Category Archives: Nature

Making sorghum – Part 3

I know, I know…you could barely contain yourself, waiting for the conclusion to the sorghum saga.  In my last post, I described how we pressed the sorghum cane to extract the sweet juice using our Kentucky No. 0 Cane Mill.  We didn’t really pay much attention to how much juice we actually got but it was enough to make me smile.  Of course, anything greater than “none” would have made me smile.  Anyhow, we got several gallons of weird looking green sorghum juice.

Cooking sorghum syrup
Cooking down but still green

To make the juice into syrup, one has to cook the water off of the juice which thickens the liquid into syrup and converts sugars and starches into wholesome goodness that is otherwise known as sorghum (or sorghums as the old timers call it).

Cooking sorghum syrup
Cooking down nicely

Originally, people cooked the juice on a wood fire in a large cast iron cauldron…sometimes several feet in diameter.  The cauldron had a lip which allowed the cauldron to sit on a circular brick or stone wall inside of which a fire was built.  Sorghum cookers got more sophisticated and built long, shallow evaporator pans with baffles which allowed the cooker to add juice to one end and move the sorghum through the pan to the other end as it cooked where syrup was eventually pulled off.  Either of these options are still viable but involve a good bit of money to purchase or make.  I already have a good bit of money invested in the cane mills and couldn’t see spending any more this year.

Cooking sorghum
It thickened nicely and turned a beautiful amber

It occurred to me that a turkey fryer is not much different from an old fashioned cauldron so we decided to cook our juice in a turkey fryer over propane.  I know, it is not too authentic but I had to go with what I had.  One of the first things that happens when one turns on the heat under sorghum juice is that a tremendous amount of nasty foam rises to the top.  This happens every time as a part of the process and the foam has to be skimmed and discarded.  I had a ladle I used to dip it off of the top.  We stirred the pot nearly continuously to prevent burning the syrup.  It took a few hours over low heat but the juice gradually cooked down and thickened.  The smell of the mixture changed from wet pumpkin (almost as bad as wet dog) to sweet…sweet something.  I can’t really describe it but it was a nice smell.  Finally, the color changed from green to a beautiful amber color.  We tasted often and watched it thicken.  I finally decided it was done and pulled off the end product.  We ended up with 2 quarts plus a little of homemade sorghum syrup and it tastes great!

Homemade sorghum syrup
Homemade sorghum syrup

We learned a lot and, more importantly, spent a lot of quality together-time.  We didn’t get enough sorghum to make it extrinsically worth it, but satisfaction in seeing a product through from field to jar is worth a lot to me.  Seeing my kids helping out and enjoying time spent is worth a lot to me.  Feeling some connection to how old farmers in WV might have produced their own sorghum is worth a lot to me.  The syrup is really a secondary part to all of this, but what a sweet bonus it is!

My cane mill/sorghum stuff

Making sorghum – Part 2

The Story of Two Mules – by Emily

Once upon a time there was a mule called “Brother”.  Brother was drafted into turning a cane mill for what seemed like hours on end.  After becoming dirty and dizzy, he began to bray for help.  Another mule called “Wife” heard his braying and decided to help.  With Brother on one end and Wife on the other, the cane mill turned and turned under the hot sun.  Then Wife became tired and brayed, “Why can’t I have a rope to pull this load, why do I have to push?”  The farmer hooked up a rope to the cane mill.  Brother pushed and Wife pulled the cane mill under the hot sun.  Round and round the cane mill went while Brother and Wife became dizzy and tired.  Finally, both Brother and Wife started braying so loudly that farmer had pity on them and hooked the rope to a tractor.   Brother sat upon the tractor and the tractor turned the cane mill round and round under the hot sun.  Wife went back and forth, carrying more cane to the farmer who sat upon the ground.  The two mules said nothing to the farmer about not thinking of the tractor earlier.  However, every time the farmer got hit in the head by the  board attached to the mill’s roller, the sounds of  “hee haw!  hee haw!” were heard throughout the land.

I think her story is hilarious and pretty well summarizes how our day went…

The plan was to process the cane I described yesterday into sorghum syrup.  Basically, the canes are full of liquid with natural sugars and other magical things that give it a distinct flavor.  To extract the liquid, farmer Warren has to crush the cane using a cane mill.  Farmers in the old days used to hitch up horses or mules to a long pole attached to the center roller in the mill.   As the animals walked in circles, the rollers turned crushing cane fed into the mill a few pieces at a time.

Ky cane mill ready to press sorghum
Ky cane mill ready to press sorghum

We reassembled the mill and lagged it to a few sections of old railroad ties.  Old timers used to attach the mill to a tree stump that was quite solid in the ground.  You see, when the rollers are turned in the mill, a tremendous amount of torque can be generated.  If the mill isn’t attached to something solid, it will be spun around…not something I wanted to deal with as a 600 pound block of iron in motion is slightly more than I can handle.

Ky cane mill ready to press sorghum
The board that hit the farmer in the head repeatedly…

So, we got it assembled and rigged a board to the center shaft.  I was the first draft animal to take a turn at the mill.  It was slightly easier than I expected to turn the mill.  It was frozen solid when I got it so nothing moved.  I guess I had an idea that it would be only slightly easier to turn once it was cleaned up.  I had not assembled it even once since restoring it so I had no idea!  Luckily, it turned well so we decided to start crushing cane.  We tried to run a single pieces of cane through it but it didn’t really work.

Ky cane mill ready to press sorghum
Note the fancy pine cones to hold the rollers in place

The rollers are supposed to be spaced at around 1/16th of an inch.  On each end of each roller, there used to be bolts that could be used to adjust the spacing of the rollers.  On my old mill, I was able to free the top bolts but I couldn’t replace them (not for this year anyhow).  The bottom bolts remain frozen in place so I had some ability to adjust the tops of the rollers but the bottoms were set in iron…literally.  We set up the mill under a spruce tree so I grabbed a few pine cones and jammed them into the top of the mill to force the rollers closer together.  Surprisingly, it worked amazingly well!  The spacing at the bottom of the rollers was a little too wide so I had to be careful feeding the cane so that it went mostly towards the top of the joint between the rollers.  That worked just fine but was less than ideal.

Crushing sorghum cane in the cane mill
Crushing sorghum cane in the cane mill
Crushing sorghum cane in the cane mill
Before I got too dizzy
Crushing sorghum cane in the cane mill
That mechanical horse saved lives!
Crushing sorghum cane in the cane mill
But hurt my head…a lot!

So, as I said, I was the original draft animal but I had the vision on how to feed the cane too so my brother, who has a mind well suited for being a draft animal, took over turning the rollers (just kidding…he has a PhD in chemistry).  Really, neither job was too glamorous.  After a few turns, we were both dizzy (and I swear it had nothing to do with the liquid wheat we had nearby) and decided to hook it to the motorized draft animal.  I remained on the ground to feed stalk while Isaac and my brother took turns riding the tractor.  I suppose we ran cane through the cane mill for 3-4 hours slowly learning tricks and getting better at the process.  We had to fight the mill a few times as I got impatient and fed too much cane.  The torque increased and we spun the mill in circles…luckily we kept the mill low to the ground for safety.  Next year, I will mount it higher and more substantially to make it easier to feed cane and to minimize rotation.

Click here for a short video of the sorghum press in action

Sorghum juice flowing from the cane mill
Sorghum juice flowing from the cane mill
Some of the crushed sorghum canes
Some of the crushed sorghum canes

When sorghum juice flows, it is pea green.  Truly, it doesn’t look appetizing and I think it smells like the guts of a pumpkin around Halloween.  Still, we got juice flowing and I was so excited.  The process was working!  We pressed a bunch of cane and had a nice bunch of juice to cook down.  You’ll have to wait until the next post to hear about that adventure (yeah, I lied yesterday…I have to write more than 2 parts)!

My cane mill/sorghum stuff

No squeamish daughter here!

When I was a kid growing up in the country, we pretty much stayed dirty all the time.  We picked up worms and snakes and drank from the hose and ran barefoot.  We ate wild teaberries and jungled around on grape vines…stuff a kid ought to do, you know?  We currently live in the city so it’s not quite as easy for the kids to explore the woods but I am so pleased when we get out to the cabin.

A girl and her toad!
A girl and her toad!
A girl and her toad!
She’s such an encourager! “You’re a good toad…”

Abigail has a couple of really great girlfriends that live nearby out there who all like to explore and enjoy all that the woods has to offer.  She ventures over to their place as soon as we get to the cabin and we don’t see her until we ring the dinner bell.  When she finally does come back home, she is filthy and exhausted and absolutely full of joy!

A girl and her toad! A girl and her toad!

Last weekend, our neighbors were working on some old fence.  They moved some slabs of wood and found four toads and a turtle….the toads were the biggest I think I have ever seen!  In typical fashion, those three girls saved the toads and turtle and made a regular home for the critters.  Each one had a name and, by the time I came around, a label on their personality…

A girl and her toad!

I am so glad that Abigail is not a girly girl, squeamish around such lovely creatures.  I am thrilled that she climbs trees and enjoys the mud between her toes while she catches salamanders near the pond.  I am delighted that she has some fellow girl-explorers who love to spend time in the beautiful creation all around them!

Wow! Poop!

We have recently noticed, as we build the back deck on our cabin, there there seems to be a lot of extra…poop on the deck.  I guess it literally is a poop deck as the other decks do not seem to have as much.  It’s the deck highest off of the ground so I figured this would be the domain of only birds.

Critter poop Critter poop

Sure, other critters can climb but I am not sure why they would climb just to take a poop (although, if my poop deck is becoming a “destination” in the wilds, maybe it would be worth the trip).  Some of the evidence is very clearly from birds (apparently big birds), but some trophies seem like they might be from other sources.  Dear friends, do you have thoughts on the source of some of these poops?

Bird poop! A new door!
Anyhow, the poop deck is nearly completed and I couldn’t be happier with that progress.  Additionally, we added a door that opens onto that deck which makes it doubly nice.  We had always planned to add a door so it was already framed into the studding.  I just had to cut a huge hole in the sheeting and install it.  Once we get railings, it will be a really pleasant place to sit and watch for whatever creatures see the worth in taking a poop with a view!

Spiderlings

We love Mother Nature out at the cabin we are building but this story may freak out some readers.  Honestly, it gave me quite a start as well.  As you know, dear friends, we are building this cabin from scratch.  Emily and I are doing the work ourselves so we get into a little bit of everything.  Plumbing has long been on the list but we had to get the bathroom floor finished and the stem wall built and a hundred other things.   I promise there is a plan to our madness, even if the plan itself is mad.

Wolf spider on her egg sac
Wolf spider on her egg sac

Anyhow, hooking up the bootwasher was pretty high priority for obvious reasons.  I took a day off of work to be on the job.  We loaded up a bunch of pvc pipe up and I headed off to the site.  I measured and cut and fitted and glued.  I then cussed and cut all of that pipe down and cussed some more when it almost fit.  If you know about pvc pipe, you know that it is rigid.  There may be some play in a plumbing system but generally there is not a lot.  When things work, that is a good thing as you don’t want pipes full of…stuff…moving.  So I almost had things hooked together but something just didn’t meet up like I had planned.  I had to cut it all back out (because pvc glue sets fast and does not forgive) and do a bunch of it over..to the tune of $45 wasted.

Wolf spider on her egg sac
Fearless!

So, I was aggravated but that’s just construction it seems.  I flopped back down on my back and wiggled up under the bathroom floor in the underneath of the house.  As I was about to begin work again, I turned my head and not a foot away was a gigantic spider sitting atop a bag of baby spiders.

Wolf spider - spiderlings
Wolf spider – spiderlings

Spiders don’t freak me out but I have to tell you, I sort of startled a little bit.  It’s just weird when something you don’t expect presents itself…and I think people are sort of programmed to be wary of spiders anyhow.  Anyhow, I let her be as she was just preparing to raise a family of spiderlings (yeah, that’s the technical term), apparently without a father figure around.  Who am I to try to mess with a mother doing her best.  I finished the plumbing and was on my way.

A few days later, I was back by and the spiderlings had hatched.  There were literally hundreds of itsy bitsy spiders on a web that Momma spider had spun very close to our initial encounter.  I couldn’t get a decent picture as they were tiny, but to the eye, it was quite a sight!  I don’t know what the survival rate is, but I may have hundreds of wolf spiders under my new place eating other critters that aren’t welcome!

The new American stealth fighter

We were working on the deck at the deluxe shed last weekend and we heard this incredible sound.  Circling about overhead was this oddly shaped black flying machine.  It wasn’t a black helicopter so I began to wonder if my tinfoil hat was screwed on a little too tight.  The black flying machine continued to circle though and finally came into my field on approach!  Honest to goodness, the new technology is amazing!  This new stealth fighter landed on one of the boards for the deck on which I was working!

Stealth fighter or giant black horse fly?  You be the judge!
Stealth fighter or giant black horse fly? You be the judge!

We moved over slowly to where it had landed, not knowing if we should be honored or afraid.  I pulled out my camera figuring it would be the moment of truth…either the flying machine would remain still and let me take a pic or I would feel its sting.  I felt bold and alive and the tingles of adrenaline poured over my body!

Stealth fighter or giant black horse fly?  You be the judge! Stealth fighter or giant black horse fly?  You be the judge!

I looked back at Abigail who had first spotted this stealth fighter and she said, “Dad, you’re an idiot…it’s a fly.  Take a picture before it flies off!”  Parenting is so humbling!  I think this baby is a horse fly (Tabanus atratus) but I don’t think I have ever seen a solid black one or one of this size!  He was a beauty and he posed very well for a pic…no bites at all!

The queen is dead…long live the queen

Just like at my house, the queen in a bee colony runs the show!  The queen bee is the mother to all of the bees in the colony who sort of live to serve her.  They feed her and clean up her waste.  They guard her and, based on the pheromones she releases, swarm with her when it is time to move.  The temperament of the queen has everything to do with the temperament of the colony as well.

Queen honeybee
Can you spot the queen bee?  Click to  enlarge the picture…it makes it easier
Queen honeybee
The pic above, only zoomed in on the queen

Queen bees only breed immediately after they are hatched.  Once a queen leaves her queen cell where she pupated, she takes several mating flights in her first week or so where she hooks up with male drones mid-flight.  Based on boy-bee anatomy, at the completion of the act, the boy parts are ripped from their bodies dooming them almost immediately.  The queen may execute this breeding process 1-10 times in her first week or so and in that process stores all of the sperm with which she will populate her colony.  If Africanized drones are flying near (which is a real possibility with Southern-made queens), the queen will produce bees with Africanized genetics.  If crazy males are flying by, the queen will produce crazy bees.  It’s a bit of a crap-shoot and the temperament of the colony will change as the queen “works her way through” the sperm she gathered during her breeding period.

Requeening a beehive
This is sort of what it looks like when I start the search…but they don’t stand still!

Hey, here’s a fun fact…female bees, which make up the majority (~95%) of the hive, are the workers who make the honey, guard the hive, and raise baby bees.   Only female bees are made from fertilized eggs.  The queen lays a certain number of unfertilized eggs which become male drone bees which only exist to breed with other queens outside the hive.  That is, if a nearby colony makes a new queen or if the queen in the current hives dies, drones will mate with the newly made queen (more on that in another post).  If you thought life required fertilized eggs, you are wrong!  Male bees come from unfertilized eggs!

A queen cell
Two queen cells…where the queen changes from a egg to a full grown mommy bee!

Anyhow, most good beekeepers will, at some point, requeen their hives to ensure that the colony will have a good supply of female workers, to alter the temperament of the colony or to ensure that the queen is young and vigorous.  The typical queen will last 5-7 years maximum and will, over that time, produce a weaker and weaker colony.  In the end, she will run out of stored sperm and will make a colony full of drones which do not make honey and will ultimately die.

Queens in introduction cages
Queens in introduction cages. The candy is the white stuff in the long tube

Last weekend was the weekend for me to requeen my colonies.  Imagine if you will, looking through a colony of 60,000 bees, one of which looks a little different, and all of which are unhappy about having their home inspected.  It’s like finding a slightly longer needle in a needlestack!  Some beekeepers go their entire beekeeping career never seeing their queens.  Those beekeepers often have trouble throughout their careers which is a shame.  Anyhow, I blur my eyes a little and watch for “queen movement”  She just moves differently and I can spot her easily if I look for her special “shimmy”!

Introducing a new queen
Always put the candy “up” so any debris won’t block the hole and trap the queen inside

Once I find her, I mash her and introduce a new queen contained in a special cage that has sugary candy in the end.  The idea is that the bees will eat through the candy because it’s…well..candy.  In that time,  the old queen’s pheromones dissipate and the new queen’s take over.  If that goes well, she is accepted and life goes on.  Of course, if it doesn’t go well, they immediately kill her and I am out $25 and a lot of work.  In that case, I order a new queen and try again!

As a special treat, here is a recording I made of one of my queen bees piping as she waited to be put into a colony.  Piping is a way the queen communicates that she is ready to do battle with other queens and that she rules the roost…many people have never heard this sound so I am pleased to have recorded it.  I only ever heard it one other time when there was a virgin queen still in a queen cell, but nearly ready to hatch.  She and the old queen were throwing it down!  Apparently, queen bees pipe in G#!

I’ll check next weekend to make sure all of the colonies have freed and accepted their new queens…lets’ hope for the best…long live the queen!

Varroa mites suck!

We pulled honey off of the hives the other day and a typical part of that process is taking a general gander (technical term) at the health of the colony.  I usually look for the queen although I don’t spend a lot of time on that during the harvest.  I do definitely look for eggs though.  Eggs mean a queen was nearby in the last few days.   I like to see a good number of worker bees and a typical brood/pollen/honey pattern in the nest.  I usually get a good feel pretty quickly whether the hive is “hot” or overly defensive.  In no way do I tolerate a hot hive.  It’s dangerous for me, for other people and animals nearby and it is generally just not any fun whatsoever to work in a hot hive.  I’ll tell you how to correct that in another post soon.

Varroa mite on honeybee larva
Varroa mite on honeybee larva

Anyhow, the other thing I do is a varroa mite check.  Varroa mites (or just plain mites) are what began decimating wild honeybee colonies in the late 1980s around the United States.  The mites are parasitic little pieces of evil that literally drink the bees dry.  They are vectors for disease and just plain suck.  I look for obvious signs of varroa mites… the mites actually hanging on the bodies of adult bees as well as  for misshapen wings (they look chewed upon) that often indicate varroa.  I also pop open a few capped drone cells (drones are the male bees that serve no purpose this time of year for me…queens are already mated and healthy.  They will be thrown out of the hive in a few weeks anyhow.)  You see, varroa like to attach to the bodies of the larva where they simultaneously mature with the bees.

So, I popped open a few cells and did indeed find varroa on some of the drones.  There are several mostly effective methods to treat against the varroa and I am due for another treatment anyhow so I will add that in the next week or so.  Most treatments take a few “doses” so that’s what I will do.

I also use integrated pest management (IPM) techniques including screened bottom boards and small cell honeycomb to help.  Working around varroa is a necessary part of keeping bees nowadays so I just keep up on research and assume varroa exist in every hive.  Following the routine has kept my bees alive and healthy for years now!  I still hate those nasty little bugs though!

Honey Harvest 2013

Weather this year has been quite unusual.  Typically we harvest honey on the absolute hottest day of the year.  I don’t know that we usually plan it exactly like that, but it certainly seems to work out that way.  It’s always been a bit of the tradition that the honey harvest is miserable because of the heat.  You see, honey is extremely heavy on the hive and the heavy bee suits trap heat like crazy.  It is significantly hotter in a bee suit than not.  So, couple the hot bee suit with heavy honey and tens of thousands of bees that aren’t always thrilled that I am in harvesting their hard work and you end up with a tough day.

Honey harvest day!
Honey harvest day!

This year, the weather was pleasant on harvest day.  We might have gotten into the 80s but it was the low 80s at best.  I was in a better mood…the bees were in a better mood.  All in all, it was a delightful experience!

A frame with pollen, bees and honey
A frame with pollen, bees and honey. The orange semi-circle is pollen. The bees are on honey. In the middle are baby bees  and eggs

I burned aspen shavings from the pet bedding department which made a great smoke.  The bees were active as one would expect but not bad.  Carrying honey was heavy but not terrible.  We pulled every frame I own off of the hives and they were nicely filled out.  The bees looked as healthy as they ever have and every hive had nice looking brood, pollen and honey patterns in the nest (the center part where the bee raising happens…not in the honey area up above where I harvest the honey).  We didn’t extract the honey (spin it out of the combs) yet so I don’t know exactly how much honey we have this year but we should finish that up this week sometime.  I think we may try to avoid the hottest day of the year when we harvest next year.  I may be a slow learner but I think this message made itself apparent, loud and clear!

Some bugs and stuff

Not much been going on around here lately.  We are mostly laying low, trying not to get anyone hurt.  School starts in a week and we sort of just want to make it to that point without any more drama…so, I took a few pics of stuff I have seen around lately…

Bumblebees on coneflower Bumblebees on coneflower

 

I love both bumblebees and coneflowers.  This is a perfect picture I think!  I like to sort of trick bumblebees to land on my hand and walk on me.  Honeybees do it naturally but you sort of have to trick bumblebees.  It’s a cool feeling!

Huge spider

I was cleaning out a shed and this big spider was hanging around.  I think he wanted to eat my leg but I left him alone and he wandered off to eat someone else I guess.  Impressive though!

Robber fly

We installed new motion lights on the house and this pesky robberfly would not leave me alone.  There is a variety of robber fly that eats bees, called a beekiller.  I used to have an observation hive and one of this guy’s cousins hung out near the pipe that lead from the hive in my house to the outside.  He picked off bees all day long.  I never could catch him with my shoe…

Size 15 shoes!

Speaking of shoes, we went shoe shopping for Isaac the other day in preparation for school…size 15s!

Pillbugs

If I wore size 15s, I might have stepped on these roly polies…I generally live and let live but pill bugs like these creep me out in numbers and this is only a portion of the ones that I saw in this pile.  I never knew it but these things are also known as wood lice.  No wonder they creep me out.  Anyhow, with my mere size 10s, I walked on without disturbing the pile!

Boats at the levee - Charleston, WV

I was in town the other day and took this cool pic of boats docked on the levee downtown.  It may not look it here but there was a good storm going on and I was stuck under a huge metal lightning rod…I mean shelter…freaky!