Sunday, May 11, 2014

puppy picnic and Mother's Day.....

You got it.... another "dog event weekend".... this time, we are at NEADS!!!! for the volunteer appreciation picnic!!! I was excited to be invited and to go, we usually only get to meet other puppy raisers at graduations (where it isn't the best place to be able to talk)... and so today, it's the perfect time to meet other, and re connect with old friends...
As it turned out, Danny was the youngest one attending today... he knows who to schmooze with... (Dave)... and happily cuddled right up to him the moment we saw him. 
Linda had made the cute yellow scarfs for all the Maine puppies.... which only added to Danny's cuteness factor.... 
The day had started out pretty grey and drizzly... we actually drove threw some pretty good rain showers on our way down. But, by the time we got to NEADS, it was brightening up and there were plenty of folks who weren't going to let the damp weather stop them. I thought it was an amazing turnout, especially being Mother's Day weekend...
They had all sorts of fun things planned for us.. one being the "duck race". When we arrived we were given a ticket with a number that matched a "duck".... then, they floated all the ducks down the stream.. and the first four ducks to cross the finish line won some pretty nice prizes. Mine - for the record - did not win anything.....
Some of the duckies got off to a slow start, so Gerry (CEO) thought he would get them moving.... I though Gerry might end up swimming with the duckies.... but, he didn't!!!! (though Danny would have loved to gone swimming with them!!!)
Aside from games, good company, food... awards that were given... they also brought in their professional photographer, who took pictures of each puppy raiser and their dog.... these will be mailed to us later, and I will be excited to see them. Winn takes amazing photos at the graduations.....
I hope that one day, Danny will learn to walk more than 50 feet... this is pretty typical whenever we are out and about...we move about 50 feet or so, and someone has to stop and say hello... so we do (while he is still young)... and then we move along, only to be stopped again. I really think that Danny may learn that we only have to move in 50 feet increments..
OK.. so that face is pretty hard to pass by......
By the time I got back in the afternoon, it was still pretty warm and sunny, so I decided that we should get into the bees and see how things are going there. We haven't done a true check in a long time, and even though I have seen them flying and from the outside they looked good, I just wanted to be sure. 
Last fall we made a "candy board" to put in the hive, just in case they should run of out honey. Some keepers swear by them, and others say they don't bother. Since we really didn't know what we thought, we decided to go with one. Well, once I saw how much they had eaten.. and the fact that they made it threw this very long and cold winter... I think I'm on the "swearing" side. And next year, we will certainly go with candy boards again. 
We pulled a couple of frames and was happy to find that there is brood (baby bees) coming along, and we're seeing small pockets of pollen being collected... honey stores are low, but I sort of expected that. All in all, once things begin to bloom, I think we're going to be in very good shape..... yeah girls!!!!
And it's Mother's Day weekend, which the sun came out for and the day was so pretty. As we have done over the past few years, we went to one of our favorite buffet breakfast places. Reagan arrived liked this.... thinking of how little he was last year, makes you realize that time flies by so fast....
We had the same little private room that we always do.. which is so nice, because we can all visit and this year, allowed Reagan to have some room to move around. He isn't quite walking yet.. but certainly does that "cruising" thing... going from one thing to another....
The buffet was amazing... all sorts of good thing to eat and try.. though Reagan wasn't so sure of his Mother's choices.....(he's actually going threw a bit of picky phase right now)....
running his trucks threw food seemed like such a better idea......
Sadie and Abbie had made plans with Jessie's family, so they weren't here for our Mother/daughter photo  :(   but this one is pretty  nice just the same.....
And in true little boy fashion... the "pond" was way more fun than picture taking.....
Not only was Mother's day wonderful with family, good food, beautiful weather... but look what I got!!! Yup, we expecting again... hive #2... and Ed went and got all the parts and pieces needed for that....










But look here.... not just a regular top.... a Copper top!!!! how fancy is that!!! (just hope our current bees don't get jealous of their neighbors pretty new home!!!)