Pass the Cheese Please and Share that Honey

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

Officially Homesteading

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

The Count Down Until Full Time Homesteading

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

The Cyle of Life

As I approach 50, kicking and screaming every inch of the way, I find myself reflecting on the cycle of life more than ever before. It seems that every situation I find myself in boils down to the "cycle of life". It's interesting to me. I don't necessarily find it depressing, I just find it very interesting.

We arrived at the homestead this weekend to face the fact that we have lost one of our beehives. No, it was not due to Colony Collapse Syndrome. It was due to the fact that we really refused to believe we were losing a hive. This is the hive that had a drone layer and the hive that we have never found a queen in. Still, we chose to believe we just missed the queen. There was a great deal of activity around the hive, afterall. But the truth is, the hive was dieing and while we had hoped it would last until Bob from the Department of Agriculture showed up with a new queen, the hive was struggling. And now it's dead. Very sad. We still have five hives, but it's pretty depressing to lose a hive when you know there is no one and nothing to blame but yourself. It was a cycle of life for this hive, but we could have prolonged it if we had interfered. And with bee hives, you really must interfere from time to time.

Well, Bob will be here Monday and we'll inspect the other five hives. I wrote a little about the bees and my wax rendering experience on The Bee Buzz and I put some pictures up of some honey robbers on The Bee Buzz Website.

And speaking of the cycle of life, I told you last week of how my trike had a header blowout and we patched it up with a beer can and a clothes hanger. Well, here's a picture of it:



Today we put new headers on her, and if the new headers weren't so darn pretty, I would be a lot more sad about getting rid of this beautiful patch job. But do not worry, the old headers will go to Tex. He can take anything and turn it into something to be proud to own.

Speaking of Tex, he and Charlotte are coming out tomorrow morning. They're bringing Bobo of course - I suspect Bobo is the real reason they are coming out. I think he gets to missing me and insists on it. I'll feed them breakfast, and then Tex and Bernie will level out the container so we can build a lean-to off of it. I imagine Charlotte, Bobo, and I will spend a lot of time inside. These man-jobs can be a little nerve wracking. Besides, I need to melt and filter the beeswax one more time. I think Bobo will enjoy that activity a lot more than watching the guys do man-stuff.

Bee Free,
Penny

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's....... A Bear!!!!

Well, after finding bear poop in the yard many times and seeing, first hand, the destruction they can cause to bird feeders, I guess it shouldn't be so surprising that we actually saw a bear in the yard this weekend.

But it was surprising. At least it was to me. My niece and great-niece came up for a visit and we were enjoying Saturday afternoon just visiting in the living room. Bernie was out greasing his backhoe and all felt very calm on the homestead. I glanced out the living room window just in time to see a big black butt walking past the window. My first thought was "Now what is that huge dog doing in this yard?" followed immediately by the thought "Wow - that's the biggest black dog I've ever seen" followed immediately by me screaming "Bear! There's a bear!". The three of us jumped to our feet. My niece ran to get her camera. My great niece ran to the window to get a better look. I ran to the front door and screamed "Bernie! Bear! Bernie! Bear!" frantically waving for him to get inside and look.

We all gathered at the window and I pointed and said "There he is - wait - where is he?" My eight year old great-niece looked at me and said "When you screamed for Bernie he took off running. That way. He ran fast and now he's gone." Doh!

After we all calmed down Bernie and I realized that the direction he was traveling was straight for the apiary. That worried us a bit. But we checked on the bees several times over the weekend and they were just fine. Probably the bear was just thirsty and headed for the creek for some water. I imagine his ears are still ringing from my shrill screaming to get Bernie inside.

Other than that the weekend was relatively calm. I did manage to render wax and I wrote about it on The Bee Buzz. I'll try to get pictures up of the whole process in the next week or so. My niece got a picture of the little fawns looking for food in the backyard and she seemed pretty happy about that. My great-niece seemed more interested in the rabbits that ran about when I took her for rides in the Trail Blazer.

All in all, we had a great weekend on the homestead. Great company with lots of laughs and plenty of hugs. And we saw a bear! I really hope he doesn't make visiting us a habit. He could ask his deer friends about the result of that. Bear season is at a good time of year......

Bee Free,
Penny

Rubba-Dub-Dub

We are having a great weekend on the homestead. It was raining when we arrived, which was a welcome respite from the dry weather we've been having. The grass is coming in quite nicely now.

This morning we worked on my trike and corrected a backfire issue is was having by replacing the #1 cylinder spark plug and wire. We tuned her up and she's running like a top now. Which is really good - because we're riding in support of Delegate Lingamfelter this week for the Dale City 4th of July parade.

Afterwards, I made a batch of home made soap. I've been reading up on this, and it's something that seemed a little intimidating, but I really wanted to do. If things were to get really bad, I'd like to think I could at least continue with basic hygiene. The ingredients are pretty easy to come by, with the possible exception of lye - and I found a recipe for making my own lye, if it comes down to that. At any rate, I spent an hour or so making soap, and I am pretty excited to see how it turn out. Check it out!

This afternoon we cooked out and grilled some great burgers and bratwurst. Then we walked down to check out the bees. On the way down we stopped by one of the little creeks and saw several of the girls getting a little drink of water. They were darn cute standing on the rocks so their feet didn't get wet. Wish I'd had my camera. They seem to be doing pretty well. Lots of activity around every hive. We'll get Bob W. from the Dept. of Agriculture to come out again in a couple of weeks so we can do another thorough hive inspection.

We also noticed on our walk to the hives that we have raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries ripening up. I had a few for dessert as we walked. Hopefully I'll be able to beat the birds and bears to them in the next couple of weeks and collect enough for a pie - or at the very least for a nice topping on my pancakes!

Oh - and for those of you who have asked, I do believe I reign triumphant over the mice! I haven't seen a sign of them in the house for several weeks now. Of course it helped that daddy helped me search out every conceivable point of entry for them while he was here and fill it with that expanding foam. And as a side note, I would mention that when you read "expanding" on that foam, it means EXPANDING. That stuff looks alien about 30 minutes after you spray it - and it ain't budging once it's in place. I speak from experience.

Bee Free,
Penny

I Told You I'm a Good Wife

As we have well established in the past, I am a pretty good wife. I not only accepted that my husband wanted bees, I've learned to love them and become totally absorbed in them. I throw him a Super Bowl Party every year. And I not only hunt, fish, and ride motorcycles, I also willingly participate in pretty much every cock-a-mamie scheme he comes up with. Take tonight, for example.

My wonderful husband walks in an announces "I'm going to take down that branch that hangs over the driveway that's been bothering you." I looked up at him. "Well, that's great. Need my help?" - never expecting in a million years that he would actually say yes. He pulled up his pants, puffed out his chest and said "I thought I'd drive the back hoe down there and lift you up in the bucket. You'll be able to cut it down a lot easier that way." What the...... "Lift ME up??? I thought you said YOU were going to take down that branch????" He looked at me ever so tenderly and said "I figured it would be a lot safer if I lift YOU in the back hoe than if you lift me." He had a point. I don't know how to operate that back hoe very well yet. I mean I could do it, but I couldn't insure he'd be heading up or down in the bucket right at first. I am struggling with what is up and what is down with that bucket right now.

It was getting dark, so I reluctantly agreed. We headed down and Bernie positioned the backhoe exactly where it needed to be:



He hoisted me up and I snapped a picture along the way:



The branch hung over the road - which seemed a lot further up than I remembered it:



I thought Bernie looked a lot more smug than he should have at this point:



I swear I sawed on that stupid branch half the night:



And then I got it! It fell to the ground!



Bernie lowered the bucket and rode me back up to the house:



If this is not proof of what a good wife I am, I don't know what is. That Bernie is one lucky man. And I never cease to remind him of it.

Bee free!
Penny

You Wascally Wabbit

We are overrun with rabbits. I'm sure I've never seen as many rabbits as I have this year. We can't walk outside without seeing a rabbit or two hop through the yard.

When we got to the homestead tonight, we scattered several rabbits as we pulled into the driveway. A little while later we went down to take care of a few things and check on the bees, and while we were there a rabbit hopped out of the woods and sat very close to where we were standing. He didn't look even slightly worried. That really surprised me. Did he have no clue what-so-ever where he lands on the food chain? Apparently not. Does this guy look even a little concerned to you?



I didn't think so.

Anyone have a good rabbit recipe to share?

Bee free, Penny

Dear John

I hinted at this in my last post, but I am at a particularly low point right now. I won't go into details, but I'm sure you realize that the fact that we can not sell our home in town to homestead full time is at the top of my list of downers.

But I have a little secret upper. I have my Dear John. John is a fellow who happened up on the Back to Basic Living website and started emailing me. My dear John has become a good friend to me, even though we've never met. He has a homestead of his own that he dreams of eventually living on. He spends time there and he sends me pictures and updates on a regular basis. John also sends me advice and encouragement. He's a pretty smart fellow and he's studied up on self sufficiency and self reliance - and he's not shy about sharing it.

John makes me smile with his stories of being a yankee in the deep south. I love the story of a neighbor that repositioned a civil war cannon to point at John's home when he first moved in. John delivered several bushels of oranges from his personal orange grove before his neighbor finally pointed the cannon away from John's home.

John also shares little things - like using the solar powered outside lights to work as nightlights in your home. He's sent me plans on switching over to solar power and shared how to make certain you can get water from a well. He's commiserated on mice infestations and taken an interest in honey bees. He's even sent riddles for Bernie to answer. All in all, my Dear John has been a good friend - knowing when to agree that life sucks, and knowing when to encourage me to move on.

And so I would like to share my Dear John letter:

Dear John,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for being a friend, to thank you for taking the time to entertain me, encourage me, and offer advice. I thank you for visiting my website and offering me your friendship. I wish you only the best with your homestead - and I sure hope you can convince your wife of it's virtues. Take care my friend. And know that I appreciate you.

Bee Free,
Penny

Let it Be Known. I Officially Declare War on All Mice.

As we headed out to the homestead on Friday night I had a song in my heart. We were going to spend a long weekend at my favorite place on the face of the earth! We had planned to do hive inspections of our six hives and we had our good friends, Tex and Charlotte, planning to come out to spend all day Sunday with us. How could it get any better? I was really happy and really excited.

But as we pulled into the drive way we noticed that one of the hives in the apiary had globs of bees all over the front of it. And only one of the hives - our most active hive. Bees will glob together on the outside of a hive when it is particularly hot weather - but it wasn't particularly hot weather at that time. We instinctively knew something was not right, and after doing a little checking we absolutely knew we had a little problem. You can read about it on The Bee Buzz Blog and see pictures of us opening the hives on The Bee Buzz Website.

At any rate, we finally made it up to the house and the first thing I did was check the mouse traps. Sure enough we had one. I couldn't help but wonder if this wasn't the same little mouse with attitude that I had met last weekend. No telling I guess. I felt a little bad but then I remembered the conversation that little mouse and I had in kitchen. I told him point blank that I was baiting with peanut butter the next week and I warned him fair and square about coming back inside. So if he screwed up and came back inside, well I guess he picked the wrong kitchen to mess around in this time.

Saturday morning we woke up early to get the mowing out of the way. I was using the push mower in front of the house and Bernie was using the riding mower at the front of the property. After a while I looked up and he was stopped - and had his upper body shoved under the hood of the riding mower. I walked up just as he was pulling dead mice and bedding out of the carburetor. Our riding mower was dead - and we learned it would cost us about $600 to repair the mouse damage!

All weekend I continued to find signs of mice. One scurried into the garage as I came around the corner. I discovered the towels in the guest bathroom were all chewed up and pooped on by mice. I decided enough is enough. I have tried to be nice. I have tried to warn them. It would be obvious to the most casual observer that I am being ignored. I've had enough. I declare war on all mice on the face of the planet. Bring it on baby - I'm ready for you!

I have put poisoning in every nook and cranny inside and outside of our home and garage. I HATE using poison. But I am at my wits end. I will not be conquered by a bunch of small, obnoxiously obnoxious rodents. With the aid of mouse traps, peanut butter, and Di-Con, I intend to show those little bastards who is boss.

Lord, please don't let them win.

Bee Free, Penny