Back to Basic Living Blog

We've Moved!

2008-09-23T13:52:00.002-04:00

We've decided to move our blog to the server space where our website is located. I have honestly enjoyed using Blogger as my blogging tool, but there are a few advantages to moving the Back to Basic Living Blog up to our server.

Although the look of the new blog is different, the content remains the same and I'll continue to post to it regularly. In fact, all the posts on this blog have been migrated over to our new blog. And you are no longer required to login to post a comment! Much more convenient.

You can still sign up to receive new blog posts automatically to your email on the new blog. In fact, if you are currently signed up subscribed to receive emails when I post, I've taken the liberty of adding you to the new blog email subscription service. You'll need to respond to the email you receive to confirm. (Be sure to check your Spam folder if you don't see the email in your inbox). If you do not confirm, you will not receive automatic emails from my blog. Look for an email from "confirmations@emailenfuego.net" with the subject line "Activate your Email Subscription to: Back to Basic Living", open it, and then click the link provided to activate your service. That's all there is to it!

If you have not signed up for automatic emails when the blog is updated, you can do that right now by clicking here and then entering your email address in the subscription box on the right hand side of the screen.

Please update your bookmarks and stop by. I think you'll like what you see!

Bee Free,
Penny

Egg On My Face

2008-09-15T17:24:00.006-04:00

I've always heard that placing a golf ball, or some type of fake egg, in a nest box will encourage chickens to lay their eggs in the nest boxes, rather than on the floor or other places. I was reminded of that this weekend when I read a post on a chicken forum from someone who was having trouble getting her chickens to lay eggs in their nest boxes. I remembered that I had some fake plastic eggs that came with an egg basket I inherited from someone a little while ago. I got to thinking that my hens are just about at the laying age, so I grabbed the plastic eggs and set one in each nest box last night. And then I completely forgot all about them.

This morning I opened the chicken door to let the chickens out and, as I do each morning, I opened the "human" door to walk inside the coop and make sure there was plenty of food and water. I looked over at the hen boxes and almost screamed for joy. Eggs! Perfectly beautiful eggs! My heart was beating uncontrollably. I thought I would cry. I kept thinking "They are so white, so perfectly formed, so clean, so large, and there is one in each box! One in each box? Wait a minute.... those..... are...... plastic." I was looking at the plastic eggs I had placed in those boxes just the night before.

I'm sure I turned every shade of red. But it does give me hope. If my chickens are half as stupid as I am, they may just really believe those are real eggs in those nest boxes and lay theirs right beside them.

Lordy, I sure hope they fall for it. If they don't, you'll never know. I promise.

Bee Free,
Penny

Chicken Hawk - What the........

2008-09-08T08:51:00.005-04:00

Well, wouldn't you know, the very day I posted bragging about how well it's been going as our chickens free range, we had an experience that made my hiney tingle.

As I mentioned yesterday, for the past week we've been allowing the chickens outside of their chicken run each evening for an hour or two before bedtime so that they could free range a little. As the week went on, I began to feel very comfortable with the whole situation and had begun to let them free range pretty much unsupervised. By "unsupervised", I mean that we did not pull up lawn chairs and sit with them while they were outside. Instead, I watched them from the window of the house.

Yesterday evening was particularly lovely, with cool temperatures and relatively no humidity. When I let the chickens out, we decided to pull up some lawn chairs and sit with them to enjoy the nice weather. The chickens had been outside for about two hours and I was just beginning to think it was about time for them to start heading into the coop when suddenly they began squawking and screaming and running about. I will mention that they did this once before earlier in the week when they spotted a deer peering at them at the fence. So initially, I thought they had once again seen a deer and I glanced over at the fence line. At the same time, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a chicken hawk swooping down towards a couple of chickens that were pinned against the outside of the fence in their panic. These chickens, and the chicken hawk, were within 10 feet of us. I immediately jumped up and ran full speed toward the chicken hawk, clapping my hands and screaming like a wild woman. I apparently startled the hawk so bad it changed course at the last second before reaching the chickens and flew rapidly in the opposite direction toward the wood line. Bernie did have a pistol with him, but he could not risk shooting while the hawk was so close to the chickens. But as the hawk retreated, Bernie fired a few shots into the ground near the woods to make sure he scared it off for good - at least for the evening. He did not fire at the hawk because he was not sure what else would be in the path past the hawk and it would have been difficult to insure a direct hit using a pistol on a hawk flying erratically, especially given the conditions. His goal was to make enough noise to scare off the chicken hawk and discourage him from perching in a nearby tree to re-access his tactics. Bernie was successful as that hawk flew straight up and over the trees and the last we saw him, he was flapping his wings wildly in an attempt to get the heck out of there.

Needless to say, we were all quite shaken by the event. A few of the chickens had made it back inside the chicken run, but most were scattered throughout the woods. Duke was every kind of upset and he was clucking loudly and fiercely. I finally calmed him down and got him to come out of the woods and into the chicken run. It took quite a bit of coaxing, but Bernie and I finally managed to get everyone safely into the chicken run. The chickens seemed to recover quickly, but I can not say the same for myself.

I am simply amazed that the chicken hawk attempted to get one of our chickens while we were sitting right there and within a few feet of his intended prey. I was so upset that I loudly declared the chickens would never be allowed out of the chicken run again. But even as I said it, I knew it wasn't very fair to remove all freedom from my chickens based solely on my fears.

It's my understanding that as the chickens get bigger and the roosters become mature enough to be more protective, the threat of chicken hawks is not as great. I'm going to discuss this with my cousin who has had chickens for many years and has a great deal of knowledge on the subject. But for those of you that have had chickens for a while, what has been your experience with chicken hawks? Are they less of a worry as the chickens get older?

Chicken hawks are awesome creatures, but I can't have them picking off my chickens. We haven't even gotten the first egg from them yet! Besides, I've grown a little found of those little buggers.

Bee Free,
Penny

Chicken Mushrooms - Yum!

2008-09-07T15:59:00.005-04:00

Since we've moved onto the homestead, Bernie and I have spent a little time roaming around in the woods looking for wild mushrooms. Specifically morels and chicken mushrooms. We didn't have much luck finding either - until yesterday. And we weren't even searching for them. I went out to the coop to let the chickens into the run and a bright orange blob from the trunk of a dead oak caught my eye. Chicken mushrooms! Take a look:

I took this close up so you could see them, but the truth is the chicken mushrooms are all over that dead tree. I bet I gathered about 10 pounds worth. Then I cleaned them up, cut off the tougher pieces, cooked up about a pound of them, and froze the rest. For those of you that are foragers, I'll include how I cooked the chicken mushrooms.

First I should note that I made this using what I had on hand and what we like. The mushrooms tend to take on the taste of whatever they are cooked in, so you can add or subtract to match your taste. I used herbs from my garden and am just guessing at the amount, but if you grow and use your own herbs, you'll know how much to use. The texture is similar to chicken:

1 pound chicken mushrooms - cleaned and cut into medallion size pieces
3 fresh tomatoes - diced
1 clove garlic - minced
1/2 medium onion - diced
6 - 8 fresh basil leaves
1/2 tablespoon fresh oregano
1/2 teaspoon fresh marjoram
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese - added at the end

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. Add remaining ingredients except cheese , stir well and bring to a boil. Cut down the heat and let it simmer on low heat for about 30 - 45 minutes, or until the liquid reaches a thick consistency. Put the whole thing in a baking dish and cover with mozzarella cheese. Bake for 10 minutes on 375 or until the cheese begins to bubble a little. Enjoy!

If you've never eaten chicken mushrooms and are interested in foraging for them, please be sure to do a little research on them. Although not many mushrooms resemble a chicken mushroom, it's always wise to be certain you know what you are looking for. If you have allergies to any type of mushrooms, you should definitely consider this before eating chicken mushrooms. It may be wise to try a very small amount the first time you eat them, just to be sure.

My father gave us an old wood stove and Bernie and I spent this morning cleaning it up with the angle grinder with a wire brush on it. Then we painted it black with some stove paint. It looks almost new! Our furnace is electric and it costs us a mint to keep this house heated in the winter. We have a fire place we use faithfully in the evenings, but we won't leave it burning when we go to bed or are not around to tend it, so we let the furnace kick in. After last winter and all the ridiculously high electric bills we paid, we've decided to heat exclusively with wood. We should have the wood stove installed shortly. It's on the list - and being as it's already September, it's moved up on the list considerably.

Last week we let the chickens free range for a couple of hours before bedtime each evening when the chicken hawks are less likely to come around. Monday through Thursday we sat outside with them. The did a pretty good job of getting into the coop by themselves when it started getting dark, so Friday and Saturday evening I let them in the yard by themselves. I opened all the windows so we could hear them, but that was silly because I ended up spending almost the entire time standing at the window so I could watch them and make sure they were OK. With the exception of a Black Spanish that insists on getting in trees to roost, everyone did very well. And I can assure you the bug population in our yard has decreased already. The chickens just love flying, pecking, scratching, and playing without the confines of the chicken run. I really love watching them. I wish I could let them free range all day, but it really is too dangerous around here for that. We have every chicken-loving-predator on the planet around here. I worry enough just letting them out for two hours in the evening.

My meal worm population is booming - which is a good thing because those chickens can put a serious hurtin' on meal worms.

Things are going well on the homestead. Bernie is busy taking care of things around here. I'm busy making sure Bernie knows what to take care of around here. The cats are busy watching the chickens out the window and sleeping in any chair I plan to sit in. And the chickens are busy not laying eggs and eating us out of house and home. Whew. Makes me tired just writing that.

Bee Free,
Penny

Bobby Lee's Debut

2008-09-01T08:32:00.005-04:00

After following Bobby Lee around the chicken yard with a video recorder for the past several days, I've finally decided he's not going to cooperate and crow for the camera. So this morning, when I went to open the coop, I took the recorder with me and I managed to catch the sound of Bobby Lee crowing. What you'll see is the coop and the run as I walk toward it, and what you'll hear is Duke crowing, followed by Bobby Lee crowing, ending with a duet:

How cute is that??? Waking up to those sounds each morning starts each day with a smile for us. It almost seems that Bobby Lee tries to emulate Duke's crow. I'm not so sure that's a good idea, but I am really proud of his efforts. Bobby Lee is a Phoenix, by the way.

You may be able to hear the roosters from the top of the ridge in the background. There are two that live up there and it seems that they call back and forth with Duke, especially in the mornings. I'm certain they spend a lot of time laughing at the noises coming from our homestead, but I hope they keep in mind that both Duke and Bobby Lee are not quite four months old yet. I am a little defensive about my boys.

Now that we've got both roosters crowing, I'm ready for the girls to kick it up a notch and start laying those eggs. They seem to have different thoughts on that subject though.

Bee Free,
Penny

Independence Day on the Homestead

2008-08-31T15:40:00.003-04:00

It is Independence Day on the Homestead. Today marks exactly one year ago that Bernie quit his job and we moved out to our homestead. I have to tell you, it was a very scary time for me. We had planned to pay off all debt before making that move, and the day we moved here we were not very close to meeting that goal. In the end, concern for our health and sanity sped our decision and, although it has been a little tight for us financially, we are both extremely happy we went ahead and did it.

You may have noticed I typically sign my post with "Bee Free". Certainly the "Bee" part of that comes from our venture into raising honey bees, something we began before ever moving to the homestead permanently. Although we ended up losing all six of our hives, getting those bees marked the beginning of homesteading to me. It was our first small step towards gaining a little self sufficiency. I miss those little bees something fierce and I am really looking forward to starting again with them in the spring.

The "Free" part of my sign off means exactly what you probably think it means. I suppose none of us is truly free. We all have laws or rules that govern our lives to one extent or another. But being free is really much more than that to me. To my way of thinking, being free has more to do with the freedom gained in self sufficiency and self reliance. Bernie and I have not achieved that type of freedom yet, but we are working towards it on a daily basis, one small step at a time. And, if you've been keeping up with current events, you know that depending on others to provide safe food, or anything else of that nature, isn't a very good bet right now.

To celebrate our Independence Day, we went out early this morning and began chipping wood with the wood chipper. Do we know how to celebrate on the homestead or what? We spent about four hours doing that and then I cleaned in the chicken coop and added a fresh layer of pine chips.

By the way, Duke really seems to have learned a little lesson from being forcibly carried around last week after his little temper tantrum. I was scraping poop off of roosts and hen boxes with a putty knife when he got so wound up last week. Today while I was scraping with the putty knife, Duke stood in the yard instead of at my feet clucking wildly like he did last week. And he didn't make a peep. Bernie was watching and said Duke danced around a little and was obviously annoyed at the sound and at me being in the coop making it, but Duke never entered the coop and he never uttered a sound. I finished up and strutted out like the true QUEEN OF THE COOP that I am.

After we finished up our chores for the day, we got cleaned up and opened a bottle of very nice wine a friend gave me a little while ago. We toasted our Independence Day and sipped our wine while nibbling cheese, salami, crackers, and slices of apples we picked from the apple tree at the edge of the back yard. What a nice way to celebrate the anniversary of our independence!

In closing, allow me to share with you the latest in Duke's evolving crow. I think it sounds like he's crowing the beginning to the music of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:

Is that not just adorable?

I thought I was going to capture Bobby Lee's crow yesterday morning. He and Duke were both crowing up a storm around 10AM, so I grabbed the video camera and Bernie and I took off to catch it. But when we got out to the chicken run, we realized they were carrying on because a Black Spanish had escaped and was frantically trying to get back inside the run. Everyone was pretty worked up over the whole thing. I caught the Spanish and put her back in the coop and it seemed to calm everyone down - so much so that Bobby Lee didn't make a peep the rest of the day.

As we celebrate the anniversary of one year on the homestead, I would like to thank each of you for sharing this adventure with us. We are thankful for the friends we've made through this blog, the long lost friends that have found us through it, and the emails we've received because of it. We are truly blessed.

Bee Free,
Penny

Raising Meal Worms 101

2008-08-30T15:29:00.006-04:00

I am no expert on raising meal worms, but I've gotten enough personal emails asking about it that I thought I'd post about the method I have chosen - and include pictures.

NOTE: I suppose I should post a warning right about now, so here it goes ..... If you are not interested in learning about raising meal worms OR you are squeamish about looking at pictures of worms or bugs, this is NOT the post for you! Slowly back away from your computer monitor, close this page, and no one will get hurt.

I decided to raise meal worms to feed to my chickens for two reasons:

1) Chickens love meal worms and when I feed my chickens meal worms, they love me - or at least they pretend to love me, and that's good enough for me.
2) Meal worms are a nutritious snack for chickens and when they eat nice, nutritious snacks, it cuts back a little on the amount of feed I must provide.

Chickens are also a hoot to watch as they scramble, scream, and fight over meal worms, but that's kind of covered in #1 above.

A simple search of the internet will reveal countless pages on the subject of raising meal worms, and I've looked at most of them. In the end, I chose a method that I felt would be least expensive and cause the least amount of work.

If you are fortunate, you will find someone locally that sells meal worms (such as a bait shop or a shop that sells live critters to feed snakes, birds, etc.), or perhaps you may be able to sprinkle some corn meal on wet concrete and the meal worm beetles will come to you. If you're like me, you'll need to order them. You can do an internet search and find a dealer fairly easily, with one small note of importance - at the time of this posting, there appears to be a world wide shortage of meal worms. I am not making this up. I have noticed a few dealers seem to be getting more meal worms in their inventory, so maybe things are looking up for the meal worm industry.

I bought my meal worms from the Worm Guy. Yes, there really is a guy that sells worms - lots and lots of just about every kind of worm a person could desire. I have no affiliation with the Worm Guy, other than visiting his website and making a purchase from him, but I will provide this link to his website for those of you who are interested. I also recommend reading his page on breeding meal worms. Lots of good info there.

So now that you've got a line on getting your meal worms, let me tell you how I got set up for mine.

I had an old, very large, plastic bin with a lid laying around that I decided to use. I don't know what you call these things. The label on the side says it's a tote, but I've never called those plastic bins a tote. At any rate, I took this plastic bin/tote and cleaned it up with some warm, soapy water. Then I drilled holes in the lid of it so that I could place the lid on it and keep the cats out without suffocating all those little worms. I used a 1 inch fly bit to drill the holes. The whole thing looks like this:

It's sitting in the tub of our spare bathroom, so you can't see the bottom of it in that picture, but you get the idea.

Then I filled the bottom of the plastic bin with about six inches of chicken feed. The chicken feed is the medium that is used for bedding, and for food. I ordered 1000 meal worms and at the rate they reproduce, I figured I'd need a fairly large container and a fair amount of bedding.

Next, I put a couple of potatoes (quartered) and a few wedges of cabbage on TOP of the feed. These will be the source of water for the worms and beetles:

You may notice there are already worms and beetles in the above picture, and that the potatoes look a little old. I didn't take a picture before I added the worms, so it's the best I can do right now. Just pretend there aren't any worms or beetles in that picture and that the potatoes are fresh. And, by the way, you don't need to use both potato and cabbage. One or the other will suffice. I just happened to have both in the kitchen when it came time to throwing a water source in the bin. It may be worth mentioning, though, that my meal worms seem to prefer the cabbage.

Then, I dumped 1000 meal worms on the top of it all, covered them with newspaper, placed the lid on, set the whole rig in the DRY tub, turned off the light, and went about checking my email and surfing the internet:

Meal worms do best when the temperature is between 75 and 80 degrees. They also do not like light. So keep them in a place where the temperature agrees with them and keep newspaper layered on top of them, and they should be happy. The newspaper also works well for collecting the worms to feed to your chickens. The worms like to crawl up between the newspaper layers, so you can just carefully pick up the newspaper and funnel it into a container when you're ready to feed the chickens.

That really is all there is to it. You'll need to check the potato or cabbage every week or so and make sure it hasn't dried out too much, or gotten moldy. And over time you may need to add a little more chicken feed, but other than that, you are now raising meal worms!

One of the most common questions I've received is "How do you keep the beetles that emerge from flying out of the bin?". Well, it's really very simple. You just clip their little wings. OK - I'm just kidding. The truth is, the beetles don't fly. And they can't climb up the slick sides of the plastic bin, so your little beetles will be stay-at-home beetles and focus only on the job of procreation.

If you are still with me at this point, you may be interested in looking at the following pictures of the life cycle of the meal worm. The first step in the life cycle is the egg, of course, but I don't have any pictures of the eggs yet because I haven't taken the time to dig around and find them, but other than that minor detail, I do have the following to offer:

When you first get your meal worms, they will most likely be in the larvae stage and look like little...well....worms. These are the meal worms. They crawl around at this stage and stay busy doing worm things like wiggling and sucking moisture from a potato. They also shed their skin and you'll start noticing the shed skin laying around in the bin.

After a short while, you'll start seeing little white/tan looking blobs laying around. Congratulations! You now have pupae. Pupae don't do much and aren't very much fun, but they are interesting to look at and watch as they change. Here's a picture of a meal worm laying next to a pupae:

The meal worm is the darker worm in the bottom of the picture, and the pupae is the white/tan blog just above the meal worm. This particular pupae is a little older, as you can tell by noticing the wings are already beginning to develop.

The little white pupae will continue to mutate and one day you'll look in your bin and notice little beetles crawling around. When they first emerge, they are solid white. Very shortly, they begin turning a light brown. Eventually, your beetles will be black.

This picture has a younger beetle (light brown), an older beetle (black) a meal worm (brown worm), a pupae (white/tan blob), and a bunch of shed skin:

So, to recap, it starts with an egg, goes to a meal worm, turns into a pupae, and ends up a beetle.

As I understand it, a single female beetle can lay up to 500 eggs in her very short life. That's a LOT of eggs! So if you start with 1000 meal worms and let them go through their life cycle, be prepared to feed your chickens lots of delicious meal worms on a regular basis.

As I said, I'm no expert on raising meal worms, but it really doesn't take one to do this successfully. Get a bin, throw in some chicken feed, add a few potatoes, and toss in some worms. Keep them in a place between 75 - 80 degrees, make sure they have moist potatoes and/or cabbage at all times, scoop out a few meal worms daily to feed to your chickens, and then stand back and bask in the love your chickens will bestow upon you - or pretend to bestow upon you.

Bee Free,
Penny

Rain, Roosters, and Getting Sideways

2008-08-28T10:17:00.004-04:00

The entire Shenandoah County can thank Bernie for the recent lack of rain. He ensured a drought by building his rain barrel a few months ago. But it seems Mother Nature has forgiven him, or started feeling bad for punishing the entire county for Bernie's actions, and as I write this, we are getting rain. Lots and lots of rain. The rain barrel is now more than half way full, taking it to just over 150 gallons of water. Woo hoo! If this keeps up much longer, we may have a completely full rain barrel - and that will come in handy when Bernie does something else to irritate Mother Nature.

Bernie's been busy taking care of things around here. Since we've taken a couple of vacations in the past couple of months, discretionary funds are a little low right now, so he hasn't started any new projects. Instead he's welding fencing on the driveway gates, using the backhoe to remove ugly stumps in the back yard, working on keeping the cabin roof from leaking, and any number of things on his never ending list of stuff to do.

We were greeted Monday morning with several little crows from Bobby Lee. They were the cutest little crows - very raspy and strained sounding. He's currently pausing on each syllable and it makes me laugh every time. It kind of sounds like "ER....ER....ER....EEEEERRRRRRR". For some reason, he will only crow in the morning while sitting on the roost. Once he comes outside into the chicken yard, no amount of begging or coaxing will convince him to crow. I want to get a video of it, but it's so dark in the coop when I let them out that it doesn't video very well. I'm not giving up though. I may just have to video the outside of the coop and hope you can hear him crowing inside of it. You will definitely hear Duke crowing inside of it. That boy has turned into a crowing machine. He crows all day, every day. And Bernie can get Duke to crow by asking him if he's a turkey. Duke really seems to take exception to that.

Speaking of Duke, we had our first little "rumble" last weekend. I was cleaning out the coop and raking the coop yard and Duke did not appreciate it at all. He was following me around and clucking up a storm and nothing I said would calm him. I turned in his direction to do something, and he fluffed up and came at me side ways. Well, I saw red! I snatched him up before he even knew what was happening. I tucked him under my arm and continued cleaning and working. He struggled and fussed for a while, but finally settled down. After about five minutes or so, I stopped and petted his chest and told him in no uncertain terms that while I appreciated him watching over the girls and taking his duties so seriously, I am in charge in the chicken yard and aggression toward me will not be tolerated. I also took the opportunity to remind him that there's not much we enjoy better than a pot of chicken noodle soup. When I finally put him down, he was quite calm and much nicer. I finished cleaning up the coop and run with no more interference from the boy. When it comes to getting sideways with someone, Duke will learn he's met his match with me.

Bernie took a picture of the chickens outside playing in the rain:

I've always heard the saying "madder than a wet hen", but I can tell you my hens love playing outside in the rain and getting wet. It makes them happy. The huge lump on the stairs to the left is Duke. Duke likes to get a lot of rest. The chicken running towards the camera in front of Duke is Bobby Lee. Bobby Lee likes to run and we seldom see him standing still.

My meal worms are multiplying like crazy. I've been waiting to make sure we had a little life cycle going before feeding the chickens many of the worms. With plenty of beetles, pupa, and larvae in the container, I think it's about time the worms can become a daily treat for the chickens. Meal worms are their favorite snack - and they are so easy to raise.

Things are going well on the homestead. Bernie and I are staying busy and wondering how it got to be the end of August already. Soon we'll be eating fresh eggs the chickens lay for us. Now THAT will be something to crow about!

Bee Free,
Penny

It's the Little Things in Life.....

2008-08-19T19:31:00.004-04:00

It's easy to feel overwhelmed with life sometimes and to become completely preoccupied by things beyond your control or influence. When that happens to me, I tend to turn inward and draw up around myself, as if forming a cocoon that can shield me from pain and hurt. And then something so comforting will happen that I actually snap out of it, if only for a few wonderful moments. Elvis or Priscilla will crawl up in my lap, I'll notice my flowers blooming, the sound of the wind in the trees, tomatoes turning red, beans ready to pick, hens clucking and calling to me, or Duke the Roo serenading me.

Because it brings me so much joy, I decided to video Duke's crow again today. I am certain this will bring a smile to your face, too. Just listen to the progress that boy has made!

That's a long shot from his first crow - and even his second crow. That boy is a constant source of joy to me. How can anyone listen to that and not smile?

It's the little things in life that bring joy. Something small that just brings a smile to your face can lift your spirits when you are certain they are grounded for the foreseeable future.

Live each day to the fullest. Search for joy in everything you do. And don't forget to smile when you hear crowing - even if it comes from some jerk you work with ;-)

Bee Free,
Penny

Just a Little of This and a Little of That

2008-08-12T08:31:00.007-04:00

As a couple of you have seen fit to remind me in emails, I haven't been very good at updating the blog lately. We've been busy as ever on the homestead, but it seems the past few weeks have been filled with not much more than simply the day-to-day business of keeping on top of things around here. That doesn't make for very interesting blog fodder. But that has never stopped me before, so I decided to go ahead and post a blog entry anyway.

Since our return from a week in the Great Plains, Bernie has stayed occupied welding fencing on the gates, chipping pine for the chicken coop, mowing, and taking vehicles to the shop for recall repairs and things of that nature. My in-laws sent us home with a bunch of zucchini from their garden, and I've been busy shredding it and making Zucchini Bread, Zucchini Cake, Zucchini Soup, and anything else Zucchini I can think of. We managed to put up 5 quarts and 7 pints of dill pickles from our cucumbers and have been eating tomatoes and peppers at every meal. I got a late start putting beans in this year, but they'll be ready to pick and can in the coming week or so.

Big news - at least for me...... my mother is now on-line! She got a fancy schmancy computer and hooked it up with high speed internet. The reason this is important to me is that it means I am no longer the sole blogger on the planet whose own mother doesn't read her breath taking, riveting drivel. It also means I now have to watch what I say about her.

My mealy worms are becoming pupals! I'm pretty sure that excites me more than it excites you. It means that soon I will have little beetles that will breed and lay eggs that will become larva and start the whole process over again - providing my chickens with tasty little snacks and making them love me, or at least pretend to love me so that I'll bring them more snacks. And yes, it really is this easy to make me happy.

The chickens will be five months old in October. That's roughly the magic number for expecting eggs. It's also roughly the magic number for some romantic tendencies on the part of chickens. I do have some concerns about this milestone. Duke is clearly twice the size of the hens. If you've ever seen chickens mate, you may understand my concern. If you haven't, well let's just say that roosters tend to be very aggressive during the process and it's not uncommon for hens to get a little battered. I'm hoping Duke's gentle side comes through with his romantic tendencies.

I've been a little surprised at the number of people who have written to tell me they think I am a little crazy for loving my chickens as pets. Seriously. So, in an effort to make myself appear less crazy by comparison, I offer you this set of videos on YouTube. It's called "The Natural History of the Chicken" and was originally a PBS film, but someone (posting as Ghostmonters) was kind enough to upload it to YouTube in six parts. I actually found it to be very interesting and fun. And after watching some of the people featured in it, I feel certain you will rethink your position on my craziness - at least with regard to my chickens.

We're all fine on the homestead and staying busy. We've got a few projects planned for the following weeks, and I'll be sure to keep you updated on them. I've been remiss in boring you with chicken pictures and videos as promised, so I'll get on top of that too - along with the updates to the website. I hope that will make you love me, or at least pretend to love me. We've established how happy that makes me.

Bee Free,
Penny

Go West, Young Man - and Raise Some Mealy Worms

2008-08-04T15:55:00.005-04:00

We're back from visiting Bernie's parents out in the Great Plains. I have to tell you, I am honestly one blessed individual. I have the best in-laws a person could possibly wish for. Not only are they kind, sweet, and wonderful, they are honestly some of the most fun people I have ever met. We had a great time and it was really hard to leave them, knowing that they are so far away. We don't get to see them near as often as we'd like.

The week away was no where near as difficult as I had feared. We had such a great time visiting Bernie's parents I really didn't have a lot of time to dwell on missing our homestead - although I must admit, it creeped into my mind and heart on occasion. We got to see his sisters and a couple of nieces and nephews, and we also did a fair amount of sight seeing. The Great Plains is such a contrast to the area where we live. Both are beautiful in very different ways. We have very hilly terrain, and lots and lots of trees. In certain areas of the Plains, it really seems that you can see as far as the end of the earth - and at night the skies are filled with more stars than I ever knew existed. Every where we went, I spent the entire time with my nose pressed to the car windows, just staring at the beautiful landscape, and admiring the homesteads in a part of our great country that was founded by homesteaders with more grit than I probably possess. Awesome. Absolutely awesome.

I took a lot of pictures, and it was very difficult to choose only a few to post in this blog because they are all so pretty. Below, is a picture that proves the earth is indeed flat:

Isn't that just an awesome place? You can also see the end of the earth in this picture, and a glimpse of the Missouri River:

With such a wet spring and early summer in that part of the country, the wildflowers were spectacular. This looks like a sea of flowers to me:

And the Black Eyed Susans were everywhere:

We got to take a little road trip to Le Mars, Iowa. It's the Ice Cream Capitol of the World and home to Blue Bunny ice cream, which just so happens to be my absolutely very most favorite wonderfully delicious ice cream on the entire planet. It may have been the highlight of the trip for me. That would be a tough call though....

Pictures could never do justice to the beauty of the Great Plains. And words could never adequately explain how awesome my in-laws are.

As wonderful as our visit was, it was also wonderful to get home at the end of the trip. I am very proud to report that Bernie's fence did the trick. The chickens were safe and so was the garden.

The chickens grew in the week we were gone - a lot! And Duke is perfecting his crow. He's also practicing it a lot more often and has been crowing just about every time he sees us outside. Our rain barrel has over 50 gallons in it now, and the garden is providing a fair amount of fresh vegetables. The cats weren't very happy with us the first day after we returned, but they've finally decided to forgive us and allow us to pet and love on them.

Before we left on our trip, I ordered 1,000 Mealy Worms so I can raise them for the chickens to eat. They arrived the day we returned. I'm going to take the word of the invoice and trust there were 1,000 worms in the box when it arrived as I really have no interest in counting them.

I did vermi-composting with Red Wigglers for a few years with great success, so when I read about raising Mealy Worms for the chickens I decided to go for it. It really seems relatively simple and inexpensive. Some people choose corn meal, wheat bran, or other mediums, but I decided to use chicken feed because it's easy for me to find and only cost about $15 for 50 pounds of it, which should last quite a while. I simply filled the bottom of a very large plastic tub with about six inches of chicken feed, placed a few cut up potatoes and cabbage on top, dumped the worms in with it all, and then covered it with newspaper. I also put the plastic tub lid on to keep the cats out of it. Apparently the best temperature for the worms to breed well is between 70 - 80 degrees, so I put the whole rig in the tub in the spare bath room. And then I closed the shower curtain so unsuspecting visitors to the powder room won't be as likely to leave it running and shrieking. So far, so good.

The past week has been a lot of fun. It was great to see Bernie's family, and great to get back home. Not surprisingly, the long to-do list I left was here when I got back. There's always something to do here on the homestead - but I wouldn't have it any other way. And I might actually accomplish something if I didn't have to stop and play with the chickens, listen to Duke crow, pet Elvis, hold Priscilla, and listen to the wind blowing through the trees. I'm telling you, it's hard work around here.

Bee Free,
Penny

Bernie is a Fence Spoolin' Fool

2008-07-24T11:14:00.005-04:00

Today is a big day on the homestead. Bernie officially finished fencing in the yard around the house. When we decided to move here, we cleared a chunk of land in the middle of our property, and since we never had it officially measured, I'm really not sure how large it is. I would guess maybe an acre or an acre and a half. I do know that we bought over 1200 feet of field fencing, and Bernie used most of it.

I don't know if you've ever worked with field fencing, but I have to tell you that stuff is heavy. Really heavy. In fact, when we bought it, they loaded each bale of it in the back of our pick up truck using a fork lift. It didn't take Bernie long to figure out he was going to have a heck of a time running that wire alone - especially because the vast majority of it would be in the woods. He thought about having a fence stringing party, but couldn't think of anyone he disliked enough to invite. He really didn't want to do that to a friend. He checked with several stores to see if they make something that will help spool wire, and the only thing they suggested was a piece of equipment that requires a three point hitch. Not only do we not have a three point hitch, there is no way a vehicle sporting a three point hitch would fit through the woods where he needed it.

So, as he usually does when he's in need of a home made tool, Bernie went to Tex. He told Tex he would like to build a fence spooler. Something inexpensive, strong, and disposable, since it would only be used to run wire for this fence and then likely never be needed again. Most importantly, it had to spool by having a spinning bottom to rest the bail of wire on. And, as he always does, Tex designed and built the perfect tool.

And here it is:

And here's how it works - see the big piece poking up in the middle in the above picture? Well, Bernie lays that down towards the ground and "threads" in the bale of wire. Like this:

Then he stands up the whole thing, with the longest leg of the spooler pointed toward the direction he will pull:

Then he grabs the end of the wire and begins to pull. The wire bale rests on steel plates that actually rotate, while the base remains firmly in place:

And he pulls, and pulls, and pulls:

I'm not sure Bernie could have fenced in the yard without the Tex-O-Matic spooler. While it was still a great deal of work, the spooler helped immensely. Especially in places like this - which is typical of where he ran the fence other than the short piece beside the drive way:

So, thanks to Tex's creativity and Bernie's hard work and Incredible Hulk muscles, we now have a fenced in yard! I really love the way Bernie ran the fence through the woods. I know it was a lot of difficult work for him, but there are very few places we can actually see the fence when we look around the yard. It feels a little less confining. It will also allow the dogs we get shortly to have plenty of woods to run around in, while being restricted to the yard area of our property.

By the way, as soon as we finished up the rain barrel, we went into a near drought. But we've finally gotten rain the past couple of days, and the rain barrel has about 25 - 35 gallons of water in it! It works like a charm.

The chickens are doing great. Duke is figuring out how to act like a rooster and spends the majority of his time looking out for his girls - and the girls just love him. He crows off and on all day now, making sure that everyone knows he's large and in charge. It has gotten extremely rare that any of the chickens challenge him these days. Even Lucy-fer has realized she doesn't stand much of a chance against Duke. She now focuses her aggression on poor little Bobby Lee. They are about the same size, but Lucy-fer beats Bobby Lee out in the ornery department. So far, she's nothing more than annoying. I've reminded her daily that we will not tolerate mean chickens on the homestead, and casually mentioned how much we love chicken noodle soup. She clucks and bawks at me, but I've noticed she's not pushing the envelope on it.

We leave in a couple of days to head out west and visit Bernie's family. I really can't wait to see them, but I'm very anxious about leaving the homestead. I shouldn't be. We have a wonderful woman who will look after the place and take care of the chickens and cats while we're gone. And Bernie's family is a hoot. I really love spending time with them. Besides, Bernie thinks I need to work on my social skills. I think he's concerned that my communication level is eroding to clucks, peeps, and occasional crows.

Bee Free,
Penny

Weird People, Chickens, Rain Barrels, and Me

2008-07-18T11:47:00.005-04:00

I seriously don't know how time gets away from me so fast. I've got a ton of pictures to upload to the Back to Basic Living website, a new page on canning that is almost complete, and a page on putting together a rain barrel. All I need to do is make a little time and finish all these things up and get them uploaded. The problem is that I seem to have so many projects going on at the same time around here that I never finish one before I've started another. I'm sure I could use a lesson in organization. Or maybe a lesson in focusing. Probably both. Maybe I'll start an online course.....

I had to go into the D.C. area last week for work. I started working from home about a year ago, and I rarely have to go into the Big City, so I shouldn't complain. But I will.

I had to spend two days in that madhouse. A friend was kind enough to put me up for a night so I didn't have to get a hotel. That was the nicest part of the trip. The work days were long and it cost a fortune to eat breakfast and lunch there. And I don't mean to be ugly, but those city people can be just plain weird. Honestly. I worked in D.C. for several years, and I always knew the people could be a bit odd, but I guess in the interest of self preservation, I tended to ignore or overlook it. I suppose it is a matter of surviving in such a crowded area that makes some people become completely self absorbed and totally unaware of their surroundings. No eye contact. No acknowledgment of another's existence. Bumping into people without an apology. Talking on cell phones at the top of their lungs in the middle of a crowd of strangers. IPod ear buds fastened securely in their ears to remove them, if only mentally, away from all the people. Not everyone is like that in the Big City of course, but there are enough of them to send me high tailing it back to the homestead with more resolve than ever to never leave here again. And with a new appreciation for my chickens. Maybe I'm the weird one.

[NOTE: Because I know some of the people from my work read my blog, please let me say I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU. I'm talking about the other people. You are wonderful. Seriously. Unless you happen to be one of the ones I don't like.]

Speaking of chickens, they are getting big! They will be eight weeks old tomorrow. They're learning to cluck, but they haven't given up peeping yet. So the chicken yard is routinely filled with noises of peeps, clucks, and an occasional crow. Very cute.

I have a bunch of pictures of the chickens to upload to the website and I'll try to get that done soon, but in the meantime I wanted you to see how big Duke and Bobby Lee are getting:

Look at that comb and those wattles! I swear that Duke just makes me swoon. Bobby Lee is a wiry little thing. I think he looks a bit like the Road Runner. He's handsome and I think he'll really be a sight when he fills in and matures. That's watermelon at their feet. Those chickens love watermelon. They get really excited when they see me coming with it. They even act like they love me when I show up with watermelon, so I make a point of giving them a few slices everyday. Of course they'd act like they love Atilla the Hun if she showed up with watermelon, but I don't like to think about that.

Bernie has been stringing the fencing wire. He's got about 1/4 of it finished. He and I worked on putting together our rain barrel last weekend. I was going to write that this is another project we have yet to finish - but Bernie went outside and finished it while I was typing. Yay! Here's a picture of it:

We had to install the rain gutters on the front and back of my garden shed (and yes, by "we", I mean Bernie) and then put together all the fittings for the barrel to make the intake portion, and the drain on the bottom of it. I have to tell you it was like a scavenger hunt at Lowe's to find all the fittings to concoct those things. But it was kinda fun. I'm working on a webpage to describe what we did, with pictures of each step, in case you are interested in a rain barrel for your place. Ours holds 305 gallons and we plan to use it for watering the garden.

I made some soap last night - Cucumber Melon. It smells heavenly. I haven't made soap in a little while, so I decided that since I'm swirl impaired even on a good day, I would just stick with something a little more basic and make it all one color. It's a light, refreshing pale shade of green.

We've been busy around here, and we're loving every minute of it. I suppose it would be nice to actually finish a few projects, but then I worry we'd miss something else that's fun and just waiting to get started. I think I'll go discuss my options with the chickens.

Come to think of it, maybe I really am the weird one.

Bee Free,
Penny

Rooster Adolescence and Lucy-fer

2008-07-06T07:08:00.008-04:00

Yesterday our chicks turned exactly seven weeks old and it's been exactly one week since Duke figured out how to crow. I let the chickens out of their coop about 6:30AM and went into the house to make them some yogurt. As I was standing at the kitchen sink, I heard the distinct sound of a crow - but it was not the shrieking three syllable crow we've grown accustomed to hearing from Duke. It almost sounded like the honk of a goose in comparison - and it seemed to have an extra syllable. We listened to it several times and became convinced it could not be Duke. It sounded nothing like him. Perhaps Bobby Lee had learned to crow - or maybe we were mistaken about one of the hens?

As it turns out, Duke is going through adolescence and, quite literally, his voice changed overnight. Friday, he sounded like this. Saturday, he suddenly began sounding like this:

Don't you just love watching him gear up for his proud crow? And that crow now sounds a little more like "cock-a-doodle-do". It is music to my ears.

You may also notice that he no longer scares the other chickens with his crow. The hens actually seem quite enamoured with him now, and when he lets out his new sounding crow, several typically crowd around him.

Duke is such a handsome boy. I'm also very pleased to report that even though he is growing up and becoming quite the ladies man, he still remains a mama's boy and will sit on my lap and allow me to love on him for hours.

The chicks seem to change daily. They are feathering out and acting so grown up. Duke and the White Faced Black Spanish chicks have always been the tamest and most comfortable with me, but in the past week or so it seems that all the chicks have gotten a lot less skittish when I enter the coop or the chicken run.

Lucy is..... well, still Lucy. I now call her "Lucy-fer". She continues to challenge all the other chickens and bully them when they come to me for treats or to play. She has gotten very aggressive with her pecking and has managed to remove a mole from my leg and she attempts to remove my fingernails when I'm hand feeding the others. I lift her face up by putting a finger underneath her beak and make her look at me while I scold her, but as soon as I finish, she goes back to what she was originally doing that got her into trouble. I gently thump her chest with my hand when she gets aggressive towards me, but she seems to think that is a game. *sigh* Even though she can truly act like Lucy-fer, she can also be sweet and will always have a special place in my heart. My little runt is growing up - and she's doing it with a vengeance.

We've been busy, busy, busy on the homestead and I'll write more later in the week on that subject. I'll also get some new pictures of the chickens up on the Back to Basic Living website.

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

Bee Free,
Penny

And Now.... The Moment We've All Been Waiting For......

2008-07-01T06:55:00.005-04:00

I present to you...... Duke the Roo, performing his first public solo:

Is he not the cutest little thing you have ever laid your eyes on? He is so darn proud of himself. I'm proud of him, too. He let out about 15 of those little gems and I caught every one of them on video. But I decided to spare all of you and only show a three second clip for his big debut. By the way - you may notice he is standing all alone in this video. His crowing still scares all the other chicks half to death.

I'll admit, he needs to work on it a little, and he's been practicing his little heart out. Not bad for a little six week old cockerel!

I'm sure you are not nearly as impressed with Duke's new found talent as I am. It reminds me of my first solo in the third grade Glee Club. I sang "All Creatures Great and Small" in front of an auditorium of parents. Certainly the only reason I was chosen to sing a solo is not because of my lovely singing voice. I was the only third grader that would belt out any song I was asked to sing. I was loud. REALLY loud. Our music teacher used me as an example of how to make your voice "carry". And man, did my voice ever carry.

At any rate, when I finished my first solo, the audience wildly applauded. In hindsight, I'm not sure if they enjoyed the song, or were just so darn happy it was finally over. My mother was just beaming. Afterward, she gave me a huge hug and told me several people commented that they had no idea I could sing so well. She was incredibly proud. You would have thought the Angel Gabriel had just come down from heaven above and blessed her with a song from On High. In reality, I'm pretty sure I sounded very much like Duke does right now. But parents have special filters in their ears and eyes, and often don't hear and see things concerning their children quite the way others do.

I think Duke has quite a lovely little crow going on right now. And come to think of it, he does have a Gabriel type quality to his voice......

Bee Free,
Penny

Someone is Asking for a Good Old Fashioned Tail Whooping

2008-06-30T18:06:00.007-04:00

Lucy, my little White Faced Black Spanish, is really turning into a bit of a bully. She is constantly pecking the snot out of me, dive bombing the other chickens, and lately she's been challenging Duke - a rooster who is easily twice her size. Duke stands up to her, but he doesn't seem to take her too seriously. I've told Lucy that Duke is going to kick her scrawny tail feathers across the chicken yard, but she pays no attention to me whatsoever.

Since Duke found his voice and started crowing, he has really been acting like the alpha rooster. It is really fascinating watching the pecking order take shape in our chicken yard. Interestingly enough, not only do the roosters have a pecking order, but there is a pecking order among the hens as well. As the chickens attempt to work out these social structures, you can imagine the chest bumping, puffing, and challenges that are now routinely occurring.

Bobby Lee is not quite developed enough to make much of an impression as a rooster so, at least for now, the title of alpha rooster belongs to Duke. Lucy is trying her hardest to make a bid for the alpha hen, and by the looks of it, she has a good chance. I haven't really seen any other hen challenge Duke. I suspect if Lucy weren't so darn cute, Duke would have already had her for breakfast.

Here's a short video of Lucy challenging Duke. It's interesting to me that Bobby Lee runs up to watch the whole thing from the side lines. Duke is the big one that takes off after a Silver Leghorn - and then gets challenged by Lucy, the mostly black one. Duke almost trips over those huge feet of his, but recovers in time to stare Lucy down:

I've been following Duke around with a video since Saturday morning when he first crowed. He is camera shy and will not make a peep when I have the camcorder rolling. He crowed this morning as I opened up the coop, but when I grabbed the camcorder he got completely silent. I'm determined to capture it, but it looks like it may take a little bit. While I still believe his first few crows were beautiful Saturday morning, I have to tell you that he seems to have forgotten what he did. He now sounds like he is getting over a bad case of laryngitis. His beautiful "cock-a-doodle" now sounds like "erk-er-ererererk". In his defense, it is still quite loud.

MissPrissy, from Backyard Chickens, posted a recipe for making home made yogurt. I made some yesterday, and I have to tell you this is the BEST yogurt I have ever eaten. I mixed in some of my Raspberry Jam Syrup, and it was wonderful. The recipe is simple and the ingredients are easy to find. If you're interested, check it out. This recipe makes plain, non-flavored yogurt. If you like flavored yogurt, just add a little jam, granola, honey, or whatever you desire.

Bernie is finished with all the fence posts for the front and back yard. Tomorrow he will start stringing the fencing wire. Those rolls of wire are really heavy and difficult to manage. He and Tex made a really cool "spool" for the wire today that should help Bernie a good bit. I'll take pictures of it and post them later this week.

I have a list a mile long of things I need to do this week. I might actually accomplish some of them if I weren't busy following Duke around with a camcorder. I sat with him for over an hour this afternoon before supper, and all he did was sleep on my lap. He is such a little sweetheart - I just wish he's crow for my camcorder dad gummit! I'm sure he sits up all night crowing. And laughing at me.

Bee Free,
Penny

Cock-a-Doodle - huh??????

2008-06-28T19:33:00.004-04:00

Between four and five weeks old, Duke starting doing this weird thing where he would raise his head high and move his beak in a distinctively cock-a-doodle-do sort of way - but nothing would come out. He would move his beak, but not a sound would escape. Bernie swore he was practicing crowing. At that early age, I had my doubts.

This morning I went and picked some raspberries while Bernie finished putting in his last corner posts for the fence. We finished about the same time, and decided to sit on the front steps and cool off with some ice water. We were watching the chickens peck around, and Bernie said "Did you see that? Duke just tried to crow again." I rolled my eyes, and at exactly that moment, Duke stuck his head high in the air and let out a loud, distinct, and crystal clear "COCK-A-DOODLE...." - and scared the bird poop out of all the hens and himself. They all took off screaming, flying, and running to the other end of the coop. I'm not sure who looked more terrified - the hens or Duke.

I couldn't believe it. His crow was beautiful! It wasn't at all the scratchy, crackling, strangling noise I expected. It wasn't quite a full crow, but he sure nailed the first part of it. Within a just a few moments, he let out another. And then another. COCK-A-DOODLE......

I ran in to get the small camcorder I ordered and received this week. I followed Duke for at least 20 minutes, determined to capture the next crow for you. But he strutted around and pecked around and was as quiet as a church mouse the entire time.

We haven't heard him crow again today. But I have to tell you, those three little crows changed his life. He's been strutting around all day long. And he's been challenging the hens and Bobby Lee more than ever. He is really quite proud of himself. It seems to me the girls are paying a lot more attention to him as well.

As silly as it sounds, Bernie and I are really proud of Duke. The boy is crowing at six weeks old! And he's so dad gum handsome and sweet. He is honestly everything I could have hoped for in a rooster - at least at this young age.

I'll get some pictures of all the chicks posted in the next couple of days. I was going to wait to write about this until I had the pictures ready, but I am so excited, I just had to let y'all know.

By the way, I'm working on adding some canning information and pictures on the Back to Basic Living Website. I hope to have the pages up within the next week. I've water bath canned several jars of Raspberry Jam and Raspberry Syrup - and I took some pictures of the process to share on the website.

I'll write more in the next day or so. I hope to capture Duke crowing on the camcorder so I can share it with you. I'm just certain you'll be as impressed with the boy as I am.

Bee Free,
Penny

Jammin' - and Running Free

2008-06-22T17:08:00.004-04:00

Our wild raspberries are really starting to come in. They've got a few more days before the majority ripen up, but seeing a handful of ripe raspberries was enough to make us risk the brambles we had to wade through to pick them. We only ended up with about 1/2 a pound, and I decided to make a jar of Raspberry Jam out of them. Bernie doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, but he can't resist many things made of fruit. He likes to put his jam over a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Yes, I know that sounds weird, but honestly, you should try it. It's wonderful!

So for those of you with berries that always wanted to know how to make jam, I'm going to share the recipe for the most simple jar of jam you will ever make.

Ingredients:
1/2 pound Berries
1 cup of Sugar

Pour the sugar over the berries and gently stir the mixture. Let it sit for about 15 minutes or so. Then heat the whole thing on low heat until the sugar melts, stirring the entire time. Once it gets soupy, turn your heat up to high and stir as it boils for about 5 minutes - or until it gets thick. Turn the heat off and pour your jam into a clean, sterile jar.

Now you have berry jam. There are several ways to make jam, but this is probably the easiest. If you have a lot of berries, you may want to use a recipe that adds pectin to reduce the amount of time you spend over the stove. But for a small amount, it will only take you 5 minutes or so. 1/2 pound of berries makes less than 1 pint of jam, so I didn't mess around with canning it since that small amount won't last long around here. Several of you wrote that you would like to see a webpage on the Back to Basic Living website on the basics of canning, and I will start working on that in the next week or two, as more berries come in. I typically water bath can all of my fruit and sometimes tomatoes, and pressure can anything else.

Here's a picture of the jam over a bowl of ice cream:

I have to tell you, I almost didn't post that picture. It reminds me of bird poop over ice cream. I think it's all the seeds. If you are really turned off by seeds in your jam, you can smoosh the berries through a sieve first. But I'm going to warn you - it's going to take a lot more berries that way. There is very little fruit around each of those little seeds. But it's your choice. Personally, I can get past the bird poop looking jam.....

The chicks are doing great. They were five weeks old yesterday. Friday afternoon Bernie and I let them out in the chicken yard for the evening. They loved it. They ran around eating everything they could get their little beaks on. They flew and ran and played and challenged each other. It was really a hoot watching them. It took me a while to get them all inside as darkness was settling, but it was worth it.

This weekend I let them out in the chicken yard at 6:30 each morning. They are really loving being outside. We check on them every few minutes, and they are doing fine. They pretty much ignore me when I go into the chicken yard to sit with them, but I just chalk it up to the excitement of being outside. To compensate, I don't let them out in the mornings until they eat out of my hands, jump on me, and act like they still love me. Then I open their little chicken door and they go outside and act like I have cooties.

They are really getting big and starting to look like miniature chickens. Bernie says my chickens are way prettier than any five week old chickens he's ever seen. I absolutely agree with him. Duke is starting to cluck already. I love the little peep-peep noises they make, but the clucking is pretty exciting. Here's a picture of Duke - not a great one because I chopped off his beak in the picture, but it really shows off his comb and his developing waddles, and his size compared to the Silver Leghorn he's standing next to:

Dad gum, that's a good looking boy! Here's a picture of the only other rooster I think (*hope*) we have. His name is Bobby Lee. He's a Phoenix and, although not as developed as Duke, quite handsome in his own right:

Look at that boy strutting around. I sure am proud to have such good looking boys. I really hope they get along and stay sweet. I just can't bare to think of one of them ending up on the table. I've tried to be delicate and casually mention that to both of them on a couple of occasions. Let's hope they are listening.

Not only are the boys good looking, but the girls are so pretty now. They've filled out and feathered out and just fill me with pride. I put several new pictures of the chicks up on the Back to Basic Living website.

Oh - and I finally learned to tell the Phoenix's from the Silver Leghorn's! The Phoenix's have slate colored legs, and the Silver Leghorn's have yellow legs. It took an awful lot of googling to figure that out! I sure am relieved though. I don't know why, but it is, for some reason, important to me.

The chicks are great. Bernie and I are great. Elvis and Priscilla are tolerating all the greatness. Life is good on the homestead.

Bee Free,
Penny

Those Steaks Would Tempt a Bear

2008-06-17T17:43:00.005-04:00

We've been busy on the homestead since I last wrote, and I honestly can't tell you what we've been doing. The past week has been a blur of activity. We spent the weekend moving stuff into and organizing our sheds. My garden shed now contains everything pertaining to gardening and caring for chickens, and Bernie's workshop barn shed now contains everything pertaining to... well.... workshop stuff. So now, when I need a hammer, rather than searching under the kitchen sink, the garage, the sea container, or any number of other places, I can go right into Bernie's barn shed and know I'll find a hammer. The truth is, when I need a hammer I typically grab a shoe. But it brings Bernie joy to envision me needing a hammer and going to his barn shed and finding it there - and then actually using the hammer instead of a shoe. So let's just pretend that's exactly what I'll do.

Yesterday was Bernie's birthday. Yay! Happy Birthday, Bernie! We decided to grill a couple of nice steaks to celebrate, and afterwards, being the wonderful wife that I am, I did the dishes all by myself while he relaxed and informed me how I wasn't doing them right.

A side note to the wives out there - Ladies, never relinquish your kitchen to your husband under the delusion that life will be grand with him cooking and doing dishes for you. Not if you ever plan to step foot into your kitchen again. He will take over and you will never be able to live up to his expectations in the kitchen again.

After we ate and relaxed a bit, I went in to brush my teeth around 8PM. In the middle of it, Bernie walked into the bathroom and said "There's a bear at the compost pile." I quickly wiped my face and ran into the living room to look out the window. Sure enough, there was a bear at the compost pile. He was sitting on his rear with his legs in front of him, just staring at the compost. I ran in to get my camera, and when I got back he was standing up sniffing at the compost:

He only stayed there a few seconds, and then started to walk off. Then he stopped and stared at us in the window:

And then he made a beeline for the grill we had left outside to cool off:

We've only left the grill outside overnight one time - and we awoke to the sound of bears knocking it over and getting into it in the middle of the night. We don't leave it outside overnight any more. So when we saw the bear heading towards the grill last night, Bernie decided enough was enough. He walked outside and clapped his hands and yelled something like "Hey Bear! Hey Bear!" and the bear quickly high tailed it right on out of the yard:

Bernie decided the grill was cool enough and promptly locked it inside the shed.

The chicks turned four weeks old last Saturday. I took pictures this afternoon so I can show you how big they are getting. Their feathers are coming in beautifully. Between four and six weeks, I understand that I should be able to identify the roosters. Their combs should be larger and pinker than the hens, among several other things. I put several pictures up on the Back to Basic Living website, and a few of them show the differences between hens and what I believe are my roosters. Even if I'm wrong, the pictures are darn cute, so check them out anyway.

Here's a picture of either a Phoenix or a Silver Leghorn. Although I can see difference in the two now, I still can not tell which is which. They are both good looking birds though!

This here is a picture of a Phoenix/Leghorn on the left, and a Penciled Hamburg on the right:

The Hamburgs are beautiful chicks and the picture does not do their feather colors any justice. While they remain the most skittish, they really are pretty and friendly, if I don't make any sudden movements.

And here's Duke the Big Roo:

That boy is huge. Just get a load of the size of those feet! He's the only one that I make certain I pick up each time I enter the coop. He is obviously a very large rooster and I am determined to establish that I have the upper hand with him. He protested a bit at first, but he's coming around and actually comes running to me when I sit down, even knowing that he will get picked up. You may also notice that his comb is quite large and quite pink. I'm sure I don't have to mention how incredibly good looking that boy is.

Lucy, Amelia, Echo, and the other Black Spanish are doing just fine. I tried to get pictures of them, but they spend most of their time on my shoulders or head, so that complicated matters a bit. I think I did manage to get one or two pictures of them and put them up on the website. I don't want to bog your computer down with many more pictures on this blog entry. Lucy is no longer the runt. She has really grown and is feathering out very nicely. She's still full of spunk and doesn't take anything off anyone. She's always been one tough little bird. I'm sure that's exactly what helped her survive. I often question how many of the other chicks will survive if they tick her off and face her wrath. She has quite a little temper.

We have lots of activity here on the homestead. Vegetables are coming in, chickens are growing, bears are visiting, and stuff is getting accomplished. There's never a dull moment around here. I kind of like it that way.

Bee Free,
Penny

Hot Time in Chicken Town

2008-06-10T08:40:00.005-04:00

With the record breaking temperatures we've had around here lately, I've really been worried about the chicks getting hot in the coop. I tried putting a fan in one of the windows, but all that seemed to do was pull in piping hot air from outside and swirl it around a little. The coop temperature stayed near 100 degrees during the day. I finally decided to take a clean kitty litter box, fill it with pine chips, and pour cold water over it to moisten the chips and stick the whole thing on the floor of the coop to see if the chicks showed any interest. They loved it! They would wiggle their bodies into the chips and lay there with little smiles on their faces. Here's a picture of Lucy after her Wet Chip Spa treatment:

She was so pleased with herself that I didn't have the heart to tell her she looked like Phylis Diller. Look at Amelia checking out Lucy's wet and funky tail feathers. I'm pretty sure I heard her laughing. If you decide to try the wet chip box for your chickens, be sure to change it out every day. You don't even want to know what water, chips, and chicken poo smells like after about 24 hours......

We finally got the chicken yard completely finished. It now has a fence around it and a shrimp net over top of it. We also added chicken wire to the bottom of the coop so that they can't get under there and I don't have to spend countless hours retrieving ornery chickens from underneath of it.

Sunday afternoon we decided to open the chicken door and see if anyone wanted to come out into the new chicken yard. Several were intrigued with the idea, but for a good long while, we had no takers. This was about the extent of their curiosity:

After about an hour, we were just getting ready to close up and call it quits, when Big Roo Duke jumped down into the yard and starting eating ants like there was no tomorrow:

Encouraged that Duke was feeling adventurous, I was certain the others would soon be joining him and we'd have 23 chicks happily pecking and strutting about the chicken yard. I was certain, being flock animals, they would all stay together and not attempt to escape through the fence wire. At least this is what I had hoped and what I wanted the chickens to do. But chickens don't do what I want them to do. They have their own agenda, and it has precious little to do with mine. I live with cats, so you would think I'd be used to having my wishes ignored and expect it. But I didn't. And this is the part where everything went wrong.

In my excitement of seeing Duke happily eating ants in the yard, I decided to go inside and get a couple of adult beverages for Bernie and me to enjoy while watching our little balls of fluff. But when I left the chicken yard, Duke completely freaked out. He began running around emitting a high volume distress call. I didn't know this until Bernie told me upon my return - and I could hear Duke's screams and see him hiding underneath the steps. I squatted down to talk to Duke in a soothing voice and he bolted toward the fence and began throwing his body at the two inch spaces between the wires on the fence. Honestly, Duke is huge and there was no way I would have ever imagined he could possibly squish his fat body between those wires. But just as I reached for him, he sucked in his gut and jammed himself through the wires and popped out on the other side and headed for the woods. Just that fast.

Lordy. I don't think you need all the details to imagine how panicked I was - or how panicked Duke was. Bernie remained calm through the entire ordeal. He closed up the coop to keep the others inside as I tore around the woods trying to catch Duke. Duke may be fat, but he's short, and that worked in his favor while maneuvering through brambles and fallen trees and limbs. While I am short, it did not have the same effect for me. By the time I caught Duke my arms and legs were scratched and bleeding and I had as much of the Phylis Diller hair thing going on as little Lucy did, due to the branches that grabbed it as I plowed through the woods.

We returned Duke to the coop and I promptly informed everyone that one bad apple spoils the whole bunch and there would be no more outings for quite some time. As I left the coop, I saw several of the girls give Duke the High Five.

I ended up putting chicken wire over the coop door opening so I can open the door during the day to allow more air in the coop without allowing any chicks to go out in the yard. They are only three weeks old, so going outside unsupervised is not going to happen. Actually, thanks to Duke's shenanigans, going outside at all is not going to happen for a little while longer.

By the way, I put up several pictures on the Back to Basic Living website. At three weeks old, the chicks have entered their "teenage" years and, although still adorable, they are looking quite gangly. They are flying around the coop with great confidence, and can get up to roosts and windows with ease. They seem to enjoy using me as a launch pad and make quite a game of flying up to my shoulders or head and then dive bombing unsuspecting chicks on the ground.

We've been busy with other things on the homestead as well. The tomatoes are starting to form and other vegetable plants are blooming. Raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries are in here in abundance this year. Even Peachy is loaded down with a fair amount of fruit. Hopefully Mother Nature won't have any surprises for us and we'll be canning a lot in a few months. If you would be interested in learning about canning, drop me a note. If there is enough interest, I will put a page on the Back to Basic Living website dedicated to the basics of canning.

I know I've spent a lot of time talking chickens with you for the past few weeks. The addition of the chickens, along with the vegetable gardens and other activities, brings us closer to our homesteading goals of achieving more self reliance. Although it is still a few months away, we will soon be eating fresh eggs and the chickens will be free-ranging for a large portion of their meals.

So, here we are - homesteading with our chickens. And I'm sure you could homestead without chickens. I'm just not sure why you would want to.

Bee Free,
Penny

Cooped Up

2008-06-05T18:57:00.003-04:00

The chicks have been in their coop for 5 full days, and they seem to have handled it quite well - in spite of the many thunderstorms and power outages we've had. I, on the other hand, have been a nervous wreck. I suppose I've gotten so used to waking up and checking on them through the night that I am now having difficulty sleeping without waking up and worrying about them. I went out at all hours of the night to check on them the first 4 nights, only to find them perfectly safe and sound - and maybe even a little annoyed that I awoke them. Last night I was determined to sleep through the night and NOT check on them - only to wake at 2AM and toss and turn for over an hour. *sigh* I am certain this should be harder on them than it is on me....

Honestly, I can see those chicks grow every day. They are getting so big. They are now entering their "teens" and looking a little gangly. Down is being replaced by feathers - and it's happening quite sporadically on their bodies. But they are still just as cute as little buttons, and I still love them to pieces.

The White Faced Black Spanish chicks remain the most friendly, in spite of everything I've read about them. They routinely meet me at the coop door and are always the first to eat out my hand when I sit down with them. Lucy was busy staring at herself in the mirror for this picture, but here are the other three:

Amelia figured out how to get to the roosts within a few hours of being in the coop. There are three tiers to the roosts, and I've seen her on the second tier several times already:

Several others have finally figured out the roosts, too - but they can only sit on it as long as Amelia allows. Once she figures out they are up there, she flies up and chases everyone else off. These two snuck up when she wasn't looking:

This is the one confirmed rooster so far. I've named him Duke. He's probably twice the size of all the others and incredibly calm and very friendly - and all the girls seem to like him. He's hot in this picture and spreading out his wings to cool a little:

That's a good lookin' boy right there!

I put a mirror in the brooder with them when I first got them, and they really seemed to like it, so I moved it out to coop for them to play with. I've got to be honest - I think Lucy has a problem. She is completely obsessed with her reflection in the mirror. It's down right embarrassing! I find her sleeping with her little face pressed against her reflection. I am not kidding. In this picture she is plum wore out from pecking at her reflection and fighting off the other chicks that tried to get to the mirror. She's the one in the front:

I should also mention that Lucy is developing quite nicely and has really grown a great deal. She's still very tiny, but she doesn't take any crap off anyone. The chicks are busy establishing dominance amongst themselves, and chest bumping is becoming quite frequent. Usually when chicks bump chests, they make eye contact until one of them backs down and walks away. Unless the whole chest bumping thing involves Lucy. When chicks bump Lucy's chest, she pecks the crap out of them and they take off running. She may be tiny, but she will jack them up in two seconds flat.

I'm including this last picture for those of you that have never had chicks and may plan to get them. When chicks get sleepy, they go to sleep. Not after they find a comfortable place to crash, and not when they curl up and settle down - I mean they go to sleep RIGHT NOW. I am used to it now, but when they were just a day or two old it would absolutely panic me. I was convinced they were dying and rush them to the CICU. I'm pretty sure every chick I have ended up in CICU at one time or another for looking sleepy. If you look at this picture I took this afternoon, you may understand why:

Notice how they sprawl out and lay all....well....dead looking?? That's how baby chicks sleep when they are plum tuckered. I wish someone had warned me about that. So do my chicks.

As you can see, the chicks are doing just fine. They are growing and changing and getting more sweet and tame each day. They are almost three weeks old, and I really can not imagine my life without them. Although a good night's sleep is something I dream about.

Bee Free,
Penny

Empty Nest

2008-06-01T16:28:00.003-04:00

Before the chicks even got here, I had decided that I would remove them from the brooder and put them inside their coop when they were two weeks old. At two weeks, chicks can regulate their own body temperature and wouldn't require the constant attention I knew I would have to lavish on them the first 14 days. After I got the chicks, I began to question whether or not I would be willing to tolerate the 50 foot distance between the coop and me. I've quickly grown extremely attached to these little peepers and find comfort in looking in on them at all hours of the day and night.

Well, the past few days sealed the deal. It had gotten to the point that I could not even open the lid on the brooder to play with them without one of them attempting to fly out - namely our First Woman in Flight around here, Amelia. I also noticed they were all trying to fly inside their tiny brooder and I came to realize they would be much happier with the additional space the coop would provide. So, with no small amount of sadness, we moved our little babies to the big coop today.

Before I post the pictures of the chicks, I should probably show you the coop. We finished up painting the trim and will get the chicken yard fenced in within the next week or so. The chicks won't be going outside until the fence is completed and covered with a shrimp net my uncle gave me to keep out chicken hawks and other predators from above:

As difficult as the thought of moving the chicks to the coop was, it was even more difficult to catch all of them and put them in the box for transport. Their discovery of flight did not help any at all. But I got 23 terrified chicks into a box and carried them out to the coop. I sat on the floor and removed each from the box and each one ran over to the furthest corner from me and huddled in absolute terror. Get a load of Amelia in this picture (upper left), Prairie Doggin' her head above all the others and staring at me:

That picture cracks me up. The White Faced Black Spanish are the most alert of the group. At any rate, they were acting so scared that I was just about to chalk the whole thing up to a terrible mistake, load them all back up in the box, and take them back in the house to the brooder when little Lucy broke away from the rest and headed right over to me. For the tiniest, she sure is the bravest. When the others saw her courage, they started moving towards me too. They began pecking at the ground and scratching and looking a lot more relaxed. Lucy found a little clump of grass mixed in with the pine chips:

Bernie and I left them to explore for a while. I went back out about 30 minutes later, and they were running around chasing each other, flapping their little wings and attempting flight, scratching like crazy, and just seemed to be having the time of their life. I've been out several times this afternoon to sit with them a while, and they are really enjoying that coop. Lucy found a little, tiny spider and nailed it on the second peck! They all seem much more happy with this arrangement than I am. I will really miss having them right under my nose 24 hours a day.

I put additional pictures up on the Chicken Coop Deville page of the website.

So we have an empty nest here, but the chicks seem to really love their new digs. The coop is built solid and is certainly safe from any predators. Their heat lamp is on and should keep them at the 80 degrees they're accustomed to.

I'm a little sad, but it really makes me happy watching them run and fly and play. I hope they'll miss me, just a little. I'd hate to think I'd raised a bunch of ungrateful little peeps.

Bee Free,
Penny

Smokin' Hot Chick Pictures!

2008-05-29T19:14:00.004-04:00

OK, for those of you who have requested more pictures of my little beauties, I'm including several in this post. But you are going to have to put up with my narrative first. No scrolling down ahead of the class!

Last night Bernie set up his 12X12 pavilion-screened-in-tent-thingy for me so I could take my chicks outside to play in a protected area. It doesn't have a floor, so the chicks could enjoy the ground and the grass. We secured the sides with bricks so they couldn't slip underneath one of them and force us to flail around the yard trying to catch them.

So this afternoon after I logged off from work, I grabbed a box with a lid and captured 23 birds for transport to the great, wild outside. We won't discuss the whole capturing portion of this. Suffice it to say I had to stand on my head to get chicks out of the far corners of the brooder, and I only had to chase one escaped bird around the spare room, but I emerged from the house, headed to the tent thingy, sweaty and out of breath, with 23 birds in a box in tow. Bernie awaited us on a lawn chair in the tent thingy.

When we first let them out, they were terrified and huddled around me and refused to venture. Eventually, they started pecking my toes and crawling on me. Here's a picture of two of the girls that crawled into my hand:

After a short while, they discovered Bernie's boots and headed over to him:

One of the White Faced Black Spanish chicks just couldn't stand all of Bernie's cuteness from afar and actually spread her little wings and flew up onto his lap:

We decided to name this one Amelia - after Amelia Earhart.

The chicks really seemed to enjoy being outside. They ran around pecking at everything they saw, ate everything they could get their little beaks on, took a sun bath or two, and rolled around in the grass like they were trying to take dirt baths. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more - the chicks, or me and Bernie.

After about two hours, the chicks started collecting at the box they came out in. We quickly realized they were probably ready to go back inside. Look at the little chick peeking out of the hole on the side. I am certain that looks says "Hello? We're loaded up and ready to go over here!"

I honestly think they were tired and ready to go back to the brooder. It was pretty easy to gather them up and put them in the box.

I know everyone that has chickens thinks their chickens are the cutest things in the world. But can you honestly tell me, after looking at these pictures, that my little biddies don't just surpass every definition of cuteness??? And you just don't know sweet until you meet my girls. Lordy, if they don't just make you want to kiss the feathers right off them.....

And if you didn't get your full capacity of cuteness for the day, you can take a look at the additional pictures I put on the Back to Basic Living website.

I warned you when I ordered these chicks that I would be boring you to death with pictures of them. If nothing else, I am a woman of my word.....

Bee Free,
Penny

When Good Chicks Go Bad - and Bear Neccessities

2008-05-27T11:56:00.005-04:00

Several people have told me that their chicks just love banana as a special treat. Well, being the wonderful Mother Hen that I am, I decided to treat my little precious peeps to a few chunks of banana. I sliced them up very small, sprinkled a little grit on them, put them in a little container, and slid them into the coop. You would have thought I was trying to feed them arsenic. They took off in a flurry of fuzzness to the complete opposite end of the brooder, huddled together in the corner, and glared at me. I tried putting some in my hand and coaxing them to me, but they would have nothing to do with it. Even little Lucy was suspicious. She came over and pecked around my hand, but would get no where near that banana. I'm not sure if this is a sign that I'll have picky eaters, or if I am not doing a very good job of teaching them to expand their horizons by trying new and different things.

One morning last week, I awoke to A LOT of noise coming from the spare room where the brooder is. When I opened the door to the room, I obviously surprised the peeps and they froze in place. I had caught them in the middle of a Wild Chick Party! It looked like a scene from "When Good Chicks Go Bad". Both feeders were empty and feed was scattered all over the brooder. Their waterer was filled with poop and pine shavings, and the mirror had been knocked over. The place was a mess! As I cleaned it up I scolded them and explained that this type of behavior is completely unacceptable. Any chicken under 6 months of age is not allowed to stay up all night and party in this house. It will not be tolerated! As I left the room, I swear I saw 3 of them roll their eyes at me. Honestly - chicks these days!

This morning, Bernie came in to ask me if I had looked outside at my composter today. I immediately knew something was not right. We went outside and found that the composter had obviously been attacked by a bear. He ripped the lid open and busted the clasp that locked it shut. I think he was after the shrimp shells I put in there yesterday. Shrimp shells have no fat or grease, and they compost beautifully. I've added them many times in the past and never had any issues with the bears before. I guess this bear really had a hankering for sea food. Bernie is outside building me another composter right now.

For some reason, the bear also decided to remove the cover from the box that houses the control valve for our septic system. He didn't do any damage - he just removed the cover. It weighs somewhere around 10 - 15 pounds, so he had to be fairly determined to get it off. Bernie thinks he may have found some bugs around it and was digging for them. I'm just glad he didn't mess with anything inside the box. You can see pictures of the damage to the composter on the Back to Basic Living website. Scroll down to the bottom.

When I came back in from taking pictures of the bear damage, I paused to once again remind Elvis and Priscilla how darn lucky they are to be house cats, how good they have it inside, and that they should be grateful that they aren't bear food. Elvis threw his arm in the air in a "Talk to the Paw" response:

And then he went back to sleep:

I'm at my wits end with these kids.

Bee Free,
Penny

Henny Penny - Week One

2008-05-26T17:49:00.008-04:00

Well, today is one week exactly since I received a box of chirping little fuzzy butts. I'll be frank - it's been a tough week. I lost a total of four chicks this week - and I assure you it was not from lack of effort or prayer on my part. I woke up all hours of the night to check on them, hand fed them (and in most cases, force fed them), cleaned more pasty butt than I care to remember, and cried over each and every chick that did not make it. It has been emotionally exhausting. The good news is that the remaining 23 are extremely active and happy right now.

Those little chicks are growing like little weeds! Just a few days ago they started scratching. Now THAT is way too cute to watch! Bernie built them a little roost out of sticks from the yard, and they have really enjoyed learning how to get up on a roost and perch until they fall off. Many are starting to get little tail feathers, and wings are starting to fill out. I just can't get over how very quickly these little fuzz balls grow!

Many of you have asked about the little chick that is looking up in the first pictures I posted. I am happy to report that she is doing just fine. She is still my little baby and comes to my hand when I reach into the brooder. She holds a special place in my heart for sure. She ended up in the Chick Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at one point because she was looking just a little too sleepy for my comfort level. But she took a nap and perked right up. I marked her face with a green magic marker and returned her to the rest of the flock. She's still the tiniest of the group, and she's still so dad-gum cute you could just kiss her wings right off her. My girlfriend said she looks like a "Lucy", so I named her Lucy. Here she is, green magic marker and all:

And just look at her tiny little White Faced Black Spanish butt in this picture:

Lordy, that's a cute one there! Here's a picture of another cutey. She also ended up in CICU for acting sleepy. I marked her head red, but you can barely see it now. She's a Golden Penciled Hamburg and really small as well, but she's really active:

And here's a picture of either a Phoenix, or a Silver Leghorn. All of the pictures I could find of both these breeds look very similar as chicks, so I can not yet tell which is which. But they are just adorable little chicks and cute as little buttons:

If you compare the wings and tails of the last two, you can see that Lucy is developing a little slower. But what she lacks in development, she makes up for in spunk and personality. The other White Faced Black Spanish chicks are pretty friendly and curious as well. At this point, I am really impressed with the Spanish chicks. Every chick in the brooder is just adorable, but the Spanish chicks are a little more friendly at this point.

For those of you that have written me to say you are planning to order chicks, here are a couple of things I would have done differently and you may learn from:

1. I would have taken pasty butt a lot more seriously. Pasty butt is caused by poop that ends up hardening around and clogging the vent (anus) of the chick. I had read about it, but had no idea how serious or common it can be. It can kill your chick. I would have checked the vent of each chick as I removed them from the shipping box to put them in the brooder - and I would have inspected each chick for pasty butt every day for the first three or four days. Drop me a personal email if you would like to know how I dealt with pasty butt. It's an "on request" answer as I'm fairly certain the general readership of this blog has no desire to hear those details.
2. I would have devised the CICU a little earlier and started putting chicks in it the minute they looked less active than the others so I could more closely monitor them.
3. I would have spent a lot more time making sure that each and every chick understood how to eat and drink. Believe it or not, knowing what to eat and drink is a learned behavior for chicks that is normally taught to them by Mama Hen. When you order chicks, YOU are Mama Hen!

I'm sure I'll learn a lot more things along the way - and I'm certain most of these will be the hard way. I'll be sure to share these with you. While it's impossible to know everything you need to know about everything concerning chicks before you get them, it's sure nice to at least learn a little from people who've made mistakes along the way so you don't end up making the same ones.

Baby chicks are a little stressful, but they are worth every minute of it. They are so much fun to watch and it's amazing to see how they change daily. Soon my chicks will be headed out to the coop. I'm just dreading that. Bernie suspects I'll sleep in the coop with them the first night. He distinctly remembers waking up a few years ago with a baby goat in our bed that I couldn't stop worrying about. But that's another story for another time.....

Bee Free,
Penny

Chick Update

2008-05-20T14:47:00.004-04:00

Thanks for all the kind comments and emails of congratulations on the new chicks. They are still adorable and I am still loving them.

The chicks woke me up around 2AM, chirping pretty loudly. I went in to check on them, and they were all huddled together under the heat lamp. I have a thermometer in there with them, but they like to stand on it, so I can never get a good reading. It's supposed to stay around 95 degrees for the first few days. I tested it several times in the past couple of weeks to make sure it was at the right height and it stayed at a steady 95 degrees. None the less, the weather got a bit cool last night, and I suspect the brooder got cooler too. I turned up the heat in the house, and went back to bed. They settled down.

When I got up at 5:30AM, they were completely silent. It scared me to death. I figured they had all roasted to death over night. I ran into the room, and they were sleeping very soundly. Whew. I did find one baby that didn't make it though. I guess the stress of the long trip here was just too much for her. I cried and cried about it, but I finally decided I could not have done anything to prevent it. Bernie and I buried her outside by the cat we lost last year (Reba).

Two more of the biddies are acting very weak and I noticed the other chicks would knock them over regularly as they zoomed by them. I put those two in a little box by themselves so they can hopefully get some rest and get a little stronger. I also put another healthy biddy in there with them, in the hopes that she would be company for them and help keep them warm. That didn't last long though. I walked out of the room for about 5 minutes, and when I came back in, the healthy biddy had hopped right out of that box and joined the others. I was fairly impressed as the height of the box is at least twice as tall as she is! So the two weak chicks are in Chick Intensive Care right now by themselves, and I really hope they pull through. I'll keep you posted.

Amazingly, the one little chick I posted the picture of yesterday that acted so weak, is doing quite well. She's a White Faced Black Spanish. The one that died was a Golden Penciled Hamburg. The two that are sickly are a Golden Penciled Hamburg and either a Phoenix or a Silver Leghorn - those two look so similar as biddies that I can't tell them apart yet.

I'll tell you one thing, biddies are little poop machines. I can't get over how much they poop. I'll be looking forward to some great compost as they get older! Until then, I guess I'll be cleaning a brooder on a very regular basis - and continue fussing at them for pooping in their food.

So that's the chick update for today. Even though I knew that I would likely lose one or two, it still makes me really sad. I hope the two little weaklings perk up soon. It's all I can do not to sit in a chair and hold them all night.

Bee Free,
Penny

Chillin' With My Peeps

2008-05-19T16:34:00.004-04:00

We spent a wonderful week with my parents celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. We had perfect weather and Bernie went fishing with Daddy every day. Mama and I hung out together and visited and enjoyed our time together, and we took care of a couple of things she wanted to get accomplished, like re-upholstering her dining room chairs. The whole family got together on Saturday for a party for my parents, and then Bernie and I headed home yesterday. I really enjoyed seeing my parents, and it was hard to leave them, but I was excited to get home. My chicks were due in today, and I could hardly contain myself.

I got up at 5:30 to log into work - and to wait on my call from the post office to come get my chicks. By 8AM, I still had not heard from them, so I gave them a quick call. No chicks. I felt like crying. I called the hatchery, and they assured me they shipped the chicks on Saturday. About an hour later, I got a call from the post office in Fairfax, Virginia. My chicks had arrived there on Sunday, but for some reason, did not ship out. They were still in Fairfax this morning, so the lady that called me said she had them sent special delivery - but she sent them to the main post office in Charlottesville! About an hour later, I got a call from Charlottesville - and when I answered the phone I heard chirping in the background. A man told me the Charlottesville post office had received my chicks, and would be shipping them to Harrisonburg to arrive by 1:30PM. I called the Harrisonburg post office and told them to hold my chicks there - I was on my way.

I got to Harrisonburg a little early, and by 1:45 I was heading home with a box of chirping chicks. Wow. For such tiny little two day old birds, they sure can chirp!

Bernie and I unpacked them when I got home and stuck each little beak in the water so they would know where to get a drink. And drink they did! They were really thirsty. Immediately afterward, they found the food. I had spread some around the brooder, and they pecked at it - but they found the food dishes on their own and went to town with them.

We ended up with 27 birds. I ordered 25, but they sent a free "exotic" bird and an extra Phoenix rooster for some reason. They are all so dad-gum cute I could just kiss the feathers right off of every one of them. They all appear healthy and very active with the exception of one. I just checked them and even the sluggish one seems to be coming around a bit.

Here's a picture of most of them - they run around so much I couldn't get all of them in one shot. The red tint is from the heat lamp:

Here's a picture of the little sluggish one. She is really cute - and although she seems a little less active than the others, she is the only one that consistently looks up when I talk to them. I really hope she makes it.

So my little peeps are home. I am so incredibly relieved. I worried about those little peeps all weekend. They're mighty loud. I'm really hoping they've already learned to sleep through the night......

Bee Free,
Penny

The Chick Pad

2008-05-10T16:19:00.003-04:00

The first part of this week was spent finishing up the chicken coop and preparing the brooder, among other things. We got some pine chipped up and layered the coop with about 2 inches of it. We also got the nest boxes in place (old kitty litter buckets), and the waterer and feeder in place.

I made the brooder out of an old tool chest that came out of the bed of a pickup truck. I used an angle grinder and removed the lid, sanded off all sharp objects, and removed all rust.I washed it in some bleach water and let it dry in the sun. Bernie made me a super cool lid for it out of 2 X 4s and some screen. He hinged about half of it so I can easily lift it and get inside to clean or tend to (you can read play with) the chicks. It's in a tiny, crowded spare bedroom, but I don't think they'll mind.

Our method for adjusting the heat from the heat lamp is very high tech. It involves being clamped on a dresser drawer and the drawer is determined by it's height from the brooder and the desired temperature. I've tested it on various drawers and have pretty much figured out where it needs to be positioned over the period of the first two weeks the babies will be inside.

So there you have it - the Chick Pad. They'll be here in a little over a week. I went to the post office and chatted with them about the expected arrival. The lady I spoke with wrote everything down on a piece of card board she tore off of a box and posted it on a bulletin board. She assured me they would give me a call the minute the little chicks arrived. She said if they make it in on the morning shipment, they'll call me about 6:30AM to come get the chicks. If they make it in on the evening shipment, they'll call me around 2:00PM. Either way, I'll be "on ready" to go pick up my babies.

We're heading down to spend a week with my parents for their 50th anniversary. We have someone coming in to look after the cats. I broke the news to Elvis and Priscilla tonight. They took it pretty hard.

Within a day or two of our return home, the chicks should be here. Yay! And you'll be the first to know about it!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas!

Bee Free,
Penny

Painting the Town Red

2008-05-04T17:13:00.007-04:00

Busy day on the homestead today. I may have mentioned that the tin roof blew mostly off on the old cabin at the front of our property a couple of months ago. Bernie got it back together as best he could, but it was leaking pretty badly during rain - and we've had plenty of rain lately. By 8:00 this morning, Bernie was on the roof of the cabin applying roof tar to the leaking seams, and I was inside the cabin, yelling out directions to each spot in the roof I could see daylight through. He got all of them.

By 10:00 this morning, I was painting the Chicken Coop DeVille, and Bernie was mowing around the cabin. When he finished that, he took down a few trees that were leaning precariously over the driveway. I guess he either took care of everything he felt he needed to care of today, or he simply took pity on me - but either way, he pitched in and helped me finish up the painting. And I didn't even have to whine. Well, not very much, anyway. Bernie has always said the only thing he hates worse than painting, is watching me paint. I tend to be a little messy. By the end of the second coat of paint, Bernie had a small microscopic dot of paint on his jeans and I looked like I had bathed in paint. It was on my face, in my hair, and basically covering every square inch of my body. I still need to paint all the trim white, but here's a picture of what it looks like right now:

Bernie will nail up the last two pieces of fascia this week, and then I'll paint all the trim white. After that we just need to fence in the chicken yard (that's what the roll of fencing to the right of the coop is), shred some pine for litter to put on the floor, install the nest boxes, and get the little chickens!

While we were in Lowe's to buy the last two pieces of lumber for the fascia, we saw a little peach tree that just cried out to us to come live on the homestead. We planned to get some fruit trees this fall, but this little peach tree was so darn cute, we just couldn't pass her up.

With every ounce of creativity and ingenuity that we possess, we decided to name her "Peachy". The fence around her is our attempt to keep the deer from reaching her branches. We'll see how that holds up.

Don't you think she looks perfectly at home here?

Bee Free,
Penny

We've got a Chicken Town on the Homestead!

2008-05-03T07:05:00.003-04:00

We had a lot of rain on Monday and Bernie wasn't able to get outside to do much. He spent the day taking care of stuff inside the house. Tuesday he had to go to Richmond for the Governor's Motorcycle Advisory Board meeting. Wednesday he mowed the yard, weed whacked, and raked. Thursday he had to go into town to take care of the house there and mow the lawn. And Friday, he finally got to spend a little time working on the Chicken Coop DeVille. He's almost finished with it! He just needs two more boards to put up fascia on the sides. And then I'll get busy painting the coop. Once I finally get that finished, we'll fence in the chicken yard and then sit back and wait on our chickens to get here! Yay! You can check out the work he's done on the Back to Basic Living website. If you just want the bottom line of where we are with it, here's a picture of how our little Chicken Town looks right now:

I am really proud of the Chicken Coop DeVille. Bernie did such a nice job. He designed it and did most of the work. I was just labor for him when I had time to help. To answer a couple of email questions I've gotten over the past couple of weeks - we did not have any blueprints or plans. Bernie designed it in his head and then started building it. He'd be the first to tell you he's made mistakes along the way, but nothing he couldn't recover from - or cover up! When I tell him about the nice emails I get that complement his work and say they are not talented enough to build a coop like this, he always responds "If I can do it, anyone can do it!". And while we did buy material to build this coop, we got a lot of it basically free from FreeCycle. If you're looking to save some money by getting FREE stuff to build with, or free items for your home, sign up for FreeCycle. It's also a great way to recycle stuff you no longer want or need! Through FreeCycle, we met someone that not only gave us a truck load of doors, windows, and more than I can remember, he sold us a bunch of lumber for $1 a piece that he had laying on a flatbed trailer we asked him about - and that includes the floor and roof sheeting we used on the coop! FreeCycle really rocks!

As Bernie finished up yesterday evening, and was sitting in a lawn chair, basking in his accomplishments, I went around the edge of the woods and snapped a couple of pictures of trees in bloom. I think this is a Hawthorn:

Can anyone verify that for me? We have several of these in bloom right now. I just love them. It's a really nice looking tree.

We have so many Dogwoods in bloom right now through out the woods. Here's one that's right on the edge of the woods in the backyard:

I may get some painting in this weekend. I need to check the weather and see what it looks like for rain. I may even convince Bernie to help me with it. He often assigns me a task, and then I whine enough about it that he breaks down and helps me with it. I better get to whining real quick.....

Bee Free,
Penny

April Showers Bring ..... Lots of Rain!

2008-04-29T14:43:00.006-04:00

We're getting our fair share of April showers this year. We need it, but it's been slowing down the chicken coop progress the past week or so. Even so, we've managed to get a fair amount of work done on it. By "we", I really do mean Bernie, but I have helped as much as time will allow. You can take a look at how far along we are on the Back to Basic Living website.

Between rainy days, Bernie has to find one dry enough to go to town and mow the lawn at our house there. He's got his plate full between trying to keep up around here, and do maintenance there. But he fits it all in and never complains.

I made some gift baskets to sell for Mother's Day. One has a Goats Milk Body Lotion and a Goats Milk Soap bar made with goats milk, honey, and oatmeal. I put them in a reproduction antique enamel soap bowl:

I also have some gift baskets with three large bars of soap. Check them out if you're looking for a nice Mother's Day gift. Since I'm selling the soaps and lotions at a lower price with these baskets, I can't offer any discounts, but I may be able to save you a couple of dollars in shipping if you request it in the notes section when you order. If you want me to check for better shipping, add a note and don't pay right away - wait for me to get the shipping cost and I'll bill you via PayPal.

All of the rain is really helping my spring garden grow. It won't be long until we'll be eating fresh salads here on the homestead. Next month we'll be putting in the summer vegetable garden. With the arrival of the chicks scheduled for the middle of May, we should have plenty of fertilizer for it!

Bee Free,
Penny

Oh Deer, That's Good!

2008-04-20T10:21:00.005-04:00

We've got the Chicken Coop DeVille building pretty much complete - minus trim, chicken door, nest boxes, roost, and fenced in chicken yard. We still have a little work ahead of us, but the lion's share of it is finished. You can check out the pictures on the website.

Yesterday, after we finished working on the coop, we spent some time walking around the yard and enjoying the wildflowers and trees that are just starting to bloom here. I found a crab apple tree in bloom. Most of the blooms are up high, but I found one at just the right height for me to get this picture:

It was such a pretty little bloom, and I spent quite some time studying it. Which is a good thing, because this morning I looked out the back window and saw this:

Look at how calm and sweet those girls look. Look at how.... wait. What is that one on the right, in the back doing? Why is her head so far up? It looks like she's.....

Ugh. Yep - she's eating a crab apple bloom. The one, single crab apple bloom I could actually reach and see. We went out a few minutes ago, and this is what's left:

*Sigh*. It's hard to be too upset about that though. It's a wild crab apple and I'm sure that deer was quite happy to find it. Living with nature means accepting nature as it is. We chose this exact location for many reasons, and one of those reasons was the amazing range of wildlife that calls this homestead their home. We're learning to live with the wildlife. We'll do what we can to protect the food we raise for ourselves, and part of that includes planting extra food for those inevitable times when one of those furry little buggers sneaks past our efforts and finds the bonanza of tasty vegetables. We'll all get this figured out eventually.

Several of you have asked if I will be willing/able to butcher any of these chickens for our meals. Let me first say, I am getting these chickens to be pets, and I am extremely hopeful that they will show their appreciation of being pampered by rewarding us with eggs. Having said that, I also understand the basics and necessity of practicing good flock management. While my primary purpose is having these chickens as pets, we really can't afford to feed a bunch of pets that serve no purpose at all. Mean chickens/roosters should be culled. Non-layers should be culled. You will notice that I said "should".

A couple of you asked if I have ever killed a chicken in the past, and I said no. But the truth is that I have killed a chicken before. It was such a traumatic experience, I think I temporarily blocked it from my memory.

Many years ago, my parents had a rooster named Roy. Roy was the meanest rooster on the face of the planet. I hated that rooster - and that rooster hated me. In all fairness, everyone hated that rooster - and that rooster hated everyone. My parents kept him in a large fenced in area and, while it kept him from viciously attacking anything that moved in the yard, it did not keep him from trying to get at us through the fence. Well, one day Roy managed to get out of the fence. And my parents' little terrier, RJ, finally got back at Roy for all the tormenting through the fence. My mother and I were the only two at the house that day, and when we heard all the commotion, we ran into the back yard to find that RJ had all but killed Roy. Roy was a bloody mess of rooster feathers. He could not get up and he was certainly dying. My mother said "We've got to kill him and put him out of his misery." I completely agreed. "How are you going to do it?", I asked. The look in her eyes explained everything. By "we", my mother meant "me". She told me where to find an axe, and then stood behind me as I sent Roy Rooster off to his certain reign in Rooster Hades.

As much as I hated Roy, I hated killing him even more. It was very unpleasant, to say the least. I will spare you the gory details, but if you've ever chopped off the head of a chicken, you understand just how unpleasant that experience can be. There is a fair amount of flopping and kicking involved - and all of it occurs AFTER the head is detached from the body.

So CAN I kill a chicken? The answer is apparently "yes". WILL I kill any of these chickens? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

A friend told Bernie we could make some great chicken noodle soup out of these chickens. Bernie told him he didn't know if I would be able to kill any of these chickens. His friend said "Well, I guess she better learn how to make the noodles then."

Bee Free,
Penny

Chicken Coop DeVille

2008-04-14T19:20:00.003-04:00

I ordered my chickens today. Yay! They are scheduled to arrive the 19th or 20th of May. The post office is supposed to call me when they get there so I can rush over to bring my chicks home.

It's pretty late for ordering chickens this year, so I was very limited in my choices. I ordered a variety of Phoenix, Golden Pencil Hamburgs, White Faced Black Spanish, Silver Leghorns and Silver Gray Dorkings. I ordered 23 hens, and 2 roosters. Bernie isn't so thrilled at the idea of having roosters around, but I love watching them and all their antics, so I ordered them and asked for his forgiveness afterwards. He didn't seem too terribly upset. I think he was just happy that I quit singing my chicken song to him. I ordered from Murry McMurray's, and they throw in a free exotic chicken with every order. So we'll end up with 26 little baby chicks. I can hardly wait. McMurray has an excellent reputation for sending healthy chicks, and getting the sex correct the majority of the time.

I also put a new page up on the website with pictures of the erection of the Chicken Coop DeVille. Check it out!

Bee Free,
Penny

Stuff is Springing Up Around Here

2008-04-12T19:24:00.005-04:00

Another busy week on the homestead. Warmer weather brings not only the necessity, but the desire, to be outside and preparing for spring. We had 6 dump trunk loads of gravel delivered this week to help repair our driveway. Winter is tough on gravel driveways - so is 4 years of heavy equipment traveling on it to put in a well, septic, etc. So we got gravel delivered, and Bernie spend some time shoveling it around. I honestly can't remember what else he did, but I know he was busy every day and seemed to love all of it. He is so darn happy here. It makes my heart happy.

I had to go into town early this morning to deliver some soap, get my hair done, and meet up with a good friend that found someone who may buy one of the way too many motorcycles we own. I didn't get home until just after 1PM, and as I pulled into the yard I saw that Bernie was working on my chicken coop! Yay! He had just gotten the foundation level, so I ran in and changed into some grubby jeans and a tee shirt and went out to help him. I have never built any sort of building in my life. In fact, I have rarely used a hammer. I mean, I have certainly hung my share of pictures - but I typically use the heal of a shoe - something that drives Bernie to the brink of insanity. But today I used a hammer to hammer nails. Lots of nails. And the result was a floor for the coop and one whole wall. My arm was rubber by the end of it, but even when it assured me it could not lift that hammer one more single solitary time, it came through for me.

This chicken coop is WAY better than I ever anticipated. I figured we'd throw up a lean-to and be done with it. But Bernie has designed a Chicken-Coop-Deville. My little chickens will be proud to live in it. They may even be obnoxiously obnoxious to all other chickens that don't live in such a nice abode. He wanted to keep it chicken coopy (I think I just made that word up) but, at the same time, he wanted it to look presentable, as it is in our front yard. So he designed an 8 X 8 slant roof coop. It will have 2 windows, a door, and a little chicken door with a little chicken ramp. It's within a couple feet of my new garden shed, and it has the same exact siding. I'm going to post pictures of what we did today, and our progress along the way, to the website in the next couple of days. My arm is still not functioning quite right, so I'm pretty sure I won't be posting them tonight.

I did manage to get my arm to cooperate enough to post the following pictures, though:

That's my wildflower garden that Bernie help me put in last weekend, using a few of the several million rocks we have around this place. You probably can't tell in this picture, but the wildflowers are coming up! Several broke ground the past few days. I just love that little garden.

That's a picture of the lettuce we planted in a container. I'll admit, it's a close up. The lettuce is really not very big at all. But it's so darn cute, I wanted you to get a good look at it.

That's my radishes. They'll need to be thinned. They are larger than life in that picture, too. But they really give the lettuce a run for their money in cuteness.

Those little blades are the spinach that just decided to pop up today. They are so delicious looking already. Don't they make you just want to run outside and start eating grass?

We'll be working on the chicken coop each day when I get off work this week and I'll be taking pictures along the way. Bernie even got one of me hammering today. I look like I really know what I'm doing. In reality I was on the brink of tears and praying my rubber arm didn't flail uncontrollably just as he snapped the picture. I'll let y'all know when I get all the pictures posted.

The homestead is always a joy to us - even when it involves a lot of work to maintain it. There is a feeling of true accomplishment and pride when you can look, and I mean really LOOK, at the results of your labor at the end of the day. Tonight my poor body is feeling the results of my labor. It's a good feeling though. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Bee Free,
Penny

Life is Busy and Good on the Homestead

2008-04-07T16:42:00.004-04:00

With the weather warming a little on the homestead, we've been busy outside. While I rarely go outside when it's cold, you can hardly keep me inside when it's warm. I absolutely love warm weather. I even love hot weather. I don't even mind hot and humid weather. But I am really not a fan of cold weather.

Bernie's been busy with the fence. He's about 80% finished with the posts now. The last little bit is going slow as he has to clear a path for it. I helped him pull out some old, rusted, fallen field fencing with barb wire on it last weekend. He has some trees to cut down and brush to remove before he can do much more. He's reseeded the entire yard and laid down straw over the most naked parts. Today he started building my raised beds. Yay! Over the weekend he helped me get the radishes and spinach in some large containers outside. He also helped me build a little flower bed around the well head. We used a few of the thousands of very large rocks we've dug out of the ground around here. We filled it with some soil and then I planted a variety of wildflowers in it.

This weekend, First Choice Construction came out and built Bernie's barn shed and my garden shed. I have to tell you, we were completely impressed. This company not only beat the heck out of the price of pre-fab sheds from Lowe's, they custom built them on our property and used some top quality materials. Top notch workmanship, too. I just don't think I can say enough about them. If you live in Virginia and need a building built, I strongly suggest you get ahold of them. I have no clue how far they will travel, but they came about 120 miles to build our building. So check them out! http://www.firstchoiceconstruction.us/ In the meantime, here are some pictures:

Is that not the cutest little garden shed you've ever seen? I just love it! That's Chris, one of the owners of First Choice, on the left, and his helper Bruce on the right. I managed to chop off the roof in this picture, but decided to post it anyway because it's the only one I had with both Chris and Bruce in it. Chris is super nice and very professional. Bruce is really sweet, and spends a lot of time talking to himself. He even asks himself questions, and then answers them. It seems to help him work - and he is a very hard worker.

That's Chris in front of Bernie's barn shed. You probably have barn shed envy. I'm sure that's the coolest barn shed ever.

And that's Chris beside his monster freaking truck. That is one cool truck. And that bad boy can haul all kinda massive size loads. It has side compartments that carry every shed building tool known to man.

These guys built these two sheds in a total of two days. From scratch. Even the doors. I was sorry I didn't get to meet Kat, Chris' wife and the other owner of First Choice. She handles the customer service portion and scheduling of the business. Kat's great at what she does and she's super sweet. She spent a lot of time with me on the phone, not only discussing exactly what we wanted in these buildings, but giving advise on purchasing and caring for chickens, as well as building a chicken coop.

So there you have it. We're tickled pink with our buildings and totally impressed with First Choice Construction. We've got lettuce that's sprouted, garlic that's perking up, spinach and radishes planted, a new rock garden, vegetable beds in the works, and a fence that's close to being finished.

Life is good on the homestead. And Elvis has slept through most of it.

Bee Free,
Penny

Almost Spring

2008-03-30T15:16:00.002-04:00

It's starting to warm up on the homestead a bit and I'm beginning to believe Spring really is right around the corner. We've got some trees budding out, and a red maple in the front yard is even blooming right now. There are several trees in full bloom in town, but we're a couple of weeks behind them out here.

This week Bernie worked inside painting when it rained, and outside cutting more firewood and spreading the mulch he made. It's sad we still need firewood, but even when it warms up to near 70 degrees during the day, it's not unusual for the temperature to dip into the 30s at night. We're slowly warming up though, and soon we'll be missing the fire in the fireplace. I can't wait!

Charlotte gave me a Mimosa she had in a pot for a couple of years. I've kept it inside, but she left it outside year round, so I finally decided it was hardy enough to plant outside now. Bernie actually did the planting, but I told him where I wanted it and then stood by and gave lots of advise about digging the hole. I'm sure he really appreciated that.

Bernie plans to start building raised beds in the next week or so for the vegetable garden. We have some old tires, so I decided to go ahead and put my garlic in one of them. I bought some garlic plants from someone a few months ago and kept them in a pot inside by a window. They did pretty well inside, but are apparently quite hardy, so I decided to go ahead and put them outside in one of the old tires. I also used a tire to plant some lettuce seeds. And last fall I put some potatoes in a tire and covered them with a very thick layer of pine straw, as My Dear John suggested. I dug out the pine straw over the weekend and couldn't restrain myself from digging around a bit to see if anything survived the winter in there. Sure enough, I found potatoes and several with tubers already!

We went into town today to pick up a few things. We can't hardly go to town without stopping at Bernie's all time favorite store on the face of the entire planet - Tractor Supply Company (TSC). He got 50 more fence posts, and I got a chick feeder and waterer. I know I can't get chicks right now, but I told Bernie that TSC will be getting their baby chicks in the middle of April and that means that all the chick supplies will quickly sell out around that time. By getting the feeder and waterer now, I won't be searching for them when we finally do get our chicks. Amazingly, he said "That's probably a smart idea." I interpreted that as "Yes, you'll be getting your chicks soon." Yay! Not much longer and I'll have baby chicks to bore the snot out of you with!

We're getting our barn shed and garden shed built here this week. I'll be sure to post some pictures. My garden shed will end up being what we add the chicken coop on to. Hopefully, we'll start the coop project very shortly after we get the buildings erected.

I've been soaping a fair amount lately and working on a formula that is a little more moisturizing since my demented sister claims her skin is just too delicate for my already moisturizing bars. I made Bernie test one and he seemed to like it, although he asked me just to make him his regular soap. I do think there is a market for both types. Some people like a bubbly, cleansing soap and some people like a creamy, luxurious soap. I'm pleased with both recipes and can't wait until the newest cures so I can test it out on other unsuspecting family members. Hey sis - expect a package of soap from me soon.

Bee Free,
Penny

The Chickens That Almost Were

2008-03-23T14:51:00.005-04:00

We seem to be stuck in a weather pattern around here - rainy one day, windy and cold the next. This has been going on for a couple of weeks and, according to the long term weather forecast, will continue for the foreseeable future. Bernie pretty much decided to ignore the rain and worked on clearing out a spot for his new work shop. We found a small company that will construct a barn shed for him for less than he could build it himself. They're also going to build a small garden shed for me. Yay!

Bernie and Eddie took down a couple of locust trees last week that were starting to die. One of them had a hollow spot in the middle and was full of carpenter ants. When he cut and stacked that wood, word quickly spread throughout the feathered friends network, and we had flocks of birds hanging around the woodpile and eating ants for a few days. We saw several baby woodpeckers enjoying the hassle free meal too. Too cute.

I was two seconds away from ordering 25 one day old chicks this week. I had filled out the on-line order form, entered a credit card number, and had my finger poised above the "Order Now" button, when I decided I really better check with Bernie first. Naturally, he had to go and apply a little logic to the situation (such as mentioning the small fact that we don't have the fence up yet, let alone the chicken coop). In my defense, the chicks have to stay inside in a brood box for at least three weeks, and I figured that was plenty of time to get everything ready for them before they head outside. Bernie didn't quite see it that way, and in the end I decided not to hit the "Order Now" button on the website. I swear, he can be such a buzz kill sometimes.

I was in a soaping mood and made several new soaps this week. Here's a picture of three of them:

Left - Lemongrass and Rosemary essential oil blend
Middle - Shea Butter, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil and Safflower Oil unscented soap for Bernie
Right - Asian Garden, which is a Shea Butter, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, and Safflower Oil soap with a heavenly, exotic floral scent

Oh, and for those of you who have asked, the Honeycomb soap is up for sale on the website now.

I also made a new soap for girls I named Fairy Dust Soap. It's a glycerin soap with hot pink body glitter in it and is lightly scented with Dreamcicle fragrance. I made this one especially for my niece to give as Easter gifts to a few of the kids' friends. She really seemed to like it. I'll post a couple of pictures below, but they don't show off the sparkle very well. If you want larger, more sparkly pictures, you can see them on my Etsy shop page:

I also took a picture of a couple of them packaged up:

And yes, I did indeed write another poem to include with this soap. Just when you were certain my creative genius could not get any more awesome, I bring you this jewel:

Fairy Dust Soap

Wash with me and sparkle,
With all your hopes and dreams.
I am made of magic,
Sprinkled with Fairy Wings.

As you bathe and lather,
Dream of dancing on the stars.
You can rise above the heavens,
You will certainly go far.

This Fairy Dust will clean you,
And bring you lots of smiles.
So bathe with me each evening,
We’ll share the magic for a while.

Yes, yes, I know. I should really stick to just making soap. But I am forever hopeful that a young child will appreciate my poetic talent or, at the very least, be so excited about sparkly soap that she doesn't laugh at my lack of it.

This week promises to be much the same as last, with regard to weather. Bernie is determined to continue working on the fence, even if it does rain a bit. I think he realizes he can only put me off for so long from getting my chickens. I made up a little chicken song and have been singing it to him all day. Poor Bernie. He probably wants me to get chickens soon in the hopes that I'll aggravate them instead of him. I'm pretty sure I have enough aggravation in me to go around though.

Bee Free,
Penny

The Soapinator

2008-03-18T11:04:00.005-04:00

I mentioned to my wonderful husband that I would like him to make me a soap mold that would hold about twice as many as my current mold holds. On one particularly cold and windy day, he went outside to work for a while, and came in a short while later with this:

I'm sure you can tell, but I tilted it on it's side so you can get an idea of what the inside looks like. Bernie dubbed it "The Soapinator". I couldn't wait to put it to the test.

I whipped up a batch scented with a Lavender L'Occitane type fragrance last night. The Soapinator easily held the 8.75 pound batch of soap I poured into it! Here's a picture of it, filled with soap and topped with the lid he made for it:

I could hardly wait to unmold the soap today and cut the bars. The Soapinator did great - and I ended up with 27 bars! It would have been 28, but I cut a little off each end to use as tester bars. My soap didn't turn out as I had envisioned. It was supposed to be white soap with lavender swirls, topped with white soap shavings and a thin layer of the lavender on top to just barely coat the shavings. Well, the white turned rather beige, the lavender turned rather plum, and the lavender over the shavings is too thick. I still think it turned out OK - just not quite what I had in mind. I'm going to name it Lavender Breeze. Here's a picture of the whole batch:

As a bonus - you can also see the yellow walls of the kitchen in most of these pictures! To be fair, the colors are a little off. I used my camera with no flash. The soap is more purple than the picture shows - and the walls are a brighter yellow, if that's at all possible.

Bernie stood by to watch as I sliced each bars. He made some interesting observations about the swirls. For example, he commented that these two look a bit like ape faces:

He also found faces in all of these:

Unfortunately none look like the Virgin Mary or Elvis. We won't be getting rich off EBay with this batch. Darnit.

I wonder what, if anything, you see in these? It's sort of like an ink blot test. Only whatever you see will be interpretted as meaning you are insane. But wait.... that's exactly how the ink blot test works. So I guess it really is an ink blot test and you really are insane.

Bernie has close to 3/4 of the fence posts in now. He's also taken down several trees that were dead and threatening to fall in the path of the fence. Once he takes down a tree, he also saws it up for firewood and stacks it, and then shreds the small left over brances. All of this takes a fair amount of time. I'm sure he will be happier than I am when that fence is finally finished!

On another note, we just finished our 6th month living on the homestead. Can you believe it's been that long? I can't. Bernie is getting as bad as I am about leaving this place. In the last two weeks he has only left this place twice. And he wasn't happy about either of them. I'm fairly certain the neighbors will begin to think of us as those crazy people that live in the middle of the woods that no one ever sees. But I'm not so sure that's such a bad thing.

Bee Free,
Penny

Spring Forward - and Make Me Some Spaghetti

2008-03-08T18:51:00.004-05:00

Tonight, or rather early tomorrow morning, we spring forward. Which simply means we set our clocks ahead one hour. I really wish we could just decide on what time we want it to be and quit with all this Daylight Savings crap. I like it when we spring forward, and I wish we could just stay sprung. In Pennyland, springing forward means that I get to go to bed early and not feel like some old person. Because I can stay up until 10PM, because in my mind, it's REALLY only 9PM. Plus Elvis doesn't really get the whole time change thing, so he won't start screaming for me to get up until it's what he THINKS is 5AM - but it will acutally be 6AM since we have sprung forward and I'll already be awake. I can't wait to trick him. I may just YOWL at the top of my lungs when I wake up just to give him a taste of his own medicine. But that would wake up Priscilla. And Priscilla is quite considerate in the early morning. She never makes a peep until I wake up. And then she's hell on wheels the rest of the day, while Elvis goes back into hibernation for the rest of the day.

Tonight I made Bernie a big pot of spaghetti and noodles. It's one of his favorite meals. I can tell when he gets a hankering for it, because he drops subtle hints like "Remember when you used to love me and make me spaghetti". He's been really working hard to get this place painted, and being that he is a wonderful husband and I'm such a darn good wife, I made his stinkin' spaghetti and noodles. He seemed greatly appreciative.

Next week we're supposed to get a break in the weather. I really hope that's true. Bernie plans to work some more on our fence. I really can't wait to have this place fenced in so we can put in the garden and get our chickens and goats. I'm pretty sure I'll be battling chickens and goats in the garden, but I don't care. What's a homestead without animals to make it entertaining? Remind me that I said that when I complain about it in the future.

We're planning to finish painting our sitting area tomorrow. Bernie finished up mudding and priming the walls yesterday. We bought the paint today. I picked out a nice shade of deep red. I showed Bernie the little paint wheel from Sherwin Williams and asked "What do you think about this color?" He responded "Is it black?" I just chuckled and said "You are so funny". Who said color blindness is a bad thing?

Bee Free,
Penny

Mud and Honey Comb

2008-03-03T17:43:00.003-05:00

The weather has kept us from getting a lot accomplished outside on the homestead, but it sure has allowed us to make some headway in getting the inside of the house painted. By "we", I mean Bernie. But I'm sure you knew that already. Today Bernie worked on our little sitting room. He removed the strips between the drywall last week, and he's been working on getting those areas taped and mudded. Today he sanded it all down and attempted to mud over it again, but the mud was at the end of the bucket and getting rather gritty with old dried mud that kept falling in from the sides of the bucket. That makes mudding darn near impossible. He was not in a good mood when I checked on him around noon. I walked into the room to find it, and him, completely covered in drywall dust from all the sanding. He was totally white from being covered in dry wall dust, holding a mud knife full of gritty mud, cursing under his breath, and looking somewhere between a rabid dog and a crazed serial killer. I knew better than to say anything. I gave him a big hug and as I patted his back a huge plume of drywall dust erupted from his shirt. I wanted to laugh. But I knew better. I just said "Maybe you can quit for the day and wait until you buy more mud." He mumbled something as I left the room, but I didn't ask him to repeat it.

Sunday Tex, Charlotte, and Bobo came out to visit for the day. It was one of the warmest days we have had in a while. So the men decided to go outside and grunt and do manly things, while Charlotte, Bobo, and I decided to whip up a batch of soap. I've been wanting to try my hand at a batch of honeycomb soap I've seen pictures of, and since Charlotte and Bobo seemed game, I decided it was time. Charlotte and I lined my soap mold with bubble wrap, whipped up the soap, and poured it into the mold. I cut it this morning and I'm pretty pleased. It's made with honey, and scented with Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey:

Elvis had me up at 4:30 this morning. Although he's rarely awake, he can not stand to have me sleeping when his eyes are actually opened. He yowled and yowled until I finally gave up and joined him. I logged into work at 5:00AM, and Elvis curled up on the desk next to my mouse and fell asleep. I wanted to scream "YOWL" and wake him up, but I didn't have the heart.

By the way, Bernie is in a much better mood tonight after his mudding experience. He sanded a bit more, and everything looks really nice. He'll get some new mud tomorrow and get this finished up. It's very rare for him to be in a bad mood lately. And when it does happen, it doesn't last very long. After 20+ years of marriage, I've learned to keep my mouth mostly shut when it does though. I am, after all, a pretty darn good wife.

Bee Free,
Penny

Adding a Little Color to the Homestead

2008-02-24T15:52:00.005-05:00

This past week has been a mess with regard to weather. Snow and ice - and then it warms up just enough during the day to all start melting and leave us with a muddy mess. Bernie has spent a great deal of time inside this week. And as a result, he's finished painting almost half the inside of the house. Yay!

You may not know this about the love of my life, but he is color blind. Thank the heavens. Because the dining room is a very dark green, and the kitchen is a very bright yellow. Bernie thinks they are black and bright, respectively. I assured him they look beautiful. And being the wonderful husband that he is, he simply said "As long as you like them." Although, when we were putting the kitchen back together after he painted, he picked up the French's Yellow Mustard bottle, held it up to the kitchen wall, and asked "Is that wall the same color as this?" I was amazed that he could notice the similarity, but I just chuckled and said "You are so funny". Don't tell him.

We learned we are getting money back on our income taxes for last year. That's a big deal to me, as we usually end up paying. It's not a big deal to Bernie because he feels they never should have taken it in the first place. I'm just thrilled not to have to write the IRS a check right now. We both feel that paying taxes to the Federal Government is robbery. Look up the definition of robbery. It's something to the effect of taking something from you that you do not willingly give. As in requiring it by law. But that's a subject for a different blog. I'm here to tell you about living on our homestead, not to remind you you're being robbed by the Federal Government.

So we learned we are getting money back on our income taxes for last year. And I left the homestead for the first time this week and went into town to pick up the paperwork from our accountant so we can go ahead and file. We stopped by to see Tex and Charlotte. Tex greeted us by looking at Bernie and saying "How in the world did you get HER off the homestead?" Is it that obvious? Maybe I should get out more.

I made some Sea Salt Spa Bars this weekend. These are kind of tough to make as they require cutting before they have cured overnight. I usually cut them within three hours, while they are still hot and VERY soft. It's not very easy to cut them while they are soft. I took a couple of pictures, but keep in mind, they are still soft and I haven't cleaned them up yet.

Here's one I made with Rosemary Essential Oil and a touch of Peppermint Essential Oil. I am really in love with this scent. Very nice:

And here's one I made with Raspberry Lilac fragrance oil. I had just cut this one when I took the picture, so forgive the washing machine background:

We did have quite a bit of wind this week that not only blew over 2 trees into the driveway, but blew the tin roof about 1/3 the way off the cabin roof. I don't think I need to tell you how much fun it was to tack the roof back down during all those high winds. Although Bernie did that actual task, I held the ladder for him and crawled up on the shed roof next to the cabin to do that for him. The wind kept blowing the tin roof OVER TOP of him. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Not only am I afraid of heights, I am terrified of losing my husband and being stuck to care for this place all by myself. I told him I was going to kill him if he died. And I seriously meant it.

And through every thing we've done this week, this is a picture of what Elvis was doing:

In all fairness, Elvis really doesn't sleep ALL the time. Here's a picture I took of him wide awake:

He's just full of energy in that picture. You can tell because his eyes are open. Couldn't you just kiss his fur right off of him?

Bee Free,
Penny

Incriminating Evidence

2008-02-19T13:40:00.003-05:00

I think I mentioned that when we have nasty weather outside, Bernie is painting the inside of the house for me. Today is cold and windy, and apparently the thought of painting appealed to him more than working outside, or maybe he just wants to get it over with. What ever the reason, he decided to put a base coat on some of the walls today, and I am eternally grateful.

While he was painting, he took a quick break to come back to my office and chat with me for a few minutes. When he got back to his paint tray, I heard him chuckle and yell for me to come look at something. When I got there, this is what I saw:

The paint tray was on the floor, but there were no paw marks close to the paint tray at all. We were a little perplexed where the paint came from, until Bernie found this on the wall:

If you look very closely at the top left and bottom right, you will see the little cat paw prints.

As you know, we have two cats – Elvis and Priscilla. They are siblings. Elvis is 18 pounds of sheer laziness and affection. Priscilla is a whopping 7 pounds of nothing but trouble. That little monkey is always into something.

I went looking for cats. I first found Elvis – doing exactly what Elvis always does. He was sleeping. He woke up when I grabbed the camera and managed to expend enough energy to yawn:

Priscilla jumped up on the bed, looking very suspiciously guilty:

I flipped her over on her back, and sure enough …….

White paws! I KNEW it!

Fortunately, base paint comes up very easily with a little water. I wish I could train her to step in paint and walk across a few pieces of furniture. I think the cat paws would look cool. But I’ve learned you can’t train Priscilla. She has a mind of her own - and that little mind is always thinking of ways to get into trouble. If she weren’t so darn cute, I might even get annoyed with her.

She and Elvis should be happy we get so much entertainment and loving out of them or they’d be barn cats for sure. But then I’d worry they’d starve to death, because they apparently find catching and killing mice repulsive.

I’ll post pictures next week of the kitchen and living room walls we painted. Hopefully, they will be paw free.

Bee Free,
Penny

Don't Have a Cow, Man

2008-02-16T18:38:00.004-05:00

We've had some weather the past week and between the ice and freezing temperature, Bernie hasn't gotten outside to do much with the fence or anything else. But he has started painting the inside of the house for me. Yay! We got a base coat over about half of it, but he surprised me today while I was in town getting my hair done, and started painting with the colors I bought. I am tickled pink.

Yesterday we went into town to clean the house we have for sale and get it ready for the open house today. The realtor called us this afternoon and said she had a great turnout and two couples that really seemed interested. We're not getting too excited - we've had "really interested" people look at the house before. Still, it's promising. So we'll see what happens.

When I got back from getting my hair done today, and saw Bernie was more than half finished with applying the beautiful shade of deep green I picked out for the dining room area, I grabbed a paint roller and started helping him finish it up. We were just about ready to call it a day, when I heard a knock at the front door. It really startled me. Our house is a couple miles down a one lane dirt road, and then about 1/4 mile down a driveway that looks like nothing most people would want to venture on, that winds and turns and goes up and down a few hills. It is in no way inviting from the main road and people don't typically just wander down it. We've never had an unexpected guest. Although several friends know how to find us, no one we know wants to drive all the way out here to visit with us without calling first to make sure we'll be home.

So when I heard a knock at the door, I froze. Bernie was in the kitchen starting to clean up the paint tools and we had the radio blasting, so he was oblivious. I peeked out a window and saw a stranger standing there. It actually scared me to death. I quickly walked into the kitchen and found Bernie and in spite of my desperate attempt to be calm, screamed "THERE'S SOMEONE AT THE FRONT DOOR!" He looked at me in total disbelief. "QUICK, GO FIND OUT WHAT HE WANTS!" I couldn't believe how loud I was and hoped Mr. Stranger didn't hear me.

Bernie opened the door and went outside. I continued the final touches of painting, but I kept an eye out the window, just in case Mr. Stranger turned out to be a mass murderer and I needed to attack him with my paint brush. As it turns out, Mr. Stranger had a cow escape from his property at the top of the ridge. Her name is Bella. And Bella was on our property. Just outside the cleared area in the woods. She was actually really pretty - brown with a few white spots. And Bella was really enjoying our woods. Mr. Stranger was worried she would get in our yard and eat the grass. Bernie told him not to worry about it and volunteered to help in any way he could. Mr. Stranger said he was going to walk back up to the top of the ridge (where our property borders) and hoped Bella would follow him. That's no small hike, and Bernie offered him a ride, but he declined and headed back up to the woods. And sure enough, Bella followed him. Hopefully, Mr. Stranger got Bella back in her safety pen and is enjoying a nice calm evening, and Bella is enjoying a nice bale of hay.

It's interesting living on our homestead. We've met several neighbors, and wave at everyone we pass on our little one lane road. It's peaceful here and the people are so nice. When we were in town, it was quite common to hear the door bell ring and think nothing of it. It was often a stranger, but we thought nothing of opening the door to see what they wanted. Out here, people respect your privacy, so you rarely see them on your property. And while they are friendly and kind, they don't just pop by unannounced. So when someone shows up, it's an event here.

We are fine with escaped live stock. We plan to have goats and chickens in the very near future and unfortunately, it's difficult to teach livestock about property lines. So who knows - we may end up visiting Mr. Stranger to let him know we have a goat on his property sometime. Neighbors are good people to be on good terms with. And visiting over escaped livestock ends up making a friend out of a stranger.

I hope Bella is warm and cozy tonight. She is welcome to come visit with us anytime. That may not make Mr. Stranger very happy - but it would be nice to see him again too. We'll drive him home next time. Hiking that ridge can be rather exhausting - although it didn't seem to bother Bella very much.

Bee Free,
Penny

I Think I Know How Dorothy Felt

2008-02-10T18:16:00.000-05:00

Wow - we've got some wind going on here. Serious wind. And it's cold. The only thing I dislike more than cold, is wind and cold. And bee eating skunks. And it's a close toss up between those.

It's been an absolutely relaxing weekend. I had planned to spend time in my office trying to organize my business stuff for tax time - and by "organize" I mean actually beginning the book keeping that I have been ignoring the past few weeks. Instead, we actually got out. I am not kidding. I left the homestead both on Saturday and on Sunday. Not only did I go willingly, I actually enjoyed myself. I'm pretty sure this is a record.

Saturday we went into town to deliver some of my soaps, stop by the house we have there and clean up the yard a bit, and visit with Tex and Charlotte at their shop for a few minutes. On the way home, we got a call from a buddy that was with a couple more friends on bikes close by to meet them all for lunch. Our friend is a bit of a hotdog, and being on a bike with a side car is really too much temptation for him. He's sincerely not mature enough to ride a bike with a side car, as he tends to ride it with the side car in the air pretty much the entire time. We all met up, and then left to head to Arby's - our friend with the side car in the air the entire way. Long story short, in spite of the state police, local police, and Gang Task Force that followed our friends into the parking lot to harass them a bit, we had a nice lunch. It's not illegal to lean and pull a side car up in the air, but it sure doesn't make the Counties Finest very happy. We had a nice lunch and then Bernie and I headed home.

Today we hooked up with Charlotte and Tex and did a bit of shopping in the large metropolis of Winchester. Winchester has a Price Club. They also have Michael's and Gander Mountain. The boys headed off to Gander Mountain and Charlotte and I attacked Michael's. Although we found a few items worth purchasing at Michael's, Charlotte and I decided we needed to walk over to Linens-n-Things. We did pretty good there, but still not completely satisfied, we headed over to Target's. We scored there, even though we had no luck at Lowe's in the Home Organization section. By the time we were finishing up, the boys called. We all hooked up at Costco and while Charlotte and I ran through the store fulfilling our shopping lists, the boys wandered through the electronics section. We all ate a hotdog together and called it a day.

I am exhausted from the experience. That's the largest number of people I've been around in one weekend in many months. Unless you count Richmond - and one of those mother humpers managed to make me sick. I better not get sick again. If I do, I'm banishing myself forever to the homestead. That'll show them.

We made it back to the homestead and wind. Lots and lots of wind. I'll be frankly amazed if I finish this without the electric going out. Although if it does, I won't have to cook supper..... on second thought.... BLOW, WIND BLOW. BLOW LIKE THE WIND!

Bee Free,
Penny

Open for Business!

2008-02-03T20:04:00.000-05:00

It's official. I've got my soap on a website for sale. I got several requests to have my soap available for sale by Valentine's Day, so I decided to go ahead and list them on Etsy. I'm still adding stuff, but you can look and start ordering now, if you please. http://pennylanebath.etsy.com

Here's a couple of tips you may appreciate:

- When you checkout, mention Back to Basic Living in the comments box and get a 10% discount
- I am forced to enter a flat rate for shipping each item. If you order more than 3 items, add a note in the comments box that you want me to calculate shipping for you and go ahead and place the order, but do not pay the bill when it arrives in your inbox. I'll see if I can get a better shipping rate for you. Wait until I calculate your shipping for the least expensive rate and personally email you with the final bill.
- I have to pay a minimal fee for each item I list (that means a fee for every bar of soap) so I only listed two of each. If the item displays zero available, or not as many as you would like, just email me and I will list more if I have them. basicliving@backtobasicliving.com
- I am only accepting PayPal right now until I get my business account set up at the bank. You do not have to have a PayPal account to send a payment. Follow the instructions when you get your bill and you can send payment without an account. If, however, you would like to pay by check, put a note in the comments box and go ahead and check out. I'll email you with some instructions.

OK, I think that's it. Thanks for the nudge I needed to get the soap up for sale!

Bee Free - and Bee Clean ;-)
Penny

People Make Me Sick

2008-02-02T19:20:00.000-05:00

Between the trip to Richmond last week and the trip to the dentist, somewhere, somehow, someone managed to infect me with a Death Cold. I'm feeling better now, but the last week has been misery. And today poor Bernie is sick as a dawg with it. People have germs and they are not afraid to share them. Watch your back out there.

We had an ice storm a couple of days ago. Naturally, when there is weather trees on our homestead start falling down. We had to spent some time clearing the driveway of fallen trees. Even though it can sure cause some damage, ice is really pretty to look at. I put some pictures I took up on the website if you'd like to take a look. While I was playing around with the camera, I got this shot:

I wish I had been paying better attention instead of focused on catching that little drop of water. I would have made sure Bernie's blue tarped fire wood pile wasn't the background for the picture. But I kind of like it anyway.

I decided to do a little project with glycerin soap and make something kids will enjoy. I poured the soap into cello bags, embedded little plastic toy gold fish, and then topped them off with more soap. Look at how cute this little fish in a bag is:

I made several bags and used all different colored fish. I even wrote a little fish poem and attached it to the bag. Just when you thought you had witnessed the extent of my talents, I offer this for your amazement:

I'm just a little fishy,
Won't you set me free?
Make the bathtub swishy,
And lather up with me.

While we're in the water,
We'll have so much fun.
Splashing like an otter,
Our friendship has begun.

Wash and scrub all over,
Don't forget behind your ears.
You'll smell fresh as clover.
I will bring you lots of cheer.

So lather up like crazy,
While you play with me.
If you do this daily,
Soon I will be free.

Now what kid could resist a soap with a fish toy and an awesome little poem like that?

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. Bernie has his menu planned - I just hope he's feeling well enough to enjoy it.

People make me sick - and apparently I make Bernie sick.

Bee Free,
Penny

Soap Porn and Super Bowl Plans

2008-01-28T15:46:00.000-05:00

I've really gotten into this larger soap mold I got for Christmas that makes the over sized bars. I took some pictures of the last two batches I made and thought you might like to see some more of my soap porn.

Here's the one that is scented with the Polo Sport Type for men fragrance that I named Tyler - it's getting a little more gray as it cures, but it's still looking rather beige. You can tell by the center though, it is getting a little grayer on the edges:

And here's one of my Raspberry Lilac - the picture doesn't show it very well, but the lilac portion is swirled with raspberry. The top portion is raspberry and it's topped with a sparkly lilac mica powder:

We had a nice relaxing weekend on the homestead. We just kind of tinkered around here and I don't even really remember that we did anything note worthy. It was just nice to be here.

Next weekend is Super Bowl Sunday and Bernie is very excited about the personal Super Bowl party I throw him each year. He's getting his menu together and the schedule of when each of the little snacks gets served. I'll spend all day cooking for him, but I don't mind. He's a pretty good husband. And I think it's been well established that I'm a darn good wife.

Bee Free,
Penny

Soaping Fool on the Homestead

2008-01-25T15:35:00.000-05:00

Here's the soap I made yesterday and cut today for my favorite nephew-in-law, Troy:

What do ya think? I made another batch a few minutes ago for my very favorite great-nephew. I used a Curves for Men type fragrance oil. It's supposed to be gray, with black soap cubes throughout it. I used a new colorant, and right now it is looking very suspiciously beige. I'm not sure it's going to turn out as I planned at all. I'll know tomorrow when I cut it. I'm naming this one Tyler. The little snot better like it.

I worked today and Bernie headed out to our house in town to empty out the refrigerator and freezer. We probably should have thought to do that a few months ago. I know that thing was slap full, but he came home with just a small cooler full of food. I said "That's all?" and he said "Don't even ask." Apparently he had several trash bags for the dump - and he wasn't happy about it. Darnit.

Not sure what we're doing on the homestead this weekend, but I do know it will involve us BEING on the homestead. Even Bernie has decided he's not going anywhere. We're staying put and working around here. Yay! I love it when I bring Bernie around to my way of thinking.

Bee Free,
Penny

Finless and Fancy Free

2008-01-24T15:47:00.000-05:00

I had my fin removed yesterday. The only painful part was the 50,000 times he stuck me with a needle to deaden my mouth. There was no way pain was going to sneak through all the Novocaine he shot in there. My entire head was numb by the time he got started. I won't give you all the gory details, but you can imagine just how pleasant it is to see items entering your mouth that look and sound like the tools your husband uses while working on a car engine. Finally, Dr. Specialist announced "There it is! I see your fin. I wish I could take a picture for you to put on your blog." I had a moment of absolute horror as I wondered if he had actually read my blog, but then decided he was just a little techno-savvy and being chatty. Otherwise I am certain he would have commented on my wonderful drawing. He sewed in six stitches and I was on my merry way.

So the fin is gone and other than a few minutes of discomfort as the Novocaine wore off, I'm really feeling just fine. So fine, in fact, that I actually made another batch of soap today. My niece called to inform me that she loves my soap, but her husband doesn't care for all the girly smells. So I decided to make a batch especially for him. I used my mold that makes over sized bars again - and this time I colored it black and stirred in white confetti soap. Then I used the blender to whip up a bit of the soap that I had removed before adding the black color and spread a layer of white topping on the black soap. I know how it's supposed to look, but I have no idea how it will actually turn out. I scented it with a fragrance oil that smells like Polo Sport for Men. I'll cut it tomorrow and if it turns out half way decent, I'll post a picture here. Since "Polo Sport for Men" is taken, I'm calling this one Troy because, well, it was inspired by Troy. I am so darn creative.

Lobby Day at our Capitol went really well and we spoke to as many representatives as we could pin down. We're writing the ones we missed and Bernie will be back down there a few more times this session. They may not vote the way we want them to, but certainly they won't vote before knowing how we feel about it.

Between shuttling me to the dentist and trying to keep up with things around here, Bernie's been chipping ice off the driveway. We have a fairly steep hill just before you get to the house that was covered in ice and getting a bit scary to maneuver. For my daily outing, I took the Trail Blazer down to check mail and was quite pleased with the job he did on the driveway. I don't mind excitement, but that driveway was getting just a little more exciting than I like. It's fine now and he finished it just in time for it to start snowing again. Hopefully it's just a flurry. But I don't trust Old Man Winter. You may remember we ended up with eight inches of snow after predicted flurries last year.

We're still plugging along on the homestead. The ground is too frozen to put in fence posts right now. Bernie still has some trees to deal with that fell during various storms this winter. We'll just add that to the never ending list of things that keep us busy and happy around here.

Bee Free,
Penny

Everyone's a Critic

2008-01-18T16:10:00.000-05:00

I know y'all think I'm kidding, but I really do receive a lot of email pointing out any mistakes I make in my blogs or simply commenting on what a dufus I can be. In all honesty, I know that it is done in jest or with a sincere effort to be helpful, and being the good natured person I am, I take it how it was intended.

After my last post, my dear sister wrote to inform me I had made three spelling/grammar errors in my blog. No "Hey - great blog. Oh by the way you misspelled something" just "I found three errors in your blog". Thanks, sis. I fixed them.

And then here's the love letter My Dear John sent me:

"If that dentist isn't any better at drawing I don't think he'b b my first choice for removing a fin .

Either that U ain't much better at drawing then he is"

I love you too, My Dear John. (Note to sister - the spelling errors are his, not mine)

And speaking of being a critic, here's your chance to critique the latest soap I made. It's quite a bit different than any I've made before and it didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned, but I think it's OK. I'd just love to hear what you have to say about it. It's honey scented with a chocolate center and chocolate shavings on top. I call it "Bee My Honey" - being as it's for Valentine's day and all.

Here's a close up of one with the heart in it:

These bars are larger than I usually make. They measure about 3 and 1/2 inches wide by 3 and 1/2 inches tall (not including the shavings). So what do y'all think? I was a little disappointed in the shavings. I cut them with a carrot peeler and I think they are a little too short and a little too thin.

We're heading to Richmond for Lobby Day weekend tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be fine when I get there, but I'm kind of dreading it right now. Going to Richmond means I have to leave our homestead for a few days. I don't like leaving our homestead. But I also don't like the legislature being in session and not being aware of where I stand on things that many of them tend to take lightly - my pesky little rights, for example. So we're heading to Richmond until Monday.

Until then, keep those emails coming! Let me know what you think of the soap. I'll answer when we return.

Bee Free,
Penny

PS - I do love to get your emails. There is also a comment feature to each blog entry if you are interested in sharing what you have to say with the blogosphere. (Note to sister - blogosphere does not show up in the dictionary)

Thank You Each for Your Sincere Concern

2008-01-17T13:25:00.001-05:00

Prior to today, the most amount of email I've gotten in response to this blog concerned soap making and butter churning. But certainly the post yesterday on my fin has gotten the attention of many of you. I really appreciate all the concern and well wishes. I'll post a few of the comments I received below, so that you can see how much my blogger friends love me and are concerned for my well being:

1 - "I always knew you were special, but I had no idea you are half fish"
2 - "Sharks have fins toooooooo!"
3 - "Will you join the circus now?"

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. And speaking of pictures, I drew one to help explain my fin:

I swear to you, this is a very close duplicate of the picture the specialist actually drew for me. I am not lying. At any rate - that Homer Simpson looking thing is actually all the root openings at the top of my tooth. The fin is that thin line coming out of the top of one of those roots. Apparently it is almost microscopic, but for some reason Dr. Specialist is convinced he will see it when he slices my gum open and be able to remove it. I asked him if there is any chance he will cut a nerve and I will have facial paralysis the rest of my life. Do you know what he said to me? He said "There is always that risk, but it is very rare". VERY RARE??? That's exactly what he told me about having a freaking fin in the first place!!! Great.

So now you know all I know about my fin. And my fin and I are just fine for now. After next week, my fin will be nothing but a memory and I will be able to smile about it - that is if my face isn't paralyzed from the surgery.

It's been snowing here all day long. I would guess we have about 3 - 4 inches now. I took some pictures earlier - they appear kind of hazy because it was snowing like crazy when I took them. Oh - and they were taken out a window because, as you know, I don't do snow. I put them up on the website and will add more as the day progresses. Check them out!

OK, I've got to go start making some soap for Valentine's day. Just wanted to check in with y'all and express my appreciation for all the warm thoughts and wishes and concern for my fin. I can sure feel the love.

Bee Free,
Penny

And You Wonder Why I Never Leave the Homestead

2008-01-16T18:36:00.000-05:00

I think we've well established that I'm pretty content to stay right here - safe and secure on our little homestead. I know that many of you have teased me about rarely leaving our little slice of heaven. I would go so far as to say a few of you have actually mocked me about that little fact. I can take it. But I offer you the following as a prime example of why I insist on being such a hermit.

I had a dentist appointment yesterday. Naturally, I can't have just a typical dental issue. I have to have a well-we-occasionally-see-this-but-it's-extremely-rare type of dental issue. Without all the painstakingly long details, suffice it to say I had a cracked tooth that required a root canal - that went bad after a year and a half because I was born with a freaking fin on my root. Yes, a FIN. And I drove 70 miles to see a specialist and learn about it. Until yesterday, I had never even heard of a fin. Apparently the specialist I went to had heard of a fin, but he assured me they are very rare. Most people have fins when they are born and they close up and heal during adolescence. Do I need to tell you how much comfort I did not take in knowing it is rare and that my mouth can't be normal? I couldn't care less if only one person or every other person on the planet has a fin that causes trouble. I have a fin and MY fin is causing me trouble. And as far as I'm concerned, that's really all that matters to me and all that should matter to my specialist. At any rate, he informed me of my fin and scheduled my surgery for next week. I should have stayed at home.

But I didn't stay at home. I drove 70 miles to see my dear specialist. When I left his office the sky was blue and the sun was beating down upon me. It was lovely. I felt God was shining his approval on me that we had discovered my fin and made plans to rectify what He kind of forgot to take care of when I was born. Life was wonderful. 12 miles later, I was in a total white out from a blizzard. Seriously, it was awful. So awful that about two miles later all traffic came to a dead stop on the interstate. I figured some one spun out on the slick road and we would get moving within minutes. After about 20 minutes, I shut the car off. After about an hour I turned it back on to warm up and listen to the news. It seems there was a twenty to twenty five car pile up just ahead of me. They had shut down the interstate. I shut the car off and cried for a few minutes. I called Bernie, who was totally sympathetic, and informed me he was busy starting a nice fire in the fire place. I hung up and cried for a few minutes more. I did take the time to recognize that there were at least 20 - 25 people having a worse day than I, and I said a quick prayer for each of them and their safety. And then I cried a little more.

Long story short (I know, I know - too late!) after just over two hours, traffic started to move. We were diverted to an exit ramp and then back on the entrance ramp. I could see an 18 wheeler perched precariously over the via duct and several cars scattered here and there. I am thankful that it appeared most were just banged up a bit. I really do pray everyone involved is OK.

I finally made it back to the homestead, where Bernie and a nice glowing fire awaited me. There really is a reason I don't like to leave here. Anytime I leave it seems people don't want to let me come back.

I made some nice Sea Salt Bars last weekend. Pure Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, and Sea Salt. Feast your eyes on these lovely puppies:

Now wouldn't you rather have me here on the Homestead cranking out bath stuff, that fighting traffic and discussing about fins with a dentist?

Bee Free,
Penny

Pass the Cheese Please and Share that Honey

2008-01-08T18:12:00.000-05:00

Well, it's only been about a little over a month since we made cheddar cheese and although we are supposed to let it age about six months, we decided to cut it tonight and see how it is doing. It's pretty good! Very cheddary, but a bit soft still. Bernie thinks it would make a great spread, so I'm going to research that a bit.

It was such a nice, warm day today - in the 70's! Such a nice treat after weather that didn't get out of the 20's for a while. In keeping with my resolution to wander outside every day, I went with Bernie down to the cabin this afternoon to take care of some things. While we were there, we noticed a lot of activity around the hives our poor little bees used to occupy. Our hearts started pounding. Are those honey bees buzzing around those hives? We quickly gathered up our bee suits and went into the apiary to investigate. The hives were indeed full of honey bees - but they were simply robbing the left over honey. We noticed right away that there were a lot of fights happening on the porch of each, and that was the first clue that we had robbers. We opened each hive and while they were all full of bees, there was no brood and no queen. Just little hungry girls happy to find the bounty.

We left the hives out this winter hoping that they would get cleaned up, and I guess that's happening. The bees could be from a close by neighbor that raises them, or from one of our swarms that we never could locate. In any event, it was really nice seeing honey bees around those hives again and we are really looking forward to starting again in the spring. In the meantime, I'm happy to know the leftover honey is going to help out some other hungry little girls. They were so darn cute digging honey out of the combs I could have just kissed their little wings right off of them.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I do have to work tomorrow, but since I work from home, it won't be all that bad. And any day I don't have to leave the homestead is a good day. I'm not even going to the dump either - so don't even ask me, Bernie. Happy Birthday to me.

Bee Free,
Penny

Putting It All into Perspective for 2008

2008-01-01T07:58:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning very much aware that 2008 is upon us. As I drank my coffee and welcomed in the New Year, I could not help but reflect on the past year and all the changes that occurred in our lives in 2007. Naturally, the biggest and most welcome change was moving to our homestead.

I remember spending weekends here and yearning to live on our homestead full time. I also remember the day my dear husband announced he was ready to quit his job in the city and finally make our dream of living on our homestead a reality. I was terrified. Cutting our income in half and taking the plunge of realizing that dream was suddenly very scary to me. But we did it. And we've not regretted it or looked back.

When we spent weekends here, we would look out over the yard and envision fences, goat pens, chicken pens, outbuildings, and a huge vegetable garden. In my mind it seemed all we had to do was finally get here full time, and then *poof*, our little homestead would be transformed into land filled with all these things and I would be feeding goats and chickens, collecting eggs, milking goats, and gathering vegetables from our garden. We'd have buildings to park vehicles in and sheds that would house my gardening tools.

As I sit here on the first day of 2008 and look out the windows, I don't see any of those things. The *poof* didn't happen. It's been more like a *pfffffttt*. Bernie has about half the fence posts up and while we are planning where we'll locate buildings, pens, and gardens, they are all some distance in the future right now. It all takes time and labor and I somehow didn't really factor that into the equation. At least not as much of it as it really takes.

It's cold here and we are supposed to get some nasty winter weather. We've decided to start painting the inside of the house today - yet another project I envisioned being finished within the first week of moving out here. Naturally, I want to believe we can have the whole house painted by the end of the day. In reality, it will be weeks before this job is complete.

I'm really not dissappointed in the slow progress we are making. Every day brings us a little closer. I just want it all NOW! Certainly this has all been a lesson in patience. And patience has never really come naturally for me.

So in reality I guess I'd have to say that 2007 was the beginning of realizing our dream to homestead, and we have a lot of work ahead of us. I'm learning to be more realistic in setting goals and accomplishments. So stick around and I'll continue to step you through how we get there. As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day. I'm sure it took at least a week.....

Happy New Year!

Bee Free,
Penny

Merry Christmas - You Have a Mouse in Your House

2007-12-28T07:32:00.000-05:00

I trust each of you had a very Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, or what ever holiday you celebrate this time of year. We celebrate Christmas on the homestead and we spent it with my family about 600 miles away from here. It was a wonderful time with family and we shared a lot of laughs and good times.

We got back to the homestead Wednesday night and found a note from our pet sitter that basically said "The cats were fine. Merry Christmas. You have a mouse in your house." Well, great. You may recall that we've done battle with mice in the past, but I was certain that after we sealed every nook and cranny that a mouse could possibly use to gain access inside, in addition to having the cats in the house now, that little issue was taken care of.

I called the pet sitter to get some mouse details. She said she was visiting and heard a noise in the bathroom, so she and Elvis went to investigate. When she pulled back the shower curtain, she saw the mouse. After chasing it around the bathroom trying to capture it in a plastic dixie cup, it ran past her into my office. Elvis, being the complete slug that he is, sat and watched the whole thing, and even moved out of it's way as the mouse ran past him. Priscilla hid in the bedroom. Worthless cats.

One of the first things I did when I learned of the mouse was check our beautiful cheese that we put up to age. No mouse meddling there. Whew. We've seen no sign of the mouse since we've been home, but we're on high alert. Anyone know of a Mouser 101 school I can ship these worthless cats off to?

I've been busy as a bee making soap. I hope to have a pretty good inventory when I go live with my website to sell it. Last night I made a heavenly smelling Raspberry Lilac. By the end of this weekend, I should have about eight different types of soap curing - something for everyone!

As 2007 winds down, we look forward to what 2008 will bring us here on the homestead. I hope it doesn't involve snow, ice, or mice.

Bee Free,
Penny

Our Christmas Trees

2007-12-16T07:56:00.000-05:00

With no children in our house, the fact that we travel to my parent's at Christmas, and with two cats that are obsessed with anything that dangles, we no longer put up a Christmas Tree. But it seems Mother Nature provided us with several this year, complete with icicles:

The first couple of picture were taken just at daybreak. Very pretty and it's especially easy to appreciate because it's only on the higher branches, which means the ground is only wet. And we didn't get it as bad as they called for. I hope it stays that way.

It looks like we only lost one tree in the yard. If you look very closely in these pictures, you may be able to see a downed tree in these pictures. It's up at the tree line to the right of the big tree in the middle of the first picture - and to the left in the second picture. We haven't been down the driveway yet, so I'm not sure if there are any down across the road yet. The next couple of days will be interesting when the high winds get here. We typically lose a few trees when the ground is wet and then high winds come in.

This morning we'll enjoy the view of decorated trees that Mother Nature has provided. I sure hope she doesn't get angry and pummel us with a mess.

Bee Free,
Penny

The Run Down

2007-12-15T19:41:00.000-05:00

I tried writing in this blog for the past two nights, and just couldn't seem to get my thoughts together or my heart into it. Well, there's nothing better than watching The Rock to get your old ticker humming again - and tonight we watched him in "The Run Down". Great movie. Lots of action, humor, character, and ...well... The Rock!!! Without tyring to get all movie critic on you, I'll just say this movie is basically about a man who does what he has to do to win back his freedom and persue his dreams, without compromising his character and integrity. But when it comes right down to it, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. It's a great movie for a lot of different reasons. Did I mention The Rock stars in it? Wow.

Other than the trip to the dump, I think it's been three weeks since I left the homestead. Well, I finally took the plunge today and headed into town to get my hair colored. I also brought two dozen of my Smelly Jelly room fresheners in to the shop to sell them. And sell them they did. Before I even left, half were gone! Woo hoo! I made up another couple dozen when I got home for Bernie to take them this week.

Bernie hurt his back some how. I suspect it was either from that huge oak he grounded, chopped, and split - or from dragging around and hanging those mega huge deer Eddie gave us. At any rate, his feeble attempt to hide it last weekend did not escape me and I nagged him into taking it a little easier this week. He took care of a lot of things around the house that didn't involve him acting like Hercules and using his back, and I'm proud to report his back seems to be much better now. He informs me he'll be ready to tackle all the work outside next week. Which is good. He's happier when he's out and about - and that translates into me being happier. So it's a win/win situation.

I've been a soap making fool the past week. I made a batch of unscented bar soap for Bernie that I cleverly named "Nekkid Bernie". Hey - cut me some slack. What I lack for in clever labels, I make up for in wonderful soap. I also made a batch of "Macaroon" soap, which is a blend of chocolate and coconut fragrance oils. Tomorrow I'm making "Mango Papaya" soap - using shea butter and mango butter. I have a few others planned for this week and that means within about a month they should all be cured and I can finally put up a webpage with bath products. This Christmas season has kept me busy keeping the shops in stock, but I'm excited to get the webpage going so those of you that have asked to order it online can finally do that.

By the way - you do know the difference between "naked" and "nekkid" don't you? Naked is when you don't have any clothes on. Nekkid is when you don't have any clothes on, and you're up to no good.....

We're cold, but safe and happy on the homestead. There's a winter storm brewing and indications are that we may get iced in tonight. I ain't complaining.

Bee Free,
Penny

Count Down Until Christmas

2007-12-08T16:42:00.000-05:00

Well, it's getting close to Christmas and that means it's time for our annual 600 mile holiday pilgrimage to my parent's home - and that means the time is getting short to get all the Christmas gifts together. I've outdone myself this year. I AM FINISHED! Really, I am. And this year each and every gift is home made. Every stinkin' one of them.

We've established just how much I enjoy the whole obligatory gift giving tradition, but since I've started giving home made gifts, I find it's a lot less hateful, and I even find myself in a good mood over it. At least with a home made gift, chances are slim I'll find it in my sister's garage, where she stages everything that is headed out to Good Will and where I've found many of my previous Christmas gifts to her. She may throw it away, but I'll never know about it.

I still have some home made butter to make for my mother, but I dont' want to do that until right before we go. I want it to be as fresh as possible. And don't worry - I didn't spoil the surprise by typing this on my blog. My mother is about the only person I know that doesn't read my blog. If that doesn't tell you how bad I suck at blogging, I don't know what does. My own mother. Geesh.

Hey, we finally waxed our cheddar cheese and put it up to age. Feast your eyes on this gorgeous hunk of red heaven:

We've been busy cutting up a couple of deer that a friend gave us. I don't know where he shot these deer, but they were freaking enormous! We got the largest backstrap we have ever seen out of the buck. That's gonna be some good eating.

My Dear John just had some surgery on his wrist yesterday, so he hasn't been able to email me today about how much I stink at blogging. I thought it might be a pleasant surprise for him to get two whole blog entries from me within just a couple of days of each other. Plus it might keep him busy for five minutes or so to give his poor wife a break.

That's it for now from the homestead. Oh - and by the way, I am keeping my vow to step outside at least once a day. It is, however, going on two weeks since I left this place or have gone any further than the mailbox. Bernie's making noise about forcing me to ride with him to the dump tomorrow. I think he worries people will think he must have killed me and buried me in the middle of this 65 acres. Not that he cares what people think - he just doesn't want them snooping around the property.

Bee Free,
Penny

Snow - Do I Really Have to be Included in This?

2007-12-05T15:29:00.000-05:00

I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a cold weather person. I really just don't care for cold weather. Not only do I really dislike bundling up in clothing, cold weather is.... well... cold. Not a big fan of cold.

But it's cold on the homestead today. And it's snowing. Snow is really pretty if you are on the inside looking out. But I don't like actually being in the snow. Not only is it wet, it's.... well.... cold.

Everyone in this house handled this snowy day differently. Elvis handled it like this:

Priscilla handled it like this:

And Bernie handled it like this:

Bernie's always showing all of us up by gathering firewood and stuff.

And I handled it by taking pictures in the house and out the windows. The truth is, I did actually venture out. In keeping with my vow to make it outside at least one time a day during this winter, I decided to get all brave and stuff and wander down to the mailbox to check the mail.

Our mailbox is at the bottom of our driveway - which is about 1/4 of a mile. It's ordinarily a nice walk, so I decided I would bundle up and head on down there. All by myself. I was in a pretty good mood as I put on my snow boots. By the time I got them laced up, I was starting to get a little annoyed. The are bulky and cumbersome, and as I tried to put my snow suit on over top of the boots, my mood was deteriorating. By the time that ordeal was over, I was starting to sweat and get pretty irritated. I finally managed to cram my hands in my gloves and get the stinkin' top of them over my sleeves. As I put my hat on, it got hung up on my pony tail. I squished it on and loudly announced "Well THIS is fun!!" as I stormed out the door.

As I walked along in the winter wonderland, looking at beauty of our woods covered in a white blanket, and listening to snow gently hitting the tree limbs as it floated to the ground, I couldn't help but wonder why the hell I was outside in this mess! But in truth, my spirit lifted with each step and pretty soon I was skipping right along with a song in my heart. OK, maybe I wasn't skipping, and the song was likely me wheezing as I huffed it up the hilly drive, but still, I did get in a better mood.

Our mailman is unpredictable and unreliable on a good day, so I have no idea why I expected a snowy day like today would be any different. He had not shown up yet. I closed the mailbox and started back to the house. About halfway up the drive, I saw Bernie walking down towards me. He probably figured I was in such a foul weather mood that I would throw myself in front of the first car that passed down our desolate road and he came to check on me. We stood and watched the snow for a few minutes and then headed back to the house. I threw a snowball at him and ran in to the comfort of our fireplace. Which is where I plan to stay until all this snow melts.

Bernie did head out early this morning to do a little turkey hunting. But apparently the turkeys don't like snow either, and stayed holed up the whole time he was out there. He came in looking like the Abominable Snowman, but he looked happy, if not a little disappointed.

Hey - here's a picture of the cheese we're making. It's been sitting for about three days growing it's rind. In a day or so we'll dip it in wax and get it started curing. You can't really tell in this picture, but it weighs about two pounds:

That's a good looking cheese right there now!

We're safe and sound on our homestead and watching the snow from the windows right now. We have a nice fire going and are hunkered down for the evening. I can't wait until spring.

Bee Free,
Penny

Smile and Say Cheese!

2007-12-01T17:39:00.000-05:00

We made cheese today! Well, I guess it's more truthful to say we are in the process of making cheese. We decided to start off with a cheddar cheese, and the process takes a little while. Right now we have cheese that's being pressed with 20 pounds for 12 hours. Then we'll turn the cheese and press it another 12 hours. Then it will sit on the counter for three to five days until it develops a rind. Then we'll dip it in wax and cure it for a few months. And THEN we'll have cheese! Whew. After all that it better taste good. We may start a Gouda cheese this week and see how that turns out.

Bernie took care of an oak that got half blown over by a storm last year. It was huge and came up by the roots. It got hung up in a few trees and was perched precariously above the spot he intended to run our fence through. So he and the backhoe and a chainsaw took care of that little problem. Only it wasn't little - and he's been sawing and splitting wood from that monster all week. We'll have enough firewood from that puppy to keep us warm for a month or so.

The weather has turned cold, and I've spent very, very little time outside. I am just not a cold weather person. I force myself to walk outside at least once a day just to get some air and discourage Bernie from accusing me of being a complete and total hermit. But those trips usually involve me stepping off the porch, shivering, and then running back inside. Besides, I have lots to keep me busy inside this time of year. Like writing to you on this blog.

For those of you still wondering what to do with all that left-over Thanksgiving turkey, here's a quick, easy, and delicious recipe:

Turkey Tetrazzini

6 oz. spaghetti, cooked
1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. flour
2 2/3 c. chicken broth
1 c. cream
1/4 c. sherry (or wine)
1 tsp. salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 lb. mushrooms
1/2 c. chopped green peppers
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. garlic
2 cups chopped, cooked turkey

In large pot, saute onion, green peppers, and garlic in butter. Add flour and whisk while slowly stirring in chicken broth. Add wine, cream, seasonings, cheese, turkey, and mushrooms. Place cooked spaghetti in bottom of baking dish and top with tetrazzini mixture. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

If you don't have a lot of people to feed, or you're not into leftovers, you may want to cut the recipe in half.

It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. I may not even get the chance to run outside and take a breath of fresh air. Maybe I'll take some pictures of our cheese for y'all to look at.

Bee Free,
Penny

The Skinny on Making Soap and Churning Butter

2007-11-24T16:54:00.000-05:00

I've had several people contact me about how to make soap and about the butter churner I bought off of EBay. I've been answering each individually, but this morning there were two seperate emails with the same question, so I thought it might be a good idea to give some info here on those questions.

First - the butter churner. When I started looking for a butter churner, I had three things in mind: 1) I wanted a hand crank churner 2) I wanted a glass churner and 3) I wanted a Dazey Churner. I really had no particular reasons for this, other than I wanted glass so I could see what is happening when I churn,I wanted a Dazey because that's really the only old, glass churner I've really ever heard about, and I wanted a hand crank because you know, being all into getting self sufficient and everything, I didn't want it to depend on electricity. I paid $50 for it. Here's a picture:

She's a beauty and cranks out some really awesome butter. I highly recommend her. Only she's not for sale. But I highly recommend one of her siblings.

As for soap making, I never bought a book on the subject. I never even thought about making soap until I started reading about other people having fun making soap. I can't stand when people have fun without me, so I decided I needed to get in on it. I started looking all over the internet and finding out about making soap. Two excellent resources are the Soap Making forum on HomesteadingToday and Mullers Lane Farm. And, of course, I have a page up on the Back to Basic Living website with step by step instructions and a basic soap recipe for beginners.

I found the most difficult part of soap making was finding the lye needed. After ordering from several places, I found Ace Hardware had the best deal - I order it by the case.

If you have other questions about butter churning or soap making, please don't hesitate to ask. I'm no expert, but I can either answer your question, or point you to someone who can.

Speaking of soap, here are a couple of pictures of my Sinfully Decadant Chocolate soap with swirls:

Ah - just gorgeous! This next picture is the same batch, but I ran out of the chocoate swirl. I think it came out really pretty, but I wanted more chocolate swirl:

OK - time to go cook up a couple of nice steaks for supper. Bernie bought Live Free or Die Hard and we're going to watch it tonight while we eat. It's not Movie Saturday or anything, but we like to be spontaneous and adventurous on occasion. This is about as spontaneous and adventurous as it gets around here. Woo hoo!

Live Free,
Penny

Thanksgiving Ramblings

2007-11-23T16:36:00.000-05:00

Hope you each had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did. Tex and Charlotte spent the day with us and we ate a huge meal. Afterwards the guys went out and shot their guns a while and Charlotte joined them to test out her new 9MM. I stayed in the house with my buddy Bobo, as he is terrified of loud noises. Bobo ate a fair amount too, and we spent a little time trying to figure out whose belly was bigger, his or mine. In the end, he won - but I assured him it looks good on him. He looked a little hurt, but I gave him another piece of turkey and he seemed to get over it pretty quick. I would LOVE to have a dog like Bobo. He's really smart, well mannered, and fun to be around - and most of all he seems to really like me.

I took a couple of days off work for Thanksgiving, so I have a gloriously long weekend. It's been wonderful. Bernie has been on a perpetual long weekend since he quit his job, but he works so hard around here I'm afraid he doesn't feel like he's on vacation. He does take a break from most of his outside work and spend time with me when I take vacation though. He's been working on getting all his guns cleaned while I putter around the house. Today I made a really nice batch of Sinfully Decadent Chocolate soap. Wow, it smells wonderful - almost as good as the home made chocolate cake I made for Thanksgiving. I may have to put a warning sign on it that it's not edible. I tried my hand at swirling it again, so we'll see how it turns out.

It's Friday night and we all know that means it's Pizza-Beer-and-a-Movie-Night here on the homestead. Yee Haw! Even the cats are excited - and they hate pizza, beer, and our taste in movies.

Bee Free,
Penny

Mmmmmmmmmm.... Butter........

2007-11-17T17:57:00.000-05:00

We finally had some time to sit down and do some good ol' butter churning. We churned and churned, and then stopped and peaked. It looked the same. So we churned and churned some more, and then stopped and peaked. No visible changes. Hmmmm. We were starting to think we were churn challenged, when all of a sudden, the churner seized up. We had butter! Beautiful, yellow, deliciously delicious butter! Feast your eyes on this photo. Try not to drool all over your keyboard.

The next time we make it, I'll be sure to get pictures of the whole process and put them up on the website. Churning butter by hand is really not difficult. The whole process took us about 30 minutes. The butter that we ended up with was well worth it. The flavor is so much more vibrant than what we buy in the stores.

Many people have questioned why we are choosing to do things the old timey hard way on our homestead. I can not argue that it is more convenient and many times less expensive to buy most items at a store in town. But what I will tell you is that when you make it yourself you know what you are getting - whether it's food, soap, or anything else. And what you gain in convenience, you lose in quality in most cases. Not to mention the feeling of being self reliant.

Here's another one of my latest creations. It was born out of a flub up. I made a batch of cinnamon soap that I was not happy with. So I grated it up, and threw it in a nice batch of cinnabun fragranced CP soap I made. Look - it's a confetti soap!

And it smells wonderful!

Little by little, we are getting back to the basics of living. And it feels great. Life is so less complicated when you just focus on living day to day and enjoying each minute you have. We are probably busier now than we've ever been. And we are loving every second of it.

Life is tough. But living doesn't have to be.

Bee Free,
Penny

Homesteading is Fun - but not Always

2007-11-08T17:21:00.001-05:00

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

Things are Churning on the Homestead

2007-11-06T17:47:00.000-05:00

I bought an old antique butter churner on EBay today. The chic I bought it from swears she's been using it and it's in good condition. She just wrote me and thanked me for my prompt payment and will be shipping it tomorrow. Soon I'll be a butter churning fool. We'll be eating fat laded, artery clogging, calorie packing, eye-rolling, pure unadulterated butter. Yum. I can't wait.

We went to the polls tonight and cast our votes. I was quite pleased to learn that our county offers either electronic or paper ballots. I'm all about paper ballots. I'm a computer programmer by profession, and no one knows better than I that a program is only as good as the programmer - and a lot of that depends on the kind of day the programmer is having. I don't always have a good programming day. Not to mention the vulnerability to computer hacking. Don't get me wrong - I love what computers offer us. But give me good ol ' pen and paper to cast my vote. Of course I had to feed my paper into a machine and a stinking computer read the vote, but at least I wrote my vote on paper,darnit. I stand proud. When we voted at 2:30 this afternoon over 500 people had written their votes on paper ballots. That's pretty darn impressive considering I don't think there are many more than 500 of us that are registered to vote at that fire hall.

We're getting ready to fence in our yard, get a couple of yard dogs, and start building the raised beds for our garden next spring. Pretty exciting stuff for me. A fence means more than just a garden - it also means I'll get my chickens and goats soon. And that means more food for us. It will bring us just a little closer to self sufficiency - and if you've read the news lately you can certainly appreciate our desire to be self sufficient. With US currency in true jeopardy, gas prices reaching astronomical prices, all manner of food being constantly recalled for contamination, well..... you get the idea.

So plant your garden and buy your butter churner today! Even if the world as we know it doesn't end tomorrow, you don't want to miss the fun and rewards of taking care of yourself.

Bee Free,
Penny

I'd Like to Think This Wasn't By Accident

2007-10-31T17:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I cut my Coffee Soap today. Remember that I was convinced it was globbed instead of swirled? Well, guess what? It's swirled!!! Or maybe more like marbled - but none-the-less, it's not globbed. Look!

And even though it's made with coffee, I added cocoa for the swirl, and now it smells just like a brownie!

I'd like to think I knew what I was doing, but the truth is, I think I was just lucky. But that's pretty much how my life goes. I just plunge ahead and bumble along and some how things work out. I guess that's because I'm just too hopeful to imagine it ending any other way. Bernie and I are both like that.

I guess there's truth in the old saying "Ignorance is bliss". We are ignorant, and we are blissful. There are worse things to be.

Bee Free,
Penny

Random Stuff We've Been Up To

2007-10-30T18:16:00.000-04:00

This blog and our website have been such great experiences for us. I started the website because when we first considered homesteading, I found lots of site about people who were homesteading, but very few that explained how they got started with it. I figured we were bumbling our way through it, and maybe someone could learn from the mistakes we make as we go and the stuff we do right. I never dreamed we would make so many new friends, and hook up with so many old friends we had lost touch with. It's been great! Now if we could only get our families to look at it...... they'd rather call and ask "So what have you been up to? Anything new on your website?"

I think I told y'all that Senator Obenshain asked us to get a bunch of bikers together and ride in a parade for him the second weekend in October. Senator Obenshain has been a great friend to us, and we love riding, so we got a crew together and made him proud. Here's a group shot at the end of it. If you've ever been around bikers you know that trying to get them in one place in one time is as easy as nailing jello to a tree, so this picture is missing a few. But it's a nice picture anyway, so I'll post it here:

I also posted some additional pictures on the VFR website. Check them out!

We were having a lot of trouble with yellow jackets robbing honey in one of our hives. We ended up screening in the bottom entrance, so the girls would all use the top entrance and hopefully be able to ward off the predators a little better. Well, they were still struggling. So I put out some wasp traps that I hope will give the girls a little break. I talk about how to make the traps on The Bee Buzz if you are interested in reading it.

Tonight I made some coffee soap that is supposed to be great at getting rid of cooking smells (like onion, garlic, fish) off your hands. I have always wanted to make those pretty swirl soaps, but I never had much confidence that I could actually do it, so I didn't try. Well, tonight I decided to give it a shot. I made the swirl color out of cocoa powder. The coffee soap is a dark tan, so I thought the deep cocoa color would be pretty in it. And it probably would. But I learned what I suspected all along. I am swirl challenged. So instead of swirled soap, I have blobbed soap. But it really smells nice. I'm hoping when I take it out of the mold tomorrow and cut it, it won't look as bad as it does in the mold. But did I mention it smells really nice?

Bee Free,
Penny

I Should Come with a Warning Sign - and Read it!

2007-10-26T16:38:00.000-04:00

I've never been accused of being graceful. In fact, I'm rather known for being clumsy. I try to be careful, but it just doesn't seem to help all the time.

Tonight I was in the kitchen, excited to cut the soap I made two days ago and haven't had time to take out of the molds yet. This is some Orange Cranberry soap that smells out of this world - and I made it extra moisturizing, which explains why it was so difficult to get out of the wooden mold I use. It will definitely harden up as it cures over the next few weeks, but right now it is still very soft - and it was sticking something fierce to the wooden mold. The mold comes completely apart - each side and piece of it is individually fitted together and held with bolts. Well, I removed all the bolts, but the sides were still all stuck to the mold. I pulled and tugged to no avail. Finally, I grasped one end with one hand and held it to the counter, and with the other hand I pulled like crazy on the top. And it came loose. With a bang. And as my hand snatched it upward, I managed a glancing blow to my right eyebrow with the edge of it.

I saw stars. I recollect that I calmly said "Oh my gosh." Bernie recollects that I screamed "Sh*t!!!!!! At any rate, Bernie came walking in the kitchen and saw me grasping my eyebrow in pain. "Are you ok?" He looked pretty concerned. I was so stunned I could not reply. I removed my hand and grabbed a paper towel. He said "Wow. You got it good. Man! It's already swollen. And now you're bleeding!" I still couldn't really speak, but I managed to mutter "hurts". And then my loving, caring husband said "Thank goodness you don't leave here much. People would think I hit you or something. You better plan to stay home a while."

I managed to stumble to the bathroom and look at the damage I inflicted upon myself. I did a pretty good job. I'm fairly certain I'm going to end up with a black eye. I popped two ibuprofen, opened a beer, and went back in and finished up cutting the soap. It smells GREAT! And I look like crap. Lucky for Bernie I'm a recluse, I guess.

It's gotten chilly here with all this rain and we started lighting the fire in the fireplace each day. The kittens are fascinated with it. We had a fire place in town, but since we got the kittens, we've owned the homestead and spent weekends here - so we never lit a fire in town and they've never seen one. I'm not sure what they think of it yet. They seem to like staring at it and that keeps them too busy to tear up the house for a few minutes, so I'm pleased with thier fascination.

It's Friday and it's pizza night at the homestead. There's no delivery out here, so I make a nice pizza on Friday nights. Then Bernie and I drink a couple beers, eat our pizza on TV trays, and watch a movie from our DVD collection that we've seen three thousand times before. We are party animals on the homestead for sure.

Bee Free,
Penny

Finding Treasures on the Homestead

2007-10-24T15:37:00.000-04:00

It rained all morning and left the world still, cool, dark, and damp. The homestead is pretty on a fall day like this. Well, it's pretty all the time, but this kind of day seems rare and special. I am especially fond of hot weather, but after a long summer, a nice fall day is a welcome respite once in a while.

I worked in my office all day with the window open. Bernie had a bunch of stuff to do in town and he got home about the time I logged off for the day. We decided to take a walk through the woods, so I grabbed my metal detector. I've never found anything of value with it really - but I have found some neat stuff around here. Once I found an old metal belt buckle, bullet casings, pop tops, nails, and some pieces of old tools and equipment long gone. Today I didn't have any better luck. I discovered an old piece of metal off of heaven knows what, several pieces of the old barb wire fence, and the steel toe of my boot several times and Bernie's a couple. I'm still practicing with that thing and not very good yet. Hey, I've only had it a few years.

I finally managed to finish The Bee Buzz website. Well, it's not finished exactly, as I'll be adding to it as time goes on, but it no longer has pages under construction. I added a page on rendering bees wax with step by step instructions and a page that tells you exactly how to make a wax screen. Both are complete with pictures. Check them out!

We'll check on the bees this weekend and see how they're doing. We're rather protective of the only three hives we have left now.

Bee Free,
Penny

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2007-10-21T19:21:00.000-04:00

Well, this has been a weekend full of just about everything. To make a long story short....

I got a lot of good stuff accomplished. I made two nice batches of cold processed soap - an Orange Cranberry Holiday soap and a Honey Oatmeal soap. Both turned out really nice and full of moisturizing oils. I also made lip balm and filled over 100 tubes. And I started a batch of prison wine.

The bad and the ugly stuff all happened today. We went down to winterize our bee hives and found that two of them had died within the past month. When I say "died", I mean deader than a door nail. We were so shocked and disappointed. There were fine last month when we robbed honey and fine two months ago when the Dept. of Ag. guy came out to inspect them. I wrote all about it on The Bee Buzz if you are interested in reading about it. We are now down to three hives - half of what we started with this year. I could just cry.

So, in a nutshell, that was our weekend. I suppose we always have to take the good with the bad. Being out here on our homestead makes even the worse day a little more tolerable. We have so much to be thankful for that it's really hard to throw a pity party when little things go wrong.

On the upside, while we were working in the apiary we had a couple neighbor ladies from down the road stop by. They were both very friendly and we stood and talked to them quite a while. They told us of a man down the road that also raises bees, and they're going to hook us up with him. One of them owns the chicken farm across the street with her husband and she said they'll certainly work out something with us so we can get chicken poop for fertilizer! The other one said her husband rides a motorcycle and they'd love to ride with us sometime.

There's always a silver lining - even when you have to peel back a few layers to find it!

Bee Free,
Penny

Fall on the Homestead - and I'm Ready to Hibernate

2007-10-18T18:11:00.000-04:00

The past couple of weeks have really been hectic. We had about 40 bikers here for the TEA (The Extreme Activist) annual party. This is basically a family reunion of sorts for the Biker Republic. It is always intense, educating, and fun. We had a great time and from the first in to the last out, it lasted almost a week. We are exhausted. It's taken us all week to clean up - even though every one did a great job of cleaning up after themselves, we still had shelters to tear down, dishes to do, stuff to put away, trash to haul off, etc.

And someone, whose name I won't mention (Spotman), left me more than just memories. Death Flu. I have been sick as a dawg all week. Friends and family are wonderful - but they have germs. And they aren't afraid to share.

So we are finally all alone on the homestead and I'm feeling well enough to drag my tired body to the computer keyboard. It's fall now - the trees are just bursting with color. Bernie cut firewood the past two days. He's gotten quite a lot accomplished, but informed me he's no where near finished. Here's what he's got so far:

He's got some stacking to do, but I'm seeing lots of toasty evenings in front of the fire with cats!

We're starting to plan the garden for next year. Early spring will be lettuce, onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, and radishes. We'll bring out our horseradish in the next week or so and get that planted too. The summer garden will be tomatoes, squash, corn, cucumbers, snap beans, green peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, habenaros, Tabasco peppers, and maybe some okra. That's as far as we've gotten so far.

Soon it will be rifle season for deer - and turkey. We have seen plenty of both here in the yard this year. I'd love to see plenty of both in our freezer.

The bees are fabulous - the girls routinely find their way up to the house to visit with us. I swear they just come to say hello - it's all I can do to keep from just kissing their little wings right off them. This weekend we'll put on the hive reducers, remove the supers, and start feeding everyone. They've done a great job this year. They deserve a little break as the cold weather rolls in.

Bee Free,
Penny

Bernie Learns the True Meaning of Early Retirement

2007-10-03T17:35:00.000-04:00

I may have told y'all that when we first decided to move to the Homestead permanently, one of the many things Bernie promised to take care of around the house, was to do things like get groceries, while I continued to work from home. I have to say, he has exceeded my expectations and done an absolutely superb job of taking care of everything while I work from home. I could not be more pleased. But I'm afraid today he got a very realistic idea of what all this truly means.

Early in the morning he told me he was going to the hardware store and to the grocery store, and asked if there was anything I would like to add to his lists of things to get. We discussed it and he made his lists and took off, cell phone on his hip. About 30 minutes after he left, I realized I need a "personal hygiene" item. I really hated to call him about it, but when living 20 minutes form the closest grocery store, I knew I had to ask him to pick it up.

So I called him on the cell phone and said "Hey honey, are you in the grocery store yet?" He said "No. I'm in the hardware store. Why"?

"Well, because I just realized I need something. Will you please pick me up some...." And then I gave him, in painstaking detail, the description, name, and brand of what I needed. But what he heard was "Well, I've picked today to humiliate you by asking you to pick up the most embarrassing item any man has ever bought in this entire county." I know that's what he heard because after about 10 seconds of dead silence he responded with "You're kidding me, right?" *sigh*

After a few moments of assuring him I really needed it and would not ask him if things were not approaching critical mast, I finally said "Just write down exactly what I told you I need - you'll find it right away" - to which he shouted in a very loud whisper "HONEY - I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A HARDWARE STORE!!!!!"

So he didn't write it down - and I was shocked and pleased when he came home with exactly what I asked for! I asked him if it was as bad as he expected and he said "No. Not at all. There was a woman in the aisle when I got there, so I hung out until she left. Then I grabbed them and left." What a wonderful husband!

When I logged off from work today, I was itching to get outside. It was so beautiful today - low 80s and no humidity. I had to get out and enjoy it. So we took a walk through the woods. We found two old shelters that had fallen many years ago, an old, dilapidated rock fence, and several new deer trails. We also found two huge patches of blueberry bushes I'll be visiting next season. We had a really nice time just rambling about the homestead. Then we sat on the cabin porch for a while and enjoyed a beer while talking about evolution and wondering why the chicken farmer across the way has so much trouble with his fans.

Tomorrow Bernie is running wires so he can put in a couple of 40 amp receptacles outside. Yesterday he chopped firewood all day. I know he's busier now than he's ever been, but he's happy. And that makes me happy! Well, that and the fact that he buys all the groceries and other necessities these days ;-)

Bee Free,
Penny

Oh Deer!

2007-10-01T19:02:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year, and the deer are really starting to move on the homestead. We could barely look out a window today without seeing a deer or two. Last night we saw two bucks lock horns on the side of the house. They are truly fascinating and beautiful creatures.

We've had a couple of mamas coming with babies to munch acorns in the yard throughout the summer. The babies are big now - no more spots. But they still hang with mama. One mother in particular has peaked our interest. She has a deformed or injured front leg. It doesn't seem to slow her down much though. She has two daughters that are always with her. One of them has a scar on her side. We've been watching them all summer. They now come right up to the windows. It drives our cats wild. They're not quite sure what to think. This morning one of the babies came right up to the window of the room I use as an office. Elvis and Priscilla were sitting in the window, quietly watching. Then all of a sudden the deer looked up and stared at them. The cats looked shocked! The three of them just stared at each other for about two minutes, and then the deer just started grazing again and wandered off - with two set of cat eyes watching her the whole way.

Bernie managed to get a few pictures of them through the window tonight. Here's one of Gimp Mama and her babies:

Gimp Mama is the one on the far right. Cute as little buttons. No question they will end up on some one's table by the end of hunting season. Maybe even ours. But that's the way nature intended it. And before we butcher any animal, we take time to reflect on cycle of life and appreciate that this animal lived a beautiful life, and now provides sustenance for our lives. I believe that shows far more respect for these wonderful creatures than what is shown for the animals that provide the meat bought in a grocery store.

We'll continue watching in awe as animals travel across our homestead. We will also take care not to take any of the young ones when deer hunting is in season. We'd rather allow them to grow up and procreate.

Other than our Extreme Deer Watching, Bernie has been busy as a beaver on his back hoe. He's just about got that bucket fixed. I've been working and then walking around identifying trees. We discovered this afternoon that we have a Persimmon Tree on our property - and it's full of delicious fruit. The fruit is just becoming ripe, and I intend to can a few jars of it in the coming weeks. Thank the stars for Bernie's extension ladder!

The bees are doing great. We watched them for quite a while this afternoon. I could just kiss their little wings right off of them!

Bee Free,
Penny

OHMYGOSH - I'm Becoming a Recluse!

2007-09-26T17:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks to My Dear John and Thunder Roads Beth, I realize that I have been remiss in writing to this blog. My Dear John was convinced that Bernie and I had developed Cabin Fever and killed each other.

Apparently, this blog is not the only form of communication I've been neglecting. After about two weeks on the homestead my dear husband informed me that I stand in danger of becoming downright unsociable. He sited the example that I had only left the homestead once in two weeks - and that was to go to the dump. And I went unwillingly and under duress.

But I LIKE being here! I like Bernie being here with me. And I have a really hard time understanding why I should leave it. I mean Bernie has been taking care of everything here while I work in my office and he's great company when I'm not working. We have food, each other, beer, lots of honey, and constant entertainment watching the wildlife and walking through the woods, so it's difficult to think of any good reason I should leave here.

But there is no excuse for not keeping in touch, and I do apologize for that. I pretty much suck at blogging.

Things are going really well for us right now. Bernie is busier than a one armed wall paper hanger taking care of this place and moving us out of our home in town. He's been spending a lot of time getting the back hoe bucket repaired. I like it best when he works around here and I can hear him in the background as I work from my office. It's comforting. And it's also the only time I know for certain I'll get fed during the day. I've been busy with working from home during the day, and getting bath products to sell made in the evenings. And then there's always the view outside that demands attention......

Tonight we took the Trail Blazer up the Road Less Traveled and sat on a fallen tree and listened to the rain beat on the canopy above us. We sat there quite a while. Together. Silent. Listening. Watching. Finally the rain made it down to us and we went on to the house.

We are busy - and we are happy. We are finally taking time to enjoy every day. And we are enjoying each other more than ever. I guess you kind of have to do that when you live in the middle of 65 acres and refuse to leave it.

Oh - and Hersey, you don't have to be crazy to live on the side of a mountain. But it sure as hell helps.

Bee Free,
Penny

Busy as Bees on the Homestead

2007-09-17T18:42:00.000-04:00

The past couple weeks have been very busy here on the homestead. Between moving, house guests, a biker event, and making soap, bath gels, and bath salts, we've been happily realizing our dream of living on this beautiful homestead.

I've had two businesses agree to sell my home made bath products and they seem quite excited about it. I made a big batch of oatmeal honey bar soap last week and set it on the rack to cure for the next six weeks or so. I'm pretty excited about this recipe, as I came up with it all on my own and attempted to make a very moisturizing, lathery soap - and I used the honey from our hives. We'll see how it turns out in a few weeks.....

I hope to have a page up on The Bee Buzz website soon to sell my products in the next few weeks. I'll let y'all know when I do that.

Bernie still doesn't really feel that he's quit work. Probably because he's working so much around here. He gets up early and gets busy right away. It amazes me how much he's accomplished in the past two weeks. I have noticed a big difference in him though. He's much more relaxed and layed back - almost to the point of annoyance. I mean he's always been fairly calm, but now he doesn't seem to get riled about much of anything around here. If I take off on a rant about what a mess the house is with this move, he volunteers to stay home the next day and clean it. When I got worried about one of the cats not acting right, he told me to make an appointment and he took her in to the vet. He's never taken an animal to the vet without me. He HATES taking cats to the vet! At least the "old" Bernie hated it. The "new" Bernie just loaded her up and took off. He even does the dishes now without me saying a word. And he puts them away when they are dry. Weird. It is down right weird. But I do think I can get used to this.

The bees seem to be doing really well, although there is another hive we are now concerned about. We'll take it apart next weekend and be sure the queen is ok. I hope this cool weather is to blame for the inactivity in that hive. We'll find out this weekend.

Life is good on the homestead. And it only gets better and better.

Bee Free,
Penny

Has it Been a Week Already?

2007-09-08T18:45:00.000-04:00

Wow. Yesterday was one week since we permanently moved out to our homestead. The week flew by. I helped Bernie move on Monday, and then worked from home Tuesday through Friday. Fortunately, they keep me pretty busy at work, so it makes the work day go by quickly. By the time I finish (somewhere between 2PM and 3PM), Bernie is home from moving stuff from our home in town and he and I get busy unpacking or doing one of the other 5,000 things on our list of stuff that needs to get done. I didn't leave the homestead all week long. And I never even thought about that until Bernie mentioned it today. I never even missed it.

One day last week Bernie stayed home and unpacked a couple of rooms on his own. Man, that was great! Not only did I love knowing he was here as I worked from my office, but he served me breakfast and lunch at my computer. I actually felt a little guilty. I'm usually the one that takes care of him that way. But he assured me he is fine with it. He's really getting a lot done and I would actually rather be working that doing what he's doing. It's a lot of work - and none of it fun.

Tomorrow we plan on working a little around the house in the morning, and then Bernie will watch football all afternoon. That's fine by me - I plan on making some bath gel, bath salts, bath bombs, and lip balm from bees wax that a couple of businesses in local towns are selling for me. If I can find a few minutes to put together a website, I'll be selling them there soon. I'll be sure to let you know the website address.

The cats, Bernie, and I have settled in to living on the homestead quite nicely. I'm not sure who enjoys looking out these windows the most. We've had a cat in a window since we got here - and Bernie and I are constantly looking out one window or the other in complete awe. What a nice view of the world. I prefer it.

Bee Free,
Penny

Choose Your Friends Wisely

2007-09-04T19:11:00.000-04:00

Bernie and I have not always made wise choices, but I have to tell you that choosing Tex and Charlotte as friends was certainly the wisest thing we've ever done. I guess the truth is we didn't really "choose" them, it just happened. And we thank the heavens every day for that friendship.

If you've kept up with this blog for any time at all, you've read about Tex and Charlotte fairly often. If you've looked over the Back to Basic Living website, you've read and seen a lot about Tex there. Tex and Charlotte have always been there for us, and we've tried to always be there for them.

We didn't ask anyone to help with our move, and when it came time, it was really not surprising that Tex and Charlotte were the only people to call and ask if they could help. So they met us at our home in town with a pickup truck and a 16 foot trailer. Bernie had his pickup and a 14 foot trailer. We started packing up and moving around 8AM. I consider myself a hard worker, but I have to tell you, Tex and Charlotte liked to have worked me to death.

Anytime I wanted to take a break Charlotte would say "We don't have much time Miss Penny, we need to do what we can." I was overwhelmed with this move. Twenty years worth of hoarding crap and a 3400 square foot home stuffed full of it just left me bewildered at how in the world we would ever get all of it out of there. I wanted to ball up in a corner and cry. But those two kept us moving and before long we had the lion's share of it packed up and loaded. We started at 8AM and unloaded the last of it at 8PM. Charlotte had a room to paint at home, so she headed back a little earlier. But we cooked up a nice stew for Tex and he ate dinner with us and took some leftovers for Charlotte. He didn't get home until after 10PM.

We woke up this morning barely able to move. Even my toenails are sore. I had to log in and work all day and I was actually happy for the break. Bernie worked at getting us unpacked all day and got a good dent in it. He even served me breakfast and lunch at my computer. How romantic is that? I managed to unpack a small portion of my office this afternoon.

Little by little we're getting there. It will take a while longer, and Tex and Charlotte have volunteered for the next big load we move out. We have so many things to be thankful for. Tex and Charlotte are no small part of that. Even if they are slave drivers, they make helluva good friends.

Bee Free,
Penny

Loving Life on the Homestead

2007-09-02T20:12:00.000-04:00

We're really enjoying the feeling of being on our homestead permanently. My Dear John wrote to tell me that this euphoric feeling will pass as soon as the burden of responsibility takes hold - but I have news for you, My Dear John. As much as I know you are absolutely right, you are not going to rain on my parade! I am going to take advantage of this feeling for as long as I can convince it to last.

We robbed honey from the bees yesterday and ended up with 77 pints! We are quite thrilled about that. I can not describe the flavor it adds to a cup of coffee. Possitively exquisite. I wrote all about it on The Bee Buzz blog and even put up a few pictures. Check it out!

Eddie and Gigi came out this morning and spent the whole day helping us get this place ready to start moving stuff from our house in town into it. It was a full day job. Bernie and I are pack-rats and you'd be amazed what we can collect in a year. At any rate, we're all set to start moving tomorrow. Thanks a million Eddie and Gigi! Afterwards Bernie grilled us some burger and dogs over an oak wood fire. We eat good on the homestead.

That's it for now from the homestead. Check out The Bee Buzz blog and think about getting your own hives. They are very little trouble, a simple joy to watch, give you plenty of honey to enjoy, and are so necessary for plant pollination. You'd have a difficult time not falling in love with them.

Bee Free!

Penny

Officially Homesteading

2007-08-31T16:01:00.000-04:00

Well, Bernie got here around 1:30 this afternoon and made it official. We're homesteading.

The cats settled in pretty well and let me sleep until 5:30 this morning. Elvis woke me up screaming about wanting breakfast. All three cats greeted me right away and today they all act like they've always been here.

After work, Bernie and I rode around the property in the Trail Blazer for a few minutes and then sat around talking about how we can't believe this time has finally come. What a nice feeling.

I rendered the rest of the bees wax and got some pictures. I'll try to get that page up on the website in the next few days.

Bernie went out to see how well the pin stock he bought is going to work as a pin for his backhoe bucket. He and Tex are going to have to fabricate a stop for it and drill a hole in one end for the clevis pin. Sounds like they need to use the pneumatic grinder to get the bucket holes just right. bernie's on top of the world doing that kind of thing.

There really is not too much to write about right now, but I felt I should post something to let y'all know we finally made it. We're here. We're happy. And we've got a lot of work ahead of us!

Bee Free,
Penny

Cats Do Not Travel Any Better Than Prison Wine

2007-08-30T17:56:00.000-04:00

At least ours don't. I logged off from work at 2:00PM sharp to start gathering cats, kitty litter boxes, cat food, and whatever Bernie and I will need for a few days out at the property before he starts moving us out here all togther.

Unfortunately, the cats just experienced thier pet carriers a few weeks ago when I took them to the vet for shots. It was fresh in thier minds. The minute they saw the carriers, they freaked slap out. Wonderful. Now I have three completely freaked out cats and I have to get each of them in a carrier to transport them. I'll spare you the details, but know that I am not lying when I tell you it was not easy nor was it pleasant.

So I finally got us all loaded up and headed for the homestead. 45 minutes of nothing but extreme yowling. When we finally got here I took them all inside in thier carriers and turned the air conditioning on very cool while I unloaded the rest of the car. Once we were all inside for the night, I opened the carriers and let them take thier time about coming out.

Elvis did very well. He walked around a bit, followed me room to room, purred and acted like he's always been here. The two girls were another story all together. Reba came out right away, but she hissed at me each time she laid eyes on me and ran for a good long while. She yowled for hours on end. She's finally mostly quit that, but she's still not having a whole lot to do with me. Priscilla stayed in her carrier for about an hour and a half before venturing out. She disappeared for about an hour, but has been walking around and even purring recently.

I'm sure we'll all be ok. It will just take a little adjusting. I wish everyone had Elvis' attitude. He's completely settled in and loving life right now. In fact he's sitting in a window staring at the scenery outside as I write.

I have to work tomorrow. I'll get up and logged in before 6AM. Bernie will join me out here about the time I log off. So begins the sequel.......

Pray these freaked out, yowling cats don't keep me awake all night. Prison wine is a snap in hindsight. And I could use a little of it right about now.

Bee Free,
Penny

The Count Down Until Full Time Homesteading

2007-08-19T17:59:00.000-04:00

Well, we left the homestead today knowing that we only have one more time to leave it! And while it's difficult not to wish the next two weeks away, we have so much to do in that time and so much to enjoy that it will take focus to take it one day at a time.

We left the Paper Wasp nest to hang for another week before we remove it. My Dear John had an excellent suggestion and we'll put it in the freezer for a week or so before dissecting it.

Our big project this weekend was putting a double barrel Weber carburetor on my trike. That may not seem much like homesteading to you, but let me tell you that I would be one mean homesteader without my trike. So anything we do to it should be considered absolutely related to homesteading. The happier my trike is, the happier I am. So you can see, it is all very much related.

Putting on this carburetor involved everything from a simple wrench to a rubber mallet to a sawsall. That motor area is unbelievably tight. Like by buddy Tex explains, it's a jigsaw puzzle. But we got it all disassembled and then put the new carburetor on, only to learn we screwed up on putting the alternator back together. Yes, putting on the carburetor involved removing the alternator. It is indeed a freaking puzzle - so much so that the instructions recommended removing the motor. It probably would have been easier had we done so, but Bernie and I are not known for taking the easy way out, so we just kind of winged it. But while we were winging it with the alternator, we didn't realize it didn't go back together quite right. So we had to mess with that a while. Once that was finished, the Grape Ape fired right up! I did a little jig. Bernie tried to look all "Yea, I knew it would start" but he was grinning like a fool. Very nice! The bad news is that I screwed up the throttle connection to the hand grip when we were testing the pull to the carburetor. Expensive lesson, but I'll buy a new hand grip this week.

Other than that, we just really tried to enjoy our time on the homestead. The bees are doing great and you can read about them on The Bee Buzz. I began rendering beeswax this weekend, and once I am finished I intend to put up a webpage on the process on The Bee Buzz website. I have searched high and low on the internet for step by step instructions, and have yet to find them. Maybe this will help out some other searching soul. I hope to have it up within the next two weeks - complete with pictures.

Bee Free,
Penny

Sneaky Little Things on the Homestead

2007-08-18T16:57:00.000-04:00

Earlier this summer we were sitting at the picnic bench at the homestead on a fine, summer day with Tex and Charlotte when we became aware of an odd, rather annoying noise. "Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape." We all looked around. What in the world was making that never ending sound? Finally Charlotte spotted it. It was a Paper Wasp and it had found a piece of cardboard left by the electrician with a schematic drawn on it - it was hanging next to the electric box outside, which was very close to where we were sitting. We watched the wasp work for a while ,and then fly off, only to be replaced by another wasp very quickly. Bobo jumped up to eat it, but we yelled at him and as he opened his mouth, the wasp flew off to safety. We laughed about that a while and then removed the cardboard and allowed Bobo to tear it to shreds. Bobo likes to tear up cardboard.

So fast forward a few months to.... well .... today. Bernie and I spent a couple hours mowing today, and then spent the rest of it working on my trike. We added a two barrel carburetor. She ought to like that pretty well! We'll finish it up in the morning, but we finally reached the point where we could go no further until we visit an auto parts store. So around 4:30PM, we called it quits and came inside to relax a little before cleaning up and eating supper.

Bernie can not relax without turning on a TV, so he did that about the second we walked in the door. I was in the kitchen stirring the spaghetti when I heard him ask "Did we pay the cable bill this month?" By "we", he meant "me". I pay the bills. "Well, of course we paid the cable bill this month. Why?"

He didn't look convinced when he said "Well, we have no cable. The message on the screen says a bunch of stuff that I think means maybe we didn't pay a bill."

"We paid the bill. Maybe that tree foliage got too big. Maybe the dish got out of alignment." I was pretty sure I was not to blame here.

"I'll go outside and look." And Bernie took off outside. I shut off the TV and the dish box and then started them up again. I saw Bernie walking by the window. I opened the window and said "Well, what do you think?" He said "I think you need to come out here. And I think you need to bring your camera." What????? I didn't question him. I grabbed my camera, threw on my sandals and took off outside. I anxiously asked "What is it?" He pointed at the corner of the house, up on the eave and said "Look up there". I expected to see the spot where a meteor had struck our roof and destroyed our satellite dish. Instead, I saw this:

Paper Wasps! Darn things. And I knew where they had gotten most of that paper from.

Still, we couldn't help but admire the hard work of these creatures. It really is impressive what they can come up with using something as simple as a piece of cardboard:

And they build those little over-hangs as the entrances/exits. Very impressive indeed. But really not cool to have hanging directly overhead of an area we mow, weed eat, and walk in. So we sprayed them with poison that we hate using. Next weekend we'll remove the nest and dissect it. As much as I am terrified of wasps and hornets, I do admire them. And I'm interested in how they build their abode - although I would highly recommend they do that in one of the thousands of trees we have on our homestead rather than right on our home.

By the way, the cable was fine. When we came inside the satellite had restarted and a nice picture was playing on our TV. I told him I payed that bill.

Bee Free,
Penny

Plan B is in Effect

2007-08-12T17:54:00.000-04:00

Well, after trying to sell our home in town for over a year, we've decided to go to Plan B. As much as we had hoped and planned to sell the house and use that money to pay off all debt before we move to our homestead, circumstances have led us to realize that it really makes more sense for us to move forward. Bernie has resigned from his job effective August 31. Three more weeks, and we'll be on our homestead permanently.

I will keep my job for now so that we can continue to meet all of our financial obligations. It will be a little tight, but it is certainly doable. In the meantime, Bernie will slowly move our belongings out to the homestead, and clean and paint our home in town. Maybe it will sell more quickly if it is empty. I'm happy that we'll finally be on our homestead and I can realize my dream of having chickens and goats. Bernie's happy that he'll no longer have to wake up to a 3:15AM alarm clock. We're both happy that we no longer have to remember what food, furniture, tools, and clothing we have at one place or the other. We stay perpetually confused about where our "stuff" is.

It was a nice weekend on the homestead. We went out Thursday night and enjoyed a nice, quiet, relaxing evening. It helped that there was no sign of bears. Then we went to Natural Bridge, VA on Friday for a Governor's Motorcycle Advisory Council meeting that Bernie had. The meetings are open to the public, so I decided to attend since it was being held in such a cool place. If you've never been to Natural Bridge, it's worth visiting. It has been listed as one of the "Natural Wonders" of the world. Very scenic. We rode our bikes down and although I confess to being very partial to Virginia, I will still say that there really is not a more beautiful state. Every state has something to offer, but I think Virginia has it all. And it's so darn pretty.

At any rate, we stayed Friday night at the Natural Bridge Hotel and it was awesome. The hotel is completely biker friendly and the guests just seemed to be there to enjoy life and have a good time. We made new friends from as close as neighboring counties in Virginia and as far away as New York and from other places that we never thought to ask about. Some were bikers and some were not. It was a really super stay in a really beautiful place. I give it four out of five stars - and that's only because the rooms could use just a little renovation.

We arrived back to the homestead Saturday morning and enjoyed a relaxing day. This morning we got up and got busy with the bees again. You can read about it on The Bee Buzz.

We had another great weekend on the homestead - and it only made it more enjoyable realizing that we will only be leaving it two more times before being there permanently! You'll be hearing a lot more from me after that - you lucky dawgs.

Bee Free,
Penny

OK Bears - This Means War

2007-08-04T19:58:00.000-04:00

We arrived this weekend to find our spare hive parts torn apart and strewn around. Dadgum bears! I wrote about it and put some pictures up on The Bee Buzz. Today we did an inspection of the apiary and found that someone had been messing around the electric fence. I really hate to give bears a bad name, but there is no question it was a bear that wreaked havoc with that fence. The ground wire was still attached, but hanging and most of the insulator posts were broken - undoubtedly from the pressure of some large butt animal hanging on or tearing at the electric wire.

These bears have about ceased being cute. They may want to talk to the mice around here. I declared war on those little rodents and I won!! I am now officially declaring war on these bears. It is about time for us to start robbing honey and I'll be darned if we'll share it with bears.

On the upside, the girls are doing great! They are buzzing happily about. In fact, several of them are spending a great deal of time up here cleaning up the mess the bear made. I just love these little bees - they are so darn efficient. And cute as little buttons!

We mowed today - early. It was 90 degrees by noon. Then we went into town to get some items to repair the electric fence around the apiary and to hang out in some free air conditioning for a while. We came home and I made some nice bath salts that I'm giving for gifts. Then Bernie got his oak burning grill fired up and we grilled some corn, burgers, dogs, and ribs. Man - that's some good eating there.

Tomorrow we'll repair the apiary fence and open up our weak hive to see how it's doing. We have 7 supers ready to rob right now. We'll get on that in the next weekend or two.

Bee Free,
Penny

All is Well on the Homestead

2007-07-30T20:33:00.000-04:00

We extended our weekend to include today (Monday) because Bob, from the Department of Agriculture, agreed to come out and do one more hive inspection with us. We knew we had lost one hive, but we were hopeful the remaining five would be disease free and doing well.

Bob confirmed we had healthy hives, and he also had suggestions on making our weak hive a little stronger. Sugar water. And lots of it. So we placed a gallon jug of sugar water on top of the weak hive and said a little prayer that it would help. The way the girls took to that stuff, I have a feeling they'll be rocking before too long at all!

I wrote about Bob's visit on The Bee Buzz. I also posted some pictures there. Check them out!

The girls are hanging in there and life is good on the homestead. Not much more we could hope for.

Bee Free,
Penny