Catching Up and Something New

Steven with one of his loaded frames of honey

The last time I blogged
according to the date
was in April 2011.

I just saw the pictures
posted on the blog and
I am amazed at how much
Michael and Jacob have
grown.

So many of you are
already in our lives and
know what is going on.
Facebook makes it so
to me blogging really
is not something I keep

The light honey

up with since I have
nothing to new to say.

I have decided to instead
do a new sort of blogging
with keeping a sort of
"public"journal of blogging
about being frugal this year,
2013.

With this year, all of us are
probably seeing less money
showing up in our pay checks.
Like us, many of you are pro-
bably wondering what would

The dark honey

be the next thing that needs
to be cut from the budget
or where the next extra money
is going to come from to pay
for that sudden extra bill
least expected.

All of you know we keep honey bees
mainly for a hobby (Steven). But we 
have found that it has been so great
for us having the little extra money
that many of you have been so great
with buying our honey. We had a great
abundance last August, 62 pounds. This
was from our hives.

Unfortunately, the hives took a huge beating with a tree falling on them when we had the huge snow storm in December. The wind blew a tree that was not seemingly to be rotted but evidentally was and came down right across all of our hives. Today, 1/19/13, Steven fed the bees bee candy to help them through the winter. We will be adding more until the bees can start fending for themselves with pollen this spring, if they survived the crashing of their homes. The brown hives seems to be the one that is the strongest. The other two big hives seem to have some activity but it is very small. There is no doubt Steven will need to order more honey bees which will come in, in April.

So, this is one way I have to say we are being frugal as you can do many things with honey as well as the health benefits with local honey.

Another new area of living frugally is sustainable living. No, this is not new but with everyone in concern of foods with pesticides, our economy in chaos, and those feeling they need to be independent of government dole outs, sustainable living is coming back big time. I have many friends who raise chickens, their gardens, and other ways to help live off their land and homesteads. I really admire them and wish I had the ability to do the same. But I don't think my town would be too hip on having my chickens running all over the neighborhood. Or neither would my neighbors. They're tolerating our bees with no problem. I don't think we want to push our luck.

I must say though that when I see the lawn chemical trucks spraying the lawns, I just want to cry as they are taking away the dandelions and clover that the honey bees really need. That is one of the honey bees top pollen producers for the yummy honey you get from a local bee keeper. It's also not good for you, your children, and your pets. I am not trying to step on toes. I'm just trying to teach others to help our bee populations increase. Without our honey bees, 1/3 of your food would be gone. You know those almonds that you love? Bees can only produce those through pollination. Our fruits, nuts, berries, and other foods have to be pollinated through bees. If the chemicals and pesticides that are used on farms and such keep being used, the honey bees will continue to die off. And we humans shouldn't be consuming it either.

No, my new blogging articles won't be preaching articles. I just want to be able to say what I say without offending any one. Please know I want to just teach and share what I know or what I find. I'm always willing to learn from others too.

I also believe in Provident Living. www.providentliving.org This is something from my church. Food storage and emergency planning is something that we might be finding ourselves using a lot more. I have had so many people I have talked about food storage and they have really thought what I said was dumb or coming from a crazy woman. But emergency food storage or 72 hour kits aren't that. Think about the economy with so many having no jobs, falling on hard times, having to pay for an unexpected health crisis or untimely car repair. How many times recently Steven and I have had to find ourselves cutting our grocery budget to pay for car repairs or other expenses that we weren't expecting? Going into debt is not something that wise at this time. Using cash has become something we have used and thank goodness. Ask yourself of how recently your kids decided to take a growing spurt at the same time. Michael and Jacob did just that. Wow! How many times I wish I could still find a whole outfit for $4.00, even $40.00! We have been able to pull the ox out of the ditch a couple of times. And thank goodness for the dealer I go to who has been so kind in helping me avoid being told I had a blown engine through doing all the necessary test for free to help me know the van is fine. Or recently, saving me from the wrong spark plugs put in and costing me $100 less than the guys who did the wrong work. Or putting in an under warranty catalytic converter. Warranties are a great thing. Just be careful to not buy an unnecessary warranty. Raising your car payment when you can't afford it to buy that extra warranty isn't wise. But having that extra food storage, extra cash or using coupons is wise. Using coupons will be a topic on my next blog.