What are you up to today???

[Charlyc11]

OMG, Chuck. What a holy mess. Even the thought of cleaning up all those tiles in the tub makes my back throb.

Liz the tub is gone and toilet gone last night along with the floor tiles. The backing board under the ceramic tiles is a challenge but I will get it done. This weekend will be a long weekend so I will have some progress.

[LizStreithorst]

Does your back hurt or are you Superman? Porciline is heavy heavy as are the tiles/

[Charlyc11]

I take my time and use the tools that makes the job easier. Pry Bars and dollies are helpful but metal (not Cast) is not as heavy. The last time I did a tub it was cast so I sledge hammered it to pieces. The new one is acrylic (70 Lbs) and it will sit on a bed of mortar to make it ridget.

[jwcarlson]

Jake, you can't imagine how much I envy you. Once upon a time I could have built a chicken tractor like that. I even have wheels like those on a garden cart I no longer use. It's a wonderful design. I hope you post pics once you have chickens in it.

And the bees...I tried bees once, but when I thought there were enough flowers blooming, I quit feeding them supplemental sugar water. I was new and just didn't know...The loss of the hive hit me so hard that I gave up. I wish I hadn't.

I used to watch videos by JP Beeman. He makes his living rescuing been from where they shouldn't be in all sorts of weird places and takes them home to his bee yard. Once he removed a hive living in a sofa that had been tossed out. I found it all fascinating. Mr. Bugg, you should give them a watch.

I don't imagine that you were able to salvage and frame up any of the combs from your box without frames? I kind of doubt it. What did you do, feed the honey back to the bees once you put them in a suitable box? I bet it was a lot harder to find the queen in this hive than it was to find her in the other picture.

I got some milk crates and the pipe I need to cut to finish everything up on Monday. Kids had their spring concert last night so no progress made (other than pulling crates in the slots. But they need to have an opening cut out of them. I'll get the pipe cut tonight. I'm not sure the best way to cut the hole. I could use my grinder, but that's going to make a lot of plastic dust/shavings. So maybe just a saw of some sort. I'm hoping to get the old hens into it fairly soon. The best thing for me to do is probably to put it in their current setup and get them using it for sleeping and laying. THEN move them to their next patch of grass. But that means I have to move the big, heavy coop again and I don't want to do that. I'll see what I can come up with.

Regarding the bees... they can be very tough creatures to crack the code on. I have a bit of background because my grandpa and dad kept bees in the late 70s through until the early 90s before the varroa mites came over from SE Asia and wiped everything out. Now beekeeping is much more difficult. More of a thinking man's game... and I fancy myself a thinking man, I guess.

Good luck with your colonoscopy tomorrow, Liz! I'm a few years from my first one, but already am not looking forward to it!

As far as what I did with the comb. I heavily smoked the bees down off of the comb, there wasn't too much brood in there yet, so they moved down off of it fairly easily. Then I cleaned up their other boxes and gave them a box with drawn comb in place of all of the comb I just took out. I left it intact in the box. They'll rob the honey out of it and I'll eventually cut the comb out and render it into wax. I don't usually harvest much wax, but occasionally someone wants a little bit, so it's nice to have some laying around.

[LizStreithorst]

Were you able to catch the queen?

[jwcarlson]

Were you able to catch the queen?

I didn't bother looking for her, I'd bet a lot of money she was in the other box or ran down when I smoked them. I don't actively try to find the queen very often. You can tell a lot about the colony from the way it sounds and even how warm it is (as silly as that sounds). Colonies raising brood need it to be about 93-94 degrees. Whereas a colony without brood can and will be quite a bit cooler. I waited about 10 minutes and there wasn't a little clump of bees hanging out in the old box or anything, which would indicate that the queen might still be in that box.

[Charlyc11]

I Continue to work on the bathroom today. Installed the new plumbing for the tub facet and shower. Tomorrow on to Home Depot to pick up supplies.

[Second Hand Pat]

So my brother-in-law Frank is repairing and stalling stuff after the painters. I meet him at Lowe's to pickup a sink for the garage, smoke detectors and other odds and ends. My son-in-law Mike and daughter Diana left to attend a friend's wedding so I am getting a break. When Mike and Diana get back the plan is to start moving furniture to the new house. My plan (besides catching my breath lol) is to remove stuff from the furniture so it can be lighter and easier to move. Yesterday was Tom's birthday, he turned 70 and I told him he is officially my old man. We meet Tom's brothers and wives at a Mexican restaurant to celebrate his birthday.
Pat

[danotaylor]

Happy bday to Tom!! Hope you guys have a much needed break from the moving stuff, and enjoy his special day w fam!

[danotaylor]

So on Monday evening we are having dinner w friends and picking up a new friend for our beloved dog, Hope. She is a very social dog, and my wife and sons all have jobs nowadays, it’s time to get her a friend to play with in our absences.
Meet Donut. She's a bernadoodle, runt of the litter, and a real sweetie!

[Second Hand Pat]

So on Monday evening we are having dinner w friends and picking up a new friend for our beloved dog, Hope. She is a very social dog, and my wife and sons all have jobs nowadays, it’s time to get her a friend to play with in our absences.
Meet Donut. She's a bernadoodle, runt of the litter, and a real sweetie!

I will pass on the Bday wishes Danny and OH, what a cute little guy. I hope Hope and Donut become the best of friends.
Pat

[danotaylor]

Settling in…

[Second Hand Pat]

Just too cute Danny and good to hear they are settling in just fine
Pat

[Iminit]

Good luck with your new pup donut! Great name! But you’ll have a lot of cops coming by now. Hope you’ve got coffee ready. I’ve always kept 2 dogs. One thing happened once where I didn’t realize that the new puppy was doing everything with my older dog and following his direction. She is as loving to us as any other dog but when my older guy passed she was completely lost for a time. That’s when I realized what we had done. Everybody was working and Guinness raised her. She was his dog. Got another dog and after 2 years she’s much better and us being retired both dogs are ours.

Hope your move goes good Pat!!

Liz I’ve just been through a colonoscopy yesterday. Know what it’s like! But it’s got to be done. Hope yours went well.

Chuck nothing more fun than a bathroom renovation. Get it all done before you retire!! Only advice I’ve got is where you can oversized your pipes and vent well. I used 4” on both toilets. No clogs ever.

Was upstate for the past week. It is nice getting away for awhile. Country living is relaxing but I do enjoy life on Long Island. It amazes me how much more wildlife we have here. I hiked every day and saw lots of beautiful views but not much in wildlife.
Fish are all good and im only doing 1 50% water change a week for about 6 months now.

[danotaylor]

Thank you Pat and Tom.
Tom you’re hilarious…no cops have shown up yet, but the coffee is ready, lol.
We got home late with her last night. Moved a crate to our bedroom. She yelped for about 5 minutes the slept solid til 5am. Not bad for her first night here. Hope is being very good with Donut. No territorial behavior. Even allowing Donut to play with her ball and to eat and drink from her bowl set. Donut is trying to figure out Hopes playful growls. Seems it’s gonna be a great match!
I candled our remaining unhatched eggs last night. 2 more viable , and both were chirping thru the shell when I woke up this morning. One of them pipped thru the side of the shell, so hopefully will pop out fully today sometime.
Have a great day SD peeps!