Meeting Mama, bee work, cleanup

I met Mama yesterday at my lunch break to look at a wheeled string trimmer she had gotten a “rain check” for. The advertised price was very good. Far less that I had expected to pay. However, when we looked at the unit it turned out to not be what we wanted. I need a wheeled string trimmer with an offset head so I can trim fence row without having to “stab” the trimmer head into the fence line as I worked my way forward. I want to be able to walk the fence and trim it as I walk straight forward. The unit we had on hold would not do that, so we passed it up. No harm. No foul. The store will be able to sell the unit. It was not something they ordered special for us. From there, Mama went to run errands for her business, and I went home to finish out my day from there. I have to admit that it is very nice to have that option. There is a lot of training going on at the office and it can be distracting to work with all the background chatter.

Yesterday evening, I worked on assembling frames for the honey supers I want to put on the hives tomorrow. Assuming the hives are ready. I purchased the frames over three months ago and just go them last week. I purchased the foundations for those frames at the same time and just got them yesterday. The deliveries were slow, but the timing is spot on. Assembling the frames and locking the foundation panels in each frame is not difficult but it is time consuming. There is no shortcut. Each piece has to be properly glued and nailed so they will hold together when we have to pry them out of the hive box as we are work in the hives to make sure everything is okay with the colony of bees. One of the things that amazed me is how sticky all the parts of the hive are once the bees seal the cracks and “glue” everything in place with wax. It is wonderfully amazing in its simplicity and symmetry. Even the sounds of the hive are fascinating. Of course, that sound changes once I open the hive. But I can tell by the pitch of the buzzing whether or not the bees are truly alarmed. Mostly, they allow me to interrupt their work as long as I move slowly and carefully.

Mama and Victoria have a nail party at the house tonight. So, today will be spent doing special cleaning for their guests. We are praying that it will be a good party to kick off Victoria’s business. Victoria has been a great help to Mama as she (Victoria) has tried to build her nail busines. She is much more proficient in internet searches for images, games and fun things to tag her contacts with. Between Victoria and Patricia, another stylist, Mama is kept up to date with the tags and teasers she and her team send out several times per day. Mama made “Team Leader” yesterday! Go Mama! Her business is expanding. We are starting to see her income go up as well especially since Color Street has revamped and reopened their online ordering system.

I am not sure what I will do during the party, but I will find something to do. I need to spend another evening just straightening up around the farm. Picking up items that we have left lying about, raking out areas where the chickens have created their dust baths, filling in holes the dogs have dug, weed eating around the house and in the garden, scraping the dirt off the sidewalks that the dogs have piles there as they have dug their dens in the “flower beds” on the west side of the house, etc. That is a good enough list to keep me busy through the weekend, much less this evening if I do not take the tractor out to Bro Daniel’s property this evening. Or go fishing. It is not like there is a shortage of things to do.

We love life on the farm.