We were running out of room in the hive so we pulled 6 frames. If the hive gets too full, they will swarm and the hive will split. I expect to add a new box with a queen excluder next week so she has plenty of room for brood, and we can harvest 100 lbs of honey at the end of the season. I expect to fill a large pickle jar with what we just harvested.

I think it's safe to say that anyone reading this has had a protein shake from a big plastic container.  I'm probably one of the most lactose tolerant people out there, but protein powder shakes always ruined my stomach.  Store bought protein powders are known to contain toxic heavy metals, pesticides, and micro plastics that wreak havoc on our bodies.  When I first started lifting weights I fell into the same trap as most people, supplementing my diet with ultra processed powders and heat pressed vitamins because that's what the top athletes are doing when they pose for pictures so it must be legit...When I stopped and looked at how much money I was spending on vitamins, protein powder, pre workout, etc, I could no longer justify it, and I never really felt that great when I was taking all of those things.  It's been several years since I first started looking into the farce that is the supplement industry.  The majority of companies out there get their ingredients from the same places, slap their companies logos on it and promise the moon and stars.  The reality is that we can get much better results from eating a proper diet.

The best thing I did was learn about how easy it is to get what our body's needs from whole foods, and the more I deviate from the FDA guidelines the better I feel.  I start my mornings off with a 6 raw egg, 2 cups of Bulgarian yogurt shake.  It's around 60 grams of protein and costs less than 2 $ for me to make. 

Different diets serve different needs.  It's always important to consider what your goals are long term and adjust your nutrition accordingly.  Vince Gironda had some of the coolest experiments out there and I highly recomend reading up on the information he left behind in both nutrition, and exercise.

Management of self is one of the top qualities I look for in a person.  Whenever I have new hires, my expectations are that they should be able to learn to take a step back and look for the areas that need the most improvement and start there.  Take care of the hardest tasks that could have the most problems, and then work down to the things can easily be completed.  I believe that by doing hard things first, we build a mindset that everything from there is easy.  More difficult challenges will come along and your old difficult tasks become the new easy.   A real problem solver puts priority on the most challenging and unpredictable obstacles because if we can have success on the hardest things in life, we're guaranteed victory everywhere else.

“How long will you wait before you demand the best of yourself? … If you remain careless and lazy, making excuse after excuse, fixing one day after another when you will finally take yourself in hand, your lack of progress will go unnoticed, and in the end you will have lived and died unenlightened.  Finally decide that you are an adult who is going to devote the rest of your life to making progress.”

— Epictetus

Modern man as a consumer will fade away and rot leaving nothing behind for the benefit of the future.  As much as technology has advanced to record all patterns of human interaction, likes, and dislikes, as a whole we are in the dark ages of recorded history. 

Great men have always struggled with the idea of leaving a legacy and being remembered.  We find achievements carved into stone, stories and art that make the past come alive, how incredible were the feats of our ancestors!  The past indeed seems brighter and more alive than the dying society we live in today.  Film and literature once aimed to capture things past and present in a means of preserving it.  Currently, directors and writers seek to mock and destroy, to make the beautiful ugly, and to make the natural an abomination.  As the legacy of our ancestors is continually eroded away, we must fight to preserve and renew everything we can.

The most impactful thing that each of us can do is to teach our virtues and traditions to our children.  The goal of the world is for you to leave your children to be well behaved, uniformed tax paying consumers.  By breaking out of that mold we leave behind warriors that are well informed critical thinkers, ready to solve problems and lead men.  They will look back on the lessons from the past that we safeguarded and be honored to defend the legacy that we leave behind.

My wife is an awesome photographer. She started a page where she could share our homestead pictures, and life as a mom of 7 Boys.

https://news.1rj.ru/str/TheNopestead

About 10 years ago I traveled to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.  Walking around the city and seeing the beautiful classic architecture surrounded by literal waves of garbage blowing down the street, homeless camps, and drug dealers walking right up to me, it's a memory that has always stuck with me.  As an American, this was my first glimpse of life in a third world country where White Europeans were living as unwanted minorities.  Back in 2018 I went to England and Germany and I could see the consequences of mass immigration, In London they had just put up sidewalk barriers after the terrorist attack.  Just like you see in the videos online, it was like being in India, or Africa just blocks from each other.

I have been all around the world and have had the opportunity to have very deep conversations with the locals.  The things that I've seen out there are unfolding even faster than I imagined here at home.  If you want things to be different, network and keep company with like minded people.  Start a family and raise your children around people like you that share your culture and values.  We are everywhere, and we're not hard to find.

Often times it's difficult for people to see how their decisions impact the world.  I read lots of statistics and studies so I can asses the condition of the world and know what or who I should struggle against the most.  Like many, I grew up in an age of "American exceptionalism" and my grandparents poured on the roundup, and miracle grow chemicals to make farming "easy".  We were no longer the caretakers of the natural world but gods carving out the planet into our own image.  My Grandparents gardens appeared healthy on the surface, but when I got down to the roots, all I found was lifeless soil. 

Health and the appearance of health are two very different things.  On the surface a well manicured American lawn is a thing of beauty, but it's been conquered into submission by destructive chemicals to the point that only a few select plants can live.  Pollinators are attracted to what's left and whole bee colonies are killed off.  The American lawnscape is as fake and dead as it's culture and values.

New statistics as of March 2024 show that honey bee populations in the United States and Worldwide are on the climb.  This is due in large to people like you and me who have seen first hand the modern world and its consequences.  We do make a difference, and it's more than just saving bees.  More and more young people are waking up because of how outspoken we are.  Our internet information age has given us a platform to challenge the demonic forces that previous generations welcomed in.  Keep noticing, and keep speaking up!

I am a big fan of weighted carries.  Doing extra farmers walks, or improvised loaded carries on my own time, keeps me in top shape for my career.  At work I typically travel with about 150 lbs of personal gear that has to get dragged through airports, through shipping ports, and all around ships worldwide.  I find that weighted endurance training helps me with my job, and also in my daily life.  When my coworkers are hanging over a handrail out of breath, I know I can keep going to get my work done faster so I can go home to my family. 

We are by design an effective, and adaptive work horse.  Modern man greatly misses the mark on what he's capable of.  He has a sense of adventure and wastes it on digital entertainment.  He has a sense of well being, but he wastes it on consuming slop.  He has a sense of purpose but he's too distracted by all the advertisements and material possessions he's weighted down in the world hanging over the side out of breath...

The measure of man is not about how much wealth and possessions he's hoarded.  It's not about the places he's traveled and the pleasure he's experienced.  A man is measured by how he carries himself, and the baggage that he chooses to take with him.  He will be remembered by the people that he's lifted up and the children that he carried into adulthood.

In bee keeping, one of the first things we're told is to find a local mentor that knows the weather, pests, and problems.  I think about this a lot.

In Greek mythology, Mentor was a friend of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. While Odysseus was away fighting in the Trojan War, Mentor served as a wise counselor and guide to Telemachus, the son of Odysseus.

Mentorship is an important missing part of modern culture.  It does exist in different ways but its not as focused on as it should be.  A strong people will use mentorship as a way build up their young men and make them more well rounded and to test their skill.  For example, when my sons are old enough, and have had their apprenticeship under me, they have the opportunity to go and mentor under my friends in their industry to test their skill and learn some things that I might not have been able to teach.

There is an unmeasurable gap of missing men in today's world.  When my Father in law passed away, we realized the extent of his mentorship to the young men he coached, tutored, and gave life advice to when they came to celebrate his life.  All of us have something to teach, and its our duty to our young men to leave them with the knowledge and skill they need to conquer once again.

We of all creatures in the world were created with the ability to observe and create order.  High functioning societies have thrived on it.  It can be found in classic architecture, a well maintained home, and in the farmers fields.  Order is the tool that was used by our ancestors to build great nations and do more than just survive.

The older I get, the more I turn my attention to  my homestead.  My sons bring their own chaos to the place, but we have focused their attention on the details of things from a young age.  A place should be well ordered as much as possible so that things flow properly, and all the parts work.  It's very pleasing to see a system that works well.  We as the caretakers of the world around us should strive to keep our homes and families squared away and have good systems in place for our daily lives. 

People looking at my family life from the outside get overwhelmed by the amount of things we have going on.  They see the kids, the animals, and all the noise and are dumbfounded by the outward chaos of it all.  There is a system to everything, and because of the order that we have established everything flows peacefully through the chaos. 

"There must be order for there to be accomplishment, because every accomplishment begins with order. That is true for each individual part of life, and for the whole of it as well."

- Helmut Stellrecht

One of the best teachers of patience for my boys is farming. My third oldest son grows the watermelons every year. They get better each year!

First watermelon is officially harvested. Kiddo is beyond excited!!

In my life I am the caretaker of many things.  This requires me to be a leader and steward in my family, farm, and career.   

A Steward is someone who cares for something, protects it, and watches over it.  "We must pass the best things of our world to the next generations in a form as good or better than we found it."  This is stewardship, a character of leadership that created some of the greatest empires the world has ever seen.

Throughout history, the leaders that were considered to be the greatest and most loved by their people were the ones who looked into the future and made decisions as guardians rather than possessors.  They viewed their people and their lands as a trust that they were to secure an existence for into the future.  First hand accounts of such leaders talk about how it was as if speaking to a nation through the person, that the individual needs of the person no longer existed.  These leaders couldn't be bought or swayed outside any goal but to the preservation and advancement of the nation under their care.

This should be the standard by which we judge all our endeavors, professions, relationships, and our lives themselves.

Being a Father requires an investment into the future, building the kind of world around your homes and communities that you want to raise your children in.  More times than not though, the present rules the day.  The larger the family, the more involved in the moment we must be.  All of the teaching and coaching moments, the "hey Dad watch me!", and especially the "Dad can you fix this?". 

There are different stages of life a man goes through.  In his youth he looks to the future, as a young Father he lives in the present, and in his age he remembers all the fond memories of the little voices and the stampede of feet rushing to greet him.  Treasure the present now so you don't miss out on memories to smile at in the future.

Happy Father's day!

“What I am about to say does not concern the ordinary man of our day. On the contrary, I have in mind the man who finds himself involved in today's world, even at its problematic and paroxysmal points; yet he does not belong inwardly to such a world, nor will he give in to it. He feels himself, in essence, as belonging to a different race from that of the overwhelming majority of his contemporaries.

The natural place for such a man, the land in which he would not be a stranger, is the world of Tradition.”
― Julius Evola

It can be overwhelming at how bad things have gotten at times but it's important to remember that all of this was predicted and is playing out just like other events in history.  I often go back to Evola's book "Ride the Tiger", a difficult read to be certain, but the message left for us can be applied to a way of survival moving forward.  I believe that homesteading and becoming self sufficient is an important foundation to accomplish what Evola talks about.  Evola’s idea of Riding the Tiger can be explained as the person who can survive the ride through the modern world without falling off and being consumed by it.  When the modern world has run its course, we will be there to deal the final blow and rebuild.

The world asks that we reject our past and our ancestors, our religion, our lands, and our blood.  We should live on top of each other in cities, work for faceless corporations for just enough money to survive, worry only about ourselves and how we can be more comfortable, and happy ~ to worship ourselves as gods and to forsake everything needful for temporary pleasure.  An artificial, soulless existence far removed from the natural world.

Starting a homestead is in my opinion the way to fight back against the world and everything it stands for.  Growing your own meat and vegetables ensures your family is healthy far beyond what any store can provide.  Homeschooling your children and grandchildren ensures your values and culture are promoted and carry on into the future.  You become the "warrior in the garden" of old always preparing and ready to put down the beast of modernity when the time finally comes.

A friends daughter is fighting for her life. Please pray for this family and donate if you can.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-violet-maes-medical-journey?lang=en_US&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=facebook

“Grow strong, my comrade … that you may stand
Unshaken when I fall; that I may know
The shattered fragments of my song will come
At last to finer melody in you;
That I may tell my heart that you begin
Where passing I leave off, and fathom more.”
― Will Durant

The difficult things in life and how you live with them will always be the measure of the man you are.  The world and all its arrows are always being let loose upon us, we can and should defend constantly against this foe. 

It's not always easy to look past the battle in the moment to see the victory of the war.  A leader must take a high position and examine the battlefield, removed from the moment to make a decisive strike.  We should all manifest ourselves as leaders wherever we are. 

At this moment in time we have been given the gift of hard times.  These hard times have fueled a blazing spirit within and it burns with the intensity of the sun.  Persevere through all and fuel the fire, victory is at hand.

A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.

-Marcus Aurelius-