on the post from the wide & random world of the internet, this group is in Quincy, Illinois but has members from all over western Illinois and eastern Missouri.  Heck, we might even have  someone from southeastern Iowa, I think?  Or maybe I dreamed that part.  Don’t tell me I’m the only one who dreams stuff and then has trouble figuring out if it’s from the dream or reality!  Seriously, don’t tell me.  I’ve convinced myself I’m entirely normal & sane.)

Okay, seriously, what happened to 2011?  Times always goes by so quickly but, this year, it’s flat-out stupid.  Ah, well.  At least it’s been a good year and there’s the end of the world to look forward to next year, right?

Speaking of next year, have I mentioned we’re getting goats again?  Yeah, I know but we need a steady source of good meat & milk and goats fit the bill for us right now.  We’re really leaning toward the Kinder breed and there are, conveniently, several sources in our area.  There’s fence & housing to build first but we’re hoping for spring/summer.

The chickens are doing well, just now coming out of moult.  We did lose a few a month or so back.  One day, there was some sniffling & snotting, and then they started croaking, one by one.  I think we lost a half dozen or so.  While we still had several (30-something?), we were excited to get over a dozen more this week from someone downsizing their flock.  They’re a mix of breeds, in their prime, and a welcome addition.  They’re segregated at the moment while we introduce them to the existing flock but I’ll get some pics once they’re out to mingle.

Lots of fermenting going on.  We’re really loving kombucha (fermented tea)!  I’ve been keeping three gallons of it in rotation but, just today, added a fourth.  I’ve also set up an additional two jugs for experimenting with coffee kombucha.  I doubt I’ll like it but I’m hoping Steve will.  The man loves his coffee!

In another corner, I’m trying my hand at sauerkraut yet again.  I’m convinced that I’ll eventually tweak it to where we learn to like it.  Maybe.  I’m also going to try fermenting salsa this week.  Yum!!

Ah, here’s the newest addition to the family:  Viili!  It’s yogurt that’s fermented at room temperature.  Very cool stuff since I don’t have the patience for keeping the temperatures required for the usual yougurts.  This has an amazing yogurt taste.

And, last but not least, the milk kefir.  We took a break from it over the summer and, to do so, I dried the kefir grains and stored them in the freezer.  They were easy to wake up and are going gangbusters now.

The kefir and yogurt make for good smoothies & lassi but, last week, I began playing with making kefir cheese.  Simply drain the finished kefir through a flour sack cloth (or similar) for several hours.  After a bit of dripping as seen in the pic below, I tied the corners of the flour sack up over a spoon and hung it on the container.

Open the flour sack and voila!  It’s rather like cream cheese but even better.  I think I might try to make a honey-sweetened cheesecake with it in the next week or so.

Along with the cheese, you also get whey.  You can add it to all sorts of things but I’m using it as starter for fermenting vegetables, such as the salsa I’m getting ready to work up.

Thanks for all of the input on the kitchen redo!  I’m still soaking it all in.  Give me a week or two to wrap my brain around all of the suggestions and I’ll post an update with window pics as requested.  And, Carol, I’d love to see your pics for inspiration!

A family that butchers together, stays together.

Is this not a beautiful sight?

Downright heartwarming, if you ask me.

Way back in August, one of our beekeeping mentors, Bernie, held an open house and, later in September, he invited our homeschool group for a field trip to see his honey extraction process.  Bernie is not only a commercial beekeeper near Quincy but he’s also an amazing teacher to anyone who wants to learn about bees and the keeping of them.  We are very fortunate to belong to an incredible local beekeeping group, the Mississippi Valley Beekeeping Association, with Bernie and several other experienced beekeepers who are very generous with both their time and knowledge.

As I mentioned above, Bernie is a commercial beekeeper.  As in hundreds of hives.  Yowzers.  Yet he handles all of that honey extraction as a one-man show.  A one-man, pure genius show.  That’s Bernie in the yellow there.

First, Bernie brings all of the frames (that rectangle he’s holding up is a “frame”) into the honey room.  See the white boxes in the lower left?  All filled with frames full of honey.  Frame by frame, he then drops them through the decapper gadget.  Once bees have decided that the honey is dried down to an acceptable moisture level, they then “cap” it with wax for storage.  The decapper gadget slices off the caps so that the honey is accessible.

The decapped frames are then held in the below frame which rests them over an auger (to be shown further down).  Here, he’s brushing the occasional areas that the decapper missed.  A plastic “brush” (or is it called a comb?) gently breaks open any remaining capped cells.

As you might imagine, this whole decapping thing can get pretty messy.  Bits of wax fall here and there and everywhere but have no fear — the auger is here!  All of that wax mess, along with a bit of dripping honey, fall down below where the auger moves it along to the next area.

But wait!  What happens to the now-decapped frames still filled with honey?  They get put into the extractors.  Honey extractors use centrifugal force to sling every last bit of honey out of the frames.

Ah, now here’s where it gets to looking like L.A. in rush hour.  See the large white PVC pipe coming up at an angle near the center of the pic?  That’s the bits & pieces of wax and odd honey drippings from the auger on the right.  It’s all fed into the tank on the left you see with a spoon resting on top.  That gently heats it all so that the wax rises to the top.  The liquid wax floating on top then drips through that short, silver pipe into the gray, plastic tub below.  The honey from the bottom of the tank comes out and is sent into the smaller silver tanks, along with honey from the extractors (see the short white pipes from the round silver extractors on each side of the big auger pipe?).  Finally, all of that honey is sent up that big, clear tubing to the next room.

And here comes the honey!  This tank is a converted dairy tank of some sort that keeps the honey warm enough for any crud that’s made it through the process to float on top.  The heat also keeps the honey runnier for getting through the filter.

A peek inside.

The pump & filter set up.  I believe Bernie said it was a low pressure filter but, whatever it is, it gets out any remaining yuckies (bee body parts, anyone?).  Right below the filter, a pipe goes through the wall to…

The bottling area!  We’re back to the capping photo now but it was the only one I had that clearly shows the other side of the final pipe.  See it to the left of Bernie?  That’s where the golden yumminess is dispensed.

This was in Bernie’s honey room but I forgot to ask him to explain the details.  Cool looking, though, right?

Maybe one of these days, we’ll have a nifty set-up like Bernie’s but, for now, I’d just be happy if the goofy bees would not die over the winter.  Cross your fingers, everyone!

We’re still alive.  I think.

The new curriculum we got this year is great but we’re still adjusting and it takes a lot of me running back and forth between the kids.  They’re doing great, though, and learning a lot!  This semester is a lot about reviewing basic concepts for everyone and filling in those inevitable holes in their foundations.  Homeschool is no different than public school in that not everything gets covered every year so an occasional overview to cement ideas and find missing info is a good idea.  Most especially after the last, very chaotic year.

The garden is hanging in there for the most part.  Beans are still beaning, tomatoes are still tomatoing, peppers are peppers, melons are meloning, and cukes are cuking.  The rest of it will soon be skidsteered over to make room for the next set of raised beds.  If we get that done in time (or at least one of them), we’ll get some fall lettuce and peas planted.

The stupid meat birds.  *@!^%!#$!!  Steve and his dad are butchering the last of them tonight.  The majority of them are now in the freezer.  ‘Nuff said.

The layer birds are doing wonderfully.  We have a pen full of a rainbow-assortment of birds!  We’ll have to knock off a couple of excess roosters when all is said and done but we’ll have to see how many of what we have first.

Oh, Duke has started a blog.  It’s at DukeWorld, of course.  He’s a goober but he’s a goober with his very own camera.  That’s what he requested for his birthday.  Cool, huh?  Now he’s learning about the camera and editing.  He even volunteered (and was accepted) as the co-photographer for the 4-H group we just joined.

Speaking of groups, the kids have not only joined 4-H but also a homeschool group in Hannibal and the Boy Scouts.  They’ll be taking coop classes with the HS group.  Isaac, Charlie, Duke, and Nellie are all taking choir and art.  Charlie and Duke have also signed up for the American Sign Language class.  All four of them have joined a bowling league as well.  (Some of you know just how much I love bowling.  *barf*)

So, yeah, I’m turning into a soccer mom.

So, lessee…  What have we been up to?

August has been crazy and chaotic.  We’re switching everything around with our homeschooling this year.  We’ve gone with new-to-us curriculum all around (Switched on Schoolhouse, Teaching Textbooks, Apologia, Funnix, TruthQuest, and Easy Grammar are all new for us this year.) We’re in a new state which means new homeschool laws with much stricter recordkeeping requirements.  I decided on Homeschool Tracker Plus and I’m loving it.  All of the curriculum and sofware has a learning curve that I’m screeching around as quickly as I can.  It will all make our school year smoother in the long run but, right now, we’re making some rather big adjustments.

On top of all that, the kids have joined Boy Scouts & Venturing (a branch of the BS) with weekly meetings.  They’re signing up for 4-H.  We’re joining an active homeschool group.  Then there are the weekly activities at the Hannibal library and YMCA.  It all adds up to a lot of busy, busy, busy.  It will take us (me!) some time to settle into the new routine.

The gardens are mostly neglected.  The back half of the garden is doing pretty good since it’s been mostly mulched.  The front half, not so much.  It’s a jungle of weeds and I’m going to have to dig out the machete to harvest the few remaining onions and potatoes.  I’ve been meaning to plant some lettuce for fall but I’m not so sure it’ll actually get done.  I’ve been doing okay-ish with my seed saving but there are going to be some big changes in my tomato and pepper (and more) routines next year.  For as much as we’ve had to do this year, it’s not been a bad garden year.  Much, much more to do (and already in progress) but it’ll get easier every year.

The bees are still doing their thing.  The Italian hive is still thriving and we added on a honey super a week or so ago.  We’ll probably have to add on another here soon.  The Carniolans…  Well, they’re still there.  I think they’re still improving a bit but I have no confidence whatsoever that they’ll make it through winter.  I just don’t see how it’s possible.  On the upside, at least we’ll have an empty hive for catching swarms should the opportunity arise.  I bet the Italians will be ready for a split in the spring, too.  And you know we’ll want to buy at least a couple more packages of bees next year.  We’re going to  end up with 100 hives, aren’t we??

The stupid meat chickens are still here.  We’re going to start butchering the biggest of them this week.  We have never been so disappointed in our chicken endeavors before.  What a waste of effort and feed.  The layers, however, are doing wonderfully.  They healthy and big and should have us overrun with eggs before much longer.

And, for those who don’t already know, Steve got transferred to day shift a while back and, just a week or two ago, finally got hired on as a permanent employee.  Yay!  It took a year of temp status to get here but now it’s a done deal.  Bennies & insurance, here we come!  Whew.

While Steve, Isaac, and Josie lounged around at home, the other four kids and I went to check out the Adams County Fair.  We got to see the Bee Trio in action, educating folks on beekeeping.  Paul, Guy, and Bernie just might have reached SuperHero status.

Paul was seen zipping around the fairgrounds in his hot rod, picking up chicks.

We didn’t pony up for the overpriced rides & snacks but we did enjoy everything else.  (I especially loved seeing all of the entries for gardening!)

In garden news, we finally got a decent rain — just a smidge over 1/2″ last night and today.  Things already look greener out there.

The Stewart’s Zeebest okra is starting to produce.  (Grandma Kaye, quit yer droolin’!  I’ll get some put in the freezer for ya.)

I noticed one of the blackberry starts we planted this spring had started tip-rooting so I convinced it to do so in a more convenient spot.

I’m up to my eyeballs in onions right now and will be spending an entire day in tears, getting them chopped and put into the freezer.  The peppers are putting out pretty regularly now but I’ve decided that, as many peppers as we eat, I’ll need to up the number of plants next year to 300-ish.  (I only have 168 planted this year.)  The poor tomatoes are still struggling to play catch up after their rough start so we’re not getting much of a regular harvest from them.  I’ve begun saving seeds from all tomatoes we bring in just in case nothing comes of the bagged blossoms.  If the heat didn’t get them, the bugs did, so I rebagged most everything the last couple of days, hoping some will set in the relatively cooler weather.

I’m still working my way through the potatoes, whooping the weeds as I go.  The beans are looking good and just beginning to flower.  The cukes are putting out nicely now and I’ll soon have to make pickles to keep up with the harvest.  I have to pick them very, very carefully — I got stung twice day before yesterday out there.  The entire cucumber row literally buzzes!  The corn, winter squash, and melons are all growing well.  The squash bugs have found the summer squash patch so their end is nigh.  I’ve harvested all of the cilantro seeds, the brown mustard seeds, and am working my way through the dill seeds.  We’re overrun with tomatillos and would be overrun with ground cherries as well if Josie wasn’t such a ground cherry maniac.  She can — and does — gulp down several dozen of those suckers a day.  And remember the unknown seedlings along the front walk?  Confirmed as cantaloupe!

The kids & I went on a weekend trip to visit relatives in Illinois.  We had fun AND got to see a roll cloud going over Grandma Kaye’s place on Sunday.  We’d just been talking about them a week or so before so it was really cool to see one in person.  We took a pic right before it went overhead.  I didn’t think of taking a video of it until it was already on the other side of us where the buildings blocked most of the view.

And the video.

It was nice to get away from home for a while.  The kids especially love going to see family.  I went off and forgot my camera at home and my phone camera doesn’t like indoor pics.  So, all you get is one blurry pic of nutty kids playing with Grandma snacks.

Charlie & Steve inspected the hives last night. Man, those bees were cranky. I was standing several yards away and they even came after me. I got stung on the face. (I’ve never been stung on the face before but, let me tell ya, it’s not something you’d want to do on purpose. Ouch.)  The Italian hive is in hyper-building mode!  We’ll have to put a super on it in a few days.  They’ve almost filled that second deep we added last time.  Talk about fast!  The Carniolans are still moving like snails, not making much progress.  We are not at all impressed.  I don’t know how they’re going to make enough to get through the winter.  In fact, I bet they don’t unless they pull a miracle out of their butts really, really quickly.