Mining bees

 This is just a little post about these pretty awesome little ground bees. I don't have them here in my yard. But Mrs. T does. And she has some new people that mow her yard now. And they have a few teenage boys that are afraid of bees. But these bees are not aggressive at all. I stood right in the middle of them for a long time, taking pictures of them, and they never bothered me at all. I did some research on them because the new yard people wanted to spray them. I said NO! And I found several really good articles about these bees. Here is one of them that's got good information about them.

http://honeybeesuite.com/let-mining-bees-be/

Just in case others are wondering what they are. They are NOT yellow jackets! These are good bees, who mind their own business. They are simply too busy!

So I hope this will help someone else who's got them all over their yard right now. They will not be around for too much longer.

Shitake mushrooms

This might just look like a log to y'all but it's not just any ole log. Yesterday I went to my friends at Tant Hilll farm and we did a whole lotta these logs. Plus the ones we each got to take home for helping. In the fall, we hope they will be FULL of Shitake mushrooms! I sure hope mine is anyway. It was so much fun! They had it all set up where someone did the drilling, some others did the inoculating and others sealed with wax. Then we laid the logs on the John Deere tractor and took them over to the pallets, where we laid them log cabin style in the shade. We did 14 yesterday. Today Mark and Gina did 20 alone. They plan on having about 100 logs going, then adding more every few months. I would really love to have more logs going here myself, but it is quite costly.

Has anyone else tried doing this? And what kind of mushrooms? I'd love to hear about them.

More pottery.

I hope y'all don't get sick of seeing my pottery. But I just love doing this! These are some things I made today.

I am really loving this pot. It was fun to make.

Then some more bowls and mugs. I need to make the handles real quick, before they're too dry. And I went ahead and made scalloped edges on the 2 bowls.

A few more mugs. That's what I started out to make today, but ended up with bowls too. I never really know what a piece of clay will turn out to be.

Now back out to trim. I'm leaving them all outside so they'll dry fast. Might not be a good idea.

In the garden today.

Working in the garden today. We're supposed to get rain tonight. I have a big bed in front of the bee hives, so I am planting all kinds of flowers and herbs for the bees. And of course lots of zinnias. I love them. Also planted a row or buckwheat with sunflowers thrown in. Then got a few rows of zucchini and squash too. I am done for the day. I'm worn out doing all that. I had to rake up all the grass that I tilled up too. Then those teeny tiny seeds. Good grief, some of them were so small I couldn't tell if I had any in my fingers. I hope they all come up. I will post pictures when they do.

I made some feta cheese in between planting and tilling too. It should be ready in a few days.

Now I am taking a few minutes break before I try to make some pottery. I want to make some mugs today. I'm home all day with so much to do! I love being at home.

Tuesday nights are sewing class. We're making a wrap skirt. It has a lot of things that will help us, like making the fabric straight, basting to make gathers, and lots of ironing! We're supposed to do the basting stitches and gather the waist for home work. Haven't gotten to it yet. But did do some sewing last night. The table clothes that I tie dyed last summer with the grand kids needed hemming so I did that. It was fun but took a long time since they are so long. But I had fun. Then ironed them. Tomorrow the St. Elmo market opens so I wanted them to look nice. I can hardly wait! I have all my soap packed and ready so all I need to do is load up the Trooper and pick kale and some other things.

Kids on the playground...

Went out the other day and saw this. These kids were having a blast on these old trees.

And these rocks have entertained many a kid in the past. And now 4 more. I love watching kids play. So fun.

First glazed pottery!

 I am so excited to have some glazed and ready to use pottery that I made myself! I love every single piece too. Each one is so different and has their own special look and use.

This is my scrambled egg bowl, just right for 2 eggs. And the color is Robin's Egg Blue. Can't really tell, but it is a bluish green color.

                                                 Here are the 3 pieces I glazed in this color.

Then I cannot remember what color these are. Some kind of green. I love the scalloped edges of the 2 bowls. I think Coryn,. my middle grand daughter, might get the bowl on the left. She really liked it.

The 2 little bowls in front are Oatmeal and then again, can't remember what color the other 2 are. I wish I had put handles on them to make mugs.

These look so much better glazed and all shiny, don't they?

I still have several mugs and 2 plates and more bowls to glaze. I went yesterday but had to leave to go pick up grands for music lessons. I want to have some time so I can concentrate and do more creative glazing. Maybe tomorrow.

And I have 3 bowls ready to get fired that I've made here. I will probably work on some more later today. I am working on tilling some flower garden spaces for the bees. And the market too. But right in front of the hives is where I'm working this morning. I'm going back out to rake up all the grassy things I just tilled up. Then I'll til some more, then wait a few days and then plant the flower seeds. I also want to plant more buckwheat for the bees too.

What's happening in your gardens these days?

Locust Trees...

 Sunday was just beautiful. Sky was bright blue. Sun shining just right. Trees full of white flowers. Bees buzzing all around. Baby goats playing. Just a happy day.