Good News

Where is Mom?

There she is and off she goes.

Who knew that backed up plumbing could be so serious and turn sideways so fast...It was so difficult to see her in that much pain. After exhausting all other measures the big guns where brought in, with the hard hats and the heavy machinery with a few sticks of dynamite thrown in for good measure. Last night we got the good news that the blasting zone was clear and this morning they started tapering the narcotic pain medication down and as you can see she wanted to get on down the road. The plan is for her to come home tomorrow.....What a lesson this been on so many different levels.

Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers, it meant more than you can know. I would hurry and try to keep up with reading your posts but couldn't always comment. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon.....Happy May Day!

Providence Hospital

Mom has been hospitalized. This morning the Dr. said she needed to be taken to emergency for further testing. They had to keep her to properly address her severe abdominal pain. I went right back to see her this evening after walking dogs and getting a bite to eat...She was pretty well drugged up and the pain was much better. I got these pics to share....This is the view from her window, the sun was setting and reflecting off the brick.

A view from her window.

A beautiful carving of Mother Joseph on the way out.

I won't be posting regular until mom gets out of hospital.

I must run as I am falling asleep.

Creative Mint

From time to time I will be sharing blogs that I feel you would be interested in. Most of you are very busy and I have a bit more time to blog surf in between my other duties plus I just plain love to share great things. Creative Mint is a must have on your favorites for pretty things and inspiration. Leslie is living in L.A. and is from Canada. You can count on regular posts of all kinds of eye candy. I hope you enjoy visiting Leslie's blog and might I suggest looking at past posts as well.

Have a marvelous beginning of a new week. I will be with my mother today as she is a bit under the weather but if she is up to it we just might go to the nursery and pick up some flowers to put in all of her empty, waiting pots.....I found a real treasure yesterday and hope to share it tomorrow.

Happy Weekend

Traditional Home

Looking for some garden inspiration? I have left this link for you to peruse and maybe get some ideas for all the gardening you are doing in your head..Hope you enjoy.

We have two grandchildren that had birthdays this week, a big 2 and 3 year mark, so we will be going to the other house today. I will be staying down there until Tuesday then hopefully getting back to the Little House to get started on our own garden. Hope you all have a great weekend.

House Swarming

The big day..finally we get to take the new members of the
family home. You are probably wondering how the debate
went with Maggie and Mr. B. well he got her off the subject
by asking her advice about whether they should keep the
hive frames two high or go down to one and add the other
next spring. After about 30 minutes of pouring over the
information in their books it was unanimous that one high
is the way to go. Maggie felt pleased that he finally saw
something her way and made a mental note that next spring
the 'great pitch of the hive roof debate' will continue, until
then she will let him think he pulled one over on her (like
all wise women do).



Getting everything all lined up.


This is where we get the yummy honey from.

I had planned on having all the proper terminology for you

as we go along but I am doing this without Mr. B.

We had an EVENT in the middle of the bee transfer process
that made it too late to work on this post last night.

I hear you ask "What EVENT was that?" The eagle pass-

ing by us about a foot and a half off the ground to get our

chickens free ranging in the back (we thought it was late
enough to be safe, after 7:00 pm) What a sight it must of

been, me running through mucky, marshy (rained like a

monsoon yesterday) pasture screaming at the top of my

lungs "eagle, eagle, eagle..." to the dogs that I forgot were

inside of the house because of bees. Then remembering

and running through the front door, dogs on my heels

attempting to get ahead of me out of the back door just

in time to see the eagle trying to take off with one of the

girls, feathers flying, rooster crowing, dogs barking me

screaming...with all of this the eagle got flustered, lost

the grip and the hawk, hawk friends came and took over

and dive bombed and attacked until the eagle left and

went home. The chicken ran into the hedge and stayed

there until bed time....So that is why the lack of proper

terms. So on with the rest of the photos.

Here is the spray bottle with water to get the bees wings wet

so they don't fly off. Some hive tools and sugar water

I made for them of organic raw sugar and water 1 to 1.

The bees in the container that they come in, the queen is

also in there.

I think this is Maggies group for her hive she has adopted.

Almost time to get them out.

Give them a good spraying with water to wet their wings

so they can't take off.

Out comes the can with the sugar water they had on the

trip from California where they pollinated the almond trees.

Oh dear Mr. B., not a bee sting. Yes indeed but no time

for that as the queen needs to be tended to.

Here she is in her little box with the cork in the end. He

takes that out and puts the black plug with the white

center in. The bees will chew at it and get her out. He will

be checking that in 3 days to make sure. She needs to get

out and start laying eggs.

He is placing the queen in right now.

Somehow I lost the picture of the bees going in so that

will be the first one at the top of the post...so in your mind

insert here.

Here are the ones that didn't want to go in with the others

but will find their way in shortly.

See all gone. They are safely inside with their queen.

* To be continued *

Mr. B.s Hives

Did I hear applause and a sigh of relief? Yes, after months of deliberation, Mr. B. has found the perfect location for the hives and you are witnessing the laying of the cornerstone. He has done his homework, as he does with all projects, and is satisfied with this south facing but protected from the wind (large order as south wind is what is norm around here) location by a thick wild hedgerow.

Here we have the first one up and ready to go. Dad calls on Maggie to give him some advice on the placement of the second one as she is all wise in matters of this nature.

She is well pleased with how this one looks but states she should have been consulted on the first as its not level.

Mr. B. tells her that it must be that way so the rain runs off. She says there will be more things to worry about than rain when the entire hive is on its side. . . and so it goes, the great pitch of the hive roof debate.

She makes one final check of 'her hive' and concludes that it's at a perfect pitch and stable too.

Good job she thinks to herself with a slight smirk.

"Good luck with your hive Dad." she says with a sarcastic chuckle as she heads back home.

The final words. . . . . .

" I rest my case."

And so the bee story begins. I am looking forward to you joining us on the new adventure. What will be next? Will Mr. B. see the error of his crooked ways and admit Maggie was right? We will have to see.

Tomorrow afternoon we pick up the bees and get them all settled in. * To be continued *

More Of Our Sunday

What a crowd at the tulip fields on Sunday. Mr. B. drove me by so I could get some shots in full bloom to share with you. It was hard to find a spot without people and cars so I apologize in advance.

This will be the last of my photos of the tulips for this year :: Yesterday I heard that because of the ash from Iceland volcano, the tulip bulbs to be flown out to most of the world are rotting because they can't get off the ground and Skagit valley are the only other source. I heard that second hand so I don't know for sure about it but if true, that would be very sad indeed.
I hope you enjoyed the photos.

A Trip To Schuh Farms

"Let's stop at Schuh Farms and see if they have any fresh asparagus from eastern Washington" I say to Mr. B. on our way home from Mt. Vernon. This is one of our favorite spots as everything is always fresh and so beautifully displayed. It is open from April through October and finishes off with a big pumpkin patch for the children, tractor rides and all.

Here is the entrance area to the inside, later in the season there are so many things to choose from you can hardly move around outside.

There's my honey, he has spotted something and looks pretty serious about it. Oh yes, the tomatoes, he has decided that we need to get some today. He grows some very good looking tomatoes and wants to get an early start.

This is one of their nice displays, many of the pieces are for sale, you just never know what interesting vintage or unique items you'll see here.

Aren't these geraniums gorgeous? I almost got the hot pink ones but decided to wait, my window boxes really are not ready for flowers yet. Do you see Mr. B.'s basket of tomato plants?

All the herbs...everything you could want. I ended up getting two nice bushy Italian parsley and one well developed rosemary plant. There was a wide variety of mint but I have quite a few different kinds already.

A nice hanging basket and I see some chives behind it that I think should have come home with me...Oh well I can pick them up next time.

Here we are inside, it was a bit hard to take pictures as it is a small area and the place is popular so not very easy to move around but I managed a few shots for you all.

I see they still have their cute Easter tree up to share with us and some good looking pussy willow branches. (I could never bring myself to buy branches)

More produce artfully arranged. I love the smell in here, a mix of it all. (a sigh and a smile)

Oh that's right, here is the asparagus that we came here for in the first place. Those are some nice stalks and grown right here in our state. Nothing tastes better than local.

Off we go now with our loot. I hope you enjoyed our little field trip to the farm stand. Next time I will share with you more of our busy day....Mr. B. finally chose a spot for the beehives and got them settled in.