Some new lovely things....

Pies! Raspberry on the left and rhubarb on the right.
Granola with a mound of rasins in the background.

Remember these? The seeds for the bee garden
have turned into beautiful flowers.

Michael checks the ladies in the hive closest to the woods.

The ladies, they're hungry. They're clustered on the feeder.

We add another super to both hives. Go, girls, go!

Michael refills the feeder on the top bar.

Michael checks the cukes.

We got four already!

Our bee observation chairs.

A bee visits our onions...and this could make for
some interesting honey.

Goings on over the past few days...

Michael removing the top bar's canvas cover.
Here, he's planning to stretch out the bars by
inserting uncombed bars between the combed ones.



Our lovely yellow api-chicas are pulling down the sugar syrup pretty heartily right now. Personally, I imagine them flying around with syrup beards and rambunctious demeanors, like toddlers plied with Milky Way bars and  Pepsi. Perhaps it's a feeding frenzy before we take the syrup jars off in July. In the top bar alone, they are going through a quart in less than 24 hours.

Last night, Michael and I got out the huge, stainless steel pot we use when we make cheese. And around 7:30, we made what felt like several hundred gallons of syrup. We even used a whole ten-pound bag of sugar (although, to my arms, it felt lighter than 10 pounds...Walmart, are you light-weighting us?). From all that, we got (gasp!) only 2 and a half gallons. I had such high hopes that we'd fill at least four plastic jugs. But alas, no.

Below are some pictures of how things are progressing, along with some other things of interest.....






Some observation seats near the top bar. Yes,
we're right in that flight path, aren't we? I've
learned to duck.




Michael found, when he pulled apart the combs, that
the bees have created a honey font. Unlike
the comb sculptures we remove in the traditional hives
on Bee Hill, we left this one alone, so the ladies can use
their resources as they need to.



One of the top bar combs.



And more comb sculpture.





The ladies almost have all the bars in the window filled with
comb.

 

Here, Michael is on Bee Hill inserting pollen
patty on the frames of our recently
replaced colony. They are doing extremely well, and
are just a week behind the strong colony to its right.

Traffic jam before the tunnels.

It's almost raspberry time here, and a cousin of Michael's
takes his bucket out in the evenings and picks what
is now ripe.

Near Bee Hill, one of our girls peruses the thistle offerings
along the field Glenn recently cut.

Michael harvested a fanny-load of radishes
and that means radish salad, which what
I'm making here: white vinegar, brown sugar
and white and red radishes.



Sometimes, you have to use up things from the
freezer. I had this yummy yellow frosting
taking up space, so I made a chocolate wacky cake.
Fast and easy! With Fourth of July sprinkles.



And, I made strawberry rhubard crisp for breakfast.
Don't let the oatmeal fool you. It was really good.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler and Starr Pottery

 Mum gave us some rhubarb before we left yesterday. So, since it's strawberry season, I've made a few little strawberry rhubarb cobblers....



Strawberry rhubarb stew



I used the new, "just-for-two" stoneware pie pan we got at the awesome Starr Pottery in Hanover, PA. I've long admired their beautiful barn, lovely pottery, and garden grounds studded with ceramic figures and bronzes.



Our beautiful new, miniature pie plate
by Starr Pottery in Hanover, Pennsylvania.



The finished beauties! Whoops...can you tell I
just Swiffered?

A Quick Run-down of the Last Few Days...

While we visited this weekend, Dad finally got a chance to play with the RC boat that Michael got him for Christmas. Now, Dad was thinking about chasing the Canadian geese around the pond with the boat, but in the meantime, we let the dogs chase it around the pool. They had a blast, but we did have to stop because Jasper began limping. We later found that the poor bugger was down three wheels: he tore his paw pads on three feet. He's been laid up with antibiotic ointment and gauze on his feet since Friday night, when we discovered why he was favoring three of his paws.

Check out the rest of the pictures here to see what we've been up to these last few days....


Ava attacks the RC boat.



Mom made crepes with banana and nutella on
Saturday morning. Yum.




At the York Agricultural and Industrial Museum on Saturday, Savannah learns that milking a cow is harder than it looks.
Me: "Nothing's coming out."
Michael: "Pull and squeeze."
Me: "Nope. Nothin'"




Bun sits in a delivery truck at the
York Ag & Industry Museum.




Woo woo! Michael runs an engine.



Michael and me at the York Ag & Industry Museum (on front of a flat-bottom boat
you can't see here.)

How may I direct your call? An operator station from the 1930s.

The sign under which my Dad said he walked for 7 years, when he
worked at the paper mill. It's now on view at the Ag & Industrial Society.
That buggy in front? That was a mail buggy run by a relative, named
Samuel Schroll, for 20 years in the later 1800s.

Dad and Bun in front of the reproduction apothecary at the Historical Society Museum.

Presentation of that cake....

My Mum blowing out the candles.

 Remember the cake I made yesterday, and the frosting I made the day before? I got to present it to the birthday girl today. There she is, blowing out the candles.

We're actually not on the homestead today, but on the "farm" I grew up on. I use air quotes around farm because we've never farmed it ourselves, although we had a big garden, a goat, a flock of chickens, a herd of guineas, and some peacocks. Still, in terms of actual agriculture, a local farmer used to (and still does) rotate crops on an annual basis, planting corn one year, soy beans the next.

When I was 13 and 14, the neighbor boys from Big Mount would ride their ATVs in the back acerage and destroy large swaths of crop. At the time, I was a great fan of the mafia shows, and at the time, my father had giant Lincoln Town Cars. When the young lads from up the road would come into the field with their ATVs, knocking down soy bean plants, I would drive my father's Town Car over the swails and sit there, revving my engine. It scared the living crap out of those boys. And they stopped coming down for awhile. Mission accomplished.


My father. We've made quick work of the cake.

So, we're here for a few days, while Glenn (Thanks, Glenn!) takes care of the bees, which are flourishing in this hot weather. We topped off their feeders before we left. In fact, last night, around 9:30, Michael made sugar syrup, while I packed and tidied the house in preparation for leaving. If you ever wonder what person would vaccum at 10 o'clock at night. Wonder no further. That person is me.

If you keep scrolling, you'll see a picture of me holding a glass of ice cream. My folks made strawberry ice cream from scratch (and from their own berry crop), and it is fantastic.

While Dad and I got into the port wine, we had a cloud burst, a cloud burst that came with hail. The last picture below shows the rain sheeting down the green house windows. And as quickly as it came, the rain was gone, although it remained overcast for the rest of the evening, and the sky had a strange yellowish cast. Unsettling to say the least, given all the tornadoes that have been ripping across the landscape over the past few weeks

.

Bunny, comfortable after dinner.

Me, holding Mom and Dad's strawberry ice cream.



A cloud burst with sheets of rain.



Cake, with a capital 'C'

So, let's talk about cakes, shall we? Now, I have had some absolute cake-rific disasters. Really. You can read all the details here. Cakes have fallen on me like spent plough horses. Cakes have sometimes never baked fully in the center. Cakes have occasionally tasted wonderful, but looked like someone rotund had sat down on them. Years ago, I made a 40th birthday cake for a friend. The person liked German Chocolate, but I soon found that, while butter cream may cover a multitude of sins, German chocolate sauce (you know, the stuff with the coconut) makes a problem cake look suspiciously similar to a giant mound of barf. Yeah....so I didn't actually intend to make a statement on the friend's age, but it pretty much seemed that way when I set the cake in front of them. Yeah, well...anyway! I've grown appreciably better, with much practice, of course.


Well, hello there, lovely. What's your name?



Remember this post from yesterday? About the espresso frosting? I promised you somethin' purty, and darned if I didn't deliver. I'm just bursting with pride. The big cake is for my Mum, whose birthday is coming up. The little cake is for Michael. I mean, a girl just can't have cake in the house and tell her Sweet Hubby, <wagging a finger> no, you can't have any. That's just plain mean. So, he gets one all his own.

What's that? Oh, you noticed there were two small cakes in the picture above? blushing Well, that one....uh, um...cough... it fell on the floor. Yeah, that's it! It fell on the floor. No, I'm totally blowing your horn. I ate it. I mean, come on. Who can wait?







Nuc progress and other fascinating tales....




Fred: 'What the <BLEEEEP> do you want?'
Me: Could you, um, maybe file my invoices and bills, please? You know, that pile there?
Fred: Not a chance, biped. My job description involves alarm barks and
napping in cute positions. That's it, capiche?
Me: Well, if you could--
Fred: Do I need to talk to HR again? 'Cause I'll go straight to HR.

 


Sunflowers are coming up. Squash, too.
Our top bar is cranking along very well. The nuc that we
put in almost two weeks ago has created new comb
on empty bars.




On the left are two foundation frames with the original nuc comb.
The two on the right are newly constructed comb, built on empty
hive bars.




Inside the top bar. Looks like the floor of the NYSE. So, uh, how's honey trading?



Holy crap. They're line dancing.
But girls, come on. To 'Achy Breaky Heart'? Really?

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Watering.

 


The nuc we used to replace the weak colony last week might very well be ready
for a super by early next week. They are doing stellarly. But oooo lawd, is everyone
there touchy! The summer brood are way more aggressive than the wintered over crop.
I had one lose a stinger in my suit sleeve. And I had only just been
marveling at the butt-folding dance I thought she'd been doing.