As if the neighbors weren't already talking.

Last night my husband and good neighbor were on a mission. Their objective, to move the hives. Earlier that day my husband pulled the stabled down screen that sort of kept the bees inside of the nuc boxes. OK, no sort of about it, it didn't keep them anywhere. We broke out our old school smoker. I got this along with the brooding boxes at that farm auction 2 years ago.

He went out and smoked them. Pulled the screens, then moved away quickly.

That evening I sent my oldest son to inform the good neighbor that we were moving the boxes. He came over, bring asbestosis suits.
They suited up and got ready to move some ticked off bees.

Husband

Good neighbor clashing in purple and yellow

I like this photo of my husband with the smoker.

All I could think of as they handed one of the boxes over the fence was "NO E.T.! DON'T DIE!" It brought tears to my eyes (from laughing so hard).

The good neighbor and my husband first moved the good neighbors bees over to his property

The cows were very interested.

Sorry about the below photos. It was dark out and I was trying to stay as far as possible. Those were some angry bees.

The cows got stung, we watched as they ran and bucked away. Soon I wasn't even able to stand where I was, the bees were now after me!

MAAAAAHHHHHM!

Yesterday evening I was working in the house and my middle son starts yelling, mom! He wants you! Then I hear MAAAHHHHM! coming through the open window.

"What?" I yell out. I had sent my oldest out to get the goats out of the pasture and close the gate. I need help! I sighed and rolled my eyes just like he does. How difficult is it to close a gate, I wondered. I walked out there and found this,

Turns out gander had decided to go on a rampage. My oldest son tried to scare him off by waving his coat at him and the gander grabbed the coat. Next thing my son does was to sit on him until help arrived. I grabbed hold of the coat and told my son to stand and back away at the count of three. one, two, three! I pulled the coat and my son backed away. My oldest had humiliated him, and he walked away complaining. I stood guard as my son closed the back gate, to make sure that gander wouldn't try assaulting him again.

There just seem to be a new adventure here every day.

Fence

Last night we finally finished fencing in our back 3 acres. The good neighbor came over to help.

No, he isn't drunk, nor is he trying to build the fence from the bottom, and he isn't wrestling with it. I thought it was too funny so I took the photo.

This would be the good neighbor crawling under the new fencing, to get on the correct side of the fence. There is no gate on that side. We will be putting in a gate between our properties shortly.

It's nice when things go right for a change. No one got bit, no cows charging at the fence makers, no ungodly amounts of blood spurting across the green green grass. We did however lost our post driver, and the good neighbor's knife has gone AWOL.

Uma, the calf, loved getting out in the field. She ran and ran until she had to lie down. The other neighbors horses came running to greet her. Now to see if they will come up to the barn to be milked. Eddie is just like a dog, you can call her in the sweet high pitched voice and she comes running, heels in the air, clicking with joy. She is funny to watch. Mama however has attitude. I fear she will ignore me, but...always a but... with Uma separated for the day, she will be hurting enough that she might now realize that relief comes from me.

I contact Little River View Farm the other day about some bulls they have for sale. I will be calling them this week so we can go out and look this weekend. Yes, the Neophyte Homestead is getting a bull. What could go wrong?

Meet the Mighty Bee Keeper

Friday evening we received a call from our bee guy. The bees would be here after dark on Saturday, and we could come pick them up on Sunday.

We finished up the bottom brooding boxes

And excitedly waited for Sunday.

My husband and eldest son headed out on the 1 1/2 hour trip to the bee man. They took the car. Gas prices and an old Chevy pickup just don't mesh so well. Plus from what I understood from reading my fellow homesteaders blogs and looking at the bees you order online, the bees come in this nice tight little box. It's ok if you fall over, off your chair laughing at our nativity. I will understand.

My husband got there and talk with our bee guy about this and that. The do's and don'ts of bee keeping. Then they loaded the car, and my husband discovered that the nuc boxes were not as secure as they could have been.

Many of the bees were loose in the car. My husband exclaimed that you could see them all over the back window. And as long as they continued to move forward, the bees stayed in the back of the car. But as soon as you slowed down....

He pulled into the toll booth, threw the money at the operator, yelling "LIVE BEES! KEEP THE CHANGE!" He is sure that she is telling the story about the stupid man driving the toll roads of Kansas with loose bees in his car.

Once he came home, the two of them scrambled out of the car, and away from it. Leaving all the windows and doors open. I was astounded and then found myself laughing at him. He got stung only twice, my oldest son came away without any stings.

We waited until dark before moving them out of the car and into the area that we want them. The next day I discovered that our new livestock is a tad aggressive. I wasn't that close to the hive, but one little bee decided to run me off even further. They are also getting into the house. We decided that they are going to have to be even further from the house. But as bees travel miles for food and water, and don't think that will matter much.

Last night we walked out to the hives with the good neighbor, to move the nuc boxes up onto the tops of the brooder hives. It was going to rain, and it did. Tonight we are going to move the hives and nuc boxes further away from the house and pop off the stapled down screens. Then leave them to calm down until the next night before attempting to get the frames into their permanent homes.

So yesterdays post on pre depression, I had been debating all weekend on how to approach it. I thought the story form, drawing parallels was the best way.

In the Beginning (pre-depression)

1928

Things were good in my suburban home. There is this man named Henry Ford that figured out how to give unskilled workers jobs, something called the production line. Though my grandfather calls it deskilling. I don't know, but dad says that Mr. Ford is paying his workers five dollars an hour. Can you believe it, five dollars for one hour of work. Dad says that other manufactures will have to start paying that kind of wage or lose their workers to Michigan.

Mom and I went to the local merchant and saw this thing he called a washing Machine. He says it is all the rage, many of our own neighbors have been buying them. Mom was sad when he told her how much it was. Dad didn't work for Mr. Ford, she told the merchant. And I must say I have never seen a bigger grin on a man before. He told my mother that she could buy it on credit. Mom asked what credit was. He said that they shouldn't talk about money matters in front of the children. So he and mom went into the office. And the next thing I know is that some delivery men our pulling up into our driveway with that washing machine, and refrigerator, a new gas stove and a machine that you plugged in and made waffles in! When dad came home that night he looked mighty angry, but then mom told him about credit. I tried to listen to what she said, she said that you didn't need the money upfront anymore, that the merchant trusted you and would send a bill to pay over time. I wonder how much candy I could get on credit.

My father and grandfather had some men over and I heard them talking in the pallor. They were angry and scared. One man said that since Mr. Ford and taken the skilled labor jobs out of the hands of the craftsman, and now had managers that knew nothing about their own work, that more business began to follow suit. He said that the rich were getting richer and that we were stagnant. He said that we were no longer free, and that companies like JP Morgan were the ones actually calling the shots. My dad grunted and all the men were sullenly silent. They were scared. Someone then said the word Union, and they all laughed.

2005
My husband and I decided that we no longer wanted to be renters. It was time to look into owning our new home. We had ok credit, nothing too horrid, and we were making ten dollars an hour. But the housing market seem to be perfect for us. This would be our biggest purchase ever. We were financed quickly, with a relatively low interest rate, and discovered that credit now flowed through our fingers. We bought a new washer and dryer, a new gas stove and refrigerator. I even got a new waffle iron while I was at it. The middle class was prospering and we felt good about our investments.

My husband works for a factory, and after a few years, and many raises we thought things were going just fine. Thank you Mr. Ford!

1928
Dad says that Mr Hoover is now President, and he has vowed to abolish poverty. Dad says that the reason things aren't going so well is because of all the immigrants. They take all the jobs.

2007
President Bush says that Illegal immigrants only take the jobs that we don't. Tell that to my husband that lost a promotion, or to my brother in law that can't get work as a drywaller.