Beeswax + Honey + Pine = The Passing of Winter

I am coming to realize that there are few smells that have a searing indication of the return of life. A beehive is one of them. We had a day up in the 70's this week so we were able to open our hives (it has to be over 60 degrees). One whiff inside washed away every thought of winter and brought a complete renewal of life. It was amazing. Due to the warm weather the bees were extremely active. It has been interesting for me to learn to predict outside temperature by the activity level of the bees. When I want to know what the weather is like outside I find myself looking to the hives. Or I will find myself surprised to see the bees emerging and realize it is warmer than I had anticipated it was outside. They have been fascinating to have sitting right outside my sliding glass door. Close enough to watch on a regular basis. We had one hive that did not survive the winter which is not a-typical. Usually only 50% of hives overwinter successfully. The hive that died we brought inside to extract honey from. Below is a bit of a low down on the extraction process for any that may be interested.

Our first glimpse of the hives. The little dears were just clamoring all over those hives. Oh sweet succulence.

This hive made some crazy combs on a screen in their hive. They were running out of space to make new comb so they got a little creative. We have since added another box for them to grow into.

This frame was extremely interesting for me to look at. It shows our transplant of the bees to a new area. The light honey is nectar collected in Iowa. The dark honey is Oregon honey. Isn't that just crazy!! Depending upon what they eat the color of their honey is effected. The taste is drastically different as well. The darker honey has an "earthier" taste. The Iowa honey is SUPER sweet. Fascinating huh?

This is the decapping knife. You can see the wax caps that Jonathan had not quite cut off yet. We try to preserve as much of the comb as possible. Wax is 5 times more costly for a bee to make than honey. In other words if they don't have to remake the comb we get more honey.

This is our bowl of cappings. It has a lot of honey in it as well because we dropped one frame and the comb was crushed. Usually there are more cappings than honey in this bowl. We strain this and eat the honey and keep the wax for fun stuff like candles and chapstick.

Adam is turning the extractor while Jonathan held it steady. The frames were not equally filled on the hive that had died so the extractor was a little off balance. When the frames are all filled up it doesn't have the wobbling problem.

We spin out the honey and it collects inside the extractor. When the frames are empty we open the valve on the extractor and pour the honey out into a double strainer. One gets big chunks of wax and the other is a very, very, fine strainer.

After the honey has been strained we pour it into pint and quart jars and eat it like wild and crazy bandits. It is so delicious!! We have had several people ask if we will sell them some of our honey, but I don't know if I am willing to part with any of it yet.

This is a frame after is has been extracted. Every cute little hexagon cell is empty.

My sticky kitchen line-up. Anybody want to help scrub the place when we are done?

After the cappings have been dripping and the majority of the honey has been removed, we put the sticky wax outside and let the bees lick it clean. And they literally do. When they are done with it, we bring back in a nice pile of fluffy dry wax. It is REMARKABLE!!

And here is the line up. I want to thank Mr. Jenson for his incredible stacking skills. Can you guess which honey came from where? There is still 4-5 pints of honey in the bucket that needs to be put in jars. If you come visit me I'll give ya a lick :)

Our First Flight to the Pacific

I would be lying if I said it was all it looks cracked up to be. Yes flying to the Pacific ocean was a really a cool adventure and we had a nice time. We got to see whales migrating in the Pacific and the Oregon coast shoreline was beautiful. The boys did wonderful and we arrived back safely, but I am a worry-wart mother. I look down at the jagged mountains we fly above and they don't look as welcoming as the corn fields in Iowa I am accustomed to flying over. We made it safely, but every time I take my little family up I sweat bullets. I don't know what to say other than well, I just don't want to die yet.

Na, Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Hey....

Goodbye. It was our first car. Now it is scraps. The engine burnt up. We miss him already.

He has done it over and over again.

One of the kitchen cupboard doors had its hinges break off and the little guy has had free reign of the cereal cupboard. I keep meaning to run to the store and get new hinges so we can get the door back on. But in the days that have past since my good intentions I have seen several boxes of cereal find themselves rolling across the kitchen floor.

The little man is already learning to give me a little cheese when I whip out the camera.

Kiss Me Baby!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! I usually try to get up before my children and have their rooms heart attacked and raspberry french toast ready for breakfast, but this year they beat me to it. For some reason shortly after 5:00 am they all started appearing from their bedrooms. This is NOT a typical morning. I think they could sense the love being whipped up from the kitchen and wanted to help do the whippn' this time. We made breakfast together.

After breakfast it was Dad's turn to get in on the fun. The boys and I REALLY got a snicker out of this one. We decided to intrude upon the "Physician's Parking Only" section of the hospital and whip up a little more lovin.' We found some inflatable lips for a $1.00 at the dollar store and wanted to give Dad a great big kiss for Valentine's day. We took the extra set of keys for the truck and moved the truck front and center in the physician's parking lot. We covered it in homemade conversation hearts and left some hot lips for our old Daddy-0. The boys were laughing so hard. They kept saying, "Dad is going to walk out of the hospital and it will look like the truck wants to give him a great big kiss!!" They thought that was hysteric! We thought we were pretty sneaky, but one of the later arriving Doc's questioned Jonathan if his was the truck with all the paint and stuff on it in the parking lot. Jonathan was curious and surveyed the damage from a few stories up at the hospital. He had us figured out before the day was done, but we still thought we were pretty funny.

Matthew - 6

Matthew turned 6 and had his very first birthday party. What an exciting day for a young man. He had to sit through an entire day of kindergarten before he could indulge with friends and family. We decided to have a party that was all about him.

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Animal: Frog

Favorite Thing to Do: Use Dad's tools

Favorite Food: Mac n' cheese and key lime yogurt

So we PARTIED, Matthew style.

Did you know you can buy a screwdriver at Wal-Mart for 82 cents? What more does a kid want in life than a hunk of wood, a cup of screws and a brand new shiny screwdriver? If you are Matthew, there is nothing. These boys screwed their hearts out. I pre-drilled pilot holes all along their names that I had painted on the wood. A nice home repair shop gave me their scrap wood and cut it down for me, didn't pay a dime for the pine. The screws were leftover drywall screws from the remodel in Bloomfield. Like I said, the perfect recipe for little boy heaven.

Toward the end of the screwing we whipped out a few mini nails and hammers. The only way I can describe it is F-U-N.

Next was pin the frog on Matthew's head. We used an old picture of Matthew with a tree frog on his head from Iowa.

And finally the cake. Matthew saw a green cake with Army men online and really wanted it. I was thrilled because it was an easy one to make. We whipped up a little homemade fondant that DIDN'T use marshmallows because I have never had luck with the marshmallow-y kind and starting cutting leaves. Viola! Green, army man cake in minutes.

Happy Birthday Mr. Amazing Matthew! We love you!

One Weekend's Quest to Find the Perfect Sledding Hill

Living in Iowa was wonderful. We had our own personal sledding hill in our backyard that was easily accessible and frequently covered in snow. Oregon has not allotted the same luxuries. So we decided if the sledding hill was not coming to us, we were going to have to go to it. And we did. Friday's stop was Page Mountain. All of Jonathan's chums at work swore this was the all time best place to sled and were certain it would be covered with snow this time of year. We trusted these long timers and packed up snow gear for the whole family, sleds, snacks and the dog and headed for the hills. We found Page Mountain, but we didn't find the mounds of snow we had anticipated. Disregarding the fact that the mountain had brambles and branches poking out of the snow we decided to give the hill a few good runs and made fun with what snow we could find. I had managed to layer 4 small children in snow clothes, underclothes, hats, gloves, and boots and wasn't about to let the 45 minute dress up session go to waste. So here we are:

Page Mountain

Page in all of its splendor. Where I come from we call this bare-nekked.

Matthew didn't have enough snow where he needed it to make his snow men and forts so he decided to load up the chunks he could on his sled and take them where he needed them. Not what I intended to do on our sledding trip, but he had fun.

Michael rode on Dad, and the dog.

Adam trekked up over and over again. He is by far our biggest die-hard.
Matthew ate wild blackberry bushes, and dirt
Andrew and the blue sky
Mr. Jenson eatn' a little snow...
and a bit of bush.
Jonathan is great to take the boys for rides down the hill. On he and Andrew's first ride it was a bit more chilly than Andrew had anticipated it would be with snow whipping in his face all the way down. He was sweet enough to take the brunt of it for his dad.

So Page was fun, but I think we found something a little bit better...

Union Creek

(Saturday, day two of the quest for a sledding hill)

This hill was so slick that Andrew had to hold onto the pole at the top of the hill so he didn't sled off without his dad. Well, he TRIED to hold on, but didn't quite make it until Dad was ready to roll and did a nice backwards slide all ALONE.

It was pretty funny watching this little kid slide down the mountainside, wish I could have read his little mind.

Matthew and Dad,

and their crash landing.

Mom and Andrew

Adam

Dad and Andrew

Oh, you noticed the red patches on Matthew's head and cheek. Well, he decided to leave a piece of himself at Union Creek. While we were unloading the truck he and Adam ran on ahead to start their sledding. Being the incorrigible age of 5, and possessing the mindset of my little Matthew, you think you can take on any mountain. Well, there are a few factors that not every 5 year old considers when choosing their first run of the day. Matthew sized up the mountain, climbed up and took it on, head first. He left blood stains on the snow, a legacy to be had by future sledders until sun or snow erased his indelible red mark. Being that his crash occurred on the first run down the hill we decided to make him tough it out and stay for the afternoon. He was a trooper. Jonathan and I didn't see the crash, we just heard about what a remarkable dive the kid took from all of the responsible parents that were attending their children on the hill while he and I were hanging out in the parking lot. I guess it was a doosy to watch. Poor kid has a scar.