Bees 1 Week Inspection

On Monday, we opened the hive up for the first time since we put them in there. It was very exciting! We had no idea what they would look like. But everything looked good. They had a good amount of comb drawn out on 3 frames and a bit on a 4th frame. We saw some eggs, pollen and even sugar water that they had put into the cells. Here's the pictures I took:

Here is one of the frames. All the bees are clustered on the comb.



Here are some of the bees clinging on to each other. This has a name but I can't remember what it is called but they do them when they are making comb.



Here is an upclose picture of the comb and inside the cells you can see eggs. They look like tiny grains of rice. Sort of just to the bottom right of center there are 3 cells in a triangle that all have eggs in them.



In this picture you can see the pollen in the cells. It is dark in color.



Here is the 1 week inspection video. It's weird for a few seconds then it gets clear.

Hiving the Bees

Yesterday was the big day! The bees came on Saturday and they were in their little box. Last night we finished painting the hive and put them into it. It was exciting and scary! We only had one veil (the funny looking hat beekeepers wear) and wore it. The hubby was very brave but also got stung on the back of his head. Poor thing.

Here he is shaking the bees out of their box into the hive.



Here is the queen in her cage.



Here they are all in the hive.



Here is a video of them being shook into the hive.

Easter Pictures

Ok, here's our Easter Pictures (we just took them nothing special). And the little lady is wearing the dress I made for her!!

New Adventure

So the hubby has decided to start a new adventure! I am excited but at the same time very nervous about this one. He bought a hive and next week our bees will come so he can be a backyard beekeeper! Now to be honest, I am pretty afraid of bees but everyone says that honey bees are quite docile. So we'll see.

I read an entire book called Beekeeping for Dummies this week. I think they are fascinating creatures. But that still doesn't make me want to stick my bare hand down into their hive. I am excited about the honey. I am also excited about the wax and that the hubby wants a hobby! So, here we go again. Pretty soon we are going to have to move to a farm.

(here's the hubby in his sexy beekeeping hat thing)

First Egg!!

Today one of our chickens layed its first egg! We're not sure which chicken it was but it was the first egg for us too! We haven't cracked it open yet so we don't know what the yolk looks like. I think we're just too excited to crack it. I want to wait until tomorrow or until the next egg comes so then we'll have 2 just in case. Two of the hens are "squatting" which is a sign they are ready to lay. The third is still not really squatting. Squatting is weird. Usually the hens run from you when you get remotely close to them. Now when you get close, they will just squat down and let you pet them. The book says that this is so the rooster can do his job. But we don't have a rooster so no baby chickens! Here's a picture of the egg. (ours is the brown one, the white one is one from the store)

Henrietta the Chicken

Henrietta the Chicken has turned out to be Henry :( See for yourself.

Here's Henry:


Here's Pecky


Do you see the differences? Henry's comb (the thing on the top of his head) is way bigger and he is even getting his waddle. You can't see this in the picture but Henry is twice the size of Pecky. So we are taking him back. No, we are not killing him. Even if we did, we would only get 2 bites out of him.

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

I want some baby kittens. And a star wars guitar. And I want my own video game thing.... Nintendo.

From,
The Babe


Dear The Babe,

I'm sorry but if you had read Section 5A Appendix C of Santa's fine print you would have seen that Santa does not give perishable items, live animals or anything considered toxic. Also, Santa is morally apposed to guitars and Star Wars. It has to do with his Amish upbringing. And last but not least, according to Santa's list, you already own your own video game thing..... Nintendo.

So we regret to inform you that you will have to settle for the presents Santa's Elves already made for you a dumb 100+ piece marble run including 20 marbles and neato spinning pieces that your father can help you put together.

Love,
Santa's Helper

PS Santa does not take returns either.

Big Decisions

I hate making big decisions. I hate making decisions in general. But especially life altering ones. I always wonder what if I had chosen the other. Or what if I chose the wrong one.

I hate even deciding what's for dinner much less making real grown-up decisions. I think it's because decisions I make now affect my children. When it was just Russ and I, sure they affected us but not so much others.

Last year at this time we were making big decisions also! What is it with Christmas?

Pray for us that we will make the right decision.

Etsy Shop

So yesterday I got bored and decided to open an etsy shop. I'm thoroughly impressed! It was very easy to use, had lots of features and cost like $.20 per item to list (plus a 3.5% fee when, I mean if, it sells). I'm still trying to figure everything out. But it's fun! Here's the link to my site:

http://ihemstitch.etsy.com

ME! It's all about ME! Isn't it?

A big statement when I was growing up that my parents said to me often was, "Kendra, the world doesn't revolve around you." So in my selfish thinking today, why doesn't the world revolve around me? I mean isn't my life the most important? Doesn't everyone else realize that my kids are the cutest and my day to day tasks the most urgent?

Would it really be perfect if the world did revolve around you?

Like wouldn't it be nice if all the stop lights revolved around you? And there was never a stop sign that required you to stop, they were all magically in the other direction. Wouldn't it be great if everyone conformed to your thinking? If the person you voted for won every time. Your team won all their games in sports. And everything went exactly as you want it to.

I guess thinking on the flip side of things. What if everyone always agreed with you? And because the world revolved around you, everyone started dressing like you and talking like you. If you gained/lost 5 pounds, everyone would want to as well. Perhaps it would feel like everyone was watching your every move to see what you're going to do next. (this sounds scary in it's similarities to how we treat celebrities now days)

Apparently, I have struggled with selfishness since I was very little. In my selfishness lately, I have been so concerned with what is going on in MY life that I forgot there is a whole big world out there with people who have day to day lives as well. And they all have the cutest kids in the world too. It intrigues me to think that everyone I know has their own little world that they live in and I know very little about it. I think this is how writers have a profession.

After all this thinking, I've decided to be a little less selfish. It's a good thing that I have a husband who is so kind because he keeps on track most of the time. Since we're coming to the holidays everyone naturally thinks I am going to take cookies to all my neighbors. But I don't think that is the way for me to accomplish my goal (although it is definitely a good thing). I think perhaps I should really focus on paying attention to others on a day to day basis maybe minute by minute. I will start with my children and my family first. Then branch out to friends/strangers. Nothing big but it's just the little things that count. And my hope is that I can be a better person (not that I will help others lol).