Everyone's a Critic

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)

Random Stuff We've Been Up To

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

Busy as Bees on the Homestead

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

Happy Independence Day!

Before I even start, I will preference this by saying this may seem an unusual post for a blog about basic living, but in reality it is very appropriate. Living "free" is only possible in a land where the government allows that to be so. I suppose in Utopia, no one would have the right to tell you how you can live, but we don't live in Utopia - and as much as I hate to admit it, government is a necessity for us all to live in some semblance of harmony. I don't think any of us would argue about that - the argument would be about how much of a role the government is allowed to play.

So today is the day we celebrate our independence from, by all accounts, an oppresive government. It seemed appropriate that today Bernie and I would ride our bikes in a parade to support a delegate who works tirelessly to keep our current state government from becoming any more oppresive than it already is. Delegate Lingamfelter stands on the side of freedom - and we stand on the side of Delegate Lingamfelter. He is a patriot and we were proud to show our support by riding in a parade for him.

You can view some of the pictures on the Virginia Freedom Riders website.

Regardless of how you celebrated Independence Day, I hope it was safe and meaningful. Enjoy your family, enjoy your freedom - and don't forget to thank those who fought and fight to insure you can do so.

Be 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

Hot or Cold? Make up My Mind Already!

I forgot to post last weekend! Which is really surprising to me, because we had a busy weekend on the homestead - and we had GREAT weather. Last weekend it was in the 80s! This weekend it's in the 30s. We've been down to the low 20s at night. It just doesn't seem right.

Last weekend we had an enclosed carport installed. We are convinced we are going to quickly sell our home in town and be caught totally unprepared to move all that crap out to the homestead in a timely manner. The sea container we got to hold all the furniture while we decide what to do with it, is currently completely filled with motorcycles, ATVs, etc. So we decided to purchase this carport and get it quickly errected so we can clear out the sea container. I put a picture of it up on the website. Certainly we will be building additional buildings, but this is something that will help us get everything from town out here as quickly as possible.

We spent last Saturday chipping wood. You may recall from past pictures that we had a HUGE pile of trees, branches, etc. piled up by the sawmill. Most of these were small scrub pines that were left there when the drain field was cleared for the Sewage Treatment Plant we had to get. It was not only an eyesore, but a great spot for snakes and wild life to make a happy little home. So we spent the day trying to get rid of most of that pile. And we did a darn good job of it.

As I said earlier, this weekend has been pretty cold for this time of year. We were around 30 degrees at 1PM when I went down to check on the apiary. The girls are fine. They stayed home today and are cleaning house. I put a picture up on The Bee Buzz website and I wrote a little about them on The Bee Buzz blog.

A couple of weeks ago we got a Petition of Qualified Voters from Senator Obenshain's office. This is a form that all candidates are required to have filled out with signatures from within the district that signify there are enough people that think you should be allowed to run for a particular office. I don't know the total amount of signatures required, but the petition we got had room for 25 signatures. Even though Senator Obenshain has been in office for 4 years, he still needs those signatures, so we agreed to take the form around and collect 25 signatures for him. The form had to be returned by last Wednesday, so being the rediculously over optomistic person I am, I decided to wait until the last minute to get this finished. I mean, how difficult could this be right? Senator Obenshain has been in office for 4 years and he's a pretty darn easy guy to like. He's done pretty well for this district and he's a liberty loving man, so getting 25 signatures should be pretty darn easy. Well, I was wrong. I mean dead wrong. I can not believe how many people have absolutely no clue who their representatives are. Here is an example of an actual conversation that pretty much epitomizes the entire experience:

"Hi, I'm collecting signatures so that Senator Obenshain can run for office again in this next election."

"Obenstein? I never heard of no Obenstein."

"It's Obenshain. He's been our Senator for the past 4 years."

"Is he from around here?"

"He's Senator of THIS district."

"I never heard of Obenstein."

"It's Obenshain."

"I don't like politics. I don't want to sign that."

"OK. Well, thank you for your involvement."

I even tried local businesses thinking that certainly these are people who would be on top of things. WRONG! Most were not even registered to vote.

I did manage to collect the 25 signatures. If I had gone to the biker community in the area, I would have had no problem. But I was trying to do it after work when I was tired and had little time. I thought it would be easier to pound the local streets than try to gather everyone up during good riding weather. I could not have been more mistaken. What is wrong with people today? Most are quick to complain that things in this country are going to hell in a hand basket, but do these same people vote? Are they involved in letting their representatives know what's important to them? Apparently not.

Ok enough of all that. We're here at the homestead and even though it's cold, it's really nice to be sitting in front of a crackling fire and writing in this blog.

The bees are doing fine. We're doing fine. And we're going to sell our home soon. Life is pretty darn good.

Bee Free,
Penny

I'm Sorry - Do I Know You????

You may recall from a previous post that I had an appointment to meet with Delegate Matt Lohr concerning the anti-NAIS bill to which he wanted to add an amendment. The HB1990, simply stated "The Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services shall ensure that the Department does not participate in or provide any assistance to the establishment of the National Animal Identification System or any substantially similar program." Delegate Lohr wanted to add an amendment that essentially destroyed the purpose of the bill - he wanted to state that it would be "voluntary". I met with Delegate Lohr and he stated that he intended to move to kill the bill this year, do some studies and then address it next year. It was tabled in Committee.

We actually first met Matt Lohr, before he was elected, at Senator Obenshain's home. Matt was not a delegate at the time - in fact he had just announced his candidacy for the seat. Matt gave us the distinct impression he would support our bikers' rights legislation. Well, he is now a delegate and he has not supported one piece of legislation for bikers' rights.

This weekend Bernie and I went to Harrisonburg in search of a tractor place that could replace the tires on our back hoe. We found one, and we're pretty excited to get that taken care of. On the way home I was in desperate need of caffeine, so when we saw a 7-ll just on the edge of Rockingham county, we pulled into the parking lot, and headed inside. We were walking toward the refrigerated section when I hear "Hey! How are y'all?" I looked up to see a man in a sweat shirt, jeans, baseball cap, and with beard stubble on his face. He was holding a very small child that had a jester hat looking thing on it's head. I gave them a blank stare. The child blinked at me. I had no clue who this man was, and even though his kid was cute, they were standing between me and the Diet Pepsi that was screaming my name from the frig. I looked at Bernie for help. He shrugged and headed over to the Big Gulp machine. I was just about to say "Look I don't know who you are, but I don't have any money to give you." when he said "It's me! Matt Lohr! How have y'all been?" I almost laughed out loud with embarrassment. I am not besmirching the man for being in "weekend" attire - heaven knows I looked no better with my hair pulled back, no makeup, and wearing jeans and a sweatshirt - but I really didn't recognize him without his suit and tie and well groomed appearance. It did surprise me that he recognized me in jeans, sweatshirt, no makeup, and hair pulled back. Maybe I should spend more time on grooming before I head to the capitol next time.

Matt Lohr did turn on us to a New Holland dealer outside of Harrisonburg that may have some parts we need for the back hoe. That was pretty cool.

Bernie drove me crazy this weekend because he decided that since we were scheduled to switch to Daylight Savings Time Sunday morning at 2AM, he would set his watch forward FRIDAY night so he could be prepared. Well, I am of the firm belief that we are being robbed of an hour by the government, so I refused to give it up voluntarily. As a result, we were in two different time zones all weekend. Everytime we discussed anything related to time, I was forced to ask "Is this real time, or Bernie time?" How annoying. Unfortunately, it is now Sunday and my hour has been officially stolen from me. We are now back in sync with our time zones.

We did manage to chop, split, and stack some wood this weekend. The bees were doing a happy dance as the temperatures hit the high 60's yesterday. They were a buzzing blur of joy around the hives.

Bee free,
Penny

Important - Read Directions First

Even though we are not here full time, when we got our home ready on the homestead, one of the first things we did was get telephone service - nothing fancy, just basic phone service. That seems prudent to us for a couple of reasons: 1) We are a fair distance from the local hospital and 2) we are both somewhat accident prone. I could launch into a myriad of examples here, but I'll just state that our history with power tools lends credence to the fact that we should be concerned about the ability to summons help quickly.

I should tell you here that even though we ordered phone service, we ran and installed the phone line in our home ourselves. We did exactly what the phone company said to do and when all was said and done, we wired the whole thing and left the end of the wire by the pole - where the phone company could just come out and install the NID, grab the wire we ran out there, and turn the whole thing on. It went off without a hitch.

At the same time that we ordered phone service, we ordered DSL for our computers. The reason we decided upon DSL is the fact that, other than regular dial-up, DSL is the only high speed internet access option available to us. We can live without a lot of things, but in addition to Diet Pepsi and beer, DSL is not one of them.

When we ordered DSL, we were offered the option of having the telephone company install it for us for $50. Being the bright, resourceful, and cheap people that we are, we declined that offer and decided we would do this installation ourselves. This isn't rocket science, afterall - and we're both computer geeks - so how difficult could this be? Right? Well, the answer is that this is not difficult at all. We had that puppy up and running in a matter of minutes.

We were literally giddy with joy when we picked up the phone receiver and heard a dial tone for the first time. We were beyond exhuberant when we plugged in our laptops and connected to the internet. We were totally annoyed when we were using the computers and the phone rang for the first time. I answered the phone and was greeted by PSHWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSHHHHHH. Static. Nothing but static. We learned that we could only place and receive calls when the DSL was not in use. If we were using the DSL, all we got on the phone line was really loud, obnoxiously obnoxious static.

We checked all connections and wiring in the house. We (by "we", I mean Bernie) crawled under the house to make sure everything looked ok. We stood and stared at the NID for a while. There did not seem to be a problem - but we still could not use the telephone while using the DSL.

This morning I decided to post this issue to the Homestead Shop Talk Forum and the SoLR Biker List to see if anyone could help us trouble shoot this issue. Well, we immediately learned from the Homestead forum that we should have read the directions in the DSL kit we received before we wrecklessly installed the whole thing. There is an RJ11 filter that is supplied that must be used to seperate the voice and data signals. We were a little embarrassed. To make matters worse, every biker on the SoLR list immediately responded to let us know that we are the only two bikers on the planet that don't know a blasted thing about DSL connections. I reaffirmed two things I already knew: 1) bikers are smart people and 2) you really should read the directions.

I put a couple of pictures up on the website from last weekend. Bernie had taken 2 really neat pictures out of a window that did a great job of showing what our backyard looked like when we went to bed Saturday night, and what it looked like when we woke up Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I posted last week before uploading his pictures, so I didn't include them last week. But they are there now! Check them out.

The weather is great today for the first week of March. It's close to 60 degrees and our little bees are extremely happy. They are dancing around the hives and appear to be in a pretty good mood. Those little girls are as cute as they possibly can be. It makes my heart smile to see them so happy. I hope they celebrate by making some honey.

Bee Free,
Penny

Prison Wine Really Doesn't Travel Well Afterall....

After the relatively mild start to winter, we had record breaking cold temps in this area of Virginia last week. With highs only in the 20's and lows in the single digits, Bernie and I were particularly stressed thinking about our little house on the homestead. The well water tank sits under the house and is really only protected by the skirting. We did the best we could at winterizing - heat tape around the pipes and insulation all around the tank- but after hearing and reading about so many people with pipes that burst in the cold and frigid weather, we were really concerned what we would find when we went to our homestead this last weekend.

We left work at our usual time on Friday evening, and headed back to our home in town to pack up as quickly as possible so we could arrive at our homestead while there was still a little daylight left. That would make it easier to access any damage. So we were running through the house grabbing things and slinging them in the truck as fast as we could when I remembered my Prison Wine. You may recall I started a special batch of Grape Prison Wine and modified the recipe to make it less sweet. It's been percolating for several weeks, and I had decided that this was the weekend I would bottle it. Well......

I had sat my precious Prison Wine on the table in the dining room that we use as a "staging area" for things that are to go with us to our homestead. I was in the kitchen grabbing some last minute groceries when I saw Bernie pick up the wine and head out to the truck. A few seconds later I heard him scream an expletive at the top of his lungs. I intuitively knew this had something to do with my Prison Wine. And I knew it was not good. Not good at all. And sure enough a few moments later Bernie came walking in with a glass jar that used to hold my precious wine - and all that was left in the bottom of it was about 20 fermented grapes. It had a huge hole busted out of the middle of it. For those of you that are in any sort of a relatively long term relationship, you will understand when I tell you that I figured out pretty quickly that something bad had just happened, and because it happened with something that was mine it would now be my fault. I was torn between crying, apologizing profusely, or running out the front door as quickly as I could. Instead I said "I'll clean it up". Bernie grunted as I took the ruined remains of my wine jar from his hands.

I grabbed a roll of paper towels and headed outside. I figured he had dropped the jar on the driveway. That would give me ammunition for the argument I planned to present that would clearly redeem me and place the blame squarely on him. I was certain that this wasn't my fault and he should have been more careful. I was feeling pretty good about it as I headed out the door and looked at the driveway. What???? No wine on the driveway???? Well, what the ........ and then I looked at the floor of the backseat of our super king cab truck. There was sticky wine and big blobs of fermented grapes all over the floor. I was dumbfounded. I must have looked as bewildered as I felt because Bernie quickly said "That glass jar must have been stressed from all the travel. I sat it on the floor where I normally do and it barely clinked against that metal thingy and the next thing I knew, wine was pouring out everywhere." I can not tell you what a pain it was to clean all that mess out of that truck. I swear that gallon jar held more like 10 gallons. It was running everywhere. We finally got it all cleaned up and took off down the road. I'm glad we didn't get stopped by the police - the fumes were quite impressive. On the ride out to the homestead, Bernie said to me (in his most authoritative voice) "You know, the likelihood of anything breakable and containing liquid being in this truck again is slim to none. Unless it's in a concrete container, it is strictly forbidden. No more Prison Wine in this truck. Ever. That's it. The foot is coming down." Blah, blah, blah. I mean really! Whatever.

As sad as I was for losing my precious wine, I was still very anxious about getting out to the homestead and learning if we suffered damage from all this ridiculously cold weather. When we finally arrived, I immediately turned on the cold water. It worked! Yay! Bernie took a flashlight and checked under the house and found no evidence of burst pipes. What a relief!

We went down to check out the bees on Saturday morning and they were angrily buzzing about how darn cold it was. Bernie even saw 3 of them come out and buzz around a bit before quickly heading back inside to let the others know it was not worth venturing out.

We spent early Saturday morning getting groceries and when it warmed up a bit we spent the afternoon cutting, splitting, and stacking wood. We have a lot of really nice oak ready to burn now.

So there you have it. Prison Wine doesn't travel as well as I thought it did and our little homestead and Russian Bees kick serious cold weather butt. It gets better than this - but until we can move out there full time we'll have to be happy with these little experiences. Oh - and I'll be sure to let you know when I start my next batch of Prison Wine - and how it endures the trip in the truck out to the homestead...... in a glass jar.

Bee Free,
Penny

Cold and quiet on the Homestead

It was really looking like we'd get away with a mild winter all around, but someone apparently notified Old Man Winter and he showed up with a vengeance. It's really cold and windy in the Shenandoah Valley now and the homestead is bracing for a week that won't even see a high of 30 - if you believe the weather man - and right now, I do indeed believe him!

We got out to our little piece of tranquility Friday night amid flurries and freezing temperatures. Bernie got a nice fire going in the fire place and I threw together a pizza for supper. Saturday was blustery and I quickly talked myself out of squirrel hunting. After all, we have plenty of food out there, so it wasn't like we needed the meat for supper - right? I ended up helping Bernie split wood and stacking it by the fireplace. We spent the afternoon trying to stay warm by the fire and I got some work done on my computer.

Today is Super Bowl, and we had hoped to spend it on the homestead and take a day off work tomorrow. Unfortunately, I have a meeting at work I can't miss and Bernie has some things on his plate that he needs to be there for, so we ended up leaving the homestead around 11AM so we could get back to town and do our chores here before the Big Game starts.

I honestly have no interest in football, but Bernie loves it. It has become a tradition in our family that each year I throw a little Super Bowl party for Bernie - and he's the only one that attends. Being around a bunch of people who won't stop talking during the game really annoys him, so he prefers to watch it at home and have me serve him food while he screams at the TV and rants like a lunatic. He plans his menu months in advance and even decides the precise moment he wants to be served. This year it's Wing Dings and celery sticks during pre-game. Then Tacos after first quarter, and enchiladas at halftime. Beer isn't on the schedule because it will be flowing the entire afternoon.

I don't mind giving Bernie this special treatment on this day every year. The man puts up with my dumb butt all year long, so I figure it's the least I can do. Plus, as we already established, I'm a pretty good wife.

I've gotten a couple of really nice emails this week from people who appreciate the website and this blog. It really makes me happy to know that people are encouraged to begin an adventure into homesteading by looking at what we are doing and saying "If THEY can do it, so can I!" Because it really is true. We're getting there one step at a time. I wish it would go faster, but as you know Bernie and I made an agreement that we would sell our home in town to pay off all debt before moving to our homestead full time. In the meantime, we continue to work in the city 75 miles away, pay off as much debt as we can each pay day, and spend weekends on the homestead.

Bernie checked on the bees this weekend. They were snuggled down pretty tightly. He put his ear to each hive and heard them buzzing and complaining of the cold weather. I guess none of us is happy about it right now.

Bee free,
Penny

Freedom Fighting Squirrel Hunter - Homesteading My Way

Throughout our married life, people often comment that Bernie and I lead a very eclectic life. I'll be the first to admit that our interests, beliefs and passions cover a very broad spectrum, but I've always felt that the interest in, and often confusion about, the way we live is really based on stereotypes to which others cling. I see no contradiction in fighting for freedom and liberty, holding a professional career, riding motorcycles, and homesteading all at the same time.

We spent Friday at the Capitol in Richmond. We had two bikers' rights bills (HB2585 and HB3077) scheduled for a committee hearing at 9:00AM, so we left our house in town at 5:15AM so we could get there a little early and meet with a few delegates about them before the meeting started. I also planned to meet with Delegate Lohr concerning his amendment to the NAIS bill that was introduced here in Virginia, but could not catch him in his office. After checking his office 3 times before the committee hearing and 2 times after, the legislative aide finally suggested I make an appointment. Since I will be there tomorrow to attend the Senate committee hearing for another bill (SB909), I made an appointment for 11:00AM. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

I promised to talk about the squirrel hunting planned for this weekend, and I am going to do that in the next paragraph. But as we leave the subject of Freedom Fighting, let me leave this quote with you:

If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

Winston Churchill

As I mentioned last week, Eddie planned to take me squirrel hunting on Saturday. I hunted squirrels in my youth and although I'm pretty sure I never killed one, I do remember spending time with my cousins Mark and Emory in the woods tracking down squirrel. I certainly remember cleaning and cooking them, but the details completely escape me. So it's been quite a while, to say the least, and a refresher course seemed wise, if not necessary. Bernie knows how to hunt squirrel, but being a smart man who knows how to keep peace in his marriage, he refused to be the one to teach me. So the job fell upon Eddie's shoulders. Eddie loves to hunt, so he seemed eager to be the teacher. Ok, he may have only been "willing" to teach me, but I prefer to think he was, at the very least, not dreading it.

So on Thursday night Eddie announced to me that we would be leaving to go squirrel hunting "at the crack of dawn" on Saturday morning. I didn't say anything to him, but later I commented to Bernie "You know, I see squirrel out and running around all day long. Why the heck do we have to go out at the crack of dawn on Saturday?" Bernie looked at me like I just beamed down from Mars and said "What? It's the hunter's way! If you're going to be a hunter, you have to get up early . Hunters hunt early. That's what hunters do. They get up early and they hunt." He actually said this like it made all the sense in the world. Whatever.

So I got my butt up early, dawned my Carhartt gear and blaze orange stocking cap, grabbed the shotgun and went outside to meet Eddie on one of the coldest mornings we've had this winter. We took off through the woods, Eddie leading the way. He stopped under a squirrel nest and whispered "I think I saw a tail flicker." So we stood perfectly still for about 10 minutes attempting to stare the squirrel out of the nest. Nothing happened. Finally Eddie motioned his head off to the left and we stealthily made our way to another area that looked promising. We had only gone a few yards when we heard the distinctive sound of a squirrel scurrying down a tree. Without even turning around Eddie said "He left that nest." In a matter of seconds Eddie has whirled around and BAM - fired a shot at the squirrel as it leaped from the base of the tree. BAM - the second shot stopped the squirrel dead. Literally. Wow - I was impressed. I began to question my squirrel hunting agility. We walked over to the squirrel and Eddie picked it up so we could examine our kill. She wasn't big, but she was fat. We high fived each other. I held my jacket pocket open and Eddie slid her in.

We spent another 5 hours out hunting for squirrels, but didn't see hide nor hair of another one. So we decided to go in for some lunch. Eddie informed me he thought my blaze orange cap was alerting the squirrels, so I took it off. Bernie informed us he had gone out squirrel hunting for about an hour and 1/2 and he had heard several, but never gotten a good shot at one. Eddie and I asked him where he was, and then decided we would try that area after lunch. We gobbled down a sandwich and headed back out.

Eddie decided we should split up - he pointed to and area for me to check out and he took off in another direction. I very quietly walked for a while and decided to sit on a fallen tree and to see if I could hear anything. I was there only a few minutes and I heard leaves rustling. I looked over and there was a big fat squirrel, literally hauling tail as fast as he could. I got the rifle shouldered and got a bead just ahead of the direction the squirrel was running and BAM - I shot the foot of the fallen tree just as the squirrel reached it there in safety. DARNIT! That was the only shot I got off all day long. I never did see another squirrel. As I was sitting there cursing that squirrel I heard a loud BAM. Eddie got him.

We stayed out until it was almost dark and never saw another. We called it a day and Eddie showed me how to skin and clean squirrel. He did one, and then I did one. It was actually not difficult at all. We had a feast of fried squirrel, rice and gravy, potatoes and carrots, green beans, and rolls. It was really a great meal - and I'm certain I enjoyed it the most. Even though I didn't get a kill, I did participate in the hunt and after spending the entire day out there, the squirrel could not have tasted better!

Next weekend I'm going to do a little squirrel hunting on my own. I'm not sure why there weren't too many out on Saturday, because it warmed up nicely during the day. I'll try again next Saturday and see what happens. But I'm not starting at the crack of dawn!

The bees are doing great - Bernie reports that they were buzzing around as it warmed up a bit on Saturday. I'm really starting to look forward to that honey in the early fall!

Bee free!

Penny

Prison Wine and Grass Roots Activism

I rarely make two posts in one day, but I forgot to tell y'all a couple of things and I read somewhere that in order to have a successful blog, you shouldn't make long posts. I have a tendency to do that, so I decided that rather than add to the previous post and make it longer, I would just create another.

I told y'all about the Albatross Prison Wine I made and promised an update when I started another batch. Well, I started another batch on January 9th using concord grapes. It's bubbling as we speak - and it's really smelling like alcohol already! I'll let y'all know how it turns out in a few weeks.

I mentioned before that Bernie and I are grass roots activists. I didn't post last weekend because we spent Saturday - Monday in Richmond, at our capitol, for Lobby Day. Bernie actually took vacation and sayed a few extra days. If you've never participated in Lobby Day, I strongly encourage you to do so in the future. While I would hope you let your legislators know what's important to you through out the year, meeting with them on Lobby Day is an excellent opportunity to let them know about legislation that is important to you. If you live in Virginia, you can view the mass amount of legislation that will be considered this year on the Legislative Information System. The shear volumn is staggering. You can search for specific legislation on the Bills and Resolutions page. Get involved! As they say, the only time your rights are protected is when the legislature is not in session.

Bee Free,
Penny

And me without a camera.....

Well, it is finally winter here in Shenandoah Valley. Don't get me wrong - I am certainly not complaining about all the 60 and 70 degree days we've had lately, but it did feel very odd to be in the middle of January and not complaining about the cold yet. A person eventually gets used to the cycles of life, and winter is a cycle of my life which I accept, but am not fond.

We woke up this morning to snow on our homestead. It was beautiful and I am certain I would have really enjoyed it if we didn't have to pack up to get back to town and prepare for the work week. And to make matters worse, I forgot my camera this weekend! I never forget my camera for heaven's sake, but sure enough, I did this weekend. So I don't have proof of how beautiful it was as we looked out the window of our little home in the woods and watched a white blanket of serenity fall on the trees and cover the ground.

The homestead is about 40 miles from our home in town. The trip back today took us about an hour and 45 minutes. The roads were really treacherous, and we must have seen at least a dozen vehicles that had spun off the road, crashed into each other, or (in one case) flipped upside down in a ditch. We didn’t stop because there were several people around each incident and two more weren’t going to help anything. While I admit my first thought in each case was "Well good grief – that person must have been doing something really stupid to end up in that predicament", I really shouldn’t talk. It has happened to me. Just once and many years ago. It was very scary. Not just because I ended up going down a ravine (my husband will tell you it was not a ravine and it was just a little hill – just ignore him), but because it convinced me that my car was possessed. And I had to stay in that possessed car while I waited for my husband to come rescue me. Very scary indeed. I mean the car had just driven us right into a ditch completely against my will or my direction. We were headed across a little bridge covered in snow and the car just took off. Nothing I did would slow it down, let alone stop it. The car had a mind of it’s own and I'm certain it was trying to kill me. The roads were pretty horrible that night too and I had to wait for quite a while before Bernie could make it to me. I bet lots of people rode by, saw my car, and thought “Well good grief – that person must have been doing something really stupid to end up in that predicament". Evil people. They had no clue what it’s like to be trapped in a possessed car that had just propelled itself down a ravine.

For those of you that have been worrying yourselves about our little bees, they are definitely snuggled up in their hives right now. I am a little concerned myself, and really hope they are keeping warm. I actually had someone at work ask me if we have to bring the bees inside when it’s cold. That made me laugh.

We’re heading back out to the homestead next weekend. Eddie promised to come out and take me squirrel hunting. I’m pretty happy about that. We call Eddie “The Great White Hunter” and I’m pretty sure we’ll score some supper while we’re out. I’ll let y’all know how that goes.

Bee Free,

Penny

Homesteading is more interesting with Prison Wine!

I suppose you can homestead without having made "prison wine", but you'd be missing out on some old-timey fun! I read about making homemade wine the old fashioned way on the homesteadingtoday website. This just sounded like too much fun to pass up, so I gave it a shot at making some apple wine.

I have fond memories of Boonesfarm Apple Wine from my younger days, so I decided to use green apples for my first experience. This stuff is so easy to make, I almost hate to share the recipe. But since it's been made public knowlege by Jersey_Girl on the homesteading today website, I'll go ahead and share it.

You will need a one gallon container. I used a one gallon glass jar that was home to some dill pickles at one time. Here's the recipe:

6 apples
6 cups of sugar
water (not clorinated - use distilled or spring water if you're on tap water with clorine)

Wash the apples and then cut them into quarters and remove the seeds.
Put the cut up apples in the container.
Add 6 cups of sugar.
Top with water.
Stir until the sugar is disolved.
Put the lid on the container.

Stir daily for about a month, or until it's not bubbling after sitting. It may bubble when stirred, but you want to make sure it's not still fermenting when you bottle it, so just look at it before stirring and make sure it's not bubbling. If it's not, you are ready to bottle it!

Remove the apples and strain the liquid through cheese cloth or a clean t-shirt. I strained mine about 3 times to remove as much of the pulp and sediment as possible. Once that's done, pour it into old wine bottles or mason jars and ta-da! You have apple wine!

I was very curious about the alcohol content, and since I happen to have a hydrometer, I checked it out. It weighed in at 18% alcohol. Not bad!

I have to tell you, Bernie was very skeptical about this experiment. We named the wine "Albatross Apple Wine", because I had to take it every where we went for over a month so I could stir it daily. So this jug of fermentation tagged along every weekend we went to the homestead and even traveled with us through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and back for the week we spent in Georgia for Christmas. I've posted the question about having to stir it daily on the homesteading today website - I'll let y'all know if I find out why it's necessary. My only guess is that it keeps the fruit on top from rotting, but I'm not sure about that.

(UPDATED - OK, I asked my new friends on the homesteading today website about stirring the wine daily, and I got a couple of responses. Here is what Suitcase_Sally says (and she makes REAL wine, so I think she knows) "This is to suspend the yeast, relieve some CO2, and to make sure that the "cap" (fruit and yeast) are punched down to keep it wet." So there you have it. Stir that brew!)

At any rate, after I bottled the Albatross Apple Wine, Bernie came into the kitchen to check it out. He seemed mildly interested and hugely skeptical. He suspicously looked at my gorgeous bottles of wine and asked "Why are they so cloudy". I responded that it's prison wine for heaven's sake and I don't have the filtration system needed to make them crystal clear. I poured a small amount in a glass and said "Try it". He put the glass to his nose and his eyes got big. "It smells like wine!" he exclaimed. He took a small sip and said "It really tastes like wine! And it's not all that sweet."

So there is my rave review. I consider the Albatross Apple Wine a smashing success. I will be toting it down to Richmond for our Motorcycle Lobby Day meetings next weekend, and trying it out on unsuspecting victims. I'll let y'all know the reactions.

This week I plan to start some Grape Wine and as soon as strawberries and peaches come back into season, I'll be mixing up a batch of those. If you're on my Christmas list, you may be blessed with a bottle of this stuff next year. Bernie has even expressed interest in making some of it with the honey we plan to get from this bees in the late summer. I'll have to see if I can read up on that.

So there you have it - the homesteading experience made more pleasant through the use of prison wine. Who said homesteading can't be fun ;-)

Bee Free,
Penny

It's New Year's Eve on the Homestead!

Wow, can you believe another year has come and gone? If you've been keeping up with our website you know that we've been busy on our homestead. Our house in town has been on the market since April, and still not sold. But we know that, just like everything else we've ever done during our married life, we were a few months late getting it on the big boom in home sales. About the time we listed our house, the market went flat. But we're not giving up. We feel certain it will sell in 2007 and we will become full time homesteaders. Say a little prayer, face your prayer rug east, or sacrifice a virgin for us - whatever you think works. We'd sure appreciate it.

This is a really nice, long weekend for us. We came out to the homestead Friday night, and won't be leaving until Tuesday. Monday is a holiday for us, and Tuesday is a National Day of Mourning for President Ford. So we get an extra long weekend. And lest you think we would take advantage of the time without honoring President Ford, let me inform you that not only have we been watching coverage of the pre-funeral happenings all weekend, we've spent a fair amount of time talking about Gerald Ford. He was truely a good man, even though he was an "accidental president" if we ever had one. The poor man just wanted to be Speaker of the House. But when Spiro Agnew found himself in trouble, Mr. Ford was next in line for Vice President. Then, wouldn't you know it, President Nixon gets all involved in that pesky little "Watergate" incident and decides to bail, leaving his presidency to the next in line, Gerald Ford. So President Ford shows there is hope for all of us. Just be in the right place at the right time, and who knows? Maybe you'll be the next President of the United States.

At any rate, Bernie and I are really appreciative of our long weekend on the homestead. And we've spent it being really busy.

We spent about 6 days with my family in Georgia. We had a wonderful time seeing the family and eating way too much. While we were there we hooked up with my Aunt 'Net and Uncle James. It's been a while since we've seen them, and it was great visiting for a little while. A little while ago, they lost thier daughter, Sandra. Sandra was just a few years older than I, and she was a beautiful person, inside and out. She had such a great sense of humor and was so full of life. It was such a tragedy to lose her so young. Aunt 'Net and Uncle James offered us a china cabinet that was Sandy's and it was such an honor, we could not turn it down. It is quite old and was not in good shape, as it had been through a flood. But we brought it back with us and put it in the homestead. I spent a lot of time yesterday cleaning it up. These pictures show the before and after. It's really a beautiful piece of furniture and we are sure proud to have it here. Try to look beyond the horrible wall - that's the Great Divide I talked about earlier. It's a work in progress.....

Aunt 'Net and Uncle James also gave us some very old Log Dogs. They are really precious and I spent a lot of time today cleaning them up. I used an angle grinder and grinded away the rust. then I spray painted them with some Rust Stop Enamel. They really came out great! And now they grace our hearth. Take a look at the process.

We also spent a fair amount of the day installing a solar electric fence around our beehives. You may recall from a previous post, we have bears in this area. So we decided a fence would help protect our beehives from the bears . Putting up the fence wasn't as difficult as I feared, but that's coming from me, the one who didn't have to actually drive in the fence posts by hand. That job landed squarely on poor Bernie's shoulders. But he did a great job, and I was there beside him every inch of the way! Check out the website for the pictures and the details.

So 2006 comes to an end, and we look forward to what 2007 brings our way. I hope that each of you has a healthy, happy, and prosperous year. And I hope you'll check back here often to keep up with what 2007 has in store for me and Bernie.

Live free and BEE free,
Penny

What's All the Buzz About?

Well, after several false starts, we finally went and got our bees and brought them home! Our friend, John, lives in Pennsylvania and sold us 6 hives of honey bees, a few extra hives, supers, bee outfits, smokers, honey spinner, bottles, caps, and way more than I can list here.

We got up at 4AM and drove 4 hours hauling a trailer to just outside of Lancaster, PA. Wouldn't you know this was the warmest weekend in December we've had in very recent history? Warm weather means happy bees - and happy bees means they are very "active". I should tell you at this point that I am TERRIFIED of bees. Simply terrified. I have respect for snakes and bears, and several other things, but I wouldn't say I'm really afraid of them. Certainly not terrified. But bees are little and you can't shoot them when they attack you. And they're sneaky. Bears and snakes really aren't that sneaky. You typically know when they're around. But bees..... well, bees are different. You can be blissfully walking along and WHAM! You've been stung by a bee you didn't even know was in the area. And they hurt when they sting! I'm definitely terrified of bees.

But Bernie really wanted to get bees and I really wanted to get the honey and bees wax, plus I'm a pretty good wife, so I agreed to getting bees, with the understanding that caring for them is Bernie's job. What I really did NOT agree to but should have realized, is that I would have to help unload and set up these little guys. That's a-whole-nother story I'll tell you in a little bit.

So anywho, Bernie and I set out bright and early to pick up these bees. We got there around 9AM and immediately joined John in placing screen over the hive entrances and taping them. You can see pictures of this whole ordeal on our website. We loaded them all up, threw in all the extra stuff, and headed home. Along the way, probably 2 hours into the trip home, we decided to stop and get something to eat at a McDonald's that had a large enough parking lot to accomodate Bernie's big ol' truck and trailer. We went inside and quickly scarfed down a greasy sandwich and then headed back out to the truck. As we approached the truck and trailer from the side, Bernie said "Uh, oh." I really didn't like the sound of that so I screamed "WHAT?????" and he said "Looks like the hives might have busted open - I see bees in the window of the trailer." Well, crap. This is not good. Not good at all. I am in a near panic now. All I can think about the rest of the trip home is having to open that trailer to get those hives out and I have NO idea what shape they are in or what to expect - except I KNOW some of them are OUT and swarming about. That sandwich I just gulped down sat on my stomach like a brick all the way home.

When we got home, Bernie positioned the trailer very close by where he wanted to set up the hives. It was almost dark, so we left the trailer there, still unopened, and went to the house for the night. I drank several beers. All I could think of was the task at hand. We decided we would get out at first light (while it was still cold and before the bees got "active") to access the damage, put the hives back together, and relocate them to thier new homes.

We got down to the trailer about 7:30 this morning. I was very nervous, but thought I was prepared to face this task. I peeked in a window of the trailer, and all looked very calm. No swarming bees. Whew - maybe this won't be as bad as I anticipated. Well, I was WRONG.

Bernie opened the back of the trailer. The good news was that it looked like only one of the hives had "shifted" during transport and allowed bees to escape. Because it was early and cold, the bees were very calm and none were flying around. Well, that only lasted about a minute and a half because as soon as we opened the trailer, the sun came streaming into it and warmed those little buggers right up. I began hyperventilating, but assured myself I could do this. We quickly unloaded the back of the trailer and were left with the 6 hives to deal with - and one was open in the middle. I should mention that getting to this point had taken us about an hour. That entire hour I kept saying to myself "You can do this. Just remain calm. Don't make any sudden movements. The bees won't bother you if you are calm and steady and don't scream like a lunatic." I did just fine that first hour. And then.....

We slid the hive out in the open so we could reposition the "super" that had shifted. As I reached up with my gloved hand to shift the super, a bee flew at my hand and landed on it. And even as my mind was repeating "Be calm. No sudden movements." I began flailing my arms like a octopus and screaming at the top of my lungs. Bernie kept yelling "Calm down!!! Stop moving!!!!" I was finally able to gain control of my body and stop moving. But then I could HEAR the bee on my arm somewhere. He sounded stuck. That sound was really very scary to me. To me that sound meant "I am pinched in your clothing somewhere, but as soon as I locate your skin, I am going to sting you like you have never been stung before." See - this is why bees terrify me! At any rate, I was shaking like a leaf and I tried to calmly ask Bernie to help me locate the bee. But what actually came out was "THE FREAKING BEE IS STUCK ON ME SOMEWHERE!!! HELP ME! HELP ME! COME FIND OUT WHERE THE BEE IS!!!!!" The whole time my legs where jogging in place a hundred miles an hour. Bernie walked over and located the bee on my glove - and yes indeed, it was stinging with all it's might. Thank heavens I was wearing the glove - well I was up until the second he saw the bee on it, and at that precise moment I ripped it off and threw it a record breaking distance. When I retrieved it, it still had the bee stinging it's little heart out on the glove. I managed to gently bush it onto the side of the trailer.

I was shaking like a leaf - and we hadn't even gotten the first hive out of the trailer. And everything within my body was screaming "RUN - RUN LIKE THE WIND! YOU CAN NOT DO THIS. THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN DO THIS." I looked at Bernie with tears in my eyes. He knew what I was thinking. He said "Penny, I really need you right now. I can not do this alone. Can you hang in there and help me?" I really didn't think I could. I finally managed to eek out a small "Yea."

We managed to get the hive lined up - but not before my glove was attacked by 5 bees when I was aligning the super with the rest of the hive. I screamed like a girl, but managed not to flail and although I wouldn't use the word "calm", I would say that I quickly brushed the bees onto the trailer side.

Every bone in my body was shaking and my teeth were chattering and I wanted to cry, but I stuck with it. One by one, we slid each hive into the open, lined up all the supers, and used a tie down strap to secure the hive and make sure it didn't shift open as we carried it to it's stand. The hives are full of bees and honey right now and they are very heavy. I was terrified I would drop my end of them as we moved them. But I didn't! In hindsight, we should have used the tie down straps to secure the hives BEFORE we even started the transportation out of PA - but we didn't know. We do now!

This whole process was nerve wracking for me, but we got all 6 hives situated on thier new stands. We put away all the extra stuff we had, and then Bernie suited up in the bee outfit and went to each hive and untaped the openings. Those bees were happy to be free! They immediately began flying all around the hives. I took pictures (from quite a distance with the zoom lens dialed in) and put them up on the website.

Now that the bees are there and calmly flying about, I am thrilled to pieces! They really are beautiful. They still scare me to death, but I'm really pleased they look so darn happy.

I have a tshirt that says "Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision." I can honestly say I exhibited both fear and courage today. I can not describe the immense fear I had of dealing with those bees today. I also can not describe how couragious I feel that I I made the decision to do it! It was not easy. It was probably one of the scariest things I've ever done. Very little really scares me. But these bees......

So that's the buzz. We have bees and I'm couragious. All in all a successful weekend.

Bee free ;-),
Penny

Good stuff, cheap!

I meant to mention this in my last post, and got carried away with extreme holiday cheer, and ended up forgetting to add it.

Remember Patty - the lady that I hooked up with on Freecycle that ended up giving us a bounty of building material? Well, Patty sent me an urgent email this morning "There's a guy at the Flea Market you need to talk to. Call me when you get this!!!!" Very exciting. My heart was racing as I dialed her number. She informed me this guy at the Flea Market has a BUNCH of brand new, quality stuff and it's really inexpensive. He has all kind of doors, kitchen faucets, bathroom fixtures, and just a bunch of stuff. It's brand new! So she told me to go by the Flea Market and get his phone number so we can get in touch with him when we start building.

So Bernie and I ran by the Flea Market and talk to this guy. He's got a lot of stuff - it's really nice and it's really inexpensive. He told us he bought the inventory of a local business that went out of business. He's selling the stuff and then he's done. He's not replinishing it. He gave me his phone number.

I got a hold of Patty when we got home, and she and I have decided to go one night after work this week and look at what he has. I'm pretty excited. Patty is really cool and I'm happy to be spending a little time with her. And we may get some really good deals! I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Live Free,
Penny

Is It Really December Already????

Man, this year is flying by. I mean seriously, wasn't it only a few weeks ago we were sweating like pigs, clearing out underbrush from the woods on our property? How can it suddenly be December?

The realization that Christmas is right around the corner and I haven't bought a single gift forced me to spend most of my Saturday frantically whipping up Christmas gifts like an insane woman. If you are on my Christmas gift list, you will either be getting a gift card, or a home made gift. We can't afford to give everyone a gift card, so don't get excited - I'm not giving you a choice. Some of you will get the short stick and be the recipient of a home made gift. I look at it this way - it's a GIFT for heaven's sake! Be happy I thought of you and please have the good grace to act appreciative. If not, I'll be happy to drop you from my gift list next year. Oh, and Merry Christmas.

So that's how I spent MOST of my Saturday on the Homestead. We got there Friday night and it was dark and in the 60's. By Saturday morning it was in the 30's and didn't get out of the 40's all day. So we woke up Saturday morning, bundled up, and headed out at 8AM to go to a couple's house were we took apart a portion of a patio that a couple told us they wanted to get rid of. So after about an hour and a half of work, we had almost 700 beautiful red brick paver bricks - free! This was a result of a Freecycle ad I put out asking for bricks. If you haven't signed up yet, you better hurry before we get all the good stuff!

After we unloaded all the pavers we got, we went inside and Bernie got a nice fire going. He spent the evening beside the fire watching really dumb SciFi movies, and I worked like a slave to get all the Christmas gifts made. I'm not sure why he never has to participate in the joyous activities involved with getting Christmas gifts, but he doesn't. I'm not really angry about that, but I am a little bitter. But his answer to "We need to get gifts" is "No, we don't", so I know if I insisted, we would be at logger heads. So I just do it, and he just watches TV.

But I did kind of get him back, without even trying. Today he walks into the room and informs me "You know, a gun rack is really just a gun rack. It's made with the intention that guns will be hung from it. It's not made to act as a clothes rack to dry delicate female clothing. It's a manly piece of furniture, and it's meant to do manly things. Like hang guns." Maybe next time he'll help me with Christmas gifts.

Next weekend we really are going to get our bees. Six hives of them. We're heading out to get them Saturday morning. We're pretty excited. We need to get them home and settled so we can have honey next year and I can make some candles. I need some new Christmas gift items.

Live Free,
Penny

All Good Things Must Come to an End - Day 8 on the Homestead

It's really hard to believe we've been out here for over a week. How can time pass so quickly? As I suspected, the time here has only made us yearn to make it permanent. I know we'll sell our house in town eventually, but it can not happen soon enough.

I intended to write in the blog a few more times, but in all the activity, time just seemed to slip away. Thanksgiving Day was really nice. Bernie and had a huge meal with all the fixings. Eddie came out early that morning to hunt with his brother and 6 year old nephew. They came in to warm up and have some coffee around 9:30AM, headed back out to hunt a little while later, and then home to their own Thanksgiving meals. We were pleasantly surprised when Eddie called Thursday afternoon and asked if he and Gigi could come stay the night in the cabin. We went down and fired up the woodstove for them and made up a bed. They got there around 7PM and we sat in the cabin and visited a while. Bernie and I headed back to the house an hour or so later, and spent some time digesting the huge meal we had eaten earlier.

Friday morning Eddie was out hunting early, and Gigi took advantage of escaping her home full of teenagers and slept in. Bernie and I had business in Woodstock to tend to, so we headed that way fairly early. By late morning we all ended up in the kitchen of the house drinking coffee. Eddie had shot 2 deer over the past couple of days, so Bernie and Eddie skinned and cut them up, and then Gigi and I spent a lot of the afternoon processing it. We ended up with several steaks, a fair amount of back strap, and a few bags of burger. After a nice supper of turkey chili and melted cheese and chips, we split up the processed deer and Eddie and Gigi headed home to Front Royal.

This morning I woke with a heavy heart, knowing it's the last day of our vacation on our homestead. I've been trying not to think of it, but I admit it's been weighing on me. I really love this place so much. I keep up with the Homesteading Today forums and I just love it when the members post pictures of their goats and chickens. It really makes me smile to see them and I am SO looking forward to getting out here on a permanent basis and getting some of our own.

Eddie had mentioned he may come out again this morning to hunt, but he typically parks down by the cabin and walks up, so we never know he's here until he shows up. I looked out the front window of the house about 8AM and was surprised to see his car parked at the end of our driveway. I was even more surprised to see a buck laying on the hood of the car! I didn't know whether to smile with pleasure or cry. After processing two deer yesterday, I was not in any itching hurry to process another one. And it also did not escape me that he was out hunting again! Eddie, his brother, and his nephew came in for coffee around 10AM. After discussing the hunt and how he bagged the buck, I finally summoned enough courage to comment "I guess we'll be processing that deer today". I was pretty relieved to learn that no one was all that excited about the prospect of it, and we agreed to cut it up, put it on ice, and take care of it during the week. Yay! I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining. I really don't mind processing the deer and am very grateful that Eddie always splits his kill with us, but I confess the thought of processing one today just did not appeal to me. Bernie likes to keep them in ice and let them bleed out a bit, so we'll probably take care of this one Monday or Tuesday, along with another deer that a friend is giving Eddie.

So in one week we'll end up with 2 whole deer in the freezer. Not bad! I'm pretty happy about that.

All in all it has been a really nice week on the homestead. Bernie and I accomplished a little around here, enjoyed the company of good friends, and have a freezer full of deer. And I think we are going to go get Bernie's bees next weekend. We're pretty excited about that.

Next week we'll be back in Front Royal and back to working in DC. As much as we'd rather be on our homestead permanently, we know that we are working toward it and we hope that it is in the not so distant future.

I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and took some time to consider all you have to be thankful for. This week Bernie and I spent some time talking about everything we are thankful for. The list is long. Life has been good to us. We are fortunate to have found each other - heaven knows no one else would put up with us. And I firmly believe that together we can do whatever we set our minds to do. I'm never sure if we are optomistic, or just to dumb to realize differently. In either case, life is certainly good on Penny Lane. And I have no doubt that we will soon be here on a permanent basis.

Live Free,
Penny

Slinging Mud - Day 5 on the Homestead

Well, it's Wednesday, and we've been on the homestead for 5 days today. I can not tell you how much we've enjoyed it. I'm worried we won't be able to leave at the end of the week. We could definitely get used to being here.

The last two days have been full of taking care of things around here. Today I didn't work from home, and dedicated the day to mudding and taping the Great Divide. While I was at it, I decided to take care of another wall in the kitchen. When they put this place together they threw up sheet rock and instead of mudding and taping them together, put a strip in the seams. I HATE that. It looks just awful and just how the heck can you hang pictures with that bulging strip every few feet. So I decided to test a small area in the kitchen, remove the seam strips, and tape and mud over them.

I have to explain something here, "I" ended up doing this because Bernie had some stuff to do outside, so I thought I'd get started in the house on the walls. Well, sure enough, he comes in as I'm in the middle of mudding and says "Boy. You've got some sanding to do." I've got some sanding to do???? I asked him why this is my project and he replied it's mine because I said I wanted to do it. We argued back and forth for a minute, and then I realized what would seal my fate...... I am standing there arguing with a mud bucket in one hand and a mud blade in the other, and he is standing there arguing with his hands in his pockets. *Sigh* I guess this is indeed my project.

At any rate, I got the Great Divide mudded and taped, and I got one kitchen wall mudded and taped. This is not for the faint of heart, but if you are feeling brave you can take a look at my handy work on our website. I updated it with pictures towards the bottom.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and I'll be spending it in the kitchen, cooking with a fury. I hope each of you has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day where ever you are, and whom ever you are with. It will be just me and Bernie here at the homestead. We'll miss our families terribly, but we'll enjoy our time here and remember each of the people and things that we are thankful for. And although he won't mention it tomorrow, I know Bernie is really thankful he didn't have to watch me mud and tape.

Be free!
Penny