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Grrrrumbles, Bumbles and Mumbles

Monday, July 12, 2010


GRRRRUMBLES
I really like my car, I do. It's a 
2001 Honda CRV (although DD called it a VCR for a couple of years :o) Anyhoo, I had a number of errands to run the other day and we made it all the way to the very last one before disaster struck. I had to pick up some items at Office Depot and DD ducked into Taco Bell to grab some lunch; it was one o'clock. I don't like Taco Bell, so I figured I'd just wait and grab something when we got home, since we'd be there shortly (wrong). We met back at the car, I turned the key and...click. Uh, oh. Starting to sweat in the 100+ heat, I turned it again and...click-click-click. Now I don't know about you, but I unintentionally follow Murphy's Laws to the letter and that day was no exception. I was in a hurry (it's chronic :o) and dashed out the door without my cell phone. Lovely. I dropped my head on the steering wheel and counted to twenty (ten wasn't quite far enough). Did you know nobody has pay phones anymore? I didn't. Thankfully one of the girls that worked at Taco Bell was nice enough to loan me her phone. DH rode to the rescue (I needed a new battery), but not quick enough to deliver me from the temptation situated directly in my line of vision...Baskin Robbins *sigh*. Eat well today chickie, for tomorrow you will diet. Although I hate to break down, I guess I really can't complain since it was the original battery - I think nine years is a pretty good life span for a battery, don't you?
 Adding insult to injury, our air conditioning went out. Although our house is well insulated, we have no trees immediately next to it so when the sun comes up it gets HOT in here (thankfully, the repairman made it out the next day, but that was one terribly toasty night - Ugh). They're going to send us a bill for the repairs. Um, okay, but now I'm scared...
BUMBLES  
I took this picture, because I thought it was funny. I have no idea why these bees seem to be attracted to the sulfur blocks, but they are. Maybe it's the pretty yellow color that draws them; who knows? :o) Do you remember my previous post about Sarabear getting into some bees? Well, I do believe we have found the culprits (and it's not the one on the block).
Now I don't know about you, but I have never actually seen a "swarm" of bees before outside of television. It may look like a cluster of pine cones, but the photo below is actually a swarm of bees. This is not a nest however, these bees are actually protecting their queen by covering her completely. Talk about being overprotective and smothering - wow. I didn't want to kill them, because I know that honeybees are in short supply and there are an awful lot of farmers around here. At

the same time, they certainly did not need to stay in their current location. They were in a low hanging branch on a tree directly over the path that the girls use to go to the water trough (that definitely was not happening). Thankfully, DH knew a guy from work that was a bee keeper, and he came out to get them. Of course you know I got permission to be out there following him around with the camera (and I was unfailingly polite in keeping my number of questions well under the gazillion mark :o)
Would you believe that the man just took a step ladder, climbed up there, grabbed himself a handful of bees, and put them in his bee box?? Yikes! I'm working on a lens for Squidoo, because this was some pretty [scary] interesting stuff. In the meantime, though, here are a few more pictures for you to see...I had to get up close and personal, as the subjects were tiny and my zoom is not that good:
All in all it was a fascinating thing to watch, and he was a super nice guy (for a crazy man :o) Very patient, happily explaining it all step by step as he went. I hope you enjoyed these photos, too, because my crazy only extends to equines (and I was really nervous getting close enough to take these pictures). Obviously, not quite uncomfortable enough to prevent me from taking them though, right? *Grin*
and MUMBLES

Some of you might remember the Sarabear Chronicles. It was a three part series of posts that I did awhile back about Sara's arrival at the farm. I had fun doing it, and hated to see it disappear into oblivion in the blogger basement (so to speak). I decided to combine all three posts and turn it into a lens on Squidoo. In the interest of multi-tasking, I also entered it into the Summer Sunshine Charity Contest as we are one of Squidoo's partner charities. Would you believe we won? Hot Dog!! I was so excited. Squidoo donates $99 to the charity and gives $99 to the lensmaster. Of course I'm donating my part straight to the farm too - $198 Woo! If you missed the posts (it was a *cough* dramatic series of events, let me tell you) you can now read the whole silly story here: Meet Sara.
After considerable research, we have "hired" two teams of maintenance workers to help control the amount of ick in our water troughs. I would like to introduce you to Maintenance Team #1 for The Girls (ladies first, after all):

And for the Moo Crew we have Team #2:
Of course I turned that little adventure into a lens too (and entered it in the contest :o) If you're interested in reading the rest, it's here: An Epic Farms Fishtail.  
I hope you enjoyed this post - and is it my imagination or are they getting longer?? Well I guess it's not much on short and sweet (that was over a couple of paragraphs ago) but I thank you for reading my rambles... really!
P.S. For those of you who think I showed tremendous willpower in getting only a small cup of ice cream, you should probably know that it was all I had enough money for :o)

12 comments:

  1. Did you ever get the car going again?? The bee story is pretty interesting. Good pictures. Hope you didn't get stung.Glad you got someone to move those bees.
    Have a great week.

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  2. Too bad about the car. And to be out that day without the cell phone sounds like my kind of day. Those things always happen to me.
    That guy is nuts sticking his hand in there and grabbing those bees...lol The picture taking I can understand but grabbing a hand full of bees? NO WAY.
    congrats on that win. Way cool

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  3. I know if my battery died in 100 degree temps, the first store I'd look for is an ice cream store. Good for you.

    The bee guy is amazing/crazy. It's interesting as long as you don't get stung too badly I guess. Glad you got them out of there safely.

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  4. Be assured that I feel for you. For our VCR rarely cooperates. We think that it may have something to do with the fact that it is now sitting on a DVR, and a DVD player is sitting on it. For some electronic items are more sensitive than others, and your air conditioner going out at the same time may have been support of your VCR's concerns.

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  5. HANDFUL OF BEES! Geeze!! Theres a local bee man here and he does something similar. Nutty people I tell ya.

    Baskin robins, ppssh. Gotta go to cold stone creamery. mmmmmmmmmmmmm

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  6. I am amazed (actually, I applauded you here in front of my laptop) that you lasted 20 minutes. You know darn well that if I was broken down in front of an ice cream store, I would have been in there faster than a mosquito hunts me down after dark (hint, that is really, really fast!)!! And that is in spite of the fact that I can't even eat there!
    I am proud of you for holding out for so long. I hope the car is okay now.
    Congrats on the lens win and wow! That bee adventure sure looks freaky! I would NOT have gotten that close (or I would have, then gotten stung, then squealed like a baby for hours about it, and my stupidity, afterward, LOL!).
    Hope the fishies help out with the water situation, good to 'see' you again!

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  7. 20 minutes would be an eternity for me! You have way more willpower than I do! Hope you got your car fixed though. The A/C seems to go out at the worse times but glad you got it fixed. Grabbing a handful of bees? He is nuts!

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  8. Ooooohhh, that's some bad luck with the car!

    The bee pictures and info was great. I've wanted to get some beehives but there's quite a bit to learn and my cup is pretty full. It would be better if my cup was full of honey, though....LOL

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  9. Marg: Yes, all I needed was a new battery. I didn't get stung, but I sure was getting twitchy being up close and personal with all that buzzing going on 'round my head :o)
    Ann: So at least now you know you're not alone, right? *Laugh* He had a smoker thing with him, and I thought he was going to "knock 'em out" or something and then just let them fall into the box. He ended up not using it, because they were so "calm" about him handling them. And oooookay - whatever you say dude. (be nice to the crazy man, Jennifer ;o)
    GreyHorse: It really was fascinating to watch. The best part? He sold me a pound and a half of honey for $5 (boo yeah!)
    FishHawk: Hahahahahaha - you know, I could have definitely used your twisted sense of humor that day *Grin*
    Sydney: Isn't that wild? I couldn't believe he did that. A definite pass for me too! As to the ice cream, well we play the hand we're dealt (and it worked for me in a pinch ;o)
    Meghann: *Laugh* Car's fine now, thanks. The desire for really good photos pretty much overrode any lingering bits of common sense (obviously). Apparently our water was icky enough that the little fishies have grown noticeably since we put them in there.
    BeadedTail: 20 minutes was an eternity for me *grin*. I just knew I'd be kicking myself later (I HATE steroids :oP I've noticed that about the A/C - why can't we just schedule these things? December or January's good for me...
    Carol: More annoying than anything (batteries are easy and fairly inexpensive to replace :o) I got the impression from the bee guy, that there really wasn't too much work involved in maintaining bees once you got them going. I know they are not on his property, and since he has a full-time job too they must not be that much trouble.

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  10. yeah, long post! Congrats on your win that is pretty awesome! The bee story was really interesting, I can't believe that guy just moved them like that. I would NOT be brave enough to be out there taking pictures.
    I'm glad you were able to figure out what was wrong with the car and it wasn't anything complicated. Breaking down is no fun, happened to me last summer in August. Had to get towed and share a ride back in the tow truck with 2 creepy guys and the driver was definitely a bit insane.

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  11. Rebecca: Your mechanical misadventure sounds lots more scary than mine was. I was super nervous taking those pictures, but I really really wanted them and thankfully I did not get stung :o)

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  12. Bees are fascinating - I actually kept some hives at one point and may do so again. Many people confuse honeybees with wasps of various types. Honeybees rarely sting people or animals unless they're directly threatened - you basically have to step on or pinch one to get it to sting you. In the time I kept bees, I was never stung once. Some of the wasps, however, especially ground hornets or the ones that build nests inside closed areas like outdoor light fixtures, can be extremely aggressive and will attack and sting with almost no provocation - these are the small, fast flying yellow stripey ones many people call yellow jackets. A lot of people call all of these insects "bees", but they are very different.

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