WAFT & WEFT; Coalinga-CA

September 15th: Rebuilding lives, and planting roots, takes many forms and ongoing paths.

Year 7 & year 2-1/2, in that order; and I’m cashing in on the fact that life is short and there is 0 reason to not try to make the most of it … to do the things I enjoy - and not wait, if it’s at all possible. For the most part, I’m trying to live that sentiment out; as the celestial shuttlecock moves rapidly & steadily through the fabric of my Life.

I am thankful & appreciative of how Elohim has taken my broken life and reworked the fabric of it with new threads that hold just as much love, color, and promise to complete the story of His Plan for my Life.

This life - in the Now.

With all of its love.

All of its grief.

All of its breath.

With all of the opportunities I have had … and still have.

This is not the Life I wanted; or saw coming down the Pike.

And yet, it is precious & filled with beautiful moments; moments made possible by the new man in my life - the man, who the other day, startled himself when he replied to a stranger's question with the remark, "We're new here too - we're tourists." On the way back to Betsy, he smiled a big smile with the realization that he's learning to relax and enjoy himself in ways he's never done before, saying, "I never thought I'd ever use the word 'tourist' in describing myself. But I am - and I did. And you know what? It feels good not to have to rush from one place to another." I squeezed his hand and smiled back. His waft is relaxing and allowing the weft to take shape in this new blended life that has struggled in it's becoming.

Daily, Life's Loom is busily working the shuttlecock: working and reworking His design into the fabric of our blended lives - creating the tapestry that is The Story Of Us.

How To Weave On A Traditional Loom: 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLAUqpEi3kA)

This is how I see my Life unfolding. Elohim has already designed it, Yeshua is working the loom, and the Ruach HaKo'desh is the shuttlecock. My Life is a constant work in progress that will feel the push, shove, and paced fabric-building … until I take my last breath: I just live out the raw vertical warp (foundational threads of life = our core values, mission, and belief; warp threads have greater tension and strength, making them more stable) & the colorful fleshing-out horizontal weft (discovered elements = our experiences, choices, and learnings that shape our life's journey), as my Life Story is being built.

Right here, right now, in this moment, life is good.

I am blessed: truly.

Where my past life 5 years ago, was by and large barren of family connections following Bob's physical death … this new life, forged 2-1/2 years ago, is filling my life with new family connections (and so far they have all been good experiences coming from the Harris branch of Holland's family tree): though I have always been a gypsy, raised military and moving from pillar to post until I married my 1st husband and settled in one place for 18 years - and my new husband is indulging my 'wild at heart' recurring gypsy whims, he is also giving me roots; as he promised with his hand of friendship 3 years ago.

However, being a road gypsy was not something he would have done as a bachelor: he'd already done a lifetime of road travel and was ready to prop his feet up and settle down. Being a Road Gypsy is my dream life - he's gamely indulging me 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨; and I am thankful and appreciative. I couldn't have asked for a better traveling companion. But Elohim knew, and He provided. And I honestly do believe that Holland is relaxing enough now to enjoy our State hops: job pressures are off his shoulders, and retirement relaxation can be entered into 100% 😉

While a stationary home provides a physical anchor … roots are built through shared memories, traditions, and resilience, which are portable and can be created & enjoyed anywhere. Many road gypsies living a mobile lifestyle have found ways to cultivate a strong sense of family identity and belonging by either (1) forging strong friendships along their travels (2) traveling in a family or friend caravan (3) hooking up with relatives along their road gypsy route: this is Holland's preferred connection.

The Harris connection is a good & stable connection ❤️

His cousin Bruce Harris, will be coming to this part of CA sometime following Thanksgiving this year, & they plan to hook up and catch up on each other's lives since they were last together; he sounds like a fun fella. I'm glad for both of them that this year, the meet-up will actually happen.

Bruce has a bee business - and I managed to find a couple of online links about that:

{{Bad Year For Bees~Pollinator Populations Plummet

By BY EMERY COWAN, 2013

Bruce Harris is already expecting that at least a third of the 1,000 beehives he is hauling back from the almond groves of California's San Joaquin Valley won't survive until next year.

The Montezuma County beekeeper will soon begin dividing his 400 strongest hives to create enough new bee colonies to account for the losses he anticipates.

Farther east in La Plata County, first-year beekeeper Paula Nelson also has already seen losses when one of her two hives died late last fall.

"They never really flourished," Nelson said.

From commercial operations to hobbyists with only a few hives, beekeepers in southwest Colorado have not been immune to the bee die-offs sweeping the nation. And while losses have held steady at about 30 percent over the past several years, this year is looking worse.

The United States Department of Agriculture has yet to release its annual report about wintertime bee losses, but anecdotal information indicates losses are greater than last year, said Kim Kaplan, spokesperson with the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

"Anecdotally, and couched with all may's and might be's in world, we are seeing reports of very high losses over this past winter, higher than last winter," Kaplan said.

LOSSES DON'T DISCRIMINATE

Tina Sebestyen, founder of the Four Corners Beekeepers Association, said local beekeepers are reporting heavier losses than in years past.

"Losses that hobbyists experienced this winter seem different than usual," she said. "It really hasn't struck our beekeepers like this before."

Brad Milligin, a second generation beekeeper in the Lewis Arriola area and one of the biggest commercial beekeepers in the area, said he also has seen his bee losses climb a little bit this winter.

Harris said this year fell somewhere between poor and mediocre. Colonies within his hives were smaller, they weren't brooding as actively and they seemed less energetic when they were let out of the hives.

In general, losses were "a heck of a lot higher than normal," he said. "It must have something to do with last summer or last fall."

COLONY COLLAPSE

According to the USDA's 2012 report, about a third of winter colony losses are attributed to colony collapse disorder, which causes bees to mysteriously leave the hive, leaving the queen bee and honey inside. The definite cause continues to leave beekeepers stumped, although recent research is turning focus to a relatively new class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids as a potential contributor. The insecticides, which are absorbed and incorporated into plants, were first introduced into the market in 1991.

Last month a group of beekeepers, environmental and consumer groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend the use of two types of neonicotinoids. The chemicals make plants potentially toxic to insects, the groups said.

Factors like poor nutrition, pathogens, mites and cold weather are also a part of the bee die-off picture and could play a role in colony collapse disorder, Kaplan said. It's hard to say for sure though because these factors are known to cause wintertime dwindling - another malady affecting bees that causes more gradual die-offs within the hive rather than the sudden evacuation that defines colony collapse, Kaplan said.

Confusion about what differentiates colony collapse disorder from over-winter die-offs leads to "all sorts of misdiagnosis," said Bob Hammon, an entomology and agronomy extension agent with the Tri-River Area office near Grand Junction.

"People see it so much in the news that they automatically think colony collapse," Hammon said. "But the reality of situation is there are a lot of different things that can happen to beehives."

Milligin and Harris have seen everything from smaller colonies and weaker bees to hives that were completely deserted with honey still inside.

Both said they can only guess that a combination of factors - diseases, parasites, viruses, climate change - is causing bee populations to dwindle.

"We have pushed bees to the edge of what their little immune systems can handle," Milligin said.

Don Arnold, a Montrose beekeeper, is much more confident that pesticide spraying is killing the nation's honeybees. Officials in Emery County, Utah, where Arnold kept his bees, sprayed for mosquitoes in the summer of 2011. Within days, 278 of his 300 bee colonies were dead, Arnold said.

The threat posed by chemical spraying has discouraged him from trying to start anew, he said.

"It's a waste of time in the future to keep bees because the (pesticides and fungicides) are killing them faster than we can make them," he said.

BEE DIE-OFFS RIPPLE OUTWARD

Whatever the cause, the die-off is hurting beekeepers' profit margins, Milligin said. The price for transportation fuel, medicine and extra food, combined with a lower survival rate means the "price per hive has increased dramatically in the last several years," he said.

Honeybees do play a significant role in the nation's food supply, helping pollinate an estimated 25 percent of crops in the American diet. But many of Colorado's crops, and especially those in Southwest Colorado, don't require bees to reproduce.

Alfalfa, dry beans, grass hay and wheat are self-pollinated or are primarily pollinated by bees other than honeybees, Hammon said.

Almonds are a different story, depending entirely on honeybees for pollination. The continued growth of the multi-billion dollar industry guarantees a future for beekeepers nationwide. Whether or not commercial pesticide spraying impacts bee health, it's not likely that commercial beekeepers will soon halt their annual migration west. Revenue from pollination is a crucial, steady source of income as opposed to the variations honey production can bring, Harris said.

He estimated 75 percent of his income comes from renting his bees for pollination.

"As far as I'm concerned, pollinating almonds is only thing keeping the whole bee industry afloat," he said.

In a future with so many changing factors, one thing is for sure, he said.

"It's going to be survival of the fittest."}}

The Honey House Harris Bee's part 1: 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSKA_0m2Ns8)

The Honey House Harris Bee's Cortez Colorado: 

 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp2M81dxFa0)

Bruce's Honey House Cortez Colorado: 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3rkcvjSueg)

We are hoping to get to Florida this year, following Bruce's visit: bad weather and health concerns hampered us the past 2 years - but we think we can do it this year. God willing 🙏 🤞; Neither of us have been there, so it's an exciting anticipation we are praying about, and hoping unfolds happily with the celestial shuttlecock's activity.

Brownsville-TX from Coalinga-CA; 27 hr (1,829.0 mi)

As well as counting my many blessings, and daydreaming about sandy beaches & flamboyant flamingoes … I also did a full body workout of running back & forth, stretching & bending:  the approximate average calorie count of typical housecleaning activities was engaged all of today: Moderate housecleaning (laundry loads, mopping and sweeping, vacuuming): 150-200 calories per hour, & stripping and remaking beds for 30 minutes torches 187 calories if you weigh 125 pounds and a whopping 300 calories if you weigh 200 pounds; cooking (prep & cleanup, included): 30 minutes of basic cooking burns between 244 to 384 calories: I figure I burned 1,882 calories by day's end - which allotted me grace for my calorie-laden supper 😉

 Country style pork rib supper; my own spur-of-the-moment recipe.

VAL'S JUICY CROCKPOT COUNTRY STYLE RIB SUPPER: Coalinga-CA:

 (https://roadgypsiesvalandholland.blogspot.com/2025/09/vals-juicy-crockpot-country-style-rib.html)

Burning calories - 1 load at a time.