• learning

    fire power

    . After Thursday’s fiasco, I wanted to make sure I could light a good fire in my smoker no matter what. So – I borrowed a fire tool from my hubby. Propane torch, complete with sparker. No need for matches, even…. very nice piece of equipment. It did a great job of lighting my smoker – look at that smoke: These pictures are from yesterday, when I went to get the honey supers. I have two mostly-full supers now sitting in my kitchen waiting for me to harvest the honey from them. One will need to be harvested like the first time, and the other, I think I will actually…

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  • honey

    escape with no re-entry

    . I went for a visit to the beeyard yesterday at sunset. It’s probably the most unromantic place you could think of, what with all the buzzing and stinging and such. The sunset was nice but not memorable. The bees, however, were cranky (in a memorable sort of way). Go figure – I’m there to separate them from the product of their summer labours, and they’re not happy about it. I opened the first hive to find a layer of bees under the top cover, sitting poised with their stingers in the air – straight up – and already angry at the intrusion. AND – my smoker wasn’t working very…

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