The life of a bee

We have happy bees, well placid ones anyway. I only got stung twice today and I'm not sure if one was a bee or an ant because it was up my pants! Late night extracting again tonight as we didn't finish until 9pm.

I love the satisfying feeling of working at something that makes me happy rather than attend the drudgery of 9-5 working for someone else. I feel a freedom in driving around the countryside and working with Corey, we're a pretty good team. We even stopped so I could take pictures of a huge field of sunflowers and of course I went on my usually wildflower picking spree! I am sore too after rediscovering long buried muscles but it is definately worth it!

Honey thieves

I will write about christmas later on when I get some photos from people. In the meantime, Corey and I have left the kids with mum, dad and Emily for the holidays while we pack for the move and sort out the honey.

I've painted Jack's room and packed some but today was honey extracting day and so Cor and I suited up in our white shirts and long pants and donned our nets ready for an exciting day of stealing the bees honey! Things hadn't started off well considering we didn't get our hot knife in the mail before christmas which is what we had wanted. This morning, Cor repaired a blower his dad had given him so we could use it to blow the bees off the boxes of honey. When we got to the site however, the blower decided not to work again on and off. We got the first lot of about 9 boxes but then the blower packed it in for good and we got another two boxes but decided to leave the rest on their sides until late afternoon when the bees were bedding down for the night.

Unfortunately, as we discovered later, this wasn't a good idea. When we returned after setting up for the extraction at home, the air was thick with bees and we found that other bees were robbing the honey. In only a few hours they managed to fully tear down and remove most of the honey in 6 boxes! There was wax like sawdust from where they pulled it apart. Amazing really (yet dissappointing also).

All part of the learning experience I guess. We still managed to get around half a barrel of honey and were still extracting till around 8pm. Pretty tired now. I really enjoy this bee site, it's a travelling stock reserve and you often see kangaroos and many birds and lots of wildflowers. I got a great shot today of a tawny frogmouth owl pretending to be part of a branch.

More extracting tommorrow from the bees at our other site so hopefully all goes well this time.

Memories...

I have been absolutely run off my feet today with errands! The only reason I'm even blogging right now is that if I don't write what I'm thinking then I'll probably forget.

I was thinking about how I'd like to get back into doing some scrapbooking as I've just got so much stuff for it sitting idle in a drawer and photo's on the computer that have never been printed out. Later I came across some photo discs from a couple of years ago with pictures of Rob and the kids in them so I am going to download them all onto the computer as well and get copies done too. Maybe I'll get some christmas mugs with the kids pics on them for the grandparents who have everything!

This is my current fave pic of Emma asleep with Bella (the dog) and a cute shot of Corey, Jack and I before we moved to Inverell 18mths ago.

The Ridge....

We just zipped out to Lightning Ridge on Sunday to pick up a honey extractor that one of our friends happened across at the local markets. We were hoping to extract the honey before we leave Inverell to see everyone for christmas but it dosen't look like we'll have time.
We stayed overnight at our caravan set up which the kids loved and had dinner at the 'Hilton' which is a local bush pub.
We had a little snoop around the house we are supposed to be moving into in January and to be blunt, it's a dump. I have to say I feel pretty let down about it, but there's still five weeks or so until we are to move in, so I'm sure that'll give the owners time to do some tidying up........
There are a lot of things I like about the area, I like the red earth, the birds are amazing and varied, there is lots of wildlife to be seen such as Emu's, Lizards, kangaroos and wallabies which both the kids and I enjoy. There are beautiful sunsets and electrical storms out there too and there is an art and craft co-op as well as a patchwork group so I should be ok in that area. I think I'm just getting a bit nervous because it is getting a lot closer.

At a standstill....

Today has been one of those days where you feel like you have so much to do, yet don't feel like you have achieved anything. My sister and I hung out for a while before she had to go back home and then I did little more than a bit of housework really. Things begin getting hectic starting tommorrow though. We are having a garage sale to get rid of some junk and then during the next two weeks we have a lot of work & fun to cram in all together!
Hopefully we will be extracting our first honey next week which I am getting excited about. My mind keeps wandering to Pooh bear, thinking about all that honey.......

ATC Trade

I just traded my first embroidered ATC with a lady named Annet who lives in the Netherlands. The ATC I made was embroidered at the beginning of the year to practice some embroidery stitches for a project I am planning on doing with elizabethan flowers. I was pretty pleased with the result and decided to ask someone to trade it so I joined an embroidery group on flickr and asked if anyone would like to trade with me. Yesterday I got a lovely surprise in the mail when I recieved Annet's ATC which she made especially to swap with me. As you can see, it is right up my alley! Annet also included a lovely card (I think one of the kids has pinched it already) and a crocheted angel which I will make into an ornament for our christmas tree. Thanks Annet!

Finally!

Only 15 days to Christmas! I am definately not prepared this year, everything is happening at once. Our car is falling apart (again) and we are moving in mid January so there's not a lot of time to cram everything in. Our house is looking very Christmassy though, which I am glad of as it really is my favourite time of year. I'm not one of those people who grumbles about how busy and stressful Christmas time is. Exactly the opposite really, I enjoy shopping or making things for the people I love and look forward to spending some precious time with them at Christmas.