Sunday Reading - Sorry About the Slow Postings

Sorry I been so quiet the last three or so days. I been extremely rushed and busy trying to get back ahead of things and believe it or not I am completely caught up once again. At least for a day or so until the mowing circuit starts all over again. This time at least I won't have a complete garden to get into the ground before mowing can start and I will not need to mow and trim the bee yards for at least two weeks either.

I finally got the mowing completed on Friday, which included the two outter bee yards and the in town property. I also got the captured swarm moved and placed into it's own hive Saturday. Finished stacking the cord of firewood I split from this Winters leftovers and made an emergency "Bee Expert" visit to a local public housing department. They told me they had an emergency swarm removal that actually turned into nothing more than a colony that had moved into the roof of one of their units. After explaining to them what it would actually take to remove the bees from the rafters of the building I think they finally got the point. Thier first reaction was all about saving the endangered bees and I think they were somewhat offended when I rolled my eyes.

I explained to them that yes I was all about saving bees when it was even remotely possible but they were insane if they thought I would recommend spending thousands of dollars of taxpayer money for one colony of bees. I don't think they even understood that it really is taxpayer money although I did later find out the director at least agreed with my assessment.

As near as I could tell the removal of that colony would have required a crane truck and tearing up a section of the roof and that is assuming the bees did not have a long entrance tunnel they were using. At first the guys were convinced the bees were living the high life in the attic. I assured them that honey bees do not build a nest but require an enclosed space to build their comb from and there was no way the colony would be exposed in the attic. After they checked that out and confirmed there were no bees in the attic itself they believed me that the bees were either in between the roof studs or in the wall studs in a cavity they had found. I gave them the name and number of a local guy I know with a bee vac that can suck the colony out but assured them they would still need to do some serious structural damage to figure out just where the bees were and to remove the comb and honey left inside even after all the bees were sucked out.

I offered to work with any contractor or whomever they get to do the work but I wasn't going to enter that mess on my own that's for sure.

Anyway then it was back to the Small-Hold and finally getting my soon to be fruit tree area plowed along with another few acres we are going to sow in grass for future hay and grazing needs. We got it cleared, brush hogged and plowed this weekend and hope do get it disc'd and the fruit tree part tilled next weekend.

I hope to be able to put another 16 to 20 assorted fruit trees in this Summer.

Rush Rush Rush. So much to do and so little time to do it in.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!