Thursday, July 20, 2006

Family Man

My brother is the ultimate 'Family Man'. He and his wife, Barbara, are willing to work hard to keep together a widely spread group of people who are kin through marriage and blood.
Their kindness and generosity were demonstrated this month by a 'Howton-Harman Fun in the Sun' reunion in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. They rented 22 condos! We all flew in, from California, Great Britain, etc. and had a GREAT time, thanks to their thoughtfulness.
The highlight was seeing the children, especially the babies, and seeing how they have grown. Such beautiful children!
I also got to meet some of my SIL's family; they are as nice as I expected. Maybe in the future we can get to know each other even better. All their kids were nice; their son Tony is just back from a tour in Ramadi, and talking to him was a delight. Daughter Allie kept all the smaller children occupied by playing in the pool with them: Kudos to Allie!

July Garden Report

I have been dragging in afternoons, too tired to keep records of the garden or bees.
The garden is a 'wag the dog' production. It's WAAAY too big. We really have to restrain ourselves next year. The good news is that BG has a freezer full of food. The bad is that we can't keep up with the maintenance. Bless her, BG is slowly mulching the ground with old hay, and we're using the drip irrigation to good advantage. I'm paying CC for too much time to maintain garden and grounds, though, since I can't do it all (or won't) myself. We aren't using the raised beds as much as I'd like to, though.
I started another apiary in the south field with 22 nucs. I requeened them with 20 Purvis Goldline queens, 18 took. I gave away the queens I removed, and reports are that they're doing well. I've used powdered sugar on two hives so far and plan on doing the rest. I have 18 hives that are mature and making honey on the clover. We'll see. The goldenrod has just started blooming, too.