Spiders, Swelling and Super Neighbors

If Oliver could tell this story he would tell you this morning was the best morning ever. I personally have had better. The day started for me with a strange sharp sensation in my shoulder. I rubbed my shoulder and was surprised to find a raisin there. Then I opened my eyes and realized there were long, creepy legs everywhere and the raisin was actually a smashed spider. (Oliver is holding the pieces of the spider in the photogrpah below).

I have a bit of a spider phobia so having one smashed on my body was not the best way to start a Saturday. I went into the bathroom and noticed that my eyes were looking strange. Oliver and I watched as one eye started developing hives and began swelling. Recently at work we had anaphylaxis training so I was especially concerned that my eye had started swelling quickly. I drank some liquid Zyrtec and hoped for the best.

About ten minutes later, I began having difficulty swallowing. Glenn was at work and I was home alone with Oliver. Although we live 20 minutes away from the nearest hospital, we happen to live across the street from our local fire station. We walked over and found four young firemen doing their morning workout regimen and I instantly wished I had taken the time to put on a bra. (Below is a picture of Oliver and his cousin Owen waving at the fire truck last Spring).

The firemen had no access to an EpiPen and decided it would be best to call an ambulance. They sat me in the fire station, gave me some oxygen and took my vitals. This is where Oliver's life got really good. Oli was given a fireman hat, stickers and a bracelet. Then two of the firemen asked Oliver if he wanted to play in the truck. As we waited for the ambulance to arrive we could hear Oliver over the loudspeaker, "Hi, Mommy! I love you Mommy!" One of the firemen came back in to the fire station with a walkie-talkie. Oliver apparently wanted to talk to me. "What's your 20?” he asked. The firemen with me told me to say, "The fire station. What's your 20?" Oliver listed the number of his engine.

Over the loudspeaker Oliver announced, "The ambulance is here Mommy!" The Zyrtec seemed to be kicking in by the time the ambulance arrived, and after an assessment, I was cleared to go back home. I found Oliver on the shoulders of a fireman looking for lizards. We walked across the street to our property and Oliver asked if I could get a spider bite again soon. We'll be back at the fire station tomorrow with cookies. Thank goodness for our great neighbors!

The Dos and Don'ts of Rattlesnake Relocation

Pumpkin tried to attack a rattlesnake last night. Grammy heard him barking frantically then observed him trying to bite a small animal. She promptly pulled Pumpkin off his prey, an adolescent rattlesnake. The snake was pissed off. We watched him carefully as he rattled his tail next to Pumpkin's dog house. There were two sensible options. 1. Kill him. 2. Leave him alone. Kill him was out. We also didn't want to leave him in Pumpkin's enclosure because we knew Pumpkin would be all over him in the morning.

Luckily, we had been drinking wine, which helped us come up with a more creative plan. This is what I learned from my experience last night.

DON'T wear old, baggy jeans for snake removal when your bum could potentially be in all the photographs.

DO put on bee gloves and boots for a false sense of security.
DON'T assume you can lightly nudge a snake and it will crawl into a recycling bin. The snake will quickly crawl under the bin toward your feet.

DO sneak up behind the snake and flick it into the recycling bin.

DON'T drop the bin as you attempt to stand it up. It will make everyone watching you jumpy.

DO make sure your toddler has a healthy fear of rattlesnakes (but don't freak him out too much, snakes are cool).

DO drag the recycling bin as far away as possible from your house.

DON'T do it when the neighbors are watching.

DO let the neighbors know that you have a squirrel in the recycling bin if anyone asks.

DO relax and enjoy another glass of wine knowing that you worked hard to relocate a snake, and put yourself in danger, but the snake will likely be back in the dog's enclosure by morning.

Do you want to make lip balm?

I thought it would be kind of fun to do a tutorial on my blog. I was trying to think about what I do that not many people know how to do. My work experience in the veterinary and medical fields has provided me with a few talents I considered sharing. Hmmm, I know how to express a dog's anal glands, I could share that with the world. Or what about treating genital warts? It's a useful skill occasionally (although you do need to have access to acid or a cryo tank). All of my ideas seemed a bit inappropriate. I finally decided to share my side job, lip balm making. And don't worry; I wash my hands really well.

So, here it is, step by step.

Step 1: MELTING THE BEESWAX. We get raw beeswax from a local guy who uses no chemicals on his hives. Glenn then filters it and saves it in these handy one ounce molds. I know one ounce of beeswax will make one batch so it saves us from having to weigh the dry beeswax. We use a double boiler to melt the wax. Beeswax is highly flammable so never leave it!


Step 2: HEATING AND MIXING THE OILS. We heat organic almond oil and organic jojoba oil in a little pot (never over an open flame). Then we add to it heated coconut oil. I like to use about 50% liquid at room temperature oil with 50% solid at room temperature oil (coconut oil)/beeswax mixture. You can change the ratios depending if you want a hard or soft lip balm. I add the beeswax last. Keep the temperature just high enough to keep the beeswax melted.

Step 3: ADD THE ESSENTIAL OIL. This is the last step as the essential oils will burn off quickly. I used organic lavender oil for this batch. Don't attempt to take a picture of yourself during this step as you will lose count of the drops. I do about two drops/tube of the lavender oil.

Step 4: POUR THE MIXTURE INTO CONTAINERS. If you have a toddler, he or she will start begging to be held during this step, then throw a tantrum as you frantically try to pour the mixture into the tubes before the oil burns off. I recommend a Winnie the Poo video. This part takes practice, but is easily mastered. My sister invented our handy lip balm holder (you can buy holders for those round tubes, but not for our oval tubes). If we ever make it big with our business, I'm giving her ten dollars of gratitude. So you want to fill up the tubes (if you are even using tubes, you can pour the mixture into any old container) to 2 cm from the top. Wait until it has cooled then fill it the rest of the way. Let cool completely, then cap.


It's totally easy and my lips have never felt better. Feel free to e-mail me if you need more info. Maybe I will write about something more challenging for my next tutorial, like the hand maneuvers for delivering a baby. You never know when you will have to deliver a baby on the side of the road (I keep hoping but to my dismay it has never happened). I'll leave you with a pretty picture of the bees in our artichoke plant. I hate having an entire post with dull pictures! Jess

Beekeeping

Glenn attended a beekeeping class last weekend. This was a class specifically for new beekeepers on the central coast of California (which we are), how lucky. The teacher, Jeremy Rose, owns The California Bee Company. Jeremy is not only a great teacher and beekeeper, he writes as well. He gave us all a copy of his yet to be published book about beekeeping in California. We have found it very interesting to read.

I was really happy to see the large turnout of new beekeepers. Backyard beekeeping seems to be getting big in our area. I would like to think we are trendy and hip, but for some reason I think this doesn't count. Oliver was the youngest student with Glenn coming in at a distant second.


For Father's Day I made Glenn and Oliver matching shirts. I was inspired by Barbara's Spot on the Blog, where she posted about a funny shirt she saw at a beekeeping convention.

Oliver is One Lucky Boy

Happy Father's Day to my husband, the best Dad in the world.

And Happy Father's Day to my daddy, Oliver's best buddy.

Bear Hunting

I heard there were black bears at our local lake (Santa Margarita Lake). Not a big deal for some people, but for a girl who has only seen two bears in her lifetime, exciting indeed. I got the boys on board, put on my bear hat for good luck and headed out to the lake.

Glenn was leading the way down the trail when we spotting some bushes moving. Several baby quail started running for their mother who was calling for them from a bush closer to the lake. A few more steps and Pumpkin startled three deer, which went bounding into the trees. At this point I realized I needed to be in front to spot the bear. I was NOT going to only get a glimpse of the bear’s tail as it retreated into the trees.

I was happily leading when I looked down and saw this next to my foot. Oliver now knows the meaning of the word “shit.” I actually think I said, “Shit, shit, SHIT, back up, RATTLESNAKE!”

Being the loving wife that I am, I decided Glenn should have the opportunity to experience all of the wildlife first for the rest of the hike. Oliver and I followed behind carefully, eyes glued to the ground.

This hike was incredible in terms of cool animal experiences. Glenn saw a fox (I saw its tail retreating into the trees-go figure), we found a lizard that WASN'T a western fence lizard, a tarantula, turkeys and their poults, a giant dragonfly and a snake skeleton.

Turkeys and their poults

This cute little poult got separted from its mother. They were able to reunite after calling for eachother.

Tarantula!

I have to look up this lizard but I can't find my herp book. Anyone know what it is?

Oliver took this picture of the snake (or lizard?) skeleton and his walking stick.

We returned to the ranger station just as two women were pulling up. “We just had the most amazing bear experience!” “There is a mother and baby bear hanging out and everyone saw it!” “They are right down the road, hurry!” So we jumped into the truck and drove around the lake for another hour. No bear. Was I jealous? Yes, but still happy about all of the other animal encounters. Next week we are waiting in the truck for sure.

Another Good Day

I've been working on a video for Oliver to celebrate his first three years. Going through the pictures makes me nostalgic about each stage we have passed. How I would love to hold my baby in my arms or talk to that adorable one year old again. Looking at pictures also helps me remember to live in the moment.

Today is one of those days I will look back on in a few years. I'll think fondly about my adventurous toddler who loved being with me on a nature hike above almost anything. During our hike today in the backyard, I tried to soak up every moment of our time together, as I know these beautiful days won't last forever.

Oliver and I packed up our cameras, put Pumpkin on a leash, and dressed in long pants and snake boots. He took me up the highest "mountain" he could find. Once we reached the top, Oliver stopped to take a picture of the view.


We also found some lichen. Oliver shows us in this picture how a true artist works. He climbed into this precarious position to capture the lichen patch at the correct angle.


Oliver showed me how real hikers descend from mountain tops (on their bums apparently).
And the greatest find of the day? It was a full baby snake skin, hanging out of a hole. Oliver suggested it might be a baby dragon skin, which is why he looks slightly nervous holding it.

Snakiss is Back!

Oliver and Glenn found Snakiss sunning himself in the garden this morning. He quickly retreated back into the original gopher hole when I tried to take a picture of him.


Well, I'm sure you are all sufficiently sick of hearing about our gopher snake. I'm sorry to say I'm sure there will be many more snake posts in the future as the rattle snakes start to come out of hiding.

Carrots, a Dead Gopher, Bees, and Chickens

I have been taking pictures thinking, "This might make for a good post," then I realize I really only have one or two sentences to say about the topic. I decided I would blog about those topics not quite interesting enough to warrant an entire blog post.

1. My husband's huge carrots

This post was Oliver's idea. He wanted to show off the biggest carrot we have ever been able to grow. After years of trying Glenn finally grew this amazing carrot. It was delicious.

2. Poor dead baby gopher

Our cat Otter (previously a pacifist) killed his first animal. After murdering this cute gopher, he went inside to eat some processed dry cat food. We were actually kind of happy Otter killed this gopher (who recently ate all of our peas) until I brought up that some mother gopher just lost her baby. Then we got a little sad.

3. Honey and Bea update anyone?

Some of you may remember Honey and Bea from our previous posts.
The Beneficial Bee: Honey and Bea
Bea was injured as a chick and we worried she wouldn't be able to walk. Look at her now, a healthy young chicken. You can always find Honey following Bea around the coop (Honey is white, Bea is black)

4. Bees in the garden

We have had very few of our bees visit our vegetable garden. Now thanks to our sunflowers, we have many more bees buzzing around the garden.

5. Introducing our new head rooster: Eddie!

Carlos found a new home on 20 acres where he will be used to fertilize eggs (and where he will not be able to attack toddlers). It is free range and happy and I'm not just making it up to make you feel good. Eddie has a much more gentle style. Oliver and I watched him take the most sensual bath today with two of the hens. Just look at the expression on his face. Have you ever seen a happier rooster?

Special Report- Bee Attacks Man, Man Turns into Rodent

My husband has a nice nose. Just look at the above photograph. It took a honey bee to help me appreciate the beauty of my husband's nose. One of our sweet bees was in a bad mood this weekend and decided she wanted to take Glenn down (he was quietly watching the hive from ten feet away). She circled Glenn a couple of times before stinging him right on the nose.

Is he a rat? Is he a squirrel? I haven't made up my mind. Thank you bee for reminding me what an attractive fellow I married. And thank goodness swelling goes away.


In other bee news, we decided to do another inspection this week and found that the hives seem to be strong. We found plenty of eggs and larvae in both hives and could locate both queens.

Here are a couple of fun honey bee pictures I took this week.