I've Got Worms!!

 I do not need another hobby in my life, but I started a new one. I have started raising worms. It is a natural fit for someone who likes to fish and frequently uses live worms for bluegill fishing. Purchasing bait is getting expensive and the quality is declining. And finding my own worms in nature has been more challenging recently, so I have decided to raise my own bait. I hope it works. The composting the worms do and the castings (poop) they produce will be a bonus for me and the garden.

My first worm purchase was 100 European Nightcrawlers. 

I set up a five gallon bucket worm bin. One bucket sits inside the other. I placed a brick at the bottom of the outer bucket so the two pails do not nest too closely, making it difficult to separate them. Holes are drilled in the bottom of the inner bucket to allow excess water to drain into the outer bucket. That water can be used as "tea" for feeding plants. Holes in the lid are for aeration. This keeps any decomposition from going "anaerobic". Anaerobic decomposition stinks, literally. The system needs good air flow in order to work properly. The tote the bucket sits in is to contain worm escapees. It makes me feel better, but I know they could and would escape the tote, too.

This is the "outer" bucket with the brick at the bottom.

The bag of worms has been installed into their new home. Be fruitful and multiply, please.

Two weeks after installation into their bucket system, I decided the nightcrawlers should have more space, so I put them into a tote for their bin. Here, I am rehydrating some coconut coir to use as part of their bedding material. 

 The coconut coir brick soaks up lots of water. As it does, I am able to break it up. I want it about as wet as a wrung out sponge for the worms. 

Torn up paper egg cartons make a good bedding material.

Shredded newspaper is going into the bin as bedding material as well. I layered the various materials, mixing in some soil from my bait worm cooler. A spray bottle of water moistens any additions because the worms need a moist, but not sopping wet environment to thrive.

 I peeled back some of the moist shredded newspaper to reveal some nightcrawlers for you to see. They do not have eyes, but have light sensors, so as soon as the light hits them they pull back. I was glad to be able to get parts of a few of them in this pic.

Since the nightcrawlers are in a tote now, I purchased some composting worms for the bucket system. These were smaller worms and came in a bag of 250. You can see some dead ones in the mix, unfortunately. I called Uncle Jim's Worm Farm and was given the option of replacement of the lost or partial refund. We decided that since we are in the heart of winter, a partial refund might be best, due to cold weather. My hope is that the 50% that seem alive will do well enough to out produce the losses. If these little composting worms get established, we may have to decide who gets the kitchen scraps, the chickens or the worms! Check out this YouTube video of my inspection of the European Nightcrawlers' bin where I find some actual cocoons! https://youtu.be/J8LdAKUeCHQ?feature=shared

Fun Stuff!

That's a pretty nice perch at 12 1/2 inches. I figured it's belly was fat due to crayfish inside, but it turned out to be spawn (eggs). Perch do not usually spawn until late winter, so it surprised me to find such mature looking eggs inside this one. It made me feel a little bit bad for keeping it. I did fillet the fish and had two nice fillets with two fried eggs and two slices of toast with jam and two glasses of water for breakfast two mornings later.

I do not wish to "gross you out", but here are the eggs from that perch. How many eggs do you think are in there? A little research told me (if you believe the internet) that a mature perch can lay from 10,000 to 40,000 eggs every year! Let's start counting. Some people like to fry up the roe (eggs) and eat them. I tried doing that a couple of years ago. They were okay tasting. I am glad I did it, but I don't need to do it again.

This is a screen grab from the web cam at South Beach in South Haven, MI. My wife and I took a day trip there a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed walking all over in town and on the beach. We crossed a bridge and walked over to North Beach so we walked out onto the second pier (breakwater) you see with the white and green lighthouse. 

We had a nice, steady wind at the beach, so, even though it was a little bit chilly, I had a blast flying my two stringed stunt kite. It was fun diving and doing loops and flying the kite over the waters of Lake Michigan. A couple of times I touched the wing tip of the kite into the water and then flew it back up into the sky to dry. There were almost no people around, so I did not need to worry about hitting anyone with my kite and I hogged the beach and let that kite do its thing.

I do not get to see whitefish very often, so it was interesting to see folks catching them from the piers. They look to me like large shiner minnows, but they are in the salmon family. I guess I can see how they look a little bit like a salmon, too. Their meat is apparently quite mild and delicious even though they are bottom feeders. I read that they live in 200 feet deep waters and come in closer to shore to spawn in the fall.

 We feel blessed to be able to travel to Lake Michigan so easily. The beauty of its waters, beaches and woodsy walks are a joy to us.

Thanks to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park for hosting Thornapple Woodlands, LLC again this December for a mead making class. It is a thrill for me to participate in the activities there and to teach in such a "classy" place. Plus, I get to share my passion for the natural wonder of fermentation--specifically fermented honey--Mead!

I was set up for the class in time to take a quick walk-through to see the decorated trees and other sights.

God bless us, every one.

 

What A Time!

It has been a busy time of programs and presentations for us. We have done more shows this year than ever before in the history of our business. I do not know if it is a post Covid bump or what, but wow, what a time!

Now the beehives are buttoned up for winter, the fishing boat is put away, and it is time to get back to the blog.

I love it when librarians set up a section of books appropriate for the subject of our program at their facility. Here, we are providing a maple syrup program, and the librarian has a few displays such as this with maple related books to check out. Classy!

Have you seen a pile of greenish gunk, like this, lately? Fall is the time for walnuts. Squirrels like walnuts. But, the walnuts have a greenish outer "garment" that must be removed to get at the hard shell. Squirrels remove the outer part with their teeth and drop it. Then they take the walnut somewhere to gnaw at the shell to break into it for the sweet meat inside. When I am walking for exercise, I often hear squirrels chewing at the outer shell of walnuts. Sometimes I stop to search and find the squirrel in the crotch of a tree gnawing away. The toe of my shoe is pointing to a pile of the outer "garment" of a walnut left here by a squirrel.

The beauty of the fall season is all around us now. I hope you have had a chance to enjoy its awe-inspiring glory.

In early May, we bought 8 Barred Rock chicken chicks. We usually buy ISA Browns, but these were on sale. I think they were about a week old already because I saw wing feathers growing. So, they made it through that first week when mortality is usually fairly high. Still, I purchased 8 chicks because we almost always lose 2 before they become adults. Guess what, none died this time. So, now we have more eggs than we can use. Want to buy some eggs?

And here they are all grown up. I see only 7 in the picture. Must be one is in the nesting box laying an egg since I took this pic in the morning.

First Eggs! It seemed like eggs would never come. Our previous hens (ISA Browns), usually started laying at 18-20 weeks old. These Barred Rocks waited until about 24 weeks of age.

Eggs start rather small and increase in size in a few weeks as egg laying continues. The white eggs are store bought medium sized eggs showing the size of our new brown eggs. It has been so strange eating eggs with white shells the last several months as we awaited our browns ones.

First time getting five eggs in a day. Lately, I have been gathering 7 per day. I am still awaiting our first 8 in a day. What are we going to do with all those eggs!? There is supposedly a way to store them safely long term to eat later in winter when the laying rate diminishes. I might have to do some research. If you know someone who has successfully preserved eggs un-refrigerated for several months, please let me know.

We do not wash the shells because the eggs apparently keep better unwashed. That is why you see a few smudges on some of them.

Check out those yolks! "Orange" you glad for fresh eggs? Yes!

I spent a summer in Mexico in the early 1990's, and there I "learned" that corn tortillas are good with eggs. It is a practice I have continued. I just wish I could find corn tortillas that taste as good as those from the village tortillerias in Mexico. Mmmm, good.

It was an honor for me to make applesauce with my mother, who is in her upper 80's. She is an amazing woman. I have to work hard to keep up with her. I cut up apples as fast as I possibly could. She taught me what to do and then had to go away for a while, so I finished up on my own. Usually my wife and kids did this with grandma, but they grew up and she had to work, so I had all the fun. The jar in the second row left side looks different because it is. It contains some of the juice from cooking the apples. We save it to drink straight or, as in this case, to add to mead and make a cyser. Good stuff!

My wife met with a friend east of where we live, so I drove her there and fished the Grand River from shore for smallmouth bass. I caught and released some little ones and it was fun.

Thanks for enjoying the blog with me.

On The Air!

It was great fun to be on the air with Rick Vuyst and Stacey Hirvela. They have a relatively new show called, Gardening Simplified where they share their love of plants. Honey bees fit in quite naturally with a love of plants, so it makes sense to have a beekeeper as a guest. Fortunately for me, I was that beekeeper. Their program airs on WOOD Radio Saturday mornings from 9:00am-10:00am. Their YouTube version has a little bit more content than the radio version. Here is the link to the YouTube version. https://youtu.be/MMB3qLCgMB0

After lighting the smoker, using pine needles and twigs, I put green grass on top. This gives a "cool" smoldering smoke used to confuse and calm the honey bees.

As beekeepers, we can tell a lot about a hive by simply looking up into a box from the bottom as it sits on its front side. This is a useful skill especially in cooler springtime inspections since pulling out frames might chill the bees.

I am removing the weight (brick) on top of this hive in preparation for a hive inspection, or replacing it after an inspection. After smoking the entrance to the hive, I puff a little smoke under the top cover, too, before I remove the lid altogether to perform an inspection of the frames.

 

This frame appears to be filled with honey. It looks dark; probably because the cells were first used for  brood (eggs, larvae, and developing bees) and then as the bees emerged the they filled those cells with honey. The darkness comes from the "cocoon skins" left by the emerged honey bees. That frame in my hands contains about four pounds of honey.

Here I am checking out a brood frame. I look for eggs (so I know the queen is present), healthy larvae, healthy capped brood (under which the bees are developing), and other indications of the general health of the hive.

Honey bees are so amazing. It is a privilege to care for them.

Hey, look who's NOT wearing a veil while he works with the bees! I often say that "I always wear at least a veil when I am working with honey bees." Well, this time I took off the veil for the photos so people could see the face of the beekeeper. I did take a sting to the face that day. Ouch!

Thanks for reading my blog and a special thanks to Kayla from Kayla Marie Videography for all these great pictures on this post. She took many more as well and you can see more of them on my website.

 

 

 

First Ice Fishing of the Season! Finally!

 On February 2, 2023 I finally went ice fishing for the first time of the season. What took me so long? We have had an unusually mild January. December got cold and it was snowy. So, the lakes froze over, but it was "snow ice" and unsafe. Then almost every day in January was above freezing temperatures, so the lakes opened up again. This last week has been cold. It is 10 degrees F as I type this. Our ice re-formed quickly. The lakes were ready to ice over and it only took about one week to become safe enough to fish.

On January 31 I drilled a hole in the ice at my local fast-freezing lake and it was two inches thick--not enough to safely fish, so I went home. Two days later it was 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches everywhere I fished. That is a nice thickness when it is fresh, hard ice. It makes me feel relatively safe, and it is easy to auger holes while searching for fish.

This is the auger I use. It is a five inch auger which I find a perfect size for pulling up bluegills and other panfish. I do wish I had a six inch auger for pike fishing, but this old auger of mine has served me well for many years. It is a Mora brand. Check out my YouTube video on how to auger a hole through the ice.

 

It was a super cold day and the wind was whipping besides, so my gloves did not stay off my hands for long. The goggles are nice for windy days and they keep the sun off my face a little bit. You can get quite a sunburn while ice fishing. Note the yellow life jacket under my jacket. Whenever the ice is "iffy" I wear a life jacket. Thanks to my son, whose reflection you can see in my goggles, for taking his gloves off on a very cold morning (on his day off work) to take pics of his dear old dad for dad's blog and YouTube channel.

This speck (speckled bass or crappie) almost pulled my rod into the lake. I had set down my rod onto the ice while I walked away for a short bit. When I came back, I noticed a fish pulling the rod tip towards the hole. I quickly picked up the rod, set the hook, and hauled in a decent crappie (pronounced "croppy" and not "crappy"--it's only crappy fishing when you're not catching any).

Two nice fillets going into the pail. Yum!

Waiting for the next fish to bite.

A couple of beautiful yellow perch. Their bellies are loaded with spawn. Perch may be the finest eating fish in the state of Michigan. Yes, walleyes are delicious, too, but I think perch are better. See the tiny bluegill on the ice at the bottom right side of the picture? I usually don't leave fish on the ice for long since they are calling cards to anyone looking to find fish. 

 It felt sooo good to stare at a sneaky bobber over a hole in the ice again. It has been a long time without any ice fishing. We usually start ice fishing by at least the middle of January and usually earlier. I often say that all I want for Christmas is safe ice on the area lakes so I can go ice fishing.

Nothing to brag about here, but it is a meal and that was my goal for the day. Plus, we walked off the ice dry. That is always a good thing when ice fishing.
 

Thanks for reading my blog. It sounds like the weather will be warming above freezing again soon, so I think this may be a very short ice fishing season. I hoped we would get a month of fishing, but now I think it will be just about five or six days. This has been the latest start ever for me in over 50 years of ice fishing. My 89 year old father said he can not remember this late of a start in his lifetime either. We will enjoy it while we have it. Sigh. Oh well, I guess I can tap the sugar maple trees soon by the sounds of the forecast.