Well, that was fun! Swarm #4!

In another disrupted plan to get the taters planted, I caught a fourth swarm and spent the remainder of my afternoon dealing with that.  We were pulling into the library parking lot when I drove through a cloud of bees.  That says SWARM! to me, so I went into the library, picked out my books, put them in the truck, and then wandered around to see if the bees had landed.  Yes they had - in a pine tree at the apt complex next to he library.  I went to the apt office and politely informed the property manager that she had a swarm of honey bees on one of her trees, and could I pretty please take it home?  She was quite happy for me to do so, so I went home, grabbed my bee suit (which I didn't need, but makes people feel better) and a  kitty litter box (because my nukes are already full), and then drove back to pick up the bees.  Fifteen minutes later I had the bees in the box, my suit off, and I was driving to ICA to pick up the Pirate.  Another easy capture, standing on the ground instead of climbing a ladder or a tree!  When we got home, I dropped off the Pirate, and the bees, and drove to Dadant's in Albion to get more deeps (I only had  enough for the 4 swarms to have one apiece instead of the two they need) and more frames (I admit I got the pre-assembled ones because I just don't see myself having time to put together 50 frames before the Poland trip).  Now all I need to do is assemble the deeps, covers, and bottom boards.  And paint them.  But I WILL plant those stupid taters FIRST.  REALLY.

I am quite glad about the bees, in any case.  I am back up to 6 hives, and it didn't cost me the $100 per pkg that I would have had to pay had I ordered them instead of catching them.  Yea!  If I could get up to 10, then I would stop.

Not really, it's an addiction you know.

Weirdness

It snowed on Sunday morning.  WTH Michigan?  It's a week past my last frost date!  The maters and basil seem to have survived (both those in the hoop house and those in the bales outside), so I'm not going to complain much.  Also, the day before that,  I captured three swarms from the feral hive in my old barn.  This was not what I was planning to do with my afternoon (that was planting taters), but when you walk by a tree with big blobs of bees just hanging from it at a height you can reach FROM THE GROUND (!?) well, I'll take them and be glad, especially since I was down to two hives.  There was one huge swarm that I put in a full deep, and two smaller swarms that went into nuts.  There was a fourth little bitty (softball size) clump, but they were gone by the time I finished the other three, and I expect they actually belonged with the bunch they were hanging closest to.  I left that nuc open until evening to catch the stragglers and then carried them all up the hill to the apiary.  I used ratchet straps to hold everything together, which turned out to be a good thing when I fell down on top of the deep. Since I stumble in that stupid hole on a regular basis, I think I'll try to fill it this week before I really hurt myself...

Lilacs are blooming!

The sand cherries are done, but the pear trees are at the height of bloom.  The apples are about to start, and the lilacs opened this morning, which made everything smell wonderful - I had to walk all around sniffing things until I figured out that's what it was.  We've eaten a handful of asparagus and a dish of rhubarb cobbler, with much more to come.  Almost finished off the red radishes, but several rows of white icicle await.  The maters on the outdoor straw bales appear to have survived the little cold snap and rain this week.  And I chainsawed a respectable amount of black walnut left by the loggers and most of that stacked behind the house.  Also chainsawed half of the rails making up the old paddock - I still need to remove those and figure out what to do with the wire preventing me from taking down the rest of the rails.  I am feeling I managed to accomplish a reasonable amount of work outdoors before the rain showed up.  While it rained, I sewed - working on some quilty UFOs that have been hanging about for far too long.  I have 8 tops that need to go to the long-armer, and 8 more that are small enough for me to quilt on my own sewing machine.  Then I have about a dozen more UFOs to finish (yes, that's terrible).  After that, I'll start sewing for an Etsy shop to make a little cash. That is the plan, anyway.  If the weather and life cooperate.

Blooming

Went for a walk down to the river to clear my head and spooked 5 turkey and 6+ rabbits.  Also some cranes.  The frogs were VERY LOUD.  The spring beauty is blooming, along with the bloodroot, dandelions, dead nettle, one small clump of swamp buttercup, and some little purple flower whose name I don't know which the honeybees were ALL OVER.  It was the most relaxing, pleasant half hour I've had in awhile.  Probably because I was ALONE, except for all the blooming plants and wildlife.  Just me on a boulder, observing the world and trying not to think.

Last blast of winter?

I sure hope so.  We got 3-4 inches of snow last night. which made driving home from church real interesting.  I got home late and went down to the coop to put the ducks in and discovered the raccoon that escaped me on Thursday night had apparently come back and taken one of the ducks.  So now I have one lonely duck left.  In the future, we will only raise ducks for meat, no matter how much the kids beg to keep some for eggs (which really means pets, because they don't even like duck eggs).  Too many varmints around here for ducks when we don't have a pond they can use to escape.

In garden news, I moved a bunch of volunteer dill in the hoop house and weeded half of one side, in a t-shirt.  Then I went outside to discover the beginning of the snow.  The bales outdoors are much slower to condition than the ones in the hoop house due to the cold.  I've added a few days to the planting schedule to account for this.  I hope it isn't overly optimistic to hope I can get them all planted by next weekend.

So much for Spring

Yes, there is now an inch of snow on the ground.  I stayed inside and cleaned house instead of doing the gardening work I had planned.  And to cheer everyone up, I made crab salad for supper.  I had to brave the wind to go out to the garden and knock the snow off the chives, because the recipe called for scallions but I was out of them.  The chives worked just fine.  And it amused me to be harvesting in the snow.  To cheer myself up after that, I made cookies.  And fed the fire to keep us warm.

Little bit of gardening done today. Very little.

Black carrots (east end) and Osmin basil (west end) went in bale 4 (direct seeded) in the hoop house today.  Tomatoes (18 Matt's Wild Cherry/18 Hillbilly) and orange peppers (16) started indoors.  Mtn mint and Roman chamomile are up (indoors).  Supposed to snow tomorrow and Sunday, because this is Michigan in April.  Will wait to feed the bees till later in the week when it warms up again.  I think I can still check the deaders that were being robbed to see if they are  empty yet.  Sigh.  I so wanted to get outdoor garden chores done tomorrow.  I guess I'll just clean house.