Sunday Reading - The Weekend of Strange Bee-Havior

It's strange that as we get ever closer to the day of reckoning for any number of unsustainable socio-economic ills that the population of the Small-Hold just continues to grow.

What was once a blissful Estrogen free zone of adventure movies, guns, ammo and video games has now become the female lead stray animal safe zone or something. I am seriously thinking about building myself a cabin down in the back of the hay field for some peace and quiet.

I had a post halfway finished for posting on Saturday when the Mrs. changed into a beast from Greek Mythology while making deviled eggs. She came into the computer room with the locks of her hair clumped together and writhing like snakes screaming at me. I can only assume she had somehow managed to get  the deviled egg filling on her head and those really were not snakes nipping at my forehead.

Anyway that ended Saturday's posting as I was required to attend a Birthday party for a childhood friend's mother. Medusa I mean the Mrs. demanded my obedience in the matter.

My choices at this party were to hang out with a couple of guys that even I call old and talk about golf or listen to the gaggle of mostly single and very overweight government employee women go on about shopping next weekend. A few of them have some hen pecked husbands they drag around who wouldn't even know the difference between an AR-15 and a Ruger 10-22 if that tells you anything.

Great times indeed.

Finally my prison sentence ended and I was blissfully resting out by the garden watching the sun go down when my new constant companion and her pain in the butt kitten began climbing trees. The kitten of course would get too high up and be scared and stuck and they would both begin meowing until I rescued the little varmint. While fishing this demon in kitten form out of the tree for the thrity-second time I looked up and way way up in the tree is this little swarm of bees. It was maybe the size of a softball and so high up I was thinking they were on their own as I wasn't gonna bother trying to catch them.

I finally decided that if they were still there this morning I might try and get them. Ain't procrastination great?

Now THE QUEEN!!! cat Sasha has decided she would allow the new demon kitten to play with her majesty so she is baiting this poor fellow into attacking her. Yet there is a catch. The Queen!!! will only allow the demon kitten to play with her when they are outside.  If the demon kitten even sniffs THE QUEEN!!! while inside he gets the snot slapped out of him. Every time it happens he looks at me and all I can say to him is "Women". I think he is beginning to understand and hoping I will build that cabin.

So then I settle in for an evening of soothing computer activity and promptly right click on something I shouldn't have and blow out our internet.

Sigh.

This morning the son managed to get my internet sabotage job fixed and I caught up on some reading and then decided to check on the little swarm. It's was still there.

While messing around looking at the swarm I got too close to the new hive that is still a bit hot and got chased by a bee who really wanted to sting my face off. I ran into the garden which has now reached official maze height and has solid walls of foliage on trellises and hidden pathways to escape.

I got away from the bee and got hit in the chest by a hummingbird who was speeding through the maze looking for bugs and stuff.

Now it was time to deal with the swarm so I went down to the barn and began working on the round baler. Get the picture?

An hour or so later the swarm moved into a trap I still have up. My first thought was there is no way that swarm is gonna like that much real estate for a home but hey it saved me going up into that tree. I had an idea about that time and put a nuc box and a couple of frames on top of the tack room attached to the barn.

I then thought I needed to clean my shop up, which is always a disaster this time of year, and get started on building some more brood chambers, bottom boards and frames for all these growing hives I got now.

So I marched up to the shop and promptly added a battery that I have had sitting unconnected for a couple of months to my solar bank. Ya it has been one of those weekends.

While in the middle of connecting the battery, Medusa , I mean the Mrs. demanded I come out and hold PITA Underfoot while she gave her a bath. The dog's real name is Trixy but I call her PITA Underfoot because she is a big pain in the a$$ and always under foot.

While holding Pita the demon kitten ran up a tree again and the bee that wanted to sting my face off showed back up.

Shortly after that I saw another swarm flying around, or maybe it was the original swarm I am a bit unclear about that right now. This swarm settled down on the trap it had just occupied, or settled on the trap the other swarm occupied, still not sure. I have no idea whether I am dealing with two swarms or one that can't make up it's collective female mind. Shortly the swarm once again formed a moving cloud and drifted through the hummingbird garden and around to the front of the barn and went into the nuc box I put on the tack room roof.

Less space to clean I imagine.

At this point I decided I need to add a new hive stand to the garden apiary for the new nuc or nucs I got now. SO I went into the house and got some iced coffee and went out to my shady spot and chair. Ya it's been like that all day.

As the Sun went down I decided to take a peaceful stroll through the garden again. The QUEEN!!! and the mom of demon kitten followed me as they always do. While checking what I thought was a brown and dying cantaloupe it turned out I had actually managed to grab a baby rabbit. It jumped, I jumped, THE QUEEN jumped and mom of demon kitten was looking at her spawn who was once again stuck in a tree.  MEOWING.

The baby rabbit got away by running through the cucumber trellis because THE QUEEN!!! is too fat to fit through the openings. I went and rescued demon kitten and then came inside to write this and have a nervous breakdown.

It's been a weird weekend.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!