Pics you might not have seen

I've been going through the photos from our last LaM visit and found a few you might not have seen. These are so cute!

Here's Lorraine and I hugging one of the outfits I designed.

Here's Panta (Val) and Lorraine.

The Fabulous Four! Red, Kitty, Me and Lorraine.

Thank you Lorraine, Kitty and Val for all your help! I love you!

Cabal's Slumber Party...

Well, you asked for a report on how Cabal's First Slumber Party was going. Are they doing their nails? Wrestling non-stop? Watching scary movies? Well, er, no. They aren't. Nothing says PARTY like a trip to Doggie ER....



We had been having a wonderfully fine day. Freckles came out early, and then Johnny showed up with his dog, a black lab named King Kong, and Merry Housekeeper brought Golden Retriever Kuda, we had a PACK! A pack of big dogs who all wanted to play with Cabal. He was so happy. We had a game where I would let them out, for a run and yell Pack Coming!" And Johnny would yell "Release the Hounds!" and out they would go!



Here is Cabal, and his sleep over buddy, Freckles, this morning, when his, hopefully fair minded owners, dropped him off....(Hey, I'll watch him for you, it will be fun, what could go wrong? How hard could it be?)



And here is the pack in a rare moment of repose...



I finished extracting the honey, by the Old Fashioned Cheesecloth Bucket Method...



Only to have our New Fangled Honey Extractor, that was meant to have been majorly delayed, show up. Hand and Johnny put it together, that is Johnny and Merry Housekeeper (who is going to raise Merry Havoc about all the blood all over the floors and carpets she just today cleaned when she comes in tomorrow..It looks like Massacre of the Innocents)



We went, Cabal, Freckles and my friend Susan (to wrangle Freck, and take a walk while Cabal and I worked out and astounded the rest of the class with his brilliance) to Agility Class, which was wonderful fun. And then back home, where Cabal and Freck went for a final run, as the sun sank slowly, and I changed over the garden hoses...

All was serene, until we got in and being a sober sort of on the ball gal, I could not help but notice that there was BLOOD everywhere. "Right, guys, says I, who is bleeding???" Freck says, "Well now that you mention it, I seem to be gushing blood everywhere.."

A quick look, leads to a quick call to the ER Vet line, where they tell me there is a FEE for this sort of thing, and did I want to put a bandaid on it and call them in the morning.

Now I don't know much about dog medicine (or people either, for that matter) but it is pretty clear when some thing needs to be stitched. And I said that I thought the owners might be rather more irritated if their dog bled to death in the night than if I took him in.

Freck went under, they stitched, we got medicine and I have promised things like "Call you tomorrow, and no, I don't actually know if this is their vet clinic, and no, I sure don't know their last names.."

Here is a picture of the Slumber Party now. Poor Freck is so out of it, and he runs into things with his cone, and gets stuck. I am going to have to sleep down here with him, if I sleep, and make sure he is ok for the rest of tonight. Poor little guy....Cabal is SO upset and doesn't understand why his friend smells funny and is wearing a cone.



Stay tuned to the conversation I get to have with Jane and Robert tomorrow...Not to mention Mickey the Trainer at Doggie Day Care when I get to tell her SHE is taking care of this dog while I work and the floors are re-grouted....

Happy Birthday Dr Score!

First things first...If you are reading this tonight (Tuesday) tomorrow is Paul's (our own Dr. Score) Birthday!!!!! SO we need to send him some Very Many Happy Returns of the Day! If you are reading this tomorrow, Today is Paul's Birthday! Wish him well!

(if you are reading the Thursday, long after we have moved on, Keep up or get culled from the pack, hee-hee)

Today was a Honey Extraction Day (see, you science types, I know some big words too!) There was some sort of Snaffu (another technicial Bee Term) at the extractio plant, so we decided to do it the old fashioned way. A bucket and cheese cloth.



This is the poor sad honey from the failed hive. We got the bees a new home and are totaly stealing all the honey they made. AND today I regestared for our very own X County Fair! Oh yes, blue ribbons in both our classes! I separated the dark honey and the light and combined a couple, so we can taste and figure out which is the best. It would be a lovely end to such a great hive.



This is all a very sticky business. Tomorrow I have to Moosh the buckets. (another techicial Bee Term) meaning Moosh them down so the honey gets thru. I could have done this today but I had reached the point of Done, before I got to it. Then I will take what is left after the honey is gone, called "Slumglum" and boiled it to extract the wax, and then use it to make, well things. No, don't know what yet. Or how.

Took the Bengals out. Venus met a dog and bee-lined for the house. Mim got stuck in a tree. Took Cabal to Doggie Day Care while the Grouting was going on, and the Trainer said he was kind of sad no one would play with him. One dog his size was too old and the others too little. So his school expeirence might mirror ours...

Love and Bees and Life,
Lorraine

Somthing To Blog About....

I thought we should have a picture tonight, since there weren't a LOT of adventures today. I got lost twice, trying to buy Cat Litter, at a place I knew where I was going, which takes talent, I admit, but might not qualify as an Adventure.

I took both Dog and Bengals out for lovely walks, which had I done it simultaneously might well have been the Adventure to end all Adventures, but I am smarter than that.

I failed to solve the Mystery of the Missing Firefly Lights, so Hans didn't end up on the roof, perilously perched, trying to hang them. (an Adventure I would LOVE to blog about)

I recently received a letter from the People who dug up my block last summer, making driving on it impossible for months, saying, er, Well, very sorry, but we seem to have, er done it wrong, and er, have to do it again, starting tomorrow. (If I can lay my hands on a sling shot, this will definitely be a Future Adventure.)

Anyway, since Gayle hasn't sent me this Mystery Picture she wants to show us, I thought I'd post one of my fish, that Speacelaw took. Lovely shot. Nice fish. I call him "Fish" He used to have four friends, but they all died. Or he ate them. Not really sure. It's a "Party Tough or Stay Home" sort of coffee table fish tank.

I leave you with a little Twisted Bonnie Raitt, which is a fine example of something one does in order to get out of actual writng...

Love, Lorraine

People are blogging, blogging 'bout people
I read their writing, you won't believe it
I think they're authors, kept under cover
I just ignore it, but I keep saying
I want to make you laugh
I can't stand having nothing to say
I stare just a little too long (at the screen)
Maybe they're seeing something I don't, darlin's

Just give me something to blog about
Just give me something to write about
Just give me something to blog about
How about some words on this darn screeeeennn????

I feel so foolish, Now that I've noticed
I am so nervous, I know your all reading me
I like the rumors, they make make great stories
Now I'm convinced I'm going under
Thinking 'bout this every day
Dreaming 'bout this every night
I'm hoping that you all feel the same way
Now that we know it, let's really write about it, darlin's

Just give me something to blog about
A little mystery to figure out
Just give me something to blog about
How about some words on this darn screeeeennn????

A Bee Moment...

Today was almost everything a Sunday ought to be, lovely day, no serious work to be done, a little Bee Time with the Bees, where I learned yes, you can get a Bee stuck in your hair (twice) and not get stung.

I forgot to mention that last weekend one of our hives had to be, I am not sure if there is a Bee Term for it, let's just call it "Cancelled Mid-season" The Queen had died, we re-Queened, she did not survive, the workers made two new Queens, they never hatched....

It was time to give up. There was no way they could come back and make enough honey for winter. Rather than let the workers die off, we decided to try and introduce them to the Kitty Hive. You can't just tell them, "Ok, gals, why don't you just nip on over to Kitty and just pitch on in"

The way we did it was we put the Brood Box from the Dead Olga Hive, in the middle of Kitties Brood Boxes, and put a sheet of newspaper on the bottom and the top, and it is hoped that by the time they eat thru the paper their little Bee Thoughts are more "HEY Here we are, we have rescued you! We must be together and the hive will be strong" And no one will notice that all these new bees, are, well, new bees.

This seems to have worked, we found out today, the Birdchick and I. I only got into trouble when we went to the other hives, the Mimko and Bickman hives, they are such nice bees, and we have tended to get a little lackadaisical, shall we say, about how far away we are from the hives when we take the suits off. Like, say, three steps.

(Note: Bee suits are HOT when it is over 80 in the summer)

We were standing by the Bee Table talking and all of a sudden I heard the one sound you DO Not want to hear when tending bees, a buzzing in your hair and the FEEL, which leaves nothing in doubt of what is about to occur, of a Bee digging in for a sting!

I have really long thick hair (which rather than grow myself, I pay a lot of money and spend a lot of time to get) and it was in a scruntchie bun. (Either you know what that is or you don't) and here is this Bee caught up in it. Cut to screaming, and me desparatly trying to recall everything that happened last year when Sharon was the victim and I the rescuer. I did not touch my hair and tried to stay still, and Sharon smoked me frantically, saying "RUN RUN RUN!!!!!!!!!!" Get out of it's territory. Fast.

I ran, she said, "It's Out! I saw it fly!" Great, thinks I. And then it came BACK. (Insert word of your choice here) I am SO stung now. RUN said Sharon, running after me with the smoker. I found out I can run Very Fast when there is an angry bee stuck in my hair. (you would be surprised how very fast you can run)

Thank Fod, and I do, it left. I truly believe it was nothing short of miraculous that I didn't get stun. And that I have just used my Get Out Of Jail Free card in regards to the Bees. Still, the Birdchick and I did better than when it happened to her, she not only got stung, but I stomped on her head trying to kill it.

Not to get too poetic here, but I am typing this on my deck, and looking at the sky, which is full of flying Bats, and my woods, which are full of Fireflies.

A perfect Sunday, if you ask me.

Love and Stingers,
Lorraine