TIME FOR ANOTHER SOAP SWAP

I am very happy to have some of the best soaping friends. Over the years we have managed to stay connected thanks to blogging, Facebook, and email, plus come together for the occasional soap swap. Some of us have met in person and some have yet to do so but I feel fortunate to be linked to such a great group of women. This time around we are swapping a soap of any color, fragrance, packaging, etc... so I am busy making soap, trying to decide which scent and design of soap I will settle on. Can't wait to see what my creative friends come up with and then, of course, to post picture of all the goodies. 

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BEEKEEPING, NOT AS EASY AS IT LOOKS

Ok, one thing I promised myself is that when blogging about beekeeping I would be totally honest. I wouldn't make it look easy when it was hard, fun if it was boring, enlightening if it was just plain stupid. So here it goes...

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KNOW YOUR BEE STINGS

My husband endured several bee stings recently and I documented his experience so that I could share it with others. I found it fascinating that every person we came in contact with who saw the results of the bee stings asked two questions (1) If we were going to seek medical attention and (2) If we were going to stop

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SAD DAY FOR THE BEEKEEPER IN ME

Today is awful. I came to the realization that splitting the hive is impossible. Thanks to the sloppy job done by the landscaper and his inability to fix the mess until two weeks from now we are left with soggy soil which means when I walk out to my hive I sink calf length in mud. With no stable ground to stand on

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WILL THE LANDSCAPER FIX THIS? OR DARE I WONDER, IS OUR BEEKEEPING VENTURE DONE?

Hard to imagine that within hours of "fixing" our backyard water issues the yard is once again flooded. After going to bed with this:

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LANDSCAPING, ISN'T IT FUN!

Our water issues are solved... at least I hope so. This is the first time we've ever used a landscaper and I'm glad we did. Since we moved into our home the backyard has been one big pain after another. First we had to remove numerous dead trees and way too many buckthorn to count, second was the rock. Rock, rock,

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BEE PACKAGE INSTALLATION

Today we received a new package of bees. At around 4 pm we did the install into the new hive. The process goes like this:

First, you spray the sides of the bee package with 1:1 sugar syrup. This helps calm the bees down so they don't go flying all over the place when you dump them into the hive. Then you give the cage a little bonk to knock all of the bees off of the feeder can so it can be removed.

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