Bee-utiful Day

This month I hung out with members of the Nebraska Bee Keepers Association for a day at one of their learning meetings. One of the members, Bill, has a rental in which bees took up residence in a house wall. We were there to learn how to extract the hive and safely give it a new home in an empty hive box. His place is a farm, south of Lincoln about 1.5 hours. It was a perfect day, slightly overcast and not too hot with a gentle breeze blowing, no city noises and the sound of the Western Meadowlark and occasional Pheasant for background music. I enjoyed seeing how the bee fashion changed since I helped my dad with bees as a kid.

I didn't feel comfortable with just a mesh covering my arms like this woman wore. I made sure my skin was covered!

In the United States, the traditional type of hive is the box hive. At Bill's place we first looked at a couple other types of hives, the Horizontal Hive and the Kenyan Hive. They both are very similar except the Kenyan hive is a v-shaped horizontal hive. Anyway, that's my amature view of it. Bill had placed a window in the side of the Kenyan hive so we could see the very cool workings of the honeybees inside. I've also included an inside look when they opened the top of the Kenyan hive.

I'll add more photos later

Rain Barrel Extravaganza

The City of Lincoln has been focusing on reducing stormwater runoff and pollutants in the runoff for the past few years. As a part of environmental awareness they have an annual rain barrel design fundraiser. This year, 25 artists submitted their designs and I attended the artist reception as a part of my work. I know, I have a tough job. There was one design painted by a guy who paints cars for a living, a woman who was in Survivor, a couple middle school art classes contributed as well as a librarian and many many other artists. The barrels were auctioned off the next day to raise money for something (I didn't go to the auction).

Swiss Restaurant - Kansas City Missouri

Dad, Mom, Devri and I went to Andres (?), the Swiss Restaurant in Kansas City Missouri, to celebrate Mom's birthday. I didn't know KC had a Swiss restaurant. Apparently it's next door to the Swiss Consulate, which I didn't know KC had either. I guess you miss things not living in the town. The pastries and cakes were beautiful and there were plenty chocolates to buy (of course).
When you walk into the restaurant, you first encounter the pastries and chocolates. Then you go down this entry to the eating area. Here's Devri in the entry with the different Swiss flags.


The meals were definitely in the realm of comfort foods and not very different from other American food. I wonder if they've taken a different slant in America from traditional Swiss foods. I'll have to ask my Swiss contact next time I talk to her. Maybe it's just that I come from European background and the foods that have been handed down in my culture are similar to the Swiss.


What would Homer say? MMMMMMMMM cakes and pastries... must eat (I don't know how to write out the sound he makes - just imagine. If you don't know Homer, then just imagine a lot of slobbering, gurgling and moaning sounds)

Mom, Dad and me.

Mom, Dad and Devri

Snow Critters

When the snow falls and I go out to shovel the side walk and drive, my pets go out with me and enjoy the snow. This storm dumped 8" of fluffy snow that Abby plows through, poking her face deep in the snow to the smells below. Midnite steps in the foot prints I leave behind - he's especially handsome in the snow.

Red Rock Canyon - Colorado

In December 2008 I traveled to Denver for work related training at the EPA office. Before training, I spent a few days with my friend Lisa in Colorado Springs. We hiked in a park west of town called Red Rock Canyon. I overstayed my time in Colorado Springs though and didn't make it back to Denver before a snow storm hit. Lisa and I had "fun" traveling in the snow for two hours, trying to get to Denver but only making it 20 miles out of Colorado Springs. We finally turned around and headed back to her apartment for a well deserved rum and coke. She drove me back to Denver the next morning and we found the roads and traffic in much better condition than the prior evening. I ended up only missing the first morning of the conference.






The red dirt is great. It's a nice earthy red. This is a photo of the path we walked along and I use as the background of my computer.

They use to mine the red rock out of this area. I don't recall what it was used for though.

Out of the Earth I Climb

I've done it girls! I have created my own blog site. Now you can keep tabs on your mom while you're out of the nest. You can look in on me and see me reading, shuffling paperwork, scheming my evil plans on your lives. Mooohaahaa