The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Spiders and Wasps and Ticks, Oh Yes..and Stink Bugs

And if that wasn't enough to deter one, now there are these big flies that sound like bees when they dive bomb your head as you walk.    Yesterday evening I saw my first big snake.  Ask me where I saw it?  Slithering along the barn wall as I was walking from my door!  ...this isn't disneyland!

And let me continue with the ugly.  I woke up and went into my bathroom and on the wall was the largest spider I had ever seen up close.  It was almost as big as a tarantula - a fishing spider (I did not know this at the time)  It was on the vertical wall right by the bathroom mirror.  I thought I could deal with it, but finally Alyce took the shoe from me and dealt the final blow.

What is bad and ugly is also good - and therein lies the problem.  The big snake was a black snake.  It kills rats and keeps other snakes away.  The large fishing spider above eats other small pest that you would not want in your house.  I don't see any point in wasp and stink bugs and ticks and hovering flies...but I am sure there is something good about them.

Then there is the fox.  First the male ducks disappeared one by one.  Now the female ducks are beginning to disappear.  One of the missing ducks was sitting on a nest of eggs which were transfered under another brooding duck.  Yesterday evening we finally saw the fox from our window heading towards the farm.  He consequently killed 1 baby duck and 6 baby chickens.  So now all the animals are in one place behind an electric fence.

I put in the little pond and Zac built the walkway!

The good... The farm is a great place for kids.  Below is a picture of someone visiting who caught their first ever fish!

Below are the boys with the first piece of furniture they built all by themselves.  Alyce has been teaching them how to use some power tools.  They were quite proud of their success.

Elijah's first suit and doesn't he look dapper

And now for the bees.  I opened the hive for the first time by myself last week.  (Now you know I was wearing my bee suit this time)!  I got my smoker working, which is quite trick.   Then I took off the outer cover - and all was well.  Used my smoke and took off the inner cover - OK sort of a lot of bees but still doing ok.  Then I pulled up the first frame - not so OK.  I became so overwhelmed by the number of bees that came up that I almost dropped it and ran away.  If Alyce had not been standing by and telling me "your doing good".  I would have completely been panicked.   I managed to drop the frame back into the hive and put the hive back together, walk slowly over to the tractor that was near by,  picked up my phone and  immediately called my bee mentor, Amy.   Amy came over the next day and quietly walked me through checking out my hives.  Did I mention she is an emergency room nurse!

I worked my first Charlottesville Farmers Market selling the honey for the couple I work for during the week.

I learned to use the new fangled technology of a card slider on my phone.  Had to setup a tent and move the boxes of honey myself - but I did it.  Zac, my son, was selling his salmon in the space next to mine.  Alyce moved between the 2 of use.  I can't believe I am working the market now!!!

Now that our barn workshop is all setup, I will start making a stained glass for the huge window in our loft.  Alyce will start her woodworking.

So... there is the good, the bad, and the ugly.  They tell me that this hot is not even close to what it is going to get once we hit summer.  

                                           But what an unexpected life it is.

Your Never to Old to do Stupid!

Last Thursday Alyce and I picked up our bees from a beekeeper in Earlysville, Va.  (I won't call us beekeepers yet because we have only been at it since Thursday!)  Virginia in the evening is magical. There is something about the way the sun shines through the hardwood trees in the mountains that makes everything a little dreamy.

And this is the dreamy environment that we were introduced to our bees.  We drove down a dirt road to his farm which was nestled in a little valley.  The sun was filtering through the trees and mingled in the filtered sunlight were flying insects - mainly bees.  The only sounds were the underlying hum of bees and the singing of birds.  As we got our of the truck, we were enveloped by a sweet smell of trees and hives. Everything on his property was handmade.  His workshop, where he was temporarily living, was covered in bark that he had hand cut from poplar trees.  He had various raised gardens, a small orchard,  and then his beehives.  Being a little intimidated by the idea of finally getting our bees and having to transport them in our beehive in the back of our truck!!; the environment that enveloped us worked it's magic to calm us.

Ryan was the name of the beekeeper we bought our bees from.  I had chosen not to receive my bees in the mail from Georgia, but to pay more to get home grown Virginia bees.  Ryan grew us a beehive of bees which he would move into my brand new beehive.  He had us suit up in our brand new bee suits and we entered our newest adventure....

Ryan opening the small beehive that was soon to be our bees

Alyce in her brand new bee suit with gloves

And it was the moment that Ryan opened up our package, along with the sweet smell of the nectar, the humming sound of the bees, the way the evening sun was coming through the trees, and finally...  seeing the hundreds of little busy bees -  that I think I decided that I might love this!

Taking out frames to put in our beehive

Making sure the queen was laying eggs

Once he checked our package for an active queen and a large amount of laid eggs called 'brood', he was ready to drop them in our hive.  Once in our hive, he duck tapped the front entrance (good old duck tape) and tightened the strap around our hive.

Our hive ready for transport

I didn't even know how to use that strap to hold the hive together for transport!  You can see the bees on the 'doorstep' so to speak that were returning from 'foraging' (notice the new vocabulary).

Ryan's beehives surrounded by an electric fence

Painted different colors so bees recognize their hive

The sun was beginning to set below the mountain, and we wanted to get home before it was dark.  So we picked up our live, noisy beehive (a little scary) and walked it to the back of my son's truck - we were now on our own!!  Driving home was  - a little scary - (you will see this phrase a lot!).  He had warned us that they may be a little grouchy from bouncing on the long dirt road to my son's house.  We had an hours drive before we got to that dirt road and every turn we made until then was - a little scary!  

We arrived at our farm and parked the truck.  We suited up - gloves and all - lifted the beehive and placed the hive on its stand.  Then I had to remove the top of the hive to remove the duck tape and cardboard he had placed in the frames to keep them steady. I was really very calm about it because I was in my suit.  The bees were full of nectar and quite docile really and I was very confident through the ordeal!

Now for stupid!!

We bought a second package of bees from him and picked them up on this past Saturday night.  Feeling very comfortable - because we had already been through this once before!!! we picked up our hive and headed home.  When we got home, it was late and now dark.  We had to park the truck so that the head lights faced the hive.  Feeling very confident, I said to Alyce, we don't need to suit up....   Now I can't tell you how many times we had been told through book, video and class - you always suit up...   But no... stupid was at play.  We placed the hive down on the stand, and I removed to top and the pissed off bees came out.... and I got bit of course!   I did verify that if you quickly scratch out the bee stinger, it minimizes the impact.  

Your never too old to act stupid....

More pictures as I check on the hives for the first time later this week...

Really, I Live Here??

This is my view as I write this...really!  Yesterday every box in the house was cleared out and everything has its place.  We dusted and polished, bought a new rug and we are in.  In a poem by Robert Frost called, 'The Road Not Taken' he writes:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Enough said!!

View from the Road that leads to our home

Just Laying Eggs

Brooding Moma Duck

So 'brooding' is when the animal begins to sit on the eggs for an extended time incubating them for hatching.  Evidently, once there are 8 or more eggs in one spot, the duck will make a nest around the eggs and begin to 'brood'.  Since I have been here, I would normally find duck eggs laying anywhere but in a nest.

Next...American eel found when we were walking in the stream.  I first thought it was a nest of snakes until I saw they each had a long fin on their backs.  They grow to 2 or 3 feet and are part of the Chesapeake Bay Program

The American eel is a smooth, snake-like fish with a greenish, yellowish-brown or blackish body. It lives in rivers, streams and other freshwater areas throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed

REALLY.... every day brings something new, something different and totally unexpected!  

This is the stream we found the eels in