Things aren't always smiles and sunshine on the homestead, there are devastations and setbacks. Being a homesteader is a trial and error game and sometimes things go really well but at other times there are heartbreaks. I'm hoping that this life we are providing for our kids teaches them to take mistakes as a learning tool. I've always had a hard time making mistakes or failing as some might put it but the more farming we do I realize that mistakes aren't the end of the world and you can learn from them.
The weather finally warmed up so we were finally able to open up our bee hive and we were heartbroken with what we found. All our bees were dead, which left us with no bees that was our 2nd hive. After looking over them, our own bee autopsy...my own version of CSI...we've come to the conclusion that the hive no longer had a queen, which led to their demise. After the shock wore off we had to decide what we would do next, get more bees or give into our loss. Our first hive we lost to the wax moths and it was beyond devastating with a second loss, I was leaning towards moving on. But we truly enjoyed keeping bees and love the liquid gold, so we put in an order for a second nuc, so two nucs are ordered. There a few things we want to do differently this second time around. I'm going to pull up my big girl panties and join a local bee association. I'm not big on interacting with strangers, if I don't know people I tend to keep quiet and hide in the corner. I've come to the realization though that being a part of a bee community would be very educational and could be fun. I think one thing we took for granted was that bees do their own thing and don't need checked on often. Other chores and life kept getting in the way and we kept putting off inspecting them, which is one thing we'll change.
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| So sad |
Troubling times don't only come with livestock but with gardening as well. We've been gardening for five years now, I just looked it up and I'm in shock...time sure does fly by. We've had good years and a few crummy years. Until last year when we built the garden fortress to keep the deer out we'd transplant our seedlings and walk down to the garden the next day and a majority of them would be eaten. After putting so much work into those seedlings I would be so furious I'd stomp my feet and a few times shed a tear and say I'm done with this. Papa would come over and cheer me up and ensure me that we would fix the issues and I'd agree and we're still at it. Gardening takes time, sweat, enjoyment, and sometimes tears and when your kids pick a pea or carrot and fall in love with the food and the work you realize why you go through all of it.
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| Raised beds with covers. |
There are bad days on the farm when it comes to building something to improve the homestead also. At the moment we're building a greenhouse and fence with gates, and they've had their moments of cursing. Making the wrong cut or not buying enough supplies or measuring wrong are just a few things that get us worked up. Money doesn't grow on our trees so when we make cutting mistakes it hurts but we learn and move on. Or maybe you cement in two big poles and buy the gates and when you lean them up to see how it will look, you find out there's a 12 inch gap, the space for the gates is too large. You pull out a few hairs and start to brainstorm how to fix the problem. Pulling up one of the poles isn't an option because that wastes time and Papa is only one man, we found a solution and are back on track.
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| New gates |
Farming/homesteading isn't an easy game and not for everyone. I believe you have to have a passion for it and truly enjoy it. It involves days full of chores, sometimes harvesting yummy vegetables but at times it's heart wrenching work of cleaning up your dead bees. We do it because we enjoy the lifestyle and the rewards we get from it. Our hope is that we can pass on our joy for it to our kids and that it teaches them some valuable life lessons...I'm sure learning a lot as we go. Tough times on the homestead are a given but the happy times out way them and we are in love with what we do. Alright now back to the homestead.
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| Little lady working on tractor. |
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| Practicing how to be a cowboy. |
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