Homesteading is Fun - but not Always

Well, we went to check on our bee hives yesterday and were really devastated to learn we have now lost all of them. We're very sad, but determined to learn from it all and start again next year. You can read about it on The Bee Buzz.

As depressing as it was to learn we lost all our hives, one thing is certain on a homestead - life must go on. We have so much to do we really do not have time to focus on failures. We have to move ahead and continue to establish ourselves here.

Bernie started working on the fence for the cleared area where the house is. I am SO happy. As I mentioned in my previous post, a fence means we can have a garden and get goats and chickens - along with a couple of dogs to discourage wild life from getting too close to any of it. He amazed me with what all he's accomplished in the past couple of days. The posts for the upper part of the yard are all in place. He still needs to put in corner posts, but I am quite pleased that it's coming right along! Our ground is mostly rock, so I expected it would take him much longer. But Bernie is nothing if not tenacious about things like this. We'll have a fence before you know it!

Even after working on the fence all day, Bernie was more than willing to help me put together a little composter. When we lived in town, he built me a really nice composter out of boards and chicken wire. That thing was great! When we moved to the homestead he and Tex promised to make me a turnable composter out of a 55 gallon drum, and I know that one day they will. But with so many things to do around here, I figured my turnable composter is pretty low on the list, so I wanted to start a simple one to make due until they have time to build me another. I put a page up on the Back to Basic Living website, with step by step instructions on how we built it. Check it out!

I also started a batch of sour dough starter. There's nothing like home made sour dough. Making a starter is easy and requires little more than a water or milk and some flour. I've done this before, but it's been a while. I was inspired by TxCloverAngel on Homesteading Today. If you're interested, check out her post. She started hers with milk, and I started mine with water. I'll be interesting to see how it all turns out.

And if you've been wondering about that last batch of grape Prison Wine I started, well, it's going along GREAT! It's been bubbling and fermenting for over two weeks. I should be able to bottle it in another couple of weeks. Prison Wine really rocks! But you probably won't remember that after a glass or two......

Bee Free,
Penny