Opening day of bee season

We took our little trek to the little city of Waldo to pick up our bees. If you mention Waldo around here you will elicit one of 2 responses. Either "did you try the fried bologna sandwich or, in reference to the children's book "Where's Waldo". To us though, Waldo means bees. So we were on the road at 5am and returned by 10- and these southern gals were installed in their Yankee home by 11. And the fried bologna sandwich cafe wasnt open yet!

Terror in my kitchen

I know I have been sounding rather brave with all my bee talk-but the truth is-I am not too fond of wasps or bumblebees or yellowjackets. So it was a bad moment when I came home from work and let the dog out and walked back into house to hear LOUD buzzing coming from my sweater. And attached to my sweater was the biggest,baddest yellow jacket in the world. I totally panicked and tried to remove my sweater without getting stung on my face. And that thing was MAD. I got my sweater off and bundled on floor with wasp inside and placed a bucket over it. Carefully sliding to door and outside where I sprayed wasp killer-not just sprayed either, but emptied a can on it and my sweater. And like Rasputin, it lived on. I wasn't stung either but it was not a pretty scene. In reality it was 30 times bigger than it appears in this pic.

Hab-bee-tat

Our new hive is getting the final touches. This one is going in our backyard so I thought it would be nice to make it attractive-and after that splendid roof that Dan built, I had to come up with something worthy. I just have to paint a few bees in flight and then pick up our bees next week!

Too tired to post

Today is week 2 of a running program I started. I could probably blame this on the heat but today's run is killing me. I may not get off this couch till my bee meeting tonite.

Apps

Apps have changed my life-and maybe not all in a good way----but they have really organized some aspects of my life. I now use a Gift App to organize birthday shopping, a Christmas App to finally fulfill my goal of a little shopping at a time throughout the year, a cycling App to log my biking miles, a running App to set up my running program and today----a menu planning App that even sets up shopping lists. It may be overwhelming to add my recipes so I plan on doing them a little at a time↗. .And what about the not so helpful Apps----Words with Friends! For someone like myself who works full time-I am in App heaven! I even use the Blogger App to enter a post. Here is a pic of a recipe I just entered-including a pic I took of the finishes product!

Caution-this post contains graphic images

Well it is now official-our bees are dead. We opened the hive and saw lots of dead bees-some were clustered as they should be in the winter-and some were doing tasks and frozen in time. We don't have an answer but can only clean up and carry on. We even identified the dead queen-with the white dot. I know they are just insects but we have grown to respect these hard working beings. It was especially sad to see the baby bees--frozen in death while still in their cells.

A new Collection

I started a new collection today-one I wish I had started when we were first married! Fiesta Ware! I have loved it since I was a teenager-all those beautiful colors. And since I need new everyday dishes to replace chipped ones-this is what I'm going with. The only problem is were so many color choices, I couldn't narrow it down. And yes that is a St Patrick's day tree in the background.

The Roofer is in

Our new colony of bees are going to have the best looking beehive in the neighborhood-----actually they are going to have the only hive in the neighborhood. And my husband is busy adding the cedar shingled roof. Nothing but the best for our girls!

Window View

Some people question why I have a lilac tree obstructing my kitchen window view in the summer. Well-it's because in the Winter we have created a bird haven. And visitors include the purple finches, dark eyes junkos, the pictured woodpecker-----and squirrels who go to great lengths to steal the food.

Bee update

I am not sure of I posted this but for the last several weeks it appeared that our bees were dead-no dead bees at opening and no buzzing when we press our ear to hive. But we couldn't peek in because it was too cold and in case they were alive we didn't want to shock them. We are keeping our fingers crossed though! Last Wednesday I did see some dead bees at entrance so that is a good sign! We went to the Ohio State beekeeping conference this weekend and are heading home with a lot of information I wish I was heading home with this cozy looking hive though!

On the Road again!

My bags are packed-bee slippers and all and we are headed to a beekeeping convention! Vendors,seminars and all. And not only that but one vendor is bringing my new bee hive.