Eight Acres

In the third of my series of interviews about getting started with bees, I'm chatting with Leigh from 5 Acres and a Dream .  Leigh and her husband homestead on five acres in the foothills of the Southern Appalachians.  Their climate is very similar to mine, with a relatively mild winter, and hot humid summers.  Leigh's book " 5 Acres & A Dream The Book: The Challenges of Establishing a Self-Sufficient Homestead " is a great resource for anyone thinking of homesteading.  But today we are talking about bees, which are a recent addition to Leigh's homestead and she's chosen to use a different hive, this time the Warre Hive.   In the previous interviews I talked to: Sally from Jembella Farm in South Australia and then  Vickie from Making Our Sustainable Life , who lives in the Northern Sierra Nevada Mountains. **~~**~~**~~** Farmer Liz: How long have you been keeping bees? Leigh: We set up our first hive on the homestead this past ...

Lavender is an essential herb in any garden because it is relatively easy to grow and has so many uses.  There are several species, with similar properties, but each suited to different climates.  The species considered to have the best "quality" essential oil is Lavendula Augustifolia,  however it can be more expensive as it has lower yield that other varieties (and the quality just refers to the pleasantness of the smell).  Any of them grow well in the garden and smell lovely.  I am pretty sure my plant is French Lavender ( Lavendula Dentata ) , I also have an Italian Lavender (Lavendual Stoechas) next to it, but it has hardly grown. How to grow lavender I got my lavender plant as a small plant.  I have tried growing lavender from seed with no success.  I think its better from a cutting or by layering.  I haven't had any success with cuttings either so far.  I really need to work on this because I'd love to have more lavender in my gard...

Last week I interviewed Sally from Jembella Farm in South Australia about her bees, this week I'm talking to Vickie from Making Our Sustainable Life .  Vickie and her husband live on acreage in the Northern Sierra Nevada Mountains, just east of the Sacramento Valley.  Even though they are in a different country, with a different climate and bee habitat, I think there's much to learn from beekeepers all over the world.  The things that particularly interested me about Vickie's bees is that she uses a horizontal top bar hive , which is a totally different type of hive from the common langstroth hives that we use.  Here's what she had to say: The top bar hive **~~**~~**~~** Farmer Liz: How long have you been keeping bees? Vickie: We have had bees only since this past Spring 2015, though we have dreamed about keeping bees since we bought our land (which would become our current homestead) more than ten years ago. FL: What got you interested in bees origi...

I recently came into the possession of some bantams and they are ridiculously cute.  They also have a job to do.... I'm hoping they will hatch some eggs.  I thought I better find out a bit more about them first though!   Here's what I've learnt about bantams.... By the way, my chicken eBook is now available if you want to know more about backyard chickens and using chicken tractors.  More information over at the  chicken tractor ebook blog .  Or you can get it directly from my shop on  Etsy  (.pdf format), or  Amazon Kindle  or just send me an email eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com. What's the eBook about? Chickens in a confined coop can end up living in an unpleasant dust-bowl, but allowing chickens to free-range can result in chickens getting into gardens and expose them to predators.  A movable cage or “chicken tractor” is the best of both options – the chickens are safe, have access to clean gras...

Pete and I recently got bees (if you've been following, you'll probably be sick of me talking about it!), and lately I've been connecting with other bloggers who have bees (by connecting I mean asking heaps of questions!).  I thought this would be a good topic to continue my "getting started" series.  I've previously asked other bloggers about growing vegetables , keeping chickens and dairy animals . Sally and Brian's beehives My first "getting started with beekeeping" interview is with Sally from Jembella Farm . Sally and her husband live in the Barossa Valley (South Australia) in a 100 year old house on sixteen acres with 2 dogs, 7 cows, 2 alpacas, 5 geese, 35 chickens, 78 sheep & a few bee hives. ~~**~~**~~**~~ Farmer Liz: How long have you been keeping bees? What got you interested in bees originally? And how many hives to you have now? Sally: It had been on my bucket list to have bees one day, so for my birthday in Octo...

Another year has past and things have changed again for our two house cows Bella and Molly.  Catch up with part 1 and part 2 , and then find out what's been happening around here . You might also be interested in my series on getting started with homestead dairy Interview with myself Interview with Mark and Kate from Purple Pear Permaculture Interview with Kim from the Little Black Cow Interview with Rose Petal Interview with Marie from Go Milk the Cow Interview with Ohio Farmgirl Buy my ebook "Our Experience with House Cows" on  Etsy ,  Lulu  and  Amazon , or email on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com to arrange delivery.  More information on my  house cow ebook blog . Reviews of "Our Experience with House Cows" Kim from the Little Black Cow Blog Fiona from Live at Arbordale Farm Marie from Go Milk the Cow Renata from Sunnyside Farm Fun Gavin from Little Green Cheese  (and The Green...

The weather is really starting to warm up now, but with all this talk of el nino and dire predictions of drought, we somehow got 50 mm of rain in the last week of the month, which has really cheered us up.  The paddocks at Eight Acres were turning into what is known locally as "bull dust" which is where the grass is almost completely dry, dead and gone, and all you're left with is a dusty yard, which is not nice at all.  We have more grass cover at Cheslyn Rise, but were trying to figure out how long we could keep the beef steers, trying to judge the beef cattle market at the moment is very difficult, I think we will sell soon. Food and cooking I think the best part about homekill meat is that you get everything, including all the offal and weird cuts that you would never normally buy.  I have tried really hard to eat the liver and kidneys because organ meat is supposed to be so nutritious but I can't stomach it, I even hate the smell of it cooking, so we giv...