Happy Mother's Day

Most especially to the Mother of mothers.

How appropriate that Mother's Day is Celebrated on the Great Feast of Pentecost! May the Holy Spirit guide every mother this day and always as they collaborate in forming Saints for the greater honor and glory of God.

What bouquet is more precious than a handful of dandelions?







Awwwww... shucks!

I had to laugh as my almost 12 year old pointed out what a special day today is. He said that today we celebrate 3 things... Pentecost, Mother's Day and The Morel Mushroom Festival! Hobbits never forget mushrooms.

10 Years on The Internet

We've been on the Internet about 10 -1/2 years now and we have 229*** user names and passwords... this doesn't count the ones I discarded when we switched from a small notebook to an address book a few years back to store all this precious information in some kind of order. It's no wonder I find it hard to think sometimes. However, my favorite part of the internet is the selection of security questions. They are so secure no one in or out of their right mind could possibly remember what the answers are. "What is the name of your first grade teacher's favorite pet?" I remember the good old days on the internet when all that mattered was that your mother had a maiden name... perhaps maiden names are obsolete.

***make that 330 user names and passwords, I just signed up for a subscription to the lovely magazine mater et magistra

Free Presidential Election Lap Book

I do not like politics *gasp* and I've been wondering how to present the upcoming Presidential Election to the children in some kind of interesting way. My friend Joanna sent a link to this *free* presidential election lap book in a pdf format. Thanks Joanna!

On that note, let's remember to pray for this election. May God's Will be done.

Grassy Patch

My dear children gleefully invited me on a tour of the "Grassy Patch" also known as "Outlaw Camp" (they assured me they were the good kind of outlaws.....) Here is Galadriel holding the gate open for Bilbo and I. And that's Charlie our big dog.

They've been busy clearing paths through the woods.

Tour guides get ahead of slow camera-mom.

Another cleared path

I was told this was the wood pile.

This is the roof of their little house.

Rosie jumping across "the river". (a very dry river)

This is the underside of the roof. Need I say that Sam was the engineer in this intricate roof design?

And this is the house, which I believe Sam just informed me had a roof caving-in thanks to some lovely torential rains we had recently.

This is their bridge.

And this is the other side of where you'd run up from the bridge. (I'm all for children running circles by daylight!)

After Sam had firmly decided all he wanted for Christmas was the hand reel mower, we were at my brother-in-laws house and they had a leaf thingie. So Sam actually had 2 things he really wanted for Christmas and a friend of ours just happened to be ditching this one and Sam confiscated it very gratefully!

This path is in - progress.

And this is their Grassy Patch (this was from several weeks ago when things were still quite brown). I suppose this is the "camp"

Here is their spit where they roast their mutton (wood) plus "cook" and prepare a variety of "food". (A good mother never chuckles her heart out til she gets into the privacy of her own room... I was very good this day)

This tree is part of their kitchen... I just thought it was particularly interesting, it was the works of a woodpecker!

Peek!

Holy Father at Doodle Acres

Be sure to check out the beautiful pictures from the Holy Father's Mass in NYC at my dear friend Heather's blog HERE!

St. Ambrose and the Bees

St. Ambrose is the patron of bee keepers, bees, candlemakers, amongst other things. He is known as the "Honey-Tongued Doctor," a pun on the saint's name (the word for honey in Latin is ambrosia); his preaching was said to be as sweet as flowing honey. According to legend, when Ambrose was a baby, a swarm of bees settled on his mouth, an omen that he would be a great orator. He is often depicted with a beehive or bees in his iconography, symbols which also indicate wisdom.

Aragorn picked up our newest batch of bees, our bees from last year didn't survive the winter... but they did leave behind a hive full of honey so for that we are grateful!

I wonder how he drove with the loose bees in the car. *shudder*

This year we decided to move the bees to another part of the property.

Aragorn and Sam clearning some brush to make room for the hive set-up.

An old "hole-y" cow tank does fine as a place to put the hives on.

The base

Preparing the first super.

The black spacer at the end will be filled with a sugar syrup to get the bees started so they can build their honey comb.

The first layer of the hive.

Bilbo and Galadriel.

The 3 hives set up and ready for their inmates.

Any work around here isn't complete with out a ride on a trailer.

Aragorn gets the bees out of the car.

Sugar syrup (I think it's just sugar and water)

You can sort of see the "big" swarm in the middle here. The round metal circle is the top of a can that is filled with some kind of syrup for the bees to live off of while they are transported.

Filling the spacer.

Opening the first box of bees.

Dumping the first box of bees.

Next batch...

So far so good...

The bees get a bit fiesty and in comes the stay puff marshmallow man... Aragorn dons his bee suit *snicker*

One thing to rememer if you get into bees and don your bee suit is to remember to zip the hat all the way around or the bees can and will crawl in...

There sure are alot of bees in one swarm. Anywhere from hundreds to thousands all for one queen bee.

And here she is with a few friends. Queen Bee.

A few bees got very fiesty and everyone ran off. Only Eowyn got stung. But I got stung this evening while Aragorn and I were looking to see how they were doing. Right above my right eye, of all places. I have been having images of looking like the Elephant man by morning... let's hope not!!

Look what Aragorn brought back for me... ok, so I'm easy to please, isn't it cute?

Now we have a dispenser for our runny honey. Honey will thicken up with age and then it works really well in a tupperware 1 quart microwave pitcher.

And speaking of bee bites (and poison ivy which we weren't speaking of) I highly recommend getting some of this! It really does work and believe me we have plenty of professionals at getting poison ivy. You can buy All Stop HERE.

Busy as bees!