We're currently working thru some big challenges and re-thinking strategy.  One thing discussed months ago was the need for wisdom gleaned from successful farmers (those that are farming traditionally full time). Since I had plenty to do, we thought that Caleb could look into a 6 week internship at Rockin' H Ranch, a very respected and successful local farm, and come back to advise us in particular areas.  Caleb was eventually accepted along with TJ.

We dropped them off on Monday, it was very hard to do... but, we've learned that the knowledge you glean from those who are where you want to be saves countless hours and lots of money.  That is the biggest lesson we've learned so far.  (There are a lot of ways to do farming, it's amazing.  The big benefit of the wisdom is it enables you to mitigate some financial risks and build efficiency in early, so you don't needlessly consume hours later, it will also help keep one from getting burned out.  The challenge is if you don't know much about farming, who do you listen to?  You have to talk to a lot of farmers and consumers, observe farms and how they sell product, and slowly it becomes clearer what approaches one should take.)

So with our two oldest out, it was a great time for a bee swarm.  Keena was the first to alert me while my attention was consumed with other things "Dad, the bees are swarming."  Me: "What?  What are you talking about?"  I went to investigate and found a cloud of bees.  I asked Blaise to put on the gear (Caleb has been tutoring him) and this is what we found (actually I kind of yelled at Blaise to suit up, I didn't want to lose the swarm).  I don't have a suit, and I've been told that when they swarm they are very docile so I took a chance.  In this pic I've already trimmed limbs and I'm about to cut the branch so we can carry it over to a hive body.  I'm wearing a t-shirt with no gloves, it felt like I was in the middle of an indoor shopping mall during the holidays wearing only tighty whities.  Amazingly I never got stung.

Blaise successfully put them into a brooder hive body.  Here he is spraying the frames and bees with sugar water to encourage them to stay.

He later provided his assessment, it was the Italian hive that swarmed.  I'm very proud of my 12 year old homeschooled kid.

Getting back to the statement I started the post with.  A friend from church who is a human version of a search engine (he should have had a part in the Matrix, he could have been some kind of side kick for the Oracle) sent me this link (thanks Ralph): http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/06/05/9-rules-for-starting-your-own-farm/.  I think it sums up farming very well.  But despite some significant challenges we're encouraged.  We now have a much better understanding of what it takes to produce food and a lot more confidence that we can do it.