Sunshine Yellow.... Yuck!

This morning my mom came over and helped us paint our living room.  Aaron and I had picked out a pale yellow color from home depot.  After one stroke on the wall I hated it, it looks like the sun blew up in my living room.  Aaron liked it so we kept painting, and finished the room.  Mom said it might look better after it dries and so we accepted it.  After coming home tonight the verdict is in, it is horrible.  After talking to mom, who agrees the color is to bright we decided to re-paint the room.  I went to home depot tonight and bought more paint, this time a neutral sandstone color, something I can live with.  So mom will be making another visit to help repaint the room and hopefully Aaron likes it because he liked the yellow (seriously the room looked like a day care, all it was missing was some children's mural).

Other News:

Health Front:  Still no clear diagnosis.  colonoscopy didn't shed any new light.  But I'm feeling ok lately.

Bees:  Aaron declared that today was bee day, so he left this afternoon with Nate and John to do bee stuff and attempt grafting queens again.

House:  Well the walls are an ugly yellow at the moment, but we're working on that and the floor is going in soon.

Nothing else to do at 3am

Its 3am, and Im awake downing dry toast and ginger-ale in a desperate attempt to calm my stomach.  So to pass the time I'll update the blog.

Gardening Frontier:  The garden is doing well, we have tomatoes.  They are still green, but we're looking forward to eating our veggies soon.  We are having a serious mosquito problem which added with my frequent fatigue is making the weeding a challenge.  I always start with the tomatoes b/c they are my favorite plants right now and then I usually get 3 rows in before having to go inside, which means the last three rows have more weeds than veggie plants.   But we're still loving the garden, and from now on I will force myself to weed the other side of the garden.

Construction:  We are ready to install the new floor, now we just need to buy it so we can get started.  Hopefully it will be in before July.

Bees:  Aaron's first attempt at grafting larvae and rearing queens was a bust.  Originally he thought 8/13 grafts took, but it turns out the bees were just building comb and not developing the queen cells (a cell in the comb that the queen larvae grows in).  He was sad, but knowing Aaron he will master queen rearing very soon.  There is a strong nectar flow in CT right now and the bees are making lots of honey.  

Things will be slow this week since Im going to be out of commission part of tue and all of wed.  Im really looking forward to Thursday, the day I get to refill my belly/colon with yummy foods :)

Casserole Success!

Well I made the casserole yesterday, the recipe made 3-8x8 pan casseroles which I froze.  Today I thawed one and baked it according to the directions.  I added bread crumbs to the top before baking it b/c I thought it would add a nice crunchy texture.  It took the entire 30 mins to cook in our oven.  I did a taste test, alittle scared b/c it smelled yucky when I was making it, but to my surprise it is delicious!  In the future I may add alittle more chicken and alittle more broccoli.

One another note.  About this time last year, right after we seeded our new lawn a turtle decided to dig up the cool dirt and lay her eggs.  I was at school that day but my Dad was at the house doing the usual construction.  He called me at school and took a picture with his phone to show me when I got home.  He was so excited about it and thought it was so funny that the turtle dug up our grass seed.  Seeing the turtle again today was such a blessing, it brought that memory of my father to me, which otherwise I think I would have forgotten.  The poor turtle didn't lay any eggs today, probably because we were taking her picture and aaron kept trying to move her along with a stick. (sorry for the bad picture)

On a sad note, Aaron killed my rhubarb.  A couple weeks ago I noticed all my raspberry bushes were dying.  He had sprayed them with weed killer thinking they were pricker bushes.  Well today I noticed all my rhubarb (minus 1 plant) was also dying.  He wanted to spray the prickers and weed growing on the fence in the back yard, which my rhubarb grows beneath.  So sadly, the rhubarb is now dying.  A few tears were shed, but oh well.  In the future I'm not letting Aaron buy weed killer.  

 Dying plant :(

The only living plant left after hurricane Aaron.

The living room floor is being planed today, which is very loud.  I tried to take a nap in the camp chairs out in the shade of the garage, but aaron was using his saw which isn't any better than the planer.  My body is exhausted, especially my legs and hips and eye lids.  It doesn't help that my stomach has been keeping me awake at night.  I see a very long afternoon nap in the air conditioned bedroom coming very soon.  And Im happy to report I haven't fallen since Friday :)  I just might be getting better.

Photo Update

 Living room construction.  Its coming along very nicely thanks to good/talented friends.  If anyone needs work done we can recommend people.  These pictures are after the gutting, reframing, insulating, plumbing, electrical, hanging the new sheet rock, taping and mudding, new windows, and the floor being tore out.

 This is our new bay window that we got for free!  We love it.

 Another view of the living room.  That space under the stairs is currently open to the basement.  Im hoping to build shelves into the new stairs.

 This is the 100 year old floor.  It has lots of nots so we need to plane the floor before we continue.

 This is the 50 year old floor on the other half of the room which we think was an addition.  The house stayed in one family until we bought it, and they had a bad habit of painting around their rugs.

 The new front door.  It is really pretty, these pics don't show it well.

 outside bay window.

 The view of the field from the front door.  It you look hard you can see the bee hives (small white boxes) way down there in the back.

 Where the 50 yr old and 100 yr old floor meet.

 The missing bathroom wall.  Im standing in the kitchen looking into the bathroom, so sad.

 Here Im in the kitchen looking into the bathroom on the left and the living room on the right (and FYI these pics are taken with my web cam so they are mirror images (aka backward).

 Kitchen ceiling by the bathroom.

 our new plumbing.

 more plumbing

 which required us to put a hole in the kitchen/bathroom floor, so I can see into the basement from kitchen as well.

Front door again.

This is the bruise from my fall on Friday.  There is another small one on my arm which got caught in the railing and a third small one on my knee from my fall on either wed or thursday.  Luckily I am a quick healer.

Aaron mixing up a 50% Formic Acid treatment for the bees to keep them healthy!  He is out in the garage playing scientist, calculating solution and what not.

The solar wax melter.  We have enough wax for 4 candles now, but aaron wants us to wait till we have more before we start making any candles.  Although it looks ugly here the wax is a beautiful bright yellow.

Aaron's tomato plant.  He wanted one of his own to try the worm compost material one.

The Garden.

Tomatoes 

and peppers...

more tomatoes

and cherry tomatoes

and more peppers...

and peas and cucumbers 

more cucumbers

and green beans.

and left overs.  These are a few left over plants still in the egg carton.

Casserole Week

It has finally arrived, the week I learn how to make a casserole.  For my first attempt Im going to try a chicken and broccoli casserole.  I have all of the ingredients and hope to accomplish this after my morning nap if I have the energy.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Ingredients:

1 package of medium-wide egg noodles

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 package of frozen chopped broccoli, thawed

1" thick chunk of Velveeta cheese

2 cans of all white chicken (in water) or cooked shredded chicken breasts (4)

1/2" thick slices of Velveeta

1/2 cup of milk

*Salt and pepper to taste (put in soup mixture)

Steps:

1. Cook noodles according to directions - drain.

2. Mix soup, chicken and milk in saucepan - cook until warmed through.

3. Add Velveeta in chunks - cook until cheese is melted.

4. In a large bowl, combine noodles, soup mixture and broccoli.

5. Pour into a lightly, greased 9x13 baking dish - top with sliced cheese.

6. Place plastic wrap and heavy duty foil on top of dish and freeze.

Serving Day:

1. Thaw dish completely.

2. Uncover dish and bake at 375 degrees for 20 - 30 minutes.

On the Bee Front we have sad news.  Our favorite hive that has been with us for 3 seasons swarmed yesterday.  Aaron had noticed signs of swarming in the hive and thought he had removed all of the swarm cells, but he must have missed one.  There are still bee's in the hive but it is sad to see the population 1/2 of what it was.  I'm sure it will still be a great hive.  In the future if we signs of swarming we are going to split the hive right away instead of trying to manage it.  This is a big week for us as beekeepers.  Our queen's should be emerging around the 9th, we need to split some hives, and aaron needs to treat the bee's for mites.  He will be a busy bee-keeper :)  We're hoping to have at least 11 hives at the end of the season.

On the garden front our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and green beans are all doing great.  I'm still not sure about the peas, they aren't dying but don't seem to be growing.  As for the lettuce it is to soon to tell.  

Humpty Dumpty

Well today I failed to accomplish my to do list.  I woke up with a migraine head ache that kept me in bed till 4pm.  So no crafts, cooking, or sewing.  I then ventured to my parents house to pick up my sewing machine!  I was so excited to go get it and even more excited when I rediscovered all my packed up fabrics and sewing supplies/patterns.  I even found a craft book I bought a few years ago and it is going to be so fun going through it project by project.  The trip was not completed without injury.  I was standing at the top of the garage stairs and fell bruising my rear pretty good and scaring my mother.  Should go nicely with the bruise on my knee from yesterdays fall in the yard.  I need a padded room.

Aaron on the other hand had a very good/productive day.  He woke me up several times to tell me about "aaron stuff".  First he discovered the worlds best smoker fuel (for the bee smoker).  Its corrugated cardboard (which I reminded him a bee keeper told us 2 years ago).  Then there was a series of youtube videos about worm composting.  He is still loving working second shift.

Hormones

Well I had a minor emotional break down at the Doctors office today, I'll blame it on frustration and hormones.  They took me in, 30 mins late, which was upsetting on its own but then I found out that I was in a sleep clinic, not the apt I thought I was going to.  They dont know how the scheduling got messed up and how I ended up there but I just started crying.  So now I have an apt with the correct doctor on July 12, yes I cried more when they told me I had to wait till then.  Im so sick of doctors.  Of course my brain told me a big mac would make me feel better, buy I was good and waited till I got home to make a turkey sandwich.

So what have I been up to?  My garden is coming along nicely!  Which is very exciting.  I also have been working on a sewing project.  Over a year ago Aaron and I thought we would start having a family and I started making the cutest crib bedding.  It is black and yellow themed with florals and geometric shapes.  I made a pillow and started the comforter like blanket but then construction got going, finances got tighter, and my health started playing games and babies became more of a challenge that we'll work on but it may be years from now.  So the project found a home tucked away in a closet.  Well I've taken it out and have been working on it.  The comforter/blanket is almost done.  Im sewing it all by hand which is good b/c other wise I would be done with it all in a day and I need a longer term project.  Who knows, when it is all done maybe I'll pack it up and save it or give it to one of the many pregnant women I know.  The fabrics are so pretty (and gender neutral)! When it is all done I'll take some pictures.

Aaron and I are both loving our new situation.  Im enjoying being home and he is enjoying working 3pm-12 and having a clean house.  This has really increased our amount of quality time 10x.