Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

Humdinger1

@Suffolk_lass, thank goodness you're on the case! Second all suggestions above.  That hospital needs a rocket up the jacksie! Love Humdinger xx 

Watty1

For some reason i was thinking about this, and, at the very least you need to write and send both electronically and via post so that the detail is on his records.  It sounds to me as if the detail has been missed completely and at no  point in the future do you want to be trying to recall "detail" when stressed.   You may never need to, but, if it is on his records you might not need to.

Why I say this I have no idea, my recent biopsy showed that the hospital had no records for an earlier biopsy - but - were able to tell me I had had hepatitis in India in my 20s.  ?? How random!

Suffolk_lass

Well, after several days of getting up earlier than normal (5.00 yesterday) and topping up with a lovely afternoon siesta, I feel I have more energy and I have got lots done. I recommend the afternoon sleep, getting undressed, putting down the blackout blind and getting into bed. So much better than falling asleep on the sofa. That said, it was 6.30 this morning and I feel I have had a lay-in!

On Thursday, having driven the 35 minutes to the unit where Mr Sl's bike has been while all the hospital carp was going on (being fixed and MOT'd), he rode it back and then had to have a little lie-down (2 hour nap). It is clear that although he feels much better, he has to build up his stamina more slowly than he would like. That was Thursday.

Friday evening we ventured over to the Village Social Club and had two drinks each. He had two bottles of 0.5% bitter (as no Guinness 0%) and has suffered with his guts for the last two days. Of course it could be the stir-fried turkey I made (I used an M&S 4 portion kit on offer for £6 that did 6 portions for us with the addition of garlic, chillies and an onion) - we had the stir fry for two successive main meals and lunch yesterday. He is still working out how much fat he can tolerate after the surgery, and having two different things on one day means it is not clear which one upset him. Or maybe this is his body's new reaction to food. Anyway, without going into the nitty gritty, everything is a little more urgent, currently.

On Saturday Mr Sl wanted to ride to the north of the County to meet his bike club pals and have breakfast with them. Then they were off out for the day and he rode back. It was more than enough and he looked wrecked for the rest of the day. Unfortunate as just after he left here, a mahoosive bee swarm arrived in the garden. They found the woodpecker hole in one of our boxes, waiting to be cleaned, and moved in. I got my friend, the gardener, (FG) to bring some of his kit round and we shook them in, closed them up late on Saturday night, and moved them early Sunday. All done and home by 06.45, I left FG to move his sheep to lush regrown pastures.

Bees
This week I have to shake out a colony of bees (literally, in a field) as they are nasty and bad tempered and are defending a drone laying worker
The technical bit - in the absence of pheromones from Queen and brood, several workers can develop a small number of ovules and begin laying eggs. Unfortunately, they are not mated so they lay only drones, and they only develop 12-18 egg tubes so there is a scattered pattern and often 2 or more eggs in the cells, and part way in, because their shorter abdomen can't reach the bottom of the cell. They are a doomed colony as the drones are stunted (having developed in cells too small) and don't do any work to make the colony thrive. It will dwindle as the existing workers die off. The laying workers are impossible to identify unless you catch them laying, because they are just workers. And they wreck the brood combs by laying drones too big for the cells.

In a second colony at the same apiary I either have a poorly mated queen or another the same (I think this is the former, so I might be able to find and despatch her, then unite them with a different colony). I will still have to write off the frames of comb that have drones through them. 

Also, I now have 3 supers (honey boxes) in my greenhouse, between two plastic gravel trays to stop intrusion. They are waiting until Mr Sl is strong enough for us to extract the honey. Sooner, rather than later would be helpful! The bramble is in flower and the bees are collecting the nectar!

Money
I am squirrelling the Tilly-tidies away as ever, and the total is now much bigger than I normally keep in the holding account (where the interest rate is now 2.8%). Dilemma - shall I put it in a bond or initiate the big project to re(pair)build our pig shed. I want to do the latter, and Mr Sl's bond he took out a year ago using the dividend cash from his S&S ISA has matured, so that could be added. We need to talk. I would personally like us to get some projects finished before we start it, and I would like him to be able to help, so be a bit stronger.

foxgloves

I think it sounds as though Mr SL needs to continue taking his recovery at a relaxed pace. These things take it out of us more than we really know, until we try to get back to normal.
I know you live in an old property, but I am wondering if it used to be a farm? There are some interesting words in your diary like 'cart lodge' & 'pig shed' which sound much more eclectic than 'garden shed' & 'wheelie-bin corner' which is what you'd get in mine. 
It must be lovely harvesting your own honey, although you're probably so used to it now that it is quite a mundane occurrence. I think I'd be so ridiculously excited, I'd probably frighten all the bees away!
F

Suffolk_lass

Ha! Nothing so grand as a farm @foxgloves. It was two adjoined farm workers cottages with a large plot of land so they could grow their own food and keep their own animals. When it was made into one cottage, the owner before last built a bungalow that is prefab underneath modern cladding and brick slips with an L shaped garden, and two small two bedroom cottages built in the front left corner of the left side of the house plot. The bungalow was gifted to her son. We sold the land to the right after finding my back was badly fractured and it seemed unlikely that I could maintain it going forward. The money was nice, and bought the house in town our son partly owns, a car, and paid down some debt, when we were flat broke. We still have about 1/3 of an acre with the old pig shed. The double cart lodge was built by the previous owners. It is just too narrow for our cars. I can get the small one in, but not get out (of the car!) easily !!! Apparently it is just right for all our carp and Mr Sl's motorbikes (no, I don't know why he needs two either, except that one or the other invariably is in having work done, needs work done, or is planned to have something done, and you need a backup to deploy when unavailable, apparently).

Suffolk_lass

So, it's too hot later for doing much so gardener friend and I went to his apiary at 07.00 this morning and all is well there. The kit is a mix of his new stuff, and the old and extremely unmaintained kit from the person he bought it from. We need to get a wiggle on to ensure some is clean and better maintained for his colonies, going into the wasp season, and to that end, two entrance blocks are in place so they are better placed to defend it.

In money news, although firmly in the dead zone this week, I can see my state pension payment pending for Monday, the second this month, although July will reap the benefits.

I plan to splurge on a few bottles of wine as Morries has 30% off 3 in selected "The Best" range. I am just tagging @edinburgher (even though he is on holiday, as I think he's in the Western Isles and I think he is back in time to benefit. Their Douro is part of their offer, along with both the Provencal Rose and the Vinho Verde that we like.

I also need to harvest a few more seeds in my own garden and pick some gooseberries today. My neighbour came and picked 2 x 2l ice cream boxes full of dessert gooseberries and a similar sized box of morello (sour) cherries. Enough, I need to get on!!

in_need_of_direction

I wonder if i could pick your beekeeping brain?  we have bees "nesting" in our roof space, what should we do that doesn't involve removing ceilings or slates?

Watty1

Suffolk_lass said:

 Apparently it is just right for all our carp and Mr Sl's motorbikes (no, I don't know why he needs two either, except that one or the other invariably is in having work done, needs work done, or is planned to have something done, and you need a backup to deploy when unavailable, apparently).

I am learning from the VNM that motorbikes invariable need "work done" as he has one or two in bits in my barn (He says one and the rest is "spares" but I think he may be misleading me   He is therefore looking at a third that is road ready.   I'm assuming that one will turn up soon to go with the other bits in the barn.    

I have horses, currently all 3 have their "issues" as does WattyDog. It would seem motorbikes are no different!

Suffolk_lass

in_need_of_direction said:

I wonder if i could pick your beekeeping brain?  we have bees "nesting" in our roof space, what should we do that doesn't involve removing ceilings or slates?

It depends on the bees. Are you sure they are not wasps?

We get bumblebees in the roof space of our pig shed from time to time. With bumble bees the nests are annual, and the new virgin queens will be being laid round about now to emerge, mate and find somewhere to overwinter and the parent nest then dwindles and dies out. If it is these, the best advice is to leave them and they will be gone by mid September at the latest. The same applies to wasps and hornets, and lots of the solitary bees that nest in close proximity to each other.

The only bees to overwinter are honey bees and if they take up residence, as a swarm, you need to act quickly to discourage them from drawing comb (the forerunner to long term residents), using smoke to discourage them. You can also get open mesh floors in sheets from beekeeping equipment suppliers to use to block potential points of entry (chimneys, holes, vents etc.) for the future.

If they become established you really do need a specialist bee removal builder. Even if a colony dies out over winter, the wax combs they have drawn and the smell of it (and any honey) will attract future swarms, if it is not removed. 

It really annoys me, as a beekeeper when I see people on local facebook groups saying "Just leave them, they will disappear". When bees swarm they move to a bivouac location and then send out scout bees to find a new home - then they do leave THAT location, to take up residence in people's homes. Then they cause a nuisance and cost a lot to remove. It sounds as though that may have happened to you @in_need_of_direction. A decent bee-friendly builder will make good the damage, and use a bee vac to safely remove and relocate the bees, removing all the evidence they have been there.

in_need_of_direction

Thank you so much. Thankfully they are definitely bees as dh is allergic to wasp stings.