a quiet buzz

Well, my crazy, freecycling husband came home with a new lawn mower the other day! It's a rechargeable electric mower. I was on the phone in the garden when he unloaded it and turned it on. Wow! is that thing quiet. It starts right up and just purrs across the lawn. It's so quiet that I wonder about it's power. It was free which is always my favorite price and will replace the gas mower that hates me. Jonathan always has to start the gas mower for me. It makes me feel like some helpless little girl and that's just not okay. So now I have a happy new mower to mow my husbands lawn.

Speaking of Jonathan and buzzing, he's been helping the bees ready themselves for Winter. He checked in on them last week and found that one hive had plenty of honey but not enough brood and the other had plenty of brood but not enough honey. He's been feeding them the appropriate sugar solutions to help them find their balance. He pulled out a couple of frames and we bottled one jar of honey. It was our first and it's gorgeous! I cannot wait until Spring when we can harvest some more.

We haven't lugged the fountain out of the truck yet but will have to this weekend as I need the truck to transport the dogs to the dogsitter (going to Disneyland, yay). Hopefully, when we get home, we'll have some time to start weeding the West garden and get some flower seeds planted for Spring. The bees are going to love the selection. I'm thinking I'll add an All-in-one Almond tree too. It'll make tons of early blossoms for the girls to work.

Jonathan has decided not to harvest pollen from either hive. He feels like it's just not nice. I say that we sure could use the money but he's right. The bees will have to work extra hard to make up for what we steal. We'll only pull honey when they need the room. If you let them get too cramped, they'll swarm and depart. We want our happy girls to stay put so we'll make sure they have everything they need.

I'm working on one of my many "jobs" this week. I'm making artisinal chocolates for Thanksgiving and an upcoming wedding. It's busy work and I won't be in the garden until it's done.

I'll post on the olla experiment soon. So far, so good.