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

Sneaky Little Things on the Homestead

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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



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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Plan B is in Effect

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

OK Bears - This Means War

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

All is Well on the Homestead

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

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

How a Coat Hanger, a Beer, and Bikers Saved My Life

This weekend Bernie and I took a little road trip to Hillsville, Virginia. The Virginia Bikers Association (VABA) sponsored Thunder On the Mountain and this was certainly an event worth making an effort to attend. I must say, VABA put on one of the most organized and enjoyable biker events we've had the privilege of attending - and we've attended a few. It occurred at the Lakeview RV Resort, which is a completely awesome place to spend a weekend.

Hillsville is about 250 miles from our homestead, and with the weatherman forecasting a beautiful weekend, we decided to ride down. So I hooked up the trailer to the trike and we loaded it with a weekend full of necessities - which involved a couple changes of clothes, toothbrushes, and a cooler full of libations. Bernie hopped on his bike, I fired up the Grape Ape (that's what my trike likes to be called) and we headed off to Hillsville.

As I mentioned, it was a great time. We saw lots of old friends and made a few new ones (Bo and Beth - you rock!). VABA put on an awesomely organized Poker Run - well, actually TWO Poker Runs. One was a long run and one was a short run. I chose the long run because it went through a tunnel and I thought that sounded like it would sound cool to roar through a tunnel with 50 other bikers. It did not disappoint me. Neither did the Grape Ape. She ran like a scalded dog. I was pretty proud of her.

When we got back to the campsite I parked her in the bike show. She's rather shameless and enjoys the attention. When it came to our turn to ride down the "runway" for all to see, Bo came running over to tell me something was wrong with the exhaust. I turned around in time to see him smack the tailpipe with his hand and say "Oh no". I asked "Can I ride her?" and he replied "She ought to be OK to go up and down the runway once". I had no clue what was wrong, but I knew my number was up to show off the trike, so I turned my attention to ground in front of me and took off. When we returned to our spot I hopped off and ran to the back of the trike, just in time to see the header come loose and droop to the ground. It was barely hanging on. All I could think of was "Lovely. I'm 250 miles from home and there ain't no way the Grape Ape is getting me there in this condition."

Did I mention we were at a biker event? Bikers are some of the most resourceful people you will ever meet. Within moments Bo assessed the situation and announced we needed some kind of wire or something to hold the header up off the ground and a clamp to try and close the huge crack in the tailpipe. Another biker ran off to get a coat hanger. My buddy Boil thought he could find a clamp. By the time Bernie ran down to check everything out, we had a plan. Bo took charge and wired the header up with the coat hanger. Boil and another biker donated a couple of clamps. But we still had a fairly large crack in the tailpipe and it was clear we needed something to cover it or I would be sucking air all the way home. Beth ran over to the trash can and came back with a beer can, which Bo cut the ends off of and then sliced down the middle to make a nice piece of medal that covered the crack just beautifully. Between the beer can, clamps, and some wire, we managed to get the crack covered pretty well. Well enough to get me all the way home anyway, even if we did sputter and pop when downshifting.

Homesteading is all about self reliance and self sufficiency. Not all bikers are homesteaders, but certainly as a group bikers are self reliant and self sufficient - or at the very least extremely clever.

I've always known that beer is a wonderful thing. And I've always been a little fond of the great service coat hangers have provided me. But tonight I am especially grateful for the both of them and for my biker family. While I really enjoyed Hillsville, I wasn't looking forward to spending the rest of my life there. I am eternally indebted to a coat hanger, a beer, and a bunch of bikers. And Bo and Beth - I owe y'all one.

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

Dealing With Miss Penny 101: The Proper Way to React to a Home-made Gift

As I mentioned in my last post, I made some beeswax lip balm last weekend. I'll get some pictures up on the website soon. It turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. In fact, of the three people I've given some to so far, two of them reacted quite positively. One even suggested I could get rich selling it. Needless to say, THAT person will be receiving future home made gifts from me. Probably she'll be the proud recipient of some home-made soap, but that little jewel isn't quite cured enough to be a gift yet.

We've established how much I enjoy the whole obligatory gift giving notion, but there are times when I do feel obligated to give a gift - and even times when the spirit just moves me to do so. And because of this, I feel it only fair that I should tell you how I expect you will react when you are the blessed soul that recieves a home-made gift from me.

Gushing is completely acceptable. Proclaiming me The Queen of All Things Home-Made is not only acceptable, but somewhat expected. Doing these simple little things will insure that: 1) I will not hate you for all eternity and 2) you may well be the proud recipient of another slice of heaven made by my own hands.

The truth is, as much as I enjoy making home-made gifts, I do NOT enjoy giving to people who do not appreciate them. In all honesty, that kind of pisses me off. So, lie if you must - but certainly gush over your gift. You will not only receive future home-made gifts from me, but you will insure I will actually speak to you when we cross paths in the future.

You may think I am a little sensitive on this subject. You may be right. But I'm the one making this crap and I'm the one giving it away, so I get to make the rules. So gush away or be dropped from my gift list. And have a nice day.

Bee Free,
Penny

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Well, Sort of

For some reason we saw more wild animals this weekend on the homestead than we ever have before. We saw a doe with two precious little fawns, a fox, two coyotes, a skunk, and several rabbits. As remote as our homestead is, it really is fairly unusual to see many animals. The animals there are still wild and not used to a lot of human noise or motion. Unlike the animals in town that graze next to the highways or the skunks that visit our yard, any sound or slight movement will send them tearing into the woods on the homestead. I must say, although I enjoyed watching them, with each I saw I thought of either food on our table, or predator to our chickens and goats when we move out there permanently.

When we got to the homestead Friday, we immediately began rendering some of the beeswax we've collected. As I wrote about on The Bee Buzz, this was a little more involved than I had anticipated. I did manage to get enough wax rendered to make about 48 little tins of beeswax lip balm. I'll have to work on getting the rest of it rendered in the next few weeks.

The soap is curing quite nicely and changing to a creamy white color. In three or four more weeks or so I should be able to try it out. If it passes approval, I'll have gifts for my Christmas victims.

Other than that, Bernie and I mowed the lawns and took care of a few things on the homestead. As a result of me hitting a huge stump with the riding mower, we had to spend a little time on Saturday fixing one of the blades on the mowing deck. I hit it good enough to bend the frame it's attached to. But Bernie managed to pound it back into shape and it's running right along again.

Next weekend my neice is visiting us on the homestead and she's bringing along the only kid she's got that isn't staying at my parent's for the summer. We're really looking forward to that. Two of my most favorite people!

I'll be posting the lip balm recipe on The Bee Buzz website soon, so be sure to check it out!

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

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

Confessions of an Overwhelmed Part Time Homesteader

As Charlotte pointed out to me, it's been a while since I posted. I really do apologize for that. We've been working around the homestead, worrying about the bees, and trying to sell our home in town. Have you ever felt overwhelmed with life to the point of being unable to do anything at all? I have been pretty much at that particular point - and it left me with what I suppose is "writer's block". I'm back on track now though, and ready to write yet another rambling blog full of my stream of consiousness.

The bees have given us quite a bit of stress lately - we were seriously questioning the health of two of the six hives. I contacted Bob W. from the Department of Agriculture and he agreed to come on out and help us examine each of our hives. Bob W. is saint - full of compassion, understanding, and a great deal of knowledge about bees. We had a wonderful visit with him, and while I wouldn't say he gave us the best news in the world about our hives, he did explain an awful lot of things to us and promised to come out again in a month to take another look and see how the girls are doing. I wrote about his visit on The Bee Buzz Blog and posted some pictures on the website.

My parents came up from Georgia for a week and we all stayed out on the homestead. It was a great time and I can't believe how quickly the time flew by. We accomplished a great deal during their visit. Bernie and Daddy knocked down the old Wild Cherry Tree that was threatening to fall on the house. They also greased Bernie's backhoe and got it in good working order. Daddy and I spent a great deal of time removing all those strips in the walls of the mobile home and then mudding them. We got just about half of it finished before he left and I'm ready to prime it and then paint the walls. I'll put up some pics when I do that so y'all can see the difference.

We still haven't sold our home in town and it's getting down right depressing. We're trying not to let it get us down, but after spending a week on the homestead it's getting harder and harder to leave. We spent our 20 year wedding anniversary out there and Bernie's birthday. It was really nice. I almost cried when we had to leave.

On the upside, we saw turkeys in the yard this week! Man, are they big! We haven't seen signs of them in a while, so laying eyes on them was a pleasant surprise. I'm hoping to see one of them on the table for the Thanksgiving meal this year.

That's it for now. I'll try to be better about keeping in touch.

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

There's a Mouse in the House!

Each time we arrive at the homestead and enter the house, I immediately check the mouse traps we set around after finding evidence of a few mice during the winter. This weekend was no different and as I checked each trap I was relieved to find they were undisturbed. Each morning when I awaken at the homestead, I check the traps again.

Saturday morning I stumbled out of bed and headed for the coffee pot and out of habit glanced beside the stove and noticed two traps were tripped - and they were completely empty. Not good. Not good at all. I poured my coffee and stumbled to my recliner next to Bernie and announced "Something tripped those mouse traps - but there weren't any mice in them." He said "I think I heard a mouse this morning". I really wasn't sure he was serious, but he convinced me that in the still of the morning he heard something scurrying through our bedroom. As we were sitting there discussing it, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. A mouse! And he was sitting about three feet away from me just staring at me - daring me to come closer.

Now, I have a soft spot for mice. When I was about eight years old my cousin, Andy, gave me a little gray mouse in a cage. I named him Popo and I really loved that little mouse. As an adult I've learned the destruction mice cause in a home and I've set out to kill them with traps on many occasions. But I never had one look me in the eyes while I was thinking of killing him! This was going to be a tough one.

Normally Bernie is the Mouse Slayer, but this time I felt it was something personal. That little mouse just thumbed his nose at me! I jumped up from my chair and the mouse scurried into the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen and found him sitting on the rug beneath the sink. I walked up within a foot of him and he just sat there staring at me. I slowly reached over and grabbed a dish towel. The mouse just continued starting at me. I took the towel and quickly threw it to the ground with the intent of it landing on the mouse and trapping him long enough for me to catch him. The mouse zipped away. Bernie yelled "Grab a bucket!" I walked over and grabbed the bucket and looked around and said "I don't see the mouse". Bernie said "There he is! He's running to the living room." I hurried over to the living room and saw no sign of a mouse. I asked Bernie "Where is he?". He said "He's crawling up the curtain." Ewwww! I ran over to the curtain and put the bucket underneath the mouse. He fell into the bucket!

I quickly handed the bucket to Bernie and he walked outside to the wood line and released the mouse. As Bernie started walking toward the house he looked behind him and the mouse was following! He walked back toward the mouse and finally the little guy took off into the woods.

That little mouse had some personality. I would love to invite that little mouse to live in our home. But mice don't potty train easily and they like make little nests out of stuff that I am particularly fond of. I wish the best to our little visitor. And I sure hope he doesn't come back to visit. I've baited the traps with peanut butter - and I've got a feeling he couldn't resist that.

The homestead is a luscious green right now. We finally have some grass growing! We still need to get it a little thicker, but damn if it doesn't look nice! Check it out!

I got a new camera and it takes some awesome pictures. I put some pictures on the website of flowers and insects that I took on the homestead.

I also got several pictures of our bees and wrote a blog entry on them.

That's it for now. Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend and we'll have three whole days on the homestead! Can't wait - and I'll be sure to post some pictures.

Bee Free,
Penny

Scat. Lots of Scat.

We spent today mowing. We have a few acres to mow and between that and weed wacking, it's pretty much a full day of work. Bernie weed wacked around the apiary and noticed two things - lots of bees returning to the hive with pollen and lots of scat around two of the hives. Our weakest two hives to be exact. I put pictures on The Bee Buzz of the girls weighted down with pollen and of the scat. The scat is most certainly skunk scat. Skunks love to eat bees. I wrote a little about that on The Bee Buzz Blog. We plan to add some electric wire down low tomorrow that will keep the skunks out.

As we were walking in the front yard, picking up tree limbs and rocks before we mowed, we noticed some bear scat - in two different areas. Between the bears and the skunks I do worry about our bees. I am hoping the electric fence will detract both of them.

Other than mowing and worrying about scat, the weekend has been rather calm so far. We bought a new battery for Bernie's bike and installed it after we mowed. It started raining shortly after noon and is supposed to rain through the night. Thank goodness we have the garage now or we wouldn't have been able to work on his bike at all. Even though it's the beginning of May, we have a fire in the fireplace. I'm just certain summer is only around the corner

All in all, our homestead is doing well. Predators are a fact of life in the country and we will deal with them the best we can. In the meantime our bees are happy and bringing in lots of bounty! I can only hope that equates to lots of honey in the fall.

Bee Free,
Penny

April Showers Bring......

Grass. Lots of tall grass. Which is a good thing, because this homestead needs some more grass. We've been tracking in mud for a year and after over-seeding in the fall and early spring, we finally have some grass. And that means we need to mow and weed eat. Which is what we did today.

We were supposed to do bee hive inspections, but since it didn't get above 60 degrees, we had to delay that. Even though it was cool, the bees were really very active. It was awesome to watch them. I wrote about it on The Bee Buzz blog, and put pictures up on the website.

We walked around the property and were happy to find a great number of dogwood and redbud trees in bloom. The wild cherry trees have been blooming for a couple of weeks - along with a couple of apple trees. There were a few other trees blooming that I don't recognize. Soon we'll be seeing some blue berries and black berries. I hope I can get to them before the bears and birds eat all of them.

Bee Free,
Penny

Set Those Puppies Free!

Well, today was another gorgeous day and we got up early to go down to the apiary and remove the hive reducers so the bees could freely enter and exit the hives. I wish you could have seen how happy they were! I put some pictures up on The Bee Buzz website.

Afterwards we finally had time to walk around the property and could not believe the damage that storm caused. There were more uprooted and fallen trees than I could count. It was pretty depressing. We were really depressed to find that a tree that housed a tree stand was uprooted. It was one of the nicer stands and a favorite of our friend, Eddie. He claimed that stand as his and anytime he hunts our property, he goes to that stand. Bernie named it "Eddie's Last Stand". We haven't told him it's gone yet. We just dread it. You can check out some pictures of it and other damage on the Back To Basic Living website.

Next weekend we have a list of about a thousand things to do on the homestead. We'll prioritize them this week and figure out what we can accomplish. I'll be sure to put up pictures and write about what ever we decide to do.

Bee Free,
Penny

The Calm After the Storm

Last weekend we left the homestead in the middle of what felt like a monsoon. We got several inches of rain from Saturday through Sunday. Then on Monday the wind started. It howled for 2 days. The entire North East got hit with this storm and it was brutal.

We worried about the homestead all week. We have big, tall trees and we knew the ground was completely saturated before the winds started. That makes the ideal situation for trees to be uprooted. And uprooted big, tall trees can really cause a lot of damage.

Sure enough when we arrived Friday night, we found two trees down in the driveway and two trees hanging over the driveway, held up because they were entagled in other trees. All of them were uprooted. I put some pictures up on the website. We walked up to the house, got the chainsaw, and cleared the driveway of the two that had fallen. When we got up to the house we noticed 3 more trees that were down in the front yard, and several in the back. This morning we saw there were actually 4 trees down in the front yard. The good news is there was no damage to the house or garage. Well, I guess there was a little damage - the storm door got blown open and beat itself to death. We had to remove that. But we are so very thankful no trees fell on the house.

Needless to say, we spent today sawing up trees and removing the logs and branches. Bernie used his backhoe on the two that were looming over the driveway. He knocked them down pretty easily with the bucket and the boom. We spent about 6 hours clearing out all the trees and then decided to move all the shredder, splitter, boat, lawn tractor, motorcycles, motorcycle trailer, and ATVs into the new garage.

After a full day of working outside, we came inside and I cooked a nice meal of fried deer steak, rice, gravy, aspargus, and biscuits. Bernie helped me clean up the kitchen afterwards and we are both officially plum tuckered.

I am very proud to report the bees made it through the nasty weather just fine. Today it was near 80 degrees, and the girls were just a blur of activity. Tomorrow morning we'll go down and remove the hive reducers. I think (read hope) we are finished with the really cold weather now, and the girls are just fighting to get in and out of the entrances. I am really very proud of them. They are tough little cookies.

Bee Free,
Penny

All Washed Up

It was a rainy weekend at the homestead. It was cloudy and misty when we got up Saturday, and it started raining before noon. It rained all day and all night - and was still raining when we left. The two creeks that our driveway passes over were full, and I'm fairly certain they will likely cover the road before this is all said and done. We haven't had this much rain in quite a while. Hopefully not all of the grass seed we've spread around will wash into the woods. It would be nice if at least a little stayed in the yard and sprouted.

Because of the weather, we didn't get out on the property much and spent the time relaxing a little and keeping a nice fire stoked. I did want to mention that after I checked the bees last weekend and started walking back up the driveway toward the house, a red fox pranced right across the road in front of me. He never even gave me a glance. He sure was pretty, and I couldn't help but hope he doesn't end up in our chicken coop once we get settled out there.

The bees are fine. Friday evening when we arrived they were buzzing around the outside of the hives. They're safely snuggled up in the hives trying to stay warm and dry today.

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

Bee pictures displaying in Internet Exploder

Well, I did a pretty awful job of testing before I launched the new Bee Buzz website. The picture page wasn't properly displaying in the Internet Explorer web browser. I really don't like Internet Explorer for exactly that reason. The webpage showed up fine in Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, etc. but NOOOOOO..... not in Internet Exploder.

At any rate, the pages are fixed now. You can now properly view the pictures of when we first got the bees (originally posted on the Back to Basic Living website) and you can now properly view the latest pictures of the bees - even if you're using Internet Exploder.

I also started a blog about the bees you may want to look into.

I've given you a ton of links to check out, so I'll sign off you can get busy checking them out!

Bee Free,
Penny

Bernie's Backhoe Has New Gums!

Well today was simply beautiful - it got to the high 60's here. After the last few weeks of cold and snow, it was a welcomed day indeed.

We had the Donald B. Rice Tire Company come out and put new tires all around on the backhoe. Take a look at the before and after pictures on the website. Jonathon came out and did the work for us. Jonathon was all work. I'm sure he thought I was insane for running around snapping pictures every few minutes, but he tolerated us well and did a great job.

I also got a couple of pictures of our bees up close and personal as they were sniffing around for something to pollinate. You can check them out on our new website. I just put it up tonight, so be sure to check back often as I update it. Also be sure to check out the great food recipes and skincare recipes - amazing what wonderful things you can make with honey!

All in all, it was a good day. The weather was great. We're here at the homestead. We got new tires on the backhoe. We covered the whole yard in lime to prepare it for the grass seed we're fixing to overload it with in the hopes of actually having a lawn so we can stop walking around with 5 pounds of mud on our shoes. And the bees are all happy and buzzing about! Now that I think about it, I guess it really was a great day! Man, I love this place!

Bee Free,
Penny

Welome Back to the Homestead - Now Get Busy!

After a few days of near 80 degree weather, we were socked by a Nor' Easter. High temperatures in the 30's and a few inches of snow. Ugh. It started snowing Friday morning and didn't stop until after dark Friday night. The roads were treacherous, so after fighting our way home from work in the city on Friday afternoon, we decided to hold off until Saturday morning before heading to the homestead to check things out.

We managed to get to the homestead just fine, but about halfway up our 1/4 mile driveway, we were greeted with a tree that had fallen across the road. It was a small pine, but it was large enough to block our way. We got out, walked up to the house, procured the Trail Blazer and a chainsaw and headed back down to clear the road. Here's a couple of pictures of the tree and Bernie attacking it with his chainsaw:





After we got the tree cleared, we rode on up to the house, only to see that another tree had fallen on the backhoe. So much for a nice relaxing weekend on the homestead. Fortunately, it landed on the boom and not the cab. There didn't appear to be any damage to the backhoe:



Bernie checked out the backhoe and realized the battery was dead. We put a charge on it, and he cut up as much of the tree as he could. Once the battery is charged, he'll move the boom and hopefully bring the remaining piece of the tree down to a height he can reach.

UPDATE: Bernie got the battery charged and he managed to get the backhoe from under the tree. Then he took the bucket and beat the tree down to the ground so he can cut it up later. I put some pictures up on the website. Check them out.

I mixed up 4 pounds of deer jerky earlier this week, and today I put it on the dehydrator. It's smelling pretty darn good, and should be finished in a short while.

Next weekend we'll be here Thursday night so we can hook up with the company coming out to replace all the tires on the backhoe. It will be a nice 3 day weekend out here, and we're really looking forward to it.

The bees are doing great. I am so proud of them for making it through this most bizarre winter. Today they were really busy cleaning out the hive and dragging the dead bodies out. I'm sure they are looking forward to spring. I hope it's right around the corner.

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

Please Don't Hug the Bee Hives

Well, we knew it was only a matter of time. Late yesterday, our bees claimed their first casualty.

We went down to the area of the apiary in the hopes of seeing the lunar eclipse. We quickly realized that wasn't going to happen as the exact area that the moon would be rising was covered in thick clouds. We decided to tuck the girls in for the night.

The sun was setting, so it had gotten pretty chilly and the bees were all inside their hives. As we got to each hive, Bernie put his ear to the side of them to be certain he could hear them buzzing about. With the latest scare of bees abandoning their hives, it is always a comfort to hear them when we can't see them so that we know they are at least still around. At any rate, he got to the next to the last hive and put his ear close to it, but couldn't hear anything. He decided to get his ear as close as possible, so he put his arm around the hive to draw his ear closer. As he did, he apparently alerted a few of the girls and they came flying out of the top hive entrance - which is exactly where his arm wrapped around the hive. He announced "I hear them" and as he straighted back up, a couple of the bees flew from his arm and started checking him out. One of the girls managed to get stuck between his eye glasses and his eye! He removed his glasses, but not before she firmly planted her stinger in his eyebrow.

I asked "Are you stung" and he answered "I think so. Check for the stinger." Sure enough, there was a stinger just underneath his eyebrow. I scraped it out (you should never squeeze it as that releases more of the venom) and looked at his eye area. There was a small red lump where he was stung, but it didn't look too bad and he claimed it didn't hurt very much.

When we went to bed, there was very little swelling, and although there is more swelling this morning, it's really not too terrible. I'm actually quite relieved - not only because he is not having a lot of pain, but also because it gives us comfort that he didn't have an allergic reaction. He will get stung many more times, and now we have a reasonable level of comfort that he won't have an allergic reaction. Even so, it's something to watch when stung.

Bees - 1
Bernie - 0

I put a couple of pictures of his swollen eye up on the website.

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

What a Difference a Day Makes!

When we went to bed last night we were under the distinct impression that we would wake up to some "snow showers". When we woke up this morning, we found we had accumlated between 7 - 8 inches of snow showers! It was quite a surprise. And it continues to fall as I am writing this. The weather people are telling us to expect sleet this afternoon. I hope they are as wrong about that as they were the snow showers. Snow is so much easier to deal with than ice is.....

The snow is absolutely gorgeous and I snapped a few pictures when we headed out for fire wood and to clean off the bee hive entrances. It apparently sleeted first, as the hive entrances were encased in ice under all the snow. We dug them out - and the girls are snuggled down so tightly they didn't even venture down to see what all the noise was about. I hope they stay warm.

Well, we would normally head back to town today, but it's looking like we'll be stuck here at the homestead over night. We should be able to dig out by tomorrow and get on the road. Hey, there are certainly worse places to be than here!

Bee Free,
Penny

Andirons from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks

You may recall that last week I mentioned that Bernie and Tex were working on making us some andirons that circulate heat for our fireplace. Well, they did - and those andirons produce more heat than I would have thought possible. These are certainly not the prettiest andirons you will ever see, but I'm here to tell you they work! I put some pictures of them up on the website, and included some pictures of the modifications we had to make. If you are using a fireplace and looking for a way to get more heat out of it, I highly recommend making these. I estimate they spent about 4 hours making them and they are a heat generating machine!

I also started a Homestead Pictures - II project on the BackToBasicLiving website. I really had to do that as Homestead Pictures - I was getting rather lengthy!

And finally, we checked in on the bees and they seem to be holding up really well in all this cold weather. We saw a few of the girls out and about. They were cleaning house and dragging out the poor little dead bees that didn't fair very well in all this cold weather. I put a picture on the website of the girls around one of the hives. Scroll to the bottom and click the picture dated 2/24/07 to enlarge it and you can see the girls around the entrance, and the dead bees just outside of it.

It's only Saturday, but I wanted to get the pictures up for you to see. I can't wait to sell our home in town and get out to our homestead full time. I plan to keep you busy looking at pictures of all our projects and reading my words of wisdom and wit on homesteading.

Bee Free,
Penny

Ice is Really Hard - and I've got the scrapes and bruises to prove it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we had snow last week that covered the ground about 3 inches before it turned to sleet and covered that with about 3 inches of ice. Well, while we were at the homestead this weekend, it flurried off and on and left about 1/4 inch of snow on top of the ice. That actually seemed to help with traction and I found walking outside a little easier. Until this morning.....

As we were packing up to leave the homestead and get back to town to do our chores, I decided to take some leftover dinner rolls out to the edge of the woods for the birds to nibble on in this ice covered tundra that used to be a nice feasting area for them. As I stepped outside, I tested my first few steps and discovered it really did not feel that slippery. The little bit of snow that topped the ice really seemed to have helped. I went prancing out towards the woodline and suddenly my feet started sliding. My legs twirled in place, similar to those cartoons characters that hit a slick spot, and all of a sudden BAM - my legs came flying above my head and my rear end made an abrupt contact with the ice. I threw my arms out to catch myself and as I slid across the ground I could not help but wonder if those birds would appreciate my efforts, or if they were laughing their feathers off. When I finally came to a stand still both elbows were bleeding and my rear end hurt. I hurled the bread as far as I could and slowly made my way back into the house.

Once we got back to town, Bernie took off to Tex's house - they're going to make some andirons for our fireplace that will blow the heat back into the room. I'll be sure to post pictures of the final product on the website. I stayed home to clean house with achey elbows. We're going to talk to some real estate agents and pick what we hope is a good one to sell our home in town for us. We really need to get this thing sold - keeping up two homes is really wearing on us.

I took a picture of the beehives while it was snowing. I really hate leaving the girls there by themselves, but they seem to be doing pretty darn well on their own! I also updated the website album with a picture of snow coming down on the homestead.

Oh - if you haven't signed up to be notified when the blog is updated, you can do that on the right side of this page.

Bee Free,
Penny

I know you don't want to miss a word of this blog

I just added an Email subscription service ( FeedBurner) to the blog. I know you'd hang on my every word, and now you get instant notification when I update this blog! Sign up for it - and let me know how it works. Look to the right and you'll see "Sign up to be notified when this blog is updated". Enter your email address and then click "Subscribe Me!" and follow the instructions.

Pretty easy. Sign up now and you'll never have to worry about missing my words of wisdom and wit.

Penny

A Taste of Real Winter at the Homestead

We were supposed to be at my step-daughter's wedding in Mississippi this weekend. But Old Man Winter had other plans and dumped about 3 inches of snow, covered in 3 inches of ice on Shenandoah Valley. We had planned to drive down, and that little bit of a winter blast came at exactly the wrong time for us. We're pretty unhappy about it.

Since we can't be in Mississippi this weekend, we decided we needed to come out to the homestead and make sure the ice didn't bring a tree limb down on the house or cause some other disaster that needed tending to. We worked Friday and then took off for our homestead immediately after arriving at our home in town and throwing a few things in the truck.

Bernie has a Ford F-350 Diesel Duely. We call it the Big Growlie. I honestly didn't give much thought to it as we headed towards the homestead until Bernie said "I sure hope we can make it up our driveway." Gulp. I had not thought about the last 1/4 mile that would bring us to our little home there. The driveway is curvy - and it's got a couple of steep hills. And we had a fair amount of ice. Oh boy. This could get hairy. And it did.

Bernie made it to our driveway just fine. The first thing he encountered was a steep hill down. He put it in 4 wheel drive and took it very slowly. We did pretty well - no real slipping or sliding. He made the sharp turn to the left with little trouble and then started up the incline. We only made it a few yards before the wheels started spinning and we stopped moving. I had managed to NOT say a word (very unusual for me) and to just about tear the arm rest off by holding on so tightly. Bernie backed down the hill a little and then gunned it forward. We were sliding a fair amount, but he kept it under control. It took quite a few minutes to make it up the steep hill, but he did it! I almost passed out from holding my breath, and my hand went numb from clutching the arm rest so tightly, but we made it safe and sound. Whew!

We unpacked the truck - which was not as easy as it sounds as we were skating on ice the entire time. The ice was so thick we didn't even leave feet print!

We weren't expecting to be here this weekend, so we had very little groceries. We decided we needed to go to town and buy a few staples. I ran around and took some pictures of our Winter Wonderland, while Bernie went down to check out the road. He came up to get me and let me know he would feel better about it if we spread some gravel on the steep hill that goes up at the end of the driveway. So we grabbed the Trail Blazer, loaded it with gravel a couple of times, and spread it on the hill he was concerned with. He also decided that he would leave the truck at the beginning of the driveway when we returned. So when we finished with the gravel, he drove the truck down, and I followed him in the Trail Blazer. He made it up the hill just fine!

We got the necessities we needed at the grocery store, which mainly consisted of beer and the ingredients for lasagna, and we headed back to the homestead. As planned, we left the truck at the front of the driveway, loaded the Trail Blazer with the groceries, and headed up to the house.

I've got the lasagna on now and it's snowing again to beat the band. But it's a long weekend for us here, because of the President's Day holiday. So we'll have all day tomorrow to shovel snow and do fun things like that.

By the way, we checked on the bees. I was actually pretty scared when we first saw the hives. They were covered in ice, and the bottom openings were sealed with it. But we removed all the ice and put our ears to the hives and could hear them angrily buzzing inside. These poor little girls are obviously NOT cold weather creatures. I told them it makes no sense to me - they are RUSSIAN bees for heaven's sake. That seemed to make them buzz even more angrily. I quickly removed the ice and left.

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