Projects

Here is our little truck LOADED down with our supplies for various projects! It has many sheets of plywood and lots of 2x4s as the base, then five rolls of 5 ft "field" fencing, 2 or 3 rolls of garden fencing, 30 garden posts (short) and 60 6 ft "t" posts, 5 or 6 "hog" panels, and I'm sure I'm forgetting what all else. It was a lot!! Poor truck.
Then the boys got to help us unload it all!
Than coached both Lee and Max while they unloaded, helping them find the best method for carrying boards several times their height. He's such a good big brother, mostly......

Max is always proud to help!

My Handsome Guys

The boys decided that they wanted to wear suits to church consistantly. I've had a couple of suits hanging in the closet, one was waiting for Than to get big enough to wear it. Well, it seems I missed that stage! His wrists stuck out a mile when he tried it on! So Collin is wearing it. Mom still had a couple of Dad's suits and had Than try one one. We were both suprised that they fit! Lee and Jayden also have suits, but they weren't in them when I took this picture. So here are Than and Collin.



And then Brent with Than and Collin.

This picture really shows how tall Than is getting. Of course he's taller than me now, and looks like he's going to be as tall or taller than his Dad when he's done growing.

bzzzzzzzz

I have really fond memories of growing up with my Grandfather (my Mom's Dad) and my Dad having bees. My Grandfather had bees for as long as I can remember, up until he passed away. I can remember attending the Oregon State Fair, where he was exhibiting his bees and honey and trying to locate the queen in his display. I can also remember extracting honey with my Dad and can remember the scent of wax and honey when we did that.

So I mentioned to my Mom about some hives down the road and how they looked as if they hadn't been attended in bit. So she asked the farmer across from the field whose hives they were. And from there we ended up purchasing two hives and two packages of bees from "the Honey Lady". She sells her honey at the local Farmer's Markets.

The bees showed up on Sunday, so I picked up the hives and the bees Sunday afternoon. And then I got to apply theory to action. I have great memories of honey bees as a child, and no experience as an adult!

The bees are shipped in a wire cage, with a can of sugar solution that acts as the stopper to their cage too. The queen is also in the cage, but she's in her own little wire cage, within the main cage.

Aren't they beautiful!!

I originally had Than with me when I picked up the bees, but found out that Than is not real fond of bees. So I swapped kids on the way back and Collin joined me to help put the hives together and install the bees. Here we're unloading the supers.



We set them up on a pallet under a crab apple tree that I remodeled on Sat. (see Mom's blog)

Collin was a great help.

Here he's putting grass in the entrance, this slows the bees down the first 24 hrs so that they don't all just fly away as soon as I put them in the hive!

The hives are used, the lady's bees disappeared for some unknown reason. So she sold me two hives with frames. Here we're checking the frames to see what all is one them. She gave me several frames loaded with honey, so I don't have to worry about feeding them supplemental sugar water while they're getting established.

This is one of the frames loaded with honey.

And now it's time to put theory in action.....you spray the bees while they're in the package with sugar water, which keeps them from flying when you put them in the hive.

So guys are your ready? Hmmmm......I think they look wet enough........here goes.......

Here I'm pulling the can out so I can dump the bees into the hive.

The lady said that you can really spray them down and really bang on the cage to get them out. Sounds easy doesn't it? Yeah, not so much. Here I'm trying to get last ones out...

It didn't go so well.....but the good news is that they eventually left on their own later. Here I'm sliding the queen's cage out of the package.

Here's a close up of the queen's cage. The workers chew their way through a candy cork and release her, once they're installed in the hive. I hang the cage inside the hive and they take it from there. I hope....

One down, one to go.....

Here are the bees, installed in the hive, before I add the last frames to close up the hive.

One last look.....

And we're done. For the moment. Tomorrow I get to open up the hive and see if all went as planned and the queen is out of her cage and the bees are doing OK. Then every ten days, if all is going well, I get to check on them for the next month or so.

Then the end plan is that we'll be able to pull some honey this fall and enjoy it this winter. I'll keep you posted.

swim party

a boy's best friend

Collin and Jayden did this photo shoot. I guess Jayden woke up and was a bit chilly, so he cuddled into Briston. Then Collin came along and here are the results. I'll add that Collin and Lee took the pictures of the baby goats previously posted. They love to take pictures.



In the next picture I thought Briston had swallowed his head!!

I love this next picture. I might even love it enough to motivate and print it out and frame it.

Briston is such a love. He'll probably end up staying with us. There are currently two St. Bs looking for new homes on craigslist. So the odds of finding him another home probably aren't real high at the moment. Oh well, he's cute and he's growing on me....... And poor Jayden has to stay warm somehow!

Easter

We had a very nice Easter. Here is the loot. All the boys got fishing poles, and so did Grandma and Brent. I opted for a book, silly me. They are going out as I write to practice their casting. We were supposed to be going fishing for FHE (Family Home Evening), however it's 32 degrees factoring in the windchill and it's WINDY. So no fishing, but we'll let them play with their poles a bit anyway.



These next few pictures are just too neat and tidy. I can't believe we could dye eggs so neatly and so calmly! We asked the older kids to wait until we were done with the younger two, then they could go at their own pace and more easily do as they wanted. So they did that and I couldn't believe the difference! Amazing.

Brent borrowed a couple of Lee's eggs to decorate. Next year I'm going to have to do up a dozen eggs for him too! We also heard from some friends that used our brown eggs for dying that they work beautifully and so we'll be trying the brown eggs ourselves next year.

I hope everyone had a beautiful Easter.

Happy Easter

Collin snapped some pictures of Jayden cuddling with Briston. Here's one to tide you over until I can get more pictures loaded.

pictures and nothing else......