Happy birthday to me! And Allan!

Got a call from my friend Allan from up  the road. He first told me happy birthday and that his was today too. And wanted to know if I had an extra hive box. He had a swarm at the edge of his garden.  So I went to see if I did and yes, sure enough, I had the super from the Outback hive, full of frames. And 2 frames had drawn comb. So put it all in the car and drove to their farm.

I handed all the kids some of the hive parts and they followed daddy to the swarm. It was so cute. He and Carrie have the cutest 3 kids ever. Look at that little red head! Adorable! And of course her favorite color is purple.

They have a few hives to the left of the garden. The swarm is at the end of these rows. ON THE GROUND! How cool is that?

Just look at these beautiful bees! It was like the best present ever, for both of us!

So Allan shook the bucket in first. This is them, inside their new home. They were all so good. We sprayed them with sugar water. They were all very nice and calm. No one was stung! There were a few bee casualties though.

Next, he shook that round spool with all those bees into the hive

Then the cinder block. It had the most bees in it. Plus a lot of dirt.

This is most of the girls, inside and all around. He picked up as many as he could and put them inside. There were still a lot buzzing around at this time.

I put the rest of the frames back in, then the top board, the the top.

Isn't this the most beautiful view? And what a great place for honey bees. That's Lookout Mountain back there.

                                                          And a pond to boot.

So Allan was going to feed the bees, then wait til tonight, when they would all be in the hive, and put screen at the entrance and move them over by the other 2 hives. Then sometime, we'll split this hive and I'll get another bee hive for my farm! How cool!

It was the best ending to a birthday I've ever had! Just amazing. Who'd have thought this would happen. And it was SO flippin' EASY! We all had the best time. The kids were great. Not a single sting. Perfect ending to 2 birthday bee keepers. I am so happy right now.

Now to get ready for an early farmer market tomorrow.  Then more sheep shearing Sunday. Great weekend!

SO excited!

I just had to share this. My very first ever hot process goat milk soap!! I have always had a hard time with goat milk soap. It's always too soft. So I've been watching you tube videos and asking questions about hot process soap. It looks so fun and easy and you can use the soap right away. No curing for 2 months, like cold process. So I decided to give this a try.

Got my coconut and olive oil in the crock pot on warm. I had goat milk frozen in 8 oz baggies. So got out 2 cups and thawed it out a little. When the oils were melted, I added the lye-goat milk. Stirred, then stick blended. For ever and ever. I had bought a new blender and it was getting hot! My hands were burning. But it finally got to a good trace.

So every 10 minutes or so, I'd stir it. It has several different stages it goes through. I think this is the "mashed potato" stage.

I waited too long to stir again and thought I'd lost it. All the oils were on top and it was brown. So I just stirred and stirred, for a long time, til it all blended back together again. I was quite happy to see that!

Then it got to this last stage, quite shiny and soapy. So took it out of the pot and added some lavender EO. This is a 5 pound recipe, so had a little less than a half of an 8 oz. bottle, so added it all.  And stirred and stirred, til it was all stirred together.

Then poured, or really glopped, it into my mold.

Isn't this pretty? I am so amazed I did this! Now I just hope it gets hard. So, my first ever hot process goat milk soap. Done! All this is in olive oil and coconut oil and goat milk with lavender essential oil.

I also made some lotion bars. On the left, I just came up with a blend of EO's for a bug repellent bar. I hope it works.

On the right is lemongrass, my favorite. I still have lard lemongrass soap too.

Now I want to make more of this soap. It's so cool. And fun and easy and didn't take near as long as cold process. I always worried about getting the temps all just right. With hot process, I don't have to worry about the temperature!

It's growing...

 slowly but surely. We've had lots of rain with little bits of sun here and there. So things are progressing slowly around here.

But the clover and wild flowers are growing really well. The bumble bees and honey bees are all over the clover right now. I just hate to mow it down. But it always comes right back out the next day. So I don't worry too much about it. I do leave certain places wild for them. I hope to be getting honey this month. There are 6 fully capped frames of honey in a shallow right now. Just waiting for them to fill the rest up. There is still tons of pollen and nectar flowing out there.

Here' is a bumble bee, busy at work.

This s the okra and cucumber garden, down at the bottom of the yard. It's in between the apple ad pear trees. I think I might plant blue berry bushes down here in the fall. But the okra and cucumbers I planted last Monday, are all up and growing fast!

I am really pleased with this corn. I haven't had any luck with corn or beans the past few years. But this year, they are all growing. I'll wait til next week, then put some Blue Lake running beans in the corn.

I planted sun flower seeds down the middle of the crowder pea row. All of them came up! I love sun flowers in the garden. I also have a big bed of zinnias that are doing great too.

And all over the garden, mainly in between the rows, are all these wild daisies. I just love them and have been mowing and weeding around them.  I'm happy to see them all over the garden. They are just happy flowers.

Today is my oldest daughter's birthday. I remember that day so well. She was the best baby and toddler any mother could ask for.  She's had lots of ups and downs and is in a slump right now, but I believe she'll climb out of it soon. She was my birthday present. My birthday is tomorrow. Most of our birthdays here are May and June. My other daughter was born the day before Mother's Day.

I am not going to reach my goal of 51 pounds by my birthday. But I'm ok with that. I have lost another 3 pounds though, so down to 212 this morning! It is still coming off! I might still go ahead and get the tattoo though.

And I am going to start the Brainerd farmers market again this Saturday morning. I am excited, but have to get back into that groove again. I went to the Main St. market yesterday and asked the manager if it wasn't too late, I'd love to come back there again. She said they were having a meeting next week and would bring it up. So I hope to let back in. I miss it there. I have a lot to do before Sat. morning. So off I go.