Reinbeau's Bit of Earth: Video Uploaded!

[reinbeau]

He's resting in his room, and the doctor said he's pretty sure (95%) that they got everything. He can't say 100% until they get the pathology report, hopefully he's right.

Greg is in a lot of pain - when you're a large guy (and too large around the middle) there's more discomfort because of the pulling of the weight - he said he couldn't believe how much it hurt when he came to. They switched up the pain meds and it settled down for him. No gastro tube, which is good, he's tolerating the ice chips, but he's very groggy with the drugs. I only stayed for an hour or so, he started to fuss that I needed to get home to go to bed so I could get up early tomorrow - I have to sub at a friend's club and teach a mat class at 9am. So like him to worry about me! It's amazing to have a guy who tries to take care of me, even when he's the one who needs care!

Thank you all for your good thoughts, it helped a lot. Now I can't wait until he's home again. So I'll take his advice and go to sleep. Night, night!

 

[FarmerChick]

SO HAPPY the surgery went fine and he is recovering!

Poor Greg---thank goodness for pain meds.

Fingers crossed all is fine for him. And yes, I completely understand how you feel....with Tony being not fine right now I know where you are coming from!

take care! Your in my prayers for all to be well!

 

[reinbeau]

I'm not much of a journaller, but any sign of spring needs to be noted. I went for my walk this morning and noticed the slightest blush of red in the tops of many trees. Looking closer you can see the buds beginning to swell. It's 50 out there, the titmice are singing their "Peter! Peter! Peter!' song, and the streams are all flowing with snowmelt. I know it's mid-February, but this all gives me hope. This is the first winter I can remember that depressed me deeply. I guess the SAD caught up with me finally. The return of the sun is so important to us. Now if I could walk outside and really smell it, I would be one happy girl!

 

[FarmerChick]

yes please note any sign of spring...LOL

being Feb and we were in the 70s I can't complain.

But sun is so important to me also. We have tons of sun here but when it is gone for even 2-3 days I feel it terribly. I didn't realize how important it was to me.

When I lived in PA there was hardly no sun....living in a valley between the mts. we got alot of clouds trapped there and it was always that type of day.......I didn't realize how much I missed the sun til moving here!


Keep looking for sign of spring and that mood will lift up big time for you!

Hope you are doing good and Greg is on the mend totally!



Tony's job is offering volunteer permanent layoff...>WOOF
they are giving packages etc. with pay and this and that and he is antsy about it....but I said unless you have a long term plan, when that medical runs out we are screwed...LOL...so he isn't going for it at all but like 16-20 people took the package.

I told Tony never voluntarily leave a job right now. It is just too important for us......whew....times suck but they are kinda fun to try to beat them ya know..HA HA

 

[reinbeau]

They're up! They aren't open yet, but the skunk cabbage blossoms are up. If they have ice or snow around them they actually generate enough heat to melt their way through. Another week and they'll be in full bloom!

One of my neighbors' witch hazels, Jolena, was in full bloom, also. I love that slightly astringent scent!

It was so warm out there, even trudging through 18" of snow!

 

[reinbeau]

Our bees are ordered for this spring. We bought five packages through the club, to replace the four out back and one at my mother's (only one hive has survived out of six down here), and we bought four nucs for Maine, where three out of five hives are still alive. So all told we'll have 12 if the rest of Maine makes it through to build up time. I have to say, my chickens pay for themselves, the bees don't, but the product of the hive is so delightful, I don't mind replacing the bees in the spring.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Is it a common occurence to have to replace hives? I know nothing about bee keeping, but maybe one day......Is there anyway to prevent the loss of hives over the winter?

 

[keljonma]

Reinbeau - I posted this separately - one of our beek club members plants queen anne's lace and peppermint around her hives. She also places the queen anne's lace floral cuttings on the inside top cover to help keep ants out of the hives. Do you have any tips like this you could share?

 

[keljonma]

One of our beek club members sells packages. Our bee day is May 9. He sells 2# pkgs for $63 and 3# pkgs for $73.

 

[reinbeau]

Yes, unfortunately, sometimes you lose the bees. This winter we had extremely cold, sub zero temps for longer than usual, and they ate the stores they had around them, then couldn't reach the rest of the food as they wouldn't leave the cluster - so they died. There was plenty of honey left in the hives

The packages we bought were 3# for $65.00, the nucs were $90 apiece. We need to go with nucs for Maine as we aren't there to really care for a new package on undrawn comb - which we can do easily down here at our two locations.

It's all part of beekeeping. We learn as we go!

Keljonma, yes, I read your thread. I've never heard of using queen anne's lace, I'll be trying that out this summer!