This post is going to require some background to really appreciate what happened to me last night.   I have owned the farm almost 16 months and in that time I have never ever had anyone drop in.  Now I have on my own made an effort to stop and meet my neighbors but in general I live in the country.  In the back of my property there is at least 200 plus acres of woods.  In the front of my property is at least 1,000 acres owned by a timber company.  To the left several hundred acres woods and then finally about 25 acres away to my right is a neighbor I have seen twice.  Not far past any private land is the 10,000 acres of FDR State park.  Folks.. it RURAL living.  I have herds of deer and not just one turkey FLOCKS of turkeys.  Sooo-- lets get on with the story right?  

This post is going to require some background to really appreciate what happened to me last night.   I have owned the farm almost 16 months and in that time I have never ever had anyone drop in.  Now I have on my own made an effort to stop and meet my neighbors but in general I live in the country.  In the back of my property there is at least 200 plus acres of woods.  In the front of my property is at least 1,000 acres owned by a timber company.  To the left several hundred acres woods and then finally about 25 acres away to my right is a neighbor I have seen twice.  Not far past any private land is the 10,000 acres of FDR State park.  Folks.. it RURAL living.  I have herds of deer and not just one turkey FLOCKS of turkeys.  Sooo-- lets get on with the story right?  

 

You see above pic?    That is my first biggest news of the NEW YEAR.  It's a pic I turned around and quickly snapped as I was leaving the farm the other day.  (on my new iphone, even from the grave I finally sold my soul to Steve)  This is the newest addition to Thalia Farm and Apiary.  It is 50 acres across the street to my 27.7!  So I am not connected but across the street.  I can't tell you how excited I was to finally close and know that it really was mine.  It was a touch and go purchase as another woman tried to offer more money to purchase it as I was in contract.  You never know as they say!  There is so much to say about the property and it's very fine history but briefly. It has 12 old pecan trees, 3 Black Walnut trees, a very large persimmon, one old pear, a ton of muscadine vines, an old falling down old cabin, 2 springs (yes springs)! and a graveyard!!!  Did I mention the above 2 almost 3 acre  lake/pond?    It was created in 1991 by the owner I purchased from.  He stocked it with fish back in 91 and never moved to the property.  The land and pond has sat unloved that whole time!  I have already stocked it again with catfish, bass and shellcracker.  The man that looked after the property (cut the grass and hunted on it) said that his grandson caught a 5lb bass in it recently so we know fish are still there.  I have set up a fish feeder and when the water warms up I think that we shall see what comes to eat!  Most of the locals when I mention the pond/lake never knew it was there.  The land has good bit of timber and hardwoods and so it was hidden.  I love that.  So much more to say but I will get my day going and write again this week.  Graveyard with tombstones......Indians.. Oh my!

Thalia
A few of you might know this name... it was my Grandma's pen name.  The name Thalia was the name my Grandma signed her artwork and her poetry.  I can recall looking at some of her drawings and thinking WHO IS THALIA?  I asked my Grandma one day why she signed her artwork and her poetry by that name?  She said in a very excited smiling voice, "That was my name in another life- I just know it".  WELLLLL if you know my Grandma and how kinda crazy she was that was not a surprising omission.  When she said she had been abducted by aliens.....sigh... that is a blog story for another day.  Anyway back to the name Thalia.  Thalia was her creative side her artsy side.  Thalia was not a person really, it was creative energy for her and when my Grandma THELMA felt creative she was Thalia.  If you would like to hear more about my Grandma there is a recent blog entry Story of Grandma
Ok so back to why I am blogging about the name.  Recently I had the bad news of finding out that the name I was going to use for the farm was inaccurate.  The 7 streams was not correct.  There are 3 streams that cross the road 7 times--- the name was not going to work.  For months I have been working on the name of the farm and apiary.  I could not find ANYTHING that fits.    I was at my Mom's house in Florida unloading my truck a few weeks ago-- whining that nothing seemed to fit when in that very breathe I looked at my Mom and said  "Thalia".  My Grandma always dreamed of living my dream but her dream of building a home and having a farm never ever came to fruition.  She never gave up wanting to plant fruit trees and building her own home on her land.  I thought I feel so blessed and thrilled, amazed to be living her dream.  I have my own slice of heaven in Warm Springs GA.    Tonight as I started to organize my thoughts about announcing the name of my farm I thought I wonder what Thalia means?  I looked it up and this is what it said***************

If you have a blog you will understand the feeling of not wanting to blog.  According to my blog manager it has been 219 days since my last post.    It's funny because I have wavered between having too much to blog about and nothing to blog about.  My life in the last 219 days sure has changed! 
I guess if I had my own newspaper one of the biggest headlines for the year of 2010 would be that I bought a farm.  Buying a farm was a dream come true.  It is exactly 30 miles from my home in town.  It is not land locked by Franklin D State Park but it is mighty close.  You spend much of your time getting there through the beautiful 9,000 plus acres of woods.  The land originally was owned by a Civil war Widow and still has a well and a sharecropper/slave cabin chimney on it.  This is where I will build my forever home.  There are 7 streams that run through the area and the road to the right of my property is called VII Branches.  I plan on calling the farm VII Branches Farm and Apiary.  I will start moving my hives in early Spring. My Dad is helping me research tractors LOL   I can't wait for everyone to see it!  For me it is a magical place.
I am still schooling the children at home.  I love having the freedom to teach them without walls so to speak.  A few years ago I spoke about wanting to go to a Spanish speaking country and immerse them. I really want them to to learn the launguage .....well........ I have decided that in late August and for the month of September I am going to take them to Spain 2012 and live.  It will give me the time to work on my Spanish and to save the money for the trip.  In a sense that is one of my New Years resolutions goals is to save money and get the children ready!  Hopefully my sister and or cousins can drop in and visit during that time as well.
Abby and Matthew are growing up fast.  I am sure if you a tween daughter then you can relate to some of the crazy emotional things that go on around here.  If both children can learn that HAPPINESS IS A choice and that we can't control other people just the way we respond to them....then goodness gracious it will be a life lesson learned early! 
I hope all of you have a wonderful 2011.  I can not convey in words the warmth and happiness I feel!

I can't believe we fit all of the stuff in that we did in May but we did. It may explain why my truck smells like ChickfilA and old coffee....  But here it goes.  I am going to go in reverse order. 
The Spring garden is coming with with lots of peppers, potatoes, some cherry tomatoes, potatoes, basil, mint, oregano, parsley, and heirloom cukes from many countries.  I believe we have India, China, Japanese and some American pickling cukes!
I am still loving my bees and am soaking up all then information I can.  I have a local beekeeper mentor that I recently helped extract some honey.  He is 83 and has been beekeeping for over 30 years.  While I was in Florida I stopped at every local honey place I could find LOL.  I found one big commercial beekeeper who actually opened up a hive and gave me all kinds of advice.  I bought 3 kinds of honey from him.  Iris my friend in Miami was a little frightened when he pulled out a few thousand bees and started showed her the queen and some drones.  I also had the chance to go back to the place I purchased my bees and spend the day seeing all they do.  It was pretty cool seeing my first live swarm.


Here is the extracting

extracting honey

Here is the link to the Spring Garden

Spring Garden

Abby had her 11th Birthday at Paws Humane Society!  She is such an awesome, giving child.  I really was shocked at the turn out of people.  She asked that people bring the Humane Society shelter presents instead of herself for her Birthday.  It was a HUGE thing for a little (ok BIG) girl to do.    Not only did she get some really cool gifts she also got 170. in cash Donations.  Way to go Abby!


We met up with our favorite family the Dennisons for a little relaxing time at Vero Beach and in Orlando.  On the last night there it was a full moon and I had decided to let Abby stay up late and walk the beach in hopes we would find a sea turtle nesting.  I silently prayed walking in the darkness with Iris and her husband that we would see a turtle coming out of the surf to lay her eggs.  We walked down the beach and as we were coming back, what did we see but a large shape coming out of the waves!  It was a turtle.  She slowly climbed up the dune and started to position herself to make a nest I suppose.  We decided at this point it would be better to go back to the hotel as to not disturb her.  In the morning Iris took some pictures of where the Turtle Conservation people had found the nest and had already roped it off.  She also took a picture of the sea turtles tracks.  These tracks tell us it was a Green turtle that was the mom of that nest



While in Orlando we hit the Disney Water park Typhoon Lagoon and the kids and US had a blast in the wave pool and the slides.  My personal favorite is the lazy river.
John drove down in his own vehicle and we all went to Nasa Kennedy Space Center.  It was on my list of places I feel like my children should see before they are grown.  I am going to say this before I tell you about our experience with the KSC.  Maybe you have children that have more attention span then a fruit fly but I do not.  It was the biggest waste of time for our family.  We gleaned 4 important things from the whole experience (ok maybe 4). 
1.  Going to NASA is pretty much akin to going through the Atlanta AIrport when the color is RED.  The security is such that you can't really see much at the tour.  If you know my child Matthew you can imagine how excited he was to view the buildings from miles away because we could not get very close.  The glossy look came over his face and he started to think up ways to totally annoy me in a bus load of foreign people who I am sure were saying all kinds of things about us in German.
2.  After all the zillions of dollars we have spent at Nasa creating the most amazing Shuttles, suits, telescopes, rockets, VELCRO and dried ice cream for heavens sake YOU WOULD THINK that at THE LAUNCH SITE....
Can I SAY THAT AGAIN?
AT THE LAUNCH SITE this is what they have for a restroom.



Yes you do not have to rub your eyes as they are NOT playing tricks on you.  This folks is a porta potty that is at our Nasa Space center launch pad.  I have to tell you inside that green one at the end was a spider.  That spider was pretty much Abby's excitement for the whole tour until........................................................
yes wait for it.................................................................................................... until she spotted this..................
a Gopher Turtle.


I know please do not send me comments about how wonderful you think the space center is ok?  I am only speaking from my humble experience.
 

I have to tell you Matthew did like what they call the CRAWLER.  It is a large thingy ma bob that moves along a track and transports the shuttle to the Launch pad that as you already know has a porta potty. 



I really liked this picture and wondered how much a garden might run me up at the space station?  I already feel like my tomatoes at home easily run me more then a buck a piece......  




Mid May Abby and Matthew had Reader's Theater.  I promise you that we as homeschoolers are trying to shake off that image that we sit around in our pajamas all day.  It was really neat to see Matt and Abby together doing a play. 


Check out that cheesy grin.  Abby was the evil witch who tended a garden and Matthew was her EVIL RADISH/assistant.

So much more happened on our trip, campfires, smores, singing, honey, educational centers, good friends and lots of fun in the sun.  Here is a link to a few of the other things we did in May.

the rest of May



I wish I could say that June has come in like a lamb but I took up a new hobby last weekend and will update my blog with pics of that next time.
Hope everyone is having as great of summer as we are!
Rena

No really, the bees are everything I expected and more.  It's like a hobby--- type science experiment.  I have read so many books and subscribed to the bee journal but nothing prepares you like really having them and gaining experience head on.   It is a hobby that I can see me enjoying for a very long time.  I can only hope I can learn as much and as fast as I can so I can in turn mentor someone else in this awesome experience.  I spend my evenings reading forums, articles and any or type of info I can on bees.  There are so many variables.  In one of my books it says that keeping bees is easier then a dog but more work then a cat.  The jury is out on that for me because I still have so much more to learn.  I can tell you this..... I can already see myself with loads more hives.    I really want to get with the guy who sold me the bees and spend a day on his bee farm helping him do whatever it is he does.   I think that would be amazing.
Can you see the bees have already  built up a bit of the frame? 



Second time using the smoker.  I learned an important lesson  I NEEDED MORE SMOKE.   I had a small smoldering fire.  The last time I smoked them I had toooo much smoke.   Lesson learned.

Whewwwww I did it!  I did it!  I did it!  I finally got my Bees!  I rolled out of bed at 4:45, infused some coffee and out the door to south Georgia to pick up my Bee hives.  Bees come in boxes.  In the box come a queen and some attendants.  The queen is in a tiny cage about the size of a large matchbox.  The tiny box is in the package of bees.

The bees can smell her and start transferring her sent all over the entire package. On one side is a cork and the other is a hole filled with CANDY. Yep, candy.  Once you hive the bees they eat through the candy and release the queen.  During that time they get used to her and they become a real hive!  The catch is getting the queen box out of the box of zillion bees and then hanging her in the hive AND then DUMPING POUNDS of bees into their new home....as quickly as possible.  The other problem I encountered was that in my excitement to have bees I ordered 3!!  I had to do it 3 times!  While I was at the bee farm I went ahead and picked up a hive that was already "hived".   So as of today I have 4 hives. 
I arrived home and unloaded all the bees and hives.   I had yet to even take my bee suit out of its plastic wrap.  I placed all my tools and the hives where they needed to be.  I put the new bees in the shade and proceeded to "suit up".  I started getting a little worried after feeling how much these bees weighed.  A single box was FILLED with bees.  My hands started shaking, I barely could get my hat net thing on.  I had to zip it on my suit.  My gloves felt like I was wearing gloves that could belong to the Michelin tire man.    I got my spray bottle filled with sugar syrup.  This syrup is what keeps them from flying up at you.  I pried off the piece of wood and bees started coming faster then expected.  I threw the gloves off and went bare handed.  BEES were FARKIN everywhere!  As I hived number 2 and 3 I got better at getting them wet with syrup.  As I proceeded the air was filled with bees.  Local bees started showing up!  It looked like something out of a old time cartoon.  Bees everywhere!  The good news is that I did not get stung once!  I did have an epi pen standing by in case.  My sister and Dad are both allergic to bees.  My bee allergy status is unknown at this point.    Here are some pics of the Bee Farm L and H and my new hives.  I am a happy bee Mom.     









MY HIVES!!!!!


Note that the hive on the far right is very Mad!!  I let them out and they quickly covered the hive.

I am going to try to do this update as quick and as seamless as I can    So many things going on.  Welllllll  tonight I played Hockey with Matthew in my first game.  It was the last practice/game of the season and they played the PARENTS.  It was sooooo much fun actually getting to skate a game.  The refs were from our local team the COLUMBUS Cottonmouths.  They were very quick and ...errrr helpful.  At one time Matthew and I were going for the puck and we collided.  You can imagine the adrenaline felt as a pack of 6-8 year olds are coming after you with full padding, a stick and some sharp skates.  I think I might need some sort of geratol cocktail  in the morning,  but I survived!!!!  Its an ugly cell phone pic but we FORGOT our camera.
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Last week we went to my Grandmother's land in AZ.  It is 200 acres located near Snowflake AZ.  Some of it was given to me by her and some I purchased from other family members about 7 years or so ago.  My Grandma was an eccentric woman who danced literally to the beat of her own drum.  She not only danced but she probably had an Indian war yelp in there somewhere   She bought the land back in the early 70's when they sold off what was called the White Mountain Ranch.  Each acre was roughly 250 dollars.  It was her dream to build a rammed earth home there.  Grandma Thelma was a teacher at the local Indian reservation.  She would go to her land on the weekends and stay in a little trailer.  The plan was to build a home against the mountain.  The land STILL DOES NOT HAVE access to electric or water.   The homes I did see in the area had solar panels and windmills. 
We flew into Phoenix and drove to the land.  My sister and I had a great bit of difficulty finding it in such a remote area.  I spent about 45 minutes with a local real estate guy staring at some maps before we had an idea where to look.  When we figured out the general area he said to me "You know a long time ago there was a character of a woman who lived up in those parts, she would hitch hike down to town".    I smiled and said, Yes Sir that was my Grandma.  I can't imagine hitch hiking in my late 70s but HEY it was the way She rolled. 
Having known my Grandma and her granola ways it did not surprise me to find old issues of Mother Earth news and Jars of dried beans still in her little run down trailer.  My Grandma was a vegetarian way before Whole foods was ever thought of.  She loved the land and had such a dream for building her own home there.
My sister and I found a beautiful place.  I really enjoyed the property.  My Grandmother's ashes are there.  While I did not see her vision like she did for the land I felt her and that was awesome.  I hiked up and walked the same paths she did.  I picked up piles of rock she had stacked for projects I can only assume.  I stared out at the horizon and wondered how often she had gone up to the top of the very same hill to think about "LIFE".
A few months ago my Mom had commented that she was sorry she never saved any pottery that my Grandmother had made.  My mother is an Artisan Potter and so was my Grandmother.  As I approached my Grandma's little trailer what did I see?  I found a small pottery pot my Grandma had made.  I stared in disbelief that it was not broken.  I wrapped it up and took it to my Mom in Florida. 
Here are a few pics of our vacation to Arizona




















This entry is huge.  I wanted to talk about my garden and my new hobby.  I guess I will do that tomorrow if I get a chance. 

Look at us!  The last time everyone else in Georgia got snow it missed us!  Not today.  We had a fun filled day building snowmen, making snow angels, just playing in the snow!!!!  Matthew was impressed at my ability to roll a giant snowball around the yard.  I kept reminding him I grew up with snow.   It was a wet snow.  The pictures were taken with my phone so apologies to the quality.
Here is a few pics of the chickens, garden and our angels.