Science-Based Art Welcomes New Teacher!

Coming in Spring, 2013, Science-Based Art has a new Literature-Based Teacher.  Mary Ekblad comes with a lot of experience and is gifted in working with students in the early grades.  She has a love for children's literature and will be a great asset to any family seeking additional assistance in teaching literature-based fine art.  Please look over Mary's biography. Students in grades 1st-4th will recieve a two hour lesson per week.  For a complete semester syllabus, click on the "Literature-Based Art" button above.  Classes will be taught on Friday mornings from 10AM - 12PM.  Space is limited to 6 students.  To reserve your students place in the class, email Dawn Cogan at dcogan@gci.net

A Semester Off for Mrs. Cogan!!

Science-Based Art teacher, Dawn Cogan, is taking Spring 2013 off from teaching fine art.  My daughter is graduating from highschool in May from I.D.E.A. Classes taught by me will be offered again in Fall, 2013.  However, I am still teaching two beekeeping classes this spring!  To see syllabus, click on the "Beekeeping" button above!

Gardening in 2013?

Greetings Greenthumbs!

The November 2012 quarterly issue of the Master Gardener Update is now posted on the UAF Cooperative Extension Service website.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

·  Campus Community Garden Finishes its First Successful Harvest!

·  Visit a Little Alaskan Garden

·  Got the winter blahs? Look forward to the 2013 Greenhouse & Nursery Conference and Sustainable Agriculture Conference

·  Register for the Spring 2013 Master Gardener Class

·  Consider adopting a Plectranthus

·  Check out the Events Calendar for upcoming conferences, trainings, classes and more!

VISIT:  www.uaf.edu/ces/districts/tanana/mg/

 

 Golden North Homeschool Support Network

Fall Tea

Monday, November 5, 2012

At Valley of Blessing Church

3007 Airport Way

Dawn Cogan, homeschooling mom of a high school senior, will share tips that have helped her in her homeschooling journey. We'll also share our fall favorites (recipes, traditions, decorating tips, crafts...). Please bring a finger food, sweet, savory, fruit or veggie. We'll provide the teas and hot cider. We would really appreciate your help in spreading the word. Please bring another homeschool parent with you! This event is for homeschool parents. Childcare will NOT be provided.:

Raw, Local Honey For Sale

For a limited time, we have raw, local honey for sale. 
1/2 lb. bottle = $8
1 lb. bottle = $16
2 lb. bottle = $32
Please email us at dcogan@gci.net if you would like to purchase some!

Shop Vacuuming My Bees

Today I began the painful process of shop-vacuuming my bees.  I am vacuuming a couple hives at a time in the early morning or later evening when it's too cold for the bees to forage.  Later, in Jan. or Feb. I will pull all the equipment inside the garage and clean it up.  Fall is far too busy to try to clean up all the beekeeping equipment along with harvesting.  In the last week I've canned 4 cases of quart-size greenbeans, 33 quarts & 14 pints of pickled beets and 96 pints of sourkraut.  The root cellar is all cleaned out and the doors are open so that any extra moisture is expelled.  The carrot and potato bins are out on the lawn getting bleached by the sun.  In a couple weeks we will dig around 2 ton of potatoes and dig up all our carrots to store them in the root cellar.  The potatoes will be stored in wooden bins and the carrots will be layered in dry river silt.  We even found some carrots left over from last year that are still good to eat.  Amazing how the Lord gives us everything we need!!

Storing Beekeeping Equipment for the winter

I store my hives right where they've been all summer.  I place a ratchet strap around each hive vertically.  Then I use the screen that was a part of the original box that they were shipped up here in to staple over both openings.  I also put a queen excluder between the bottom board and the bottom brood box.  This ensures that mice, shrews, wild bees, etc. do not enter the hive and eat the wax comb during the winter.  Another great place to store your hives is in a cold storage shed. 

Wrapping Up the Season!!!

I only had two colonies out of eight that really rallied in the past two weeks.  Together, I estimate they have brought in about 60 more pounds of honey.  We'll see when I extract the frames.  Provided our queens haven't escaped their cages or our workers have created any new queens that somehow miraculously got fertilized enough to start laying, we should be very close to wrapping up our season!!!  I have already taken 99% of the honey.  When I extract, I will give the "sticky" frames back to the bees to clean up.  This will make them very happy.  Then I will put my sugar feeder back into each hive and fill it with 1:1 Sugar/Water every few days.  They will hopefully draw out any comb from bare foundations.  When I feel like I'm ready to be done with beekeeping for the season, I will put some water into my husband's shopvac and either early in the AM or later in the PM (when it's cold to ensure all the bees are inside the hive and not out foraging) I will vacuum the bees.  I will then tape off the end of the hose and leave the bees in the shopvac overnight (24-36 hours) to ensure they are all dead and none fly back out.  This is a sad time!!  I then dump the organic vermiculite into my compost for next springs nutrient-rich compost.