Meet Cinnamon.  She’s new here.  Isn’t she cute? We bartered some hens for her yesterday, and the kids just love her.

Cinnamon is a Nubian.  I didn’t deal with our other goats much when we had them, so I have some reading to do now.

She sure is a cute little thing though.

We have nine beehives now – isn’t that amazing?  Things got insanely busy after my last post about them and I never posted an update.

A couple of our hives have swarmed since then, which gave us opportunity to practice some creative swarm catching techniques.  When they land 50 feet up in a tree, creativity somehow becomes necessary.  ;)

It has been amazing to watch as God has sent us so many colonies this year.  We have nine right now, and a client of Stephen’s wants him to come trap a colony out of his garage soon too.

Things have been so fun around here. We got a greenhouse!

Ok, I’m probably the only one as excited about it as I am, but that’s ok. I’ve wanted one for a long time. When this one went on sale, we bought it pretty quickly – it was a steal! It was VERY hard to figure out the instructions, but we finally got it done.

We’ve also been adding some square foot gardens. They’re not done, but they look good so far.

This is my herb garden. We’re trying some new herbs and I’m excited to see how they do over the summer.

The one in the back is the kids’ garden. It’s not done either, but they’re really excited that they get to have their own box!

This was taken today at our church’s Mother Daughter Banquet. The theme today was Secret Garden of Prayer, and it was such a blessing to be there. I am so thankful for our pastor’s wife, and all that she does to help us grow in Christ.

In the tree (about 10 feet up)

A closer look

Stephen climbing up to cut the branch the swarm is on

Hi Mom!

Finding the queen

The queen (can’t really see her here, but she’s in there)

Marching into the box

There were so many bees!

They were everywhere!

About three hours later, most of the bees were in the hive

A view with the observation window open

While most of the bees went right into the top bar hive, there was still a fairly large clump of bees in the bushes. They fell there when the branch was first cut. From their behavior, we’re not sure if there’s a second queen in there or if they just never joined the first group. We’ve heard of swarms with more than one queen, so we’re hoping that’s the case here. Stephen set a 5 frame nuc there with bait inside to see what they’d do, and by dusk, they were marching right into that hive just like they did the top bar hive. We’ll know more tomorrow when it’s light out again and Stephen can go into the hive.

We have had three traditional Langstroh hives. Stephen has been experimenting with one of them, trying to see if the bees in it will move into a top bar hive. It’s been fascinating to watch, but that’s another post for another day. We also have a full size top bar hive, but haven’t had a chance to use it until now. We were waiting to either buy a package of bees or catch a swarm. . .and here God sent us a swarm.

It was a very interesting afternoon, to say the least. I even suited up and went out to take pictures. I got some neat video too but can’t seem to find the program on my computer I always used to edit video with. . .so until I find something, the videos will have to wait.

We’ve been praying for a swarm call, but this was even better. We didn’t have to go anywhere!

This beekeeping is addictive though. . .

It’s been so beautiful out lately. It makes me just want to stay outside all day, but of course that doesn’t happen. There’s too much to do inside.

Sunday our church is having Homecoming, and then revival with Bro. Alfred Willis all week. I am so excited. Services have been SO good at church lately, and the Holy Spirit has really been working on my heart, showing me where I need to change and grow. I’m definitely looking forward to the services. If you’re in the area and would like to come to services, send me an email for details!

On the home front, Samuel has spring fever and is ready for school to be out. To be honest, this mommy is ready for a break too. :O) We are almost done for the year so break time is coming. My parents are also coming for a visit in the next couple of weeks so we’ll have that week off too.

Our rabbit had babies – 7 of them. They’re about 3 weeks old now and are SO CUTE. They’ve just learned how to jump out of their nest box and it’s so fun to stand there watching them.

Stephen and I also had our practical test for the bee school last Saturday. It’s the first step in the South Carolina Master Beekeeper Certification. I’d love to go farther with it but we’ll see. The last certification involves writing a book, and there’s only one Master Beekeeper in the state. . .It sounds like fun to pursue but honestly, probably not at this stage of life with our little ones. At least not for me, anyway.

Little Miss Esther is teething already. At 5 months, her first two teeth are about to break through any day now. She is one miserable teether. Poor little girl. :O) But it looks like her teeth will be through tomorrow or the next day so hopefully she’ll have some relief then.

We’ve also been making some pretty drastic changes to our diet. We’ve been trying to cut out all white processed food and sugars. One of the children (who shall remain unnamed) is so sensitive to sugar that we notice a dramatic change in behavior after eating it. Our first experiment is to eliminate all but the natural sugars and we’ll go from there. We’re also trying to eat as many whole foods as possible. It’s been a challenge, and here I was thinking we ate pretty well.

Our garden is huge this year and we’re in the process of making it bigger. Lord willing, I’ll be able to put up enough tomatoes/sauce so that we don’t have to buy any over the winter. It’s a huge project but I’m hoping to be able to do it.

Jewelry has been keeping me fairly busy as well. God has grown my little business and I am so thankful for that! I’ve added a Medical Alert Jewelry line and have quite a few other new design ideas as well. I’ve been trying my best to work the business during naptime/Family Quiet Time (more on that later if I can ever find the link again!) and when the kids are in bed. I don’t want my kids to think all I ever do is work on jewelry. But I have to admit it is a struggle sometimes.

This post is plenty long enough now so I’ll quit. . .more later. . .

Yesterday it was 80 here, so Stephen and I decided to go into the hives. I’ve stood next to him before as he’s gone through them, but never actually opened up the boxes myself.

I was terrified. LOL! We have the top part of a bee suit but not the bottom. The last time I was stung by a bee, it was when one flew up my skirt. So yesterday, the only thing I was worried about was that I’d be holding a frame full of bees and that a bee would fly up my skirt and sting me.

It didn’t happen though. I was very relieved.

The bee suit is miles too big for me, but hey, it works. It even fit me last summer when I was 9 months pregnant with Esther. I’m just thankful to have one though.

The beekeeping class we’ve been taking has been fascinating. I really enjoyed going through the hives yesterday. We saw honey already too. . .which is good – we’re already getting requests for our honey this year. At this rate, if we were keeping a waiting list, we’d be sold out before we even harvest honey.