Bees, Please!

 The apiary is finally up and running!  Despite getting my nuc almost a month late, the bees seem to be doing pretty well.  They took a bit of a hit at first, though, since the original queen was MIA.  Thankfully, the bees had the good sense to rear a new one. 

Here are some pics of my bro, D, and I.  We're trying to find the new queen.

The frames are surprisingly heavy.  When they're loaded with honey, it takes some serious muscle to lift those suckers!

Us, in our spacesuits.  We're searching for the queen.

There she is!  See her?

The Mountain

The man, the kids and I went to "The Mountain" to visit some friends yesterday.  I had, of course, forgotten to confirm that we were coming for supper but our hostess is one of the most easy-going, hospitable ladies I'm acquainted with and so I figured we were still welcome.  I was right.  We were.

The 45 minute drive was beautiful.  There's a certain peace to the St John river, and it only gets better as we drive further into rural New Brunswick....if you like trees and brooks and rock cliffs and the occasional wildlife.  Luckily, I do.  Oh, I do.

We turned into the driveway, eased the van over the plank bridge (awesome!) and were finely greeted by swimsuit clad children.  My little ones darted off pronto, to splash in the brook.  Over the evening we checked out the HUGE garden,  the bee hives, the pigs and the tadpoles.  I learned how to identify Lamb's Quarters, which are delicious.  I can't believe I've been weeding them out of my garden.  We talked, we ate, we talked, we ate...

T & J are beautiful together.  They just mesh.  It's so easy to feel at home when we visit. 

Finally, we loaded up in the car.  T sent us off with sprigs of chocolate mint, homemade soap and reassurance that, yes, we could properly raise a pig. 

It's friends like T that make me realize:  I am blessed.