A Birthday

As part of Shannon's birthday celebrations, we held a croquet tournament in the backyard. Earlier in the day, Peter and Brian had decided that, in order to make the game more challenging, they would mow a course into the grass. The result? A putting green-short grass serpentine with piles of clippings as "rough". Bruce was...interested in this turn of events.

We played a competitive game with our 1950's era croquet set. It's seen better days. Some of the mallets are losing their rubber ends, while other heads go flying, separated from their sticks. I can't imagine playing with any other set.

After a somewhat slow start, Lindsey- in her usual I Win Every Game fashion- came from behind and relished her victory.

As a side note, after the lawn was mowed today I see that the serpentine of short grass will need a few weeks to grow before it disappears. I'll probably miss it.

The SWARM

It's time for another update on the backyard beehive, considering the developments of last Saturday. Our bees SWARMED! Apparently, the wise beekeeper says that our hive was so healthy, and so many new baby bees had been born, that most of the bees opted for larger digs. They took their queen and left. They didn't go far, just about 20 feet down the fence line and into the neighbor's lilac bush.

This was disconcerting for both ourselves and said neighbor. An emergency call was placed to the beekeeper and he came right over. To SUCK up the bees with a vacuum!

He's made a special vacuum for just such occasions. So away he went, assuring us that the bees are very docile when they swarm.He was only stung 3 times. After sucking, he emptied the canister into a special box, doused with pharamones to lure and contain the free-thinking bees. Look at them swarm around him!

Brian and Peter watched from a safe distance.

Containment was achieved! Then it was time to check out the original hive.

The beekeeper says there is no queen in our hive right now, but there are special queen eggs that are being fed special food from the other bees and will eventually produce a new queen. Pretty interesting. In the mean time, the home loving bees that didn't split will continue with their jobs of collecting pollen and making honey. Here's to hoping that there will be no more swarming!

Tea Cup Bird Feeder

This is what I made for my moms for Mother's Day this year:

I haven't given my mom hers yet, but since she doesn't look at my blog, (something about Satan and letting people know all of the details of my life), I'm pretty safe if you can all keep a secret until I see her next.

I saw these last year when we were in the cute tourist town of Julian, California and I loved them. But, being me, I said to myself, "I can make that!", then promptly forgot about these cute bird feeders. A few months ago I saw directions on how to make them on the Interweb and voila! Cute Mother's Day gifts!

I found these Franciscan Desert Rose cup and saucers at an antique store. They remind me of when I worked in the china department at ZCMI and people bought this pattern by the crate full. All you need to make these is epoxy glue, sandpaper and copper tubing. If you want to make some yourself, here's a link with directions: http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/homemade-bird-feeder-from-vintage-teacups-diy-wedding-favors-gifts/

I'll be looking for cups and saucers during my travels to make a few for myself!

Mother's Day Sunday Saying

I don't know about you, but this describes my family perfectly:

 

Happy Mother's Day to you moms!

The Great Outdoors

 Simply put, I like to take pictures outdoors. End of story. Here are a few from last weekend's horse show:

 I love these. We've got a little mother here, helping her friend get that horse show hair just right:

Shannon and I were blessed to never have a white horse. Those who know me well would know that I would be a fanatic white horse cleaner. Kind of like my friend here:

 I love my barn girls, and they humor me and tell me that I'm their favorite ginger.

Back Again...

I'm back from my little vacation from blogging! (Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?!) Honestly, not too much has been going on, but that changed over the weekend with a horse show. Yes, I know, my first blog in a while and it's horse show pictures. Sorry about that.

It was an indoor show, which is always a challenge, because I don't use a flash with my camera. The last thing I want is for some diva rider to blame a bad ride on me! I make do, but the pictures are not ideal. I end up editing them quite a bit when I get home. I max out the ISO on my camera, but I need to have my shutter speed at 250 at least to stop motion. That means somewhat dark and grainy pictures. Pictures of white and grey horses turn out better than darker horses, as you can see:

A light horse group:

The dark horse group:

Kiwi falls into the Horse of a Different Color Group:

Still, I think the riders at my barn can analyze their rides by looking at my dark and grainy pictures and that might help them at the next show.

I realized that if I wanted any really good pictures at all at this show, then I should be spending more time in the barn catching candid moments and in the outside warm up ring getting up close and personal. I'll show you those pictures tomorrow. It's good to be back!

How Far...

New month, new bulletin board at the church. Last month's missionary board was super successful- parents were taking pictures of it to e-mail to their missionaries. This month's is about the temple.

 Since our temple is closed for the foreseeable future, at least 2 more years from what I hear, I put up a board about how close the other temples in our area are. I even included drive times and mileage. 

What did I learn? That my house is smack in the middle between the Logan Temple and the Draper Temple, and that there are 6 temples within about an hour's drive time from here.

Maybe people who see my board will want to go to the temple more or try a new temple to visit. Who knows?