Back to Basic Living

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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