Homestead Weekly Update

I think that I’ll be back to normal postings now.  The “season” is starting up and other things in life have settled back for the most part.

Damage by the deer

I guess that back to normal is in your view.  I hit a deer on the way to my son’s Tae Kwon Do class last night.  It was kind of dark and it seemed like out of nowhere these 2 deer appeared.  I was almost able to stop, but not quite.  I hit that deer dead center.  The whole while it just stood there watching these bright lights come at it.  It skidded across the road, struggled to its feet and bounded off.  I think it probably died later.  I’m left with this damage.  The front of the hood is buckled, the grill and trim is broken and the plastic covering the bumper is broken.  I’m taking it to the shop this morning for the estimate.  Luckily it is drive-able.  The estimate came in at $1300, much less than I expected.  Of course I’ll have to pay the deductible, but hopefully there won’t be any other expenses.

Seed starting rack

But like I said, the season is starting.  This weekend is 11 weeks before my estimated last frost.  Time to start planting some of the cool weather crops.  I need to bring my seed starting rack up out of the basement.  I’m actually about 1 week late getting started.

I’ll plant my broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seeds into some soil blocks probably tomorrow.  I could also plant leeks, head lettuce, onion seed, Chinese cabbage, collard greens and parsley.  However, I usually don’t plant any of these.  I find that I don’t have much luck with onion seed so in a couple of months I’ll plant onion sets.  We don’t usually plant any of the others except for parsley and this I direct seed.  I have planted Chinese cabbage and collard greens before, but we are not big fans of these.

I checked out my local beekeeping club, Susquehanna Beekeepers Association.  I found that they hold a course on beekeeping at the local college.  I signed up for the course.  So my beekeeping goal has started.  I’ll report back on what I’m learning.  I’m also torn about the top bar hives.  I’m not sure if I want to do them now or not.  My thinking is that bees come in packages and in nucs.  Apparently the nucs give a better chance of the hive surviving the first winter.  I don’t want to have the deck stacked against me.  Maybe I’ll do the 8 frame Langstroth hive first and then if I need to make a split I’ll move to a top bar hive.  I’m really looking forward to the course.

That’s it for now.  I’ll get back to the regular posts soon.