News bulletin!

Lots going on around here!

The cabin site has been completely overhauled, thanks to Favorite Daughter Katie's insistence and her willingness to get things set up. She offered some fantastic suggestions and held my hand virtually the whole way. It looks great!!! You can take a peek at angel-mountain-cabin.com (same as before).

We're proud new beekeepers!!! We've had two hives in place for three weeks, and the bee kids seem to be thriving. If you don't know anything about honey bees, you're in for a treat! We've had visiting bees every year, but it's not nearly the same as having your own :)

The transport boxes full of NOISY bees, set down beside their new homes to let the new kids scope things out for a little while before the transfer to their new home (i.e., while we could get our bee-working garb on).

Bee Daddy and his smoker to calm the bees down before the transfer.

Bee Daddy, looking official, making the move. So far, so good!

The bees didn't waste any time finding pollen (the yellow sacs on their back legs).

Rearranging some of the frames earlier this week. These guys, er, gals, have been BUSY!!!

They've been so busy, in fact, that some of their cells were attached to adjoining frames; when the frames were separated, the cells split open to reveal honey! Woo hoo!

It has been fascinating to watch the bees in action. It would be nice to have a way to watch them at work inside, and thanks to The Honey Hole in West Jefferson, that's possible with their new observation hive! You'll have to check it out and their cute shop while you're here :)

Meanwhile, happy May!

Win a Cabin Stay!

(Edited to add the auction link to the cabin stay, which was the purpose for this post. Sheesh.)

Happy spring to us all!

We're still a tiny bit suspicious as to what happened to 'winter,' but that's okay. We're enjoying seeing colors again and are almost excited about mowing!

Almost.

Anyway, a 2-night getaway to Angel Mountain Cabin is one of the available items in a very special auction. Blankets for SMA (B4SMA) is a project started several years ago by MJ Purk and her super duper caregiver extraordinaire, Brenda Hanson. MJ was diagnosed with the same type of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) as our angel, Jeffrey, but she's never let SMA get in the way of helping others. MJ and Brenda send blankets and quilts to SMA families, providing both loving support and hope for the families that perhaps the prognosis for SMA, Type 1 (typically, death by two) isn't carved in stone after all.

A fellow SMA mom recently had a brilliant idea to organize an auction to help raise funds for shipping, supplies, and other expenses incurred by B4SMA.

The Hand In Hand Auction runs thru April. Some of the items, like the cabin stay, will be available for bidding all month. Others, like a 4-CD collection of my mother's original music, are available only thru April 15. Still more items, like a copy of The Jeffrey Journey (book) combined with Dreams for Jeffrey (CD of my mother's original lullabies) are available only from April 15-30.

Please feel free to share the info with others. Thanks!

Meanwhile, happy spring and mowing!

Spring - Really!

Because in years past we've seen significant snowfall the first week in April and three nights of teen temps in the middle of May, I'm not foolish enough to proclaim winter has moved entirely out of the way for spring, but until further notice, we are basking in whatever this is while we've got it.

Ever see a catfish bask? Okay, maybe he's begging instead. These guys spent a few months without the usual pond chow buffet, and they're almost skin and bones! Not really.

Basking, er, begging for more food like the big pond kids!

Sami, 14, is a pro basker.

Maggie, 14, is our new addition! She loves to bask in pinestraw...

and roll wherever.

The two furballs aren't BFF, but they're agreeable to being basking buddies.
And that's good 'nuf.

Happy SPRING to all!

Snow!

After last year's non-stop winter turmoil, this winter has been amazingly pleasant. We've had a couple of chill factors plummet to negative numbers, but we've been blessed.

There's plenty of time for that to change (not that we want it to!), but meanwhile, we're giddy with yesterday's snow and gorgeous blue skies (and NO WIND) today!

Don't forget the Winter Hibernation Sale; it's good thru March... whether anyone needs to hibernate or not :)