Adventures in Beekeeping

 So I thought I would post some pictures of our beekeeping adventures. Jason and I are learning a ton, bees are really cool! But they are unpredictable and beekeeping is an art and a science. There are a lot of different opinions about how and why to do different things with your bees. You kind of just have to jump in and get started and figure things out as you go.

This is our first swarm. Sigh. No idea why. I had a camp out for the yw in our woods this weekend. Just as we were coming back to the house Saturday the kids ran up and said that there was a whole swarm of bees by the garden. I of course, totally thought they were exaggerating. But they were right, there was a swarm that luckily settled in a tree right by our garden. You can't know for sure why bees swarm. We suspect maybe the queen for this hive was just weak. But we really don't know.

 Our friend Peter Lindsay was over helping with the camp out while Jason was at soccer. He was super interested and wanted to help. Luckily we still had the boxes we brought the bees from the farm in. Jason climbed up and gave the branch a good knock and they fell back in. We did this a few times to get as many as we could. Luckily bees fill up with honey before they swarm and are super mellow. No one got stung and bees were everywhere. I had a few fly right into my forehead and bonk off. It was funny.

This is Luke and Jason adding frames to the "new" hive. So far everyone is ok with their new homes and we now have 3 hives. The down side is that we won't be able to harvest from the 2 small ones. But I am soooo glad we got all those bees back.

Abby and Grace picked the whole row of peas and then shelled them for dinner. There was actually a few cups of peas to be eaten!

We have honeysuckle! Walking outside and having the air smell of flowers is one of my favorite things about spring in NC. I have been eyeing honeysuckle growing wild in different places and devising ways to transplant it to our property. On Friday I was working in the back yard and our resident hawk dove at the chickens. Luckily they were right on the edge of the woods and took cover quickly. I ran over yelling and waving my arms to try to scare the hawk,  I'm sure I was super menacing...and saw 2 huge trees full of honeysuckle! Makes me so happy! The kids stayed up late last night trying to catch fire flies. No success, they were all up really high. But it was fun.



Having chickens has been more fun then expected. They are funny and silly and run with a super awkward comical gait all over the place. This fearless girl is Pheobe. She gets into everything. Here she is up in the cherry tree. The cats were not happy about it. The tree is a refuge to them, they are scared of the chickens.

 Summerfield's Founders Day celebration was this weekend. The boys had soccer early so the girls and Jason went to the parade and we met them there. We only saw the end, but a good parade is still fun. Grocery bags full of candy from this parade has spoiled my kids. They get soooo much! It is fun to go to a old fashioned celebration filled with friends and people you know.

 

Wristbands are super cheap so the kids rode rides to their hearts content. At the end of the day the girls decided they wanted to ride this little kid coaster. They giggled the whole time, Gracie being embarrassed I was taking her pic on it I think is hilarious. All of the kids did the loop to loop ride that goes upside down. Grace and Luke were done with one time. Noah went like 7 times, Sophie joined him a few times. After her first ride I asked how it was. Her response - appropriately terrifying. Then she promptly went again.

My favorite part of Founders Day this year was one of our local police force joining in on a line dance led by a kid on stilts. She was getting down and having a great time. I thought it was awesome. Maybe in another life I will have the rhythm and grace to be able to dance.

Updates -

Quinn gave this saddle to Grace. She cleaned it up and oiled it and it really looks beautiful! 

 This is the stronger of our two hives. This one has stored enough honey for the winter and know the bees are making honey for us to harvest!

Sophie getting a special award from Mrs. Walsh at school. 

A Decade of Sophie & Grace

It is so hard to believe my girls are 10!

 Sophie's mustache cake was tie dyed inside all colors. It turned out really cute. I was surprised that it still tasted good with all of the food coloring I used! Grace chose an ice cream chocolate dirt cake, complete with worms. The fluffy pillows are courtesy of Noah. He actually had me buy them so he could stay home and play minecraft,j( he had gotten his homework, jobs and piano done) but they were from him. Luke provided a nail decorating kit and  new soccer ball. Sophie's big gifts were her new glasses, which of course she picked out. She also go her ears pierced finally. She has been asking for a few years now. Grace's big gift was a bow and she also got a bathrobe of her own. Somehow seems funny now I write it. We gave her a super dangerous, yet made for kids, weapon and a fuzzy pink robe...We all laughed at Sophie, she blew and blew and still couldn't blow out her candles. Not trick ones, just good old regular candles. Happy Birthday to my sweet girls! My life is so blessed with them as my daughters.

 

Bees, Eggs and a Dirtbike

 We got our first 2 eggs this weekend! One on Saturday and one on Sunday. It is almost silly how excited we all were! Grace and Sophie were at their first soccer game of the season. Jason stayed home to work on some things and he called to tell us about the egg during the game! Also to ask us to bring home ice cream...

We finally received the parts to get the dirt bike running. The boys rode it constantly all weekend. The girls are not as interested yet. Their friend Abby rode a bunch when she was over to play though.  She also came with us to pick up our bees from Brushy Mountain. We now have 2 bee hives! So exciting! I was not worried at all about working with them. Having a full suit on with veil and gloves I am sure helped. After we picked up our nuc boxes and were pulling back onto the road we passed a small family cemetery. Grace asked if that is were they bury people we got stung! Already the kids are getting more used to the bees. We did get a child suit too, so it helps that they get to see and help with the hives so far. Of course there is a ton of fighting because there is only one suit.

Easter 2014

Happy Easter!

 It was cold and a bit gray this morning. So I am glad I took these pictures last Sunday! I knew our cherry tree blossoms would not last until Easter morning. The snowball bushes smell wonderful! I am so surprised, I have never had any before, they smell a lot like lilacs. Our whole yard has smelled like flowers for the past week.

Our cherry in all its glory. And Sophie looking infinitely cuter for church then her mom. Sadie and the chickens in the picture show what our backyard really does look like most of the time.

Camp Yellow Violet

It was the kids Spring Break the end of this week and we decided to take them on our first family backpacking trip. We hiked to a back country campground about a mile and half into South Mountains State Park. There were wild yellow violets all around our campsite. Grace was more excited then I was. We have only seen them one other time. I did not even know violets could be yellow until a hike a few years back here in NC. The kids called named our site Camp Yellow Violet, and their rock climbing club had the same name.

 I was hoping the hike up would have been less steep, but it was such a beautiful day and the kids were so excited, it turned out ok. The last bit up and over this water fall was tough. But everyone was proud to say they had climbed a mountain! Grace kept singing a Kelly Clarkson song to herself and to cheer us on, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger..." This time of spring the redbud and dogwood are blooming. You can see some redbud above Jason's head in this picture. It so beautiful to me to have forests that bloom!

High Shoals Falls

Luke and Noah have been learning about rocks and minerals in science the past few weeks. They kept teaching all of us things as we hiked, it was fun. The falls in on Shinny creek, pronounced Shiny, why it is spelled that way is a wonder, anyway, there was a ton of mica in it. The boys kept finding pieces large enough to flake apart with your fingernails and the sand was glittery.

 

 Happy 43rd Birthday to me! Jason snuck some cupcakes in his pack!

 I got some great pictures of my kids. I am not a pro but I am happy with how these turned out.

Grace made herself a trap and tried to catch a fish. No luck. But she had fun!

 Poor Luke. He has 2 teeth so loose they are hard to eat with, but he won't let us pull them. Well, actually I have tried and I honestly can't get either one out.

It's too bad Sophie did not wear this barrette the whole trip. Jason taught the kids to make fire with a flint and steel and she burned off part of an eyebrow and some of her hair! She didn't get burned though and laughed about it. Later Grace caught some of her hair on fire too. Makes Jason and I sound like super lame parents, we were both there close when it happened. No one got hurt though!

Both of these wildflowers I have never seen before. The top one looked like a stiped calla lily and the bottom ones are a deep red trillium. My picture does not do justice to how beautiful they are! I thought trillium were just white. I will have to find out more about these!

Friday night it started to rain so we played Go Fish and Old Maid in the bigger of the 2 tents. By bedtime it was pouring. When we left Thursday there was not supposed to be any rain but we got NC'd. It rained all night long. This is the girls in the morning bored and cold and not at all excited about packing up and hiking out in the rain.

The kids did super well. We were all wet, dirty and cold when we got down to the car and it was kind of a bummer to end the trip that way. Especially for me since that meant coming home to dry stuff out along with cleaning and putting things away. But it was ok. The kids helped a lot and then we dyed Easter eggs. Jason's tent was so dirty he had to rinse it off with the hose! It leaked pretty badly too. Sadly I think it may have reached the end of it's tent life. Sad. So many adventures in that tent, including Jason and I deciding to get married.

I got THE BEST surprise when we came home. Quinn was watching Molly and feeding the other animals. She and her kids totally cleaned our whole house as a bday present and then she left super yummy gelato in the freezer for me! And some hot sauce that she says is really yummy. I was soooooo happy and surprised! Molly had so much fun at Quinn's, and was played with so much, she totally crashed when we got home! I am glad we didn't bring her. Wet dirty dog may have been more then I could handle today.

Women's Conference

We went out the eat with the Cobia's before Women's Conference. Grace and Sophie were super excited to dress up and go the the church to watch together. I love that Jen and her kids are so crazy and fun. We seem so tame when we hang out with them! Around the table are Emiline, Leslie, Mariah, Alena, Jen, Sophie and Grace.