Three more...

These will be our last pets for a long time. At least until Erin agrees to goats.

Our bees are doing well. I did a hive inspection yesterday and our frames were nicely filling outwards with brood, so I added a second story to the orange bee palace. They're happy. The garden's coming along too -- our strawberries are strawberrying.



About an hour ago, I picked up our latest pets: three baby pullets that will grow up into egg layers. They hatched Wednesday in Missouri and were shipped here along with about 50 other chicks and ducklings (a colleague arranged a group order from a hatchery). In theory, we have a cuckoo marans, a black-laced silver Wyandotte, and a something-else Wyandotte. In reality, at this stage of life it's not the easiest task to sort out one variety from the next. We think we got it right, but won't know for a few weeks (at which point we won't be swapping, anyway).

Names are forthcoming.

The ride home:

Home:

Our latest 5000 or so pets

That (5000) number is a complete guess, but there are about 30-50,000 bees in a healthy hive; being new and not yet established, I figure we've a few thousand.

I've wanted bees for ages. The earliest I can mark this desire with certainty is 2004, when I was meandering up New Zealand south-to-north and hoping to WWOOF with an apiary (winter interfered with the venture's success).

Fast forward to 2015. We have our own backyard. Of course we'll start beekeeping. When telling the neighbors I phrased it as more of a statement than a question.

Erin and I attended a 2-hour seminar. Bought a book. Ready.

First, procure the boxes (Erin got Brian a beekeeping jacket/veil for Christmas). The photo below was pre-orange paint.

We ordered our nucleus colony ("nuc") in winter. Yesterday was the big day when it was ready. A colleague asked me to pick up her 2 nucs as well, so we'd have 3 to bring back to Burlington. The place was about an hour and a quarter away. A pick-up is advised, but I figured our hatchback would be fine given that another coworker had offered me some netting as a barrier.

We picked it (the netting) up en route. I was disheartened (Erin more so) to see its 3/4" mesh -- obviously not a weave that was going to offer any realistic protection. Alas, it was too late to do much about it now. Onwards!

Pull into the farm/apiary on the edge of a forest, a few miles down a gravel road. A dude in a bee suit acknowledges our arrival. Gear up.

By my estimation, bees don't enjoy being transferred from their nuc boxes to the deeps (the taller bee boxes that typically form the bottom layer or two in the stack) that will serve as their new home. I've been around open hives without protection, but this was the first time I'd been around pissed-off bees in a total cloud around me. With the suit as protection, it wasn't too bad, though I did get stung once (in the knee).

I was calmer than most, I must say. While waiting for the hives to settle down before lifting them into the car, I once looked up to see a guy wearing a full Tyvek suit, colored blue, racing down the gravel driveway in the opposite direction from the bee zone. I wasn't the only newbie, apparently.

I really tried to seal up the hives so that bees couldn't get out.

It really didn't seem to work.

Erin was a little nervous about the arrangement (have I ever mentioned what a good sport she is?). The bird netting obviously wasn't going to help in any fashion other than its being a psychological barrier, so that's precisely what we used it for.

Some part of me secretly wishes that there would have been more drama on the drive home. It started to look like there may be. We weren't a mile down the road and we had a handful of bees already buzzing around the back. However, we kept the rear windows partway open and it seemed to keep them calm and at bay, especially once we hit asphalt.

Once home, I set things up. Here we go. Isn't the box beautiful?

They seem really happy here! At various points today, we've both sat ourselves nearby and watched them come and go.

***OTHER PET UPDATE***

Wendell graduated puppy school a few weeks ago and is continuing to practice so that he can become a certified therapy dog and go to work with Erin. Wendell took Erin's transition back to work a little hard and took out his frustration by eating her computer mouse....

Whidbey continues to be fantastically easy going and adjustable to the constant changes in the Just household.

While she and Wendell are not inseparable, there are some endearing moments where I catch her purring while he is giving her a bath, or where she chases after his tail.

April showers bring May... vegetable seedlings

This is a direct continuation of our autumn posting. Our backyard transformation project picked up again in February, when there was still a foot of snow on the ground. We ordered seeds. Lots of them. We tried to make a plan.

Brian built a small greenhouse out of reused wood.

We traded a day's use of a chainsaw for a plate of fresh brownies.

Erin was skeptical.

Erin was happy that there were no trips to the emergency room.

Erin moved the herb spiral from where Brian put it in October; Wendell approved.

We started painting the pickets and building a small fence to separate the garden from the yard (paint is recycled from household drop-offs).

An impromptu project: rebuilding the retaining wall beside the garage (formerly collapsed and full of concrete).

That large bottom branch, dangerously close to the power line (and stealing sunlight from the garden once its leaves arrive)? Gone - we called in a professional (not Brian).

Paths are lined with wood shavings from the shop where Brian took a woodworking course this winter; Erin plants the first outdoor veggies.

Veggies are up (if we didn't mention it previously, we're well aware that we're in over our heads with the 50+ varieties; we read somewhere that if you're starting a garden, take what you think you need, then halve it, then halve it again; we've sort of done the inverse).

As of today, here's where we're at (today / last summer).

Visitors

We were so lucky to have some friends come out from New Jersey and Toronto for weekend visits in March. It was wonderful to have a house full of laughter and friendship and have the chance to check out some new places!

Horse drawn sleigh ride in Shelburne.

Alex and Emilia were nervous about Wendell at first, but became fast friends

The Elverums down at the Intervale Barn

Brian and Luke on the Von Trapp X-country trails

Luke and Erin tied for most wipe outs of the day

Luke tries his first Sugar on Snow, served traditionally with a yeast-risen donut and a sour dill pickle

Finishing touches

Pending visits from friends helped Brian and I finish that last 10% of projects that were still lingering. We're pretty happy with how it came out - looks even better in person!

Breakfast nook

Kitchen

Dining Room

Office

Dining room from the living room

Living room

Living room

Upstairs hall

1st bedroom

Second Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Upstairs Bathroom

Wendell joins the team

This handsome fellow became the newest addition to the family last Saturday.  He was a rescue from Miami, FL, though with his love of the snow and cold you'd never guess.  He's a Belgian Malinois and just under a year old.

Whidbey was not happy with the new arrangement, but we've been careful with introductions and they are now coexisting rather peaceably.

2015 begins

We're home -- in Vermont -- and it's wonderful.  2014 was filled with so much change, distance, and not-knowingness.  The two of us are together again and, since the holidays, we've done as much as we could with the house to make it a home (while staying sane):

• Repaired and repainted the whole first story (including ceilings)
• Rerouted phone lines
• Rebuilt a wall (aftermath of the sofa/doorway fiasco)
• Built a hearth out of riverstone we harvested last autumn
• Built some odds an ends (a hallway mirror out of reclaimed materials, a hanging lamp for the dining room, a coatrack)
• Made or bought curtains for four rooms
• Refinished our butcher block countertops (without chemicals)

A few other projects are in the works, but I'll leave that for later.  We've scrounged the secondhand and antique shops of the greater Burlington area for furniture to fill the various spaces that needed filling.  In most but not all cases, we've managed to avoid buying new.  Erin's done a wonderful job decorating the place, including unpacking many of my travel things that have been collecting dust for a decade.  Mixed in with that was a long overdue holiday: 2.5 weeks in Ecuador.

To the present.

Winter's on its way out and we're excited for springtime!  In a few days, a box containing 40+ varieties of organic seeds will arrive.  Soap making has begun again.  We've taken an introduction to beekeeping course and will be getting our own hive in May.  The debate is still on about backyard chickens.  I'm a month into a fantastic woodworking course at a local craft school.  Future refinishing projects include making from-scratch milk (casein) paint and experimenting with chalk paint and beeswax-based polish.  I've a small pile of reclaimed wood -- including a gorgeous 3x8 beam -- that I'll be transforming into a console and some shelving.  All will be future postings!