The 80th post on Modern Chef Pants

This marks a turning point, of sorts. I am going to be changing the nature of my posts. I have traditionally posted doodles and drawings and design related material. These things are good and fine. I will likely continue to post them from time to time. I have however decided to discuss another aspect of my life that has not previously made it to Modern Chef Pants.

I have long been a believer in the principles of self reliance and the independence that comes from following those principles. My experiences in the Boy Scouts program and my youth in general gave me a great appreciation for the basics of life. How to find food in nature, how to provide basic shelter, how to start fire without modern conveniences. When I was younger, I thought that as I grew up I would leave these simple ideas behind to join the complex world of adulthood that I did not fully understand at that point. As I get older I realize that no one really does understand this crazy world and those that seem to are either better at pretending, are very mislead or just don't care. I have found in myself the consistent desire to bring things back to a manageable level. To be able to provide for myself the basics of life without having to rely on a machine larger and more powerful than any one of us. I know that it can be done, because it is how it was done for thousands of years before us. I don't want to live in a "Star Trek" world, where everyone dresses the same and eat food that was created in a lab to taste just like pork. I can't think of anything more dehumanizing than losing our connection to the earth that we rely on for life.

If found that there are a lot of people that share a similar set of ideals. Anywhere from treehugging star children to shotgun totting bunker dwellers. In my wanderings I have found some resources that I have found consistently helpful and insightful. One has been The Simple Living Network. The sight isn't much to look at, but there's a lot of wisdom and common sense there. I would recommend checking out the monthly newsletter.

I realize that this is sounding a lot like a manifesto. Like I should be in a one room cabin with no electricity. But how would I post this to internet under those conditions? All manifesto-ness aside, I do feel like laying down the ground work for what's to come. If any of my future post head down the preachy, or crazy road just send me a little note that says "keep it together, bro" and I will oblige.

With that said, here's one of my recent undertakings:



Bees. Thousands of 'em!

My Mother and I recently took a Beekeeping class together and got a hive. We've found a beautiful berry farm close to my Mom's house that was interested in letting us keep them on their land. They grow strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and clover. That spells lots of honey and the good stuff, too.

It's been very cool to learn about bees. They are amazing little creatures. I had always assumed it was pretty complicated to keep bees for some reason. I was pretty surprised to find out that they pretty much just love to do their thing and if you throw them in a box, they'll be more than happy to fill it with honey. Okay, it's a little bit more complicated than that. You've got to know about the queen and how to make sure the hive is healthy, and other things.

I'll show some more photos of our hive:



This is me being awesome around bees.



This is that the hive looks like when you open it. We had first attempted to keep the bees in my parents backyard. Lots of people keep bees in suburban areas with no problem. We had the hive delivered and I opened it up to see this. I just about browned out when I saw it. It's a lot of bees. I knew it was going to be a lot of bees, but seriously. That's a TON of bees.



That's a brood frame. All the light colored, capped off holes have baby bees in them. By the way, did you know that when a new bee pops out of his little cocoon he gets right to work. No time wasted. Pretty cool, huh? I'm still trying to explain this to Ethan. It hasn't worked so far.

So that's all for now. In the future I'll be giving you updates about our tiny porch garden, maybe some canning later in the summer, some camping experiences, etc. Who knows.