Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

Phew, thanks for the birthday wishes. I'm carp at remembering them, I don't know how @edinburgher is so good.

Here we have been making up beekeeping equipment, having decided to move to the smaller, lighter system (nationals) for the honey boxes for the apiary at the farm, where we have to cart everything to and from the car in a wheelbarrow. The physical boxes are the same dimensions as our (commercial) brood chambers so they are interchangeable, but the internal frames are most certainly not interchangeable. We made 60 this week. And fifty the week before. Just need the warm temperatures now to make the nectar flow as there is oil seed rape nearby. Forecast is for Friday to be 15c

Suffolk_lass

I've been busy, getting ducks marching in the same direction, and I have lots on for the next four days. Suddenly the weather forecast is predicting warm weather, just as we are about to go away. 

Bees
The warm weather will make the nectar flow. We have oil seed rape (OSR) all around us, and the nectar will flow around 15 so we are supering up all our colonies. That means, without having inspected yet, we are removing the fondant and putting a queen excluder on, then a super with drawn comb in the middle, and fresh foundation towards the outside, then the crown board, open to the roof but with a second super above. This will also have drawn comb in the middle so they can find it if they need it. My super-experienced bee pal is going to heft them around 14th to make sure all is well, and they are then on their own until we get back, late on 21st. Keep your fingers crossed for warm weather so they make honey while the sun shines! OSR is notorious for crystallising so we are hoping to get it off before this so the combs are not trashed.

A bit of a team effort last week got all the kit assembled and hopefully we will have enough to be able to cope with a Spring harvest

Garden
We are in danger of missing our moment as everything is exploding into life. I have masses of vegetable garden preparation to get done, and bits to chop and move. If it doesn't happen, I will just have to suck it up. On the upside, when I suggested to our gardener friend's wife that her tomatoes were coming (tomorrow) as DS is "looking after them" while we are away (he is a drown/drought "gardener"), she offered to care for my plant babies. I am slightly regretting not having planted more yet, and may still plant a few bits for the greenhouse. That reminds me...

At the weekend we trekked up county in response to an advert on Faceache for some end-grain woodblock laminated worktop that a builder had cut in the wrong place (too short) and had then stuck a mismatched end piece to and installed in someone's kitchen. The very idea that someone would tolerate this in a brand new kitchen beggars belief. £200 worth of worktop in two pieces (plus the stuck on 5mm edged) was our gain for £50. We intended cutting it for the kitchen at DS's house but on collection, the people gave us the off-cut too, which is long enough for DS's kitchen. So plan bee B was hatched and the six foot box-pallet that has been my potting bench for the last four years, has been donated to the community garden, and the greenhouse was emptied, cleaned, and the trestles levelled at 90 degrees with the 8 foot worktop on top and the benching re-oriented so the tomatoes and cucumbers are in better positions for cropping. It was worth doing and I'm glad but it was a lot of time I had planned for other things.

Money
I have finished the first quarter of the year having spent just over a quarter of our grocery budget. I must get a grip (I used to say this a lot!) or there will be none for December festivities (phew, nearly said the C word in the first week of April!). On the upside, the Treats and Entertainment budget will be taking the brunt as we are away for two weeks.

Fingers crossed that the tyres on my car just need either new valves or the rims need a bit of a rub to remove corrosion that might be compromising the air seal. The quick people are going to look tomorrow at 9.30. I will need to drop DH off for his day in London pubs with ex colleagues, a bit earlier than planned so he does not need to drive and I am not late or this in the next town.

Credit card bills are high this month and next and I must be careful not to spend when not needed. Mine has the fence for the village hall and the house insurance premium so that explains nearly £3k of it and I'm just concentrating on the vouchers that I am accruing. I can see (but not yet touch) my occupational pension (tomorrow) and there is no sign of my first state pension but that will be next week, on the 8th, I think.

Enough of my waffling, on with the day! ( hives to sort and some garden things to resolve). Dinner is sorted and is the fourth meal from the 500g of minced beef, reheating the chilli I have (and then the rest of the chicken tomorrow). We have community lunch on Friday and Quiz-night supper on Saturday so just soup and yogurt to use up as we can take veg to my Mum's

kayannie

I wish I could find someone producing honey in north Wales. Before we moved here, I bought it from a farm shop who stocked local honey but the only option here is to buy it from the supermarket & it's usually from China!
KA

Debsnewbudget

kayannie said:

I wish I could find someone producing honey in north Wales. Before we moved here, I bought it from a farm shop who stocked local honey but the only option here is to buy it from the supermarket & it's usually from China!
KA

There used to be a Bee Keeping centre at Bodnant Welsh Foods, but it closed last year.
however you can still buy the local honey from the shop 

https://www.bodnant-welshfood.co.uk/online-shop

not sure how close it is to you, but its a nice place to visit.

kayannie

Debsnewbudget said:

kayannie said:

I wish I could find someone producing honey in north Wales. Before we moved here, I bought it from a farm shop who stocked local honey but the only option here is to buy it from the supermarket & it's usually from China!
KA

There used to be a Bee Keeping centre at Bodnant Welsh Foods, but it closed last year.
however you can still buy the local honey from the shop 

https://www.bodnant-welshfood.co.uk/online-shop

not sure how close it is to you, but its a nice place to visit.

Thank you for the link. Bodnant Gardens isn't that far from us & makes a nice day out. Is the shop on the same site? KA

Debsnewbudget

@kayannie  no but  its just a few miles further along the main road,  They have a nice cafe as well and also sell some different types of ready meals which are chef prepared.  Never eaten in the restaurant there though

Suffolk_lass

Also @kayannie, you could google Black Mountain Honey (they are east of Bodnant Gardens but also sell online) or online at this link. I think you can visit them too. They sell loads of beekeeping stuff and the person I mentor is buying her bees from them in early May. Not quite the small-scale hobby beekeepers we are but they are reputable.

I recommend you try their soft-set honey (best on toast) or runny honey (for yogurt, fruit etc) for the local blossom honey - but he also sells borage, heather and set (naturally granulated) versions of these. He's not cheap, but it's real honey (and post-free if you buy online). I sell mine for £5.50 in that size. 

Alternatively local village groups on FB often know about doorstep sellers like me!

kayannie

Suffolk_lass said:

Also @kayannie, you could google Black Mountain Honey (they are east of Bodnant Gardens but also sell online) or online at this link. I think you can visit them too. They sell loads of beekeeping stuff and the person I mentor is buying her bees from them in early May. Not quite the small-scale hobby beekeepers we are but they are reputable.

I recommend you try their soft-set honey (best on toast) or runny honey (for yogurt, fruit etc) for the local blossom honey - but he also sells borage, heather and set (naturally granulated) versions of these. He's not cheap, but it's real honey (and post-free if you buy online). I sell mine for £5.50 in that size. 

Alternatively local village groups on FB often know about doorstep sellers like me!

Thank you for this. I've had a quick look at their website & they have a good selection. I did manage to find a small jar of Welsh honey in T's this week. It was only available as runny which is fine on my morning porridge but I like to have the set type as well for toast etc.
KA

Suffolk_lass

Great! Here it is all preparation for going away - the bees need space so they don't plan to reproduce while we are away, so they are getting additional boxes added today, and my list is down to one page, but some of this is for when we return.

Big celebration today as I can see my first ever state pension payment pending for Monday! And I checked NS&I yesterday but today I can see an email and I won £125! three small wins, two from the same bond range. Thing three is my tyres. The front ones were gradually losing air and the nice man at the Quick place removed them, removed the debris and rust from the alloy wheel rims and added some sort of sealing compound. For free! I had an emergency fiver on me so I was able to bung him most of a drink, as a little thank you. The crack in my windscreen will have to wait! It's from the bottom corner on the passenger side so it will just have to be there until we get back.

At last I was able to spend a few minutes potting up peppers and I can see that two chillies have germinated. Admittedly old seed but 6 weeks! The peppers were almost as bad, but four is plenty. Two to keep, two to gift. I also potted on some of the slower, smaller tomatoes. I need to get out there with my pencil and label the different varieties before I get completely muddled up!

I've managed to get my list down to one page and it includes two things for DH. I'm expecting a slow day for him as he was on a pub crawl in London yesterday and confessed to 6 pints when I collected him from the station last night. Some of the rest of the list are frogs I need to do (two reports to write, for instance) and some weeding. I've just seen it is pouring again. We still have most hives to visit today or tomorrow!

I'm not sure if I'll be back before we go to Scotland so have fun if not!

themadvix

Good luck with the list and have a great trip!