Blog Posts - Artrageousfolk - at Rolling Hills Hermitage

We've been in the Arts for what seems like forever, but we are not worried about President Trump cutting funds for the NEA. This is why:

3/25/2017

TWO different Bee Swarms today!

3/21/2017

Well, we successfully captured Bee Swarm #2, (the first swarm we captured on 3/14/17) got it in the box, glanced back up in the tree and saw swarm #3 about 25-30 feet high in the tree...they'll just have to figure out what they're going to do, it is simply too high for us to climb.
It is so sad we can't get them...

With the extreme temperature swings over the last couple of weeks we have been feeding them heavily & that is why they have been swarming. Well, at least that is better than the bees starving. Lawd we're tired! Please say a prayer that the bees can find a home before the expected storms move in!

Happy Spring 2017!

3/20/2017

Happy St. Paddy's Day to One & All!

3/17/2017

Oh. So. True........... In the middle of the night I can hear you sing over me. Thank You, Father!

3/15/2017

MY! Such excitement at the farm!!! WE CAPTURED THE QUEEN! (we hope)

3/14/2017

We were at a beekeeping meeting last night, listening to a talk by the Bee Inspector for our region. Very informative & interesting evening. So this morning, Denny heads out to feed goats & chickens, he went looking for a post to finish up on the building project at the goat house. Then everything stopped & went into another direction. HE SPOTTED A SWARM OF BEES in the cedar tree!!!

For those who are not up on the life of bees, here is the story:
There are 3 kinds of bees: the workers (all female) the drones (all male) and the QUEEN! She is the most important bee in the hive. To quote The Highlander, "There can only be ONE!" However, for the survival of the hive, more queens are born, as the hive grows. About this time of year the old Queen leaves the old hive in search of a new home & her new daughter, the newbee Queen, will kill any new Queens that have not yet emerged from the larval stage & she will start laying eggs in the old hive within a few days of the old Queen leaving. About half of the bees in the old hive who have pledged their allegiance to the old Queen, leave with her & the workers cover her with their bodies to keep her warm. The trick is to find the swarm and get it into another hive box with frames of wax so they can start drawing out comb & the Queen can continue to lay eggs & they work to bring in honey & pollen. We had to work fast, so they wouldn't leave where they first swarmed. Today is cold & overcast...NOT the most ideal weather for a bee to swarm in. But maybe it worked in our favor because the workers were very busy trying to keep the Queen warm, so they did not leave & we were able to get them in the hive box.

It is NOT easy! They were about 18 ft up in the tree. We made a catch bag on a pole & then cut the limb & let it fall into the bag & then shook it into the box. The picture below shows the bag on a pole. He climbed the ladder & we had another pole for lowering the limb & I held the bag up as close to the swarm as I could get & he would snip the limb & I would catch it in the bag & we'd walk over to the new hive box & shake it in.

But doing all the above had to be done about three times over because some bees continued to cling to the tree & we had to make sure we gotten the Queen, so we had to keep going back until we got them all! What a job for a day we expected to be slow, Lol! But we are thrilled we got the swarm!! Thank You, Jesus!!!

But there is MORE!..........
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As if all the above was not enough excitement for one day, on the way back to the house I found a very sweet, delicate bird nest that must have been blown out of the tree in the rainy/windy weather we had yesterday. It was empty & upside down in the road. To my surprise, upon closer inspection I saw that it had been fashioned from hair!! I suspect it was from the goats, but not sure, perhaps from our Jack, the Collie mix. At any rate, I saved it in the small greenhouse & took some pictures to share. So sweet! below are some pics:

All in all it was a GREAT day, & it's not even over yet!

March 12, 2017 ~ SNOW!!!

3/12/2017

The weather has been great for spring/summer...but not for winter! All winter long we have been way too mild. That results in trees budding early, which is a bad thing if winter decides to show off in spring. That's what happened today! We finally got a beautiful snow, but now we have to wait & see if we get any fruit this year because the buds on the trees most likely were damaged. The snow didn't last but a few hours. By the time I uploaded the pics, edited them & posted here, the snow was completely gone. But my, oh my, what a beautiful sight while it was here! I do love snow! We had a great day walking all over the farm taking pictures. I have a slide show below, to share the beauty of the farm in snow with you, complete with an Eskimo kiss (the snow, get it?) Lol~! We hope you enjoy!

Our creek at different times, different seasons ~

3/10/2017

Fresh Air & Sunshine, YES!

3/9/2017

FYI ~ I came across this again today. It's worth sharing.

3/8/2017

8 Foot Tables!! YEAH!

3/7/2017

I just realized we have not posted in a few days. That's because we found a great source for 8 foot tables for the greenhouses, and we can only carry two at a time in the truck. We've been running up & down the highway getting them in place in one greenhouse. They also weigh a ton. So Denny & I both took today as a rest day. Doing laundry & online research as I rest. Hopefully we can get the rest soon...(if we can recover, Lol!)

Hope everyone is enjoying this early spring. Let's hope the blossoms don't get hurt as the weather see-saws back & forth!

What a busy week!

3/3/2017

Well, since letting go of the 9 male goats in Feb., and then Buddy Bill, and 2 other males, we then sold a does & babies totaling 9, so now we are going to stay, for a while at least, with one intact buck, one wether, and the remainder of does & babies making a heard of, I think 11. I'd have to go count to make sure, Lol.

We have also been taking a refresher course on beekeeping, because contrary to what a lot of folks think, there is a ton of info involved in the raising of bees. It has been a fun refresher course, taking 2 days a week for the past 2 weeks. We will take a breather this week and then 2 more classes the following week. Bees are fascinating, very clean, complex, and intelligent.

If you have any interest at all in honey bees I hope we can encourage you to call your Agricultural Extension Agency in your area & sign up for a course. You won't regret it!

Below is a fun video they included in the class on the worker bee's "waggle dance"

Update on our goats, especially Buddy Bill!

2/27/2017

Praising God for hearing our prayers! And thanks to all of you who said a prayer for him! He has been homed & will have new does to breed. Still praying for his and the other goats protection because a neighbor's dog killed one. I doubt the dogs will be much of a danger now that Buddy Bill is there because of his horns...he could definitely put a hurtin' on some dogs! But just the same, we are praying for their safety!

The Goat Lady also came by today and bought another 5 nannie goats and 4 babies! That means from the first sale of goats from the herd of 33, we now have sold a total of 21 goats leaving us a smaller herd of 12. We may still sell some more, but at this point we are resting with the 12 and see how things are going.

We banded one billy today & that leaves us with one intact male & one wethers, the rest are does & baby females. Whew!!! The goats keep us busy! But we are learning every day! The next big "to-do" on my list is to build a better playgroud for them. Below I am posting a few pics I found on pinterest that I plan to incorporate the ideas from into one good-sized playground.

Buddy Bill, our very first billy goat ~

2/24/2017

We sold our 9 adult billy goats at the beginning of February, only because there we too many males for the herd. It made me sad, because they were so much like pets rather than livestock. I grieved them going. This is the part of animal husbandry that I am not sure I'll ever adjust to. I simply get too attached to each individual.

But none have affected me like letting go of our original, the very first billy we ever had. He was named "Hammer" when he was a wee babe, by his original owners because he would run around his stall hitting the walls with his horns & they said it sounded like someone was hammering. When we bought him we chose to rename him "Buddy Bill". He's such a handsome fellow. Big blue eyes and all. Well, we decided after the does gave birth to 9 more babies, we needed to downgrade to only one active male. So we chose to keep Goatsie, our baby we bottle fed. Buddy Bill was sold to a Goat Lady named Rachel, and is out in the pasture at present. She has plans to sell him to a man who wanted some males to start a herd to clean out his pasture land. So far, she has not reached him with the news that she has Buddy Bill, so in turn, Buddy Bill's future is uncertain. It just grieves my heart. Please say a prayer that the man gets in touch in the next couple of days.... or someone who wants such a good male goat. We both love that old billy goat! He would eat out of our hands & he was always so happy here. It hurt to have to downsize.

We plan on selling some of our does & some of the babies just to get the herd down some for our particular land situation. And we also, meantime plan on banding the male babies to make wethers, so we can keep the herd to the size we want. Meantime, Denny is felling trees & making an area where he can keep Goatsie & a couple wethers separated from the does. With 9 intact males it was impossible to keep them apart from the females & we went from 3 does & a male, to a herd of 33. It took a few years for that kind of growth, but we were learning along the way. Below is a of Buddy Bill recently. All our goats are so pretty...but Buddy Bill is quite handsome! I sure do miss the ol' boy!

This is the word of today ~ it says it all.

2/23/2017

Image is not mine...found online, I don't know who to give credit to. But it is lovely.

We had a great time with our local Agricultural Extension Office covering a "Correct way of Pruning" class last week!

2/20/2017

We are excited to get out the clippers and go to work on these fruit trees, vines, & decorative plantings like roses & crepe-myrtles!

It has been a long time since we attended a class on pruning, so long in fact, that we thought it best to sit in on one again. Wonderful people were there.

The host home where the class was held had also some great points on structures for vines. Our grapevine structures are cedar & they were put in close to 17 yrs ago. They need to be replaced, so the photos included of structures are just to remind me of some well thought out ways they did their's. Hope you enjoy the slideshow!

I just came across this poem Denny wrote to me in 2012 ~ it was a Valentines Day Poem. Too sweet to not share :)

2/17/2017

Our journey has seemed almost endless o'er mountain & tor,
And we've searched thru dusty tomes of forgotten lore.
Once we looked for the Philosopher's Stone,
and then deeply, very deeply, into the unknown.
And then we finally found,
a knowledge so profound,
The true mystery of our Lord.
For years all things were pointing toward.
We finally made with the past, a rift,
When we accepted His most generous gift.
It settled deeply into our heart,
And gave to us a brand new start.
For we are now a New Creation,
And our lives are rebuilt on a new foundation.
For we see a new light that will sweep the Nation,
And we've heard the Word to be fulfilled without hesitation:
"Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
here on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Love, Denny
PRAISE GOD FOR A HUSBAND BORN TO CHRIST!
THANK YOU LORD!

Not a video of our goats, but one a friend sent to us for giggles. It sure does represent ours well though! Enjoy!

2/15/2017

This is not the name of the video, but we would call it "Why we Left the Left, Part 2". We both love Bill Whittle. We hope you will enjoy his brilliance in describing what's happening around us daily.

2/14/2017

Happy Valentine's Day to all our friends!

2/14/2017

This is a Garden Angel Denny made for me a couple years ago...I wanted to share this one because it is some of our Farm Art. He always keeps my heart aglow with his artwork!

February 13th, 2017

2/13/2017

Why WE left the LEFT

2/9/2017

We were both Liberals at one point in our lives (frankly I am ashamed to admit). This fellow explains our own feelings, even better than we could. We left the LEFT and are now on the very conservative end of the RIGHT, and THANKFUL to GOD that we saw the light!

February 09th, 2017

2/9/2017

Ever feel confused by what's happening in the world & wonder what the actual TRUTH is?
This goes far in explaining. Enjoy!

February 08th, 2017

2/8/2017

Well, today we made another visit to the vet. We do way more Dr. visits for our animals than we ever do for ourselves..... Can anybody else relate? Lol.

This visit was taking the little goat that had a c-section a few weeks ago due to the baby being too big to deliver, yep, no joke, this baby was HUGE.... back to see the vet. She had stitches & apparently had pulled one side out, causing a flap of skin to emerge. It didn't look bad, just this flap of outer skin that had been sewn in. Then she started licking it...the next time I looked, she had chewed the skin loose. It was hanging by a slight piece of skin & she had worked a hole loose in the inner part. This had us worried, so since our local vet does not handle goats it meant an hour long drive to one that does. I highly recommend them: Bear Creek Veterinary Hospital of Stanly County.

The vet said it was not too bad...she cleaned her up & gave us a wash to use on the hole, which she explained was actually a good thing, because it would cause any possible infection to drain. She also trimmed her hooves which in human-speak translates to the little momma having a manicure & pedicure. That is only a good thing, right?

Then off to the pet store in hopes of finding a "soft" cone to go over her head to prevent her licking the wound, and there-by making it take longer to heal. OK... but unfortunately, no luck.
So now I'll try online to see what I can find.

Please say a prayer for the little goat that she heals quickly so she can go back to the herd. We have had to house her in the small greenhouse built onto the main house to keep her from males in rut & females who can play hard like all goats do.

While in town looking at the pet store we decided to grab a bite at one of our favorite home-style restaurants. That made the day easier... grabbed a to go meal for us & went home.

I'm thinking it's going to be an early bedtime for us both tonight!

February 08th, 2017

2/8/2017

I saw this on Facebook this morning ~ it's true!