In the Last Month...

I made lemon meringue pie - yum!


We visited Stonehenge gorge style.


I made a few messes.


Planted some melons.


Made baklava with our honey.


Planted a flower box for the chicken coop. Last night a neighbor girl knocked on our door and wanted to know if we wanted to be featured in Hood River's Tour de Coop. I got pretty excited! It'll be May 7th, they usually feature 10 or so coops.



Watched our tomatoes grow bigger. I should have put them outside sooner though, they are having a hard time with all the wind here.


Planted a flat (oops) of green and purple basil. We may have some to share!


Watched our peppers grow - 3 flats :) Lots of hot sauce this year.


I also have a flat of cabbage, broccoli and artichokes going. They too are having a hard time with all this wind. Next year I know to put them out when they are younger. We decided not to get chicks this year :( There is just too much going on with the wedding and the garden and not knowing where we will be living for sure in a year. Relocating 5 chickens is one thing, 15 (and a bigger coop) is another. But someday we will definitely be raising babies and more food for ourselves and friends.

Grandpa Turns 90

Yesterday was kind of a big deal. Aaron's grandpa turned 90. Several family members surprised him by showing up, which was good because a few days ago he commented that he didn't think anyone was going to visit him. He was thrilled to have all the attention and said "I wish I turned 90 everyday!" He loves his family and is still sharp as a tack.
We made the trek to Union - don't know where that is? It's near La Grande, 2 hours from Idaho. It was a beautiful day and an easy straight shot drive.


People came and went, but here was the dinner crew.


Grandma and Grandpa eating birthday dinner. Normally Grandpa eats a big bowl of ice cream for lunch. I'm not kidding. They drink one small beer (that they brewed) with dinner every day as well.


I got to meet Aaron's Aunt Sandi, she was delightful. This is Aaron's mom's sister, these two got a little riled up during dinner.



It was pretty funny.
Grandpa opening a present:


Sandi made him a beautiful quilt.


So Aaron doesn't see the resemblance, but I'll let you be the judge:



Family picture


Happy birthday Grandpa! We love going to visit them when we can and always have a nice time. These two have so much energy, they still split their own wood and grow a big garden every year. I hope to be in half as good of shape when I hit 70.

The White Hive

I was in Portland last week for a dental convention, and on my way home Friday I picked up 3 pounds of Italian honeybees and 1 mated queen. I rushed home, so we could get them in their hive before dark. It's not the ideal time to play with bees, but they had been in this box for 3 days, and we wanted to set them free. Bees put off a lot of heat, in fact when I put my hand to the side of the box I could feel heat pouring off of them. I put them on the floor of my car with the AC on and listened to them to gauge their comfort. Calm and quiet when they are the right temperature, loud and frantic when they are too hot. Their comfortable was a bit chilly for me, but I toughed it out.


We loaded everything up into the Subaru.


Getting set up


We quickly slipped the queen out. She comes in a cage, and the bees keep her fed. She was rather unhappy in that cage and ran back and forth. Here's where we messed up. There are so many ways you can install packaged bees. The man at the bee supply store gave me a mini marshmallow and a thumb tack and told me to remove the cork from the queen cage, fill it with a marshmallow and tack her to the top of a frame. Well the tack bent almost immediately and we said to hell with it and put her on the bottom in her cage with the marshmallow plug (the bees eat through it and release her). You can release a queen on the bottom, but generally you don't leave her in her cage. I was paranoid that she would fly off, so I didn't want to just release her. But the bottom of the hive is an open screen and it got down to freezing that night. They are acting fine, but we will have to open them when the weather cooperates to make sure she is there and laying eggs and didn't get chilled and die. We opened the hive two days later and removed the queen cage, it was empty. That doesn't mean she lived...just that they got the cage open and either released her or disposed of her body. What we should have done is left her up higher where the bees would cluster around her and keep her warm.


It was hard getting that can out to release the bees. He gave the cage a solid thwap against the hive stand to get the bees to drop.


Then dumped everyone in.



He replaced the missing frames and we sealed them up. It was quite a mess of angry bees flying around at first, but within 10 minutes 99% of the bees were inside and settled. Some stayed in the box so Aaron dumped them on the grass and gave them a plank to walk up.


The next day we checked the top feeder to make sure they were eating. They weren't. We had planned on adding a few frames of honey from another hive the next day, but the weather forecast was off. I was worried they would starve with no honey, no sugar water and rainy weather. We decided to sneak some frames of honey in and check the queen cage, because we realized we had not done the right thing. It was at that point we found the empty cage and after we opened them (quickly - it's best not to disturb a new hive for at least a week) that they started feeding and going out to forage. They seem to be doing well now, but I'm anxious to see how they are doing and if there is a queen in there.

Eggs!

What do you do when you are getting a dozen eggs roughly every 3 days? Make quiche! I cooked up some bacon, sauteed some leeks, onions and mushrooms. Then added some asparagus, broccoli and cheddar.


I used about 14 eggs for two quiches, although Camilla's eggs are really only like half eggs. Science lesson for the day: Have you ever noticed the white spots on egg yolks? You can see them on the top right egg and the bottom egg if you blow the picture up. That is called the blastodisc and is where all the hen's genetic material is stored. You can learn more about egg anatomy here: Egg lesson



I enlisted my favorite pie crust maker - because I hate rolling out pie crust.


Then baked them up. So delicious and satisfying!

New Hive

We are getting new bees in a few days from Ruhl Bee Supply in Gladstone. We originally ordered them to supplement our hive that didn't do well after the move. We had several options as far as combining, moving, but we decided to give them their own new hive. I think our weak hive is healthy as far as disease, their numbers just got knocked way down. So we decided to let them bounce back on their own. Last night we built the westerns and a nuc box we got last year. The nuc box is good for a recently caught swarm or a small hive. I didn't get any pictures of it, but it's basically just a small hive that holds 5 frames.
The westerns come in 4 pieces. Aaron uses wood glue (Gorilla brand - it's non-toxic) around the dove tails.


Then fits the corners together


Pounds them in place with a hammer, or his hands.


Pre-drills holes in each dove tail


Then nails them together.


That's it, easy! Building the frames is a bit more involved and tedious. We have enough for these new bees, but will have to make a bunch more soon once the bees get going. There are finally flowers open here, we are 2-3 weeks behind the valley, but it's cold and rainy, so no bees going out. I hope the weather clears up soon, it's not good for the trees or the bees when the flowers get washed away by rain before they can be pollinated.

My painting project for the day!

Old Keys

It's been a while since I posted. I have been meaning to blog, but haven't gotten around to it. In the mean time just a quick post, if you have old keys laying (lying?) around your house that you aren't using, you can mail them to:

Keys for Kindness

PO Box 201

Pearl River, NY 10965

They scrap the metal and use the money for MS research. More here.

De-clutter your house, keep useful metal out of the landfill and help a good cause.