It flooded! Monday night (3/20) it rained, rained, rained, and the wind blew, blew, and blew. This morning we explored the damage and took a few pictures.
Debris washed over and off the drive-way.
Standing and running water.
Gravel washed off the the drive-way.
Our once-path-now-river.
Molly evaluating the damage.
Anyone up for a obstacle course run! Or swim? LOL!
All the flowers together.
That’s one gorgeous flower!
Wow! So many petals!
A big vase containing such wildflowers as:Snow balls, yellow bells,and many others I don’t know the name of !
Stunning!
Yes, swimming! Saturday March 4th was fairly hot (around 80). The guys had been working outside clearing some of our property and so the younger boys were pretty hot. They came up to the house and asked to swim. Knowing they would not stay in very long we set out. They did pretty well, although they did have blue lips and goose bumps when they got out. Honestly they were out more than in. LOL!
Testing the water.
Ethan, the first one in.
Emanuel splashing. Wow! That is cold water!
Gibbie, our freezing fish! LOL!
Rebekah adding more salt. (No, it’s not chlorine)
Momma and Nehemiah enjoying God’s beautiful outdoors!
During the past few weeks the younger Sanders boys (Ethan,Emanuel and Gibbie) have enjoyed playing pirate playmobil (little men and accessories) that Emanuel got for his birthday last year. Here are a few pictures of them playing.
Gibbie enjoying playmobil time.
The playmobil pirate village.
Emanuel playing with his pirates.
Say cheese!
Gibbie tired from playing hard.
This spring we decided to experiment growing different herbs. We decided to start out seeing how sweet basil would work. It can be used for and in a lot of different things, so we decided to try this one first. It will be wonderful to have some fresh herbs on hand when cooking! Noah has started growing some tomato plants and we hope to be able to make some Italian sauces with our own tomatoes and herbs.
Getting some sunlight.
Little sprouts coming up.
Lately, we have been watching the Disney episodes of Zorro. So, now our younger boys have been playing “Zorro”, which includes dressing-up as Zorro or sword-fighting. They now all have “swords”, and bring them everywhere. Also, everyone has been picking up bits of Spanish from the episodes. Here are a few sayings we hear a lot: “Gracias, Senorita”, “Gracias, Senor Zorro!”, “Adios!”, “Muchos Gracias”, and “Si”.
There is something wrong with this picture! Zorro always wins!!
On guard!!
Gotcha!!!
Now, that’s more like it! Z
This past fall our family got a hive of honey bees. Although you can get everything from the hive to the actual bees via the mail we purchased a fully established hive from a local beekeeper. Noah has been working with him this past year and we have appreciated all his advice and input on the care and upkeep of our bees.
Bees are fairly dormant in the winter and we have not had to do much with them until just recently. But since the spring flowers started opening the bees have been busy collecting pollen and nectar, and we have been busy trying to give them room to put it.
In this picture of our hive you can see two large boxes topped with two smaller ones. The two lower ones are called the brood chambers. They are the ones that the bees live in and raise their young in. During the winter they are the only boxes, or supers (‘soopers’), that make up the hive. During the spring and summer though, the bees begin making honey, and they need a place to store it. So we put ‘honey supers’ on the hive, the two shallow boxes seen above, to give them extra space.
Here is some of the equipment we use in taking care of our bees: Leather gloves with long gauntlets and a bee veil designed to help keep the bees from reaching you with their stingers; a hive tool to assist you in opening the hive and taking out the frames; and a smoker to calm the bees with. The ‘deep’ super they are setting on is hopefully going to be the brood chamber of a new hive we are building.
When we smoke bees with our smoker it sets off their God given reaction to a forest fire, which is to gorge themselves with honey. This takes their minds off of us long enough for us to do what we need to.
These are some more honey supers which I am getting ready to put on the hive. Each super can hold up to 2 1/2 gallons of honey and the bees, if they have access to enough flowers, can fill one up in as little as five days!
Each frame has to have wax ‘foundation’ put in them before they are ready to put in the hive. The foundation is a sheet of wax stamped with a honeycomb pattern that the bees can build off of.
Recently we had to replace some of the frames in our brood chambers and this one we took out was full of honey.
We had been wanting some honeycomb so we cut it out of this frame. Most of the time you put the frames in a centrifugal extractor that flings the honey out without damaging the comb. The rest of the frames that we took out were set by the hive and the bees cleaned all the honey out of them.
Tasting the honeycomb.
Liquid Gold.
Today beekeeping, or ‘bee-managing’, is a little more complicated than it used to be. So many parasites and diseases have been brought over from other countries that it has literally wiped out almost all wild honey bees. Only those in domestic hives managed by beekeepers have much chance of survival today. It is sobering when you realize that almost a third of what we eat is dependant upon honey bees for pollination. We hope to honor God through our having ‘dominion’ over our bees, and hopefully catching a few swarms this spring that would otherwise die.
In the last few months we have had to replace the batteries and motor/wiring on our golf cart. So we decided to change the exterior as well. Wendi chose “camo” and did the painting herself. She did a great job and the kids love the new look.
Lots of helpers with the painting
Touching up the details
Admiring Mommy’s work
The finished product!
A family that purposes to serve the Lord with all our hearts with gratitude for what Christ has done for us. Gratefulness and faithfulness can lead to fruitfulness.
Looks like ya’ll had fun! Miss you!!!