Bees, Hockey, Nuts and Target! Our Wonderful Weekend!!

 Dean and Sherry suited up and went out to check the hives Sunday.

What an amazing difference a week makes!

From a frozen winter wonderland to spring like weather in the 60's!

Thankfully, all three hives are still full of bees.....although there were hundreds of dead drones on the ground. They treated the hives with Apivar  strips for any varroa mites  - and one of the hives was a bit on the hostile side and stung Dean several times. The strips stay in place inside the hives for 42 days and this must be before you put any honey supers on. We can't harvest the honey if it's been exposed to the Apivar. While that does not matter to the bees and they can eat the honey - we cannot.

We are planning on going down to the ranch later this week, even though we can't stay more than a few days. Louis Dean has an appointment with his cardiologist on the 3rd of March so we have to be home by the 2nd. But a few days is better than no days!!

Dean and Sherry checked on the camper/cabin and all seems well.

Dean had turned the water off before the extreme weather hit and he turned it back off once they had checked on things up where our place is.

We were up early on Saturday and just before we left, Louis Dean turned all the water off to the house.

He had repaired a broken pipe but thought it best to keep the water off while we were gone.

Turned out to be an excellent idea!

We were over at Amber's by 11:00 Saturday and rode with her and Logan and Harrison to their hockey game. Mike had taken Trystan and Kailey to their game which was at a different location.

I love to see my Amber in action.

She is an excellent mother and knows all four of her children so very well.

She was a synchronized swimmer.....and now her children are skating on water ice instead of swimming in it! 

It was a good decision to get out of the house for the day!

Mike, Kailey and Trystan arrived for the second period of the game.

Kailey and Granddad always get their picture taken together!

If I don't take it, Kailey will do a selfie with him - using my phone, of course!

Amber and the girls cheered them on while Mike was over in the coaching area.

And they WON!!! 8-4! 

Harrison led the team to pile up on their talented goalie in congratulations!

Harrison is #91 and Logan #12

He was pretty pumped!

Logan and Harrison both made a bee line to their mother!

Since we were in two vehicles, we stopped by Chicken Express for some fried chicken!

Harrison opted for a grilled cheese from Sonic.

We rendezvoused back at the house where we made our plates and gathered in the living room to watch Fellowship Church service together. All services were online this weekend.

Louis Dean took advantage of the opportunity to shop Home Depot and Walmart all by himself.....

while I played NUTS with the kids!

Normally you need to be around 10-years-old to play a good game of Nuts but these 8 year-olds are pretty quick! 

Louis Dean came back and he decided to nap while Amber and I went on a Target run.

Starbucks tea as we entered and we enjoyed strolling up and down every isle!

We visited as we browsed and had the most wonderful time.

It was a really GOOD day all the way around.

We came home and unloaded all the groceries - Louis Dean had his in the trunk and I filled half the back seat with what I bought. The water was working when we left and he had turned it off just as a precaution. So he turned it back on and I started the dishwasher and we were going about our evening just fine. I went to turn the lights on the front porch out ......and I heard water!

A different faucet had burst with the pressure! I ran around filling the bathtub with water to flush the commode and a couple of pitchers full as well as our water for the coffee pots before he went out and turned all the water off. Again. He had slept for nearly 3 hours at Amber's so I went on to bed and he stayed up to fix that faucet and the one in the back. Yes, it had the be fixed - again.

I got up early this Monday morning - as in 6:00! What is up with this?? I have never been a morning person EVER but I seem to be waking earlier and earlier these days.

Louis Dean turned the water back on once he got up - and all was well - for a few minutes.

At least it was long enough for me to make breakfast, which Louis Dean gave a 5 out of 10 score!

I was more of an 8 myself!

Then the back faucet burst open. Again.

All in all, we had 4 different faucets break and one - the one by the back pond - had to be repaired FOUR times! So that's SEVEN broken pipes he had to fix!

You know what the problem was with the one that kept breaking?

He got mixed up and was using pipe from his 'trash' pile.

Instead of throwing them out - he kept them!

That did NOT work out very well for him, did it??

It's a little after 9:00 and, as I write, all our water is on again!

I get a thrill every time I flush the commode!

When it was a pipe in the back - he could turn the water off there and we still had it in the kitchen.

I am thankful for those cut off valves for the bathrooms or we would have been without water from last Saturday when that first pesky pipe broke because it was too cold to fix them for several days.

Look what I got in the mail today from a dear friend in Utah!!

I have never seen beehive cupcake pans before and that honeybee spooon rest is adorable!

I'm thinking I need to bake tomorrow.

I will close tonight's journal entry with this funny from Facebook!

Actually, it was -2 here in the DFW area!

I had just posted when I received a message about Lonnie.

He's having another episode similar to the one that put him in the hospital before Christmas. Prayers for our brother would be greatly appreciated.