Back to Basic Living

We are having a great weekend on the homestead. It was raining when we arrived, which was a welcome respite from the dry weather we’ve been having. The grass is coming in quite nicely now.

This morning we worked on my trike and corrected a backfire issue is was having by replacing the #1 cylinder spark plug and wire. We tuned her up and she’s running like a top now. Which is really good - because we’re riding in support of Delegate Lingamfelter this week for the Dale City 4th of July parade.

Afterwards, I made a batch of home made soap. I’ve been reading up on this, and it’s something that seemed a little intimidating, but I really wanted to do. If things were to get really bad, I’d like to think I could at least continue with basic hygiene. The ingredients are pretty easy to come by, with the possible exception of lye - and I found a recipe for making my own lye, if it comes down to that. At any rate, I spent an hour or so making soap, and I am pretty excited to see how it turn out. Check it out!

This afternoon we cooked out and grilled some great burgers and bratwurst. Then we walked down to check out the bees. On the way down we stopped by one of the little creeks and saw several of the girls getting a little drink of water. They were darn cute standing on the rocks so their feet didn’t get wet. Wish I’d had my camera. They seem to be doing pretty well. Lots of activity around every hive. We’ll get Bob W. from the Dept. of Agriculture to come out again in a couple of weeks so we can do another thorough hive inspection.

We also noticed on our walk to the hives that we have raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries ripening up. I had a few for dessert as we walked. Hopefully I’ll be able to beat the birds and bears to them in the next couple of weeks and collect enough for a pie - or at the very least for a nice topping on my pancakes!

Oh - and for those of you who have asked, I do believe I reign triumphant over the mice! I haven’t seen a sign of them in the house for several weeks now. Of course it helped that daddy helped me search out every conceivable point of entry for them while he was here and fill it with that expanding foam. And as a side note, I would mention that when you read “expanding” on that foam, it means EXPANDING. That stuff looks alien about 30 minutes after you spray it - and it ain’t budging once it’s in place. I speak from experience.

Bee Free,
Penny

I hinted at this in my last post, but I am at a particularly low point right now. I won’t go into details, but I’m sure you realize that the fact that we can not sell our home in town to homestead full time is at the top of my list of downers.

But I have a little secret upper. I have my Dear John. John is a fellow who happened up on the Back to Basic Living website and started emailing me. My dear John has become a good friend to me, even though we’ve never met. He has a homestead of his own that he dreams of eventually living on. He spends time there and he sends me pictures and updates on a regular basis. John also sends me advice and encouragement. He’s a pretty smart fellow and he’s studied up on self sufficiency and self reliance - and he’s not shy about sharing it.

John makes me smile with his stories of being a yankee in the deep south. I love the story of a neighbor that repositioned a civil war cannon to point at John’s home when he first moved in. John delivered several bushels of oranges from his personal orange grove before his neighbor finally pointed the cannon away from John’s home.

John also shares little things - like using the solar powered outside lights to work as nightlights in your home. He’s sent me plans on switching over to solar power and shared how to make certain you can get water from a well. He’s commiserated on mice infestations and taken an interest in honey bees. He’s even sent riddles for Bernie to answer. All in all, my Dear John has been a good friend - knowing when to agree that life sucks, and knowing when to encourage me to move on.

And so I would like to share my Dear John letter:

Dear John,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for being a friend, to thank you for taking the time to entertain me, encourage me, and offer advice. I thank you for visiting my website and offering me your friendship. I wish you only the best with your homestead - and I sure hope you can convince your wife of it’s virtues. Take care my friend. And know that I appreciate you.

Bee Free,
Penny