I do so wish I had a camera....

I have 15 blue jays and a robin in my apple tree. Honestly. I wish I could prove it but the goats broke my camera. Darn goats.

Ok it is probably 10 to 13 blue jays. But hey, I'm from Maine, we tend to exaggerate~~

Lisa

And what did we learn today?

Bee school is very cool. This is what I learned (this my interpretation, just so you don't question the professionalism of the bee school instructor)

Ok, there are three cliques of bees. There are the workers. They are girls (of course) They have different jobs. Some are nurses, foragers, scouts, interior designers, etc. Their function is to feed the hive, keep it clean and do general housekeeping duties.

Then there is the queen. Well I don't know if you remember a song by Train back in the 90's that goes something like,

"Well she wants to be the queen,
then she thinks about the scene.
Pulls her hair back as she screams,
I don't really want to be the Queen."

Well you don't want to be the Queen. Her job is pretty much to get all dolled up, go out on the town and get BUSY with as many guys as she can find and then go back home and have babies for the rest of her life, until the workers decide they want a new queen and kick her to the curb. Not fun.

Then there are the drones. The drones are males. They do nothing. They don't gather food, they don't clean the house, they don't help with the larvae. Typical. What they do is go to a place (I think he called it the drone congretating area) kind of like a pick up bar. Here they wait, doing nothing. Probably drinking beer, telling lies, farting and waiting to hit on chicks. Well the queen comes along all dressed up in her Saturday night boots and halter top with two squirts of Jean Ne'te that she got for Christmas and as soon as a good song comes on she's getting groovy with the fellas. It might be Garth Brooks or Skynard, depends on her mood. Then she leaves and they just sit around waiting for another one. AND, when the good season is over, when there isn't any food left to gather? Well the workers kick the drones out of the hive no matter how old they are. They will actually pick up drone babies and just carry them outside and they will die because they don't know how to feed themselves. Really! Isn't this cool! I can't wait for the next class.

Lisa

Here's the latest buzzzz

Tommorow is my first day of school. Bee school that is. Back in October I attended Goat school and now it is time for bee school. Why do I want bees you ask? Well...I am not sure why but I do. I need to have bees. Everyone says I am crazy because of course, bees sting. But they also produce HONEY. ~Oh Bother!~ says Pooh. Will there come a time in my life where I don't need to go the grocery store? Well not unless I can figure out how to produce toilet paper and Doritos there won't be. But close. I want to get close.

Still no camera. But we did get almost two feet of snow last night. Blech. Enough already. I want something green, other than...well everyone here has colds but I won't get gross.

So wish me luck at Bee school! The cooperative extension offers a class on composting also, so perhaps next it will be Poop School!

Thanks for stopping in (and please leave comments-I love that!)

Lisa

Helloooo...

Ok, I'm still here. I like to add pictures to my posts. So two weeks ago I took my operable camera down to the goat barn. I came back up over the hill with same camera, but in unoperable form. So who is to blame? Let's philoso...phylosof, philosofi...Let's think about it. I have a shiny silver camera in one pocket of my apron and a fist full of animal crackers in the other. I have a nice warm bucket of water with a splash of cider vinegar for zest and a 1/2 cup of sugar for yumminess. I have a scoop of lovely grain (which coincidentally is called Caprine Challenger-oh how appropriate) for my sweet little caprine challengers and of all those things which do you think they choose to rip unceremoniously from my hand and smash onto the floor. Well I guess you already know the answer. But I digress. It is my fault. So while my camera flies over our heads to the secret camera headquarters, I will try to write my pictures. Here are some updates:

Chickens: I lost two of my Rhode Island Red babies. I'm ok. They're just chickens. I have stuffed enough poultry to not get sentimental with the livestock. I'm ok. I'm ok.

Bread: Well after running through all the MOTHER jokes about my sourdough starter, i.e.: I forgot to feed my mother this morning, I think my mother is messed up, and oooh my mother stinks, should I throw her out? I decided to do just that. I made a loaf of hockey pucks, a semi loaf of semi soft hockey pucks (if Nerf made hockey pucks and a big puffy loaf of something. Not quite hockey puck, perhaps some sort of shin guard or glove. So I will go back to yeast and my bread machine.

Cheese: If anyone is looking to make the mozzerella I posted a while back--here is a link to the recipe: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Mozzarella.pdf. Also read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

Well I think that it's it for now. Soon I will have my camera back and I will once again open my shades for a peek into my world, such as it is.

Lisa