Earth Day!

If you didn't hear from me for a couple of weeks in April, it is because I became consumed with our Earth Day project.  We decided as a family we would take on our first event as the Giving Tree Family Farm.  We sat down a couple of weeks ago and mapped out our booth.  Each member of the family had a huge "to do" list.  The first order of business was a logo.  My dad got to work with his favorite graphic designer and came up with this great logo.  Deciding on a name and logo were the most difficult tasks!

My sister came up with the design of the booth.  She had visions of white lace, antique plates to display the soap, and old books and boxes for props.  My mom spent a week putting all of our alpaca yarn into skeins and we designed posters and informational cards.  It truly was shaping up to be a family affair!  We all arrived to El Chorro Regional Park early on Earth Day.  Here is a picture of our completed booth.  We all loved the way it turned out.

Our booth was divided into four sections.  My sister makes jewelry and made special bee pieces for Earth Day.

Glenn and I were the bee experts.  We sold beeswax bars, candles and lip balm.  Glenn got some people seriously excited about keeping bees.  I loved showing off the bear claw marks in our beeswax.  

My mom was the "goat lady."  She spent hours talking to people about raising goats and all of the benefits of goat milk.  

The last section was the alpaca yarn display.  People loved the pictures of Mic, Pablo and Remy next to their skeins of yarn.  

Earth day was a great trial run for our young business.  The kids enjoyed their day in the sun: dancing, planting herbs, and making paw prints out of plaster.  The adults spent the day talking about our hobbies, hanging out with fellow Earth-loving friends, and sipping wine.  It may not have been the most profitable day, but it was a good day. 

A special thank you to Mother Earth for making it all possible!

One Beekeeper, Two Tiny Assistants, Three Hives and Only Four Stings!

A few weeks ago we received two requests from Los Osos (a small town in California) to remove hives.  Hive removal is much different than swarm removal.  A hive of bees is one that has settled down and made a home somewhere.  A swarm of bees is a big old ball of bees looking for a new home.  Swarms of bees are gentle and mellow and easy to relocate, but removing a hive of bees can be dangerous.  We asked for $50 for the price of a new bee box for each hive we would be taking home.  The two parties agreed saying, "We really didn't want to hire pest control to kill the bees."  How cool is that?  Glenn made arrangements to collect the bees on a Thursday evening.  We started at the dump in Los Osos where hives of bees like to make homes in gas wells.  Gas Well 11 contained a small, weak hive.

It was being attacked by ants and only had one comb of bees.

Oliver doubled as beekeeper and babysitter while I took pictures.  Glenn removed the entire hive with ease.

We moved on to Gas Well 13 where Glenn discovered a larger hive.  The hive was attached to the top of the gas well and broke off as soon as Glenn removed the cover.  The kids and I ran while Glenn stayed behind to do the dirty sticky work.

We all had our specific jobs during the removal.  Pearl's job was to eat handfuls of gravel and not cry while I took pictures of the bees.

Oliver's job was to assist daddy with angry, stray bees and test the honey for complexity and character.  I doubt Glenn could find a better hive removal team.

Hive number three was located in a residential neighborhood.  The bees made their home in a round valve box next to the street.

Glenn could tell it would be a difficult removal due to the number of bees hanging around the outside of the box.  Here is a picture of Glenn wishing he had a full bee suit.

Glenn finally manned up and got to work on the hive.  He kept saying, "I can't believe this," as he moved comb after comb out of the valve box.

He was stung dozens of times, but only three stings made it through his clothes to his skin.  Glenn waited until the sun went down, collected all of the bees in the back of his truck and headed home.

Hive number one did not make it, as we expected.  It was just too small.  Hive two and three are doing well and have adjusted to life in a square box.  Glenn's birthday present arrived in the mail last week.  Now when we go on our bee rescuing missions, Glenn will be covered by a full bee suit!

Bear Attack!

After a long night of barking and loud bangs, I can now confirm we have a large black bear on the property.  Monday morning was spent collecting evidence, clearing bodies and building barriers.

After analyzing each bit of evidence (eye witness and forensic), we were able to piece together the night of "bear terror."  We believe he started on my parents' side of the property.  A barbecue earlier in the evening may have attracted the bear to their trash cans.  The bear left hind footprints in the mud as he stood to knock over the garbage.

After eating some fish, our bear went to check out the chicken coop.  Here you can see he tested the front door with his paw, then put his front paws on the roof of the coop to peer in.

Our hens are old, tough broads.  They were more excited about the chicken food the bear had strewn about the yard than their near death experiences.  

Pooh then walked over to our side of the property to check on his friends, the bees.  This is where our bear had the most fun.  He devoured tons of bee larvae and left the adults hanging on for dear life.  The number of dead bees on the ground was staggering.  The bear had to have been stung countless times.  

I called Glenn at work to tell him about his bees.  He rushed home to try and save all of the bees he could.

The bees were loud and angry, but Glenn was only stung once.  Here is a picture of some brood that was devoured by the bear.  Glenn built a fence around his hive and we are hoping the bear won't be able to knock it over.  It will be a miracle if Glenn's girls survive this attack.

A neighbor called to let us know he saw a bear trying to get into his house the same night.  The neighborhood is now on high alert.  We are all hoping that the bear wanders back into the woods.  In the mean time, we are keeping the chickens locked up tight and have Lotta keeping the livestock safe!  

Bees and Bikes (But No Babies)

Glenn's prized school house hive had a traumatic week.  The weather here has been perfect for checking the hive so Glenn did an inspection last weekend.  Oliver was the keeper's assistant, Grammy served as Pearl's guardian, and I was the photographer.  The hive looked great and was filled with brood.

Grammy, Pearl and I had to take cover because a couple of the girls decided we were too close and began to head butt us.  Oliver and Glenn were brave and finished their task while I took the opportunity to take photographs of Pearl.

Two nights ago Pumpkin began barking at something in the front of the property.  Pumpkin is the sweetest dog alive, but he looked as though he wanted to tear apart an intruder.  The next day Glenn found his hive knocked to the ground.  Pumpkin perhaps was trying to tell us we had a bear or some other large animal in the front pasture.  Glenn quickly put on his bee gear and ran outside to save his girls.  They seem to be doing okay considering the horrific night they endured.

We did our second bee presentation earlier this month.  This time it was for Oliver's preschool class.  The kids seemed quite interested in bees.  They couldn't believe Oliver likes to hang out with bees and doesn't get stung.  I made the mistake of pulling honey sticks out of my purse at the end of the presentation and nearly got swarmed  by twenty preschoolers.

Today was the annual Wildflower Century bike ride.  The past few years we have gone out to the street to cheer on the riders.  Grammy thought Oliver and his cousins would have a good time trying to make some money by having a lemonade stand this year.  The boys faced steep competition from the bike club; they were serving free lemonade at the fire station across the street.

Business was booming regardless.  Some of their customers left money without even sampling the delicious lemonade.  We also sold lip balm to benefit Oliver's Aunt Kelly's "Treasure You Chest" team.  Kelly and her friends do the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer every year in Texas.  We are getting a head start for the 2012 walk.  

Oliver's favorite customer was this nice officer.  After Oliver passed his sobriety test, the officer donated all the dollars and change he could find in his car.

They scored!

Serio is still pregnant!  She is getting huge and often has unmentionable things dripping from her unmentionables.  I think it will probably happen in the next week, but I don't seem to have a very good read on goat pregnancies yet.

Scarier Than a Hive of Angry Bees: Eighth Graders! and Beekeeping with Baby

Pearl had her first beekeeping experience on Tuesday. I can't believe it took me ten long weeks to get her out to the bee boxes during an inspection. Before you call Child Protective Serves on me, we made sure to keep her a safe distance from the boxes as the bee hat is a bit too big for her at this point. Here you can see Glenn in the background tending to one of our hives.

Oliver, Pearl and I sat in a field to watch. I couldn't take close up shots of bees, so I tried to take some good pictures of me and the kids. Pearl had her eyes on Daddy the whole time (or possibly a random tree-it's really hard to tell at this point).



Daddy and the newest member of our beekeeping clan.

In other bee news, Glenn and I were asked to give a presentation about beekeeping to eighth grade students this week. I have been afraid of eighth graders since the eighth grade. I had visions of the students calling me Dumbo (you can guess why) or chasing me around the room trying to poke me with a safety pin (yes, it happened and I am still traumatized). We love beekeeping so we decided to face the dreadful eighth graders on behalf of the bees.

I emailed my blogging friend Barbara in Canada (I just love Canadians-don't you?) to see if she could help us with our presentation. Barbara is passionate about educating people about the honey bee and had so many great tips to share with us.

As it turns out, the talk went really well. The students were polite, asked questions, seemed interested in bees and were eager to try the honey we brought. I'm not sure if kids are getting nicer in general or if these children were really special. They warmed my eighth-grader-hating heart.



I think Glenn and I are ready to take this presentation on the road. Anyone need a presenter?