Lest you think we are all work and no play when we go to our land in the country, I figured I should report on our war games…er…model rocket launching fun this weekend. We did work some but that bit seems like an old tune now. The kids were pretty much over the non-fun stuff so they explored some in the woods and found a new “hide-out” while I did the rest of what I had to do before play time. I have no idea what sort of cave, bramble or whiskey still they happened upon but they had an awesome time!
Preparing for launch!
Anyhow, we finished up with all of that and we headed to the top of the hay field to prep our launch area. There were a bunch of kids at the next house over so I think our position was as much an advertisement as it was anything else. So we launched a few rockets. It must have been the humidity or something because the nose cones were on so tight that they never discharged the parachutes. And what is a model rocket without a parachute as it heads back to earth? It’s a freakin’ bullet! Run!
Mission Control
Isaac and Abigail decided to invite the neighbor kids over and they brought some cousins so there were at least 6 kids…more targets! Just kidding. We were very careful to keep everyone safe. Everyone got a chance to push the launch button, which I thought would be the thrill. I was wrong. The real fun was racing across the field to recover the rockets! Who knew exercise was so fun!
The rocket!10...9...8...7...
One boy said he had always wanted to launch rockets but his Mom wouldn’t let them (for safety reasons I bet!) I think I found our new role on the hill. We are the people who let you do all the stuff your parents won’t let you do!
Click to play the launch movie
(click here if your computer cannot play the movie above)
By the time we were through, we had a bunch of the parents up there too. We have met so many people and everyone has been so nice. I suspect most everyone confirmed that we are the unstable, crazy ones up on that hill. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing?
Holy cow it’s been awhile since I have posted. It seems like time is flying! I certainly need to remedy that. So, last weekend, the hottest weekend of the year (so far), we went camping on the bee farm. I had to set more fence posts in the ground and I have been itching to stay up and see the stars and listen to the crickets. You know, they say you can find the temperature by counting cricket chirps for 15 seconds and adding 37. I don’t think I could count fast enough to make a good measurement so I am sure that it works. It was hot!
Anyhow, I dug more fence posts and cut a bunch of trees and brush. The kids mostly read their kindles but they also went on a rock hunt. I told them I would pay them if they would find sufficient rocks to make a proper fire pit. I wanted to hear crickets and by golly, I wanted to smell like smoke before I laid down for the night. The kids were great. They actually dug some rocks out of the ground. I suppose they saw it as an easy way to make things happen fast…find huge rocks and dig them up…make Dad carry them to make for an instant fire pit. Well, they did a great job though my back may never forgive me after carrying some of their finds.
All of this is to say, we got pretty hot and sweaty outside working all day. Luckily, I bought that tank I mentioned in the last post. We had 35 gallons of water to set the concrete posts, cook and bathe. Of course, bathing was a relative thing, but we made the best of it taking a cold water bath at our campsite.
Oh, I don’t want to forget…on the way walking the path between the tent and the car (which housed the water tank), I happened upon a copperhead. He wasn’t wearing pants thankfully or there would have been two of us in a code brown status. I grabbed a shovel and went after him but he was headed for the woods too.
We finally got cleaned up and went to bed. Rather, we went to clumpy ground…it could hardly be called a bed (gee whiz have I become soft in my old age). I never did get a chance to really look at the stars. Still, camping on our land was absolutely wonderful! We ate mountain pies and roasted marshmallows. We giggled in the tent and woke up groggy. It was a marvelous weekend, stiff backs and necks aside.
There is lots more fun to report including driving the van 60 mph across our hay field…but you will have to wait until next time to read about that!
We bought a piece of property a few months ago. There are lots of reasons we bought the place including it’s beauty, it’s size, etc. One of the big reasons, however, was to have a place to move the bees. You may recall that I had a bit of trouble last summer during the harvest. It was after that event that I decided that we needed a place out somewhere where the bees could be away from people. “The event” was probably a once in a lifetime thing (I hope) but I can’t take the chance.
Aren’t these daisies pretty? They are everywhere in the hay field…
Our new place is outside of Charleston in the country so, of course, there is a potential for bears to be around. If you remember your Winnie the Pooh, bears tend to like honey. A determined bear cannot really be stopped, but a good electric fence will dissuade all but the most determined bears from messing with the bee hives. So, the beginning of our bee farm has to be a good electric fence.
We found a nice sunny spot on the property away from where we plan to do most of our other messing around. Emily, the kids and I laid out what is to become our first bee yard at the new place. We set 4 corner posts in concrete. Being thrifty as I am, we decided to hand dig the fence post holes. When I put our fence in for the dog, I ran into all sorts of roots and rocks but the digging at the bee yard was easy…apart from the fact that we had to dig 3 foot deep holes. It was warm and humid so we took turns digging. Abigail and Isaac both wanted to help so I was happy to oblige…and they earned their supper for sure! Really, the kids were great and a big help. Let’s hope they will help with the bees too!
So, we will let the posts set up this week and add the rest of the supports, posts, wire, etc next weekend if all goes well. After digging the holes, we are committed so the bee farm is officially underway! Who knew a few fence posts would make me so excited!?!
Stay tuned tomorrow for a funny story about our posts!
We have started talking to some of the folks who live around our property in the woods and they are absolutely wonderful people. One neighbor and I were talking about the view from atop our mountain. He talked with a sparkle in his eye about when he first came to the ridge. One view and he said that he felt like he could never leave. It’s funny but that is pretty much the exact same reaction I had. There is something about that ridge that leaves me in awe.
The view is incredible for sure but there is something else that makes it special. Driving up there is a lesson in roads. We start on interstate, do a little time on nice paved roads, then move on to a “paved” road, and finally dirt. Our road is not dirty or sort of like dirt. It is plain and simple a dirt road. When I was a kid, there were lots of dirt roads around home. Lots of people lived on some dirt road or another. It seems like most of those dirt roads have since been paved and I think the pavement took a little something away from those roads.
Dirt roads are a different world. Maybe it’s about being someplace simpler or maybe it’s reminiscent of old times. Of course, maybe I just like playing in the dirt. Either way, part of what makes our ridge special is that dusty old dirt road.
The neighbor and I were talking about how the world works and he said something along the lines of, “it doesn’t matter what happens ‘out there’. We are just dirt road people and things just make sense up here.” I am sure that is a paraphrase but it’s the absolute truth. Regardless of what happens, “out there”, dirt roads just make a lot of things make sense. While we are not full-blooded dirt road people yet, I like to think that a big part of my heart is up on our ridge and that I have a “dirt road person” inside of me ready to bloom!
We spent our time at the property on Saturday walking in the woods. Our plan was to walk more of the property line as we still haven’t seen the entire place. We did hike the better part of the boundary and discovered all sorts of excellent things! Except for the constant chatter of kids, the sounds of the woods were magnificent. Actually, the chatter wasn’t so bad either as the kids were having fun.
When I was a kid, hiking in the woods was not high on my list of fun. I played in the woods a lot but plain old hiking wasn’t good for me. I was so surprised that Isaac and Abigail walked the entire 2 miles in the woods with only a small handful of complaints. Incredible!
We did walk the better part of the lower edge of the place and saw all sorts of beautiful flowers and animal tracks of all sorts. There were too many deer tracks to even keep track of but the kids tried to identify every print they came across.
That's Abigail's finger...she's the brave one
We spooked a turkey and saw the biggest centipede the kids had ever seen. We found just a little bit of poison ivy and a lot of slippery moss. Squirrels barked and birds announced our path through the woods. All around us was noise but it felt like silence. It was marvelous walking in our woods and this weekend was the reason we bought the place! I am absolutely positive that my blood pressure is still lowered because of it!
We had just finished Easter lunupper (brunch sounds so nice…what do you call it between lunch and supper? Lunupper?). We rolled into the house and had a message. The caller reported a swarm of bees near a popular chain restaurant attached to the big mall in the city. The swarm was at the top of a cedar tree and was “the biggest swarm ever seen” by the manager of the restaurant. I was pretty skeptical about the size as most people have never seen a swarm of bees so big could mean anything. Still, I decided to roll down with Abigail and my father-in-law to find out.
As soon as we pulled in, a crowd gathered and watched us do our normal routine of surveying the swarm. It wasn’t the biggest swarm I had ever seen but the manager had picked out the fact that it was a big swarm. It was in the very top of a cedar tree. Cedar trees are sort of flimsy at the top. Unlike an oak or maple, the cedar doesn’t really have big branches against which one can lean a ladder. It has been my foolish tendency to just go for it when it comes to swarms. I just threw the ladder up against the green of the tree and climbed my way up. I always carry loppers (is that a local term or what they are called? Long handled tree pruners, anyhow) to cut branches. The funny thing is that when you cut a swarm out of a tree, you need to hold onto the branch with the bees on it. Of course, it also takes two hands to run the loppers. I learned the first time I did this that I can hold onto the swarm with one hand and brace one handle of the pruners against my neck. I use my other hand to close the loppers and cut the branch. Now let me tell you, doing that leaning into the greenery at the top of this flimsy tree with a swarm of bees was interesting!
marching into the hive...
So the crowd continued to watch as the three of us did our thing. We transferred the bees from the branch to the hive I brought along. I gave the branch a good shake and the bees mostly fell into the box, but some fell onto the sheet I had under the box (another lesson I learned…put down a sheet first. It looks more impressive and help me keep better track of the bees as they walk into the hive). In a few minutes, it was clear I had the queen as the bees on the sheet and from the tree ended up working their way right into the hive. We packaged up the hive and hauled it off in the van (much to the dismay/excitement of our audience). I really like the “performer” part of catching swarms. Hauling bees in the van is sort of the grand finale!
safe as can be!
Two things sort of struck me about this capture. First, people were amazed that I let Abigail be so close to the swarm. She was a great helper and loved every second. The funny thing is, she had on a full bee suit so was at lower risk than the people around us who were concerned for her safety. Silly people! On the way home, she asked me over and over, “Why were those people looking at us?” I explained that people were surprised at a kid working with bees, and even more so a girl kid working with bees. I told her they were probably seeing a swarm of bees for the first time ever, and so on. She talked about it all night long. I think she was sort of proud more than anything. I am still smiling about it…
fascinated!
The second striking thing was a man who walked up as we were doing our thing. It was clear he was drunk. He walked right up to us and began to talk to us far closer to the bees than I really liked but he was so curious about the whole deal. He ended up sitting right beside our area and asked all sorts of questions. He asked about the queen and I said she was bigger than the rest. He said, “Bees have three parts, right? The abdomen, thorax and head, right?” He must have sensed my surprise because, with a smile on his face, he added, “I may be homeless but I’m not stupid.” “No sir, you are not.” That brief conversation really turned my prejudice on its head. I shook his hand (which I think surprised him) and we parted ways. I think we both ended up with a pretty cool story to tell, though they are undoubtedly quite different.
Anyhow, I had a really great time catching this swarm. The audience was fun, having my family along was great, and the homeless man was sort of good to remind me to listen to people before deciding that I know their circumstances. Bees always teach me something…
Emily was in Florida all week for a training so I was on kid duty. Call me Mr Mom. Fortunately, I had some logistical help from family so getting everyone to practice on time was ok. We really had a great time and I even got all of the laundry and ironing done. Normally I am not allowed to touch either. My jobs are dishes, sweeping and toilets…stuff I can’t screw up. Anyhow, Emily wasn’t there to tell me I couldn’t do laundry so I did it out of spite.
The Ghostbusters shirt was pure coincidence!
Since Emily wasn’t there to do the right thing regarding watching tv with the kids, we decided to watch a ghost hunter show. They were visiting the Trans-Allegheny Insane Asylum in Weston, WV. The Asylum is a huge old building where the mentally impared (in all sorts of forms) were sent from pre-Civil War days until the early 1990s. Emily and I were in an abnormal psychology class together in college and visited the place when there were still patients in residence. It was much better managed and humane when we were there as compared to when it was “in full bloom” but it was still a horrendous and scary place when we were there.
So, these goof-balls went in and started creeping around listening for spooks and specters of the dead within. They took pictures of all sorts of stuff and discovered “ghosts” everywhere. I can’t figure out if those folks actually believed in ghosts or if they were just getting rich making the show. In either case, the kids and I had a blast debunking their ghosts and spirits. In so doing, we discovered that our house was full of ghosts too!
Take note of the spirits as indicated by the arrows. We had discussion with the ghosts and we agreed that we would not exorcise them if they would keep termites away. We’ll see whether they live up to their end of the bargain…
It has been pretty nice the last few days, and now, with the weekend approaching, it turns to junk. Last night, just as I was driving home, it decided to come a gully washer (for you Yankees, that means it rained like crazy). As I walked to the car, it poured and I got wet clear inside my skin. About half way home, the rain turned to hail and all hail broke loose. It quickly turned to hail-so-loud-I-coudn’t-hear-myself-yell-in-the-car hail. I mean it put down hail and meant it.
A friend suggested the hail had challenged her car to a MMA fight and the winner was not clear. That pretty well sums it up. I am sure that if we see the sun again, I will have dents all over my car. Poor Steve…
Of course, hail is really ice and it became abundantly clear that I needed to be careful on the hail. I slid at one stop sign which was an attention grabber. Anyhow, I slowed down and got home just in time for it all to stop as fast as it started.
There were tons of blooms out and the bees had been busy on them. It remains to be seen how the hail might affect the build-up of bees. This is a critical time for them to be making more bees and collecting pollen and nectar.
I love spring for all of the new life that comes and the rain that sparks the world to green up again. I might be able to do with out the hail though…just spring please!
I had an itch. I simply needed to walk in the woods. This weekend was all sorts of busy but I was determined to get outside some and enjoy the sun. Sure enough, the sun was out . The wind couldn’t miss the fun though. Honest to goodness, there were times when I thought I was going to blow away.
Anyhow, we wandered around in the hay field on our property for a little bit but the wind made it impossible to stay upright. My parents tell a tale about taking my brother and me on a walk into the woods. As the story goes, we started complaining while the house was still in sight. Of course, as parents some times do, I think they embellished the tale a bit. Still, we apparently were not good wilderness travelers. My kids were flat out awesome and never complained once on our hike though. We walked around for about 2 hours and the kids were awesome to watch. Isaac plowed through the woods like a bull at first, but that slowed pretty quickly as he got into some serious thorns…Brer Rabbit he ain’t. After he got some proper respect, it was pure delight to watch them as they wandered around and checked things out.
Isaac discovered the fun of crawling around in the stream that runs through the property. I have a stream! And a spring! Somehow through the magic of the wood sprites, he did not get covered in mud. Abigail, on the other hand was covered head to toe! Anyhow, they were like couple of…well, like a couple of kids in the woods! Abigail found a bird’s nest that she wanted to put somewhere safe She found a cool rock on which she could leave it. ( I have a rock! And a stream!) As she placed it just perfectly so the wind wouldn’t get ahold of it, she discovered a small snake. I was sure she would freak but she was really cool and calm about it. She wanted to touch it so I touched first so she would see that I am super cool and brave. Both kids ended up touching the little snake and I figure he liked it too.
So, by the end of the day, we were all pretty tired and had sore legs from walking through the woods. It’s one of those sore feelings though, that’s pretty nice when it comes down to it….plus, I have a stream!
On Monday we signed the closing papers for the piece of property we bought (yeehaw! Past tense!) We have bought a few houses and been involved in a few other real-estate related things. This is the first time we have done a transaction with absolutely no realtor involved. And you know what…the process is not scary at all!
The previous owner put out a post on a message board I read, saying that she had some land for sale. I saw it and emailed her (it’s cool that I already knew her from blogland…just didn’t know she was selling property). We went up to visit and walked around the property with her husband. My kids hung with her as she made apple butter. They got to stir the big kettle she had over the fire and play in her yard where the turkeys gobbled to offer their greetings (or were they asking us to rescue them? Not sure on that one…) We took home some apple cider and a few days later discussed the deal we wanted to make.
After some time, we got back together when it was time to finish the deal. I wrote up a sales contract all by myself. Since I wrote it, I was able to have a little fun. For instance, when you write a contract on a house, you usually say that you want the blinds, lights and toilet seat to remain. There wasn’t anything like that on the property but I did lay claim to any indian arrowheads that are currently on the property. No one cared…it was legit!
We worked with a banker and a closing attorney and they handled their details without any hassle at all. So, on Monday, we decided to meet the sellers at a mom-and-pop restaurant in the nearby town and have breakfast. Have you ever done a real-estate deal where you get to hang out with the other party? I don’t know why the transaction of real-estate always seems to be built up as a contentious mess where the buyer and seller have to be kept apart. I know it isn’t always that way, and I know that some deals are ugly, but being pals and eating breakfast before the deal was just plain awesome!
Anyhow, after we signed the papers, the sellers gave us 2 dozen eggs, fresh from their chickens and we headed to the property (in a downpour) to walk around. I grew up in the country and had forgotten what rural sounds like. In the rain, as I walked into the woods, all I could hear was water running in a stream. I could not hear a single car or radio or another single person…only the woods. I found deer trails and thickets and some awesome places for a zip-line. I think I found a spring and a few places for a treehouse.
Even in the rain, I could not have been happier. This whole deal was so simple and pleasant and I already love the place. The deal is closed and I can once again lay claim to being a (part) country boy…
