It was teeth and dental tools; now it’s cows and bees

Jerry Jupina

By RAY WYCHE
Staff Writer

Jerry Jupina spent most of his working life dealing with people’s teeth and the dentists’ tools that, along with Jupina’s skills, kept those teeth in good condition.

Now he spends his time tending to his five hives of bees and his two Black Angus heifers on his 10 acres of pastureland next to Smyrna Baptist Church northwest of Whiteville.

Jupina’s change in lifestyle is not exactly the classic venture into homesteading and subsistence living off the land that many busy middle-aged people dream about. He and his wife Bonnie live in a modern home in High Orchard near Whiteville; his 10-acre pasture (plus about three acres of adjoining swampland) gives him the opportunity to use his considerable skills and provides healthful physical labor by taking care of his bees and cows.

Jupina, a native of Pennsylvania, spent most of his working life in California where he worked as a registered dental hygienist.

“I was a dental hygienist but I did several other things in dentistry,” he says.

One of the other things came about with the advent of the AIDs outbreak worldwide; dentists, along with everyone connected with medical procedures involving the human body, took new, stringent steps in sanitation. For dentists, this meant autoclaving – sterilizing with pressurized steam – their instruments after each use.

“They had to autoclave their handpieces,” as well as all instruments that went into patients’ mouths, Jupina says. Handpieces include the intricate drills and other hand-held devices. The instrument sterilization in the superheated steam of an autoclave resulted in damages, particularly in bearings, of the instruments and Jupina soon found himself replacing bearings and handling other repair work on the complex implements.

Even in retirement, he says he does “a little” repair work on dental instruments, but most of his time now is spent with his cows and bees and in volunteer work at his church, Sacred Heart Roman Catholic in Whiteville.

From the highly skilled work of repairing handpieces, Jupina went into sales of instruments to dentists and dental hygienists until his retirement in 1998.

Upon retirement, the Jupinas bought a motor home and took a leisurely tour of the country.

“We traveled all over the United States,” he says.

The Jupinas lived in Livermore, Calif., about 40 miles east of San Francisco. With their home in Livermore as well as one in the Sierra mountains, Jupina learned to handle little repair jobs himself.

“I’m kind of a handyman. I basically took care of the two houses in California. I was the carpenter, electrician and plumber. I can do the little jobs.”

His building skills are evident in the neat barn he has built on his Smyrna farm, as well as in the fences and loafing shed for his two heifers; he did all the construction except for pouring the concrete floor. He handled one homesteading chore that most homesteaders hire out: he put down his own water well by the old fashioned method of driving steel pipe into the ground with a sledge hammer. The well is 28 feet deep and furnishes water enough for his heifers, he says.

The well-drilling operation occurred during a summer of 100-degree plus heat, Jupina says. He says he would hammer on the pipe for a while and rest in the shade of an umbrella for a while.

Jupina moved his bee operation from his backyard to his farm.

“The five hives are enough for me. I’ve been in this for two years and I’ve taken honey four times,” he says.

When it came time to settle down after the motor home traveling the Jupinas chose the Whiteville area, home of their daughter Vicki, her husband Dr. .Jim Dimuzio and their two daughters and one son.

“We wanted to watch our grandchildren grow up,” he says.

The limited farming also played a part in the decision.

”That’s something I’ve always thought about doing,” Jupina says.

His two heifers have been bred, so Jupina’s herd may increase.

“If they (the calves) are female, I’ll keep them.”

His bee hives may increase also. He does not sell his honey but gives it to friends and neighbors. Jupina’s rewards come from his church volunteer work, and tending to his bees and his cows.

“I’m out here every day with my cows and bees. That’s enough for me. This is fun,” he says.