This is a European Strandkorb, a little shelter to have in the garden or on the beach. I think that we Americans should consider these small shelters.

Bee Keeping

Happy Holiday Weekend!  Me? Staying home and working on many projects...from bee keeping to landscaping to planting the garden. Today is cloudy and cooler, a good time to work outdoors. 

The bee hives have swarmed 9 times now. We had 2 swarms fly away. We now have 7 hives, and we gave 2 swarms to a friend who wanted to start the hobby. All this bee swarm catching is getting to be standard practice now. 

Dog Barking

This pic came from Pinterest. It made me laugh so hard...because I am certain that my Lab, Radar is thinking the same thing. Hubby gets terribly upset when Radar barks.....but Radar is usually right. There is something outside that he hears.  When we are not home, he sounds down-right scary to anyone outside.  Friends have told us that they wouldn't want to some inside with that bark. I think that I am happy that he is protective.  We need a dog to tell us when something is happening, hubby knows this.......................but, he is easily angry because the barking usually makes him "jumpy". Of course, when he is sound asleep in the man cave.....what does he expect?

Hitting the Road Tomorrow.............

I am taking out Prairie Flower tomorrow. The first time this year. Where? I am going to central Oregon, near the location of this pic. My friends in a women's camping group are meeting for the weekend. I hope to have plenty of quiet time, when the gals are out in their kayaks.

Happy Birthday Lorri !!!

I am very blessed to know you, and have you in my life.  Have a great day!

Bee Swarms

This week we had both our bee hives swarm. We knew that this would happen because both the hives were stuffed with bees, many more than normal. The swarm above is in an apple tree. It is a huge swarm, many, many bees. We got them into a hive box after I took this pic. This swarm involved 2 ladders, and me acting like a statue with the box on my head. Pretty exciting event, however, I stayed very calm with my breathing and did not move. When bees are in a swarm, they are fairly docile and can be handled. They don't have the protective stinging action that a hive in a box does. We did not get a single sting.

This is the second swarm, two days later. This swam decided to hang on the Marion berry canes. These were so easy to capture. We just put a hive box under the swarm and dropped them into it....easy.

Cold Process Soap Making

I made two batches of handmade soap the last 2 days. This is the first one, the second batch is still in the form. The form is the strange looking wood box in this photo. It creates a nice long soap. Then I cut it, with an old stainless steel knife into 3/4" individual soaps. I like this method because I do get pretty identical bars.

I take each bar, and use my handmade soap stamp on each one. I purchased this stamp long ago, when I sold some of my soap. Sometimes, I used a little sparkle eye shadow in the stamp to create a little special feature.

I place the individual soap bars upright in a cardboard box to cure, in a warm and dry place. They need some air around them. Curing takes about 8 weeks to get a good hard soap. The soap continues to harden as they age, but that isn't a problem. Hubby and I love this soap.

When a good long cure (3 - 4 months) is complete, I put the soaps with the same scent together in a Ziplock freezer bag. This keeps the scent fresh, for years.

The two batches of soap will provide about 70 large bars. We use most of it ourselves. Sometimes, I wrap up a few for a gift.

It really is pretty economical to make my soap. These 70 soaps would retail for about $6 each. That comes to $420. It costs about $80 to make two batches, so that comes to $1.14 per bar. Each bar lasts for about 30 days for 2 of us.

I became interested in making my own soap after purchasing several bars from a gal...she has become a friend and mentor to me.  You see, she does this as a home business.

I found that the best information is on the web. Books aren't much good for cold process soap. Many home soap makers don't use this method.

Friday at 4 pm, Anyone?

Have a great weekend!!!

I need an Ethel......

Life isn't much fun without a good girlfriend to have close, and I am still looking for a buddy to go junking with and just hangout with.