Winter buzzing of the bees

Honey bees are insects. They do not hibernate in the winter but, they do go dormant in the cold weather. When our temps begin to lower the bees' internal metabolism slows down. When the temps go lower than 45'F their flight muscles move so slowly they cannot fly. The bees spend all their time and energy staying warm. They form a small ball about the size of a melon and use their kinetic energy to keep the center of the ball at or about 93'F. The outer layer of bees will expend their heat and move toward the center while those toward the center work their way to the outside.

During this time they must eat very small amounts of honey to stay alive and produce heat. Honey bees are VERY fastidious, for this reason they do not defecate inside their hive. During the cold days they will hold their waste and wait for a warmer sunny day to fly away from the colony and clean their gullets. In Northern climes beekeepers are concerned with the possibility of their colonies contracting dysentery due to the long periods of time with below freezing temps.

Our weather here in North Carolina brings us periodic relief to cold temperatures during the winter months. Christmas weekend we had 6'+ inches of snow fall here in Granville County but, today the temps at 53'F+ and the forecast is for temps above 65'F for tomorrow.

The video was taken this morning as the temp was reading 51'F. The bees are flying away from the hive, clearing their gullets, exercising their muscles and removing any trash from the hive. In January, they might even venture out and find a wee-bit of the black pollen from the red oak.

My homeless friend is a poet.

I have a homeless friend, he is a poet. The first time you meet him you would never know such a thing. He has broad shoulders, muscles on his arms the size of tree trunks & a "I dare you to look at me wrong" look in his eye. He is always shaved and wearing clean clothing. He has a deep raspy voice and is easy with a joke; once he knows you.

The first conversation I had with him he told me about his bad habit. His bad habit? He has a habit of getting thrown in jail. Not for anything "serious", just placing his fist in the face of people who run off at the mouth.

We have become friends. We text each other every day or so and bump into each other around Durham once or twice a week. He even has a face book page. Probably one or two of your face book friends are homeless if you knew their whole story.

He spent the last two years in a tent in a secluded patch of woods in East Durham. He is a "professional" urban outdoorsmen and can teach you how to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer using a 12 volt car battery.

Two weeks ago he asked me for a pen and a piece of paper. He sat down and penned this poem. He told me he had had it in his brains for a few days. His penmanship was legible and spelling correct. More than a few homeless have talents and skills that are amazing.

Whether you are Christian or not I hope you will enjoy the beauty of the words he penned. This is like and Christmas to him. I hope and pray 2011 brings him much joy and an extra bucket of coal for the fire ;)

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Twas the night before Christmas

And all along the streets

No warmth for the homeless

Nor anything to eat

I with my sleeping bag

And an old homeless cat

Went behind the bush for a cold winter’s nap.

Then all of a sudden

I heard a wonderful sound

I jumped from the bush

In one single bound

And what did my wondering eyes did see,

A soft spoken stranger looking at me.

He spoke very softly, passing out blankets as he went

I knew in my hear he was heaven sent.

I asked the stranger, where are you from my dear friend?

He said even though I’m not there any more

I’m from Bethlehem.

May you experience a blessed, merry & warm Christmas!

We all learned together...

On Monday I was invited to spend the morning at the St. James Day School in Raleigh.
I spent part of my morning teaching 48 young students about honey bee, the food cycle and caring for God's creation. By the feedback, we all learned together.

Interesting facts about the honey bee

*Bees have a body temperature of 92-93 degrees Fahrenheit in their nest, no matter what the outside temperature is.

*A honeybee would have to fly about 55,000 miles to bring in enough nectar to make one pound of honey.

*It would take a honeybee approximately 1,600 round trips (hive to flower and back to hive again) in order to produce one ounce of honey.

*Honeybees will fly as far as 8 miles from their nest in search of food, at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour.

*The brain of a worker honeybee is about one cubic millimeter, approximately the size of the head of a pin.

*Honeybees’ wings stroke 11,400 times per minute and cause a buzzing noise.

*A honeybee would have to visit 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey.

*A honeybee worker visits more than 2,000 flowers on a busy day.

*The average honeybee worker makes 1/12 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

*Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans.

*Queen bees will lay as many as 2,000 eggs on a good day, an average of one every 45 seconds.

*Honey has been used for thousand of years as a dressing to help heal wounds.

*In ancient Egypt, people valued honey so highly that it was often used to pay debts.

*In ancient Greece, people offered honey as a tribute to the gods and to spirits of the dead.

*When the first European settlers arrived in North America, they used honey to make cement and furniture polish and to preserve fruits.

*On a hot summer day, the worker bees keep the hive cool inside by fanning their wings.

*The cells of a honeycomb tilt slightly upward so the honey won't spill out.

*At the turn on the 20th century there were more than 5 million bee hives in the USA, by 2006 that number had fallen to less than 2.5 million.

*Almond pollination creates an almond crop that adds over 1.5 billion dollars of revenue to California. It takes 2 million hives of honey bees to pollinate this crop annually.

*There can be as many as 60,000 bees in a colony during the nectar harvest.

*Flower nectar is 80% water, while cured honey must have a water content of less than 18.6% water to stop fermentation.

*Honey bees have over 60 scent receptors in the antennae and more in their feet.

Fried fish, cole slaw, vidalia onion and lemon meringue pie

We feasted on the fish last night. Hot and battered just right the fresh fish was a food lovers dream. The cole slaw was perfect and the addition of thinly sliced Vidalia onions was an added bonus to a true southern meal. With family all around telling stories and reliving memories it was a magical time that will long live in my memories. The evening ended with lemon meringue pie and hot coffee on the back porch, no gourmet has ever dined better.

The Fish Smellers

I have a first cousin named Donna. She has a husband named Joe. Donna and Joe have a daughter named Katrina. Katrina has a husband named Bryant. Katrina and Bryant have a little son named Conner. This small family lives side by side in a rural/urban part of Orange County, N.C.

They give great honor to Donna's father Norman who was married to my mothers' older sister Louise. Aunt Louise could take a month of postings alone; let me say this, she was the mother to six kids, a huge number of grand children and a hand full of great grand children, she was a huge life force in her family and her love could bring great joy, she was opinionated and spoke her mind at the drop of a hat. Her cooking continues to be legendary and a social gathering at Aunt Louise and Uncle Normans' house was sure to be a party.

There is a bit of family background.

Joe and Bryant are of course FIL and SIL respectively. They also are serious fishermen. They have a pontoon boat that is built for fishing. They invited my father Louis and me to go fishing with them on Saturday.

I have heard about their fishing trips. These two men claim to be able to smell fish when they are biting. (I am not talking about those guys who cruise around on lakes at 60mph chasing the Large Mouth Bass. Joe and Bryant are after meat fish, something to bring home, clean and then have a fish fry with friends and relatives.)
I never doubted this, I just had never heard of such a thing.

Yesterday morning my father and I met Joe, Bryant and Uncle Norman and headed for a lake in Alamance County. After a 35 minute drive we arrived at a beautiful, tree lined N.C. lake. The morning was bright and cool with a steady breeze. We boarded the boat and were off. Joe and Bryant were talking about coves to get away from the wind. After a fifteen minute cruise across the lake the fishing began. For over one hour we pulled in one good size meat fish after another. Using ultra light tackle a 12 oz. fish puts up a great fight. The wind blew a bit harder and we moved to several other spots and caught a few fish.

By noon Uncle Norman and my father were tired. We returned them to the dock, had a bit of lunch and moved on to another spot. As we entered the cove Bryant simply stated, "I can smell them, they are here." Now, as I took a deep whiff of the air I did indeed smell a fishy aroma in the air.

Needless to say, Bryant was right. The next two hours we caught scores of fish, keeping only the large ones for eating. I now believe that Bryant and Joe could easily have a fishing program on ESPN Outdoors...of course the name would be "The Fish Smellers".

By three o'clock we were back at the home of Joe and Donna, Katrina and Bryant and little Conner. Conner met his father as soon as we arrived and wanted to see the fish.
The live well was opened and Conner saw the abundant harvest from the fresh,clean waters of the lake. A count was taken, the total harvest was 184 fresh water fish caught on a beautiful N.C. spring day.

If you have a Joe and Bryant in your life you are a wealthy person. If you do not have a Donna and Joe, Katrina, Bryant and little Conner, Uncle Norman in your life, you are a pauper indeed.

Thank YOU guys for a great memory and good fishing!!

Coffee from a cat...

This is the civet cat or palm civet. It lives in Indonesia. It climbs into the coffee trees when the coffee is at its ripest. It eats the coffee cherries for food. As the cherries pass through its digestive system, what is left is a clump of coffee beans or kopi luwak coffee. It happens to be the most expensive and delicate coffee on the planet.



It's all the rage in the UK at the moment.

It is a great metaphor for how God works. He takes what on the outside appears to be gross, off color, strange and turns it into a delicacy. The palm civet and kopi luwak coffee are proof to me that God has a tremendous sense of humor. So, if you happen to live in Indonesia and can get enough beans to make a pot of this delicacy, how about sending some my way...we will consider it an exercise in international relations and a great cup of coffee

How sweet the sting...

One of the traits of the Africanized Honey Bee(AHB) is its aggressive behavior. The slightest noise or justling can cause a stinging frenzy. Huge numbers of AHBs will react to the attack/sting phermone in the air and sting anything and everything within as much as 1/2 mile around the hive. A news report from Mexico will give you insight into the character of this "freak" of nature.

At this time N.C. has been able to keep the african apis DNA at bay. If we are not vigilant, that could easily change. The NCDA and research at NCSU are two of the tools being used to unravel this threat to apis mellifera. Should the AHB species invade the gentle hardworking honey bee of N.C., it would drastically alter the apiary hobby and business climate of the state. There would be hundreds maybe even thousands of hobby bee keepers that would abandon the art of bee keeping. This would reduce the number of bees pollinating in this state by hundreds of millions of visits to flowering plants. At some point, this could influence the quality of fruits and vegetables we consume.

Fried Green Tomato BLT...

I am renovating a bathroom in an old house in Durham. Don't believe all you here about the Bull City. It is full of great folks and has some of the best food, music and art in all the southeast. Working there for me is always a thrill, as I will usually see someone I have known my whole life or have met along the way.

Milton is one of those I met along the way. He and his wife Ginger are fairly new to the Triangle. Not only will they add much to the mix of D town, they will be a blessing to all they meet. Ginger is the new pastor of Pilgrim UCC Church. I truly feel the congregation gets a twofer with Milton and Ginger.

Milton is a chef at Watts Grocery; one of the many fine eateries in the growing food family of Durham. Yesterday he brought and bought me lunch to my jobsite. It was a Fried Green Tomato sandwich and fresh cut fries. Milton, Kevin(my trusty sidekick) and I, sat out on the front porch steps and ate as the traffic drove by on Hillandale Rd.
The food was delicious, but the conversation and friendship were truly filling. I will be hungry again, and need to find another sandwich, but I now have something of substance to carry with me from a conversation on front porch steps.

"You use steel to sharpen steel,
and one friend sharpens another."
Proverbs 27:17 (The Message)

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Random Links...

Federal Credit Cards providing lavish perks for employees.

Advances in surgery continue...

They should just leave the "crisis" alone.

The Christian church of the U.S. built the cassette tape industry in the 70's, could they now conquer the podcast?

We as the Church of Jesus in America must deal with this issue.

Plentitude!!

A few photos from the Wake Forest Farmers' Market Sept 1.

(HT: Russ for the great photography)

Bounty!!

A few photos from the Wake Forest Farmers' Market Aug 25.

(HT: Katy & Russ for the photos)

Liquid Gold

Saturday was extracting day. Early in the morning I went out to check my stores. It was eight supers with over 400lbs of spring honey. I knew it would take lots of work and most of the day to move the honey from the comb to storage buckets in my kitchen. The eight supers were stacked on each other to form a tower that was almost six feet high. I rocked the super tower to check the weight and decided it would be to much to move by dolly. We moved them one box at a time into the kitchen. I then removed the wax cappings with a special electric knife and placed the frames in the extractor; a quick spin and the liquid gold flew into the barrel, down the sides to the convex bottom. From there a "gate" on the front of the barrel is opened and the honey flows into a mesh strainer lined with cheese cloth. This straining will remove any bits of dirt, pollen, or bee parts left behind. The strained honey is stored in a five gallon bucket until needed for jarring. The process was repeated again and again until I worked through all the supers. My wife Shelley worked along with me as we processed the honey from comb to people food.

Along the way, you get honey on your hands and on the floor and on the work surfaces. As we would finish with a super, we would clean a bit and move on. At this time Kiddliwink Apiary is a micro-company, so we use the equipment that is on hand. That means we have an old two frame hand crank extractor, an ancient electric capping knife and the rest of the processing utensils come from our kitchen. For all of these reasons it takes a bit of time. By 4:30pm I was almost finished.

I stepped out on our back porch to move the last two supers. I removed a cover, pushed back a plastic bag and saw hundreds of bees. Several hundred bees had found an opening after I had tilted the super stack earlier in the day. I now had two supers with 60-70lbs of honey and two hundred or more bees in my house. I had visions of bees flying all over and the family being stung. I went to my bee equipment, grabbed my smoker, filled it with wood chips and started a good fire. I closed the smoker and puffed the bellows until I had good rich smoke pouring out. I was going to smoke the bees in the top box down to the bottom, grab the top super, extract it and do the same for the remaining box. There were two problems with my plan: 1. The smoker would fill the house with rich wood smoke. 2. The last box would hold ALL the bees, still in the house.

I then called for Shelley to find a spray water bottle and a fly swatter. I sprayed the bees as they climbed to the top and Shelley swatted them. I did NOT want to hurt these girls, but I had no options. Shelley was a trooper. She entered the fight wearing a light summer dress and a pair of flip-flops. I would squirt and she would swat. After a 10 minute fight I grabbed the top box and moved to the kitchen. Shelley stayed behind and continued the fight. After it was all said and done, many of the bees ended up "escaping" and we worked to shoo them outside. By 6pm we were finished with the "hard" work. Gravity and time would complete the straining. At this time we have five gallons still straining from the extractor. We could "rush" this along by heating the honey, rendering it thinner...it would strain faster, but it changes the flavor and kills many of the natural nutrients and immune builders in the honey.

All that to say this, Kiddliwink Apiary now has spring honey in a limited supply. If you are in the Triangle call us at 919-690-8487. If you are in another part of the world, leave a comment.
Pricing is very simple, $12US per quart, $7US per pint and $4US per 1/2 pint + shipping and handling.

FOLLOW-UP: Our first sell of the season was yesterday, July 25. A friend purchased 1/2 gallon of spring honey.

Extractors, grease and blackberries.

Now that I have over 350 lbs of honey collected, it needs to move from the honey comb to a jar for sale and consumption. Beekeepers use centrifugal force to remove the honey from the wax comb.

The "gadget" used looks and works like this. Mine has been sitting for a while and was filthy! I removed the hand crank and pinion gear and loaded the barrel and cages into the truck and headed to town to a car wash. I plugged about $4.00 worth of quarters into the hopper and sprayed with every cleaning agent available. As I was returning home, I spotted the Lyon Farms produce stand with a big sign..."Blackberries". I then knew what would be the best part of Saturday night's supper. I picked three over flowing pints of huge, ripe, succulent NC blackberries and headed on home.

I unloaded the extractor and rinsed it thoroughly with fresh well water. I scrubbed any stubborn spots with an organic cleaner. I then rinsed the entire barrel and cages in white vinegar, and rinsed once again with lots of fresh water. I then let the whole contraption air dry and then began reassembly. Each moving part was rubbed with a very light coat of food grade clear grease and each bolt was torqued to tightness. By the time I finished all this, I knew there would be no honey in jars this day. I then moved on to plans for supper as my wife was out of town until early evening.

Chicken was on the menu. I cut four pounds of chicken tenderloins in half. Thinly sliced a medium Vidalia Onion and gathered a generous hand full of fresh basil, oregano and cilantro from the herb collection that grows on our window sills. I also passed by the fridge and grabbed a bottle of teriyaki sauce. I placed a layer of chicken in the bottom of a dutch oven, seasoned with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper, sprinkled on 1/3 of the chiffonade of fresh herbs.
I repeated the process until I had about 31/2 layers. I then added 3/4 cup of teriyaki to the dutch oven. I cooked the chicken until it was 150 degrees internal. Served over steamed broccoli it is a quick and awesome meal. Next time, I will steam rice to add to the bottom of each bowl at serving.

The dessert was blackberry cobbler. I wanted a quick and easy cobbler without having to make a crust. I looked through several cookbooks and at FoodTV, but did not find a recipe I liked. As usual, when faced with this, I decided to "wing it". The crowd thought what I came up with was great and I plan on a serving for supper/snack when I finish this post. The recipe follows.

Jimmy's Quick and Dirty Dump Fruit Cobbler.

2.5 cups All purpose flour
3 cups Sugar
2.5 tsp Baking Powder
1.5 tsp Salt
3 Tbsp Cornstarch and enough water to make a slurry
1 tsp Pure vanilla or one vanilla bean split and scraped
3 Tbsp Fresh lime juice
1 cup Butter
1 cup Water
Approx 2 cups Buttermilk
1.5 qrts Blackberries or other fresh fruit.


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Place butter in 3-4 qrt dutch oven or baking dish. Set in oven until butter melts and slightly browns. Watch CAREFULLY as butter will burn easily. Remove from oven and set aside.

Place water and 2 cups sugar into microwave safe bowl or large measuring cup. Heat until sugar dissolves and syrup boils, stirring occasionally. BE CAREFUL!! Pour HOT syrup over fruit and allow to macerate. After about 10 mins add lime juice and cornstarch slurry, mix.

Combine flour, remaining sugar, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Add one cup buttermilk and vanilla..mix. Add enough butter milk until you have a thick batter...about like a cake batter. It may take more than two cups buttermilk.

Pour batter into buttered pan. Spread to fill entire pan. Dump fruit and syrup mixture on top and spread. Place in oven. Bake covered 35 mins. Uncover and cook until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest for 10-15 mins before service.


I could not wait until I finished the post. As I was writing about the butter in the oven my lovely wife delivered a supper size serving to me at my computer. Life is so good!!

The parachute is within my grasp

I enjoy supper around our family table. There is always lots of laughter, the conversations are never dull, and we will usually discuss something of substance. That is why the posts with the label Up to The Table are important to me. I truly wish all people could come up to the table and enjoy a meal with my family. But reality tells us this is not possible. Many families struggle to stay together and far to many struggle to keep food on the table. My hope is our small faith community can make a difference this summer. We are attempting to feed 24 children here in Granville County through the summer season. It all began with the post "Oh God, please let the parachute catch up with me!" We ARE feeding 24 children! We are low on funds! We are low on man power! We will continue!!

The director of a community summer reading program called us today. He wanted to thank us for the lunches. His program is going well thus far and part of the reason is 24 children know that if they come and learn to read better, they will go home with a good lunch. Learning and a full belly are important, even in the summer when the school cafeterias are closed.

My hope and prayer is a child will fall in love with reading and just maybe, enjoy a PB&J on good whole wheat bread and a granola bar and a piece of fresh fruit and a juice box. Someday, one of those children could read a book by C.S. Lewis or Madeleine L'Engle or Mark Twain or James Herriot or William Shakespeare or...the list could go one all night. Maybe by falling in love with reading, they could fall in love with learning and learn to build a strong self and build a strong family and a strong future and never be hungry again. Maybe they could help someone who will be hungry in the community where they will be living and loving and working and reading.

Harvest time

Last Friday I went to Durham to help my father harvest a small honey crop. As we worked we inspected the hives. Looking in a new hive I could not find the queen, nor could I find the evidence of a queen. If you cannot find the lady, usually, you can see her work. New eggs, larvae or capped brood will testify to her presence and hard work. Nothing was there, there was plenty of pollen, some new honey , but no brood. I was concerned that this new hive was queenless. We completed our harvest on another hive and ended the day. We called a queen breeder in the area and ordered two queens.

Saturday morning I made my way to Orange County and Busy Bee Apiary to transport my ladys.
I drove back to my father's home and we opened up the new hive to add a new queen. We found a frame full of young larvae. In my haste on Friday I had neglected to move the frames into sunlight for a better look. The shade had caused me to overlook the eggs in the bottom of many cells. I may not have seen the queen, but I know had evidence she was around. I now had an extra queen. My father and I drove to my bee yard, took a frame of brood from three hives, two frames of honey from another two and dropped the queen in with bees. The nuc is sitting on my porch, I'll open it up this coming Saturday to take a look. While we were in my yard I decided to harvest my honey. After heavy lifting it appears I have around 300lbs of honey to bottle and label over the next few days.

We then took the extra queen to the farm of Mr. Philip Barker. He is the last of many here in N.C. Mr Barker is the last African-American dairy farmer here in the state. It is a monicure I am sure he would be proud was not his. It is important for all of us to keep and protect the family farmer. White, black, yellow, red, we must have farmers and their families farming for future generations. Mr Barker is now trying his hand at bees. I am attempting to teach him what little I know. He had a hive with a very weak queen. The hive now has a new, young and hopefully hard working queen to produce for Mr Barker.

By next week at this time, I hope we have bottles full of beautiful honey. The photo is just one view of the great work our bees have produced this spring.

We love peaches

My parents are 76 years old. They are healthy, strong and madly love their family. This is a photo of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

This weekend we have traveled to Kennesaw, Ga to visit my older brother and his family. The entire Chalmers Clan is in one place for a weekend of family, food and festivities. We are celebrating the engagement of the oldest male grandchild Andrew. At this moment we are assembling 80 or so kabobs for the grill. The white wine is chilling, the red is breathing and the sodas are on ice. Prayers will be prayed, stories will be told, music will flow and many memories will be made. Of all my father's accomplishments, the one that brings him the most joy and satisfaction is the prodigy in the photo, and his prayers that God's blessings will be with his family long after he is with his creator.

Strawberries

Saturday we were up early to pick strawberries. This year we stayed local as we drove 20 mins north to Christmas Place Farms. Christmas Place is owned and operated by the Williamston Family. They have been on this land since 1947 farming mainly tobacco and grain. A few years ago they bagan to transition to more sustainable crops by planting about seven acres of strawberries. They have built a nice picnic area and a great playground, along with a few farm animals for petting. The view facing north is worth the drive.
The Willaimstons were granted the 2002 Conservation award by NC Department of Agriculture. They have woked hard to conserve the land in and around the farm. It is a beautiful place.
The berries were very good, but you could see the effects of a cool and damp week we had here in central N.C. Many berries were soft from the cool and damp weather, but we were able to find plenty of good berries.

Once home, I was craving homemade-strawberry-ice-cream. To me, strawberry ice cream with local produce screams spring in N.C. Here is my simple recipe.

Fresh Strawberry Custard Ice Cream

2 qrts fresh strawberry puree'
2 cups finely chopped fresh strawberries
2 cups unbleached sugar
11/2 teaspoon real vanilla
1/4 kosher salt
1/2 + a little extra gallon whole milk
1 qrt whole whipping cream
4 egg yolks

Puree' washed, capped and dry berries in food processor with 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Place 1/2 gallon milk, 11/4 cup sugar, four egg yolks in four quart heavy sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir mixture CONSTANTLY with medium wire wisk. After boil, turn heat to low and cook for five minutes, stirring CONSTANTLY. Take off heat and let cool for five minutes.

Mix 1/2 of berry puree' and custard together. Pour into ice cream maker, add heavy cream and vanilla into ice cream mixture. Stir well. Add second half of berry puree' and chopped berries. Pour in enough whole milk to reach fill line on maker. Process ice cream slowly to avoid large ice crystals. Remove dasher after processing, place ice cream cylinder in freezer for about four hours. Serve and enjoy!!!

Oh God, please let the parachute catch up with me!

If you read this blog on a regular basis you will notice a label for a view posts. Up To The Table are several posts I have made with the theme of food, faith and farming. Those posts are part of a journey I have been on for the last three years:looking deep inside for what it means to follow Jesus at this time in this community.

I have been evaluating social justice in myself and my community because of Will Samson and his wife Lisa Samson. I met them over two years ago and the term "social justice" was etched into my consciousness because of conversations with them. It has been a slow and long journey, but I am now at a place to put social justice into practice in my life and the life of my christian community here in Granville County.

During the summer of 2007 we are going to feed 24 hungry children five days a week.
They will be involved in a tutoring program in our community. They will be learning to read, to write and perform basic math. We will be providing them lunch each day.

I have a small band of about thirty volunteers. We have very few financial resources. We have many ideas. We are going to attempt to use local produce, homemade products and healthy food choices. It seems like a huge task at this time.

I have jumped out of the airplane at 18,000 feet and I am hoping the parachute catches me.

If you have any suggestions, let me have them now!!

Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz goes the bees, hopefully

These ladies are hard at work. They are gathering pollen and nectar to take back to the colony for food. While they gather, they spread pollen from one blossom or bloom to another. This work is very important as the pollen they spread will produce fruits and vegetables for your plate. This spring we have a mystery going on with the bees. Colony Collapse Disorder could effect the quality and abundance of food crops this summer. Without the diligent work of these ladies, your diet will consist of grain and water. Read this and pray for the honey bees.

The Enigma

Yesterday morning it was raining here. It was a cool rain; the rain was not cool, but the breeze in the rain was. It was the kind of spring morning when sleeping late would seem to be wisdom. Instead, I was up and out by 6:15am. We worked in the cool and the rain. It was not raining hard enough to say you were getting soaked, just wet. It was cool enough that a sweat shirt or light rain shell was enough.

At around 9am I had to drive to the farm, the farm owned by the businessmen-enigma. He and had to discuss our construction plans for the first of the week. He was in a chatty mood, it was cool and raining, my crew would continue a few moments without me, I stayed. He had mentioned in the past that he grew up very poor. That is hard to imagine when you are surrounded by evidence of anything but poverty. During a break in the conversation I asked a question, "Did you every go hungry as a little boy?"

"Yes", he said. "At eight or nine I would get up very early in the morning. I would go into the woods and check my line traps. If the trap had an animal with fur, I knew we would have something to eat that day, if not I knew we might you hungry. My mother made jewelry. She made ceramic ear rings. She would make dog wood boom ear rings and fire them in a very small kiln. She could make 6-7 pairs at a time. She would assemble them, place them on a small card and give them to me. I would take them to school and sell them to the ladies at school. If I sold ear rings, I knew we would eat. If I caught food or sold ear rings we ate, if not we didn't.
Kids can be mean to little boys who have to sell ear rings. That may be why i am so mean sometimes."

I was shocked by the story. Here was a man who is brilliant. He is a builder, electrical engineer, architect, investor, cattleman, wood worker, etc, etc...
He has a beautiful home and farm, yet I saw him as a little boy trapping food and selling ear rings to eat. Hunger in America, post Depression is OBSCENE!!