Category: simplicity

Backyard, bees, chickens, Parenting, simplicity

Long Time No Post…

Olof

The bees are still alive!
All the girls enjoying the warm day!
Buff posing for the camera

This is where Buff likes to lay her eggs
Fridge full of eggs

My shaggy big boy.
Shaggy next to biggest boy.

My current project
My Valentine Present from my Hubby

Today’s bounty from the girls
The baby sleeping next to his Pabbi on the couch.

Thought I would just give you a glimpse into my world at the moment. My backyard is still busy with my farm animals and bees. My home full of boys both big and small having fun and being loud most of the day. We have all been fighting a cold this weekend. When I went out to let the birds out to free range today I stopped in the sun and felt the warmth of the day. I work inside most days nowhere close to windows and even if I were the weather has been cold and dreary for so long. The beautiful weather was such a blessing and warmed both my body and soul as the feathered ladies waddled around me.

I work a lot these days keeping me too busy to keep up with this place. I am finishing my 3000 hours of supervised experience at an inpatient facility for people in psychiatric crisis. I have to finish my hours before my time runs out for my license since I took time off to have Alex and be home with him for the first year he was born. I don’t regret being with him. I do hate that I only get about 2 hours of time with them after work on weekdays before it is bed time these days. But I keep telling myself that this is what it is at the moment. My boys just need to hold on tight for one more year and then we can reevaluate what is what at that point. I did the math though and even after I finish my hours and make more money because of having my license I would still be paying more for childcare for my 3 boys those last 3 hours of the work day than I would be making in those last 3 hours. At the moment I pay about 2032 dollars a month for daycare for my boys. Which leaves me about 168 dollars of my paycheck each month for gas and physical up keep. So I am working at the moment just to finish my hours. I am not making any money.

This brings me to my Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids leadership classes and my thoughts that have come up those teachings. I started my group yesterday and I look forward to the many more group calls to come. I won’t be able to teach Simplicity Parenting until I finish my hours for my license because I signed a no competition contract with my current employer. But I will have it in my tool box for after. As a back up plan and be able to maybe help friends and family with my teachings even though I might not make any money with it. It has me thinking back to my childhood. How was I raised? How did that have an effect on the person I am today? What impact do parents really have? How much can we guide after a certain age? How much is it teaching as much as it is modeling? How do we give our children the ability to find their own way with their own unique talents? How do we guide with out pushing our fears and needs on to our children? How can we just be that training wheel until they are ready to ride life one their own? How long do we hold on to them and how do we know when it is time to let go and let them fall and learn from their own mistakes?
There are so many parenting styles out there. Picking one is not the easiest thing to do. My thought is that if it works for your family then go with it. If it doesn’t work then it is time for change but make sure to pick the change that falls with in your value system and try to be as consistent as possible.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my update. What is your view on the perfect parenting style? Do you believe there is one true way? How much does genetics and personality have to do with parenting? 

Backyard, beekeeping, bees, book, Homegrown Honey Bees, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Review, self, simplicity

Homegrown Honey Bees- Book review

Olof

So, I will be keeping bees this spring and I am trying to read as much as possible because that is what I do. My ADHD kicks in and I hyper-focus only on one thing. I found a book that looked like it was user friendly on Amazon and then when I started reading it I realized that it was perfect for the first time beekeeper. It’s called Homegrown Honey Bees: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Beekeping Your First Year, from Hiving to Honey Harvest by Alethea Morrison. It is to the point and has everything in it step by step. It teaches you about the life cycle of bees, how to get started, the gear you need, the first month in weekly steps, The first season, How to collect your first harvest and when, what to do if your colony doesn’t survive it’s first winter, what sort of bee illnesses there are out there and how to treat them, how much work a hive really is. It also has great little stories of beekeepers and their accomplishment and bumps in the road.

 The photos taken by Mars Vilaubi are VERY good. I’m a visual learner and Mars did an exceptional job of capturing all the different things that I needed to see to really understand. They even have photos of what bee stings look like for those of us that have never been stung.

I learned a lot in the past few days and am now not as ignorant about beekeeping as I was. I know that Drones are not the worker bees that I thought they were but just boys waiting to get lucky then only to die because their penis is ripped off after mating. That the queen only gets to get lucky for a short period of time and then she keeps the sperm to make enough bees to keep a colony going for several years (wow). That the other ladies of the hive do all the work and even decide on if it is time to rear more queens because the one in charge is ill or old or that the hive is getting too cramped to keep everyone in it so it’s time to swarm with a new queen. I’ve learned how to keep my hive from swarming by introducing enough space and so much more.

The only thing it does not really cover is how to split your hive to make more hives from your own bees but that’s what youtube is for right? Other than that I did not see many flaws in the book as a novice. I will be looking at this book many times in the process of getting started with my bees. This is a book that you keep referring to as you are starting out but for more in depth information I think a bee mentor will be the way to go. So off to my local bee club that luckily meets less than a mile from my home. I look forward to meeting more beekeepers and pick their brain and then enjoying the buzz of the bees and the honey they will provide my family.

Hope you are all happy, healthy and living the life you love.

Happy Valentines day