August 2017 Events

August was a busy month for us - here are some pictures of what's been going on:

Our church had it's 7th annual backpack drive collecting school backpacks with toiletries and other supplies inside for A Child's Place, an organization that helps homeless children.

Chad and I gave the purple pack with lime green trim and the blue camo one beside it.

Our good friends Becca and Jason had their 4th child a few weeks early. Lillian Claire was born on August 6, 2017. Here are some pictures of Miss Lillian from our visit to the hospital:

It sounds crazy, but Lillian looked more like her sister Katie in person, 

but in the pictures she looks more like her brother Ethan! Welcome Lillie!

When our niece Kathryn graduated from high school earlier this summer, her Dad unfortunately was in the hospital and wasn't able to be at her graduation. Chad's Mom and Grandmother had to leave after the ceremony and couldn't see Kathryn afterwards. So, we offered to host a graduation party at our house so everyone could see Kathryn in her cap and gown and take pictures. Here are the pictures from Kathryn's graduation party:

I tried my hand at making homemade salsa for the first time this summer and it was SO GOOD! I made two big batches and canned it so we can enjoy it later in the year. It's so easy to make and tastes SO MUCH better than store bought!

When I started hearing about the solar eclipse on August 21, at first I didn't think much of it. I saw eclipse glasses all over the place and didn't get any because I just wasn't super interested. But, as the date got closer, literally EVERY SINGLE phone call to the library was about eclipse glasses - some library systems were giving them away, we were not... By the day of the eclipse I was kind of over it already, but some coworkers were nice enough to share their eclipse glasses and I am glad that I got to see it. It was pretty cool to see, but not worth all the craziness of driving all over the country to see the full eclipse. Here are a few pictures of the MH staff sharing glasses to watch the eclipse:

It's been SO HOT this summer and our garden was starting to be done by the end of August. I wanted to clean out some of the beds before we went on vacation in early September. When I was cleaning out the beds I found a volunteer basil plant and some volunteer dill! Here are a few pictures of the mostly done garden:

Hive Loss

It's recommended to get at least 2 bee hives so you can compare your hives and I'm so glad we did. From the very beginning Hive #1 was MUCH slower to grow and get going. We saw the queen every time we did a check and did see capped brood and honey, but they were so much smaller than Hive #2. In July we noticed more ants trying to get into Hive #1 - at first between the lid and the inner cover. I started thinking they might be building a nest in the cinder block base (we had the holes facing up). We were in the process of getting a new hive base (something with metal legs) when we checked the hives on July 15 and Hive #1 was gone and the ants were trying to take over the hive. It was so devastating, even though I didn't think this hive would make it through winter because it was so small. What I read online and from talking to other beekeepers is that if the bees can't fight off a threat they will often abscond and just leave the hive. I think that's what happened. We did see some dead bees who had tried to fight off the ants. It's hard, but just another learning curve in our beekeeping! Goodbye Hive #1.

The queen in Hive #1.

July 2017 Events

So, our cat Roxy started getting recurring upper respiratory infections starting last fall. Each one would clear up with antibiotics, but she started getting them closer and closer together. She also really needed some dental work done and the vet thought it might help with the infections as well. So, she had a dental cleaning and a few teeth pulled, but they also found an issue with her jaw that required a wire to go through her chin until it healed and because of that she was supposed to wear a cone for 2 weeks. That did not go well. After the dental she was very loopy from the medicine and kept running into things with the cone. Then she wouldn't eat, drink or use the litter box! The first night home she peed on me in our bed, so we all had to get up change the sheets, etc. The next night she peed on Chad and I knew it wasn't from the medicine it was her being pissed about the cone. I was also very worried about her not eating or drinking. On day 3 I took the cone off and stayed home with her all day - she never messed with the wire (it was VERY small) or got it stuck on anything. And as soon as I took it off she ran over to her food, then the litter box! So, she trained us well and was NOT going to wear that cone! Even though the dental work didn't clear up the recurring infections, we did see a specialist who thinks it's a viral thing that is just going to flare up regularly and as long as she responds to the antibiotics we should be good. It was a rough time this summer when all this was going on, but thankfully Roxy is still showing us who is boss!

Roxy's brief time in the cone!

Look at this sweet face!

We love the 4th of July in Harrisburg! We've been watching the parade with the same friends for at least 10 years now. Here are our pictures from the parade this year:

Our garden is still doing well and for the first time we've had success with peppers! Every year something eats the pepper plants and we never get anything. I don't know what was different this year except maybe the bees, but we finally have bell peppers and jalapenos!

We also canned some tomato sauce with tomatoes from our garden - I LOVE to can food from things we've grown in the garden!

June 2017 Events

So, our oldest niece Kathryn graduated from high school this year. Definitely makes me feel old since she was 1 1/2 when we got married and this year is my 20th high school reunion (not that I'm going)! Apparently Cabarrus county has all their high school graduations at the Cabarrus arena, which is great in theory, but in actuality since there is only 1 road and 1 entrance we sat in traffic FOREVER. When our younger niece graduates, we'll know to tailgate it and get there WAY early. Here are some pictures from Kathryn's graduation:



Our garden is really taking off at this point! The herbs are huge and everything is starting to produce. We made our first batch of dill pickles this month too. Here are some June garden pictures:


One night while we were fixing dinner we hear a THUNK on our sliding glass door and the cats both run over to it. When I walked over to see what it was I saw a HUGE hawk on our deck and a young cardinal on the deck in front of the door. I guess the hawk was chasing the cardinal and it ran into the glass door. As soon as the hawk saw me it flew away, and thankfully after a few minutes recovering the cardinal flew away too. But, the cats definitely enjoyed seeing the cardinal that close!

May 2017 Events

In May we attended the Mother Earth News Fair in Asheville, NC. This was our 3rd year attending the fair and this year we stayed in a newer hotel that was much closer walking distance to the location. The hotel wasn't great, but it was VERY close so we'll probably stay there again in the future. Even though the fair was almost a month later this year it was VERY cold and we weren't really prepared for how cold and windy it was. After the first day we went to a nearby Marshalls and I found ONE earcover/headband thing to help protect against the cold wind! We had a great time at the fair and our new neighbors actually came up for the first day too, so that was nice to get to spend some time with them. Here are some pictures from our visit to the 2017 Mother Earth News Fair:



We are really enjoying watching our bees grow and thrive. When we were doing a hive check recently we happened to see a new bee emerging from a cell! I don't know how I noticed it, but it was so cool to see and thankfully I had the camera with me. Here are some recent beekeeping pictures:


Our garden is starting to produce, so here are some pictures from our garden in May:

And no month is complete with out cat pictures too: