Halloween Quilt

Almost finished for Halloween - need to finish the binding and take out all the pins. It started as a panel and I added the squares around each block and the piano key border. Used lots of scraps from my stash.


I love this quilt!
















HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hollywood Squares

Hollywood Squares: These great questions and answers are from the days when ' Hollywood Squares' game show responses were spontaneous, not scripted, as they are now. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course . . .

Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?

A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark..

Q. Do female frogs croak?

A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?

A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?

A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?

A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?

A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.

Folk Art Bugs

At an auction Saturday night, I bought these folk art bugs. They're signed by Tim or Jim Out '05 .

The large bug is about 30" in length, about 9" wide - the smaller bug is about 26-28", about 4" height, they're solid wood and the colors are still great.

Not sure where they're going - there's a hole in the back for hanging but just great pieces.

FInally - Checking the Bees

I'm so far behind this year and lax in my beekeeping but yesterday I checked all my hives. Did a little rearranging and will look again in a couple of weeks and do some more rearranging. They are busy and bringing in pollen. Lots of bees and thank goodness - lots of food in the hives.

I had ants in the hives - the bees don't seem to mind and I'll put some more used motor oil around the bottom of the hives to keep those little critters out.

There were some hive beetles but not enough to be concerned about. Just a few at the top of a couple of the hives.

Nuc #1 has the least amount of activity of any of the hives and I was concerned there were some problems in the hive. They were full of bees and doing fine. When you open a hive, you just never know what you'll find.

Nuc #2 - a different cover was put on top - there was a little moisture in the top of this hive so there might have been a little leakage. Also this hive had three brood boxes and a super - combined two of the brood boxes and put the bottom on top and the super in the middle.

Hive #4 and the Swarm hive were fine - nothing was changed on those hives.

Vanishing Animals

The Mini Page in Monday's News and Observer was about Mysterious Disappearances -Vanishing Animals. The case of the vanishing honeybees was the main focus of the article. Experts believe the varroa mite, pesticides, global warming, many viruses hitting at once and modern beekeeping practices may be adding to the problems honey bees are experiencing.

Experts say honeybees help us grow about one-third of our food. We cannot grow many crops without them, including nuts, berries, fruits and many veggies, such as cucumbers, pumpkins and broccoli. Almonds depend on honeybees for pollination. In California, almond growers need 1.3 million colonies of bees - that's over half of all the honeybees in the US.

Some experts believe moving the colonies around the country just wear out the bees. In our area, some beekeepers move their hives but not me -- those girls are fine just were they are. I've never been a mover and neither are my bees.

Barnstorming

This is my next "big" project. Painting a quilt pattern on a large board and hanging it on my barn. In Sunday's N&O there's an article in the Arts & Living Section about the nearly 300 blocks that are on barns in Ashe, Avery, Madison, Mitchell, Yancey and Watagua counties.

This is the Rising Star pattern with a sawtooth border located in Creston, NC.

http://www.newsobserver.com/life/story/144564.html

Quilting Bee Quilts

Saturday was our quilting bee meeting and we had lots of "Show and Tell".

Lily and Missy

Two of my little girls - doing what they do best - sleeping!

And Buddy's sleeping in the pantry in the bottled water box - don't ask why - I'll just tell you he's into everything and anything possible.

Roxy is around but she doesn't like having her photo taken - she's still a little miffed that we have those kittens.

To Be a Bee

Q: Can honeybees see colors?

A: Honeybees can sense colors ranging from yellow and green to blue and ultraviolet. They can also detect an ultraviolet-yellow combination named "bee purple". The bees can't see red - it would appear black to them.

Low Country

I've been in the Low Country and I'll just tell you - it was wonderful. The weather was almost perfect - the "no see um's" were a little irritating but other than that - wonderful!

Bee Alarm Pheromone - Bananas

You know when you're stung by a bee, they send out a "little alarm signal" to the other bees basically saying "go get that person".

Did you know the alarm pheromone smells a bit like a banana!

FYI - I learned this little tidbit from a bug professor at NCSU during a very, very dull bug slide presentation.

Birdhouse Gourds

I noticed the vine on the fence but wasn't sure what they were - sometimes you never know what'll show up in the garden.

These birdhouse gourds just popped up on the fence in the garden.












There's only two big ones - lots of little ones but don't know how big they'll get before cold weather gets here.

Beeyard - October

Full Harvest Moon

The harvest moon is the moon at and about the period of fullness that is nearest to the autumnal equinox. The Harvest moon is often mistaken for the modern day Hunter's Moon. In the legend of the Harvest moon, it is said that all full moons have their own special characteristics based primarily on the whereabouts of the ecliptic in the sky at the time of year that these moons are visible. The full moons of September, October and November as seen from the northern hemisphere — which correspond to the full moons of March, April and May as seen from the southern hemisphere — are well known in the folklore of the sky. All full moons rise around the time of sunset. However, although in general the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, as it moves in orbit around Earth, the Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon are special, because the moon rises approximately 30 minutes later, from one night to the next. Thus there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise around the time following these full moons. In times past this feature of these autumn moons was said to help farmers working to bring in their crops (or, in the case of the Hunter's Moon, hunters tracking their prey). They could continue being productive by moonlight even after the sun had set. Hence the name Harvest Moon.

Horsetail

This is horsetail or scouring rush plant planted beside the new pond - it's quite a striking plant. I got some from a friend and I think it's gonna do Horsetail is one of those plants that is ideal for naturalizing or as some folks say "it will take over". Horsetail consists of many reed-like, segmented green tubes that grow straight up to a height of four feet. Attractive black and gray bands are found at both ends of each segment. It is thought that giant horsetail trees, reaching a height of more than ten feet, lived at the time of the dinosaurs and were grazed by vegetarian dinosaur species. No plant is more concentrated in silica than horsetail. It was used by the pioneers for scouring their pots and polishing their pewter. Even today, campers looking for a way to clean their cooking utensils grab fistfuls of horsetail, which is often found growing next to streams, to do the job. The silica in horsetail is highly soluble in the fluids of wounds and has been using to stop bleeding and heal broken bones. Horsetail extract is also found in herbal products that are recommended for people suffering from incontinence or high cholesterol.

New Pond

This is the new pond today - it's full of water hyacinths and there's four fish and some snails. It's turned out really well.

I'll say it now - digging that hole was hard work - I must have been a little over the top when I decided to put in another pond.

One Egg !!!!!

Yesterday was the first day since the chickens started laying that I've only gotten ONE EGG!

This is what they were doing this afternoon - those girls were getting their "feathers done".

Henny Penny laid the only egg and then I cracked the darn thing so today was a complete egg loss day.