Hi…we are so busy around here. Mike will be having knee replacement surgery soon, so we’re trying to get everything done. In addition, we didn’t expect to lose all of our bees which means that we had to remove any honey in the hives. We did this on Sunday after church.

Here’s our neighbor, Helene, uncapping the honey from the frame.

We won’t have a great deal of honey, but we don’t want any to go to waste. It seemed strange working with honey on a cold day. It was stiff. We moved it close to the woodstove to get it warm but the extraction was a lot of work. I didn’t do any of the work. It was done by Gerald, Ashley, and Jenna. It was Mike’s day to babysit Gracie so he’s no where to be seen in this process.

One person cranked, while two held the extractor down to keep it steady. Here’s Gerald cranking the extractor. This is not an automated process.

The honey was so stiff Gerald’s arm got tired so he rotated to Ashley and Jenna…they all look like their having fun, but it went on for hours!

And here’s the first drop of that precious honey…

We are getting new bees! Our new bees were born and raised in the Roanoke area. We are getting four hives. They are black in color. We’ll be picking them up in mid April, and I’ll take you along for the trip! They are more aggressive bees than the Italians. Hopefully, we’ll learn to get a long.

We’re moving our apiary by the barn. It is a good place for the bees because it gives them privacy but it’s close by. My task for these bees will be to ensure they are fed daily upon their arrival. I enjoy this. I’ll be asking our neighbors…”have you seen our new black bees?” Hopefully, they’ll be working all around Swinging Bridge Road.

Here’s the gate where I’ll enter when I’m feeding them…

And while all this was going on, we purchased firewood for next winter, and Jenna and Ashley worked their tails off unloading it.

Because of Mike’s knee, we decided not to cut our own wood this summer.

Here’s Jenna…

And where was I during all of this? Well, it looks like a small task but I started weeding the flower beds around the house and guest house as well as push mowing the small back yard. I was at it all day, too!

Here’s a “before” of the guest house bed…weedy.

And here’s an after…a few perennials are here and there. I’m glad the two lupine plants survived the winter. They’ll be beautiful this summer.

So, I weeded and weeded and weeded. My arms are aching, although probably not as bad as Jenna and Ashley’s arms.