Weed Or Feed?

A quick visit to The Frog Pond.  I've seen a few more Monarchs this year than the last couple of years, but still not like "the olden times".  We are working on adding more milk weed areas to the back of our farm and the neighboring farms for next year.  I'm super excited about that.  We all do too much mowing around here.

When we moved here in 2003, we "landscaped" around the small pond out back.  I added quite a few Kentucky native plants and left some of the other "weeds" to fill in between.  The single Joe Pye Weed I planted  (that this butterfly is feeding on) has spread around almost half of the pond.  

It's probably ten feet tall and I can see it from way up on the hill.  It's a favorite!

Thistles are a conundrum.  Such a pest, but so pretty and everything loves the flowers.  I let them stay, but try to keep them a bit under control.

Incoming!

This beautiful butterfly has a beautiful blue body.  Hopefully you can see it if you click to biggify.

A weed that feeds :-).

 

A little puzzle fun.  Enjoy!

Stella's Big Birthday Surprise

"A swarm in May is worth a load of hay.  A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.  A swarm in July, let it fly by!"  A swarm in late August?  Oh you know it...  Too Busy Bees is back in business.

It's very unusual for bees to swarm this late in the year.  It's probably a bad sign about the upcoming season(s).  Or maybe the bees are just as confused by this year's weather as we are.  Or...maybe they heard Stella needed a strong hive to combine with her weak hive (a spring swarm we picked up that has struggled all summer) and flew in to surprise her for her birthday. 

In reality, a swarm this late in the year has very, very little chance of making it through the winter. They just don't have time to get adequately prepared.  If anyone can get a late swarm through though, it's Stella.  The bees may have known that (as they probably originally swarmed out of one of her hives from a couple years ago) and knew what they needed to do.  

We backed The Unit under the branch.  I stood in the back and brushed the bees down into our swarm box.  Set the box on the roof (that Unit is darn handy!)...

...and before too long, they had all flown into the box.  You know you have the queen (the most important bee) when they all follow her into the box.  Remember that for later.

Taped up and ready to head for the bee yard.

This is usually the easiest part of the program.  See the empty spot in the middle of the hive box?  All you have to do is take the tape off, turn the box over, dump the bees into the open spot, carefully slide in the missing frames, put the cover on and you are done.  

I missed the hole (the bees were all clustered on one side of the box) and dumped almost all of them onto the ground next to the hive.  

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(Blurring out big girl words that aren't fit for a family friendly blog... ;-)

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And then I got an apiary birthday gift as well!  I looked in the swarm box and saw the queen, still safe and sound and not buried in tall grass never to be found alive again.  WHEW!!!!  I carefully dumped her into the middle of the hive box...

...and everyone (probably at least a thousand or more bees) marched up the concrete blocks and into the hive.  And they did it so fast that I didn't even have time to get a decent video!

Almost all in.

Now they're really all in.

Stella fixed them some sugar syrup.

And we'll cross our fingers (and Stella will work her butt off keeping them fed all fall ;-). 

Then, to make our morning even better, the neighbor stopped by with his new puppy, Skipper.  Quite the birthday week :-D.

Skirt Work

Best. Birthday. Gift. Ever.

Over the weekend Saint Tim cleaned out the first bent of the barn (also known as and easily recognized as "the trash area").  He moved my wool shelves down from the middle of the barn (aka "the dungeon"), added a set of shelves to the side, leveled the floor, put down rubber mats, installed two shop lights and moved my skirting table in from the previous locations of the barn aisle, driveway, utility trailer, wool house yard...

And now I have a permanent skirting area, out of the way, with plenty of light, no wind or rain, cushy rubber mats, supplies always at hand and everything easily accessed and not "out of sight, out of mind".

Monday and Tuesday Miss B and Miss L came over and help design and build a set of shelves (that are way bigger than they look in these pictures) to hold all the freshly shorn fleeces next spring.  I'll be able to pull out a fleece, toss it on the table, skirt it, discard the trash, roll it up, grab a bag and label from the shelf and move it to the back wall.

Yes, I realize I have a lot of work to do before next spring ;-).

 The barn swallow nest remains and as long as I get the top shelf of fleeces skirted pretty quickly (which I'll now be able to!), they'll have a clear flight path in and out.

I just love this.

I really love this :-).

Horses In The Mist

If the morning in August is exceptionally foggy does that mean that the corresponding snow day this winter will be exceptional as well?  I sure hope so!

Locks Of Love

I still miss that goofy fart so much.  

Uninspiring

This is a beautiful collection of sunflowers and zinnias that I am enjoying immensely and want to make sure I repeat the planting next year, but in an even bigger area...and I can't take a decent picture of them to save my life.  

Flat, colorless and uninspiring.

Late summer.  

Sigh...

It Might Help

Tilly swears by sleeping on the cool stone floor of the Wool House wash room.  Or under the porch. Hard to say which is dirtier ;-).