The bees are here!!

 This past week was very exciting for our homesteading venture. We picked up the bees and now we having thousands of livestock living here with us!

Mara went with me to pick up our bees. We had to drive to a place about 45 minutes from here. Because we were going in the direction of the grain mill where we get our wheat and corn we went there as well. We got our grain first and then headed over to get our bees. When we got there was saw a bunch of people mostly all dressed up in bee suits and then nuc boxes all over the place. There were also a bunch of bees in the air.

  Mara and I suited up, paid for our nucs (We had to pay $75 dollars per hive- I am curious if that is similar to the prices others are paying.) and got in line to pick ours up. The bees had been brought up from Texas. We took our hives (which I had prepared but nailing the bottom board on using little pieces of boards and then filling the doorway with screening so they couldn't use it right now) out of the back of the van and a man came over with a nuc box and put the 4 frames, which where completely full of bees and eggs, into our deeps/hives. I had already removed frames at home so there would be space. I also put the feeder inside put I hadn't filled it yet.

 When the Bee guy was putting the bees in we were standing within a huge swarm of bees. I was so happy that it didn't bother Mara or I at all- we weren't afraid, just terribly excited! We didn't get any stings either- none of us have yet in our beekeeping experience of 5 days. :-)

  We had been told we would probably have a few bees lose in the van with us when we went home. I think the few was more like quite a few! We did leave our bee outfits on and had fun looking at the bees that came and sat on us. We started naming them. :-)

 The next day we suited up. Aaron got to wear Mara's outfit and Jonathan desperately wanted to help so we made some other stuff work (I need to make some more good outfits soon!).  We successfully used the smoker but then it didn't really seem like the bees actually needed it. They didn't seem at all bothered by us looking in on them.

 I filled their feeder with sugar water and the medicine that prevents Nosema (Fumagillan). I also put 1/2 of a pollen patty on the top of the frames, sprinkled medicine to prevent American Foulbrood around the edges and put in a beetle trap. I did lift a frame out to show the boys all the bees but found out later from my mentor that I shouldn't really have taken them out of the deep quite yet.

  The bees have been very "well behaved" and we are loving watching them! They are finding tons of pollen and we love seeing them come back to the hive with the bright yellow pollen on their legs.

 We have done some other homesteading projects as well.

 My Dad had a bunch of extra Garlic plants and so we planted a bunch here. My friend Irindee came over to help us several times this past busy week. She was helping to plant garlic in the picture above. (If you notice the barrettes in her hair- that is not her normal style but she had a special stylist that day- Megan.)

We also put up a fence for our bee yard.

 The kids are digging a trench for the electricity for the fence. It is needed to make sure that bears and skunks stay away.

 It was a fun week and I am looking forward to another fun one this week!



Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of you Mother's have a wonderful Mother's Day!

I am blessed to have a wonderful Mother and am also very blessed to be able to be the mother to four precious children. Here is a verse that I think describes my Mother pretty well and is what I want to try to be as well:

"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her: Her husband also, and he praises her, saying; Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all." Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates." Proverbs 31:25-31

Always be Prepared

I like the idea of being prepared, of having what is needed no matter what situation should arise. I think I have always been that way. I remember when I was a kid and we used to go camping not far from our home (Just us kids, hauling all our gear in our arms) and our friend and neighbor was quite amazed at how much stuff my sister and I thought we needed to bring. We liked to be prepared!

   I still have a tendency to pack heavy and I like to have extra clothes for my kids (at least the younger ones), rain gear, jumper cables, water bottles, snacks and more in our van at all times so no matter what happens we should be prepared.

  We live in a time when it certainly makes since to be prepared. I doubt if there has ever been a time when it wasn't necessary to be prepared but there are certain things that definitely point to the need now. We are a country at war, natural disasters are abundant (I am thinking of earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, etc.), our nation is deeply in debt which makes our country less stable and we are in a recession. I think those reasons do encourage us to be prepared for whatever might happen. It bugs me when some people seem to worry and think things are worse than they are. That reminds me of this verse:
"You are not to say "It is a conspiracy!" in regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, and you are not to fear what they fear of be in dread of it. "It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. " Isaiah 8:12 & 13.

  I see no great reward (just a bunch of stress) in imagining conspiracies or worrying about world events. In fact we are told specifically not to worry and that God cares for us more than he does for the lilies and the sparrows (and he takes care of them well!) and He even knows the number of hairs on our head. So we don't want to worry but God still wants us to strive to be prepared.

I love this verse:
"Go to the ant O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise. Which, having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in summer and gathers her provision in the harvest." Proverbs 6:6-8

My goal is to be prepared like that wise little ant!

This week some of our working toward being prepared has been:

• Going to the grain elevator (In a town about 50 minutes away) and buying over 400 lbs of Wheat and 50 lbs of whole corn. That will provide bread and such for us for quite a while. It is always nice to have a good supply on hand.
• Reading! Lately I have been reading aloud to the kids out of a survival book. We like to be in nature, going camping, canoeing, biking and hiking, and I would like to have our kids be prepared as possible for any situations they might ever face. It has been fun to read through the book together learning about making shelter, finding safe water, figuring out direction, dealing with hypothermia and much more. We might not remember everything we read (though we are attempting to practice some of it as well) but at least we have learned some. Learning ahead of time will help them not to feel afraid should they ever be in an emergency situation. Fear is one of the worst enemies of survival. We also enjoy reading out of various plant guides and Euell Gibbon's books to learn about finding wild foods. I have also been reading a lot of bee books which is helping me to prepare myself for my beekeeping adventure (which is going well- I will share more about that on Monday.).

The very most important step in being prepared however is this: "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." Matthew 24:24 We need to be absolutely sure that our lives are right with God. It is nice to be prepared in other ways but that would only affect us for a little while but if we aren't prepared for Jesus' return then it will affect us for eternity.

Do you like to be prepared?

A Raincoat and Hat for Izzy

 This past week Mara decided her doll Izzy needed a raincoat and hat. So she went to work. We had found  files for free, printable, American Girl Doll Clothes Patterns and she used the one for Molly. I was so happy to see how much Mara has progressed in the sewing department. I was pretty busy so she only asked me a few questions and otherwise she just followed the directions on the pattern and did it herself.

We didn't have true raincoat material available so she just used some nylon fabric that a friend had just given to us.

Have you been sewing anything lately? Did your Mom teach you to sew and have you taught your children?
I love to hear your thoughts!

A busy week

 This past week was a busy one and this current one is shaping up to be even busier. Such is life. We will strive to enjoy all the activities!

Here are some of our fun "Homesteading" activities of the past week:

 Making noodles. I haven't done this for quite some time and my children were quite excited to see me making them. They love to help make them and they are a huge favorite of theirs for eating. My mom makes them more often than I so they consider them a "Grandma specialty" but were happy to have me make them too. Generally we use them to make chicken noodle soup but they are actually quite versatile.

 They are simple to make just needing flour, egg, salt and water (or a little whey or milk). I don't really measure, just mix them together to make a very stiff dough and then roll it out and cut it into strips. You can use them right away or dry them and then freeze them for later.

 Another activity that we did (well mostly watched my dad do) was doing some grafting and pruning on our apple trees. I had made the mistake of forgetting to put screening around my trees this past winter. Mice or something like that found three of them (I only have 4) and chewed on the bark around them. The were still alive but two of them were not doing well at all and the other one was at risk. Dad worked at fixing them up and the kids and I helped when we could.

 I am very blessed to have a Dad who knows how to do all sorts of things including grafting and taking care of and growing fruit trees.

This past weekend my parents went on a little trip and wondered if we could watch their bottle fed baby goat. They have a lot of baby goats (over a dozen) but this one was not claimed by it's mother and so they have had to feed it. By younger brother was going to still be home and do the rest of the chores but they thought it would be easier if he didn't have to bottle feed a baby too. Also they figured my kids would enjoy the extra time with Daisy Flower.

 We had decided that Daisy flower could stay in our garden since we have high deer proof fence around it and they brought an orange snow fence (I think about 4 feet high) along to block of the part of the garden that had growing stuff already in it.

The kids did have a wonderful time with Daisy Flower. They played tag and had tons of fun.

 We soon learned however that a baby goat does not care to be alone. We also learned that 4 foot or 5 foot fences were no match for a kid that is lonely.

 The brain in that head above is much smarter than you might think!

We soon began to think we were living out a nursery rhyme, except ours went like this:

"Mara had a little goat, little goat, little goat.
Mara had a little goat whose fur was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mara went, Mara went, Mara went,
Everywhere that Mara went the Goat was sure to go."

 We would put Daisy Flower in the fence and then come up to the house but right behind us would be a little goat that wanted to come in. We had turned one of my compost bins into a little shed and Daisy jumped up on top of it and then over the fence (since it was right next to the side). That process only took her a couple of seconds.

 So next we moved the orange snow fence so that daisy couldn't get to the compost bins and made her a new shelter smack dab in the middle of the garden. She still got up on it but she couldn't just over the fence from that location.

This did stump her for a couple of minutes and we figured we had things fixed up. Well we were wrong. She figured out how to go under the snow fence and then up on the compost bin and over the other fence. So Ken went out and made it so she couldn't go under. She worked on that a few minutes more and then she just jumped over the 4 foot snow fence and up onto the compost bin and over the garden fence and trotted right back up to the door again.

Here she figured if we didn't answer her first knock maybe she had better work to get some more attention!

She actually came straight in several times because our door doesn't latch securely and so she could just push it open. She was awfully cute but knowing her dirtier habits I just didn't care to have her in the house. Saturday it rained most of the day but the kids rotated and gave her company most of the day anyway. Since the garden was working they played tag all over the yard and had a wonderful time.

They had fun feeding her 4 times a day.

My younger brother took her home Saturday evening so she didn't have to spend another night (and during church on Sunday) all alone stuck in a little dog kennel which was the only way (other than the rabbit pen) we were able to keep her in a pen. We were sorry we weren't able to keep her the whole time but we were tired out and I am sure she was happier to be back with the other goats.

Lessons learned:

-If you get a goat don't get just one. They are very sociable and need company.

- We are happy to have an easy pet like a rabbit.

- Baby goats can act a lot like a dog.

Which was fun for a day but a good reminder to me of why we aren't ready for a dog.

-Don't underestimate the ingenuity and determination of a baby goat.

We are planning on getting some livestock soon however.

Around 1,800 of them to be exact.

I am extremely excited and nervous!

We are trying to get ready. 

Here I am suited up for the great adventure!

 We found out that the bees are coming on Wednesday! I got veils and gloves fixed up for Mara and I. We are using hats we already had and I made tulle veils. I used some plastic ribbing to make sure that they don't blow into our faces but rather stay firmly where they belong.

For gloves I did buy some for myself at Menards, just short leather gloves but then I sewed gauntlets onto them. For Mara I found some old ( I think actually antique) leather dress gloves that I had stored away and I attached gauntlets onto them. Mara is going to go and help me pick up the bees so I decided she had better have a suit too. Now all the kids want them and I plan on working on that after this extremely busy week is over.

What have you been working on at your place?

I am linking this post up to Homestead Revival.

Thinking on these things....

This past week, these words have been pressing into my heart and convicting me:

"Give to everyone who asks of you,

and whoever takes away what is yours,

do not demand it back.

Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.

If you love those who love you,

what credit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them.

If you do good to those who do good to you,

what credit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same.

If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.

But love your enemies,

and do good, and lend,

expecting nothing in return;

and your reward will be great,

and you will be sons of the Most High;

for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Be merciful,

just as your Father is merciful."

Luke 6:30-36

The message here isn't easy and it isn't something we do naturally but it is what Jesus showed us to do. I want to follow Him in everything. I have so much progress to make in this area!