Winterizing

With the early freezing weather on the mainland, several readers have asked what I need to do on the homestead to prepare for winter. Truthfully, not much. The number one thing we do is change the angle of the solar panels. During the summer they lay flat. 

For the winter months they are angled. 

There is no need to stockpile winter firewood. No need to can and freeze veggies from the garden. No need to buy a winter supply of hay for the livestock. No need to bring out the winter clothing. I use to do all those things but living here there is no need. 

I can't truthfully say that I miss those Eastcoast and English winters. Neither were pleasant to work in. Oh, there's many fond memories of winters spent walking and playing in the snow, the brisk feel of frosty mornings, icicles and Jack Frost. But I've been there, done that, and I'm glad it's now memories. 

Bees Be Here!

I've been pretty busy these past few days making pallet grow boxes, gathering debris to fill the boxes with (I got one box filled, another 90% filled and ready for soil capping, two others half filled), planting new taro keikis, starting two small bean beds, and most interesting -- getting ready for the arrival of bees. 

(Looking down inside an opened beehive with some of the frames removed. You can see lots of bees crawling around. Most of these guys are newly hatched babies and caretakers.)

The homestead is finally home to bees. It took a little prep to get things ready. First we needed to decide where to place the hives. 

1- within sight of the farm watchdog to deter theft

2- where they would get morning sun and afternoon shade

3- protected spot from the tradewinds

4- open flight pathway

5- protected from the livestock

6- away from the neighbor's house

7- not too close to the garden so as not to interfere with the volunteers

8- not too close to the driveway

(Above hive has the tree branch in front if he openings. This triggers the bees o relearn their area.)

Once we decided upon the location we needed to make a level spot and place two cinder blocks for each hive to set on. The reason it needs to be really level is that the bottom of the hive houses an oil tray which is used to capture hive beetles and varroa mites. A bit of work with a shovel, a level, and a few handfuls of gravel and a couple small rocks and the flat pad is ready for the cinder blocks. 

With the help of David and the beekeeper, we moved three hives onto the farm a couple nights ago. The move went smoothly. We waited until just before sunset so that most of the foraging bees had returned to the hive. The beekeeper plugged the entrance holes, David and I picked up each hive and gently placed them into the truck bed. Then it was a slow, careful drive to the farm where we off loaded each hive to its level platform. The plugs were then removed. Leaving them plugged is not an option in the tropics because the hives would quickly overheat. We placed a few tree branches over the front of the hives in order to let the bees know that something had significantly changed with their hive. That causes them to reorientate, thus remapping their area. 

Today the beekeeper came by and we completely opened and cleaned out the biggest hive. Reason? Small hive beetle. Just prior to being moved, hive beetles moved in. So the hive needed to be cleaned or else the bees would leave. 

Above, the beekeeper is checking each frame in the lowest box. We had already cleaned each frame one by one in the upper boxes, removing any that were infested with hive beetles and killing all beetles that we saw. The queen is currently in a cage so that she can't move about. Her presence should keep the bee colony in the hive. Our intent is to replace her with a young, new queen in a few days. She is an older queen and no longer vigorous. 

Once everything was cleared of beetles, the lower box was repacked. The beekeeper replaced two infested frames with two frames full of honey to provide food for the bees while they recover from this trauma. 

I was truly impressed how gentle these bees are. Above is a picture of the bee smoker. Smoke is used to help calm and control bees. But the keeper needed to use very, very little smoke. Just a few small puffs here and there. And while the keeper used bee jacket, gloves, and vail, I didn't. I was dressed in my normal garden garb -- shirts, t-shirt, baseball cap. Of course I wasn't the one with my hands down inside the boxes. But I was carrying frames back and forth, standing right beside the hive, had bees 360 degrees around me. I didn't get stung once though some returning foragers did ding my head a number of times. If they were trying to sting, they didn't make it through the hat.

Fear

Since starting this blog, I've received numerous emails from people saying that they want to live my life. Oh no, you truly don't, I usually reply. I say that because .....? ..... 

...it's my life, just mine? ...no

...it's a hard life? ....no

...it only for old people? ...no

...it can only be done with lots of money? ...no

...etc

No, my reasoning is that if one really, truly wants to life a more basic, simplistic, homestead, lower standard of living type life without the hectic, stressful, chemical laden, government interference, peer pressure, debt oriented aspects, then you'd either already be doing it or implementing your plans to attain it by now. What do I think is holding people back? The bottom line is fear. 

Fear of the unknown......hey people, go experience the thrill of discovering things! Go explore! Experiment. Try something new. I'm trying new things all the time. Some pan out, some don't. But oh, what fun! There's something nice about figuring out something on your own. Outside people will judge and criticize all the time, but not only do I ignore them, I sort of feel sorry for them. They are obviously missing out on the fun of taking a chance, exploring, and learning. I guess they feel that doing something different is just too scary. 

Fear of failure.....absolutely nothing wrong with failing. For real! I was raised with the idea that failure was not acceptable. Failure was a disgrace. I've seen this sort of training result in suicide. I'm seeing younger generations being raised more and more with this idea. Especially some younger people who are terrified of failing, so they won't even try. They say that they dream of living on a farm, but never make the smallest  step towards that dream. Failure to me is an opportunity to learn. Please understand that I'm old enough to no longer care about my self image, so if I fail at something, I don't give a rat's ass what others think about it. I experiment and fail all the time. I welcome it. I then have the opportunity to learn more about the project and figure out how to make it work. 

Fear of ridicule..... I struggled with this character flaw most of life. I can still hear my mother tell me, "What will other people think?" Yes, she still says it to this day and she's 92 years old! Most of my life I worried about self image. As a child I was terribly shy because of it. Now that I'm retired, I no longer care much. Happily I live in a community where people have a lot of leeway. So being different is normal. But even if I lived back on the Eastcoast, I'd still ditch the fear of ridicule. Gee, after all these years I now understand why some old people I knew way back when did things "their way" and didn't care what others thought about it. I guess they too had moved past the fear of public scrutiny. 

Fear of danger.......I've seen people paralyzed by the fear of danger. Oh my, they might get hurt. It's dangerous. Something could go wrong. So they won't give it a try, whatever it is. 

Fear of being poor.....welcome to life on a homestead. I heard a great saying when I started out, "Lower one's expectations." So instead of expecting to continue living a middle class life, I expected to be living "poor". We're not dirt poor, but I've slowly adjusted our lifestyle down several notches. Thus for the first time in our lives we've actually managed to save some money because we're living a lower life style. So once hubby retires, it won't be a big shock to be living off the farm. We'll already be use to it.        I have to laugh. One of my mainland friends said that I'm learning how to become a hillbilly. Hillbilly implies poor and uneducated. I like the idea of learning to live comfortably off of a "poor" income, but uneducated? Heck no! I'm putting an awful lot of learning into this effort! 

In order for me to successfully homestead, I needed to ditch the fear factor. Fear of the unknown? Yup, it was there. I didn't know how I was going to create a homestead farm. I didn't have a rule book, so I winged it. I tried things, read lots, and gave it a go. Fear of failure? Heck, I expected failures along the way. But I didn't intend to quit just because I failed at something. I intended to learn from it and move on. Fear of ridicule? If others derided my efforts, well so be it. I ignore them. They can judge all they want but I'm not caring. I don't need those kind of people in my life. Fear of danger? Rather than fearing danger, I give it healthy respect. A homestead farm is dangerous. By then, life is dangerous too. I just learn and take care to minimize the danger, and get on with living. Fear of being poor? Nope. I expect it and just plan on creatively having a comfortable life. 

So you say that you'd like to live my life? Well, move past your fears and get on with it. 

Drivel - Relaxation Time

I sometimes have a hard time getting to my relaxation time. Sure, I'm busy. And that's by choice. Sure,  unexpected things come up that can take up time that I haven't budgeted. But the downright truth is that I get myself so involved with some current project that I don't want to let it go. And worse yet, something else comes along that grabs my interest and I add it to my project list. Before I know it, I have 30 hours of things to do during a 24 hour day. Happens all the time. 

I've chatted with other people, not just farming types, that really like their jobs and enjoy working at them for hours and hours every day. Back in the 70's, I knew several people who worked 12-15 hour days at their jobs, people who really got into their work. Yes, they weren't married. Or should we say, they were married to their work. I'm guilty too though I wasn't that bad. 12 hour days for me were not rare. I had a husband who was very, very unhappy when those days happened, so I kept them from being the routine. But if I hadn't been married, I too would have routinely worked 12 hour days. I loved what I was doing for a living. 

Now that I'm getting the opportunity to explore different aspects of homestead farming, I'm finding that I love doing this too. Without some sort of outside controls, I'd be at it from sunrise to sunset. Hubby is not my only moderator. Happily I also have friends who get me to take breaks. Friends like the one pictured below......

Yup, it's break time. Time for relaxation and socialization. A visit to a common friend's house to celebrate a birthday, share food and conversation, and a nice soak in the hottub. 

New Piglets

With Hammie and Chopper leaving, it's time to bring new piglets to the farm. A friend had a litter of piglets born about 5-6 weeks ago and the timing for me is perfect. Plus I like her two pigs and the piglets are pretty. So I arranged to get two. 

Introducing Jimmy Dean and Mellie ........

Jimmy Dean is a male and he's the black and white one. Mellie (short for watermelon because of her stripes) is a girl and the brown one. I had originally thought I'd name her Tita, but now that she's here, Mellie just seems to fit her better. 

These two little ones were eating well and are healthy, so they were old enough to wean. I brought the two home and introduced them to their new pen. Being scared and super homesick, they hated it. They spent the first day and night sitting in a corner hollering for mom. They refused to look at any edible goodies I offered and stayed as far away from me as possible. When night fell, I gave them an old wool blanket to snuggle in. I'm not sure how much that helped but I did notice the next morning that they had used it. 

By morning, things were better. With a bit of coaxing they ate their breakfast of canned milk, cooked rice and cob. But they wouldn't let me sit inside the pen with them. They were still far too nervous. Poor piggies! If I approached, they ran to the far corner. 

It's now been a few days since they arrived and they have settled in beautifully. They're no longer fearful. Jimmy Dean lets me brush and pet him, actually enjoying a nice scratch. Mellie is still suspicious. The only time I can pet and rub her is at mealtime. Eventually I'll win her over. 

They are eating well, exploring their pen, sleeping quietly. 

Home Slaughtering Issue

Stan asked via email if I had a local slaughterhouse to take the pigs to for processing. Yes, there is one about two hours away. But I don't use it. For many reasons, I opt for home slaughter. 

#1- There is no guarantee that I would be getting my own animal back. Even at our local slaughterhorse in Hilo, you're not allowed to watch the process. You have to drop the animal off then return a couple days later to pick up the wrapped meat. I've talked with a few neighbors who swore that they didn't get their own meat back. There's no way to prove that, but it's what they believe. Since the slaughterhouse sells meat to stores and restaurants, and processing is done behind closed doors, and there is no third part inspection or supervision, the benefit and opportunity to the slaughterhouse of switching carcasses surely exists. 

#2- Animals go through mental and emotional stress when transported if they have not been conditioned to it. I've seen them "dance" in trailers, repeatedly crash into the trailer sides attempting to escape, repeatedly vocalize, get "stress diarrhea", hyperventilate. Why put them through that if there is no need? 

#3- Since I would never sell my livestock via an auction or to a slaughterhouse and thus into the commercial meat flow, I won't even go there. That's a situation I can never approve of, though I have been forced to condone all my life via eating commercial meat and eggs. In the 80's and 90's the commercial situation was atrocious. Thankfully Temple Grandin has precipitated dramatic changes and improvements since then. Hubby chooses the bury his head in sand when I comes to this issue. We can't even discuss it.

#4- With properly done home slaughter, the animal undergoes little or no stress or pain.

#5- As was pointed out to me by a neighbor, once you're set up for it, home slaughter and butchering is a heck of a lot cheaper. 

The down sides are:

...often people cannot deal with the emotional aspects. 

...you need to learn from someone else how to do it. 

...you cannot legally sell, trade, or in some locales even give away or share the meat, depending upon the species. But to tell you the truth, most people I know that home slaughter & butcher ignore that regulation. 

...with larger animals, you need to have a big enough freezer for storage

...for beef, you need to arrange to have the meat hung for aging since most people don't own their own walk in refrigerator. 

I live in a area where home slaughter & butchering is common enough. I'm sure there have been many a tourist freaked out when they pass by one of these events. But locals here generally accept the idea. 

Drivel - Halloween!

'Tis the time again for adult foolery --  Halloween. We've gotten in the habit each year of spending it with friends, most of whom are as nutty as hubby and I. 

Jim pulled off a very good and quite spooky character. The mask was great, the wig so realistic, and his bright red long nails would make most women envious. I think he had the best costume because it was hard to recognize him with the make up. 

Sue comes in a close second in my viewpoint. Great get-up, and a thin boyfriend to boot! The boyfriend is perfect-- never gives her any lip, doesn't eat much, stays where he's put. 

Jean has a great sense of humor! I love it. 

Myrna's costume was lovely. And she was right in tune with her husband, John .........

By the way, the clothes are the Real McCoy, not store costumes. Pretty cool, no? 

Jo looks good as a biker chick. That fringed leather vest brought back memories of my own college days. 

Bob came as a collection of Things, as in Thing from the Addams Family. One Thing after another.....Vulcan Thing......Anorexic Thing......Things are looking up.....Hawaiian Thing, etc. 

Regardless if we came costumed or not, our group enjoys coming together to share a weekly meal and social company. Meal? Food? How about mud bugs?!?

Or frosted fish fannies? Or spiders in the food? How fun! 

And what's Halloween without a pumpkin?