Mammoth July 2024

Jim, Hops and Astrid and I went to Mammoth from the cabin for a weekend in mid-July right after Ahi passed.  We went to celebrate her life and get out of the heat.  We also had the bonus of seeing Grace.  (Above pic is Mono Lake looking from the Whoa Nelly Deli parking lot where we stopped and fed the dogs)

We stayed at great condo in the Westin property in Mammoth.  It was on the 6th floor which meant it was a haul to take the dogs out.  But they are so good it was not even and issue.

On Saturday, we drove south all the way to Lone Pine to check out all the little towns along the way.  Highlights were:

The Whitney Portal which is where hikers start to go up to summit Mt Whitney

The Mt Whitney Fish Hatchery which is 100 years old

The fish slough which is a spring fed saline slough that has all kinds of unique species in it

Alabama Hills

Sabrina Lake and North Lake

Hops sleeping in the condo closet!   She is nuts!

 

4th of July at the Cabin

We had a quiet 4th of July at the cabin with Kaylene, Drew, Tina and Marty.  We spent some time on the lake during the day and of course, watched the fireworks from the boat in the evening.

 

RIP Ahi Wasabi

On July 9, we made the incredibly difficult decision to help Ahi cross the rainbow bridge.  We were spending the month of July at the cabin and had visited our vet in SJ before coming up to make a last ditch effort to help her.  But even with antibiotics and denamarin, her dementia continued to get worse.

She was a feisty little weiner who won all our hearts, even if we didn't want to love her with her angry nature.

The picture above was her last day with us.  I spent the day on the couch with her, telling her about how much we loved her and what a good dog she was.

These are some of my favorite pics of her that show he argumentative nature.  In both, she is angry about something - probably a dog, from her family, that got to close!

 She will always be remembered by us as the one that kept us on our toes!  Godspeed Ahi Wasabi Tuna Noodle Casserole, with peas!

Engaged! June 21, 2024

It was a big night last night!  Drew proposed to Kaylene in Santa Cruz with the dogs at their sides.

We met at the Crow's Nest to celebrate!

The pics on the beach were taken by Tori and Kody who were laying down in sand in disguise!

 

UC Davis Graduation

Who are we most proud of for graduating from UC Davis?  Astrid or Grace?  They both had a lot of hard work to do!

We spent the weekend up in Sacramento attending Grace's graduation, which was held at the Golden One Center, which is where the Sacramento Kings play.

We celebrated the night before with a steak dinner at Mortenson's Steak House and the next day with lunch at Paesanos.

I am so incredibly proud of Grace.  She worked hard, she stayed focused and she continued to be a woman of grace, poise and kindness through it all.   I can't wait to see what good she does for the world in her life.  And I thank God everyday for Astrid and the support she gives Grace.

Yosemite Mosaic Class

Heather and I took a mosaic class in Yosemite this week.  It was held at Happy Isle and was taught by a volunteer.

First we got a tutorial and picked our pattern.  I chose to do Half Dome.

We traced the pattern on a tile and then used a sharpee to draw the lines.

Then we picked colored glass and started cutting and placing the pieces where we wanted them.  We glued them down as we went.

I started with Half Dome and then moved onto the trees.   And I did the sky last.

Heather chose to do dogwood flowers since they were in full bloom.

After we glued down all the glass, we grouted the mosaics.  

We were super happy with our creations!

Wrapped up the lesson with lunch in the Curry Village parking lot!

 

Bees 2024

It's only April and there has already been bee drama!  In mid March, we split the hive on the far right because it was packed with bees and when that happens, it can cause them to swarm.  Splitting it means taking a few frames of eggs and almost hatching bees and moving them to a new hive.  In the process, we leave the queen in the old hive and expect that the new hive will make a new queen.  We watched the hive closely and found evidence of queen cells, which was a good sign.  But after a month, there were no eggs which means NO queen!  We don't know why but it could have been any number of reasons, including she couldn't get out on a mating flight because of bad weather or she was killed while on her mating flight.

So we had to quickly pivot to plan B: purchase a queen.  Jim went to Half Moon Bay to buy a mated queen and he installed it in the hive.

These are pics of us checking on her on day 2.  She is still in her cage and we removed a cork which allows the bees to eat thru a marshmallow blocking the entrance and release her.  This slow introduction gives the best chance of the hive accepting her.

We have a good number of bees in the hive but they are getting old and will be naturally dying off soon.  So we need to get some eggs laid asap.

The last two pics are of the cage that the queen is in.  You can see the bees on the cage, which is a good sign that they are interested in her and caring for her through the holes in the cage.   In the below pic you can see the white marshmallow in the entrance tube to the queen cage.  The bees will eat that (its sugar, which they love) and she will be released and start laying eggs.