the farming life

or maybe we should have titled this one the farming gamble!  it's been an interesting, transitional spring this year moving from an incredible winter to a wet, hot summer:
we knew the bees suffered this winter with the harsh weather and a bummer of a summer leading into it, but we found how hard winter really was on the hives in the second week of March.  we lost 44 hives!  a devastating loss, for sure.  bees were dead inside their hives, which were full of food.  other hives were simply missing bees altogether:  not dead, not alive...just gone.
peaches.  what peaches!?  the winter wreaked havoc on the peach trees.  we grow several varieties of cold hardy peaches, but to no avail.  we have a lot of dead wood to remove from the trees; and, not to mention a total crop failure.  this is pretty much for the Midwest-wide. 
the start of the apple bloom was great, full of nice blooms and the trees were covered.  toward the end of bloom, the rains came back with cooler temperatures.  the bees don't fly in the wet, cold weather; and, 98% of apples are pollinated by the honey bee.  our early apple varieties are loaded, but we are a little shy with the later varieties:  blacks, winesaps, gold rush, etc.
on the upside, our asparagus and rhubarb survived the winter and herbicide drift from last year.  we have apples!  the bees we have are doing great so far this year.  we are expecting a small grape harvest (for the first time ever!).  the pumpkins are in the ground and starting to get some mature leaves on them; so, parents get the kids ready for fall!