Don't BEE crazy

When Keith came running up to the house the other night yelling for my camera, I was mildly intrigued. He's a laid back type of guy so this behavior was unexpected. All three GK's were present and accounted for so no worry there but the camera thing...how odd. He never takes pictures.

So I meandered out to where he was behind the machine shed and found these

One big group of SWARMING bees. Look at them ! Big and little had come from who knows where and were settling into an empty bee hive we had been meaning to fill with new bees to be purchased. Now most folks would not like this particular site but we were pretty happy. Happy from a distance I might add.

After a few minutes the traveling bees settled into their new home. It wasn't long before there was virtually very little evidence of their Swarm Dance 2011.  They are good tenants who will pay us soon in golden honey you will find in bottles in our farm store. Once again traveling a very short distance before it is purchased, it will go from hive to our machine shed for cleaning and bottling and back to our little farm store which sits approximately 30 feet from this hive. Now that's  LOCAL honey.

Little Store on the Prairie

Not the most original title but Laura Ingalls Wilder must be dead by now, she probably won't mind. Other store names in the running include "The Spotted Wattle" to honor the cross bred hogs we have here that are half red Wattle and half Spotted Poland. We found combining these two breeds made for some very loooong pieces of hearty tasting bacon. We also kicked around the name "Piggle Wiggles "not too far from the Piggly Wiggly stores of South Dakota very popular in the 70's. The problem with ALL those names is their lack of reference to the beef we will sell in the store and that is just plain unfair. Some fine cow/cattle types have given their lives for our farm, (we call them heros here in Illinois, where do you think they came up with the name for the Hero Sandwich ? Out of thin air ?) and they deserve to be alluded to in our store name don't you agree ?  But our creative juices have dried up lately. It was spent on the BIG decisions like what color to paint the inside window frames. All three of our sons believe white is the classiest choice while mommy dearest insists on Barn Red.

So until we decide its just "The Store". We hope you can drop by and see it ...maybe even name it. Bring a paint brush, there's still a chance all the work may not be 100% complete. Bets are being collected, they are not in my favor.

                            Grand Opening Week
                 Saturday November 27 through
                           Saturday December 4.
                                    10 am to 5pm


                  Certified Organic Beef and Pork
                          All beef is 100% grass fed


                         South Pork Ranch T-shirts
                                           Honey
                                  Free range Eggs
                                      Door prizes




click here for directions   http://www.south-pork-ranch.com/directions.htmlr