Kids, Lakes, Loons and Pines

Welcome back bees!

What is wrong with this picture?  Snow!   It is however spring in Northern Minnesota.   We do not exactly welcome snow in late April, but we cannot rule it out.  

As you can tell from the images above I am giving beekeeping a go this year, starting again with a nucleus colony of bees to get as much of a head start as I can given our limited season in my northern Minnesota north woods.

They are installed and already settling into their new home.  I am already enjoying the familiar sights, sounds and smells of the beekeeping experience, happy to welcome bees back into our hobby farm - and the experience of learning about them - and from them back into my life.

mothering.com - April

These images reflect my recent posts from the past month (or so) on mothering.com.  Please check them out!

You can find all of the individual posts on my author page on mothering.com.

If you like what you see social media shares are appreciated.  

As always, thanks for reading!

chicky cuteness

Who are the cutest chicks on the block?  My kinder-chickies of course!  The peeping in the classroom will be ending soon as sending them all off to be adopted by kindergarten families by the end of the week.   

Spring Hatch

 

It is that time of year again in kindergarten!   This year we are proving to have a very successful spring hatch.   Yesterday I was able to say good morning to these 5 chicks that had hatched over night, another one hatched right at the end of the day and I am guessing a few more hatched overnight.    (I will be making my way into school later today when weather improves to check things out as school was canceled today due to freezing rain.)

I got a new learning tool this year and was able to learn and share more about candling eggs with an OvaScope, confirming fertile eggs and watching the embryos grow.

This is always such a fun and exciting process.  I truly enjoy sharing this experience with my kindergarten students!

Happy Easter!

If you need a little last minute Easter inspiration check out these two new posts I have up on mothering.com:   

Happy Easter friends!   Thanks for reading!

Spring Sugaring

Another season of small scale spring sugaring has come to a close.  Today I finished boiling down the sap I have been collecting.e.   This year was not the greatest season I experienced, but bountiful enough to continue the experience and reap the harvest.  We had an early warm spell that accelerated the swell of the buds, when we had a longer stretch of good sap collecting weather (below freezing at night and above freezing during the day), the buds warmed up enough to "pop."   When this happens the sap gets a bit cloudy and it can subtly affect the taste of the syrup.  This too is when the tree needs the sap to form the leaves.    

I did collect about 20 gallons, which equates to about a full 8-10 hours of boiling.   I was happy with my yield this year - and the time commitment was manageable given other things pulling me in different directions this weekend.

I had opportunity to share what I have learned over my years of small scale spring sugaring with a larger audience as well. Check out my post on mothering.com to learn a little more: