A little bit more about us...

To understand the purpose of this blog it helps to understand whom Elizabeth and I are; where we are coming from and to where we are going.

We are both simple people, we know where we stand on faith issues and our greatest pleasures come from the simplicities of living a natural life.

We've been married for five years as of May 25th 2012. Two things brought our marriage together: faith and homesteading. When Elizabeth and I met we were both on the same page in terms of our theology and our desire to homestead, for us the two are almost inseparable. I'm trying to make this as simple as possible, but with all things in our life, it is all intricate.

Elizabeth and I were what the world calls "fundamentalist Christians", we now look back and think that is a joke compared to where we are now. After we were married it seemed that we only became more and more conservative as the months went by. We struggled deeply with our desire to blend into a crowd, but our overwhelming convictions had greater control over our decisions. Elizabeth and I both come from families that can easily blend into any American scene, Elizabeth and I however are anything but that. In a day and age when most Christians look no different than heathens, Elizabeth and I stand out as the exception. We don't accept the idea that as Christians we are to be "separated" but yet still be identical to "the world". 

To make this easier for everyone to understand in the most simple of comparisons I will explain like this; we have the theology of the UPCI, the wisdom and preaching of the Old German Baptist Brethren, and the lifestyle of the Amish. Now to get quicker to the point I will explain this, we currently are not living off the land as we desire yet, nor are we horse and buggy yet. Being as we come from non-plain families, our conversion to the simple life that we desire is taking longer than we'd both prefer. That being said, we have both committed to making the big jump in what is now approximately 4 years and 10 months. 

To make a full conversion and to learn all that we will need to know, it is best to make the process as long as is tolerable. There are so many topics to study and so much experience that is needed to be garnered. 

To be clear on all topics; we will not have electricity.
We still discuss where we stand on plumbing. We both know ourselves well enough to know that if we declared now that we will have plumbing in the future, that we could end up changing our minds and appearing as liars. One of our greatest precepts that determine our methods is, Work with nature-Not against it. God designed this world to function a specific way and it is up to us to obey his design.

In this blog Elizabeth and I will do our best to keep everyone up-to-date on where we stand with our "conversion". Every week we are learning lessons that we can take to our farm, we'll relay those lessons and information to you.

Here are some basics on the two of us. We are both college graduates, Elizabeth is currently studying to get her masters in business. She works in an office for a large company. I on the other-hand drive a semi for a relatively small trucking company. On Saturday's I am learning the art of "wooden hand plane making" in the town of Eureka Springs, AR. The two of us have many story's that will be finding their way onto this blog in just a matter of time, check back often!

Beekeeping - Part I

And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and HONEY; as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee. - Deuteronomy 27:3

Although bees are not native to North America and technically therefore an invasive species, many people enjoy raising them. What other livestock can you raise 100,000 head in such a small space? Tinier than any other animal on the farm, but they are much smarter than any chicken or sheep. They exemplify teamwork, steadfastness, and personal sacrifice for the common good.  

I have been attending beekeeping classes at the local university; three hours per session and a three part series. I would like to start keeping bees this year but need to watch my schedule. Beekeeping, much like chicken rearing, is a process of learning that should not be taken lightly. I learned much about my chickens just by sitting outside and watching them for hours at a time. The more time you spend with your animals, the easier it is to recognize sickness, the foods they desire, and pecking orders. I have come to recognize vitamin deficiencies by watching them eat certain plants and what I deem inedibles. Bees are no different.

When I start beekeeping, I want to sit outside and study them for hours. One of the things that amazed me during class was the rainbow colors of pollen. Bees will only gather from one species of plant every trip and pack that into its own waxy cell.

Different colors of pollen - Courtesy of The Vintage Bee Company

As to what kind of beehive, ­­­Robo at Bushkill Farms has a wonderful analysis on his youtube channel and his blog. You can find him at http://robo.bushkillfarms.com. Although, I am drawn to the top bar hive due to its cheap status and hippy-ish design (it was created for the people of Africa to house bees who have no access to traditional lumber as we know it); I am also interested in the Langstroth hive for its traditionalism and ability to stack supers on top of one another. Once I get started on this project, I may just have to try both! One of the great things about the Langstroth hive is the ability to integrate a Freeman Beetle Trap which is becoming a rather big problem here in the South. 

Langstroth Hive - Courtesy of NC State University 

Top Bar Hive - Courtesy of The Garden Hive

Freeman Beetle Trap in Action

A super is a box where surplus honey is stored by the hive. Boxes are added as needed and removed during the honey harvest. For those that are small-framed women, the Langstroth honey supers can prove too heavy to safely lift but there are options. Supers come in three sizes: shallow (approx. 35 lbs. full), medium or Illinois super (50 lbs.) and the traditional deep (90 lbs.). I will mostly be sticking to the shallows and mediums. It will probably not occur your first year, but during the second, you may be stacking your supers way over your head. Balancing heavy boxes full of bees and honey on a ladder may not be the best situation.

Courtesy of the University of Missouri

Beekeeping links:      

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com

www.beesource.com      

www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/small_beekeeping/index.htm

http://www.freemanbeetletrap.com/

Raising Chickens

When our four ladies first made it to the farm last summer, I spent hours sitting in the sun watching them. Now that the temperature has dropped and the spring rains of Arkansas have started, I do not spend so much time with them.   Our coop is a simple A-frame with no artificial lighting. Although we may be losing out on egg production, we feel that all creatures deserve a rest and if God intended them to stop laying when the number of sunny hours decreases then so be it. Interesting enough, egg production ceased only for about two weeks in mid-December.

Now that January is almost over, I am back up to four eggs a day. I am already back into baking/hard boiling mode and desperately giving them away.   Even with the temperature dropping below the freezing mark, our girls stayed nice and warm bundled up in their straw. They did lose some weight, but they are looking better than ever with their feathers coming in. When Michael brought them home for me, their backs were bald from an over-zealous rooster. The worst of the bunch was our Barred Rock, “Baldy.” She feathered out quicker than the others and now we have a hard time telling the two apart!

Baldy

Chicken projects for this summer include attaching wheels to the coop and constructing a type of detachable outdoor pen. The first, will make it much easier to move. The second will give the chickens more room to dig and graze. Unfortunately, with all the wandering neighborhood dogs, we cannot let our chickens out during the day unattended.