Gone, baby, gone

Here's my first lesson for 2009. Swarm control.
My bees swarmed on Easter. I was in the backyard and heard a really loud buzz, just like what I hear when I open the hive. Looking around, it was easy to find my girls up in the top of a tall, tall, pine tree in our woods. I knew they were mine. It was sad. I called the family out and we watched until they flew off.
I left the hive alone until yesterday. It was confirmed: there were way, way fewer bees and no brood. There was one large queen cell so hopefully she'll come on out and take care of business until I can requeen. Dwight Porter of Porter Farm Bees won't have available queens for another three weeks. Then I have to decide if I want to drive all the way there for one queen. I like the Russians, though. Might be worth it.
I also saw varroa mites (eeek!). I'll have to get back in there and try the powdered sugar technique to see if I can help them help themselves.
I talked to Richard of the Meck Bees group and he offered to have a swarm catcher call me the next time they go out. Then I could bring the swarm back to my hive and augment my population until my girls get going again. I would absolutely love to catch a swarm, just to say I did it :)

Trip to Florida

These are pictures from our trip to Gainesville and Tampa. I'll start first with a picture from Charlotte :)

We went to a Bobcats game with the Charlotte Gator Club. The Bobcats played the Knicks for whom David Lee, a former Gator, plays. We got into the arena early, watched the teams warm up, and got to meet David Lee.

This past weekend we went to the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Alex had a surprise for his boys!

We went to the Orange and Blue Game. Florida won! We sat in the student section and had a great time. Beautiful, slightly overcast day.

Ricky and Grandmamma hanging in the back seat!

This is Ricky's new baby. It was originally Alex's doll when he was born (that baby is older than most of us in the family...) but has been handed down to the next generation. Ricky buckles him up in the car and everything. We tried to see if his name was Muno but I don't think so.

This is called doughnut overload. Sad when you can't even finish your doughnut.

And if you're wondering why there aren't more candids of Robbie, it's because this is what you get when you try to take his picture.

Celebrating the Laptop

I'm sitting here on the porch drinking coffee and enjoying my fabuloso new laptop that Alex gave me for my birthday!! Since I can, I'll post a video of Ricky :)

Our Backyard Garden

We have been working hard this early spring to get our backyard going. Here's the latest picture....

OK, OK. You may have guessed that this is someone else's backyard. In fact, this is the Little Homestead in the City and my new inspiration for what we can do with our little patch of ground.

Alex and I built a 4' x 10' raised bed as our start. I have been adding compost material and topped it off with composted cow manure, sphagnum peat moss, and mushroom compost from our local Wallace Farms.

The mulch is a free delivery of wood chips from a local tree service that was cleaning out the woods in our neighborhood. I have mulched a lot of areas and still have a moderate mound of material left on the driveway. And it was just a half-load! Can't imagine what a full load would do to me!

I also made several ollas for improved, consistent irrigation. An olla is a clay pot that you bury to its neck and fill with water. You plant your plants right next to it and the roots reach out to the pot which releases water just as the soil dries. Ashamedly, I will admit that I finally went to Wal-Mart where the 6" pots were $1 each. The lowest price elsewhere I could find was at GardenRidge for $3. Darn those low prices.

My planting approach is based on square foot gardening. The idea is that you divide your planting space into 1' x 1' segments and then you plant a certain number of plants in each segment depending on the type of plant.

Dad came over and pulled out four of our u-g-l-y crepe myrtles and I planted needlepoint hollies in their place. It'll take a few years for them to get a decent size, but they look ok now and they will be great as an evergreen backdrop to our projects in time. Our neighbor has an amazing lawn and I never liked the idea that he had to drive up his driveway and see our life in progress. We may miss the myrtles at first but will be glad when we have some more permanent screening too.

I also removed the climbing rose bush that has engulfed everything nearby. It's a beast. In its place went trellised peas.

My front yard effort has been to remove the honeysuckle that has overgrown everything in our mailbox-side bed. It's so bad, I'm contemplating whacking the shrubs down to nibs so I can fully eradicate the honeysuckle. The abelias are all overgrown anyway; I just might really screw up their natural form if I go for it too hard. Now that it's fully spring, I'll have to wait until February. Not like the honeysuckle could get any worse, right?

Future plans for the back yard include a grape arbor and a second raised bed to be put into action this fall.

My friend Kate gave me the brilliant idea to put blueberry bushes in the front yard. I added five additional plants earlier this spring and the results on my older bush has been tremendous. They are all popping with future berries!

Home Alone

I am convinced that if we left Ricky home alone for a couple of weeks that he would be just fine. He can work the TV, climb to the top of the pantry and open the peanut butter, draw the water and take a bath, etc., etc. Here's a picture of what you get, though, when you leave him alone for just long enough to check your email....



















Bottomless with one - just one - shoe on and doing something bad under my bed. It looks like a dead body in this picture but it was actually a lively scene, whatever was happening under my bed.

Kitchen Update

Wanted to put the before and after pix of our kitchen. As always, it's not 100% but there's a lot that is finished. I have come to love the orange in the kitchen. It's definitely my color.

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After:

I'm in the market for a chandelier for the eating area and I need to figure out how to fix what's hanging on my walls there too. I relocated some key pieces and it's just not the same.

Nature, Taking Care of Business

I love my bees. They are so awesome and they do not need me. Not to feed them, not to clean up their poop, not to be their friend.

It was in the 60's today and they were flying so I figured it was my chance to whip up a sugar solution and see if I could help them not starve before spring. I got out there, put the sugar syrup in the feeder, and then stepped back to observe. Those little girls were bringing in pollen! On Feb 1!! I had heard a rumor that redbuds were blooming and that this might be a good year for honey but I didn't think my girls had it in them to go find it.

In this video, look for the bees flying around with giant yellow balls on their back legs. You can see it a couple of times. One girl flies in with some and then another one crawls out of the hive and back in.