Top 2 Things to Study this Winter

What do you do in the winter when it's too cold to work the ground? Fortunately in this part of Texas our winters don't last very long... maybe 2 months. But, it's still "down" time. So these are my top 2 things to study this winter. As a perpetual student, a life long learner, I may come across other areas of research I will do but for now....

First

All Things Bees!

My cousin had bee hives... for a while. From what I recall, he got stung one too many times so they moved on to another hobby.

A couple of friends of mine recently went to a Beekeeper Workshop for several days as she’s always wanted to keep bees. She was very excited about the learning process. I haven’t spoken with him yet, but I bet he’s right there with her sharing the experience!

Right now I am not interested in all out full blown “keeping bees” but would like to know more about how to better attract them to the garden. Other than destroying spider webs when I see them (so not to catch a bee), I want to learn more as what to plant and maybe build a “pollinator house” this winter.

I didn’t know until I read this on a download factsheet: “Bees’ favorite colors are BLUE and YELLOW. Native bees are also particularly attracted to WHITE.”

I love this 65 Pollinator-Friendly Plants Bees Love list of plants I found on Backyard Beekeeping. It will be a great resource to have when I’m out plant shopping next spring!

Quite by accident I found the website Crown Bees The Native Bee Experts and quickly concluded I needed to stop reading, save the link, and get back to it this winter!

Secondly, 

I would like to learn about raising meat rabbits. Yes. You read that correctly! Rabbits!

For a while now I have wanted to add some type of small animal. Since we have a grass lease for cattle going on, I cannot use any other part of the land other than our 2 acres actual homestead site. (Been there, done that with our own cattle.)

But what? I don’t like anything goat. No goat meat, goat cheese, milk or what have you.

I’m currently participating in an online Organic Garden Workshop hosted by Melissa K. Norris. On Day 1 she also had a guest speaker. That’s when/how I discovered Marjory Wildcraft (Red Rock, Texas) and her The Grow Network and raising rabbits!

I then did a quick search through YouTube and found The Cog Hill Family Farm (Alabama). I’ve enjoyed watching the few videos I viewed today! Love his humor! I will continue watching in the winter!

Until then, it’s time to water the garden!

Pray for rain!

Thanks for stopping by!