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James Jesser
Fall was a busy season with getting the gardens cleaned up, the bees ready for winter, and sowing some fall vegetables.
November was a month with plenty of warm days to accomplish all that. I took advantage of the weather to prepare my beehives for winter.
Each hive requires approximately 100 pounds of honey for the bees to survive.To measure it I just heft them and if they are heavy, I guess that the bees have stored up enough honey.
I opened each hive and put a sugar patty on the top. The patties are a mix of sugar, lecithin, vegetable shortening, and essential oils. The bees will eat on it throughout the winter.
I also close all the entrances except for a small ½ inch hole. This is to keep the mice out. Mice will enter, build a nest, and devastate the hive. Bees will refuse to use honey frames that the mice have soiled. I wash the frames in a chlorine solution to get the smell out. Finally, I wrap the hives in black plastic and insulation. I hope they will be protected until March.
The last vegetables to be harvested were pumpkins and winter squash. I have been slowly cutting them up and steaming them. I then use the flesh to make pies and pumpkin butter. The house is filled with the aroma.
Last week, I put a fence of chicken wire around my perennial bed. Once this snowstorm is over and the snow melts, I will spread straw in the fence. Rabbits and mice are my mortal enemies. They make tunnels in the straw and chew on the stems of my roses and other perennials. It is also to keep the chickens out.
I let the chickens out to roam in the winter. They will make a beeline to the perennial bed and scratch for bugs. They spread the straw all over the lawn.
I have a portable fence that I use during the summer months. The fence allows them to roam and scratch but keeps them out of the garden. I like to put the fence over different areas of the garden so that they clean up and leave behind some fertilizer.
There are three Christmas activities that I look forward to and will participate in. The first being the cookie walk. The Lutheran ladies bake up large quantities of cookies. At the given time you arrive with your container and select cookies. I like the date pinwheels and other old fashioned cookies. You then pay by the ounce.
The other Norwegian Lutheran ladies put on a Lutefisk meal. The lefse is fired a day ahead and served with ham, potatoes, gravy, Lutefisk, and pie. Lefse is a flat bread made from mashed potatoes and Lutefisk requires a learned taste, it is cod soaked in lye water.
Lastly, I will go to the Nora Store. Nora Store is in southern South Dakota and is a country store with a pipe organ. On the weekends prior to Christmas crowds of people come and fill the store and sing carols. You can sing as loud as you wish or as off key it all blends together. You arrive as strangers and leave as family.
Now that I am ready for winter and snug in my home, my thoughts turn to the pile of books that are begging me to read.
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