A front blew through yesterday evening and brought cooling rain to the NEK.
Today our windows are open, a 72° breeze is blowing through the house, and the A/C unit is getting a much deserved breather. And while it appears that the humidity will be sticking around for a while (pun totally intended; you’ll find no pun cowardice here) I’m not going to complain about this:
The snapdragons in Jen’s “Chicken Memorial” Garden” (no, there are no chickens actually buried there) are super happy about all the heat and rain and have decided to bloom again.
And the bees are, well, the bees are still there…angrily whirling and buzzing around the spot where their home used to be.
As I said yesterday, I’m not putting their hive back together only to have a bear smash it over and over again each morning. So I’m afraid the poor bees are suffering their last days in the rain.
It breaks my heart to see them like that. I mean, rationally I know it was just a box full of bugs. But I really did care about my hives, so it’s hard to see them die off like that. Made all the harder because I feel like I didn’t do everything I possibly could’ve to keep them safe. Which means I’m to blame for their current situation. For that, I’m very sorry, girls.
In other news, and other blameworthy events, we did drive out to Whale’s Tale Waterpark yesterday and when we arrived found it to be…closed. Which was a real Griswaldian moment for yours truly.
I circled the parking lot in confusion for a few minutes while Jen Googled the event and found that the party was on Tuesday of this week, not Thursday. So, in addition to being a wholly incompetent apiarist, it seems I am also incapable of reading a date correctly. Go me.
I apologized several times to Daphne, who was sitting in the back seat already wearing her swimsuit, and promised that we would come back another day so she could play at the park. She took the whole thing in stride.
Sigh.
Guess that Father of the Year thing is out then, huh?
That said, if we had gone on Tuesday then we would’ve come home to find our chickens eaten by that fox, since I wouldn’t have been home to chase it away. So I guess that’s a retrospective silver lining?
To make up for said absence of swim time yesterday, Jen and Daph actually left a few moments ago on their way to Lake Willoughby.
I also promised to take Daphne to GetAir! tomorrow in Williston, which is the “big-box suburb” area of Burlington. She absolutely loves that place, and was super excited when we told her about that plan this morning.
I also promised her mother a new dress from April Cornell in Burlington for our Saratoga Springs trip next month, so that’s on the docket for tomorrow too.
Looks like I’ve got some promises to keep (and miles to go before I sleep).
See you next week.
j.s.
Aww, love the Hobbes and Frost allusions.
In 2022 we adopted a Great Pyrenees from a local breed rescue. While he’s had little opportunity to fulfill his role as a livestock guardian he has been a great pet; I will add, though, that he has shown a keen interest in the welfare of our wild bees and has alerted us a couple of times if he finds them in the grass or otherwise not flying or on blooms. I mention this because of your recent predator troubles. Pyr’s are gentle and protective with their wards, including children and fowl, and are absolutely not the least bit afraid of large predators. They’ve been know to chase off bears, wolves, coyotes, wild dogs, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some had stood up to mountain lions.
You know, a Great Pyrenees was actually my first thought. I think you met Jib when you dropped off the Soup of Ages & Rosemary Bread of Legend after Daphne was born; Jib was a Great Pyrenees/Lab/Greyhound gazpacho. (He had that whole double dewclaw thing going.)
The LGD thing would be perfect, except that I’ve heard Pyrenees have a tendency to wander and make their own little fiefdoms/patrol areas. This peccadillo would be problematic since we don’t really have a fence in our yard.
There IS an invisible dog fence, somewhere, that was installed by the former owner of the farm. I still need to call the number on our breaker panel and find out if it’s still hot, where it runs, and how to get a collar that’s, um, attuned? to it. That said, I’m not even sure if it would work on a Pyrenees, given that big lion scruff around their neck…
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