Oh, I hope it is over! I am long overdue. I have an excuse for the hiatus….actually multiple excuses. It has been a bit of slow times in the garden, Holidays, travel and building/prepping bee equipment that I will claim for my excuses. Let me add the distraction of my Christmas gift, Kitchen Aid mixer for making bread and creamed honey for your consideration! I have more if you want to ask!
January 2nd, my wife and I embarked on an epic 4,125 mile road trip. We got as far north as Billings,MT. Why Billings…… it had something to do with beer, snow and stubbornness! Torrington, WY to see my great grandsons….. and granddaughter. Four days in Breckinridge, CO for a family gathering – skiing, tubing and snowshoeing and family bonding. Albuquerque, NM to visit with my cousin. All in all an interesting trip.
Upon return we witnessed the remnants of the Houston freeze that decimated my bananas and plants, destryed the 14 papaya plants, killed my young lime tree and ruined 3 dozen or so of my Meyer lemons!On the positive side, lots of dead foliage for mulch and compost!
Bees- building more boxes, painting more boxes and experimenting with new semi-transparent stains. My wife gets involved putting her touch, stenciling and stamping bees and other images on the boxes. Teamwork, I do the mindless hammering, painting and staining and she does the creative elements. Works for me!
The blue stain looks gray, the green stain looks very nice and the natural stain always looks good. I am purging white painted boxes and making them yellow! Not quite so boring!
Green medium boxes with the first coat in place.
Kathy has stamped some bee images on the medium boxes now with a second coat.
A mix of natural stain and yellow boxes. You can see some more intricate stenciling from last year’s efforts. Time consuming and probably overkill.
The “blue” gray stained boxes. The black bees show up nicely. Thanks Hun! And yes dear, when I stack the boxes on the hives I will make sure the bee images alternate and not line up, one over the other!
Can’t wait for Spring……and it looks like it might “bee” early!
TTFN
Bishop
From My Backyard 
Feb 03, 2017 @ 15:20:13
Sorry to here about the freeze 🙁
Here in Eastern Pennsylvania we haven’t had s major snow storm. I’ve been able to rework stone walls and transplant some bushes. I’ll be heading to Austin for A warm weather hiatus in one week! Yay!
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Feb 03, 2017 @ 16:59:04
Actually, to properly alternate the bee images on the stacked boxes, it should be noted that there are FOUR options: facing up and left, up and right, down and left, down and right. Therefore, the proper stacking would be: 1. up-left, 2. down-right, 3. down left, 4.up-right. Or maybe there’s an even better arrangement–I’ll work on it.
Patti Howard
President, OCDs Anonymous
P.S. Really nice touch, Kathy!
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Feb 03, 2017 @ 17:23:41
Too funny Patti!!!! I may ask Kathy for a site plan that includes box orientation on the hive. She did ask which side would be the most viewed side? Only a fellow OCD would understand……it is well beyond me
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Feb 03, 2017 @ 19:22:53
A FREEZE IN HOUSTON-WOWSER-SORRY FOR THE LOSS THERE BISHOP
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Feb 03, 2017 @ 23:31:32
Thanks Cheryl. It freezes a little every winter here but we had an extended duration freeze which can impact the more susceptible plants. Young banana plants are emerging. All is not lost.
I am loving my new Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Making some great sourdough bread using the dough hook. Warm bread and real butter is wonderful.
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Feb 03, 2017 @ 23:54:38
Hi Bishop-I too just love Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer-I think I would be lost without it! Yummy warm bread and butter (bread is a weakness of mine!). Glad while you and your wife were on vacation not everything was lost in the freeze-good to know. Have a safe weekend!
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Feb 17, 2017 @ 20:31:39
So sorry that your wonderful sounding trip ended up with coming back to so much loss in your garden…that is a real shame.
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Feb 17, 2017 @ 20:51:02
Thank you for your kind thoughts. It is just another lesson in “renewing”. The dead banana stalks and leaves are now mulch or rotting in the compost bin. New green shoots are heading skyward and life goes on. Not such a bad thing.
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