The Answer is - "Not to Bee"

Yes, when I came home from tennis this morning I could tell that the City of Phoenix had been by to tackle the bee situation. And the answer to Shakespeare's question which was in my last post is: "Not to Be(e)". Most of the bees are no more - but there are a few stray survivors that are flying around aimlessly wondering "Where is everyone?" So I still risked my life to get the following awesome up close and tight pictures of the aftermath. There are now tons of bee carcasses in the water meter hole. And as you can see in the picture they had a nice sized start to a hive. Dang, if we would have let them stay for awhile we might have had our own years supply of honey. Oh well. Now I know what "Busy as a bee" means. They did that all in one day.

To BEE or Not to BEE

Quick note - we had a swarm of bees move into our water meter housing in the front yard. It appears that they decided to move in yesterday. We have a call in to the City of Phoenix about it. They said they would come but we don't know when. In the meantime, I hastily wrote 2 cautionary signs: "CAUTION - Watch for BEES". Dad posted them on an empty cardboard on the sidewalk north of the new "bee house" and another one on the Blue Recycling Bin just south of the bees. So hopefully nobody will get the bees upset and in the attack mode. I am trying to post a video (if you listen in the video dad is behind me and asking me for information).

Who's the brave one now?

And just to put a little culture into my blog I quote Shakespeare.

"To be(e) or not to be(e), that is the question."

Here's Looking at You!

Here's looking at you! Take a quick peek at what those blossoming desert bushes did to my eyes. Even this morning they are still red. Yesterday they felt like sandpaper. Today despite the redness they are feeling mostly normal.

**Note to self - don't go bushwacking when the plants are flowering.

ROCKS

The theme for the day: ROCKS!

1. First thing this morning I saw a message on Sister Mortensen's t-shirt. It said, "My Bishop Rocks". That is pretty shocking when considering our Bishop is Bishop Palmer. Oh well. I saw that on her t-shirt at 6:30 am as we were gathering for another 2.4 mile hike at Squaw Peak. There were a lot of ROCKS on the hike. There were big rocks to step over. The rocks were mostly white chalky looking ones. Some Bozo must have tried running down and wiped out because we were able to follow a fresh blood trail dripping on the rocks all the way back down the trail. Some rocks were rather sharp and some were well worn to a smoother finish. I wore my boots and so my feet were happy - the rocks didn't hurt my feet at all. We got done and I was home by about 10 am.

2. That gave me just 2 hours to get ready for another hike with my group getting ready to hike Paria Canyon. I bought a pair of trail shoes to wear on this hike. It will take us through slot canyons and into and out of the wet creekbed many times so I needed ones that would drain out water easily and not be really heavy if they were wet. I wore these shoes to the hike out at the White Tanks. We hiked a loop that included the following trails: Mesquite, Willow, Ford's Canyon, and one more connecting trail. We met at noon and I got home by 6 pm. Crazy - we hiked 9 miles! I did pretty good too. But back to my theme. There were lots of rocks on this hike too. The rocks here had much more variety. There were red, brown, yellow, orange, green, blue, gray, black, and white rocks. The variety of colors weren't all I enjoyed about them. Some of the rocks had stripes of different colors. Some were just plain stripes - some were more like "x's". I even saw a few rocks with polka-dots. There were some really cool looking black ones that sparkled in the sunshine. I liked hiking on the big rocks - you know the ones that are buried deep enough to be very stable when stepping onto them. The large rocks that looked very stable but then rolled and shifted when you stepped onto them really kept us awake. I didn't like walking on the parts of the trail that were completely covered with smaller loose rocks - those took a lot of care as we hiked. Some rocks were buried deep into the earth but just had a small point exposed. I usually tripped on those. Those rocks were good at making me practice my balancing skills. I never did fall. Then there were the teeny tiny rocks - some of us call it sand - that sapped our strength as we plodded through it. Then our hike leader decided to let us do some bouldering off the trail and following a dry creekbed. Yippee! That was after about 6 miles.





It was pretty awesome. What at first appeared to us to be impossible - upon further inspection we determined with a little extra effort it became possible! Yes we started to feel like the sure footed mountain goats (is that a good thing?). Some of those boulders were really very huge rocks! Really huge!! Of course I forgot the camera. Then after bouldering for an hour or so we bushwacked through the blooming desert bushes back to the established trail. That was wonderful on my allergies! Anyway, we made it back to the car and it was a wonderful day! The thing is even after hiking over 11 1/2 miles today over, around, and through many many many rocks, pebbles, sand, etc. - NOT ONE OF THOSE ROCKS MADE IN INTO MY SHOES! What a miracle! I love my shoes! My feet really love my shoes! I hope I don't wear them out before the actual hike!

Get and Give Away - Craft Queen?

March is National Craft Month

So . . . Be one of the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post by Friday @ Midnight and you'll receive something handmade by yours truly. But there is a catch, you have to do the same thing on your blog. So if you're a reader, but a non blogger you're out of luck.

Ready...Set...Go!

Foster Birdies

I have a soft heart. Much too soft at times. Some of God's helpless creatures have touched my heart and I have sprung into action to help them. Some examples you might remember:

1. Bunny - we babysat bunny for a friend who went home for Christmas. Bunny's life was lived in a small cage - 12" x 18". He could take maybe 2 small hops to one end of the cage. "His" (you don't even want to know how we found out Bunny was not a he!) next move was to turn around and take another hop or two back to where he started. Very soon I determined to block all possible escape routes in the back yard and just let bunny have free reign. The bunny now had room to move, run, and really hop, and in my opinion had a much more fulfilling life. The kicker is that the owner decided to move home and sold Bunny to a friend for $25. I was incensed! There was no way I would let him take Bunny away to live back in the cage! So we paid the guy $35 and told him we were keeping Bunny who lived happily in our back yard for several more years.

2. Baby Kittens - On our way to church one hot summer day I noticed a moving mass of fur up against our neighbor's fence. Upon closer inspection we found 5 baby kittens maybe just old enough to leave mommy. Someone had stuffed them into a pop-up hamper and thrown them onto the side of the road. The kitties were hunkered down in a tiny sliver of shade next to the fence. We picked them all up and took them into the house to cool them off. We found a box and put them in it trying to make them as comfortable as possible. After church we tried to give them some milk by dripping it into their mouths with our fingers and a small dropper. All during this time Dad got busy finding a no-kill shelter that would take them THAT DAY! He was worried that we would fall in love with them and never get rid of all of them. He was right - we did fall in love with them. But he was successful in finding a shelter that would take them in - for a small donation! Ha!

And for the lastest event - Foster Birdies

I have been busy packing boxes. In the second bedroom I kept hearing some loud and rather obnoxious bird talking. Peeps, squaks, more peeps, etc. I went out to investigate. I found a little poof of a bird in the grass in want of a comfy nest. The parent birds were distressed and worried. I tried to find the nest but to no avail. The birdie eventually hopped under the bushes near the house. My heart was hopeful when the parent birds kept returning to feed the baby tasty bugs. But the baby was too small and would surely die. This morning after hiking I again heard some loud bird conversations. More distressed parent noises and some peeps. Had our fallen birdie managed to survive the night? Once again I went out to investigate. I followed the peeping to the north side of our house and found 2 little bird poofs. Yes two - by the fence and huddled in some long grass. Well, I could see that the birdies would soon be in the direct sun for the entire afternoon and so I sprang into action. I got some dead branches and trimmed some brances with leaves off our tree. I took them over and constructed a shade structure for the small birds. I left the side opened and hoped the parents would accept the new structure in place of their usual nest. After doing this I went to the front bushes to inspect closely for yesterday's bird. And sure enough it was there - barely alive but alive. I couldn't stand to leave it there so I grabbed it with a cloth and took it over into the shelter I just made. Now there were 3 poof birdies. I don't think that the third one will make it but at least it won't die all alone and scared. Anyway, I raised the shade in the third bedroom and can see the shelter perfectly from there. I spent a good amount of time peering out to see if the parent birds would even go near it. It took them quite a while to do it but they did. They went in and fed the peeping poofs a good variety of bugs and stuff. So I have done all I can to help my Foster Birdies survive. I'll keep you posted.

Weavers Needle

The Superstition Mountains were beautiful on Saturday afternoon! These mountains are in the far east valley - 75 minutes from home. Everything was green and growing. There were so many saguaros as we drove to the trailhead on the dirt road. Many of the bushes, cacti, and plants in general were ready to bloom. This is really a beautiful time of year for us here in the desert. The day was sunny and warm but not hot. We hiked on the Peralta Trail to Freemont Saddle - a 67 minute hike about 2.5 miles each way. It was a great little hike. Dad is taking the older boys in the YM group on that exact hike in 2 days. So we went on a trial run to help figure out drive times, hike times, and general conditions. This picture (taken with our cell phone) shows the view from Freemont Saddle - a glorious view of Weavers Needle.

Nice Holiday Surprise

A few days ago I was working hard (not hardly working)! My biceps muscles were getting a workout while vacuuming our nice new plush carpeting. I had worked my way through the house as was down in the very back bedroom - OURS. I moved a few things around and was working on the last little strip by the bed. Stored under the bed are cans and cans of food storage, mostly wheat. So I vacuumed as far under as those cans would allow. I bumped into something that sounded hollow and well, different. I took a peek and what did I see? A shopping bag from Macy's.

I looked inside the bag. Inside was the nicest, shiniest, newest, bestest cheese grater ever. It was the item I had described in detail to Doug that he could get me for my birthday or Christmas. When it didn't show up for either of those momentous events in December I put it out of my mind. I put it back in the bag and tried to forget about it.

But the next time I had to use the old trusty rusty cheese grater I decided to mention my finding to Doug. Upon my mention of the hidden treasure his response was that he had gotten it for my birthday or Christmas but promptly forgot about it. Upon his insistence I retrieved the tardy gift.

Tonight was the first chance I had to use the grater. It worked like a charm and I am very glad to have it as "A Nice Holiday Surprise". Thanks Doug!