I Met My First Queen BEE!!!

Saturday was BEE-you-TEE-full out here at the ranch!

A perfect day for a tractor ride!

Lois Dean needed a part for the gates he's installing up here and he knew he had some down by the old corral. Sherry was doing some tractor work and said she'd go pick them up for him so he didn't have to walk across the fields. She let me ride along!

Life is better on a tractor!

SO much fun!

Can you see the bee pin hanging on my necklace?

It was a Christmas gift from Summer and I wore it special for Saturday as it was our Bee Day!

There are our three hives.

The pink one in the foreground is our original one from last year.

We lost the other hive in the late winter.

The two new ones are in the back.

Our sister bee keeper, Rosey, came to help us open up the two hives and add the supers.

The bees were busy but not aggressive.

Rosey and Sherry opening up the first one.

There they are!!!

Nine frames of bees!

It looks like a healthy hive!

Lots of brood.....brood means baby bees.

Lots and lots of bees!!!

It's always exciting to open up the bee boxes and see what's going on.

We were looking for the queen bee......

and while we saw signs of her in the first box - as in capped brood and larvae - we did not see the queen with our eyes. She's usually covered in a bunch of bees so it wasn't unusual to not spot her.

However - on the 7th frame of the second hive - we found their queen!

Rosey said, "You will know it when you see her!"

And so we did!

That's a gloved thumb in the foreground and she is straight across from it!

You can see she is longer and bigger than the other bees.

All was well with both hives and the supers were put on - which are bee boxes with comb frames that the bees will fill with honey. The bottom box is called a brood box and holds the baby bees and larvae and a limited amount of honey that we never harvest as it is for the bees.

The Three Bee Keepers are WE!!!

Rosey, me and Sherry!

I snapped this pic as we were finishing up with our bee chores.

The hives are in a good place with access to water and lots of wildflowers.

They have been gathering pollen for some time now but Sherry has been feeding them with sugar water until the flow starts which means until they are gathering nectar.

She does all the real bee work down here. I'm just along for the ride and what little help I can give.

Every other morning she mixes up 5 pounds of sugar with a one to one ratio of water and 'bucket feeds' the bees. She bought cool rings to put on these buckets from a hardware store and drilled tiny holes for the sugar water to leak out and where the bees could feed without drowning.

See how they can feed at the little openings?

Before this - she would fill a bucket with the sugar water and then put a bunch of limbs, grass and twigs in it for the bees to stand on and not drown in the water while they were feeding.

Sherry is always studying and learning and putting into action what she finds.

We had the best time after we were done with the bees and our suits were off and the wine was poured and we sat back and visited together.

This was Rosey's first time to the ranch and the first time to meet Louis Dean and Dean.

We had a great meal together and the evening flew by!

We had some good steaks, sweet potato caserole - because Louis Dean loves it so much - and a garden salad, baked beans and Sherry's creamed potatoes. Dessert was slices of Amaretto cake (Aldi's) topped with Cool Whip and fresh strawberries, raspberries and black berries.

A perfect meal to end a perfect day!

I blew the candle out after everyone left.

So grateful for family like Dean and Sherry and having a new friend in Rosey!

God is good to me!

Louis Dean and I both slept so good last night!

He was up before me but he went to bed early - even before Dean, Sherry and Rosey left last night.

That's a good thing as he is realizing he needs to stop when he's worn out and go to bed when he needs to go to bed.

We sat with our coffee and Bible reading together this morning and then we started a new book to read out loud together.

I don't remember when we bought this book but I do know it was at a thrift store.

We are always looking for good books to read together.

It was published in 1986.

It's a novel about the Apostle Paul and the only novel written by Johnny Cash.

Billy Graham wrote that he and his wife read it and then read it again.

Reading the introduction reached my heart as he wrote about starting this book and then it taking years to finish. I, too, have started a book. As in - what? 5 years ago? I don't remember exactly but it was the first sibling trip Deanie and I took together.

Actually - I looked back at my blog post history and it was February 2015! 5 Years!!

Blog post - Linda, Linda, Linda!!! Listen to me, Linda!

That's when I started writing and I am half way through.

Johnny Cash started writing - and then the book gathered dust in a closet for years before he started again - and then stopped. And then finally finished it.

I finished the hard part of the book - or so I thought - of my childhood years - as in birth to the age of 14 when I married. Now I am in 1966 when I turned 18 just a couple of months before my first born son was born. I wonder how to conclude the first half of the book and pick up in September 2005 when Mother had the stroke that changed my siblings and my relationships as much as that day in 1957 that changed our lives so dramatically.

I think I have published the Prologue before but perhaps I will do that again tomorrow.....

just to keep me accountable that I have a book to write and I need to finsh it.

And I did write some on Chapter 18 and added notes to chapter 19.

Step by step. Little by little. That's how you get things done.

That done, I went out to join Louis Dean in our 'Golden Hour' tonight.

This is my favorite time of day in the country.

I found a strip of patriotic fabric here that I cut up for face masks to sew up when I get home.

No telling how long we will need to be wearing them when we go out.

I am going to keep sewing and you all keep letting me know if you need some.

It is my pleasure and honor to send them to you!

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers for Louis Dean.

He has rallied around and been more himself since we arrived at the ranch.

This is a Happy Place for both of us.

The sparkle has come back to his eyes.

I am so grateful for that.

Thursday and Friday morning he had the eyes I have seen at Trail Lake Nursing home.

I can't really describe it but - like Rosey said about the queen bee - you know it when you see it.

I saw it in his eyes and it scared me.

Thankfully, he has come to a place where he realizes he needs to stop and rest when he gets tired.

He no longer snaps back like he used to.

He's done several projects since we have been here but he's also paced himself.

We have to be realistic about old age.

No one can stay young forever.

We must adapt and adjust to our capabilities.

It's not nearly as easy to grow old gracefully as I thought it would be.

But we must try to do our best!

And with that I bid you goodnight!