Well, it seems it must be time for my yearly post give or take a day or two. I keep forgetting I even have a blog. So much like the House of Dragons and GOT you get to wait a whole year for the next episode. I am sure you are on the edge of your Gaming chair!!! 

So last year was a pretty good year all things considered. Inflation, however, is killing me much like everyone else I suppose. I managed to get out of bed alive this morning, so that makes today a good day at least. I did enjoy one of my biggest moments in life in December. Graduated "Thing" 1 from Rochester Institute of Technology. Ye haw!!! She did not walk until May though, as they don’t do graduations in the snow. So, she is back home and starting a new job.... totally not in her degree field but she is wanting to spread her wings and the job market pretty much sucks right now, I don’t care what the news keeps telling us about how good the economy is doing. I will give her some time and let her hang out here with us until she can afford to get out on her own. If she takes too much time, then I will kick her out into the street and see if she swims. I am sure her Mom won't like that but hey, I am the man of the house around here and I make the decisions.... a-a-and her Mom never reads this blog any way so I am safe to say that. 

Graduation was good and we doubled up celebrating a graduation with a trip to Niagara Falls, It was everything they say it is. Wow is about all I can get out right now.... we did have a great time. Along with seeing one of the 7 wonders of the world we took in a couple of museums and on the way back home, stopped off in Nashville and did the Grand Ol Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Johnny Cash's Museum. I think I walked 20K steps in one day. But we had such a great time. Highly recommend all of those venues. 

My Next big task/event is to get "Thing" 2 done with school and out on his own... Between College and Vacation I am pretty much tapped out for a while. "Thing" 2 only has about another 1-½ years, then he will get the same offer of get on his feet then hit the real world. After that big event I may actually be able to afford Starbucks again 

As I mentioned last year I started raising bees, I was able to snag a couple of jars of honey last year when one of my hives absconded. Not sure what happened. No dead bodies but no more bees either. Snatched up the honey left but being robbed and managed to harvest about 8 lbs. I split my 1 surviving hive with a walkaway split and this year they are both cranking out some comb and honey. I plan on harvesting late October so I can leave them enough for winter and keep the rest. 

To add to the 2 hives I started spring with, I was able to catch about 8 swarms in 3 different swarm traps this year but only managed to get 4 into the apiary. I had 4 swarms where I did not have enough hive equipment on hand at the time. They moved on before I could get some in. So headed into spring and the spring nectar flow with 6 hives. One was really weak. I tried adding brood from another hive and I was just about to merge them, and they took off or got over-ran by raiders. I am only able to check on them on weekends so not sure which. But they were gone when I went in to do the merge, and apparently it had just happened. 

So that left me with 5 hives and 2 are filling out soupers faster than I can get them in an on the hive. Of the other 3, I have 2 pretty strong and one that is just now getting its first souper. If they keep up at this rate, I will have about 8 full soupers of honey to harvest and still leave them with enough for winter. 

My strongest hive is definitely one of my swarms I trapped. And strangely enough I trapped this swarm in my back yard at my house in Highland Village. I am not far from the lake and there is quite a bit of forest still left up here, so I put out a trap and actually caught the same swarm twice. They have by far exceeded my other hives. These city bees are living in the fast lane. 

So, we were able to get the motorhome out on the property and it has turned out to be a total lifesaver. Ran electricity up to it so we can plug it in, and water from the well so we have water. It has done really well up until about wintertime.... Freeze damage hit it hard this last year and had to replace some plumbing. Lately we keep having things break on it. Right now, the Refrigerator is out, the water heater is out, the microwave is out, and two of the 4 mirrors fell off, but the bed is still comfortable and both A/Cs and the heater works fine. Thanks to our wonderful economy our government keeps telling us about I can't afford to fix all those things until after November (I hope), or I get my daughters school paid off, Ka-Ching!!!  If things don’t go well in November, then I will have to wait until "Thing" 2 is out of the house before I will be able to afford the electric bill to pay for charging the EV I will be forced by the government to buy at the cost of more than my first house. Yipee.... 

Well, that is about it right now. I will keep checking on the bees, clearing out trees and enjoying developing this piece of property. I will put out an update when I have any newsworthy of chatting about. 

Have a great Year!!!