Warm in the Sun

I moved some trees today. It's warm out, so warm. We're talking pants and a tank top warm! It felt incredible and I wish I had all day to devote to the garden. I even just sat on my favorite rock and had a snack. It was perfect.
I potted a dwarf peach which is in the way of a new path I want to build. I dug up a blackberry which has never been happy. I hope to find a new berry spot and plant some raspberries this year. I planted a lime which has been rootbound in a pot for a few years. I pruned the espaliered apples, the kumquat, the lemon, the lime. I planted a bartlet and moved the bing cherry and the asian pear closer to the porch. These three are in the narrow West garden near the bees and I decided to move them a little closer to the porch and prune them a bit more like fence trees so that they can be harvested from the porch with less risk of bee sting. The boy got the first one of the year last week!
Regarding the bees: It looks like we have one really happy and thriving hive and one not so happy. Jonathan suspected this would happen based on the way the hives looked in the Fall. The good news is that he can split the thriving colony to rebuild the sad one. I think we'll have to order a queen though. How weird is that? Ordering a queen bee? Wow, farming sure is strange.

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.