Hi All,
Yesterday Gio and I went out to take care of the bees, Alana is unfortunately home that darn cold/flu bug that is going around. For the North Hive we took 2 honey boxes off to start preparing them for Winter. November 12/13 we need to go back to see if they made a new Queen and if she is laying eggs. The South Hive we took off 1 honey box, placed a slatted board on the base, took off the glycerin sponges and the Queen excluder, this hive is now ready for Winter. The Middle Hive we took off the formic pro and the Queen excluder so this hive is ready for Winter as well. We may still need to do a sugar roll test for each hive and treat with formic pro before we seal them up completely for Winter to help them with any possible mite issue they are dealing with. The slatted board is going to help the bees handle windy wet weather by raising the boxes up away from the bottom base. Each Hive also got a moisture board to help them with the wet weather we are expecting this year.
Last week in the garden;
Surplus Line Association was out not once but twice last week and helped us to get so much done in the garden! The first crew was out with a film crew to make a video for their company to promote volunteering, isn’t that a wonderful thing!?! While the filming was going on the crew got busy helping us to prep beds. Part of the crew helped me to glean & weed bed M09 and once we got all the tomatoes out of the bed we made quick work of forking, fertilizing, composting, shaking & baking and then strawing the bed. Another part of the crew helped Amy with bed AB33 getting the squash, tomatoes and tomatillos harvested so they can get in there to prep the bed. Brenda’s crew took on getting bed N11 hoses one and then switching over to prepping bed N10. Everyone pulled together at the end of the shift to help them finish bed N11! The next crew came in and did more of the same! Amy’s crew worked on a LONG tomato bed, AB25, harvesting as many tomatoes as they can see, removing tomato cages and making sure to stack them up for the birds to use in the Winter. Enrique’s crew did more of the same in bed AB09 only with cherry tomatoes-lots of detail work in that. My crew worked on beds B02 & A05 getting both of them harvested and prepped with enough time left over to help Brenda’s crew finish up another LONG bed…they actually harvested 2 corn beds and prepped the one, AB29. A total of 6 beds were prepped by Surplus Line this week! Everyone did such a great job and brought such amazing energy with them! We always look forward to having this crew out every year!
I need to give a shout out to our amazing crew of regular volunteers who took on the job of washing, packing and making sure deliveries were made to enable us to be able to give our undivided attention to our Surplus Line volunteers! It was really nice seeing everyone come together as they did to make the day work out the way it did!
Leif’s crew was out and they helped Kelly to start prepping bed C01-they removed the trellis that was in that bed and forked it before they had to go. Laura’s crew came in behind them to glean & weed the bed, they sorted & paired gloves as well as planted fava beans in bed M03. Kaleidoscope first crew came out and finished bed C01-fertilizing and composting it as well as planting it up with fava beans and the second crew out helped gleaned a few more tomatoes out of AB25, watered garden wide and size reduced tomato plants out by the Compost Area. Both crews helped clean labels each day!
Peas & Me were out and helping to plant seedlings! CL & PL led the crew out to bed AB30 and the little hands, along with mommas and a poppa, planted 74 Chinese cauliflower. Once that was done they headed over to bed N11 and planted 114 Marathon broccoli. These are some of our longest beds in the garden and they got this all planted within their 2 hour time frame! Great job everyone!
CW has been helping us keep up with any leaks popping up in the garden and Amy also found a leak or two that she took care of. CW was out in the expansion beds fixing leaks from the ground squirrels who are still hanging out. Burrow Busters were back out on Thursday working to fill more holes that continue getting dug out in the expansion beds and along the eastern fence line. Gopher traps were set as well by JR. If you see any gopher evidence or any squirrel holes do let us know so we can either set a trap or fill the hole back up!
We have a lot of Native plants that we are using for a CDFA grant that Brenda has been tirelessly working on. The ladies who have been helping out with the Native plantings sat down and got these plants labelled this week. Kaleidoscope helped to water these plants in this past week. Hopefully they will be planted soon but in the meantime if you all could help us to keep them watered we would appreciate it!
Our regular volunteers came in and got another 3 beds prepped for a grand total of 10 beds getting prepped AND that was with only 3 regular shifts this week! 2 of those beds we split up the das and their sons to see who would complete the bed prep faster…the dads won but in the sons’ defense they did have the larger bed so we headed over to help them complete it before the end of the shift! Great job everyone for pulling together and making it work! Another 3 beds were planted with Amy leading the way!
Super busy week and I thank you all for helping to make it another successful one in getting over 650# of produce sent in to the local food pantries!
Great job everyone and Happy Halloween
Take care
Lori