heylucy

vacation report II

We found a patch of wild strawberries:

Took some pictures by an old, abandoned cabin (this is one of my brothers and his pretty family):

Stopped in Idaho City for lunch and visited this crazy place:

vacation report I

Here's what I've done so far. Made some cupcakes for a mini-shower for my sister, with the help from two sisters-in-law:

Filmed my brother playing a new song in the bathtub. The flashes are me, taking pictures. I get to be a guest on his podcast later this weekend.

UPDATE: Okay, Cary took his video off YouTube, so I'll have to load it myself, but I'm headed for the mountains this morning. I'll re-post it when I get back! In the meantime, enjoy a cute puppy!

fabric collage

I'm getting ready to go visit family on Thursday, so this will be quick. I decided that my laptop needed a sleeve for my travels, so I can stick it in my new little rolling carry-on, rather than lugging it around in the abnormally heavy laptop case that I usually use. I was inspired by one of my favorite Japanese Patchwork books to do a little collage-y kind of thing on linen.

I added a layer of batting and quilted it, now I just have to fold it in half and sew it up. Of course I'll share when it's all done. I picked some flowers this morning, and the lavender was positively buzzing with bees!

I also finished up the little kimono for the baby that arrived today! That story is for my sister to share, and I hope to see pictures soon.

Free Cary Judd Music from trueAnthem!

dog number 3

We got a new dog this weekend. His name is Winston. We traded in the old model for the sleek newly re-designed model.

Okay, we don't actually have three dogs, Winston just got a haircut. Look at that skinny little tail! He's still recovering from the trauma, but I think he feels a lot better. I know he's not as hot as he was before with all that fur, because he slept next to me almost the whole night. I think he might even be a little chilly. The poor little guy had so many stickers from the weeds in our yard stuck in his belly, and he was starting to get some mats in his fur that I couldn't comb through. I think I spent hours this past week pulling out the stickers and trying to brush out the knots. I finally had to admit defeat, and take him in for a shave. Bear didn't recognize him when we first got out of the car last night. I think he's still not too sure who the strange new dog is.

I decided to take a break from the garden this weekend, since I'm currently frustrated by the two (out of four) dead tomato plants, two dead peppers and two dead zucchini plants. I mean, come on, anyone can grow zucchini, they're practically weeds. Apparently I can't grow them. I'm not sure what is going on. Something has been digging around in my raised bed, and the dead plants look as if they've been sprayed with something. They're not even next to each other. It's too weird. I am taking measures, however, to try and protect everything else. I bought some rue and coleus, which are repellent to cats, and I've got some garlic to plant, which should repel gophers and other rodents. I'm not giving up, although my dreams of canning tomatoes and making zucchini pickles may have to wait until next Summer.

In happier news, I got a little treat in the mail last week! Miss Cara Lou made me a cup cozy, and appropriately, it says "All Mine", so that means I don't have to share, right? Do you see that Mr. HeyLucy?! He always thinks my food is better than his and wants to try it out. Here it is being modeled by a lovely cup of peppermint tea:

Since I boycotted the garden this weekend I did some knitting and sewing instead. There's a new niece arriving soon, and I may not have a quilt ready right when she arrives, but I did manage to get some  booties done. They're obnoxiously bright, but I like them anyway. I just used some leftover cotton yarn I had laying around.

And I'm nearly finished with the kimono from Weekend Sewing. I'll show you the whole thing when it's done. It's a quick little project, just like the booties, so I highly recommend either or both if you need a special baby gift in a hurry. 

remedies

I've been a little stressed out lately. Not from any one thing, just little things here and there. The grey, grey weather is not helping, and now there's something digging in my garden and I've lost some plants (again!). I feel a little discouraged. So the best thing to do in this situation is focus on the positive, right? So I'm that's what I'm trying to do.

Sometimes when I gather eggs from the coop there will be a soft little feather attached. It's a nice little bonus.

I moved the bees to their new hive last weekend, they seem to have settled in nicely. Here they are coming home in the evening, after a hard day's work. I was surprised to see them still up, I took this photo at about 7:30 p.m. and there was a steady stream of bees returning.

It was a fun little adventure to move them. The new hive is just about a foot over from where they were, so I don't think I messed their orientation up too much. I set it up and then opened the old hive and moved them over one frame at a time, keeping the order and direction all the same. I saw Queen Maria for the first time in a few weeks. She does still have her green dot, so I'm not sure how I've missed her until now. There are definitely more bees in the hive.That smudgy paint is going to bug me for a long time, I should have fixed it.

One more cheery, stress-reducing, good thing: Luna bars come in a new flavor-white chocolate macadamia nut. Holy Cow they are good. Luna bars are my 3:00 p.m., I want something sweet and crunchy, right now snack. They're better for you than cookies, and they do the trick for me.

now featuring home videos

I am experimenting with the power of video. Here's one for all the Winston fans.

What I really want to do now is learn to edit and add music and other fun effects.

beekeeping report

It's time for a beekeeping report. I'm glad there's so much interest. When I first decided I wanted to keep bees a couple years ago, I searched all over for beekeeping bloggers, and didn't find much. Now it seems there is a plethora of beekeepers out there. It's so great!

I don't know if I mentioned that my new hive finally arrived, and I've assembled everything that wasn't already assembled, and painted all the exterior surfaces to protect the wood from the weather. The inside doesn't get any paint, because those fastidious little bees would likely chew it all off. They are a very tidy bunch. My hive has some frames with comb tied in with rubberbands. Since they're a new hive, the beekeeper gave them some pieces of comb to get started with, and they break off those bands just as fast as they can, and shove them out the front door. Sometimes they remove the bands faster than they can get the comb firmly attached to the frame as I learned on my second hive inspection, when all that fresh new wax just fell out of a couple frames as I lifted them up. I had to re-band them in place. One fell straight down into the hive, and it was quite nerve-wracking to stick my hand down in there to retrieve it. I did it, though, and they've since started building it out even more.

I'm still cracking myself up every time I think about my hive name, so I blatantly stole this idea from Leigh of Burbs and the Bees, and stenciled my queen's name on the front of the new hive. I'm too lazy to fit the entire "Von Trapp Family Stingers" on the hive, so that will remain my own little joke. I'm quite pleased with the results. I just got the alphabet stencils at Michael's, and made my own crown stencil. I also added the little medallion up top. I think I'll move everyone over this coming weekend. Better to do it now, before the hive gets too big. Excuse my messy shed.

I've been inspecting my hive most weekends, and it's growing slowly. I just hope they'll be strong enough by the end of the Summer to be able to make it through the Winter. Because we're in the mountains, flowers bloom later, so until there's a good nectar flow, I won't see a lot of growth. I'm also watching what is blooming, and noticing what the bees seem to like. I thought they would be all over the lavender, but so far they've just ignored it. Maybe it needs to open more? They loved the rosemary, but with only two bushes, there wasn't much there for them. I took a bunch of rosemary cuttings this past weekend, and am going to try rooting them and planting them around the yard so there will be more for them next year. They weren't interesting in the lilacs, and I haven't seen them in the honeysuckle, which surprises me. We have mustard all over the place, and I've seen a few bees there, but not many. There are wild flowers blooming around the valley, so maybe they're just foraging elsewhere.

There is nectar and pollen in most of the frames, with brood cells in the middle. I've been seeing lots of eggs and larvae, although I haven't actually seen my queen the last couple inspections. It's likely that her attendants have cleaned the green dot off her back, but as long as I see eggs in various stages of development, I know she's there.

If you look at the last picture full-sized, you might be able to see the tiny rice-like eggs.

Twice now I've witnessed them doing an orientation flight. The first time it happened I freaked out a little bit, and thought my little colony was going to swarm, but it turns out that it was just a bunch of new bees getting ready to start going out to gather nectar, pollen and water. On a nice afternoon they will go out and hover in front of the hive to get their bearings. It looked like a traffic jam to get in the hive. I went back to check on them a little later, and everything was back to normal. Here's a good video of bees on an orientation flight.

Oh, and I didn't want to forget to share this helpful tip. Be sure to toss your cat in your purse before leaving for work. You never know when you might need to have a cat handy. I personally prefer a calico-tabby mix, but you have to decide what works best for you.

garden report

Pincushion, take two. Progress, but still not quite right. I'll keep trying.

Two things I don't want to forget to tell you about:

1. I've been enjoying Kingdom on hulu. I'm trying to stretch out the six episodes to last as long as possible. I've already added the second season to my netflix queue. I love these British dramas set in small towns (Monarch of the Glen, Ballykissangel), where the scenery is as important as any of the characters. Just lovely.
2. Mary Jane's Farm magazine is now bi-monthly. The last three issues are dog-eared and well-read on my nightstand. Every issue has lots of helpful information, recipes and patterns. If you're a wannabe farm girl, don't miss it!

Well, I played chicken with Mother Nature, and she won, of course. The last frost date in our little town is Memorial Day weekend. I had no patience, and went ahead and planted lots of things a couple weeks early, as you know. Memorial Day weekend approached, and the weather stayed lovely and warm. And then Sunday night, Memorial Day eve, it was as frosty as can be. I thought maybe most of my tomatoes and peppers would make it, but then, for the second night in a row we had frost. That was the end of them. Next year I'm going to try planting at the same time, but covering the tomatoes until the end of May. Last Saturday I went to a beekeeping class at City Farmer Nursery, and afterward picked out some new tomatoes and peppers. They're larger than the original plants, so I'm not really behind.

Lots of seeds are also coming up, and I have to say, there's something so fulfilling about growing from seeds. Beans and cucumbers are all sprouting, and three out of four squares of peas are coming up too. Basil and cilantro are very slowly growing, but only one radish out of sixteen sprouted, so I'm trying again and I replanted more seeds yesterday. The potatoes are doing well, and I added another layer of soil to their cans. They've already sprouted through, and I'm going to have to add more again soon.

I also built a trellis, I just followed instructions in the Square Foot Gardening book, it was pretty easy. I used electrical conduit pipes and some tomato netting. We'll see how sturdy it is, one of the bean plants is just about ready to start climbing.

All my beans sprouted, so I had to pull a couple out:

The lavender is starting to bloom, and I found some feverfew that had reseeded itself from a plant I planted several years ago. I think they are so sweet. Roses are blooming too.

 

I visited with the little chickens in their rusty pen for a bit today too:

They have that nice little house to sleep in, and what do they do? The curl up on top of each other in the farthest corner in the pen, out in the open. Silly little pea-brains.

Coming soon: cooking news and beekeeping news!

things to blog about

I have things to blog about and still no mojo to do so. Instead, I made a new banner. I think it might not be quite right, I may have to tweak it a little more. Also, why does typepad not center my banner for me? I don't understand. Maybe I'll find some blogging mojo later tonight or tomorrow. I can't be sure.