Bees, plants, trees and Mother's Day.

I checked on my bees today and they had really expanded the bur comb by the feeder so I had to take it out and remove the comb. I guess if you don't do this it gets really messy. I added back the two frames that had been removed for the queen box and feeder.

I was really happy to see lots of tiny eggs. One in each cell means the queen laid them recently. These were inside some of the bur comb I had to remove. Sad causalty =(

Even more sad was losing these larvae that were developing in the cells. You can see pollen and nectar on the right.

I was a bit less nervous this time. LC and the boys even came to watch me and got to check everything out. I was able to take some photos and also found Stella!! Can you spot her? She is near the bottom right. She has a big abodomen with no stripes and very short wings. The comb is covered in "capped" brood which means the first eggs are pupating! New girls coming soon. (Which is good because I smashed a few today)

The boys liked looking at the comb I had to remove. I'll keep it all in the freezer and use it to make lip balm and candles and furniture polish etc.

These little guys are in the Hemipteran order. Also called "true bugs". The order has a lot of pests like sapsuckers, leafhoppers and toe biters (aquatic). They look like beetles but they have a cross shape on their back because their wings (hemelytra)are only half hard and half clear (hemipteran=half wing). Beetles have full elytra (wings) that are folder over their entire thorax and abdomen (generally). Also beetles are homometabolous and they develop from larvae and pupate like bees. Bugs are hemimetabolous and the babies look like the adults only smaller. They are called 'nymphs'. Most biologists believe that homometabolous insects are more highly developed and younger on an evolutionary scale. Anyway....they're mating right now and it looks pretty funny the way they walk around. Nolan thinks it's hilarious that they have to walk with their butts stuck together.

For Mother's Day I asked for the same thing I did on my birthday. I wanted to clean house and do yard work. I know it's silly, but I love getting the house all clean and working in the yard. Things pile up so quickly (literally and figuratively) and it'll feel great next week to have knocked off the major things. I got to wipe some fingerprints off the wall and vacuum cabinets and stuff. Whohoo! Nolan took this photo of me moving mulch. I did that all weekend really. My lower back is killing me. I'm getting old! The boys mostly climbed around on big piles of mulch and played on this eyesore of a swing set LC brought home when he went to help our neighbor Peter move a piano from an elderly couples place. Their grandkids were over it. As homely as it is, it's been great. The kids call it "the park" and have played on it every day since we got it. We did go out to dinner at Mazzoti's too and Nolan colored some things for me. The boys didn't even complain that I dressed them up to take a couple of pictures. All of the scratches on Nolan's face are from Caleb and Caleb has some bruises to match. Someone will be calling CPS soon I'm sure.

There is even more going on around the yard now. The lilacs are blooming. It makes me miss Spokane a little. I bet the lilac parade is going on soon. My mom always loved lilacs. I always thought the smell was a bit cloying, but I really like them now that I've left the Lilac City. Our grapes are budding out and so are the kiwi. I just bought some hops as well, but didn't get pics yet. The latin name for hops is Humulus lupulus and they are in the family Cannabaceae. All of our neighbors grow another plant in this family and I swear one of them is throwing it in the fireplace and it reeks! The boys garden is sprouting. The blueberries are blooming and so is the bleeding heart in the front. All the deciduos trees-maples, alder etc. are leafy.

We had to cut down 3 pine trees in the back yard. We made a huge mess and killed a large number of plants and shrubs, but we had to do it before they fell on their own down the road.

Ozzy, Happy and Presley surveying the damage. The dogs have their springtime puppy cuts. I took them to the groomers and had them shaved down. Everyone thinks Oz is a puppy when he's shaved. He's an old man though and having some health issue now too. I just took him in for lots of bloodwork and he'll go in next week to get some tumors removed and his teeth cleaned. They trimmed up the redwood clump by the treehouse and it looks nice, but it's a little strange. I've got a lot of cleanup to do over there now. Nolan loved playing on the logs when they were down and made a little fort behind them. LC and EJ rented a chipper and chipped up all the limbs for me.

The boy's attention span is still pretty short, but they love to help when it involves cutting and/or sharp objects. I got them to prune with me a bit and they did an OK job except for cutting my artichoke down to the roots. The beds looked nicer after they were pruned and mulched, especially my herb garden.

The girls have been taking a lot of dirt baths. I love watching them. I got some video too that I'll post later. While moving stuff around the yard and prepping for the septic mound to go in next week, we found where they've been laying all their eggs when they don't go in the coop!

Spiderwick has returned with a friend. Nolan is very sad because Spiderwick doesn't follow us around anymore. I don't think they handled the ducks as much as we did, and he doesn't need us now that he's got a girlfriend I guess . She's a Cayuga duck and will be dark iridescent green/black I think. No bats have come to live in my bat house yet. I see them around, but maybe I need to put it up higher. I was thinking about putting out some wood duck boxes as well to see if I can get more birds. I hear a barred owl every few nights, but I would like to get some smaller owls and I guess they like wood duck boxes.