Quantcast
Channel: DIY – homesteaddad
Viewing all 223 articles
Browse latest View live

Relaxing Weekend with Family and Fishing

0
0

Last weekend we had the opportunity to spend some time at my parents lake cottage with the family.  It was a nice relaxing time, hanging out, kids swimming, everyone fishing, and just being.  The first afternoon we got there we spent a couple hours fishing and with just two rods and we caught in the neighborhood of one hundred panfish.  The kids were having so much fun with so much action, the only time they weren’t happy was when Dad(me) or Papa couldn’t get worms on the hook fast enough.  We even were able to try out our new cane poles.  They worked pretty well, but they will work even better when the new dock is in and we can get out to the fish better.  We kept 20 fish and had them that night for dinner, fried up in some olive oil and seasoned with a little Mrs. Dash.  It was great.  And for the kids to be able to eat what they caught, it was pretty cool to see the pride on their faces.

I even got to work on my filleting skills (I have none) under expert tutelage of my dad.  I think he was trying to make his 34 year old son feel better by telling me it is harder to learn/practice on smaller fish.  That or he was telling me that I needed to catch bigger fish.  Either way I got to practice a little.

The three oldest kids got to go swimming, with their cousin, since the weather was in the 70′s.  I got up to my knees in the water, but it hadn’t warmed up quite enough for me to actually swim.  We took out the small fishing boat and rowed around a bit, taking the kids that were interested for rides.  We went for family walks every night after dinner and with all the fresh air and swimming, the kids slept pretty well.  We also got to spend time just visiting with my parents and brother and nephew.

All in all, it was a great weekend, and I hope we can do it a lot more this summer.  Here are a few pictures of the weekend.

IMG_1060 IMG_1062

What a view!

IMG_1068

It really is amazing how refreshed you can feel after a relaxing weekend.

Barn-Hop

 

homeacre-hop-button2 (1)



Blueberry Muffins

0
0

IMG_1100

Our blueberry muffin recipe is a family recipe.  I am not sure how many generations, but at least my grandma, and I believe my great grandmother.  It is a really good recipe for blueberry muffins and I have been known to eat a half dozen hot out of the oven blueberry muffins on occasion, they are that good.  In fact, I couldn’t blog about them without having one, so I chew while I type, I am multi-tasking(now I have to save the rest for brunch).  For mother’s day brunch my wife asked me to make them, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to blog the recipe as well.  So here it is…

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 can blueberries (I use the berries in light syrup or pie filling)
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 4 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1.2 tsp. salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 Tbsp. oil

Sprinkle some of the flour over drained berries.  Sift remaining flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.  Beat egg one minute until very light.  Add milk and oil.  Combine wet and dry, mixing just long enough to hold together.  Fold in blueberries.  Bake 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees.  Makes twelve muffins.

I hope your family enjoys these as much as mine does.

Barn-Hop

 

homeacre-hop-button2 (1)


A New Year of Beekeeping

0
0

homeacre hop featured

Well our bees didn’t make it through the winter.  From what I have been told by my bee guru, Mr. Tim Bennett, last year was a terrible year for bees in Michigan.  So I don’t feel terrible about my beekeeping skills, yet.  Tim and Kathie at Turtlebee Farms are so committed to making sure everyone is successful as a beekeeper that if you buy one of their hive packages, take care of your bees, and they still don’t make it, they warranty your bees.  Pretty cool huh?

So first my dad and I had to go and make sure the old hive was ready for new bees.  It wasn’t, ants had found what little honey was produced last year and had started stealing it. After spending time cleaning them out and removing the hive from it’s previous location this is what we were left with.  We took it up into the barn for the night to make sure no other “robbers” could get at it.

IMG_1080 IMG_1081

The next afternoon my dad cleaned off the bottom board while I went to Turtlebee to retrieve out new package of bees.  This is what greeted me upon my arrival.

A flatbed with plenty of medium and deep frames for sale.

IMG_1084

Then the stock trailer they used to transport the packages of bees in.  Wild bees were “swarming” all around the trailer, it was pretty cool to walk up to the trailer and hear the loud buzzing.  They received six hundred packages in this shipment alone.

IMG_1086

Here was their setup to show people how they suggested feeding the bees for the first couple days.  Mostly because it is supposed to get cold at night and by feeding them inside the boxes they don’t hardly have to leave the mass of bees.  After that we will use the feeder in the mouth of the hive.

IMG_1085

On the way back to our farm, I stopped by a grocery store to make sure we had enough sugar to make the necessary sugar water.  When I went into the store the weather was actually pretty nice.  When I came out, I could see the storm front coming.  We needed to move.  So when I got to the farm my dad and I moved quickly to set up the hive at it’s new location and prepare everything for the bees.  We left the built up comb and whatever honey was in it for the bees to have to hopefully give them a jump start for the year.  Here are a couple shots of me dumping the bees into the hive boxes.

IMG_1093 IMG_1094 IMG_1095 IMG_1096 IMG_1097 IMG_1098

I don’t think most people realize how rough you can bee with the bees in order to get them out of the cage.  At this point they don’t have a hive to defend so they really aren’t aggressive.  Here is Tim showing our class how to do it last year.

This is what I looked like right after these pictures were taken, banging on the cage to get the last of the bees out, but I had a veil and gloves on.

Here is what the hive looks like situated in it’s new home.

IMG_1090

All in all, I can’t complain about how it went.  Except the having two bees crawl up my pant leg into my pants, did I mention that?  I really should have tight rolled my pants, but I obviously didn’t.  It is an odd feeling knowing that there are bees in your pants, and you need to fight every ounce of what would go through you head normally in that situation.  Luckily I stayed calm, and after dropping my drawers a couple times I was able to locate the bees and convince them that the hive was a better location for them.

Hopefully our beekeeping adventure will end better this year than it did last year.  We are already having a better spring with more rain and less freezing.  We are actually considering buying another package of bees and starting a second hive.  We have just about everything else we would need, save a bottom board and a top, so I will keep you updated.

Special thanks to my dad for taking pictures while I was otherwise occupied. :)

Barn-Hop

cs-preparedness-linkup-300x300

WildcraftingWeds-Button

homeacre-hop-button2 (1)

LHITSbookcover1

 

 


Releasing the Queen

0
0

It has been two days since installing our package of bees, so I needed to release the queen from her cage.  I believe the reason for not releasing her immediately with the worker bees is that they need to get more acclimated to each other and their new hive and if they don’t the workers could kill the queen.  That would be bad.

So this time I decided to ignore rules of fashion (I am not at all fashionable, ask my family) and tuck my pants into my socks.  Despite the game “bees in my pants” sweeping the nation, I opted for closure.

IMG_1101

I pried the cork out of the queen cage, closed it back up with my gloved thumb, and then opened it when I had it down in between the frames in the hive.  I am thinking(hoping) she remained in the hive and that in 10-12 days I will find capped brood.  My kids were with me but I don’t think I would win any father of the year awards by asking them to come over close to the hive and take pictures of their dad playing with bees, so no pictures of the queen installation.

Here are a couple pictures of the hive, hopefully you can see the activity outside the hive mouth.  I was happy to see that many bees entering and exiting.

IMG_1102 IMG_1103

I will try to take some more pictures, maybe even a video when I go out to check for capped brood.

homeacre-hop-button2 (1)


Home Made Firestarter Burn Test

0
0

I made these firestarters and wanted to show a video of how long and high they burn, so here it is.

I will try to make a video of how to actually make them soon.

WildcraftingWeds-Button

homeacre-hop-button2 (1)

 

LHITSbookcover1


Maxpedition Micro Pocket Organizer, My EDC

0
0

maxpedition micro

I bought the Maxpedition Micro Pocket Organizer after realizing that that Mini wasn’t so mini.  As you will see in the video, it is well made, and holds a lot of stuff for it’s size.  Organization is made easy with the pockets, and elastics.  You won’t be disappointed if you buy this little guy.

 

WildcraftingWeds-Button


Bug Spray, My Variation

0
0

Here is the bug spray recipe I just made.  I have yet to test it, but based on other recipes I have seen, it should work.  I will test it this week and let you know.

I used an 8 ounce spray bottle

3.5 oz pure water

3.5 oz witch hazel with aloe

50 drops Lemongrass essential oil

50 drops Citronella essential oil

2 tsp olive oil

Shake well before use.  Nothing harmful for your family.  Smells like bugspray to me, like I said I will let you know how it works.

IMG_1119

I taped the recipe to the bottle so I know what I did in case I need to adjust it.


Bee Hive Update, Early June

0
0

I finally had a chance to get out and check the bee hive yesterday.  I have to admit I was really worried the top box was going to be a total mess.  If you remember when we installed the bees, we left the frames out of the top box so we could feed them in the hive with a jar of sugar water.  I was sure they would have drawn out comb all over the box and figuring out how to fix it would be more time consuming than I had either time or patience.  Luckily, this is what I found.

IMG_1150

This is just after I pulled out the jar, where they had started to draw out some comb.  You can see where to comb broke off and honey is inside the comb in the top left of the hive box.  So there were more or less three pieces of comb that needed to be removed so that I could install a fully framed hive box.  Two smaller pieces and one medium piece.

IMG_1151 IMG_1152

I used the hive tool to gently scrape them from the frames and then set them out in front of the hive itself.  I figure the bees could take the honey back into the hive during the rest of the day so they could reuse as much of it as they wanted.  This is how I left it.  You can see a piece of honey comb that looks all crushed up, I couldn’t help myself.  I had to taste some of that sweet honey, it was just a bite.  And our younger son who had joined me on this trip, also had a bite.  It was the highlight of the trip for him, he really wanted to have more so I had to convince him we needed to leave it for the bees and that if things went well we would have lots of honey to take home this fall.

IMG_1154 IMG_1153

I am hoping to get back to check it in the next day or two to see how they did at cleaning up the honey.

As a bonus, here is a picture of some of the first trees we planted at the farm about six years ago.  Some are now over ten feet tall.  When we planted them they were 12-15″.

IMG_1149

Barn-Hop

WildcraftingWeds-Button

 

homeacre-hop-button2 (1)



Pocket/Car/Camping/Survival Fishing Kit

0
0

I have been toying with the idea of throwing together a fishing kit lately so when I saw one of the 12 oz juice containers we had about to go to recycling, I decided to try and repurpose it first.  The top part of the bottle has a nice notch all the way around that I was able to wind about 30 yards of 6lb test stren fishing line.  I tied on a size 6 aberdeen long shank hook.  I used a ranger band to cover the line and hook, to keep it from unraveling and to protect hands from getting caught on the hook.  Inside the bottle I added a balsa wood spring bobber, two extra hooks, a non lead sinker, a small spinner, two strike king grubs, and two hardnose black grubs, the plastic worms are in a snack sized zip top bag.  I also threw in a small rope stringer, similar to this one, and a swivel snap.

There is still plenty of room in the bottle to add other things that would be pertinent.  A small spool of extra line may be in the cards but I want to test this out first and see how it works.  The preliminary testing report later in the post.  Ideally I would like to put some of these together and sell them in an Etsy store, ebay, or craigslist.  It is small enough to put in a pants pocket, backpack, trunk of a car, anywhere really.  It could be used for a small camping setup for fishing.  How much fun would kids have handlining even small panfish?  Mine loved it!  Another use could be for throwing in the car, not taking up the space of a full rod, but if you wanted to drop a line in the water you would have the opportunity.  Of course it could be made part of an emergency kit as well.

There are several benefits to this setup.  The obvious is it’s size.  You can easily pack it anywhere.  It is also extremely light.  There is room in the bottle to customize your kit to your likes.  The bottle is watertight so you could use it to store water if you were in an emergency situation.  The fact that it is watertight also makes it a last ditch bobber if necessary.  If you were to drop the bottle, it will float.  Even if you drop it while fighting a bass, it will float until you can get to it.

When I tested it out last weekend it worked well.  I tried using it from the boat out in deeper water while fishing with rods with my son and dad.  It wasn’t an epic failure, but it didn’t work really well.  Here is why I think it didn’t; 1)Trying to set up the bobber so that the hook is 12 feet down makes it extremely unwieldy to try and hand cast, 2) With my son catching fish on his fishing pole I didn’t have a lot of time to tinker with it, 3) If you are on a boat, you likely aren’t going to need an emergency type fishing kit.  The next day when we were fishing from the dock, the setup worked beautifully.  I was able to set the bobber so that the hook was down 3-4 feet, making casting easy.  Handlining the fish in was easy and fun.  The spring bobber made it easy to set the depth of the hook, and to change the height as needed easily and quickly.  I only used live bait, worms, and they worked great.  I plan on using the plastic baits next time to see how those work.  The ranger band also worked like a drag, so that if I didn’t have my hand on the line it provided enough pressure to slow the fish and prevent a birds nest in the line.  All in all, I am very happy with how it worked.

What do you think, ever put anything together like this?

IMG_1139 IMG_1140 IMG_1141 IMG_1142

IMG_1155

WildcraftingWeds-Button

homeacre-hop-button2 (1)

 

Barn-Hop


Platform for My Van

0
0

I have been wanting to build a platform to put in the back of my van for quite some time now.  The reason for this is that with the back bench out there are two large brackets that would have been anchoring the bench when it is in the van and they are large and get in the way of packing anything into the back of the van.  Here is a picture of the brackets.

IMG_1147

You can see I have been trying to tuck things in around them to make the best of things, but they are about three inches high and six inches wide.  The bracket on the other side is farther out from the wheel well so it is more in the way.  I wanted a flat surface in the back of the van.

Here is what I came up with.  I screwed 2×4′s to the bottom of a piece of plywood.  I measure so that the 2×4′s were in the front and behind the brackets, essentially locking the platform into place.  I thought about ripping the 2×4′s to a precise height, but my dad made the point that I really didn’t need to as long as the 2×4′s were going to be supportive enough to the platform, so I eliminated that unnecessary step.

IMG_1146

You can see in this picture how the platform sits off the bracket.

IMG_1144

I plan to make pull out drawers for the spaces around the middle support.  I will put the tools from the tool box I normally carry in the van in them, as well as anything else I can fit in there.  For now I am just sliding things under there.

IMG_1145 IMG_1143 IMG_1148

The foot locker on the left used to sit cockeyed on top of one of the brackets, now it can be put anywhere without having to worry about it.  I also look forward to traveling with the dog crate, because I should be able to slide it all the way to one side, instead of having it be in the middle of the brackets as it had to be before.  Once I am happy with the way it is working, I plan to cover it with some sort of automotive or outdoor carpet.

So far I am very happy with the way it has turned out.  I know I could have cut angles to make it fit around the wheel wells, but with the time I have available with other things going on, this works just fine for me.

homeacre-hop-button2 (1)

 

Barn-Hop


Quick Bee Update

0
0

IMG_1232[1]

I have checked on the bees a couple times in the last week and they seem to be doing great.  Lots of activity in and out of the hive as you should be able to see from the picture above.  The top box doesn’t have much activity in it yet, but I am still hoping that it will soon.  The bees are so active that I was run into a couple times because I walked in front of the entrance, probably 8 feet away from the hive, and I got in their flight path.  No harm though.

I finally got my chicken feeder that uses a five gallon bucket and set it up next to the hive so that they will have water available nearer the hive than the marsh I am guessing they use now.  I put a couple rocks in the waterer so they had a place to land that wasn’t in the water.  Hopefully this makes their life easier.

IMG_1248[1]

 

Barn-Hop


No Bake Energy Bites

0
0

This is a recipe I saw on Facebook.  I had actually posted it on my Facebook page so as not to lose it, and a friend of mine got around to making them first.  She was so enthusiastic about them I had to go and grab ground flaxseed, it was the one ingredient we didn’t have, that afternoon.  The recipe says they are healthy, and both my friend and I are dubious about it, but they taste so good.  And with the heat we have been having, not needing to turn the oven on was perfect.

Here it is:

1 Cup Dry Oatmeal

1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter

1/2 Cup Ground Flaxseed

1/3 Cup Honey

1 tsp. Vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and then roll them into bite sized pieces.  The kids used their hands, I used my hands protected by a latex free vinyl glove. Put them in the refrigerator to set.

That’s it!  The kids are able to do it pretty much themselves, and they are “healthy”, unless you eat them all the first night.  Moderation I suppose, but with as good as they taste it is tough.  I hope you enjoy.

P.S.  Sorry there are no pictures, they didn’t last long enough.  That actually gives me a great idea, I will make more today so I can take pictures and add them to the blog.  I wouldn’t want to leave you guys without pictures.  I am doing this for you, not for my taste buds.

As promised…

IMG_1257 IMG_1258 IMG_1259 IMG_1260 IMG_1261


Flyfishing and New Flies

0
0

My dad had been looking at fly rods for a while and recently purchased an Orvis(I believe).  At the same time a good friend of our family had a fly rod that he wasn’t using so he gave/lent it to my dad.  Since my dad had just gotten a rod he is letting me practice with the borrowed rod.  After watching a few youtube videos I think I have the basics down.  When I first started I was using far too much wrist, and was creating big loops in the line.  While I think it is a real talent to be able to tie knots in a fishing line while just swinging it around, it definitely wasn’t the intended result.  Since practicing I have stopped tying knots in the tippet and can actually get the fly to land near where I want it, as long as it isn’t really windy.  I have been practicing with a small piece of orange yarn tied to the end of the tippet so I don’t hook myself while practicing.  I would also rather not hook all my children who like to be around when I am practicing in the front yard, riding their bikes right through my back cast.  You would be surprised at how not-old fishing in the front yard jokes get.  People walking by want to know if I have caught anything, and I reply with something like, “Nope, they aren’t biting, I must need to change flies.”

I bought this package of flies from amazon to have something to try fishing with.

fly package

I have no idea if they will mimic flies local to our area or if they are good flies, but they had good reviews, were reasonably priced, and as far as I can tell are well tied.  There aren’t loose threads anywhere at least.

Hopefully I can keep on getting out and practicing a bit, and next time I get to the lake catch my first fish and a fly rod.  Wish me luck!

IMG_1293 IMG_1294 IMG_1295


Rainbow Chard, you should be growing it!

0
0

This was a facebook post from my good friend Scott at Welcer Farms.   Check him out here.

rainbow chard

Why not grow this in your front yard? Here in Michigan it grows great and regenerates at an amazing rate. The bugs don’t destroy it, in fact they kinda leave it alone! ANNDDD it’s ok to eat greens with bug bites! ‪#‎ediblelandscaping‬

We are talking about Rainbow Swiss Chard, regular Swiss Chard grows the same only with white stalks and brilliant green leaves. Get a pot and some dirt and start it now. It grows great at the restaurant garden I planted @ Toasted Oak. If picked small enough, it’s even sweet, like a lettuce.

WildcraftingWeds-Button


PVC Bow Build

0
0

I really need to make one of these.



A Visit to Welcer Farms

0
0

I had the opportunity last weekend to catch up with my good friend Scott Welcer of Welcer Farms.  I met up with him at his farm location and between raindrops he and his dog Kahlua gave me a tour of his operation.

I had not caught up with Scott in person in quite a while, years actually, but we had talked through texts, email, facebook, and on the phone.  One thing that is evident no matter how you communicate with Scott is his passion for growing good food, locally.  He is passionate about getting people to eat healthy, locally grown food, and finding the best way to do so.  Up until two years ago the extent of Scott’s garden had been the backyard plot that he had grown.  That changed when he borrowed some land from a friend and starting growing on a larger scale.  Two years ago it was one garden plot, last year it grew to three, and this year he has seven plots that he is gardening.  Last year he was even able to start selling to a local restaurant despite it being only his second year.  His produce is now featured in special dishes at three area restaurants including Toasted Oak, The Garage, and Diamond Jim Brady’s.  That taste of success has driven him to expand, and start to think about the future of Welcer Farms.  He is continuing  to sell produce to restaurants and is looking for ways to spend more time on his farm.  As anyone who gardens knows, you need to spend time on your plants for a great garden.  Despite working around 30 hours at his “regular” job, he spends at least that making sure the farm is tended to, chores are done, and he has freshly picked produce for his customers.

For me, the thing that struck me was not so much how quickly Scott has expanded his farm, but how excited and passionate about farming he has become in such a short time.  Scott is quick to thank all the people that have supported him, helped him, and mentored him.  It is pretty evident that Scott will be farming for the rest of his life, providing local healthy food to all those he can, and someday soon I am sure he will be mentoring others on how to replicate his success at Welcer Farms.

IMG_1316 IMG_1317 IMG_1318 IMG_1319 IMG_1320 IMG_1321 IMG_1322 IMG_1323 IMG_1324 IMG_1325


Feeding Chickens Fodder

If You Are Who You Should Be…

0
0

St. Catherine of Sienna said,”If you are who you should be, you will set the world ablaze.”  That is a powerful statement that forces me to think about whether or not I am who I should be?  Just in small actions in every day life, am I making decisions that help me to be the best version of myself?  This is discussed in Matthew Kelly’s book “The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic”.  He posits that the inverse of St. Catherine’s statement is also true, “If you are not who you should be, you will not set the world ablaze.”  How many of us are setting the world ablaze? If I am honest with myself I have to admit I doubt that I am, or the amount I am is far below where it should or could be.  I think less television and more reading of edifying books would help to that end.  Less web surfing and more prayer would also work to that end.  Hopefully I can work towards that end.

Are you setting the world ablaze?


Quick Visit to Our New “Home”

0
0

We went to the “farm” today to check on the bees and drop a couple things off.  The bees look fine, still no honey in the first super, but the hive itself looks good, very busy in and out.  I am still hoping for some honey this year, fingers crossed.  My oldest son was a little disappointed that I couldn’t get him some honey.  I also took the kids for a ride on the golf cart because I wanted to look at the spot where I think we should build in the future and I wanted to check on some wild blackberries.  The spot still screams at me as the perfect place to build, at some point, just need to figure out when that point is.  The kids enjoyed some wild blackberries and in an effort to keep them from staining their non-farm clothes I did all the picking.  I will definitely be wanting to plant some more blackberries and raspberries out there next year.  Sorry for the lack of pictures of the beautiful berries, but I had left my phone in the van.  Next time!


DIY Chicken Feeder

Viewing all 223 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images