Canucked.

Tonight via skype..

D: Did you watch Glee tonight?
Me: David (exasperated).. there is no Glee in Canada.

honey do

It was last Saturday morning that I walked out onto the porch and heard a faint buzzing sound. There were at most 3 or 4 bees buzzing around the north column of our porch. I asked Dave if he'd noticed them to which he said no, so I moved on. We were working on filling our new raised bed that day and by noon the 3 or 4 bees had turned into more and they were clearing moving in and out of the post.

We had a hive, or a swarm or both. We didn't know what to call it, but neither of us were thinking about exterminating. I googled "live capture" bees and got a handfull of companies. I called 3. All of them seemed more interested in taking our money than our bees. That night the bees appeared to be gone. I even knocked, loudly, on the post with no sign of life. Sunday though saw a return of the bees and more of them. I should probably at this point deviate slightly from this story to explain that Dave and I have discussed keeping bees before. Why? Because we are clearly bonkers. This is what growing up in small towns will get you. The belief that you can 'raise' anything, including bees. We've even gone to a bee class hosted by Kirk Anderson, the backwards bee keeper, where we learned that keeping bees was not all that difficult. Thus Monday arrived with a new plan. We'd keep the bees, somehow. We just needed to find someone to get them out of the post for us, but in general no sense of urgency. Then Tuesday the bees began to build and gather outside the post. I called a few people who referred me to Kirk. Why I didn't think of him earlier, who knows? Probably because my mind was clouded with visions of pints of honey. Kirk, after doing a quick review of the situation agreed to come Sat. (yesterday) and remove the bees and set us up with our very own bee box. To say I was excited was a severe understatement.

This is the post after Kirk opened it up. First Whoa! That is a lot of bees. Second. Wait a second.. where is the post of the post? It was at this moment that Dave and I realized our porch was being held up by essentially 4 pieces of trim. As we discussed this alarming fact, Kirk pointed our that it had lasted this long, 80 years, and survived a few earthquakes, why were we worrying. While Kirk has a very good point, a voice kept screaming in my head NOT-A-POST. Kirk did distract us with several interesting bee facts. 1. Bees can't see in the dark. 2. Bees can't fly when their wings are wet, thus Kirk's trick of misting the hive with sugar water. Which leads to 3. Bees can't resist sugar. He also pointed out the the comb was very white and flexible which meant it was new. When asked how it gets darker, he noted that bees have dirty feet.

Kirk was awesome.

He also taught us how to build frames with string to put the new comb in after he removed it from the not-a post. Which is what he's doing in this photo. It should be noted that he put his gloves ON for this part but chose not to wear any for the majority of the time.

After all the bees found their way into the nuc box, either by brushing, scooping, or general pleading, we closed up the box. Cut a hole in the lid and taped it up on angles at the top of the not-a-post, so any bees out collecting pollen could easily find their new home. This is where the bees stayed until about 30 minutes ago. When I taped the hole closed and carried it to the back yard which will be their final home location. That's right, I carried a box full of bees, and I wasn't even scared.

Honey will do that to you.

the good, the bad, and the newly built

This weekend had its share of highs and lows. It started out high with another fine dinner joined by the swirlwsmellslurp crew at Lazy Ox Canteen, which is quickly becoming our favorite place in LA. Then we (or to be specific I) saw a few lows. First the kitchen aid mixer vibrated off the counter top and crashed onto the kitchen floor making a nice dent of course not before taking out a eames chair on its way down . I also broke a spoon rest with a orange and split the oven stone in two while baking bread. Looks like I'll be heading to sur la tabla next weekend. Lastly I managed to check my knee on the shower door getting in. After which I promptly crawled into bed in attempt to avoid breaking anything further. I can report that David woke up in one piece. But among all the lows we did build the second vegetable bed in the back yard. Although building a triangle is decidedly more complex than squares.

who kneads the gym when you have Peter Reinhart?

I come from a family of serious bread makers. I'm not really talking rustic breads that are all the rage now but sweet breads that beg for butter and make your mouth water just at the site. These are my Grandma Mary Lou's dinner rolls, or cinnamon rolls or sugar bread or anything else that she puts out with a little yeast in it. In the past year I've taken up the calling and have been baking bread around once a week. Mostly I've been experimenting with no-knead loafs because let's face it, a bread that requires no kneading is like Christmas everyday of the week. We've also taken to weekly pizza with homemade dough. Lately that includes a recipe from Mozza which is a show stopper. And speaking of Christmas, this year I acquired two Peter Reinhart bread cookbooks, The Bread Baker's Apprentice and Artisan Breads Everyday. These books have seriously broadened our weekly breads and often on the weekend I find myself making more than one recipe. Last week for Dave's birthday lobster boil I put out both the corn bread and the best biscuits ever. (that is the title of the recipe and they are!) Today it was a Ciabatta loaf (pictured) and cinnamon rolls (currently proofing). I'm hoping to work up to a true baguette by Summer and maybe by then my arms will be swimsuit ready.

the crowd goes wild

I would say that Cash definitely has selective hearing (and sniffing). When he's tired from playing or in general doesn't want to be bothered he will barely lift his head when a neighbor walks by the house. Other times he's all out crazed. DID YOU JUST DARE TO WALK BY MY HOUSE! So when I awoke to his serious barking in the middle of the night this week, I thought perhaps one of the cats had annoyed him or maybe a cat outside. After more barking and some hard elbows by me, Dave finally got up and went back to his room and told him to quiet down, in not so many words. Dave went back to sleep but Cash kept growling and I couldn't shake a feeling that something must be outside. So I got up and opened our bedroom door and looked down the hallway to the front yard. Standing there not a foot from the house was a coyote. A big coyote! I headed to the door (not to go outside!) to rattle it and hopefully scare him away. At least keep him from eating my blueberries....but he just stared at me. Then slowly he turned to start walking up the street to a roaring applause of dogs barking.

inverted and backwards

Now that my hair is a little longer, I regularly keep it out of my face by whatever means possible. I have a lot of hair plain and simple and so this usually means in a messy bun or ponytail, but sometimes I try to be fancy, emphasis on try. I have been known to attempt a braid or two and this is done with about a 20% success rate so when it does go well, I usually post a photo as record of such attempts. As it turns out people do look at photos on flickr and by people I mean more than just my family. In fact, a photo of my braided head resulted in a rather long discussion on a braid forum (yes! there is a forum for braiding! who knew! Maybe I should visit it more often!?). Apparently the people there believed I had stumbled upon a new type of braid. WHAT! (I may get my name in a crossword after all!) One person has affectionately dubbed it 'the mohawk effect' and even made a tutorial on youtube! So now when you bump into someone on the street with a crazy braided head like me, you'll now why.

2 cats, 1 dog and...

3 lizards!
(if you are keeping track, yes we did at one time have a turtle but released him to a local pond where there was more room to swim and less cats to terrorize)

So. Today I'm in the back yard tending to the garden and I move a pot that's full of water. Under it I see two little worms squirm. Only these worms appear to have a blunt edge on one side. Hmm. I think that perhaps I've just chopped a mighty worm in half with the pot movement. Oh well, onto garden stuff. At which time I notice out of the corner of my eye one of the worms CRAWLING. When I look back down at them, one is looking back at me! EYES! I scream. LITTLE MOUTH MOVING! DAVID!! Yes of course this worm is the size of my pinky but it does have eyes and a mouth and upon closer inspection (by David) legs! It appears the lizard living in our rosemary (whom I will now call Rose) decided to grow her family, by two.