Thursday, July 07, 2016

summer things.....

Summer is in full force for sure. Hot weather, long days... the sounds that summer makes. Things are good on the farm. The wild flowers that are in the field... both grand to see and great food for the bees....
We are certain to keep big patches of the wild flowers... not just becuase they look nice....
But mostly because of these little beauties. The hive is doing extremely well and I'm excited about these gals. They're Italtian bees, I haven't had this kind before, but I think that I like them better than some of the others. They seem a bit more hardly and certainly are workers... I guess the tell tale will be the honey crop and how they do over the winter....
I checked this just as this photo and quickly discovered that I had to add another box to the hive. They had almost outgrown these two boxes. The honey inside was uncapped (so not ready yet), but there was a good supply. I'm hoping another box they will just fill with honey and we can take that towards the end of the summer....so despite the fact that we are techinally in a drought condition, they seem to be thriving
The garden pond has done real well too... the lily pads are cool and we should have some flowers any day. Everyone who comes to the house stops to admire it and think that the hydrant is the cutest idea. I'm so glad we decided to give this a try. I already know that some of the plants I picked this year, I won't have again... I like the looks of some and not others, but that's what you learn as you go along. 
I had been "worrying" about our tad pole bullfrog. I hadn't seen him in quite awhile and then one morning, there he was. Sitting on one of the lily pads. He's grown alot, and once he drops that tail, he will be a "real" bullfrog. I was happy to see him.....
The hive we lost in April had a lot of honey comb in it. We've been wanting to get this harvested... but it takes time, that we didn't seem to find. So, one evening, Ed said .. "lets get that honey done"....and so we did...
Cutting off the caps...
Spinning out the frames....
and here we are.  This is honey from last fall, so it has a very dark, rich color to it...

















Making sure we get every little drop...














and this was our yield. This is the most we have ever gotten.... 

I was so sad we lost that hive, but they left us a wonderful present. And hopefully our current gals will do this well...

I took Logan to the lake for the first time. She seemed in awe of all that water. She loves to "swim" in the big water bowl I keep in the dog yard... but this is a lot bigger than that.....
She pretty much walked right in, but then was a little unsure of "what comes next"...
She knows it has something to do with paddling........
She ventured out some, but then decided that she had had enough, and headed back to shore. It was a good try for the first try....
I have a feeling that she'll try it again....

Abi came to spend the night and swim too. We had supper at camp, and she pulled out the domeno's  .. she likes to see what patterns she can make with them before knocking them all down... this one involved the stairs...

and basically they co-operated....
She wanted me to take this picture of her with "Foosie"... this is a little friend that was given to her when she was under a year old by my friend Aileen. We have seen Aileen recently and Abi wanted her to know that she still has Foosie and loves her dearly and "will keep her forever"..

so, this picture is for you Aileen, and the very special gift you gave to one little gal.... thank you!!!!!
Kass has signed Reagan up for swimming lessons... (certainly a summer thing).. so one afternoon I went to see the lesson. Yet another hot day.. but perfect for swimming.. though baby Cal thought it was just too hot for him...
Reagan loves the water, and was anxious to get into the pool... Kass had to remind him it was his turn just yet...
As it turned out.. the teacher is Molly... who  is a cousin from Nate's side of the family... nice to be able to swim with someone you already know... espcially since we are swimming without our floatie...
big smiles for Molly....
The other little boy is Caleb. Now he is the son of Katie... who, Kass grew up with. (Katie is Diana's sister... so all these gal grew up together, and are now Moms together). Caleb and Reagan are great friends....









Now, everything was going great.. happy, excited... until


it's your turn to go out in the water with your teacher and actually practice  your lessons. 

Suddenly you forget "how" to swim... you don't have your floaties on.. you can't touch and Molly is the one you hang onto for dear life....(and beg that she takes you back to the steps...). I can remember that fear back when I took swimming as a child.... but in time you learn how, and given where we live, by both the ocean and the lake.. swimming is something our kiddos need to learn. 
Here's Diana and baby Alana.... we start these babies early when it comes to swimming and water.....
The lesson did end with smiles, despite  the tears from the first half of it. But slow and steady will get these little ones happy and safe in the water....


7/9/16....  and then... a side note. Not but a few days later, the weather actually turned of cold and raw.... rain came in and so did the almost coldish weather. In fact the house was so raw and damp, that I actually lit the stove one evening to take the chill off. 

Trevor and Henry were very happy to cuddle up close to that stove...
and I happily did some quilting because it wasn't too hot to be under it. The doggie quilt is very close to finish.. it might make it to the fair this year...




and then... days later... we're back to the 90's  ...typical New England weather!!!