Rick has learned to build windmills for green energy!

Now he is considering having his cousin build him a website to make that his business. I think that is very neat! His cousin and his wife are inspiring because they are both self employeed and doing well in Pittsburgh, Pa. If they can do it then we can too, right? She is the photographer who took really nice photos of our girls and Gabe when he was born.

Since he is getting laid off on the 25th of November he figured that starting a business would be a good idea. The question is what to do. He can build just about anything and is especially good with a welder. Do should he build things for jeeps??? Green power seems to be a good business to get into too.... we will see. God will show us what to do.

Things that have changed since I was on here blogging...

1. We got milking goats and they had kids.
2. We got chickens, guineas, ducks and hatched and sold them. Rick made a giant incubator that holds about 500 eggs.
3. We are selling our house and moving into a place that is dumpy and needs everything really replaced. From the floor to the wiring to the walls to the plumbing....
4. Rick is getting laid off from his job at GE with about 200 other people. (well, about 150 layoffs and 50 early retirements)
5. Since Rick is getting laid off we are planning on going back south for the winter. Maybe we will go a little further south this time for a few weeks. There are clear waters and pyramids in the southern part of Mexico along the eastern coast. The Caribbean coast.
6. We are selling a bunch of our animals so we can go south and housing out the rest of them with friends.
7. Savannah, the oldest child, just became our first teenager.
8. Rick is building a windmill. It is almost done. I will blog it when it is complete. The outside is fully done but he still needs the guts and batteries. It is SO cool.
9. We should be able to take the windmill with us in our VW camper van to Mexico. Then we can camp with electricity! Oh, and the point of changing to #9 is that we are getting the VW camper van finally done and painted. (we better get it done while we still have $!)
10. Uuuummmmmm..... I know there is more but I can't think of them right now.

We are back blogging I think....

To see the individual photos up close just scroll your mouse over the screen.

I am shutting this blog down. Maybe someday I will be back on.

I am online through my husbands phone... that means if he is not here than I am not online. The little bit of time he is here I am busy. So, I realize I can't do it all.

It has been nice being friends with some of you ladies. (((and I do consider many of you ladies FRIENDS))) Maybe I will talk to you again in heaven someday if I never get back to blogging.

Bye.

Why haven't I been blogging regularly? This could have something to do with it.

You know what really ticks me off? The fact that so many people pretend we are still a free country. Ya, free if you follow every stupid law and get every permit. Whatever.

What starts my rant? Well, here is the story-

I go into Tractor Supply today which is a local farm type store. Jacob, who is 11, has his birthday money. We go by the chicken peeps and they have ONE duck!!! So, he is going to buy it.

Long story short, they won't sell it to us... you have to buy SIX birds at a time. STATE LAW! WHATEVER!! We left and the kids were really bummed.

Thankfully, we actually have some duck eggs in the incubator at home. So HA.

The guy said they want to incourage birds for agriculture use only. Since when should the government be allowed to say how many animals you are allowed to buy? Should they say how many we can own? Have you ever given a second thought to your dog license? The fact that your animal is CHIPPED if you get it from a shelter???? Freedom.... what's that?

In America FREEDOM= THINKING ABOUT COMMUNISM AND BRAINWASHING THE PUBLIC INTO THINKING THEY ARE FREE

**make sure to click the links in this blog if you enjoy bees**

Don't take this personal but

my husband is so much cooler and more exciting than yours..

neener, neener, neener!

You may of read that Jacob found a bee tree...

Well, this is how it was handled- (we are ex-beekeepers, ya know)

This is Rick, my husband... he is looking up the tree sizing up the situation. He has dropped trees bigger than this before and handled bees... Pretty amazing, huh?

Yes, believe what you see. This is Rick, in a bee veil and gloves for protection, standing on a Jeep, dropping a tree with his chainsaw.

Dangerous? Yes!

Daring?  Yes!

Crazy? Yes!

Exciting? Yes!

Productive? Yes!

Homeschooler's dream moment? Yes!

After he cut the tree down he put a "lid" on it. We left the bees alone for the next 24 hours so they could relax. The bees actually handled it much better than I thought they would. Bees are not mean like yellow jackets or hornets are.

-

When we came back the next day we brought a board with a hole cut in it. We replaced the "lid" with this board and then placed a hive box on top of it. Then Rick put two nails in the tree and ratchet strapped the hive box to the tree. Now the box is securely in place. In about 2 weeks we will come back and (hopefully) the bees will have begun building part of their colony in that box. Then I can take the box off, stick a queen in it (or let them make thier own) and take my new hive home! Presto!

Then I can put another hive on top of the tree and let them produce me another hive which I will take home in about two weeks... and so on.

At the end of the season I will cap the tree and let them winter over. I have a never ending hive producer!

Do you have a bee tree? There are other ways to do this. We could of cut the tree open with the chainsaw and scooped to bees out into a box. Pluses? We would of got honey THEN and a big hive. Drawbacks? We would of distrubed them and killed part of the brood (babies) and only had one established hive. It would of been messier and more nerve racking with all those bees all over the place. There is also the chance they would get frustrated, swarm and leave.

Jacob found a bee tree a few weeks ago. What is a bee tree? It is a tree in the woods that is full of honey bees! What a great find. We used to have bees but I think they died because the moron that grew corn near us sprayed the corn with chemicals. Moron....

Anyhow, Jacob found this tree so we put together some frames for boxes. This time Jacob and Rebekah helped make them. Now that our bee boxes are ready we will be cutting the tree down this week.

Rick will cut the tree in half letting the top part of the tree fall. Then we are going to put a big board on the stump. The board will have a hole in it. On top of the hole we will put a hive box so the bees can start building in the box. In a few weeks we will have a hive with brood and bees. Then we will remove the box...

If this doesn't make sense just wait. I hope to get pictures of the process....

For now here is Jacob and Bekah helping out. Ages 7 and 11.

Yesterday Jacob had his eleventh birthday.

We got him a REAL 22 rifle. He is moving up from the BB gun. Rick had him close his eyes and hold out his hands and then gave him a gun. When he open his eys Jacob said "WOW! For real?" He was really happy.

Rick had a chiropractor appointment that day in the city and suprised us all by going to Tractor Supplies and buying us a gift. Rick walked in the door and pulled a Bantam peep out of his pocket for Jacob. (Jacob really has an obsession with those kind of chickens) and then he pulled out a Comet ROOSTER for me! Why do I consider that romantic?!?!? LOL I needed a purebred comet rooster for my chickens and now I have one. ((THANKS DADDY))

Notice his poison ivy is drying up....