New Bees

Last week I had 4 new bee packages arrive. 2 are from a guy in Illinois, David Burns. The other 2 were from Georgia and they are Russian bees. Russians are a bit different versus their Italian counterparts but I am hoping they prove to be hardy and mite resistant.

First thing is to pick the packages up from the post office and then gear your helpers up into their bee suits. My three youngest girls wanted to help today.

 The packages calm down a bit if you spray them with some sugar water, so that was the job for Rose. She was the best bee sprayer ever!

Now take the top off and remove the can which contains syrup that the bees eat during shipment.

Remove the queen cage which is near the syrup can. There are bees clinging to her cage but she is safe inside with a few nurse bees.

Have the younger keepers check to see if she seems fine and to tell you the color of her mark. This year the "mark" on the queens is white. I have my queens marked so I can not only find her quickly, but can determine if she gets replaced by her colony, etc.

Dump the bees in, add the frames and queen cage (with the candy-side cork removed)  and close it up!

The Russians bees were placed in an apiary of their own, far from my Italians. I do not wish for them to cross breed so I am keeping them in different yards. This apiary is actually near my drive so it's convenient for me to glance and observe when we leave to go somewhere.

I expected my russians to be a darker color, but here they are on the Queen cage just before I put her in the hive.

Here you see the Queen with the white mark on her back.
When I checked on the hives 3 days later, the Russian Queens were not yet out, although the candy entrance was eaten. I had to release them and hope they are accepted. I will check on them Monday and see if they are laying eggs yet. Here's hoping for a successful season. We are still in nectar flow and I am also hoping for a surplus of honey to extract, but like all things agriculture.......don't count your chickens until they hatch!

A Country Life: 10 things

So besides having colds....we are all doing well. Colds always seem to be harder for me and therefore I have been not blogging, but rather taking hot baths and going to bed early. Today I got a wonderful steroid shot in the bootie and I seem to feel better. So I walked around with little Rosie and snapped some pictures. Today was a summery-type day. It was hot and humid! So I will start with my list of what goes on in the country here:

1. The cicadas are back! This is the 13 year cycle and they are loud and everywhere. We found this little guy and snapped his picture before letting him go. Here's a fact: They eat these in the Congo. I point this out because my dear nephew Logan is headed to that area in Africa this summer for a 2 year stint as a missionary. Yum, yum Logan!!!! :-)

2. Although this picture is not the best, it is one of my Tulip Poplar Trees. Folks, if you live here then this is most likely where the bees get their nectar for your local honey. Love on these trees, hug them They are valuable. Note the yellow blossoms...

3. The peach trees are looking good so far! I have spent hours thinning them and was quite pleased that they were not eaten up by little caterpillars. My plums and apples were.......

4. These little toads are EVERYWHERE!!! Today the girls each brought a dozen or so to the house and we released them closer to the house. Hopefully they found cover before and hens took notice! These guys are sure cute.

5. We bought a HUGE mailbox! In fact Rose and Zeb thought it was a play house. I am sure the neighbors up the road will hate this box but I am tired of running to pick up small parcels at the post office. I would say the mail carrier can fit most anything in this box.

6. Fletcher loves the dogs and his sisters. I do not like the dogs on my quilts, but since they are sweet enough to let the baby chew and pull on them I will let it slide:-) Note that the dogs don't look very happy. They know they are the lowly dog and must put up with baby pulling...or else they live a hard life outside. Good doggies!

7. Cicadas are back! Yes, I know I already said this but look at this guy!!!! He was molting when the girls brought him in....ewwww. I watched him emerge and we took him back out. Yum, yum Logan!!!!! Maybe I can mail you some ketchup, yeah...bet they are better dipped in ketchup!

8. On down the property the little girls have built a fort with scraps they find. Cool. I would say this is the best type of play for a kid and nothing beats fresh air and imagination!

9. Privet and honeysuckle are blooming everywhere right now. The combination of hot, humid temperatures and the blooms from these plants means a sweet smelling air! There is nothing sweeter than this folks!

 (Okay, for some it means allergies!....haha. You really need to find some local honey!)

10. Cicadas shells are fun to gather, at least Rose thought so. I actually like this picture because I LOVE those curls around her face. She did not get that from me. My hair is straight and flat. I would say that if I looked as cute as her I would run around in a swimsuit collecting cicada shells all day too.

Tomorrow I WILL FEEL BETTER!!!!!! I have a couple bee keeping pictures to share.....you don't want to miss that, right?

Tornado Aftermath

First let me start by counting my blessings that my home was not hit by the tornado that tore through my little town on Wednesday night. We were about 1/2 mile away, sitting in the basement watching the local weather man on TV. We did not even lose our power while our town, our neighbors were getting slammed.

This is what my local and favorite quilt store looked like the next day. In fact, this is what most of my little town here looks like. I am grateful to be in my little shell here, safe and sound.
I am also thrilled to say that despite the fact that my local DFCS office was slammed as well, my adoption papers were NOT in the building. I found out today that another adoption specialist had taken my file just 2 days earlier to her office, in another location. Whew! Our adoption is still moving forward and we will attend a 20 hour training session in early June.

To those who donated so graciously to my quilt raffle, I got an email from Katie Davis in Uganda!!! I want to share it will all of you and again thank you all soooo much!

April 2011

Dear Samantha,

Thank you for your gift of $865.00 to Amazima Ministries.  I am truly touched to hear that you raised this money through your blog for the sake of these kids.  THANK YOU. 

Over a month ago I welcomed into my home a little girl named Lorocho.  She is three years old and at that time she weighed approximately 10 lbs.  The first several weeks I was up multiple times a night with her, realizing she was fighting for her life.  She struggled to keep any food down.  She had no strength. 

Today Lorocho is gaining weight, growing, and smiling.  I’m working to get her to a point where she can walk, and as soon as she does, her grandmother will care for her. 

It takes a while to rehabilitate a starved body, and sometimes even longer to restore a wounded soul.  But rehabilitation CAN happen.  God is the great restorer.

I’m so blessed by your support of Amazima.  Thank you for walking this journey with me.  Please tell everyone who pitched in thanks from me. 

Love and Blessings,    

Katie Davis

Need I say more? You guys are awesome! I also plan to make another quilt, a Christmas quilt, to raffle off for another charity this fall. The charity will be 318 Partners. This group helps defectors from North Korea and also helps rescue people from North Korea. 

Blessings to everyone! 

Strawberry Cream Trifle

So my favorite place to eat out, when I am lucky enough to go out, is The Olive Garden. I LOVE that place. I have only a couple of things I eat there, I am so adventurous.:-)
One thing that I REALLY, REALLY love is a strawberry dessert that comes in a little dish. It only take me a few bites to eat it all up....the name of the dessert escapes me. It has strawberries and syrup and white chocolate pudding in it. It is so good.

Well, because I am so desperate creative I have come up with my own version, a copycat. We are having some tonight too, since I loaded up on cheap strawberries yesterday.

Excuse the poor lighting in the photos. We have been having some crazy stormy weather today and therefore it was dark outside.

Start by slicing strawberries into quarters and then stir a little sugar in them. I usually cut up about 2 pounds of berries.

Now in another bowl pour in a can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 1/2 C water. Mix it with a whisk.

Add to the milk mixture a box of Cheesecake Instant Pudding.

Whisk it all together and let it set for 5 minutes.

Add 8 oz of whipped topping. You can also whip some cream and use that( it's always better with whipped cream!). Stir it all together well.

Get yourself a pound cake and cut it into cubes. I buy the large cake and let it sit on the counter several hours to defrost.

Now all you need to do is put some cake in the bottom of a pretty bowl. Drizle some strawberry syrup over the cake cubes.

Put some strawberries on top.

Now put some of the pudding mixture on next.

Repeat until you are all done. You can now leave it with pudding on top or smother some more whipped topping on top. Grate some white chocolate for garnish if you are feelin' a little crazy.

Now, isn't that pretty? All that needs to be done is to cover it and put it in the fridge until dessert time. Oh, don't forget to lick the bowl! Yeah, I didn't think you would!


Strawberry and Cream Trifle

1/2 C strawberry syrup
2 pounds Sliced strawberries, sprinkled with sugar
1 prepared pound cake, cubed
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 C water
1 box instant pudding, cheesecake flavor
8 oz whipped topping, plus more for garnish if desired


Combine milk, water and pudding mix in a bowl. Whisk well and let stand 5 minutes. Add whipped topping. Combine well.
Place some cake in bottom of bowl. Drizzle some syrup over the cake. Put some strawberries on next and then add some pudding next, Repeat layers until all gone. Top with whipped topping and grated white chocolate if desired. Store in the fridge.

The Pantry

So I have been absent several days. Gosh, darn it life has been busy. What else could I expect?

There have been several days with a husband out of town, then a party to be hosted here, and of course then came Easter.
We have also been finishing up some obligatory testing (don't get me started on my feelings about standardized tests!)...but we are compliant:-)
I have to say that it has been nice to just be us and not be cleaning up EVERYTHING! Laundry has not been done in 2 days!....Tomorrow I will climb the mountainous piles and see what I can tackle.

On another subject, I finally had time to head out and get the pantry stocked up a bit once more. I do keep boxed goodies and conveniences around some what. It is nice when the kids are playing or if we decide to pack up a lunch for the lake to have some items here. I must also brag that we never need to scurry out with the threat of snow to buy food, as is the norm here in Georgia for so many.

So how do I keep the pantry stocked and organized? well I start by having my big sister come visit and get it all organized for me. I then promise to keep it that way. So far, I have:-)

My first stop today was Aldis. Here is a sampling of what I got. Again, we were low or out of many items and the strawberries were on sale for .99 a pound. I will be making a yummy dessert this week and will post it. After we unload groceries I grab my sharpie marker.

When you buy bulk items or items for long storage it is important to mark the date on them. This allows you to rotate the food and always use up what's been around the longest. I even mark the tops of canned goods. For example I bought a case of mandarin oranges today , marked them and moved them to the bottom of my stack of oranges. Yep, STACK. My kids love to snack on these canned mandarins.

As far as essentials and "treats" there are a few items that we larger families should always keep around. Popcorn is one but also rice crispie cereal, marshmallows, rootbeer, ice cream and ice cream cones. It is a rule and I never break such rules, honestly. I do buy Breyers vanilla when it's on sale, and what I mean is I STOCK up when it's on sale. I have 3 freezers:-) I like to also buy the large bucket of neopolitan ice cream for cones in the summer, and my advice is to splurge on a name brand. The cheapo stuff is nasty tasting.

So here are the 2 sides of the pantry. See, sis, it still looks pretty good! Everything is pretty much labeled with a date and stocked on the shelves like a store. See those Quaker Oats? I despise them. I actually ran out of regular oats and panicked because I have NEVER been without oats before. In my haste I went to Costo and bought those Quaker oats. They are blah:-( Fortunately my big sister is bringing me like 50 pounds of regular oats this summer. Speaking of which....

Behind the pantry door is where I keep my buckets of wheat, sugar, flour, popcorn, beans, etc. When you feed this many, it is always cheaper to  buy in bulk and also to COOK DINNER! :-) We do not eat out often at all, and in fact if we do it is usually a cheap pizza. McDonalds will run us $40....I can cook a huge meal for $5.
Well, laundry did not get done today.......

I will keep it real for you and show a smidgen of what piled up over 2 days. I have to add diapers and all of the clothes upstairs to this mountain. Speaking of which, since I started making my own laundry detergent it has saved us a BUNDLE! I have an HE machine and this homemade stuff works great. You can find my recipe HERE. It costs me about $5 for 4 months worth of detergent!

I also must confess that I do keep to myself a couple of treats that as a mom to many, can make even the worst days better. Here they are:

...and they both can be found in my pantry:-)

Tomorrow I will post on what I am cooking this week and hopefully my laundry will be more caught up.
Have a great night ya'll!

Sunny Day

The weather was beautiful today! What can I say except we were out enjoying it!

We did start some end of year testing and will most likely take the whole week to complete it all. I personally think that these standardized tests are silly and do not show anything BUT it is a requirement here in Georgia. At least we can take some breaks and enjoy the nice warm air.

Even if  it also requires we pick ticks off the dogs!!!!!