Honoring Mothers

While on shelter in place, my team at work does a "Daily Activity" to keep us connected.  Today was one gal's mom's 60th birthday and to honor moms, we all told stories about ours.

My story was about the greatest gift my mom ever gave me - her engagement diamond, which I used to make a family heirloom wedding ring which included my grandmother's engagement diamond.  I hope that is something that stays in the family for generations.

Refreshing

One of our SIP treats is homemade lemonade.  We have friends who give us lemons so we just whip up the recipe below and slurp it up.

Simple Sugar:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
Simmer until sugar is dissolved.

Mix with:
1 cup lemon juice
3 cups of water

Adjust water or lemon juice to your taste.  I mix my lemonade half and half with tea so it is not so sweet.

Trouble in Bee City?

We woke up to about 25 dead bees today!  There was a lot of alarm on our part but it turned out to be ok...we think.   It seems to be just normal hive maintenance whereby they throw their dead out!  We will keep a close eye on them to see if there are a lot more, which would indicate poisoning.  Not a purposeful poisoning, but rather people spraying poison on their weeds or bugs.  Don't use poison/chemicals in your yards - it kills bees!

River time!

Astrid took her first trip to the river!  After her unfortunate fall into the lake the day before, this adventure was less dramatic.

She never attempted to swim but loved splashing in the water and rolling around in the sand.

Ahi is not a fan of sand or loud water so she napped on a chair - that had been set up for us!

Puppy Growth

This is Astrid sitting next to the same tree 2 months apart.  It shows the rapid growth of a puppy!  No wonder she naps so much!

SIP Lake Trip

We waited for the SIP to lift a little before heading to the cabin but headed up this week and did a Don Pedro trip to get out a little.    It is the perfect distancing activity since people are on their own boats.

The day started with drama when I opened the door to front of the boat (where Astrid is laying in the pic below) and she walked right off the end of the boat and sunk like a rock into the lake.   I screamed and Grace jumped in to save her.  She was scared but recovered quickly.   But she wasn't interested in swimming the rest of the day!

Astrid watching the world go by

There was drama later in the day too - when Ahi gave Astrid "a what for" and Astrid cried about it for 30 seconds!  It was a rough puppy day!

Astrid learning to use the dog ramp

Drew and his buddies came out to test out all the work that they have been doing on his boat.  We were there on standby to rescue them if they sank.  Luckily all worked well.

Astrid and Oakley - two beauty queens

Ween drying off after a swim to shore to go potty

Astrid practicing "bed" on the boat

Hops takes a well deserved rest after swimming

G swimming Astrid to shore so she could go "hurry".  She held on tight to G and did not want to swim on her own.

New Family Heirloom

I had a new ring designed and made from the stone out of the ring that I bought when Drew was born.  It is a blue topaz and is his birthstone.   It was in a setting that I no longer enjoyed, so I had a friend design me something new.  This video shows the outcome.   I love it!

SIP Pack

I guess if I have to shelter in place, this is a pretty good pack to hang out with.   We did a very early morning hike today and stopped to take this shot of everyone enjoying their morning.  This was the best that Astrid has done on a long walk/hike.  She usually starts losing it about a mile and a half in but not this time.  She stayed focused and walked nicely almost the whole way.

Beehive check

Did a quick check today to see if we need to add a super (another box for the bees to make honey in). The decision was to wait because this box is not built out enough but they are still doing very well.  The white part at the top for the frames is capped honey and the yellow part is capped brood - which is baby bees.

We looked and looked trying to find the queen but still haven't spotted her.   It's like "Where's Waldo" with bees.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I am a big fan of pineapple upside down cake.   And during SIP, it was finally time to put it in our baking rotation.  And - since we were doing a supply run to Jim's folks, I made them a gluten free pineapple upside down cake.   We usually try to bring some kind of home made gluten free treat to bring some joy to Anna who misses out on the sweets they offer in their dining room.

The next day, Roy called to say thank you for the cake and then Anna explained that they loved it and immediately put whipped cream on it which is how Roy's grandmother served it.

I had never had it with whipped cream and immediately tried it to see if Drew and Grace's great great grandmother was onto something.....she was!  It is delicious! And from now on, I will put whipped cream on my pineapple upside down cake and think of Roy's grandmother.

Sock Puppet

In order to stay connected, my team at work does a "Daily Activity" over slack.  Sometimes it's a riddle, sometimes it's questions such as "what was your first job" and sometimes it's just random stuff. Each person gets to pick the activity one day a week.  My days are Mondays.   On Thursday last week, I told the team I was going to post the Monday activity on Friday so they had the weekend to work on it.   That led to a lot of mystery and build up!   On Friday I posted:

Monday’s Daily Activity is to... make a sock puppet!  

   B Bonus points for a sock puppet of your likeness or a sock puppet with a backstory. 

If this activity brings stress or you don’t have socks (or other necessary craft supplies), you can:  

• opt out
• share a sock puppet meme or video
• draw a picture of your ideal sock puppet
• critique the other’s creations
• advise the team on the history of sock puppets

Introducing my sock puppet, Princess Consuelo Banana Hammock.   She is the Princess of Bliss Land.   This is a place where there is only happiness and joy and where there is no scarcity of TP, Pepcid, meat or tofu.  The people are always kind and helpful and the environment is full of honey bees, flowers and Labradors.

Surprise!

I have been ordering Jim's folks most of their supplies online and having them delivered to their apartment since they are on lock down.   It their latest order, I surprised them and added TWO bags of M&Ms!   They were so happy that they each got their own bowl and started eating them!

SIP Hike

We went on our second shelter in place hike today.  Boy, does it feel good to get out.   We went early in the morning, in the middle of the week to avoid people.   We hiked for an hour and 25 minutes and saw tons of insects and wildflowers....it was so good for my soul!

I do have a mask for when we pass people on the trail.  You can't be too careful.

Mama Beardie

Tre is at it again....she laid another clutch of eggs!   This time she spent over a week digging and then went into her hut and laid 26 eggs!

This is her immediately after laying the eggs.  She looked really beat up this time.  I can't imagine how hard it is on her body to lay 50 eggs in a few weeks time.

Cake for Friends

I received this recipe from a friend who I worked with for about 16 years!  She is the kindest and most gentle woman!  I appreciate her friendship even though we don't work together anymore and only get to see each other a few times a year.  Thanks, Lisa L!

Cake For Friends

Ingredients:

1.5 cups sifted flour

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup cold water

1. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar, and salt into a greased square cake pan (9 x 9 x 2 inches)

2. Make 3 grooves/holes in the dry mixture

3. In one hole, pour oil; in the next, the vinegar; into the next, the vanilla

4. Now pour the cold water over it all

5. Beat with a spoon until smooth and you can't see the flour

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

The Tale of Three Pairs of Shoes

This is a weird one....get ready.

On Saturday morning at 6 am, Jim went out to hunt....hunt for toilet paper which has been so elusive during Covid19.  When leaving the house, he stopped on the porch to notice a box of 3 pairs of black men's dress shoes.  We looked at them using a wipe to hold them because we had no idea where they came from.   We did not recognize them, nor were we expecting them.  There was a lot of head scratching wondering what the story was but in the end we decided to leave them there in case someone realized they left them at the wrong house.

On Sunday evening when the shoes were still there, we decided to check the video camera to determine if we could see who left them there.  See the video still above.  At 2:20 am this dude came to the door with what looked like a key.  He seemed perplexed by the key pad although he appeared to try it a couple times.  After a number of minutes, he decided to just leave the shoes and put them in a box that was already there.  He walked away, came back a few minutes later and looked again and then left for good.

We didn't get a video of any car he might have come in because he did not park at the end of the driveway.

The mystery remains....and the shoes remain on the porch....

Astrid - 4 months

We have had Astrid half her life now!  She is getting to be a big girl and even has two big girl front teeth!  But she also has one big girl tooth that is coming in BEHIND a baby tooth so that both are in the same spot.  That's a first for me - I have never seen that happen.   We are watching it closely although there is not much we can do with vet's only seeing emergencies.

Big girl teeth!

We train her every day all day long.  We are always working on something.  Highlights right now include the up command where she puts her front feet on something raised.  We do it on steps, on brick walls while walking and on a tool box of Jims.  We also constantly work on "bed", "down", "wait at a threshold", "wait for your food", "kennel", "under", "drop", "dress" (put on her gentle leader and cape)...

One problem we are having is when she gets excited she jumps on the couch, runs all along it and leaps off the other end!

Aretha Update

Hops watching us check the hive

On day three we checked the hive to make sure Aretha had been released for the queen cage.   She had been and the bees were super active so we are assuming she is in the hive looking to lay eggs.

Here is the empty queen cage and below you can see the hole that contained the marshmallow.  Next up - in a few days, we will open the hive and see if we can find her and see how much work they have done in building the comb.   We have been watching closely and there are bees coming in all day with full pollen baskets.  I have asked Grace to take some pics of the pollen baskets with her good camera, so stand by!

Puppy Yoga

I get up every morning and do yoga.  I also get up every morning to take the early morning shift with the puppy.  So....I do yoga with a 4 month old puppy.   She LOVES it!   When I take out my yoga mat she gets all excited, runs and gets a toy or a bone and lays down on the mat.

It is very sweet but it is also very difficult to do yoga around a pup.

This morning was classic:

• While doing a supine twist, she came and nuzzled up in my arm pit while chewing a bone
• While doing child's pose, she stood on my back
• While doing warrior 2 I had to go stop her from eating a laundry basket
• While doing dancer pose she leaned against the one leg I was standing on
• While doing savasana, I had to stop to take a plastic eye out of her mouth 

My focus that I usually have with yoga has not been on point.....put the joy I get from it is an all time high with the addition of my puppy partner.

Polish Kołaczki

This SIP situation is going to be difficult to recover from based on the added weight our bodies will be carrying.  This was our latest sweet snack - Polish Kolaczki - which is a cream cheese dough cookie.  We used lemon curd, apricot jam, raspberry jam and this crazy yummy peach/vanilla jam.  So delish!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
• 12 ounces butter (room temperature)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 28 ounces filling (raspberry, apricot, prune, etc.)
• Garnish: powdered sugar for dusting (we skipped this)

Mix cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy (use a kitchen aid mixer).  Add flour.  Roll out into 1/4 inch thickness.  Use a mixture of sugar and powdered sugar to roll out the dough. Cut in 2 inch squares.  Drop 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of jelly in the center and fold over, pinching closed.

Bale at 350 for 14 minutes.  Use parchment paper.