Where did all the summer go?

 So, the other day I decided to spend 45 minutes blogging- trying to slowly catch up for the last 6 months of ignoring my story. But after typing for 10 minutes, the rest of the time was consumed in waiting for my pics to upload. Then I forgot to save it before logging off, and so here I am again- reblogging!

I thought I would give you a quick look at the projects we have been working on this summer, so here goes a photo tour! To the left is our house before we began resided it. Residing sounded pretty straight forward to me- I mean, you take the old stuff off, and slap up the new stuff, right? WRONG!!  Yes, first the old stuff had to come off, but then the insulation (basically nonexistant) had to be installed. Then plywood sheets go up, then the vapor barrier, then new front window, then new doors, then trim around the windows, THEN the siding. Whew!! It was a big job but it is done, and the house looks so much better!

Catching some rays! Never pass up a chance to be moral support!!

And Voila! 

The flower beds took a major beating, so their improvement is on the list for springtime. If Paul only knew what is in store for him! :)


Paul got the goat shed and tool shed built, now it just needs some siding and hopefully paint before the weather gets cold. He also installed fencing around our pasture, as well as pipe and pump so now we have irrigation to our ground!! Yay! It has made keeping things green so much easier.

In other news, we got a beehive! It is so fun to watch the bees, and I have a whole new appreciation for them. Did you know that bees build their combs in a row by row format? They are very organized, even their queen lays the eggs in rows. You can follow how old the larvae is by where it is in the nest, and when the larvae hatch, their little cubicle gets cleaned out and eventually the queen comes back and starts a new brood. 

 This is a frame from the bottom box of the hive. The purple is all the pollen the bees have gathered and placed in the foundation comb. The pollen is different colors depending on what flower it was harvested from. Some of my pollen is purple, some is red, some orange, etc.

Somewhere on this frame is the queen. There are always a lot of bees with her because she has to be fed and cleaned.All she does is lay eggs, and mate with the drones. If she starts slacking off in her duties, the bees will start a new queen growing and when she is ready to hatch they will kill the old queen. You can see that my hive has 2 big boxes. The bottom one is where they raise the brood, and the top one is where they store their honey. I have a feeder box on the very top that I have been feeding them with. Because I got them late in the season, they haven't had time to build enough stores for winter on their own, so I have to help them. Now they are making honey and storing it in the top. Next spring I will add smaller boxes called supers, and they will store honey there which I will then harvest next fall. Yummy!!

Well, I guess that is all the pictures today, since Blogger seems to be on overload. I will try again tomorrow to catch up some more.