March 2 - signs of spring

We went walking down the greenway yesterday, my girl and I.  We were heading to the feed store to see the baby chicks and ducks.

It's a testament to my incredible strength and will (ha) that none came home with us.

Really, it's more that I don't want to worry about my dog or cat eating those cute little peepers.  And that I'm not sure where exactly we'd put them until they were big enough and strong enough to hold their own with the big girls.  I think next year, when Claire can have a larger role in the process of raising and helping, we will add some new little ones to the bunch.

On the way home, I saw a hawthorne.  Flowers bursting and loaded with bees.  Not ours, of course.  They didn't make it through the year.  Robbed hive, perhaps a sickly queen.  We have more bees on order though.  2 hives this time.  I'm supposed to call the bee guy on April 15th.  We will better stewards to our bees this time around.  We thought we knew what to look for and what to expect last year, but somewhere something went wrong and here we are.  A quiet hive and a chest freezer filled mostly with hive frames. (to freeze/kill any lingering bee-hurting nasties)

But this hawthorne, oh my.  It was buzzing.  I stood there by the side of the road taking pictures and watching the bees, marveling at the heavy pollen baskets on those furry little legs.  Sad to know for sure that they weren't our girls, but so happy to see them out and about, collecting while they can during this odd Winter/Spring of ours.


Grocery budget progress- Mike is out buying maple syrup because I (again! I do this a lot) started making french toast before realizing we were out.  First purchase with that grocery cash will be a bottle of expensive, delicious sap.  That's okay, there are other places we can cut corners.  But not with syrup.


Of course not with syrup.