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Der Christian set up another beehive. The first one survived the winter, though many individual bees did not, and seems to be prospering. Chris even made a little raid on the first hive, collecting a small jar full of honey and comb. I sampled it and, while it tasted stronger than store-bought honey, it was quite good. I can see where, if one didn’t have the ready access to candy, ice cream and all manner of other sweet things we are tempted by daily, a taste of honey would be a real treat. Chris bought the second hive, a more traditional design, instead of making it like he did the first one, and put it next to the first one. His order of bees showed up and he installed the queen and her court in the new hive. The queen is enclosed in a small container that has a hole in it plugged with wax. The bees eat or otherwise remove the plug to free the queen and voilà, a new hive is born. For my part, I’ve been planting flowers along the edge of the pond, actually down in the pond bed where they will get plenty of water without me having to go to any extra trouble. I have to keep some water in the main part of the pond so the ducks will be happy and the water running into the main part will water the flowers. Chris is feeding both hives sugar water for now because there is so little flowering going on, what with the recent late freezes and drought, but maybe before long that will improve.
Joyce planted tomatoes Tuesday, spent just about the whole day at it. She planted 15-20 vines. I helped her a little after I got off work. She’s still working out a good way to water but may have hit one something when she shortened a couple of soaker hoses she used last year without much success. She made two the length (8 feet) of a garden bed and attached them to a manifold which was in turned attached to the hose.
That seemed to work where curving the soaker hose around the bed didn’t. The curves would kink the hose and stop the flow of water. If we can come up with a way to link the soaker hoses so she can water more than one bed at a time, that might solve the problem. It won’t work to water them one at a time when it gets hot. That would take too much time.
Sunday afternoon was pleasant and when the Abster and Lil R asked to go golfing I obliged them. We went to Preston West and practiced our putting, then went to a miniature golf course close by and tried our hand at that. It was a bit like herding cats to keep Rebecca focused on the game but it was fun. Abigail hit a nice hole in one. She also managed to drop her ball in a the little stream running through the course and Grampa had to perform some gymnastics to retrieve it.
Woohoo! Rain on the prairie! Thursday evening a thunderstorm roared through and dumped 3,8ths of an inch on us. There was even thunder and lightening but, thankfully, no high winds or hail, which the weather bureau said were possible. Three eighths isn’t much but at least it was enough to wash the dust off things. Since the weather was cool maybe the moisture wasn’t immediately carried away by a gust of hot wind.
Closing thoughts:
- One evening when Joyce and I were working in the garden, Rebecca came clumping along wearing her father’s boots. Comical.
- Canyon’s Edger nursery specializes in plants suited to this part of the world, particularly as it pertains to water. It’s a small operation open only in May and June. When Joyce and I were there Friday, they had only one greenhouse open to the public but it was pretty full of flowering things. There was a hummingbird in it helping itself. It could hardly wipe the smile off its, er, beak.