With a box of bees with a mated queen currently costing $225.00 I’m going to try to attract some swarming bees this spring who are looking for a new home. I’ve placed a cotton ball with a few drops of a bee-attracting lemon scent inside this box called a nuk with some empty honeycomb frames. Early spring is the best time to catch them so they will have time to establish a strong colony to go through the winter. They…
I had several 100 gallon water troughs at the farm that had cracks which would no longer hold water. Rather than throw them in the land-fill, I decided to put them to good use. My son and I set them around the edge of the patio. I had him drill extra holes in the bottom for good drainage and holes in the top to attach chicken wire to the top. We put old sticks in the bottom, then added a…
About five weeks ago I wrote a blog about seeding clover for my bees to feast on in order to make delicious honey. Last weekend I searched for any sign that the sowing of clover seeds in February snow was a success. If you look closely, you can see some tiny clover leaves peeking through the ground cover of dead grass and fall leaves. All three hives made it through that -20 degree weather. I feel very fortunate, because many…
I was challenged to write a cinquain (pronounced sin-kane) this week. I was out Saturday night in the snow after taking this picture earlier in the day. In case you are unfamiliar with an American cinquain, it is a poem with five lines. The first line is the subject of the poem with two syllables. The next line has two adjectives that describe the noun with a total of four syllables. The the third line has three verbs of action…
During WWII housing was at a premium. My folks and I lived with two other couples in a small apartment in Albany, Oregon near Camp Adair. One of the ladies, Marge Wasson, made a most wonderful chocolate cake. That recipe has been our family favorite since that time. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour:1 tablespoon vinegar into 1 cup milk to sour it if you don’t have sour milk on hand.boil 1 cup waterset these aside to add alternately when…
After 56 years we have renovated our guest bath. We removed the flowered wall paper that had been up for 42 years and ripped the speckled oatmeal tile from the walls. This project took a month but is well worth it. We closed the window so the tile pattern can shine through. Replacing the vanity and toilet refreshed the space considerably. The box the toilet came in boasted you could flush ten golf balls in one flush. I don’t…
When you do a rehab in one room it makes another one look shop-worn. That’s what happened when we did a redo to the guest bath. Suddenly, the carpet looked dingy in the hall and family room. So what do you do? Move all the furniture into the dining room to make room for the carpet cleaners. Hopefully, they will show up when they are scheduled and then we can shove all the stuff back into its proper place. If…
Our family tree is expecting a new branch to emerge soon so I made a blanket and hat for the new arrival. Hopefully, she will appear in April. This makes great-grandbaby # 8! How did I get to live so long to see my children’s children’s children!
Even though I put protective pads to protect my hardwood floor in the kitchen, they still scratched the floor. Last week I saw a version of these socks and shoes at a friend’s house. I came home and designed some of my own. Now, the chairs slide easily across the floor without scratches on the felt souls of the shoes held steady by the knitted socks.
We’re redoing a bathroom that hasn’t been renovated for 56 years. The day after we pulled the vanity and toilet, we got 11″ of snow. Now in order to remove the well-used items from the front yard, we have to dig it out of snow. Hopefully, the neighbors don’t think this is our new yard art!