Bee mayhem

My bees got lost yesterday. Since the "big move", seriously 30 ft away, about half of the bees got lost. The last few days have been cool and stormy so there hasn't been much activity. But yesterday was warm and sunny. I was at a friends house and when I came home, there were thousands of bees flying around in the air where the hive used to be. I immediately geared up and grabbed the new empty hive. I placed it on the edge of the cloud of bees and they went right in to rest. Most of them eventually found their way back to the active hive, but a few hundred were too weak. I shook most of them back into the active hive, but still lost quite a few. The ground is littered with tiny striped carcasses this morning. There are still  a few that are crawling around trying to get the strength to fly, but I doubt they will make it. Weird how you get attached to a bug and will sit outside dribbling sugar water on them each individually to try and bring them around. I placed a branch in front of the entrance to the active hive so they have to orientate themselves when they leave. Hopefully this will help them find their way back home today.

How not to move a beehive

My husband decided to move the hive night before last while I was at cub scouts. I got a call from Butch saying I needed to hurry home because Dad had been stung. He only got stung twice and was ok, but the video explains a LOT!

What a bee-utiful day!

Yeah, I know. That was a lame little pun, I couldn't help myself. For the last couple of weeks, Hubby has been building new beehives for me. We ordered a nuc that we will have to pick up sometime in May. I am also going to split my hive this spring.  The first hive was completed today.

Pretty nice, huh? Here is the old and new hives next to each other. The bees kept flying into the new hive to see if there was anything good in there. I hope they give it up soon so that they don't rob the new bees when I install them in the hive. I think I am going to have to do some research on the subject.

We also opened the existing hive today. This was the first time I ever had help (hubby got his own veil today, hooo hooo!) and I never felt comfortable taking it all apart without an extra set of hands, so this was a first for me. We had some funky architecture going on with some frames. This one was just weird. Loads of brood though, so I know the queen is doing a good job. Look at the little white spots near the bottom, those are larva. Gross little white worm looking things. Those will soon be busy little bees. I also saw a few drones, I still kind of like those guys. I feel bad for them, they are so gentle and sweet.

The queen is in this picture, can you see her?

How about now? She's almost in the middle of the pic 

Anyway, all seems to be well in the hive and I am looking forward to fall when I can have my first harvest!

It is your response that matters.

I find people fall into a couple groups when it comes to attitude about life. Mine recently can get pretty frustrated as the teens help less and less the closer they get to moving and thier papa is a bundle of negativity. I don't like some of the behavior in my home. JW and I are a very mellow couple. We don't fight often and when we do it tends to be quick and then done. We have maybe 1 big huge gonna strangle you fight a year that will last about an hour. We stomp off to our corners, me in tears, and then realize we are both idiots and apologize. Even with the angst of JW fighting some demons during her young years Bug soaked the mellow like a sponge. She is a very chill kid. Happy to be with family, content to relax, sensitive like her mama. Not a yell do we get unless she is in a fit of prepubescent angst. Now Monkey on the other hand has had a different couple years. Teens occupy her space. They are opposite sex and forced to share a room by circumstance. So the fighting can be epic. The cussing can rival any construction site I have been on. So my little angel yells and hits and gets mean when she is mad at you over something. Drives me batty. So frustrated is a state I live in on some days.

Anyway I have noticed quite a few people who complain over the weirdest things. Little dumb things. Don't get me wrong I will complain my guts out to JW and my close friends. Everyone needs to vent stuff. I also came to a point where the whole "I'm fine" response just felt dumb. If asked how I am and I feel like crap I am going to say so.  I regularly hid my health and feelings from others and ended up being a doormat. So not going there. Don't ask if you don't want the honest answer.

Back to complaints. Something life has taught me is that the little stuff is worthless to be annoyed about. He didn't make the bed? Not the end of the world. She left trash on the counter? Meh. Just give a reminder and let it go. No need to feel full of anger. Dude cut you off on the drive to work? Already happened and we can't change it so unless you got into an accident all it did was cause some break pushing. Not more than a few seconds of time lost. Let it go. We waste so much time wrapped up in little junk that we miss the beauty of the world. Yeah my little girl has some negative stuff we need to work on. Family bought a house (huzzah!) so we will have time to do that. I treasure her curiosity and her kisses. Her imagination is endless (wonder where she got that?) and she loves ponies like they are the dawn of a new day. She is brilliant and amazing. So I dwell on that. Bug is a tween. Boys and clothes and music are entering her radar. We have some hormonal angst but the girl is sweet-natured and loving. She puts up with the little one's hero worship better than I could have dreamed and helps me even when she is annoyed. That is what I concentrate on. This illness is scary and endless and limiting. I can complain about that but I also focus on my blessings. Why let the dumb little stuff stress me out when I have bigger fish to fry?

Hot potato Lila!

Do you remember as a child playing the game called hot potato? You and your friends sat in a circle and passed a ball as quickly as you could without dropping it. If you let it drop you lost. Now imagine that game and every person in the circle is a doctor. A Hematologist, Primary Care Dr., Rheumatologist, Endocrinologist. They pass that potato so fast it blurs. I realized today I am that potato. FMS makes me that untouchable unwanted potato. Every doc runs a battery of tests just to rule out things so they can prove something else. Finally I thought I had hope. I found a well respected Rhemuatologist. FMS is after all in that category. Went in and she tried some meds and ran her slew of tests. Her meds made me sicker. Her tests agreed with everyone else. I am the healthiest sick person in the world. Today I was told that the nature of FMS makes it difficult for her to help me so she is passing me on to a pain management specialist. I get to add another doc to the circle. I am so frustrated I just sat in the car and cried. I wanted to avoid that fate. I battled during my teen years with a host of things, addiction being a close friend. Maybe I was lucky I faced that so young. I was very healthy and to a teen months feel like eons and I was through my bottom and clean by the time I was 17. It wasn't an easy road. I made it harder for myself by being deceitful and destructive. Then I found my guy and the world seemed to complete itself. I have never looked back and never wanted to. Even before I converted to the LDS religion I didn't drink. I didn't smoke. The only time I ever took a strong prescription was when my girls were born and when I had kidney stones/infection or my wisdom teeth pulled. I don't even allow them to numb me at the dentist anymore. So this prospect has me very upset. I do not want to take pain drugs. The thought of risking that just terrifies me. Yet it has also been shown that so far the biggest proven help for FMS is pain drugs.

This potato is so overcooked.

Just random rambling

Yesterday was the nicest, warmest day we have had so far this year. We had a nice dinner with a friend and her family and then loaded up all of the kids and guns (for some reason the "kids and guns" combo always makes me smile) and went out to the desert for some fun. Hubby set up the AR and the .22 while my friend and I set up some targets for our handguns. Next thing you know, bullets are flying an everyone is having a blast! I need some serious practice with my gun before I am anywhere close to being ready to take my concealed carry test. Oh well, at least the practice is fun.

I got to shoot my friends Ruger 9mm and her husbands XDM Springfield .45 (holy smokes! That thing is LOUD). My gun kicks worse than either of theirs, lol. We all got to shoot the AR and my friend's husband has decided he really wants on of those!

We forgot hearing protection and now have a slight problem. Hubby has some painful ringing in his ears. I used some essential oils, and it worked......for a few minutes. He is still having problems with it today at work. If he is still not better by friday, I will get him an appointment with the audiologist.

My mouth is almost healed to the point where it feels normal. Last night though I had a shard of bone make it's way down and out through my almost healed gums. Argh. I hope that doesn't happen again. I have lots of the bone graft coming out, but those are small sand like grains, not at all painful. This piece last night though was SHARP!

Hubby has decided to build a few more beehives. We want to buy more bees this year as well as split my hive. He has built everything except the foundation. He has decided to jump right into this rather than sit back and watch me do it. He ordered a veil for himself and everything. Now I need to find a bee repellent for my son to wear outside. I have a bunch of essential oils I am going to try. I know lemongrass attracts them, but I think I can find one to repel them as well. Hopefully I can figure it out because I have several ideas of where I can use that. I can use it to keep them out of the chicken feed, I can use it to keep us from getting stung, and I can use it to clear the bees out of a super I am collecting honey from. I will let you know as soon as I figure that one out, lol.

Burning Bridges (very off topic)

Is it really a bridge burnt if the person you have cut out of your life was hurtful and untrustworthy? I feel more loss about certain four legged creatures that are in this person's posession then I do about her. I know now that I will never see them again and that stings a little. Not that I would have seen them before this, but the possibility was still there.

She was someone who continuiously stabbed my best friend in the back and just when the wounds started to heal, she would twist the knife......just so. I kept the contact, first because I had to. Then because she was benificial to a cause I love. But this latest twist of the knife was too much. Now it's just being vindictive.

So I go to bed wondering......what next? When will she turn on me? (because she will) What does she have up her sleeve? Who will she go after next? I don't think she has any way to do me harm, we run in different circles. But I didn't think she could do what she did to my friend either.

This latest attack could have financially ruined my friend. It was a situation that was being resolved, she just wanted to see if she could get one last fly in the ointment. It didn't work, she was a minor inconvience at best. But I wonder, why did she think we could be friends when she is hurting this person I have come to love as a sister? Did she think she could get information from me? What exactly did she expect would happen? Did she really think I didn't know?

I guess I am just a little confused by the two faces I have seen from her. She acts very friendly and supportive when she speaks to me. But she simply cannot let my friend live in peace. She constantly has to keep her on edge wondering when the other shoe will drop.

The only way this could end is the way it did. I have had enough. I am not going to sit by and pretend I don't know what a lying, conniving, manipulating, back stabbing cow she really is.

I have too much on my mind, I think it's time for a little lead therapy.

tooth trouble

I finally decided to have my tooth pulled. In a fit of agony. On a Saturday. I called and begged my dentist to come in and just rip it out of my mouth. He made a few calls, found one of his assistants willing to come in and I raced to his office, ready to be done with the pain once and for all. Yeah, that always works out, right?

By the time I got there, they had examined my x-rays and decided that the tooth did not in fact have a question mark shape. It has a CORKSCREW shape. *facepalm* He told me he could pull it but didn't have the capabilities to put me under in the likely chance the root broke off. He gave me stronger pain pills, stronger antibiotics and a referral to a specialist in Utah.

Fast forward to Monday morning when I am once again holding the phone trying to talk around the pain shooting through y face. The specialist would not be in the office until Thursday. Dammit.

I call my dentist back and get another referral to a dentist in Idaho. I made arrangements for someone to pick my kids up from school, shoved my husband out the door and off to Idaho we went. Once there, I had more x-rays and more humming and hawing about what do do with the devil tooth. Then things got bad. That guy was ROUGH! He jammed the needle to the bone to numb my mouth, left the room for 15 minutes and then came back to get to work. He put a block in my mouth to keep me from biting him. Good thing too, I would have taken off his fingers. He grabbed that tooth and yanked hard to the right. The tooth snapped off at the gum line. Dammit.

The rest was a painful blur where the only thing I remember is being picked up off the chair by the roots of my teeth. When all of the pieces had been wrested from my jaw, I found out that he had cut into my jawbone and removed some of it in order to reach the roots. I walked out with 12 stitches and a bone graft.

The next day, my face blew up like a balloon. My cheek was red and shiny and there was a bone deep searing ache in my upper jaw. I had to eat in order to take my painpills and antibiotics, but it wasn't easy. I basically lived on sips of broth and pain killers for three days. Once I was able to come out of the fog the Percoset left me in, I slowly started to eat more and more around a little bit. People made jokes about my swollen face (guess you should have done the dishes the first time he asked you!) and I tried to smile and nod.

Today I have one stitch left and it doesn't bother me like the others did so I don't care if it sticks around for a while. The swelling is gone, but it still hurts to smile or laugh. My smile is also very lopsided and tight.

Who needs teeth anyway?

*disclaimer* A friend copied the pic from another blog, I don't know which one, but it's not mine.

Guns Save Lives - Nevada Style 3-26-12

Another homeowner defending their life. Locally. Good job! I would shoot someone who kicked in my door.

Resident shoots possible intruder near Washington & Jones

 Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- A resident of a home near Washington Avenue and Jones Boulevard shot a a man attempting to break in on Monday evening.
Police said the suspect kicked in the home's door in the 5800 block of Iris Avenue after 6 p.m., prompting the resident of the home to shoot the suspect.
The suspect fled the scene and was caught and arrested two houses down.
He was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Action News will update this story as new information becomes available.

 

 

Canner conundrum.

<p>My sweet sister-in-law is due to have a baby soon and I am going to go help out. To prepare I am making some of my usual canned goods to take. I did spaghetti sauce Saturday. About halfway through the pressure all of the sudden lessens and my weight slows. I scrubbed it well and looked it over. There were no leaks from the seal as it cooked and other wasn't looking weird. I figured it was a fluke. Today I put in some tortilla soup. 7 quart jars. The max for my canner.  With 20 minutes left the pressure started to yo-yo. Never changed the heat but the pressure went up and down. Any ideas? Do i just need to replace the whole shebang? Did i do something wrong ? Is there some upkeep I don't know about? It is a presto pressure cooker /canner. 7 quarts. It is not even 3 years old yet.