The bees are home. And in their new home.

Yesterday was one of those completely wonderful days. Get up slowly with coffee and internets and kitties. Make a delicious asparagus and parm cheese with poached eggs breakfast. Do a little laundry and a little cleaning with some music playing in the background. Swap stuff from the old '76 RV, to the new '78 RV in prep for our canyons trip in June. Move 2 nucleus colonies of bees to their new hive homes.

That was fun. :D And like the shearing last weekend we set up the video camera and captured it. One of these days we'll sit down and process the raw footage to take out all the butt views and center in on what we're really trying to get done.

The wind kept jacking with us, and the Buckfast queen tried to camp out on the lid so we had to keep a careful eye on her while we got new frames set. Was satisfying to see her slide back into her hive, it really looked like she was going home. Never saw the Carniolian queen, but I reckon she was on one of the frames and we didn't see her out of the hive. We just didn't take too long with the rehiving because of the wind.

 Then we did a workout, P90X2 Base and Back with AbRipper. Our shiny new pull up bar works quite well. I set it up last week, the prep had been done for a long time. Last year when we built the deck around the house I set two 4X4 posts really tall. (Bought 12 footers) so all I had to do was drill a 1 1/4 inch hole through the tops and slide an inch and a quarter pipe through the holes. :D The new pull up assist devices that Crys* got work really well too. We worked our backs off then we did our abs. One of these days I'll see the results. Mostly I just notice that I've lost some weight and that's good even if I don't look like Arnold.

 Then we fed the bees. A sugar water mixture with a feeding stimulant that is also good for their health, just to get them started. Our Bee Dude, Brent from Hafeli's gave me some advice.... we'll probably have to do a little feeding in June and then they'll just take off. I still have to buy a couple more deep hive bodies and maybe a couple more honey supers, but we're just about done with the outlay on that. 

Then we drove the old RV over to Uncle Dave and Aunt Tonya's. They're gonna drive it around for the exposure and maybe we can sell the old beast. We really love it, the newer one just has a much better layout. :D We hung out with those guys for a while, they're really nice to visit with, then hit the store and came home to get to bed. L o n g day. And very good. Today looks much the same.

We love Sundays.

The bees are a buzzin. They get their permanant home on Saturday and they look pretty darned ready to go.

The bee yard in progress

All ready for summer

Rodeo weekend

Last weekend was the ultimate fest beer weekend. This weekend was the rodeo. Pics to follow, possibly even a utube video if Crys* gets around to it. The day started sparkling early with a fast and a trip to the 9 News Health Fair in Monte Vista, where we discovered that going to our own doc for blood work and stuff was a whole lot more reasonable than the charges at the health fair..... Then we picked up the RV, and filled the propane tank (only took 8 1/2 gallons) in preparation for our June trip to several canyons in Colorado and Arizona. We're gonna hit the Grand Canyon for 3 nights, Canyon de Chelly for 2 nights and Mesa Verde for 2 nights. More about that as it comes up and gets finalized. At this point we have the reservations set up for dry RV camping and this payday I'll buy the National Parks Pass for the trip. We think the new(er) RV will work just fine for us. Got it from a co-worker and we had our trusty mechanic Raul go through it. He fixed the brakes, which were in HORRIBLE shape, and some water stuff like the water pump, temperature sending unit and radiator cap connection which needed soldering. I drove it to get propane and then home. Crys* and the kid (Autum, she and her mom are coming with us on the trip) will swap stuff from the old ('74) RV to the new ('78) RV today while I level the spot for the bee yard. BUT ...... Yesterday was the freakin rodeo. After the health fair and breakfast at Crys*' favorite place, Boogies in Del Norte, we got to work. I had to rope Hazel, the Llama, to catch her again and she behaved so very well. No spitting and no weird noises this time. I think roping her a month or so ago really helped. The generator was going and I grabbed the electric shearer. It went really well, she didn't move around much and the shearer worked pretty darned well. This one we got all of on the video camera and Crys* will go through and edit and all that stuff and share it when it's cleaned up and all the cursing is bleeped out of it. Then we moved on to Choco, our navajo/angora weather. We had to rope Choco also, and he is wary and quick :D. Then we got him down and I grabbed the electric shearer. The first strip down his back went well, and the second and on the third I nicked him. Took about a quarter sized chunk of hide off the poor little guy. SO I figured I wasn't being careful and we started stretching the skin. Damnit, nicked him again. At that point we shut down the generator and put the electric shearer back in the case. Out came the hand shears. Yep, did the whole rest of him by hand. I was not gonna nick our baby again. He was so good. Hardly a complaint the whole time. We were pretty tired by the end of that and he was so happy to be let go. On to Stanley, our angora weather. He comes to us easily, is really friendly and loves treats. He is a whiney, complaining, hollering freakin MESS to shear. He jumped every time we made a cut of the fiber, thrashed, pitched a fit, screamed with his tongue out and his eyes bulging the whole time. THE WHOLE TIME. You'd think he'd get tired? Not our Stanley, he was like, "You're gonna keep cutting? I'm gonna keep torturing you for doing it". It was REALLY pissing me off. I kept seeing me taking the hand shears and plunging them into the little bastard so he'd stop moving. Decorum, intelligence, and wisdom prevailed. By which I mean I listened to Crys*, as that is the only place those things come from. I am a product of my nurture and nature which means if you piss me off I want to kill you. It took an interminable time to finish our whiney, yowling, thrashing little boy. At the end of that we were exhausted, backs hurting, tempers worn past angry to just desperate to settle down. It was to the shower first as both goats shit and pissed on us during the process. I had a tic to burn to death that had decided to feast on one thigh, ug. We scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and finally got the stench off. Then we had to make dinner. Crys* did most of that, mushroom stroganoff which was delicious. Then we watched some TV and put the kid to bed. (Did I mention that Autum spent the weekend with us and was wonderful at keeping Stanley occupied while we shaved Choco)? This morning is bright and wonderful with that job done. Just a bit of work here and there and all of it fun. :D Life is good.

Roadside goodies!!! I love Spring!!!

Grand Junction beer and chili fest. Fun

This was one of those really long and yet really good days. :D We drove up in our old Honda Wagon the night before and made it even thought the alternator went out along the way and we drove up to Pablo's house on the last of the battery. Lucky for us Crys* found that the Autozone we'd pass along the way had, in stock, an alternator for an 88 honda civic wagovan. Go figure, so we stopped and ran in to get that and ended in Pablo's driveway in the fading light. He put us up for the night, and bought us dinner at nice place he knew of in Grand Junction. He drove :D since navigating by braille wasn't the best idea. Next morning I was up to put the new alternator in. It didn't go too bad, got all set up and Pablo got up at just the right time to point me toward his tools in the garage. He had everything I needed including a drift pin to line up "stuff" that was way down and impossible to see and impossibly tight. Let me just say that to get the old piece out required jacking up the car, pulling the oil filter off and help from both Pablo and Crys* before it was all said and done. The new one went back in the same way and needed about the same level of help but we were done by 10 AM, headed to breakfast and then the fest! That was an extremely well done fest. You paid $20 and got a 10 or 12 ounce glass and a ticket to vote for your favorite. (I found an extra ticket on the ground so I got to vote twice). My favorites were an Irish beer by Horsefly brewery. They sampled us an Irish and a Scottish beer. That made it tough, with my Wallace/Collins background. :D But the Irish was what I liked, Crys* preferred the Scottish with it's long smooth finish but her absolute favorite (and mine) was the Chocolate Porter by Great Divide brewery. She even got a shirt from them for free!!!! (Hey, if I wanted to advertise beer I'D put a shirt on that body!!!) We had the greatest breakfast at a place called Louis' there in Grand Junction, and the waitress was wonderful as well as the food. We all ate like pigs. OK I got out of order but with our workout program we haven't been drinking and there was BEER BEER BEER!!!!!! Goodness but there were between 17 and 20 microbrews at the fest and each of those vendors had at least 2 samples some with 3 and a few with an enormous pile of choices. There were wine like beers and oak aged beers and ciders and ....... Yes. I got shit faced and loved it. And the only things better than the beer were spending a nice day with each other and our Pablo. We came home late, arriving here about 11:30 to feed the goats and kitties and do chores, all because we all worked together to get that alternator changed so we could drive after dark. Wish Pablo coulda come home with us. We love him.