We've Won a Round going back to Prep Level 4

The last couple of weeks I have been giving the prep level chart a bit more thought once again. My largest fear which ushered in Prep Level 5 was the re-election of the "Golfer in Chief" and the boost it would give the Liberal/Feminist need to enforce their will on the rest of America.

Honestly I do not feel either my concern for what they would do, nor my prediction of them doing it were off the mark at all. In fact I believe both of them were spot on and had they not been blocked or exposed they would have gotten their wish and we would be in a full collapse of one form or another right now. My faith in the pseudo Conservative Republicans we have in National office turned out, at least in one important aspect, to be less than they deserved.  They still continue to disappoint on all other matters BTW.

While I still stand by my observations that today's flash mobs and riots do in fact reach the the point of large scale quite frequently and the lawlessness in many areas is well above "Minor" I also believe we have avoided a full blown collapse, at least for the moment. I believe we have bought us a little more time once again.

I know many of you are scratching your heads and asking why, especially with all the conspiracies and political pot shots that have made the headlines recently like Benghazi, the IRS discrimination and the like. Certainly the lawlessness and mobs I mentioned have not decreased nor the other factors so you are right to wonder why. Well allow me to explain.

The left shot their wad. They pretty much failed across the board with only a very few States following suit on gun control and although I still think they would have pushed it further into conflict if they could have, the level of resistance they met stopped them in their tracks. Not only resistance but the out right hostility from many states brought them up short. These other issues that have been cropping up has put the Left on the defensive lately and set them back to the last strategy that worked for them.

To put it bluntly they are resetting themselves to bringing in even more mercenary voters and hinging the entire thing to this new amnesty bill. The imminent collapse I saw back in November was entirely political and I believe that threat has passed for the time being all though it was a very close affair for a while. That doesn't mean some other factor cannot bring us back to level 5 at any time mind you but the Liberals are no longer actively pushing an agenda that will lead to an immediate collapse and/or violent backlash.

For the moment at least we are back to the political status quo. Time is on the Leftist side as everyday more Democrats come across the border and more patriot minded American's get aborted or die of old age. I do not believe the Left's plan will do them much good for 2014 yet as the Mid-section of the country cannot be colonized that quickly. Eventually as I have said before Secession will be the only means of survival for the Middle and North Western States but the left has stopped pushing immediate causes that will force that issue sooner. They are back to playing a waiting game for a while.

I believe once again we are looking at the economy and energy or war in other parts of the world as being the closest dangers we face right now and the more likely prospects to tipping us over the edge. The Right did win the Gun Control battle and bought us some temporary prepping time.

Use it wisely

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

Feeding Bees

I am really not a big fan of feeding my bees. Often times it is necessary for various reason especially to get them a good start on building up the reserves they need to survive nature's ups and downs but I try and avoid it if at all possible.

There are many reasons for my reluctance to feed my bees.

For one thing feeding sugar syrup isn't exactly the best all around food for them. Many a "purest" will say it changes the chemical balance inside the hive and removes some beneficial parasites and bacteria. I don't know how true all that is but I do know that combs full of sugar syrup are not really honey in a strict sense that's for sure.

Sugar syrup is however great to feed to a newly captured swarm as it really promotes comb building.

My largest problems with sugar syrup however is the delivery system. I have found the small outside containers (known as boardman feeders) tend to drip alot of syrup on the ground and therefore waste it, and also soon become a free lunch buffet line for a multitude of parasites, scavengers and enemies. Ants especially like the dripping messy gravity fed outside feeders. The most dangerous aspect of a gravity fed outside feeder is that it promotes robbing from neighboring hives. Eventually a large mammal will find the feeder hanging outside the hive as well and steal it.

The large top feeders that hold a gallon or more of syrup cause problems all their own. They are enclosed inside the hive so do not promote outside predators or robbing activity but also because they are big reservoirs they need rather complicated access ports and screening inside to keep the bees from drowning in the syrup. What happens is either the screens get messed up and allow access to the syrup or the top parts of the feeders become perfect ant colony protection zones that the bees cannot do anything about. Also during Spring and Summer the foragers will work the outside flowers while the inside bees usually grab the syrup and the big top feeders end up wasting syrup or promoting fungus growth. Again wasted syrup.

Last year I tried melding the two types of syrup feeding methods together by placing a normally outside feeder inside an empty super. This placed the feeder inside the hive in an area the bees had total access to and removed the thief/scavenger/robber problem. However it caused other issues (of course). For one the outside feeders were gravity fed and had drip holes which allowed the syrup to run down into the hive. The other problem was I had to watch for the bees building comb in the mostly empty super as well.

I then discovered another type of boardman or entrance feeder that had flow channels instead of drip holes. It was also low enough to fit inside the added top super. I have been using these feeders inside the hives that need feeding with great success (or at least not as many bad side effects) until yesterday. I discovered a full quart of syrup in these feeders will make the bottom fall of from pressure if you attempt to hold it with one hand while placing it inside the hive.

Let's just say the new swarm got a sugar syrup shower yesterday afternoon and I doubt they were very pleased with it.

Feeding bees is such a pain.

Oh I tried feeding honey for a while as well. Open honey inside a hive leads to full scale conventional and non-conventional open hive warfare. The results were not pretty.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

Moving Forward and the Last Day of the Pride

We survived the storms blowing up from Sandy's place   thankfully without incident. I ended up staying awake until the really red looking parts of the storm had passed us on the radar last night. Some impressive lightening, wind and rain was all we got. We ended up getting about 2 inches or more of rain that really refilled our almost depleted rain barrels. I went out this morning and used the rain barrels to replenish the storage tub/pool in the garden as well. With what we have already on the ground and now the tub refilled with possibly more on the way we are good for at least a week which should give me enough time to get the cistern hand pump project finished or at least well under way.

This rain will do wonders for breaking up the plowed chunks out in the new orchard and hayfield addition. The plan there is to finish the disc'ing and sowing the grass seed this coming holiday weekend. The orchard part will take a bit more work and I would really like to finish it off with a wood chip covering but that may not be practical if I cannot find the chips. I may have to be content with heavily mulching around the individual trees after I till the area and get them into the ground. Whatever the final decision ends up being I have a few weeks for the prep work while I wait for the very cheap fruit tree discounts we usually see around the end of June. Waiting till June last year saved us a bunch of serious money on fruit trees and with a little care and extra effort in planting they all survived the drought and heat very well.

Once the orchard is finished I will be totally done with the sustainable plant side of Small-Hold production. Oh there will still be some raised beds added and I am sure some more strawberries or other fruits/veggies here and there but the major projects will be completed. Then I will start on the live stock side of things which will begin with the Mrs. Menagerie/cat-house construction.

Speaking of Mrs. PP's softspot for stray animals. Today is the last day the full pride of yellow tabby kittens will be intact. They reached eight weeks this weekend and two of the new owners wish to take delivery tomorrow. They are going to good homes but I know the Mrs. is going to be sad to see them go. She has been almost as good a mommy to those little varmints as their own mother cat. We managed to protect them from predators and getting stepped on but the last week or so has been a real challenge as you never know where they are going to be scattered about when you go to find them. They also have taken to leaving the barn area when ever they hear me out working and exposing themselves to aerial assault. We lock them all up in a big kennel pen every night and let me tell you when you let them out in the morning you will know what it feels like to be a kitten hero. They positively climb your leg in appreciation when being freed. The Mrs. has been diligent in getting them ready and keeping their litter box clean. They are sociable and as ready as they will ever be for the world out there. 

I am pretty sure the mommy cat is ready to see her duties completed as well :)

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

Sunday Reading - Sorry About the Slow Postings

Sorry I been so quiet the last three or so days. I been extremely rushed and busy trying to get back ahead of things and believe it or not I am completely caught up once again. At least for a day or so until the mowing circuit starts all over again. This time at least I won't have a complete garden to get into the ground before mowing can start and I will not need to mow and trim the bee yards for at least two weeks either.

I finally got the mowing completed on Friday, which included the two outter bee yards and the in town property. I also got the captured swarm moved and placed into it's own hive Saturday. Finished stacking the cord of firewood I split from this Winters leftovers and made an emergency "Bee Expert" visit to a local public housing department. They told me they had an emergency swarm removal that actually turned into nothing more than a colony that had moved into the roof of one of their units. After explaining to them what it would actually take to remove the bees from the rafters of the building I think they finally got the point. Thier first reaction was all about saving the endangered bees and I think they were somewhat offended when I rolled my eyes.

I explained to them that yes I was all about saving bees when it was even remotely possible but they were insane if they thought I would recommend spending thousands of dollars of taxpayer money for one colony of bees. I don't think they even understood that it really is taxpayer money although I did later find out the director at least agreed with my assessment.

As near as I could tell the removal of that colony would have required a crane truck and tearing up a section of the roof and that is assuming the bees did not have a long entrance tunnel they were using. At first the guys were convinced the bees were living the high life in the attic. I assured them that honey bees do not build a nest but require an enclosed space to build their comb from and there was no way the colony would be exposed in the attic. After they checked that out and confirmed there were no bees in the attic itself they believed me that the bees were either in between the roof studs or in the wall studs in a cavity they had found. I gave them the name and number of a local guy I know with a bee vac that can suck the colony out but assured them they would still need to do some serious structural damage to figure out just where the bees were and to remove the comb and honey left inside even after all the bees were sucked out.

I offered to work with any contractor or whomever they get to do the work but I wasn't going to enter that mess on my own that's for sure.

Anyway then it was back to the Small-Hold and finally getting my soon to be fruit tree area plowed along with another few acres we are going to sow in grass for future hay and grazing needs. We got it cleared, brush hogged and plowed this weekend and hope do get it disc'd and the fruit tree part tilled next weekend.

I hope to be able to put another 16 to 20 assorted fruit trees in this Summer.

Rush Rush Rush. So much to do and so little time to do it in.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

Swarm!!!

Caught the first swarm of 2013 this afternoon. Nice and easy as it occupied one of my swarm traps while I was mowing. Almost a month and half later than last year's first swarm I might add.

If I miss replying or do not make a comment on any of the many blogs I follow or fail to stop by each day please forgive me. This is the busiest time of year for me to say the least and while I have more time this year than I have ever had before please keep in mind I am attempting to get as many projects completed as possible before my savings and alternate income sources are depleted to the point that I must go find another low wage job once again. Even with my ultra-frugal, debt free lifestyle I will eventually need some financial replenishment although I am hoping to be able to swing part time only when I am forced to return to the grind. Unless of course we get a level playing field once again and affirmative action get's repealed then I might be able to land a decent job for a change. Ya good luck with that.

Anyway back to the swarm.

I attempted to take a picture of the swarm all bearded over the swarm trap but the Mrs. has stashed the camera somewhere and I couldn't find it. It's her camera anyway but I used to always know where it was but these days she keeps taking pictures of her adopted kitten family and I am not sure where she is storing it from one day to the next.

This was perhaps the most interesting and informational swarm I have caught to date. While I have had the pleasure on more than one occasion to actually watch a swarm occupy one of my traps this is the first time I have caught a swarm in a trap I was able to monitor almost all hours of the day. This particular swarm trap hangs in a tree not even 20 feet from the garden. I had a trap in that same tree last year but facing West and never got a hit so this year I placed it facing more Southeast. I also chose that particular tree because the old garden hive almost always chose that particular tree to cluster in whenever it kicked out a swarm as well. I just thought maybe it was lucky.

I refreshed the bait and cleaned out any vermin from my traps Monday morning. One was almost completely filled with ants and another had a wasp taking up residence. The bees will not occupy a trap that is over run with ants and around here the ants are insidious.

Tuesday I noticed several bees checking out this particular trap and the one at the back end of the hay field once again. By late afternoon I was observing as many as a dozen or so bees at the entrance of the trap and crawling all over it. Yesterday afternoon there were so many scout bees coming and going from the trap I almost thought I had maybe captured a little swarm and didn't know it. By late morning today there were so many bees coming and going I was convinced a swarm had moved in when I wasn't looking. I was witnessing guard bees at the entrance even some fighting when a stranger bees attempted to enter the trap. There was as much activity as you would see from a small or weak hive.

At exactly 1PM I stopped mowing to take a break and walked over to my shady spot to relax a few minutes and noticed the entire area around the trap was filled with bees. I got there just in time to witness the first bees of this swarm landing and entering the trap but too late to see which direction they had come from.

It was a good sized swarm I am estimating about the size of a basketball and it took the bees the better part of 2 hours to all get situated and inside the trap. By late afternoon they had constant forager traffic already coming and going. well after sundown I put a cork in the entrance hole and moved the trap over to the West apiary which is where I will be hiving them in a day or two. I don't like to leave them in the trap too long because they will immediately start drawing comb from the cover and I don't want to waste too much of it.

Hopefully they won't mind the change of location and won't leave for a better home after moving them so soon. I have only had that happen once so we will see in the morning. With my depleted hives still recovering from the drought and harsh Winter I really don't want to steal a frame of eggs from my surviving hives right now either.

The mowing around the Small-Hold is finished and tomorrow was scheduled as a bee yard maintenance day anyway. I need to check and see how the colony that almost died out is doing. The entrance activity has certainly increased since I added some brood from one of the stronger hives.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I am now back up to five hives.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

The OMG get off me Woman SHTF no Running Water Irrigation System with attached Hummingbird Feeder

So I finally got my truck back and let's just say as I was paying the bill I was also saying goodbye to the welder setup I had been saving up to buy. I been a very good boy and not being distracted by flashy guns or ammo (even the stuff that is still reasonably priced). No I had been saving for a welder and materials to build a charcoal forge for the place, but that project took a serious financial hit so I had to readjust a few things.

After getting the garden all set up yesterday and then starting on splitting the left over large firewood logs so I can stack em to cure this Summer (and get em out of the way for mowing) the Mrs. once again used my weakened state to complain that I had not watered the newly planted seedlings, sown seeds or the Sunflowers she transplanted. She exclaimed that it was broiling hot and dry and I should have watered them earlier in the day. Like I hadn't been about to drop from exhaustion as it was. Now I was forced to carry five gallon buckets of water from the rain barrel to the garden (about maybe 30 yards) and hand water all the above mentioned plants because I hadn't run my hoses out yet.

So today as I looked at my now very depleted preparedness savings I decided I would tackle the garden irrigation system. Prior to this year I have always ran a hose out to the garden and using connectors and Y-branches with soak hoses and overhead sprinklers set up a system to water each section of the garden.  It was mostly a time saving thing as I could do other things as the watering was going on.

Of course as I watered the garden the Mrs. was constantly berating me about how I was also watering the weeds. Blah Blah Blah. She usually proclaimed her superior watering skills while dragging a hose around and murdering plants left and right. Pointing out how much of a menace with a garden hose she was didn't even dent her water snobbery in the least. I finally resorted to making sure all corners of the various garden sections were hardened with stakes to keep her from wiping my poor garden off the map with one fell garden hose sweep.

A couple of times I have absolutely forbid her within 10 yards of my garden with a hose.

Anyway this little water war has been going on between us for a couple years and it's all good natured of course (unless the Mrs. is in a bad mood). This year however I changed tactics on her and I had just about enough money left over after paying for my truck to put my plan into action.

I added a second rain barrel to the deck system, luckily the barrels we use on the deck were also on sale for almost half off. I T-connected them together and then put a shutoff connector on the drain hose. I then took a big old storage tub and half buried it in the garden. The tub is now a good two foot lower than the bottom of the rain barrels which is plenty of drop to simply fill the tub with water and use that to hand water the entire garden as needed. It actually works pretty good with just enough flow to keep a decent level in the tub as I dip in a three gallon water pail. It does take it a little while to travel the distance from the rain barrels however.

It took about 25 gallons of water to give the entire planted parts of the garden (except the corn) a good soaking this afternoon after I had it all set up. Now between the 110 gallons I have on the deck if the barrels are full I also will have the 1200 gallon cistern to draw out of for the dry spells. I hope to achieve two things with this spur of the moment mini-project.

1. I want to see if I can keep the entire garden sufficiently hydrated using captured water resources only for the entire Summer. Of course in a complete grid down scenario we would also rely on the cistern for other water uses (after treatment) as I still have not gotten up to getting the well drilled yet. Also I have not even begun to store the run off water from the barn or other outbuildings. With the rainfall we normally get I should be able to collect enough rainwater to make it but we will see.

2. I also will be able to keep much better totals on about how much water the garden will use this way. It was much harder to estimate with the hose method although this will indeed be more actual work.

Call it a "Dry Run" (pun intended).

If I find I cannot keep up I still have everything needed to go back to my old system. I also can easily fill the rain barrels from the county water if we do not get sufficient rain to keep up with demand.

Now in order for this experiment to work I also need to get the cistern capped and the hand pump in place before the water in the rain barrels is used up.

I plan on doing just that right after I get the mowing caught back up. Yes, yes I have put off mowing about as long as possible.

Oh and to make the whole thing come together I put a shepherds crook by the sunken tub and hung a hummingbird feeder on it.

So I now have the water experiment and the Small-Hold pole bean recovery experiment on going.

Now pardon me while I go collapse from exhaustion and heat stroke.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!

The Garden is Finished - Day 3

It pretty much took three whole days but the garden is now all planted. It is amazing how much time it actually takes to lay out all the poles and trellises. Drive your stakes and run your guide line for each variety of seed. Make raised rows, or trenches, Fiddle with this line, even that line out, fit this in etc. etc. etc. It takes much more time than you think going in. The sunburn gives you that warm after evening glowing feelings as well.

Next I had to stop and check out the last section which had a number of volunteer sunflowers already sprouted. I transplanted the volunteers to various row ends then tilled that section up and put in some very widely spaced rows of.... wait for it.... Sunflowers. Talk about redundancy :)

Really I wanted to save the volunteers and the new rows I put in are way too wide I just put them in for the bees and finches. What I really have in mind for that section is hauling in a few more loads of horse manure and some pond dirt I plan on dredging out. I figure if I burn up a Sunflower or two I won't be upset.

I have one last section that is empty but tilled up which will be for my tobacco seedlings. I need to go purchase four more tomato plants because I made more row space than I had tomatoes. Not a big deal I usually like to shop for a variety I don't have anyway so I count what I have then round up when I make the rows and and place the trellis posts.

Some of the areas I tilled when the ground was still too wet is showing why you shouldn't do that. The wet clumps have hardened into dirt cannon balls. I had to go over a few sections again to break them apart.

Since I was outside gardening all day I haven't a clue what has happened in the world. We could have had a collapse and I never would have known it!!! I suspect we didn't since I think it would have been all over before I sat down to write this up. The rains are suppose to start again tomorrow and I am waaaaaay behind on the mowing now due to the garden planting.

It just never ends.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!