Farm Days 2011

Farm Days 2011 has come and gone. We had such a good time kicking back as people stopped by, some people who traveled from very far, from Florida to see us, Dev. We saw some old friends and made new ones too...

 We had many homemade things, such as this Sunflower pillow from "the boys"...

The theme for "Farm Days" this year was "Community Sustainability", and we did our best to represent as much as we could. Here our some chicks and ducklings from our neighbor, Dave. Fresh eggs, yum...

 Pottery from my good friend, Karen who does some amazing things...

even "The Queen" made an apperance. If you look close you can see the white dot on her back, placed by yours trully!

We even had a cool set up explaining beekeeping. Once you get me going you can't shut me up...








The problem with the two days was I got a little relaxed and forgot to take pictures until the end. We had two other awesome vendors here, Amy and Jody who make the most incredible items out of recycled wool sweaters, burlap, jeans, old silverware, you name it. I am going to contact them and see if they have some pictures to share. I had so much fun talking, giving folks tours, showing the Greenhouse, even chatting with a cool reporter who stayed for well over an hour talking, he was the nicest guy! So as Farm Days has come to an end, we have decided to take some down time and close the Farm Stand until September. This way we can focus on our bees, animals and gardens so our harvest will be plentiful! We will have eggs and anything else you might want, or just stop by and say hi! Enjoy your summer and remember to do just one thing towards Sustainability in your life, it will make for a better you and will help the planet too! Happy Farming!

Farm Days Open House

Where: 156 Punkup Rd, Oxford, CT 06478


Date: June 25, 2011 / June 26, 2011

Time: 10:00am–4:00pm 

Coon Hollow Farm will host it's annual Farm Days Open House from 10 to 4 on Sat Jun 25 and Sun Jun 26, 2011. Visitors can visit the resident Alpacas, Llama, Sheep, chickens, gardens, farm stand as well as see the 3 bee hives. There will be tours of the newly recycled Greenhouse. On hand will be chicks, ducklings, Needle felting demos,clothing recycling, an Observation Hive complete with a marked queen for all to see. Info on raising chickens and overall Sustainability of our Community is the theme for this years event. If you would like to display something, join us or would like more info call Tim or Dawn Sotir @ 203-881-1986 or email us @ CoonHollowFarm@aol.com.

Website: http://www.CoonHollowFarm.blogspot.com

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the great dad's out there and to the best father I have ever known, my husband Tim (pictured here on the right with his brother and sister). He is the father of both our wonderful kids and he is one of those dad's who is always there when they need him and would give the shirt off his back for them. So Happy Dad's day to my love and best friend, Tim...

The making of a Nuc Hive

After two failed attempts to order a queen for the Ansonia Nature Center's Observation Hive, with each time arriving dead. The opportunity came up when one of my hives decided to raise not 1 but 6 new queens! So I decided to split the hive for the Nature Center. I put a frame in the nuc hive with 2 queen cells, honey, brood and some bees last week, closed it up and gave them all a few days to allow the pheromones from the previous queen to dissipate. 

We opened it up today and they went to checking out their environment, cleaning out those who had died and went about checking out the garden bench which will be their home for the next few weeks. The poor UPS man or anyone coming up the walkway for eggs will sure get a start when they see the hive, but the bees won't harm anyone I am sure! I will check back in a few weeks to see if one of them has hatched and then she will need to leave for breeding, only then will she be ready for the hive which should be just in time for insect summer camp!

This post marks our 150th post to our blog...email me at CoonHollowFarm@aol.com and answer this question to win a give-a way:
Which bees are sacrificed in the fall? Good luck and thanks for checking out our blog!

Healing and Bath Salts...

One thing I know about myself is that I don't stay idle well. As I mentioned in my last post I recently underwent some surgery and am home re-cooping. I can only do limited things. Today I noticed that I had exhausted my homemade supply of bath salts so I got busy. I broke out my trusty coffee grinder, oils, sea salt and ground down the herbs...

I blended a variety such as lavender, rose, rosemary, ylang ylang, orange peel, juniper berries, nutmeg and so many more. I made about 5 different blends as well as these two to the right. Needless to say my kitchen and bathroom smell so good giving me an aromatherapy lift in my healing process!

Making "Black Gold" right in my backyard...

Now that I am at home recovering from some surgery I had to have, I am finding small things to do around here. Today I went onto the back deck and proceeded to plant some seeds and pot some plants up for my son Timmy and his girl, Jackie.

I went back to my compost and collected this beautiful "Black Gold" soil. There are so many worms in it they were jumping off the shovel with every scoop. This was achieved all from vegetable and fruit table scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, hay, grass clippings, leaves and whatever else organic we can find. It's healthy and amazing and you can make all by yourself!