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

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