Saturday, September 28, 2013

Honey of a day!!!!


After "stealing" the two frames of honey from the "girls".. Ed and I have been waiting to process it. Fortunately for us, Deb and Dave have all the equipment to do that, so we only had to borrow it this year. We will need to purchase our own sometime, but for these two frames it was nice just to borrow. First step... uncapping the honey comb... this was done with an electric knife that is hot and the capping comes right off....
Abbie was here and she was so interested in how this all was done... she watched very carefully.....
She really wanted to do it herserlf... but Papa said another time....
The bees capped the honey to store it, so, in order to get the honey out, you have to uncap it. The "cappings" wax is saved and can be used to make candles or anything else that contains bee's wax.....
Now that the frame is uncapped, it's time to go in the extractor....
The honey frames are spun, and the honey just shots out of the comb. Abbie had a great time spinning the honey from the comb.....it drips down to the bottom of this steal tub....
And then you open the plug and the honey pours out. You use a very fine strainer to catch any little parts of wax and such....
I have to admit, we got more than I expected to get... so I can only imagine what it's like to get a full taking of honey....Once we strained it threw this strainer, we did it one more time, just to be certain that it was all ready to eat.... 
The empty frames go back to the bees, they will clean up any honey that we didn't get, they will clean all the combs, and will begin to put honey back in. And this way, they don't have to build new comb from stratch.
And here it is.. our very first jar of honey. I like the dark color.....(and yes...) it is VERY tasty....












From just those two frames, we got four and a half pounds of honey. I'll give a few jars away, but the rest we'll keep for this winter's treats...


thank  you bees!!!!














 

the 4th Thursday...


It's the fourth Thursday of the month, so in my world that means just one thing... check in day at NEADS!!! It's funny how I now get excited about driving into the city and working around it with my little girl... going to the city wouldn't have ever been "my thing" had I not gone into this "service puppy world"... When we got to NEADS, first stop is the scale... Debbie may look big, but really she is a bit on the small size and at just five months, she only weighs around 30 pounds.... I do hope she will get some size on her.
While we waited for Dave to finish up some things, the pups hung out in the main room. Zuzu (our mascot poodle) and Bernice traveled down with us this month. Some one had left a big bin of balls, and didn't the puppies have fun with those. Now, even though Deb had her own, you know that she wanted Zuzu's as well.....
Once Dave was ready, it was into the training room, just to take the usual time of talking about the puppies, telling what adventures they have had and getting questions and the like answered. It's a good time for the pups to wait quietly....
Even if it is boring ---- (right Rayvan???)
Today we "played" with the lift on the van. Debbie hopped right on, and sat and looked at me as though to say "OK, what's next"... all the puppies did very well with the lift.. so I dare say, next month, Dave will begin to have them "ride" on it....
Rayvan hopped right on as well.....from there we went over the hospital. I don't know why I didn't get any photos there, but we played on the elevators, had some lunch.. all the usual things. It's getting so these trips seem kind of routine.....
From the hospital to the bus station. I love the way that Deb handles all these things... she really is a "go with the flow" puppy, and I already have a very good feeling about her completing all the training and going into the service dog world.
Both Rayvan and Debbie are very steady puppies. After a while they just laid quietly and watched the world go by. Debbie even got stepped on by a gentlemen who claimed "he didn't see her??" She jumped out of the way, but then just settled right back down again.
Course, while the labs were "working" looked who schmoozed the crowd. Zuzu was the height of attention.. I told Bernice they should have put out a small tin cup and collected tips for the service dogs!!!!!











It was an absolutely wonderful day, the weather has been very warm and almost summer like. The puppies were all so good, that we allowed a bit of play at the end.



From here the others headed for home, but Deb and I stayed later. We were invited to be a part of NEADS training council, so we had to stay late for the that meeting. It was a very interesting meeting, and I met so many great people. I also got some "inside" scoop on the working of NEADS, which is usually something we don't have time for on the regular training days. It did make for a long day, but it was worth it and next month, Linda (our chapter leader) is planning on staying for the council as well... since she was away this month... and that would be great fun to go together and just be a part of NEADS and their plans for the future.

Monday, September 23, 2013

on a sunday


The first official day of fall... finds us in the pumpkin patch and enjoying the sights, sounds and colors of the season. Reagan didn't seem so sure being "stuck" on this pile of hay with big orange things all around....
Maybe he is thinking... " I wish those feet of mine would work properly.. then I could get out of here".....
But, being the good sport that he usually is... we got that wonderful smile from him...eventually.....
Course, it was also a good field trip for Deb as well... and photo opts too...
They're probably both wondering "how long must we sit here, and doesn't she have enough photos"....
"this is boring!!!!"
The day was beautiful, fall is my favorite time of year....

Saturday, September 21, 2013

the first of many - I hope!!!


We broke in to see what the "girls" have been up to these past few days. It won't be long before we will need to button things up for the winter, and I can tell they feel the same way, because the hive is alive with activity. I went over to the bee shop to a little seminar in "wrapping up for the winter" so I feel like I know what I need to do.
On our last couple of checks, we haven't taken the whole hive apart, but we did today, going all the way down to the bottom box. This is the brood chamber, and it looks good. The bees will stop having brood when the winter comes, but for now, we saw "babies" in the works, so they are still producing. (the white things you see in the comb are baby bees -- the yellow is stored pollen)...
The second box, which is also brood chamber had a good number of workers, we also found more brood, and honey..... these are all excellent signs of a good strong hive.
This frame was a complete honey frame, with some capped (which is the honey that is ready to eat) and some not..... I love how the bees continue to work even when we are "messing" around.
And more of the same... in fact the second box held so much honey, and we decided if the third box was as full, we were going to steal just a little for ourselves. I can't wait to try it....
And, happily, as we checked on the third box, in was - indeed - full of honey frames.... you can only use capped honey, so this isn't the frame we are looking for....
But this one certainly is.... we took two frames... and left all the rest to the girls. I will also put a 'candy board" in when we do close up for the winter.. that, along with the honey stores, should keep them good for the cold winter months....
They're still find pollen somewhere, if you look closely, you can see the yellow in the pollen sacks. I'm guessing it's from the sunflowers, though they look like they're starting to go by. One thing though, the warm days we have been having has been a huge help....
And this is what we took...... we'll need to borrow an extractor (Deb and Dave have one) to process the honey into what we want to use.... but this is the first of many....












Fresh eggs from the hens... honey from the bees... and tomatoes from the local farmer's market.... quite the treat!!!!

a day with Reagan


Kass and Reagan came for a visit the other day. It is just so much fun to have a baby in the house again.. I really miss it!!!! He is growing so quickly, and I truly understand the idea of trying to hang onto to time and not let it rush by so quickly.....
He's very close to crawling and I think that once he's on the move... my dear Kass won't have a minute to sit!!!!
The dogs were (are) so good with him.... even Tazzy. She can be a bit of a "spook" so of any of our dogs, she's the one I watch the closest... but she was wonderful....
Trevor pretty much laid right where he is the whole time. It's funny, because the dogs I had when I was raising babies ( Diggie, Frosty, Holly and Randi)... were never allowed on the quilts spread on the floor. They could lay at the very edge and watch the babies, but they couldn't go on them. And they never did... Frosty, though, would lay at the very edge and if that baby got close enough, she would give the biggest kiss she could muster!!!! 
Kas and I had lunch together, then we went threw my many cross stitch books and picked out a stocking pattern for Reagan. After that, it was so pretty out, we went down to the local orchard to poke around and Kas wanted to get some apples.....
This is such a nice farm.. and they are all dressed up and ready for apple season. Reagan was "in love" with this scare crow.....
They'll be busy the next few weekends.... the fall season is almost here. It's going to be a good apple year... and I have no doubt that my bees certainly enjoyed the orchards last spring....
I have to say, my sunflowers this year are amazing. My veggie garden did nothing -- I'm not much of a gardener anyways... but despite my horrible efforts... the sunflowers did it....
They are huge... more than a few are over seven feet tall.... the bees love them.. and then ones that have gone by are being enjoyed by many of the birds.... I will certainly put sunflowers in every year....
What I don't dry and keep for seed, the rest I think I will throw to the turkeys and leave for the wild birds....
And with the thoughts of the cooler weather, it's also wood season. This year, however, with the wood shed, it's going to be much easier to deal with.... certainly better than the tarps we had to use the first winter we were here..... we figure we burn 10-12 cord... we have a bit left over from last year, and here's the first two cord pile...
Which - in about four hours - I was able to get all inside...













It's a good start... but I'll feel better when it's full.......