flight from the nest

The babies can no longer fit the nest 

they are ready to fly

 

any day now, any day

Solstice at Lairds

Danny and Meghan dropping rose petals on our way down to Lairds

Solstice, the longest day of the year, first day of summer. to celebrate there was a grand thanksgiving and soup dinner held at the fabled Lairds landing hosted by Jordan Atanat and the coasties. this was what we hoped to be our first of many annual solstice/equinox/full moon celebrations at Lairds. bringing back connection to the rhythms of the universe, nature, ancestors, and our selves in this season of plenty.

Clayton's old house

 Lairds Landing was once a artist colony, complete with a few whimsical cottages, a art studio/forge and a artist named Clayton Lewis (http://www.claytonlewis.net) that would hold parties and dinners and gatherings with all the local fisherman, boat builders, artists and other eccentrics of west marin. the magic and presence of Clayton is still there, and we all held space for Clayton, and even smelled his pipe waft through the cool solstice air as we lit a fire and created an alter on the beach. 

Nature Table

 As the light held on nearly to 9:45 in the far west of the sky, phosphorescence appeared in the lapping Tomales Bay water millions of little critters shimmering in the disturbed swirling bay. Jordan splashed through with rolled pants and the water glowed and sparkled in the final moments of our solstice celebration. 

In those final minutes of light for the first day of summer and the 2012 summer solstice a few things came to mind-

What is our relationship to the sun and earth? 

the rhythms and beats of the seasons?

How can we preserve and continue that 

presence and energy at Lairds that Clayton held?

If Clayton were to be there last night, 

what would he have wanted as a Solstice Tradition?

9:40 pm on june 20th 2012. fire light solstice at Lairds Landing. thank you Clayton Lewis

Marshall Beach and hog island, 2012 summer solstice.

Green house doings and the last crab dinner

Yesterday was an actual coastal foggy day here in bolinas. it broke nearly 4 weeks of hot sunny and dry weather. so we spent it in the green house planting seeds and getting the aquaponics planted with basil. hopefully they do well... the water PH is still a little high, and for the moment it is still pretty low on the Nitrite/nitrate levels that are so key for the nutrient cycle... those little craw fish just aren't producing enough waste and growing fast enough!

 the seed trays and starts were mostly perennial herbs and some culinary herbs for planting and possibly to sell as nursery stock. we also have these great seeds from Turkey that Penny had brought back- assorted cow/painted beans, 2 types of wheat, herbs, sun flowers and a 1000 year old ancient heirloom wheat.  we started onions and wheat grass as well. if all goes accordingly, we can get 4-6 seed trays started a week and plant out every couple of weeks straight up to the fall and get some sort of production out of the late start... so i hope. 

 

garden pirates Meghan, Liam, and Michelle. notice those nice new seed tables to the left Liam and i built...

Crab boil

 on another note, Todd a very talented fisherman and wood worker who built the front gate,  brought the last of the Dungeness crab harvest from his crab pots. it was a feast! we barely finished them, and James took the prize for most crab comsumed (Todd warned he has seen no other man consume crab as james does) it was a glorious feast, and even for someone as my self who is not a big crab fan, i loved every bit of them. after all as Todd and i agreed on, the ocean is sacred, and we gave thanks for their offering and the respect around the closing of the crab season. I spoke to Todd about the salmon run coming up in July and august, and he said i might be able to come along as deck hand in exchange for salmon catch... that would be amazing...

Todd showing off a crab

the crab pile.

the crab process begin

it was a crab funeral apparently....every one was in mourning.

bee swarm # 5?!

swarming bees

cutting branches out. im watching with curiosity about stings... 

the orchard looking west along the west ridge

final cut to the branch that held the swarm

box-o-bees (queen included) Liam and I moving the bees on up!

well another planned day at RDI was 

interrupted by our 7th(?) swarm of the season.

all three of us (Liam, Meghan and i) were in the kitchen garden getting ready to plant some veggies and herbs, when the hum of a swarm filled the air. 

Brock's voice about following the party ringed in our ears and we watched as the air filled with bees, eventually landing in a pear tree near the food forest just behind Penny and James house. 

(you can almost see the house roof in the picture at right.)

we proceeded to have the next top bar hive ready (these hives are one long hive with honey comb bars at the full length) and suited up for our adventure of cutting out all the bees amassed around the queen on the branches of the pear tree. 

its the pirate hives....

Liam dumping bees... in shorts... crazy man

the hive- that's a lot of bees

adding boards... in shorts...

after cutting out some branches we made the final cut (at left) and dropped all the bees and their hive mates into a box.

we moved amongst the swarming bees and their newly claimed branch in-a-box, very calmly mind you, up hill to the hives at the top of the food forest with no stings or anger from the bees at all.

Finally arrived up at their new home amongst our other hives- we are now up to 8 for the season, only starting with 3 out of 5 from last year... its been 4 weeks of constant new swarms. this means our current hives are busy at work expanding, or we are not doing enough to control the amount of queens that are being born. many bee keepers open and manage their hives choosing not to allow the the birth or creation of queen cells- the queen cells look a little bit like peanut shells worked into the side walls of the normal hive cells that birth drones and workers.





















if we find one without melting it down for bees wax i will post it... its been too exciting to save the cells and document.

Meghan took all the photos of Liam and i in our funny suits, and it was a job well done... and it was our first bee capture on our own for all of us- it being the first bee interaction for Meghan ever.

almost finished- some excited bees about their new home.

swarming a pear tree

we did have one closing thought- after checking on a previous swarm that happened a week ago, we noticed one of our newly swarmed boxes abandoned... the hive had comb and chambers, along with some unhatched bees, propolis, and filled honey comb... 

why was it empty? what happened to the unhatched bees? 

a few were still moving.

 we were curious and left with many more questions about exactly what we had seen today....

did this hive come from one of our previous swarms who didnt like their new home?

or was it a hive that out grew its space??

questions upon questions.

the universe is not personal.

swallows perched

The nest of wonderful barn swallows have babies and have been feeding constantly

A quiet distraction while working in the front kitchen garden trying to plant out much needed crops

all the while babies are crying for parents who swoop in and bring in goodies

Cheese part II

 So we made cheese yesterday. went for cheve, a simple goats cheese. 

let it drain. 

never really made cheese before....

most of what we got was a really a mild and great mozzarella goat cheese.

we have a lot of great cheese making equipment here, a cheese press, molds, everything but a bunch of starters- got to get some of them enzymes! we are all about the good bacteria! after all, its mostly because of those millions of little guys that give us all our favorite foods... wine, beer, yogurt, cheese, kimche, sauerkraut... even the plants like good holistic bacteria to help fight all the nasty blights and bad fungus... more on the compost and lactose loving teas for plants later...

i decided to press the curds into wheels, and then salted them and added tarragon and thyme (dried).

added some more salt, and now flipping the wheels on the cheese tray to dry out and see what we get... adding salt as i need to dry them out.

the pink on the larger thin wheel is some Hawaiian red sea salt from dear friend Cat. 

oh yeah-what am i going for here?

 hopefully a kind of aged dried, herbed, goat mozzarella, cottage cheddar?? 

or something like that..

stay tuned....

Quail train

on guard Mr. Burns!

The baby quail have hatched! and papa quail (Mr. Burns, yes pop culture has invaded our naming of the quail couple) is on guard and doing his job very well...

this family of around 15 little ones has been spotted up and down the trails here at commonweal; father keeping guard, mom (Mrs. burns... obviously) and babies scurrying around eating anything that looks good... including some of our newly planted seeds. 

that's allowed... so its ok..

babies.... fox?! what??! where!??

here is a close up of mom and baby, the little ones being no more then maybe a size of a slightly larger golf ball.

mom, dad on guard, and a few little ones up front through the onions

Although there are lots of bachelor quail, and a good handful of couples, these are the only babies spotted yet- they tend to stay concentrated on the west side of wish creek, and WE THINK they live up around the garden pirate villas (again that is our nick name for the interns thanks to the last course that joined us for a two week permaculture intensive.) 

the villas are all nestled in the north west corner of the fence line where there is great habitat for the quail, birds, lots of mystery rustling at night and also foxes... hmmm watch out  for that fox is a quick one...

mrs. burns and babies

but so far so good, its close to the first week and it seems Mr. and Mrs. Burns are doing a great job.

  and the course that just joined us was excited to see the baby quail, and they all just missed them... so here are some shots for you guys.

till soon, we will keep the posts for how the quail are growing up, and hopefully nature takes its course not too brutally... we shall see though.. there are theories on how many of around the 14 or so will survive.

Cheese?!

Last night, for the first time we made cheese. 3 gallons of goats milk.... and we still had maybe 3 gallons to use for yogurt and to have in the morning... without any enzyme starter, i just used Rennet, to separate the fats and whey. on the left is the cheese hanging to drain and cure, and the right is the whey and cheese- the cheese having formed into a semi solid. below is the cheese in the cloth ready to be wrapped up and hung. to follow will be salting, pressing to cure, and adding dried herbs to make a herb goat cheese cheve... thank you GOATS.

also started today was some kimche, and Komboocha, (or booch as we like to call it)  by the wonderful and recently arrived new farm pirate (that's our new slang for intern) Meghan. also will attempt some whey soda with all our strawberries, and dehydrate them as well. lots going on. lots to do. lots to post... 

patients... 
and a quote that has been floating around here

"the universe is not personal"

chickens

happy old hens! speculation is they are around 8 years old.

the "bunkers" as the converted worm bins are named.

 This is the chicken coop. the whole fenced in area is very luxurious, complete with several (in my opinion) of the best apples at RDI. they have a good run, an old truck top, and even two giant worm bins that are built out of old cast iron tubs... although they cant get into the said tubs... the worm bins are cumbersome but are a great design none the less. we have the old grey water sludge that had millions of worms sitting in the worm bins as we speak- but penny and i both agree that they are almost too heavy to lift the tops and use, and we may retire them... im thinking of converting them to raised beds for carrots and beets... hmmm

our hens are down in numbers though, a bunch have been culled, mostly due to their old age, and they are laying at around 5 eggs a week if we are lucky. there is 6 hens left. hopefully we shall be getting some young guns soon!

Honey Harvest and FOXIE CUBS!

Honey! its good...

This week durring the PDC we captured a swarm as well as harvested some honey! in the late day when we culled the hive, we were processing the honey and we were silly drunk from all the honey we were eating, and covered in.. almost 3 pounds, and one of our first serious harvests from one of our 7 hives!

 this particular hive was not even a month old, and the Honey was several colours.  it also had some uncovered combs, meaning that the bees had not finished filling them and capped them off. this "uncapped" honey wont last as long, but is raw and fresh!!! the darker and lighter honey that we had was most likely the eucalyptus and the smorgasbord of flowers and plants on the farm respectively.  

PDC student Claire ready for the bees.

 The Hive that swarmed brought out some great fashion statements, as well as it being the second swarm of the year from our "kitchen hive." the kitchen hive has volunteered in a hole on the outside wall coverings of the kitchen. they are one of the strongest hives we have, and are constantly coming home with their little saddle bags filled with pollen.

Brock clad in bee protection

 and last but not least the adorable grey fox cubs for 2012.  these two buggers were causing a ruckus knocking over a bucket, and just being a bunch of misfits. they have been spotted under James' and Penny's houses. the mom has been seen more often then these two... we hope they are alright! 

grey fox cubs

OAEC and Venus Transit

main gardens we were drooling over!

 This week with the June PDC here at RDI, we got to travel up to occidental CA, in Sonoma. There we got to Visit the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, or OAEC. Previously the Farallons Institute, it was founded by a core of people who call them selves the sowing circle,  who took the 82 acres and turned it into a permaculture, sustainable farming, water shed restoration, and all around garden paradise. complete with nurseries, guest houses, several amazing examples of earth buildings, wild lands tended, and spectacular gardens and orchards. IF you haven't heard of OAEC before, check them out. web site below as well as some words from their own website.  doing some great stuff in conjunction with the whole Northern California Permie scene.

near the residents houses, a herb and mixed perennial garden up a path

lots of cutting flowers and poppies, some beautiful plants

food production and mixed nursery beds for test plants, herbs and flowers.

From the OAEC web site-  "OAEC is a nonprofit organizing and education center and organic farm in Northern California’s Sonoma County. OAEC was founded in 1994 by a group of biologists, horticulturists, educators, activists, and artists seeking innovative and practical approaches to the pressing environmental and economic crises of our day. Much of the Center’s work addresses the challenges of creating democratic communities that are ecologically, economically and culturally sustainable in an increasingly privatized and corporatized economy and culture. OAEC's programs combine research, demonstration, education, and organizing to develop collaborative, community-based strategies for positive social change and effective environmental stewardship.





OAEC is located in western Sonoma County, 65 miles north of San Francisco, on 80 acres that encompass wildlands of meadows and mixed oak, fir and redwood forests. The Center’s bio-intensive organic gardens and orchards have been a source of inspiration and training for thousands of gardeners, farmers and landscapers for over 35 years, first as the Farallones Institute (1974-1990), then as the Center for Seven Generations (1990-1993), and since 1994 as OAEC. In a typical year, the Center receives over 3,000 visitors. Many attend one of our courses, others come to site tours or to volunteer in the garden. Bay Area social justice and environmental organizations use the OAEC facility for strategy retreats and workshops for their staff and boards. Many thousands more benefit from our organizing campaigns, public presentations, heirloom seed swaps, and consulting services." http://www.oaec.org/

more of the food and mixed gardens.

What a place! Brock Dolman was our tour guide as well as the Director of OAEC's water institute www.oaecwater.org
Brock has been the Co- instructor with Penny here at RDI for the June PDC. Big thanks to him and all of OAEC for showing us around, and being so awesome.

on a Final note, yesterday we all witnessed the Venus transit across the sun... a very surreal site of a small dot drifting across the sun... just another planet. thanks mayans for knowing what you did... what a year.