A Weekend at the Farm August 3-5, 2012

 This is a Limelight Hydrangea flower.  They are really beautiful.  I purchased a plant this spring.  The shrub is not very big yet, and there are only three flowers blooming on it.  But they certainly pack a punch.

• My husband and I harvested honey from our hive on Saturday.  That is not an easy job.  We have discussed trying to get an Ag Exemption with bees.  You need twelve hives to get the exemption.  But I just can't imagine maintaining twelve hives.  Harvesting honey is a process.  First I had to sterilize the jars.  (Somehow I turned a jar full of boiling water across the delicate underside of my wrist.  It hurt, needless to say.  Interestingly, the skin didn't blister.  I rubbed aloe vera across the wound, but it smarted pretty good all day nevertheless.)  After the jars were sterilized,  I had to get the smoker going which is not very easy.  Then I fetched the wheel barrow and covered it with plastic.  I use the wheel barrow to carry the supers up the hill.  They are vey heavy when they are filled with honey.  Next I put on a layer of clothes ( long sleeved shirt and long pants) as well as the bee suit.  There are two boxes from which I remove honey.  The two bottom boxes are for the bees.  The two top boxes are for me.  The top box had almost no comb built on the supers, so I pulled it off and set it on the ground.  By now the bees are furious and working as hard as they can to kill me, but I am nonplussed.  I removed 7 supers from the hive, and then I replaced the box that was on the ground.  I put on the lid and began the walk up the hill with the wheelbarrow full of supers.  The bees are real mad.  But, they are pretty cooperative relatively speaking, and they eventually fly away.  I hand the supers two at a time to my husband who is in the house.  The I go inside and strip off the bee suit and clothing - wet with sweat.  I purchased an electric knife to cut away the bees wax.  Bees wax covers each honey-filled hole in the supers.  I heard about these electric knives from my neighbor.  It was a great idea, and it really sped up the process.  You just run the knife along the wax and it peels away.  It also drips off the knife with having to scrape it off the knife - handy.  But it is nevertheless a time consuming process removing the wax.  My hand was aching from the strange position it was in.  After the wax is removed, the supers are placed in the honey extraction canister and spun.  Then we filtered the honey and poured it into jars.  We filled twelve jars and after we ran out of jars, we poured it into a gallon water jug.  I have no idea what we are going to do with all this honey - give it to family I guess.  When I returned the supers to the hive (having put on the bee suit again) I had an accident.  I pulled the top box off the hive to replace the supers, but the box underneath stuck to the top box.  It fell to the ground and absolutely exploded with bees.  It was like a billion bees came swarming out of the box.  Very intense. 
• I worked in the Rose Garden for a long time.  We haven't had any rain for such a long time that I decided I needed to give the roses a good watering with the hose.  That took about three hours.  While I watered, I weeded the rose flower beds and raked the paths.  I also sprayed herbicide in the paths.  It looked really good when I was finished.  It was really hard, hot work!
• Deadheaded flowers all weekend.
• I did something really stupid and transplanted a butterfly bush from the Long Border (that was growing in an awkward spot) to the Star Garden.  Never move a plant in August!  I was impatient.  I took a perfectly health plant and killed it.  When I left on Sunday it was a drooping, dessicated sad little half-dead plant.  And all I had to do was wait one more month!
• I weeded in the Orchard.  One of the beds was particularly weedy.
• I watered some plants that were struggling - the Mexican plum, the Mayhaw, the Madame Isaac Pereire.  I watered all my new shrubs just to be sure they would be all right.  Summers are brutal.
• I turned the compost pile.
• I moved some Columbine seedlings from the path where they had sprouted to a shaded flower bed. 
• Swam in the pool, but the water was hot and not refreshing.
• I watched the butterflies throughout the day.  They are so beautiful.
• When I got home to my house in Houston, I took some cuttings from  my single white Althea, my double purple Althea, my Penelope rose, and my Sweetheart rose.  I'm hoping they will root.  And I will eventually plant them in Burton.