What a month!

Holy crazy month. I have been just swamped. I had events 4 out of the last 6 weekends with Damsel. It was pretty amazing. I was able to complete the director training program and promoted up two ranks during the program. I gained so much. So much confidence, so much joy and contentment. My goal when I began this Damsel path has always been to build an incredible team, to help my family, and to give back. In January with the help of my friends we raised $500 for the Gaston family. In February we raised over $400 for the Pratt family. This month we are working hard to help a sweet little 2 year old boy with liver cancer.

I also sort of fell into an activism role. I offered to help sponsor a giveaway for a new fb page called 1 Million Moms Against Gun Control. I also offered to help in any way I could. So when the awesome creator decided to take her dream bigger I was happy to help. So I am now the Nevada lead for what is becoming a nationwide nonprofit with an aim at providing education, awareness, and support on rights issues. We are actually even discussing expanding to the full constitution and not just focusing on gun rights. Being involved from the start in this is pretty cool.

I have had to take a brake this week from everything as I was feeling run down but I am loving it. Loving the ability to nurture my passions. Enjoying the meeting of new people. It truly has been an incredible joy.

New digs for the girls

We are going to be adding seven new hives to the apiary this year. I hope they like blue!

Pictures of our winter killed hive

Queen cell from different angles. This hive swarmed last summer before we bought it from a neighbor.

There were several frames of beautiful capped honey in this hive. They starve to death while attempting to chew through the caps.

Bee butts. This is a pretty good indication that they starved.

I am pretty sure this was caused by an infestation of varroa mites that we din't catch until it was too late in the year to do anything about it. I lost two hives to varroa this year and have one more struggling. They were eating a few days ago when I checked on them, but they don't seem to have the numbers that the Utah hive does. I hope it makes it.

Put up or shut up? Guess I better put up huh!

I do a lot of educating and informing on this current fight for our rights but I wanted to go a step farther. I wanted to put my money where my mouth is and try to truly make a difference. I hope I make a difference here, but honestly most of you already believe what we believe. You feel what I feel. :) So what could I do to help?

Then I saw the facebook page 1 Million Moms Against Gun Control cross my screen. Huzzah! Of course I liked the page. They are working on their non-profit status and on spreading awareness. They want to be the voice to combat the mom group screaming to take our rights. They decided to go even farther and make state specific pages to focus on the needs of each state. And I found my opening. I am now one of the Nevada coordinators! Woot! Since I know most of you aren't in NV here is the link to the list of every page. Like your state, share the list! Shout it to the roof tops. Right now the moms saying that guns are out to kill us all are 60,000 strong and growing. We need to fight back. 

Unplugging the boys.

I was so sick and tired of trying to get the boys to do ANYTHING besides play video games. We have had these rules for a long time, but I had kind of let them slide. It was getting to the point where they would just come home from school, throw their coats and back packs on the floor and pick up a controller. They would eat in front of it, fight over it and throw huge tantrums when it was time to turn it off for the night. Enough is enough. Mom is feeling well enough to lay down the law again. Two of the children have already "earned" extra chores due to rule number three. THAT rule is by far my favorite. I can just see a sparkling clean house within a weeks time!

Good dog

Since I ratted her out a couple of days ago, I thought I would post this one too. Izzy is more than my pet. She's my first line of defense against my hypoglycemia. She knows when my blood sugars are low long before I do. She even alerted to Spike last week. I tested his blood and he was 89. I have trained her to alert any time my blood sugar drops below 90. She's spot on at this point. This little dog is worth her weight in gold. Or at least her weight in elk meat :)

Another one bites the dust.

It was warm enough yesterday to go out and check the hives for the first time in about two months. Our nuc is doing great, and that is the one we were worried about. They still aren't out of the woods, but they are eating the sugar we put in the hive for them. They don't seem too interested in the pollen patties, but as long as they are eating something they should be ok. The Utah hive is still strong and more aggressive than the others. I bet we will have to split that hive this year to keep them from swarming. They were eating the sugar in their hive too, but were also trying to get into the other hives to see what they could rob. Going to have to watch that situation. Nevada hive #1 is strong and doing well. More gentle than the Utah hive, but I don't think I would want to work them without gloves and veil. Nevada hive #2 is dead :( The bees were laying dead on top of the sugar so I know they didn't starve. I think the mites got them. These were the bees we bought last fall and by the time we noticed the mites, it was too late in the season to do much about it. So now we have two big hives and a nuc that are still doing well. Let's hope it stays that way.

Bad dog

At least she has the decency to look ashamed.

Loving this tax season. *Snark*

Husband is very blessed to be in a needed industry. He is also in demand within the industry because his skill as an operator is a rare one, especially of the type of machine he works with. Due to the nature of his work it is often that the company is working in conjunction with a local government and that the work is union. So the pay is great, we get decent medical, and we have fairly good job protection.

This job has bumped us a tax bracket which has meant we pay more in taxes. That is just the nature of the beast. The fun this year has been discovering that over 20% of his income went to taxes. AND we OWE. Despite my chronic illness needing Dr. visits every month and despite my Damsel business we still owe more. They took more than some people make in a year. WTH? I am so shocked by this. I saw that number and about fell over.

Hopefully now that I have my business I can find lots of fun deductions but I am just flabbergasted at our government.

My health

I have had a hard time writing this post. I have started to write it a dozen times since October, but always just felt the need to delete it. And it's not like it was a dramatic big deal or anything. I just felt the need to keep it to myself. After being diagnosed with fibro, adrenal fatigue, hypoglycemia and a few other things, I really struggled with coping with it. I had more bad days than good and my blood pressure was always so low I felt like I would pass out. Then I found a cool clinic that treats illness in a different way. They poked my finger with a needle and put it under a microscope. Those are my red blood cells. they aren't supposed to look like that. They are all hollow and dead. Why, you ask? If you look close, you can see some little green dots in some of them. Those are parasites. They have eaten and killed nearly every red blood cell in my body. They were not able to find a single healthy one in the entire sample. The little pests were eating me alive. This could have been fatal if not caught. I was taken into the next room where I got a mega dose of vitamins through an IV. Now I go as often as I can and am feeling so much better. I have not had a single low blood sugar since mid November. I have also not had a low blood pressure reading until my friend got sick. My fibro is practically non existent and I have more energy than I have since I was in my early teens. I have two more treatments to go and then they will poke my finger again to see how much I have progressed. I am very optimistic about this though, I can't imagine I have not made a lot of progress with as good as I feel. I am sure I will need a few more treatments, but I can't believe how much better I feel after only three months.