From my paucity of apiary posts lately, you would be forgiven for thinking that when my bees absconded, my beekeeping enthusiasm left with them.  However, the truth is that the package we installed in our Warre hive has been bulking up nicely --- I've just been following the rules and leaving the hive closed.

Due to the wonders of modern technology, though, I can refrain from cracking open the hive and can still get an idea of what's going on inside.  Once a week, I snap a shot through the screened bottom board.  The photos are generally subpar in terms of quality, but do let me keep an eye on the bees' progress.

We installed the package on April 27, and the first photo in this post shows what the bees looked like two days later.  They were simply a tight cluster of bodies enclosing the queen, who was still trapped in her cage.

Eleven days after installation, my non-intrusive inspection showed a little bit of comb being built.  If I'd opened the hive, I would have been able to see whether the queen was laying, and on the off-chance she wasn't, could have ordered a replacement queen.  With a Warre hive, you have to simply hope for the best (and pay attention to the hive's mood, smell, and sound).

Sixteen days after installation, I could have discovered a lot by opening the hive.  The presence of eggs would tell me the queen was still alive and well, and now I could look at the capped brood to determine whether she had been properly inseminated.  (Lots of drone brood and little worker brood could be a sign of a queen who didn't have sex with enough drones during her mating flight.)  However, when I received an improperly mated queen three years ago, I chose to let the workers supersede her and turn one of the eggs into a queen of their choice, so the truth is I wouldn't have done anything if I'd seen too much drone brood in the two week old hive anyway.  Of course, since I was working with a Warre hive, I didn't even have this decision to make --- I could still see comb in my photos (too blurry to share), and the workers were definitely bringing pollen in, so I chose to assume all was well.

Twenty-three days after installation (this past Sunday), I finally saw something within my hive that required work on my part.  The bottom box was starting to look nearly full up!  Assuming the queen is laying well, this is about the time the first new workers should pop out of their cappings, which means the colony could grow even more quickly from here on out.

Since I started the hive with two boxes, I can't tell whether the bees have filled the top box as well, but there's no reason not to hoist the bees up and put another box underneath (known as nadiring).  This process preserves the hive scent and temperature, and is the least intrusive method of increasing a bee colony's living area.  Looks like it's time to build another box this week and take our first real peek inside the hive since we took out the queen cage!

The golf cart front wheel bearings started making an awful grinding sound that created a situation where the tire was rubbing against the corner of the steering thingamajig.

We really wanted to haul in some more lumber, so I came up with the above garden hose band aid to protect the tire.

It bought us about 2 miles worth of hauling before the bearing started giving out in a different spot.

Before I delve into chapters 5 and 6 of Walden, I want to get a head count to see who's still reading.  I don't mind at all having folks who haven't read the book comment, but sometimes I can't quite tell if anyone else is still reading or if we should switch books.  So, please leave a comment if you're still with me!  (And, if you're not, leave a comment to tell me whether you might rejoin the club if we switched over to something lighter.)

This sentence from near the beginning of chapter 6 sums up much of the gist of this pair of chapters.  The themes included being alone without being lonely, and at the same time making human interactions more meaningful.  I was especially struck by the first theme since it's one I've wrestled with throughout my life, and I feel is essential for a homesteader to conquer.

I hear these same words all the time, but I seldom come up with as good a reply as Thoreau's:

I think Thoreau and I have two character traits very much in common --- we're both introverts and neither of us takes friendship lightly.

Although most people don't have the luxury of acres of trees surrounding their homestead as a buffer, I wish everyone could live the way we do.  I feel like it's much easier to be genuine and kind to the people I do come in contact with when they're not breathing down my neck on a regular basis.

Again, I couldn't agree more.  We don't get trick-or-treaters, salesmen, or people trying to convert us to their religion due to our moat, and the mud definitely separates the wheat from the chaff.  In fact, our choice to keep employing Bradley after he built our porch was based largely on the fact that he wore quality waterproof boots and had no problem tromping through the mud.

So, what did you think of chapters 5 and 6?  Did different themes speak to you?  Did you find this chapter duo as enjoyable as I did?

Meanwhile, if you're new to the book club, you might want to check out the thought-provoking comments on chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapters 3 and 4.  I'll wait to post a "reading assignment" until tomorrow, at which point I should have an idea of whether we're all still getting something out of Walden or would like to move on.


Weekend Homesteader provides 48 fun and easy projects to guide you on the path to self-sufficiency.  Yes, that means I skip Thoreau-style projects like hewing logs for your cabin with an ax.

A little more research helped to guide us towards a system that will allow the angle of the solar panel tower to change for different times of the year. More complex systems have a new position for each month, but we might settle for a new angle for each season to keep it simple.

What will be more challenging is changing the position during the day. We've considered using a heavy duty swivel so it can turn from the East to West.

Once it's all put together we can either move the swivel by hand at different times of the day or figure out a motorized option.

Mom came over to inaugurate our new boardwalk (and to coo over the porch and eat chocolate strawberry shortcake).

While she was at it, she brought me a t-shirt response to my statement that "I'm simply a boring person."  The quote, attributed to an Amish farmer, goes:

Once upon a time 4 or 5 years ago a man or woman could buy a 13 amp entry level circular saw for 40 dollars.

Those days are over.

12 amp is now the best you can get at that entry level price.

We got this 40 dollar Skil circular saw last week and it seems to be just as strong as its 13 amp counter part, but it's sort of an unfair comparison seeing how the new saw had a fresh and sharp blade. Time will tell if the downgrade in motor capacity will have a noticeable effect. Our use will be low to medium, so we won't be the best gauge, but I plan to update this review in a year or two because power tools are beautiful and photogenic.

Even though the gargoyle was guarding the river, our stream monitoring session still turned up results in the Gray Zone.  That means our site on the Clinch River is neither good nor bad, probably due to upstream straight pipes and cows.  Splashing around in the water on a hot afternoon, on the other hand, was 100% good.

(Photo credits for the top and bottom right photos go to our movie star neighbor.)

Those green house tables were 10 feet long. We used 4 of the top sections along with some decking boards to make this new swamp bridge.

It's a huge improvement over the previous cinder block system.

Sometimes I feel like all I have to do is tell the farm that I need something, and it provides.  There's really nothing mystical about it --- you just have to focus on what you want and then keep an open mind so you notice the solution when it looks you in the face.

You'll recall that I posted earlier this week about being low on roma tomato transplants.  While weeding asparagus alley Thursday, what did I find but a big patch of healthy volunteer romas!

There are always lots of volunteer tomatoes in our garden, but it's usually tough to tell which variety they are until they fruit.  Since we fertilize our garden with horse manure to which kitchen scraps from someone else's household are added, volunteer tomatoes could be just about anything.  One year, I babied a volunteer tomato, only to find out that it was some kind of grocery store variety that won't get past the pink, hard stage before the fruits rot off.  So I swore off keeping volunteer tomatoes --- it's just too much of a gamble in our setting.

However, Thursday's volunteers were all growing from one spot which just happened to be where the yellow romas lived last year.  I'm 85% sure a fruit fell there and rotted in the midst of the summer garden frenzy, which would explain why there are so many tomato plants popping up out of the same spot but none on either side.  So I thanked the farm, then transplanted those yellow romas into my empty tomato beds.  I can taste those extra sun-dried tomatoes already!

Our new hired helper went a few extra miles today by bringing his utility trailer along for some emergency manure hauling.

"It won't be a problem" was his reply when we asked him.

I'm thinking it went a bit smoother loading buckets onto a trailer compared to the higher up truck bed which is still at the dealer.