The Word Got Out!

 

The announcement has hit the press.  Last day, next Friday, May 6.  It has been such an opportunity for both Mike and me!  On to the farm in Freedom!! 

Fickle Spring

This is what it looked like Monday night as 48 packages of bees, about 3 pounds of bees each with a queen, arrived in Star Valley at 6pm. 

I waited my turn.  I had ordered two packages of bees, each costing $140.  When one considers their journey, this amount really does not seem that bad.  BeeMan Mike was gathering the bees in California last Wednesday.  Over the river and through the woods - as well as up and over a couple of mountain passes!  These bees did some traveling.  

I walked up to the back of the trailer with my old ochre colored blanket and swaddled my bees lovingly, protecting them from the cold as I traversed my way to the back of the car where they remained wrapped and I drove to Freedom. 

Recently, I confessed to a group of wanna-be beekeepers that I obsess more over my bees than my husband or my dogs.  It is true.  We all saw the weather forecast and we all starting planning.  I brought my hives into the garage in Freedom.  Stacked them up with frames of honey and open drawn frames for their new home.  The garage is cool, but warmer than outside.  All entry and exit sites on the hives were covered with screen to prevent escape while allowing for ventilation.  Sugar water was put in place.  I had a plan. 

My friend Beth put her packages in hives inside her greenhouse.  She thought they were contained.  One box had an undiscovered hole and she found a zillion bees flying around inside her greenhouse.  They got out.  They got lost.  They will most likely die.  Bees use the sun to orient themselves to where their home is located.  A greenhouse if very confusing to a bee.  The colony will most likely be okay. 

As I pulled into the garage, I lit the smoker and went to work.  Three pounds of bees is a lot of bees.  I held their white plastic container open and gave a good shake.  The pile of bees plopped atop the boxed queen.  They landed in their new home.  Everything got closed up and they remain there, in the garage.  

This is why.  View out our back door in Hoback last night. 

Six new inches of snow and a low of 9 degrees.  

Retirement creeps closer.  I'm taking a vacation day or two and less than a dozen days are left.  It's a new chapter, a new beginning.  Exciting and terrifying - more the former than the latter!!  

We are thinking of Linda and her broken knee.  Heal well, heal strong.  

 

Many Books

We are pawing through our stuff.  Lately, our books.  Hard cover, soft cover, old and new.  All books are getting examined, thought about, remembered and for the most part, sent off to the recycle center.  

Recently discovered, our recycle center has one of those giant sized heavy duty cardboard boxes to drop your finished softcover book or your finished hardcovered book.  As you prepare to unload your burden, it is impossible to not look at the selection, scattered about below.  With great discipline, one must drop and go, otherwise, the temptation to pick an interesting title could cause the burden of books to return to the dusty empty shelf.  So many books, so little time!  

Here's the remarkable thing!  We have two copies of three titles!  Not a surprise, UNDAUNTED COURAGE , soft cover, long version.  What a great book.  I could see Lewis and Clark make their way west as I gobbled up that book, enchanted.  If you know Mike and I and the book, it will not be hard to believe we own two of this title.  I will be recycling not one, but two copies of this excellent book, hoping someone else will enjoy the treat. 

The next two book titles surprised me!  Although I listened to this wonderful book on Audible, we still have two copies (both Michael's I am sure) of ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner.  Oh how this book pulled at my heart strings.  What a wonderfully written story.  Off to the recycle box where hopefully someone will hesitate just long enough to reach down, pick it and and read this master piece. 

The last book (at least thus far in the cleaning quest) is WAR AND PEACE  Now, I realize this is a classic.  I tried.  I tired really hard to get through its massive tome.  All copies of this book will go to the big box.  And there, I bet, they will remain.  On to their final destiny.  I wonder what that is......

We suffered through a gale force storm two nights ago which ripped down a famous movie screen on the other side of the Tetons.  HERE IS THE NEWS REPORT .  Tragic for so many.  Childhood, teen, and adult memories toppled down by the invisible 2 am Hand of the Wind.  Rumor is, locals will rebuild.  

The storm also brought back winter with three inches of snow and cold temperatures.  My bees cannot be impressed.  I watch one hive in Freedom, the population quickly dwindling.  Bees will break your heart, they will. 

I've been making a sourdough bread with "local" - as local as you get when you are in Jackson - wheat.  This is 80 whole wheat and 20 white from a Wyoming Heritage Grains near the Big Horn Mountains.  This is Mike's favorite of the breads I make.  

And now, back to the bookshelf! 

April & The Topic of Fools

It's spring.  We have a high wind warning for this afternoon and this evening.  Threats of 80mph wind gusts waft about the office and email.  Snow flakes zip by my window.  Blustery is a word that comes to mind. 

Had a great conversation with a fellow beekeeper this morning about how obsessed we bee people are - especially this time of the year.  "Things are buzzing" has many meanings!  We laughed about obsessing more over the health and well-being of our bees over that of our dogs!  Imagine the horror of going out to your beloved bee hives and seeing this!!  This picture taken from a friend's brother in laws apiary near Rochester, NY.  Apparently there are bears there.  What a travesty!  This beekeeper will be staring over.  

Here is a video from my very populated hive in Hoback.  This hive did remarkable this year and already has brood (for you non-bee people, that means eggs and pupa; ie, new bees are coming!).  Sunday afternoon was warm.  The new bees were out making figure 8s in front on the hive.  This is their way of learning where home is located - did you know bees use the sun to figure out where to go? Click on the arrow, it should play. 

I am currently just about finished with a really great book.  This book has made me think about drinking beer (I really don't like the stuff), drink wine, mixed up a rum cocktail, then enjoyed some dark brewed coffee, pondered if a tea bush could grow in Wyoming, and now on what will probably be the last chapter, I contemplate how much I hate sugary cola drinks!  It's been an awesome book.  I give it five stars! 

Meanwhile, we sort.  We sort through all the things two people can acquire in sixty years.  Mike has filing cabinets filled with papers, a plethora of photographs on the wall, and enough ball caps to cap an army.  Literally!  I have a kitchen with just about every gadget imaginable.  An Insta Pot that makes amazing yogurt from a half gallon of milk I got from a friend.  A Cuisanart Food Processor which I am in so much love I cannot imagine a kitchen without it!  My trusty little bread lame, oh how I love you and your carved walnut surface with the very sharp blade! You have help me score scores of loaves of aromatic sourdough loaves.  My current worry is that the new kitchen will not house all the items I currently have crammed into every nook and cranny in the very small kitchen.....it is a serious and sincere concern. 

This is a daunting task.  I would feel very sorry for children having to sort through all of this nonsense when we are gone - if we had them!