Part 2 and Bee Keeping

The family got back from their Tea Show the next day. One of the boys ran up to me carrying a box and yelling, “Guess what we found!”. In the box was a week old kitten. This cute little thing must have just opened its eyes for how little it was. We talked and chatted and Tara told us one of her friends needed help moving into their new house and would be willing to pay us, which is great cause we’re out of money. We met Tara and Sean, a very nice couple of old hippies who we have a ton in common with. Daniel and Sean are so much alike it’s amazing. They both like Sufism, they love the same kind of music, they both have met Pir Zia (the leader of the sufi order in America). Then there was a moment of crazy synchronicity.
Our old roommate Thompkins introduced us to a girl at Rising Tide named Jessica, she has a friend in New York named Karen, Karen is Sean’s ex girl friend.
It’s a small world. Yesterday was the hardest working day. We woke up at 9AM and didn’t get back until 11 at night. Daniel was driving back and forth, an hour each way, hauling loads of things to the new house. I spent all day in a run down trailer, wiping down every inch of it with a sponge, taking steel wool to the whole oven, and getting on my hands and knees with a brush and scrubbing the floors (which smelled like cat pee). The only good thing is that the mobile home looks SO MUCH BETTER then when I started. Sean is a great guy. The first night we worked for them, he took us out for pizza. Yesterday, He bought us cheese and crackers which may not seem like much but it was much needed and very kind. Daniel is out moving furniture tonight, but earlier we were all out in the garden pulling weeds, finding potato plants, and getting a bed ready for planting.
The other wwoofer who was working here, James, left Friday. He was suppose to stay until the end of the month but another farm called and said they had an opening, so he took it. James was always the first to wake up and get on his chores, That means Daniel and I have to step our game up. So now I’m making us a schedule with everything we need to get done. It’s great.

Beekeepers for a day

The other day, Tara introduced us to a fellow organic farmer named Robin. Her Greenhouse is beautiful. Filled with freshly sprouting vegetation everywhere you look. Almost every vegetable you could think of, and endless variations of each species. We probably counted at least 20 different types of tomato, 25 or more different peppers, and at least 10 variations of eggplant. It was really cool to see such a well developed greenhouse, and garden. You could tell she’s had years of experience to perfect her craft. She introduced us to her husband, Wayne, a Master Beekeeper. They told us if we ever wanted, we could come over on a day when he was working with the bees, and he would give us a run thru on beekeeping.

Yesterday, while Tiffany and I were working on the farm, Robin called and asked us if we wanted to come over. She said that Wayne had just gotten home with 2 new boxes of bees, and that if we wanted to help, we would have to come over right away. We jumped on that offer! Soon after getting there, we met up with Wayne, and he gave us the grand tour. He told us about all the layers of the hive, all the tools used, and all the cool facts about bees. (He said that all the bees in the colony each have their own specific roll they play, and that there are actually some bees whose only job is to carry the dead bees out of the hive.) Its crazy how well organized honeybees are. After the rundown, we all suited up, and headed up the hill with the 2 new colonies. He showed us how to break down the empty hives, and he made room for all the new bees. Then it was time to open the boxes. He cut the string keeping it closed, lifted the lid, and there, staring up at us, were 1200 honeybees! It was such a wonderful sight to see. He proceeded to lift each of the 5 trays one by one into the hive. Once all the trays were moved, he knocked the remaining bees out of the box into the hive and covered the hanging trays with a spacer, a feeder, and the lid. Then it was our turn. Tiffany and I each took turns lifting the trays into the next hive. I think the bees knew we were new at this, because they started swarming. Suddenly we were surrounded by hundreds of bees, all trying to defend their perturbed queen. We placed the final tray into the hive, and closed it up quickly. Making sure there were no bees stuck between the feeder and the lid. And we were finished. We took our suites off, and I carefully removed the 3 bees that managed to get themselves trapped between the suit and my T-shirt. Luckily neither of us got stung. We cant wait till the next time we get to work with the bees, it was a great experience!

Long Update: Part 1

Things have slowed down here a bit. Our friend Prestia came to visit us for about a week and during that time the family went to a herb and good’s show, which I’m guessing is kind of like a farmer’s market. They left a list of chores to do and we managed to finish them all in about two days. That left plenty of time for us to enjoy ourselves. We took our awesome GPS and wandered off into the infinite span of uninhabited mountains. Our goal was to find a Geo-Cach that was only suppose to be a little over two miles away. Unfortunately, two miles over mountains is much different that two miles on level ground. So we gave up that and just enjoyed the sights. Even though we left the path, the mighty GPS Unit saved us from getting lost and eating each other.
The day before Prestia was going to leave, we decided to hit the Appalachian Trail and do some camping. The hike up the mountain was a killer, especially lugging all our camping stuff on our backs, we were not prepared for that kind of strain. As we neared the top of the mountain, over an hour into the hike, the thunder started. We found a level spot to camp and pitched the tent just as the downpour started. It rained harder and thundered louder than I have ever seen. It felt like it stormed for hours and we were all sick of it. We were cold, wet, and bored and we wanted to go home. As soon as there was a break in the rain, we rushed and packed everything up and started down to the car. It didn’t matter that it was too dark to see anything and there were bears and coyotes everywhere. Prestia was in front with the flashlight, I was in the middle with Annabell, and Daniel was in the back with the lantern. We had music playing to keep any animals away and we were booking it as fast as we could, Annabell freaking out over everything that she heard. When we got back down to the car, we piled in and drive home, tired and dirty.
Prestia had to meet his parents in Asheville the next day but we weren’t sure what time. The last two times we went there I always ended up saying “I wish I had brought Annabell” so I wasn’t going to make that mistake again. The guys brought instruments (Dan had the djembi and Prestia had his new guitar) because they had heard about a music shop that was suppose to be ‘Amazing’ and ‘the best’ called Skinny Beats. When we got there, the store owner was the rudest person in Asheville. He was only in it for the money and didn’t want anything to do with us. We left and went to the park and played music and Annabell played fetch.
We stayed in the city until 5 then his parent showed up and we said our goodbyes.
On the drive home we talked about what we were going to do after North Carolina and decided on Montana. We sat down that night and picked out a farm that breeds and trains herding dogs. We should be heading there in late June.

April

Well, we've been on this farm nearly a month now and we're still loving it. The weather changes randomly (it snowed yesterday and it should be in the high 60s tomorrow) and the two kids have almost snapped my last nerve with all their "April Fools" jokes... but Tara and Gerald and James are very nice and good conversation. The mom here is a vat of information and I love the things that i'm learning about gardening. We're even talking about going out and buying baby Guinea Fowl here one day because they are big Tick eatters. Annabell is a bundle of joy, bounding around outside all day long with the other dogs and pouncing Daniel and I when we come outside. Our eating habits have improved dramatically and we both feel much healthier with all the organic and from scratch food. Thinking of fast food leaves us feeling gross these days, which is a good thing for a small budget. I havnt directly asked Tara how she makes some of the things we have for dinner but i'm keeping a close eye on the preparation process. Our new GPS system came in today and we're two AA's away from getting this thing running, but at least this time it'll work. Tons of memory, a great battery life, And the map we need. Thank You Aunt Lori! As long as the tiny pests that are the kids don't drive me completely up the walls by constantly making me clean up after them, we will be staying here until the middle of May. Then, it's over to Tennessee.