Bees move to new home

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Attack of the Not-so-killer Bees 

On Saturday morning, (Earth Day) the day dawned really warm.  First one all year with no fog in the morning and bright sun.  We were up early (for us) and went downstairs to start our regular morning routine (feed the cats, make coffee and breakfast, let the chickens out).   Rod called me out to the garage and told me to stay way from my car -- their were bees beginning to swarm around there in pretty good numbers.  

Ok by me because I had a lot to do that day around the house including picking the first lilacs of the season -- my favorites.  

But by that afternoon, Rod called me again from where I was scrubbing the tiles on our upstairs balcony plant landing and told me to "drop everything -- you've got to see this!!!".  I hurried down the spiral staircase 

and came around the corner and WOW!!!!! 

Those bees had definitely taken up residence .  From the morning when the swarm was small 

it had morphed into a huge hive!!!!!  We stood there watching it for awhile then Rod went on line and we learned a lot about our bees. 

Turns out our hive is probably the result of  scout bees not finding anywhere else suitable for the new colony, so they settled here with their queen to start a new colony.  Very, very cool but the location -- not so cool.  Our bees were no longer a swarm -- but a colony. 

So it was on the phone and onto Craigslist to find a beekeeper to remove them.  We found one on Craigslist who would come and get the bees  --- for free!!!! Such a deal.    Now we only had to wait until he could come and take away our sweeties 

http://www.youtube.com/user/rodneyracer?feature=mhee

The above is a link to Rod's YouTube page that shows a walk around of the bees at their peak. 

Sunday evening, Rokas from Lithuania showed up with his smoker, bee boxes, straps, blankets, and a fine-haired brush (but a big brush).  Rokas learned about keeping bees in his home country and now sells honey at the Oxbow Market and had just returned from the Home & Garden show in Vacaville.  

We rigged up a stand from ladders, and Rokas carefully placed the bee box on top of the ladder as close to the hive as he could.   Then he lit a rag in the smoker and pumped up the smoke, carefully spraying the bees with the smoke.   He laid out a blanket on the ground, and some long rubber tie downs. Climbing another ladder, Rokas gently brushed the bees from the door sill into the bee box.  

Immediately, there was a loud and grumpy buzzing, but the bees did not fly out and did not sting .  The box was placed carefully on the blanket, and the frames gently inserted.   Then the cover was placed on the box, and Rokas wrapped the whole box in the blanket, securing everything with the rubber ties downs.  

Then goodbye bees.  To assure that no other swarm would find this tempting location for their new home, we scrubbed and scraped the door sill and then wiped it  down with cinnamon mixed with oil.  Rokas said that bees do not like cinnamon.  Just to be sure, I am also going to follow up with eucalyptus oil this afternoon.  

This morning there are still a few bees buzzing mournfully around wondering what happened to all of their pals.  I hope they find a new group to hook up with.

I think I'll go down to the Oxbow Market and buy some of Rokas' honey!!!!!  

Our House

                                             Our house is a very, very,very fine house 
                                             With (more than two) cats in the yard 
                                             Life used to be so hard
                                            Now everything is easy 'cause of you 


I have been thinking alot lately about how we ended up in this house, and about the house itself.  This year will mark twenty years we have lived here -- 10 months before we got married, and the longest I have ever lived in one place anywhere.

I still remember the first time we looked at the house -- I had found out about it from the graphic artist at the printer where we got our bus schedules printed.  They were moving to Oregon and we looked at it  and  rejected as "needs too much work". With our list of  "must haves" we had been looking throughout all of Napa's subdivisions.  We had just seen a four bedroom in north Napa that met every condition on the list when I turned to Rod and said "You know what?  I don't want to live in a tract house".  And he said "Neither do I" and that changed everything.   We went back to the  older house on Coombsville Road  and gave it another look.   Rod crawled around under the foundation with Larry Ellis, and they looked in the attic (luckily the house was vacant). Larry (a contractor) pronounced the house structurally sound with no visible termite or dry rot damage.  And then we found out that our neighbors (in front) would be someone we both knew who also worked for the City of Napa, and that the house had begun it's life in Benicia as a WWII duplex built for shipyard workers.   It had been barged up the Napa River, then hauled up the hill on a flatbed truck to be plunked down on the (almost 2 acre) lot where it was remodeled into a single family home.

The deck was covered with the dropped dried puffy flowers from the Chinese silk tree overlooking the deck, and there was a pool.  Once there had been a garden, too, and there was a brick patio and walkways. I was also intrigued by the unfinished rooms over the garage.  Maybe this house had potential.

We talked about how we could afford its $325,000 price tag.  Rod had cash from his divorce settlement, and I had a house on South Montgomery Street.   Would they take $50,00 down now and another $50,00 when my house sold by carrying back a second mortgage?  We made the offer and I completely freaked out.  I fretted that we would not be able to afford it, that they would never accept the offer, that there was just way too much work, that we had made a big mistake.

Then they accepted our offer. Oh. My. God.   When we found out that the daughter of the owners was still living in Napa with friends to finish high school, we borrowed a house key and sneaked inside to measure rooms for carpeting and windows for curtains.   Even before closing, we were over there every day after work clearing brush, planting things, and one eventful day taking a skinny dip in the pool when our Realtor showed up with papers for us to sign!

Of course we thought we could get all of the work done that needed to be done in three weeks before we moved in -- painting, wallpapering, painting kitchen cabinets, tearing out an old woodstove and patching the ceiling, laying new carpet, making curtains, buying blinds, and packing up everything we needed to move as well as having a yard sale for all the things we didn't want to move!     By coming to the house every day after work and staying until midnight, working all weekend long, and utilizing child labor (Rod's kids) we did everything we wanted to do.  We even got practically new oatmeal colored wool carpeting to replace the existing brown plush from Larry, which had come form a remodel he was doing.   This was wonderful, because when we pulled up the carpeting in the living room, expecting to find the hardwood that was in the dining room and largest downstairs bedroom, what we had found instead was all of the evidence of walls that had been removed when the house was converted from a duplex  to a single family home.  There was enough of that carpeting to complete the two remaining downstairs bedrooms as well.    We took the blue indoor/outdoor carpeting from the upstairs (unfinished) space and put it in the downstairs mudroom.

And only four months later , my house on South Montgomery Street sold (I had staged it before staging was the "in" thing to do), and we paid off the second mortgage.

Since then we have done so many upgrades, starting with finishing the upstairs  -- turning the long narrow space originally planned as a bathroom into a walk in closet, closing off the hall entry into one of the small bedrooms and turning it into a bathroom  (it is no fun having no upstairs bathroom when you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee) with a donated tub, ceramic tile from the tile outlet in SF, and kitchen cabinets instead of typical bathroom cabinets with deep pot drawers in the middle to take the place of a linen closet, and last but not least, putting in a separate (also donated) heating and air conditioning system after I threatened Rod that if we went one more summer without AC in our bedroom, I would be sleeping downstairs on the couch).

Then came rebuilding the deck with Trex, lots of landscaping, including a new sidewalk to the front door, a picket fence (picked up from a scrap heap at the Corp Yard after a flood) separating the front yard from the side yard,  building a water tower (Rod's project) and extending the back yard, adding a second covered patio with an outdoor kitchen behind the pool, and a sidewalk to the back porch.  Also a wonderful balcony off the master suite with donated mission style French doors (thanks Gene and Ethel)

Here is a view from the covered patio in the back yard toward the back porch with the outdoor kitchen (actually only a sink, countertop, bar and storage) in the foreground.  You can see the door into the garage and railings of the balcony on the left, our olive tree and garden window (both a freebie) to the right. 

The biggest projects were Rod's shop, which enabled him to start his new business, and the kitchen/second story remodel which enlarged the kitchen by 8 feet, added a second story to the old part of the house with dormers and a gigantic attic, added a pantry and covered back porch, and enabled us to move the hot water heater and furnace to the attic, those letting me turn the closet in the laundry/mudroom where they had been located into a large storage closet.  This remodel also included hardyboard siding on the whole house, which means no more exterior painting (except the trim).

This is the kitchen facing south and looking into the dining room.  The 1949 Wedgewood stove on the left came with the house and we still use it every day.  I wouldn't trade it for the newest cooktop around.

Our dining room in the summer, with roses from the garden on the table.  We bought this beautiful mission table and chairs at a yard sale in Carneros for only $500!  I have had the Victorian oak secretary since 1972.

Living room with hardwood floors, my needlework on the wall, and (of course) cat toys! 

The final upgrade was to add hardwood floors throughout the house.  That is if you don't count the new  paint, carpeting, drapes,  and furniture we got for our master bedroom (after only 20 years) last November.  

Now the picket fence is peeling and has been pushed side by a tree that has grown up too close to it, the back yard garden needs to be overhauled (new cement block planting beds are in the works), and I am as close to having my ideal home as I ever will be. 

Every morning, I can sit on my balcony and watch the Canadian geese fly over head, honking on their way to somewhere.  I can sit on the front deck and see the hummingbirds flock to the silk tree (which is dying by degrees -- alas) in the summer time, and to the feeders all the time.  I can go out to the chicken yard and watch the girls come flying at me with their waddling run (so funny) to find out if I have some stale bread or browning lettuce for them.  I can sit with a cat on my lap and hear the sounds of the children at recess from the school across the field, and I can feel grateful -- so grateful!