waggle dance

The Bees have made a full recovery and are doing better than ever.

I tried to take a video of the bees doing the waggle dance, my camera doesn't take very good video but here it is. 

I've finally finished the garden!! I fixed the tractor and this weekend spread the compost.  Yesterday I spent four hours planting veggies.  I took a "natural" approach to the bed layout and did a lot of casting seeds about.  

finally done with excavating 

One part mud pit + one part compost = garden

Jared is happy that we are done spreading compost

Tilling soil amendments 

I've also finished the pig pen last week.

They've got about 1500sq ft of woodland to roam around in, complete with solar powered electric fence and metal roofed hovel.  unfortunately the people I was going to get the pigs from have kind of run out, so I'm scrambling to find a new supplier.

Bee-isaster - n. a disaster relating to bees

My bees are dying!.  I went to check on them on thurs. afternoon and where usually I can't see any of the comb this is what I saw.

actually it's a really good picture of what they've been doing the past three weeks what with all the bees out of the way.  The next morning I hurried out and gave them a little sugar snack, my current theroy is that with all the rain and cloud weather we've been having the past week+  they didn't have energy to keep everybody warm,  for the good of the hive the fat was cut.  luckily on friday and today it was nice and sunny and they were flying about like mad, and ignoring the sugar water I put out for them, so I think that the hive is going to make it, but there is a depressing number of dead bees on the floor of the hive right now.

The garden has been coming along, and like everything else taking much longer than I had hoped.  The lateest set back came on wed. afternoon when the dipperstick hydroluic ram quit.  And I only had one more day of digging to go!  now I have to wait for a week or more for a new one to get here.  but here are some pic of the progress so far.

In the mean-time I'll be working on setting up the piggy pen I've already got the bottom strand of electric fence, and the shelter for the pigs done.