Homesteading 101: The Bee's Knees

The sublime art of surviving winter

January was bone chillingly cold this year. First, the temps dipped down into the single digits, and then ten inches of snow fell early in the month. Unfortunately, the temperature never came up much above freezing during the entire month, so the snow didn’t melt away. Soon, a good layer of ice slicked over the snow. After two weeks of snow on the ground, with frozen hoses, frozen horse feed, and treacherous walking paths, we were more than done with January.

Finally, just as we left for Brussels last week, the temperatures rose to the upper fifties, and the snow began to melt off. We came back Thursday night, and then over the weekend, an inch of cold, bone-chilling rain fell.

Today the weather is going to reach 60 degrees. It is gloriously (almost) warm out. - then tomorrow, the predicted high is 38 degrees. This yo-yo weather pattern continues to next week; when at least six inches of snow are predicted to fall on Tuesday. Welcome to Virginia!

Some people love winter. Not us.

A horse buyer named Kirsten came from British Columbia to look at one of our young stallions (named Rock) last weekend. We had taken Rock off the market a while back, as Jill had difficulty parting with him. However, as this person began dialoguing with us months ago, we decided to honor our ad and sell him to her. So, yes - Kirsten is buying Rock. She is beyond excited - Jill, not so much. Our excellent veterinarian, Dr. Robertson, came out to do a pre-purchase exam, which Rock passed with flying colors. This means a USDA health certificate and lots of paperwork - to get the horse over the border. So, there's a good chance Rock will be leaving us for the cold north (mountains of British Columbia, Canada) by the end of next week!

We are putting seven other horses on the market this spring, including three mares. We generally don’t sell adult horses, so this decision is difficult. Still, it is time to scale down our breeding operation and concentrate more on building the homestead and doing some serious riding. This is where our passion has taken us over the past few years and it is time to let some of the time-consuming work of breeding horses go.

The yearling crop of Lusitanos from 2024.

The big news is that we plan to build a covered arena with the proceeds from the horse sales and the sale of one of our trucks. That way, winter weather and the hot sun in the summer will be less of an issue when we train horses. Not to mention, stallions are easily distracted, and Jill often rides alone. Having a covered arena will be a blessing in more ways than one.

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Woodland Dreams

In the quarry forest, we are slowly planting unusual native plants and creating walking paths for us and the horses. Virginia has fantastic floral diversity, so finding new plants that will accentuate our sylvan lands is fun.

For instance, we have an area that gets too much shade for pasture grasses, as it is in a hollow, plus there are deciduous trees around this meadow’s edge. So, we got on Etsy and bought 200 native Virginia bluebell bulbs to plant in this area with the idea that one day this will be a spring bluebell meadow. Once the bulbs arrive later in the week, we must get them in the ground as soon as possible, as it would be nice to get settled into the ground before the big snow next week.

We have also been reading about Virginia witch hazel, which blooms late fall/early winter with sprigs of tiny yellow flowers. This is another plant we need to add to the walking paths.

While we were in Brussels last week, the breakfast buffet had hazel nuts - otherwise known as filberts. These savory nuts were perfect in combination with the chocolate croissants and I remembered… when we first moved to this farm, we wanted to buy some hazel nut trees but couldn’t find a reputable source. So, the idea got “back burnered.” It seems like this is the spring to find hazel nut trees for sale and get them in the ground.

Every year, we promise to rent a wood chipper and clean up some of the dead wood in the forested areas, but the way our schedule looks - it is debatable whether it will happen anytime soon!

How does your garden grow?

Of course, winter means pruning the fruit trees and spraying dormant oil. But we have all of February and early March to complete those chores. They are on the list of winter projects, though.

Jill started two aero gardens just before we left for Europe. Already, little basil plants are poking up. She put in a fair number of spinach and parsley seeds, which both can go in the ground sometime in February, as they can handle cold weather - if the plants germinate. I have written about aero-gardens and hybrid-hydro gardens before, and I highly recommend these indoor garden solutions for winter or for urban dwellers. We got our first aerogarden over a decade ago, and it is still going strong - although we have replaced the motor at least once.

Our freezer is still stocked with veg, local meats, and a few of our own butchered chickens. We still have frozen blueberries, peaches, lemons, limes, and packets of pesto. Jill plans to make a stew tonight with some grass-fed local beef. Frozen tomato sauce and a bag of cherry tomatoes from the garden will go into that creation. We still have garlic in a brown paper bag from last summer’s garden tucked in a cupboard, as well as sweet potatoes - which routinely get fed to the chickens throughout the winter.

Pictured below is one of our lettuce crops from years past. Spinach, parsley and lettuce like cold weather and will soon be started in the green house.

Jill has decided to try freezing in mason jars next year, as we are trying to get as much microplastics out of our lives as possible. Usually, we process foods into vacuum-sealed bags, but that is another item that may leak microplastics. To use glass jars for freezing, a good tip is to freeze the food for 24 hours before putting on the caps so that the glass doesn’t crack.

We have been burning many fires in the wood stoves this winter. As many of you know, I bought myself a new log splitter, which has made our lives much easier. However, I need to split more smaller logs before it gets cold again, which means splitting some wood later in the day today.

We have just started saving the wood ash to use as an insecticide, acid neutralizer, and fertilizer later in the year.

Wood ash is often used to make the soil more basic and as a substitute for agricultural lime. Most soil is more acidic, so applying ash can benefit specific plants in the garden, such as beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, kale, peas, spinach, and swiss chard. However, other plants, like blueberries, rhododendrons, and scab-susceptible potato varieties, thrive in acid soils and should not be supplemented with wood ash.

A light sprinkling of ash around plants will deter snails, slugs, and other “soft-bodied” insects, particularly if the ash has been kept dry. In addition, wood ash is high in potassium and calcium and may also contain magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, and trace nutrients. It is important to note that wood ash made from hardwoods (like maple and oak) is higher in nutrients than wood ash made from softwoods (like fir or pine).

In order to keep the ash dry, we put the ash into a metal trash can outside. What I love about doing this is that it reduces the fire risk from the hot ash. Ash fires, from hot ash being scattered outside and too close to organic matter, are among the most common causes of house fires.

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When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade

Lemons and lime trees are two plants that are worth growing - no matter where you live. We bring our citrus indoors before the first frost and put them back outside after the last.

Citrus makes excellent house plants - and when in a pot, don't get that big. A simple grow light with a timer - helps them during the winter, but it isn't necessary. We feed them a few times a year at most.

Now that we have a solarium/green house - we have a few more plants than we used to. We put lemon or lime into our water a lot - no sugar. Just a squeeze of a lime makes all the difference. So, take a chance on that small lemon or lime plant at Lowes or Home Depot (if only buying one plant, get one that states it is a self-pollinator). Those plants will soon produce all the lemons and limes you can use.

To store... We freeze the small fruit whole and just defrost. The larger fruit, we slice up and freeze. Sometimes, Jill will juice - freeze the liquid in ice cube trays and then defrost when needed.

Not to mention - when there is snow on the ground, a lemon tree at the window jolts the mind into thinking about the warm weather to come. One just feels more alive with plants in in the house during winter. Homesteading starts with small steps. Don't be afraid. (The plant on the right was purchased last year and this year produced about 50 limes).

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Scrambled eggs are on the menu again!

You know winter has turned a corner when the chicken’s nest boxes suddenly begin to fill up with eggs. Today, we harvested seven eggs from our eleven girls! For the uninitiated, chickens go into a molt in early winter and stop laying for about 4-6 weeks. Somehow, finding those eggs is a harbinger of spring!

Generally, we consider the excess greens, weeds, and plant trimmings from the vegatable garden as an integral part of the chicken’s diet. The more greens they get, the more omega-3 those eggs will contain! So, the veg garden isn’t “just’ for us - as healthy eggs are an essential part of our diet!

As the government continues to cull both meat and egg birds, right now is pretty much an ideal time to consider getting a few pullets (young hens) of an egg laying variety.

For our paid subscribers interested in keeping chickens, we wrote a primer on it a while back:

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We have also written about why healthy eggs are such an important component of a healthy diet:

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The Bee’s Knees:

As we think about spring, planting out the gardens, etc., we have decided to expand our homestead to be more productive. By that statement, I mean ways to increase the variety of foodstuffs we eat from our own farm. Food that we know are fresh, unadulterated, and organic. To that end, we don’t use pesticides or herbicides. Bees thrive in this environment, and we have been toying with the idea of keeping bees for forever and a day. I have tried to find local beekeepers interested in putting some hives on our land to no avail. So…the backstory on why beekeeping has not been something we have ever jumped into.

Jill’s father used to keep bees, and we both remember how sticky the mess of spinning the honey out of the honeycombs was. There would be a thick film of sugary crystal all over everything in the garage. Her father was fastidious in keeping his garage tidy, so it would take him quite a while to get it up to his usual standard after the honey was harvested. A coating of sugar - isn’t something that brushes off. Putting the bees to sleep via smoke and getting into the hives was also a nasty chore. So, in the past, we have always shied away from keeping bees.

Almost a decade ago, we learned about a new way of keeping bees using the flow hive.

This mind-boggling invention makes beekeeping so much easier, as the design makes is easy to split the combs inside the hive, which allows the honey to flow out.

Below is an excellent video on the process:

So, the flow hive is about to be ordered and now the search is on to buy bees. but of course, there is a whole art to buying bees, from the variety of bee, to the way they are shipped.

We have lots of homework to do!

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Upcoming homestead projects

This pretty miniature jersey was part of our micro herd over a decade ago.

Later in the year, we will once again be the proud owners of two miniature jersey cows. The demand is so high for these mystical creatures, that one must put down a deposit months in advance of the actual birth data of a calf. Part of the logic of miniature jerseys is that there is such a strong market for calves.

When we lived in Georgia, we had two miniature jersey cows - and if feels like the right time to once again start producing our own milk. More on the raw milk story another time, as it is worth delving into. Jill has been doing a lot of research into what cows to buy, and how to do this right -so that it doesn’t become a full-time job.

We are also experimenting with growing winter wheat right now - but writing about these adventures is for another day.

So stay tuned - spring will soon be here and we plan to keep continue writing about our many adventures in homesteading.

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One of our daily harvests from years past.