Monthly Archives: January 2013

Compost is the BEST

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

Frank recently started the long process of sieving the compost by removing a bunch of leaves and fresh matter from the top of our compost heap. The chickens saw what he was doing (they see EVERYTHING) but didn’t pay much … Continue reading →

Posted in Chickens | Tagged | 21 Comments

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

Australia’s being hit by (yet) a(nother) force of nature. While the bushfires still tear through great swathes of land, a tropical cyclone makes landfall, quickly turns into a low, but does not go away. It takes it’s time moving down … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Chickens, Garden, Nature | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Yet Another Reason I Love My Garden

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

A friend phoned a couple of days ago and asked Hubby and me over for a dip in their pool and a relaxing evening at their place. With little effort we decided they’d BBQ some chicken and make the satay sauce … Continue reading →

Posted in Garden, Recipe | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Summer Garden Work

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

The garden continues to tick over, but it’s not producing as well as it was a month ago. Mid-summer is a hard time in gardens in Sydney. But I think it’s partly my fault for sowing everything in a manner … Continue reading →

Posted in Chickens, Garden | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

Good News and Bad News

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

After our unsettling discovery that something was amiss with queen 1, Frank and I geared up and went down to our hives like costumed super-heroes armed with smoker and hive tool (rather than really useful equipment like x-ray goggles and stretchy … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Nature | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

One of My Queens is in Trouble

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

On Monday we opened our hives to do a general inspection. They looked and behaved like healthy bee colonies from the outside but you really have to get inside a hive to know what’s going on. We wanted to make … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Nature | Tagged , | 24 Comments

Braised cucumbers with Honey

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

Robbing the Bees by Holley Bishop is a self-proclaimed biography of honey. It’s full of a lot of interesting historical bits and a lot of modern-day honey-stuff as well. It also has a bunch of recipes that the author has … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Garden, Recipe | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Just Checkin’

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

The whir of the food processor continues to excite our chickens. They all understand the link between that food processor sound and their upcoming treats. All 3 move in close to the back door so that they’ll be ready to … Continue reading →

Posted in Chickens | Tagged | 8 Comments

Seek and ye shall find

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

Or maybe I should have titled this post “be careful what you ask for”. Emily Heath found my blog (I’m thinking that was via another blog we both follow rather than the result of some random search term) which made me … Continue reading →

Posted in Garden, Nature | 14 Comments

The State of Play in the Bees’ World

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

I’m a bit bee-crazy these days (don’t drop the “bee” in that sentence please). I read books, check-out blogs, watch my hives and live in a state of awe over these amazing little critters. In Australia we’re very lucky to … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Nature, Sustainability | Tagged | 16 Comments