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Chillardbee's Grow Of Hope And Dreams

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chillardbee

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This year I will not be growing in my yard. I may however use some edges as a 'flower bed' for growing some oriental varieties like izmir, bursa, and prelip. I'm hoping to talk to some friends of mine who had recently cut down their entire hazel nut orchard due to the eastern filbert blight (not one orchard escaped the scourge in our valley). our friends are wanting to plant a garden and I help them where I can but I'm hoping they will rent me a 50' x 50' area (which is twice the size of my regular grow area) so I can grow a good size crop this year. I'm not sure how it's going to pan out but we'll see.

Going into this year, We just recently had our cat of 20 years put down, it was a sad and tough time for us but she was old and had tumors and heart murmurs, I'll miss that kitten.

On the bee front we are at over 200+ colonies. After my preliminary check, we've lost 8% which ain't bad considering the sickness I had last fall with giardia. I'm keeping it rather simple this year and selling 600 nucs to one fella so I have time to set up my queen rearing part of our operation and breeding program. we also have the Olympics coming up in the next few weeks and Fifa world cup this summer. All this also so I can have time to be in my tobacco patch too. the most time consuming part though is at the end of the year when harvesting, so i'll try to have everything else pretty much accomplished by then.

I have given thought to the varieties this year. I believe I would like to grow a 50/50 mix this year half fluecured varieties and the other half burley (on top of the orientals I'll grow at home). I haven't given much thought yet to the types of each but just off the top of my head i'd say Del gold, African red, white mammoth, and VBL. For burleys I'm certian to grow anly two types, YTB and Barnette special. I will probably do a row or two of some marylands too because they are a fantastic producer.

Anyway, lets hope for a better grow year this year and may our crops reach bumper crop proportions.
 

Charly

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It's hard when we loose one of our animals, old or not, it's always hard.
Save the good moment spend with your kitten in your memory, so she'll continue to live in your heart.

I wish you good luck with your crop !
Charles.
 

burge

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Sorry to hear that. I am out there every year fishing and I hope it all goes well with you.
 

BarG

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I have cats [my wife does], however I feed my wives cats all the time when she is absent, they are outside cats , the only kind I can tolerate. one is trained to come to my whistle. Good luck with your bees, they are essential. cats are killers.
 

chillardbee

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We’ll this is what happens when I’m running to many beehives with no one to help and not enough hours in the day. Sorry I haven’t updated my blog in a looooooooong time.
I started my seeds on April first. I transferred the sprouts about 5-6 days after. I’m using 36 cell trays which are smaller and at this point they are still in them. I haven’t even prepared the garden but I’ll be on it soon. I have about 24 varieties going but two trays for 6 tray of doubles for a total of 30 trays.
I really only had a quick moment to post this. For my business, this is what I call “money making May” and my whole income for the year is made right now but it’s unbearably busy and exhausting. Things will settle down in about 2 weeks then I can plant and maybe post a few pics.
 

burge

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Sounds okay I get it work is work. I have coffee in the morning his son is in the honey business and this time of year is trying to get the hives moved to pollinate certain trees.
 

chillardbee

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So so long since I’ve updated my grow log but that doesn’t mean I’ve been growing and harvesting.
I’ve had a few moments here and there from mid summer to start harvesting. I think I’ll have a pretty good crop. As I’m writing this, I’m packing away the first harvest of leaves now that they’re cured and preparing to string the last third (last) harvest of leaves.
This year I try east/west rows for the first time. I have to say in some ways that this arrangement might be better.
This is my last year growing here at home. Unless I find another place, I might not be able to grow until we get moved to where ever we end up. I might do a flower bed grow next year though of about 30-40 plants.
The curing this year is better than last year and will make for a hell of better smoke. I also learned that between the two different cases that I’ve use, the first being the Marlboro recipe and second being the export full flavour (green pack) recipe, I like the export better (less chemicals too).
I’ve been extremely busy with the bees and finally reach my goal of 240 hives where I plateaued as my running number. Unfortunately we have be dealing with a over running on mites but we have them under control now but we’ve had to consolidate our hives back to about 160-180, I won’t know the final number until I’m finished and that’s what I’m doing now. Anyway, the whole mite situation which began back at the middle of August has taken a lot of time away from other things like my baccy harvesting, feeding bees, blah, blah, blah.
On another note, I see the forum has changed the format and maybe now that I can post pictures from my phone, I might be able to be more active on my grow logs.
 

CobGuy

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You HAVE been busy! :)
Congrats on working in a grow / cure in your busy schedule.
I've always wanted a few bee hives and have read up on the topic extensively.
However, if you have any tips or suggestions for a newbie, please let me know. Thanks!

~Darin
 

chillardbee

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I’m roasting toasting the leaf now.
My method is to preheat the oven to 400°f and then once the element clicks off I turn the oven off. Once the glow on the element has decreased, I place the leaf in and start my 20 minute timer.
I’ve done this before and I must say it thoroughly improves the flavour. During the roasting, there that stingy ammonia smell but once it’s settled, it’s like a roasted nut/chocolate smell.

The next step after this will be to derib the leaf. Then at some point I’ll shred, case (using the jti export recipe) and then roll em up.
 

chillardbee

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The deribbing is finished and I’m half way through shredding. I couldn’t resist to trying some and rolled one up and smoking it as I type this. All I can say is that the roasting does something that absolutely and greatly improves the flavour. The tobacco hasn’t even been cased yet and it’s probably one of the better cigarettes I’ve had in a while. I will still put a casing on it but maybe lighter this time (more on that when I get to it).
I’m guessing that I’ll have 12kg when I’m done. Once everything is cased and thoroughly blended, I’ll package it up in 1kg bags and know for sure what I have for weight.
 

deluxestogie

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Wow! It tastes great without casing. Guess I'll add the casing now, because...well...because.

Will, I think your taste buds are trying to tell you something, but they can't quite whisper in your ear.

You've harvested an impressive crop.

Bob
 
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