July 2018 – Lazer Creek Apiary

Maggie has been quite happy to spend her days running around the farm for the past 6 weeks and made it clear that she thought her humans must be insane to go back to a 98 degree house in the city. How do you explain a broken air conditioner to a dog? Needless to say, none of us was very happy, but Blythewood Heating and Air rearranged their Tuesday schedule and came out first thing Tuesday morning to replace the failed part. The humans have been so happy with their service over the years.

After the air conditioner was repaired, Mrs. Human went shopping while Mr. Human went to work and Maggie spent the afternoon in her crate. Then the humans came home and started putting stuff in boxes, especially Mrs. Human’s leave-the-house-all-day-and-don’t jump-on-her-until-she-changes clothes. That got worse today when the humans came home with a truck and put “Maggie’s” loveseat in there followed by a whole lot of other furniture, including some from the forbidden-to-dogs guest room. However, Maggie is now happily back at the farm, stretched out on the bed in the RV because Mrs. Human has the laptop bag on her spot on the couch.

We were able to put most of the furniture we intend to keep into a 16 foot Budget rental truck, and Hubby is currently about an hour away from the farm. We need to build the workshop before we can move much more, but what we have in each location is more than enough. Spending summers in an old FEMA RV has really changed our attitudes about our definition of enough. I will be really happy to get my food processor and mixer down here, but as we don’t have much of a garden going yet, I won’t be canning anyway. The fig tree in the city doesn’t even have many figs this year, so I wasn’t tempted to try any new fig recipes in between packing boxes and shopping.

UPDATE: I was unable to save or publish this last week, but the mobile hotspot appears to be in a better mood today. Hubby’s wonderful brother helped us unload the rental truck last Friday and I’ve been living in the mobile home for a little over a week. Ferrell gas hooked up the propane on Tuesday, but I haven’t tried the stove yet as we have yet to move pots and pans. Hubby completed the front deck yesterday while I was at work and it is beautiful (and safe).

I am very excited about my new job, even after the ubiquitous meetings in which teachers are reminded about federal and state laws pertaining to education. Tedious as these meetings can be, they are crucial for new teachers and a good refresher for the rest of us. I really like my co-workers, administrators, and the policies that are in place. Best of all, I get to drive through beautiful countryside at the end of every day, sometimes watch a train (or two) go by, and then spend my evening at the farm.

It’s been too hot to get into a bee jacket in the evenings, but the hives I checked this morning have done very well without us while we’ve been busy with other things. Unlike other years, there does not appear to have been a pollen or nectar dearth this summer as all the established hives are jam-packed with resources. We’ve had a lot of rain this summer, and I think the bees are finding a lot of wild flowers on the forestry land that was cleared over winter.

We’ve been too busy this summer for me to blog much, but I hope that changes now that we are almost settled. There are so many things that I’m excited to write about, but for now I have to go write about what I’m going to teach next week!

Yes, that’s the sound of time ticking away as the end of my summer approaches. My first day at work is just over a week away and we have so much left to do. I don’t feel stressed, but last night I dreamed that I left school to run errands during lunch, got lost, the GPS on my fitness watch wouldn’t work so I didn’t know where I was, and I couldn’t contact anyone at the school until after my students left for the day. I have never left school at lunch to run errands, but the rest is understandable. My iPad GPS can’t figure out where we are, so The Weather Channel keeps giving me the weather forecast for Columbia, SC, which is driving me crazy. I bought a new fitness tracker watch: It went through 2 CR2025 batteries in under a week, and the seller only gave me a partial refund for what is clearly a defective product, so more frustration. And I guess I am a little stressed about starting work at a new school, although I really like all of the people I’ve met already and the school has great policies in place. For one thing, they are really serious about cell phones — there’s a time and a place for them, even in the classroom, but they can be such a disruption and distraction.

But, back to the farm, while we still have time. We now have electricity, air-conditioning, water, septic, and a land-line phone for when the one-and-only cell phone tower takes a day off! The propane company is coming out tomorrow to discuss where to place the propane tank, and Hubby is working on the foundation for the front deck as we speak. He’s trying to get the footers in before the rain returns so that the cement can cure.

His brother, thankfully, has an electric cement mixer which is making life a little easier. I am being no help whatsoever having succumbed to a bad cold! I couldn’t get through a summer without one, I guess. The front deck will be built in two stages — the first giving us a way into the house that meets code and the second a place for the whole family to hang out. While the footers are curing, we’ll add the underpinning to that part of the home before building the actual deck. Of course, the back deck will take precedence over the family deck as we don’t want anyone to break any bones by trying to exit through the back door.

I’ve been very happy to put laundry baskets in the back doorway and walk around the trailer to retrieve them and hang clothes on the line. A family friend gave us his old washing machine and it has been wonderful to wash clothes at home, even if that does currently involve climbing up and down shipping-pallet steps! I don’t know why the machines at the laundromat never seem to get clothes clean and barely rinse the detergent out. I love the way clothes smell when they’ve been dried outside, but I had forgotten that they don’t feel very soft and fluffy if there’s no breeze while they are drying. I may need to bring the iron and ironing board down here. Sigh…. I hate ironing.

So now that we have closet space and 765 square feet of home, we’ll start bringing furniture and work clothes down here. I have a couple of teacher-workday outfits here, but no dress shoes, makeup or jewelry, so I guess a trip to the city is in my near future. I also want to dig up some daylilies to add to the hostas I planted over the septic tank so that we know where NOT to drive the tractor. Talking about the septic tank — we decided to have the septic system installed and are very happy that we did. We realized that we were in over our heads when we measured the slope of the land. What looked fairly level was actually a seven foot drop over the length of the leech field. It was well worth paying a professional to work with the inspector to get the permit approved. It’s not like we don’t have plenty of other things to keep ourselves busy!

It’s been a short summer for me, but a great one, and I don’t have to go back to the city when school starts. Sadly, Hubby does, but that will make getting the house on the market easier and it will all work out in the end. At least this way, one of us can keep an eye on the bees while the other tidies up loose ends in the city.

But it looks like the afternoon rains are coming, so time to sign off and grab the clothes off the line!

Month: July 2018

Dog-gone confused

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock….