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

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





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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Random Stuff We've Been Up To

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

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


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

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


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

Bee Free,
Penny

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Finding Treasures on the Homestead

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

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

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

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

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




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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Bernie Learns the True Meaning of Early Retirement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Oh Deer!

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

OHMYGOSH - I'm Becoming a Recluse!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Busy as Bees on the Homestead

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Has it Been a Week Already?

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Choose Your Friends Wisely

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Loving Life on the Homestead

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

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

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

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

Bee Free!

Penny

Officially Homesteading

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

Cats Do Not Travel Any Better Than Prison Wine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bee Free,
Penny

The Count Down Until Full Time Homesteading

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