Still wrapped in the gentleness of the summer glide we had a productive day yesterday.
Summer sauce went into jars. Dried capsicum into jars. Stuff I am not going to eat came Out of jars and into the mouths of my piglets. I have a terrible habit of keeping things in jars just because they are pretty!
Look at Big Dog. He has a perfectly good enamel potty filled with fresh water and The Big Dog chooses to drink out of the old tin kettle for the cats, he can barely get his nose in there. What wrong with that lovely potty.
It matches the lovely jug. The shot below is for Maria my most favourite cousin who is a teacher on the outback in Aussie. Good morning Maria Christina Cuz!
My red light! 
A lot of thought goes into a good Chicken Tractor you know. Though we will call it The Ark.
The bees have their third story. They are doing very well, lots of honey, brood and activity. Learning from last years mistakes I am going to start feeding them their horrid sugar water soon. The flowers are coming to an end and there is no rain in sight. I think we may be in for a long cool autumn. I don’t want them using up their honey stores before winter and starving. 
Good morning. This shot was a set up. Both dogs have been told to Sit and Stay. I seldom do that for an image for you. But I wanted you to see how tall the field corn is. We are surrounded on all four sides with the corn and frankly I love it when it is high. I get to live in a walled garden for the summer. People driving past on our gravel road only see the very tops of our rooves.
Todays work (among other things) is to prune the grape vines. Sunlight needs to get to the grapes. Are you there Roger? What am I meant to do with the prunings? You told me once they are good for something special. Charcoal? Grilling? We best find out soon or the animals will be eating them.
The ark is finished! There will be a tarp on top that I can roll up. This is such a learning curve but I am thrilled with the design my friends came up with. Though they have told me that it will still be a few weeks before the birds are big enough to come out into the field. They are still very small and need to feather out. That’s fine. There is plenty of room in The Black Mariah.
Soon I am going to have to invest in a winter dressing gown. It is still quite chilly in the mornings.
Have a lovely day.
your friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
59 responses to “The Bee Hive goes Up a Level”
Hi Miss C, do you have any peaches left? I have a noodle and aubergine salad that is lovely with them.
Oh no! they are all long gone, even the dried peaches have been snaffled up. pears soon though. Would it work with pears?.. c
The flavours are too assertive for pears. Do you grow pomegranates they work well
No, sadly too cold for all those lovely tropical fruits.. c
I love your idea for the ark. I have been considering putting up a hoop tent next year and your idea is great. I may try to use it!!! Also…who doesn’t love a farm dog??? I work at an organic farm in Pinckney, MI, and the two farm dogs are always there to great me…that is, until I give them a homemade dog biscuit at which time they go bury it!!
This was a great idea of my friends wasn’t it. john is thinking of adapting it to make another one to cover the tomatoes and extend their growing period, maybe some winter lettuce!? I would LOVE that.. c
fancy those dogs burying your home made treats! c
Winter lettuce…yes!!! We harvested loads of lettuce left over from the winter…it is still coming up in the hoop house on the farm where I work!!!
what a great chicken tractor! i love the shot of the dogs in front of the corn. i bet it will seem strange for a while when all the corn is cut.
You are absolutely right .. it feels like a wall has come down, silently, quite a shock really for a while.. but a good one too, till the winds come.. c
So this is to be the post where you DO prove that the corn on the Prairies really does grow ‘as high as an elephant’s eye, reaching clearly up to the sky’ . . . 😀 ! What a great, great photo of Boo and Ton which methinks will end up straight on my computer background!!! And they really do listen to their Mistress . . . ni ni, will go to sleep smiling!!!
Boo is really getting sit and stay now, such a blessing when it starts to work in their little heads.. c
Good morning Celi; well now all you need for the chicken ARK is two small wheels from a push mower to go on one end so it will be easy to move. this will allow you to move by your self to give the little chicks fresh grass. you want to mount the wheels just at the end of the framing so that when you pick it up on one end it will roll easily. be a blessing mike
Excellent idea. I have all kinds of carcasses of old machines out here, i should be able to find some wheels.. thank you mike.. c
it is wonderful reading your post and completes the pleasure by reading the comments..it is just like a community and it is great to see how everyone is involved.
You really have learned a lot this year. Even disasters educate..so bad things like bees dying are not wasted as you know what to do next time.
How high is that corn!!! wow wow wow….not surprised about the ghostly story of children getting lost in it.I can see why..even an adult could get lost in that lot….
And as for The Ark..superb! well done…we shall read lots of tales about that I know we will……
We are a very special community. It is like coming in from chores to have a cuppa with the family before going back out.. just wonderful.. c
Well, would you drink out of a potty, no matter how pretty it is?!!
Christine
I found it in an old dump, the THINGS people throw away!!c
Love the picture of the dogs. You could enter the tallest cornstalk contest at the fair with that one to the left of Boo. The chicken tractor is looking good. I would like to have one like that. My dad has one, but he built his so it is not much more than chest high at its highest point. Makes it really hard getting the stray egg or chicken that needs to be caught. Of course this is his hens year around home, so the close quarters are good in the winter for heating. Be sure you put your tarp up so you can see the chickens when you move the Ark, because for some reason it doesn’t seem to occur to all the chickens that when your house starts moving towards you it is a good idea to move away. The have been a couple of unfortunate incidents with Dad’s hens, no permanent injuries but some loss of feathers and hurt legs/bodies.
I am just the opposite as far as being surrounded by corn. I much prefer beans or hay fields or pasture. I guess I inherited the nosy gene from my grandmas. I like to be able to see to the road to see who is going by or coming up the lane, to see what the neighbors are up to, to see when the deer make a mad dash across the field, plus it makes it easier to find the cows when they stage a pasture break. I’m not fond of windbreaks that totally surround a house either, I like for the breeze to be able to blow. But I don’t like a constant wind, Kind of hard to please aren’t I? lol
Well at least you know what you want. i am already training the wee chicks to run to the sound of my voice which I hope will help and yes i do see that i will have to move it slowly. NOT a job for John I think! If i get the wheels on it i might be able to just pull it which means i will be facing the chickens as i pull, i think this will make it a bit safer for them! It will be a chore but I think it will be worth it.. we will see. (she says ominously).. c
Oh it is definitely worth it. The hens are seem pretty happy with the new grass each time and there is no chicken house to have to scoop poop from. I know I would have been much happier as a kid and as an adult with chickens with no scooping. I think when the hens had their unfortunate incident it was a case of Dad being in hurry, plus wanting to work on something else and not being able to hear Mom yelling at him to stop over the engine noise. He is much more careful now but still gets irritated that the hens don’t get in any hurry to move for him. Mom could always get the chickens to come to her. She would talk to them and several were named. My grandmother (maternal side) kept a flock of chickens until she died. They then became our flock of chickens. Now they are my dad’s chickens, probably the last ones to live there.
How cool Celi! The ark looks great and the corn too, but I can’t stop thinking about a scary movie… 😉 children of the corn, I think is called…
As for the grapes vines prunings, we use then for the BBQ. It gaves an amazing taste to the meat.
Have a lovely day my friend!
I was thinking that might be the one, roger posted a shot of vine prunings once at a local old restaurant.. must have been for the smoke! thank you Giovanna! c
Interesting … does the ark have a door for you to enter to do water changes and catch birds? It is much higher than I had imagined. Longing for summer here looking at your pics. Laura
yes it has a good big door, so I can go in and out easily. the height makes it easy for me because these birds are already flying up when they get a fright.. if I was working with them from above they just might fly right out! c
I wonder if the tin kettle keeps the water colder than the enamel? Love those dogs. And, of course, the Ark!
We looked at purchasing a house once buried in the middle of a field of corn. I didn’t like the feeling. Made me feel claustrophobic. 😉
I love your chook Ark Cinders…is it tall like that so you can mount perches and be able to stand up in it yourself? I think the idea of using one for stretching the growing season for maters and things is excellent…you could grow lots of things in there! The picture of the dogs of the corn is amazing! Is that your corn or the bad corn and how many ears grow on one stalk? Ok, I think that’s quite enough questions for one day!
You have a lovely Bloody Mary Sunday!! 🙂
Shouldn’t the ark have runners like a sled?
*departs, singing* ‘The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye, and it looks like …’
C, I noticed more how big Boo is compared to Ton versus the corn – wow, wonder how much bigger he will get, oh and noooooooo, can’t believe you have cool weather already!
Have a beautiful week ahead.
🙂 Mandy xo