busy bees

no
I really mean busy {wink}

I found this little guy hanging on my laundry line.

I realize now, that you can't tell how little he was with my digital macro camera shot.

A baby bee? I think so. Yippee!

We've been really busy so I'll just post a few of the great things happening around here.

We held our garage sale & cleaning out ton of space in the basement.

We took some of that space & organized all the canning jars.

Alittle Martha Stewart-ish but now I'll know when I need more jars (before running out in the middle of making jam & having to make a Walmart run).
We even had space for a peg board. I plan on using it to dry my herbs & store seeds.

That is until the cats find it.

And last but not least, I decided to take a few loofah plants out of the fish tank since they were trying to vine to my other seedlings.

I hope they do well. This plant here is about the size the loofah plants I had last year were in August {hence~ no loofah's} I hope I started them early enough & it stays warm for them. Otherwise I'll be tucking them in for the night. {I've only had to do it once this Spring}

Enjoy the day!

best Mother's Day ever

so yesterday we went on a road trip

not too far away. Just enough for me to get most of another dish cloth knitted.

I can now say I have FINALLY been to Ikea!

And

well...

it was awesome (I'm such a dork!)

Here's the kids and I walking through. Yes, the loaded cart on the right is OURS! The kids thought we'd have to get another but I was afraid we would just fill it like the first so I limited our shopping to one cart.

I SO wanted to buy one of these pineapple plants. But I really needed the cart space for other things. I did find twin flat sheets (for $2.99! gasp) in the exact blue of the wall in our living room. I bought 2 so I can make them into curtains!Not the best pic but this is the trunk of my car filled to the top. The colors in the middle are of the new fabric I bought. Did you know Ikea sells fabric? AND it was on sale!

Best time.

I'm thinking it might become a yearly event.

Hope you enjoyed yours!

I wanna grow something wild and unruly

Garbanzo beans

Lavender

Roma Tomatoes

Sweet Basil

snobs

as in Queen snobs.

It seems our 2 queens weren't quite ready to give up their first class accommodations.

We moved the hives in a sunnier spot in the yard hoping to make them more comfortable.

Here's Matt opening up their chamber to make them move out.

And it's not as if they don't have super deluxe comforts awaiting them.

Team Green has been working overtime! Check out how they tidied up the place for their queen:

Can you see some of that fresh comb in the right corner of the wood?

Here's Matt trying to point out "Queen Green". I saw her when I took the picture but now it's hard to see. She has a black spot on her back, no black stripes, & a longer abdomen. Kind of reminds you of "I Spy" books, huh?

Couldn't help myself taking a pic of the new beekeeper framed by trees in natural sunlight.

Picture perfect.

Matt is playing Mr. Mom tonight. Off to dance class & then to BMX sign ups. I'm off to a PTA conference.

Busy bees, busy kids, busy week. Enjoy!

Day 2

So here's the bees on Day 2. The sun came out this afternoon and they started moving around. We have decided to name the queens "Queen Red and "Queen Green" based on the color of the hive top. It's been really exciting so far!

Yesterday {in all the excitement of the bee delivery} I forgot to wish you all a very Happy National Scrapbooking Day! I spent my time over at Tallyscrapper where everyone is so nice.

Here's a new layout for you:

20,000 bees

So we had 20,000 bees in the back of my car today. Matt & Gavin went to pick them up.
Oh~ 20,002 bees. I forgot our our 2 queen bees! Oops!



The bees seemed very calm during their trip. They traveled all night from Georgia and arrived in NY at 2 this morning.

Matt opened the bee containers to take out the queen's special chamber.

She likes "first class".

After the queens were settled into their new homes, it was time for the rest to move in.

Here's Gavin watching Matt put the feeding tray on top of the hive:

We added a feeder tray of sugar water since there are so few flowers in bloom at the moment.

Who looks hot in a white jumpsuit? Oops~ back to the bees...

Here they are moving into their new home. They seem to have settled in nicely. In fact, when Matt checked on them they turned their backs to him and started humming.

Good job bees protecting your queen!

I can't figure out how to turn this video clip so turn your head to the side & enjoy!

Tami said...
that is so cool. why did you get the bees from GA though?

The bee supply company near us (in NY) buys them from a company that raises them in Georgia.

photo challenge

So I ran out of scrapbooking adhesive 2 days ago.

It's been so long, I didn't even think to see how many refills I had left.

Instead,

I've been working on the different functions of my camera.

I entered a photo challenge over at Tallyscrapper.

It was about an abstract image.

Come to find out my camera has a "digital macro" setting (it's a flower with a "D" in it).

I practiced a few times and here's what I got:

The last two pictures are of my great northern bean seeds sprouting. Below is what they look like from normal view.

Pretty neat, huh?