A friend of mine’s mother recently died, and he is cleaning out her home. Many of her things are going to her friends and family, and many items are being donated to a women’s shelter. My friend also invited me to come over and look through her things. He knows that I love “eviction sales”, rummage sales, and dumpster diving, so despite the sadness associated with him losing his mother, this was a really fun activity for me.

One of the items I picked out immediately was a decorative jewelry box. I’ve always wanted one of those fancy jewelry boxes that unfold. However, it’s a silly luxury, and not something I’m actually very likely to spend much money on. That makes it the perfect item to pick up in a thrift store or to find amongst the available stuff at his mother’s house.

Just a happy little video for you, showcasing the collaboration between a band and their fans. Enjoy!

Here at The Wallow, we have a lot of bees and we have a lot of wasps. Is there a difference? You bet!

Since I’m in love with bees and I hate wasps, it always bugs me when I hear someone confuse the two. The other day someone commented on a yellow jacket sting saying they hated bees. I piped up to say that yellow jackets are wasps, not bees. The other person said it didn’t much matter when you were being stung. Ah, but it does! It matters in the moment right before you think you’re going to be stung (because you might want to act differently depending on whether it’s a bee or a wasp), and it matters when you get stung (because one is just bothersome and one hurts like hell!)

Remember the red tree in the now-pasture I mentioned in the Weeds to Pasture post on Wednesday? The quest to identify it (as, I hope, a Black Walnut) has a new development, so I thought I’d tell you the story from the beginning.

I’ve been trying to identify some of the trees and plants at The Wallow. It’s fun to know what’s out there, to know what’s edible, and to give things a name. When I realized there was a tree amidst the brambles in the field, I wanted to save it from the bush hog. There are no other trees in the main part of the field, and it would be nice to give the pigs some outside shade. Of course, I tried to identify the tree based on its leaves.

The Wallow has lots of distinct parts to it. There’s the house, of course. There’s the two-story barn, which now contains Joshua’s workshop. There’s the hill, which is behind the house. There’s the forest-ish area on the way to the creek, where the bee hives are. There’s the front yard, which will be the garden area come spring. There’s The Bowl, an area made up of driveway and concrete walls at basement level, making it seem like you’re in a bowl of concrete. There’s The Island, a grass and tree space between the two main driveways where Joshua chops wood and wood that has been delivered is stored. And finally, there’s the area we’ve been calling the field or the pasture.

The field is about a 1/2 acre of space, enclosed in a high-quality wooden fence. This is the area that we plan to use for keeping animals. However, like the rest of the property, it had been completely taken over by brushy weeds.

I was waiting for a ride outside of a bookstore. It must have been sometime in May or June because the store windows were filled with books for Mom or Dad. Specifically, one window was full of books for Mom, and one window was full of books for Dad. Oh, this should be good. Here [...]

I’ve just switched LoveLiveGrow to a different server through my hosting provider. There have been some issues with the move, such as images not loading or the site being unavailable at times. I hope it’ll all be running smoothly again over the next couple of days. Hope y’all hang in there with me.

I found some products clearly being marketed to me. I walked past the display in the grocery store and they caught my eye quite well. My brain was right in step as well – “Oh! Plates made from leaves! Bamboo! So eco-conscious!” The products and their packaging have the look that I like – a minimalist, nature look that I first noticed in yoga-commerce.

I also appreciate the idea that if there’s something that I really want to do, I should be on the lookout for ways to do it that take my larger environment in mind. Making useful products out of leaves? Who wouldn’t approve of that?

Becoming a beekeeper is one of my dearest homesteading goals for myself. I’ve long had a fascination with honeybee lore. And while having ready access to honey and beeswax will be a nice side effect, what I truly want is to be a human who has a relationship with honeybees. I want to watch them and understand them and interact with them in ways that are positive for me and for the bees.

In a fortunate little turn of events, the house Joshua and I bought comes with a honeybee colony already installed! The previous owner (a friend of mine) began learning about beekeeping here, and he decided to leave his colony behind rather than try to relocate it.