Bees, Dock, & Shore Station

                                               June 2015

Shortly after we arrived, as I walked around our house, I notice a swarm of bees. I told Joe about it and told him he needed to call a exterminator. So what does my husband do, but grab a can of wasp killer and goes into "killer mode". Being unsuccessful after a few days he ask our contractor of a name of a exterminator. Our contractor takes a look at them and tells Joe they are honey bees, and he should call bee keepers and they might be able to extracted the hive without killing them.

That day I noticed them congregated on the chimney.

There were thousands of them on the chimney. ( Later I was told this is called bearding- they do this to cool down) Here is some info I found on the internet about  bee bearding:
It's called bearding, as the bees seem to form a fuzzy beard on the hive and hang out in a cluster. Almost all of the time this is totally normal, and even a good sign. You will see this in strong colonies as the population is at its height and as the bees are storing and ripening honey at a blinding pace. To keep the honey at correct temperature and allow for airflow in the hive, a small to large number of adult bees will hang out in the front, helping the internal temperature to stay cool. You might even see some fanning of their wings, pushing air into the hive on the hottest days.

Meanwhile that day, our dock was being put in.

On our side of the lake, our water gets deep pretty fast, so the docks don't have to be too long. Joe says that is good, because it cost $20 per section to be put in and out per season. I think we have 7 to 8 sections out this year. Two sections are still on the bank. 
Later I asked Joe if  he had heard from any of the bee keepers he had called. He said no, and it was frustrating him that no one was calling him back. I asked if he had seen all the bees on the chimney, and he said yes, and since no one called him back he had sprayed them. I said, "You did what? How could you do that when you know they are honey bees, and they are important to the production of our food". I will let Joe tell his response when he proof reads this blog.  This is Joe, the reason I killed all the bees, is that I saw an opportunity to kill a lot of bees that might have posed a problem to our living in a big way at one time, I'm sorry but I'm not a bee lover, wasp or honey bee.

I went out to see what my murdering husband had done. Thousands of bees dead in the grass! I was so mad at him, and he heard it throughout the day. I am sure he had wished he had not done that, because I ragged on him the rest of the day! There were still bees flying around, so I called the extension service and found some bee keepers myself.

The next day, a bee keeper couple came to see if they could help. They checked the attic to see if the hive was there, but it wasn't

Then the bee keeper husband and our contractor took off some of the roof singles and couldn't find them in the soffit. They decided the bees had got in a crack in the chimney and there was no way to get them out alive. Joe called an exterminator after all. He felt better about being a bee murder now. One interesting facted I learned from the bee keepers is that all the worker bees are females. Doesn't that just make sense. So Joe killed all female bees. All the male bees do, is scout out for new places to build a hive.

Mallery is really enjoying her walks down the alley, and enjoys our neighbor Mindy's yard. She is enjoying the stability too I think.

I am enjoying Mindy's flowers. Mindy and Larry live in Flint, MI and are here off and on through out the summer.

We had about 10 trees taken down on our property, but couldn't decide on one of the maple trees down by the lake. Joe wanted it down, and I liked it because it is beautiful in the fall. We decide to have both of the maples trimmed up much higher, giving us better lake views. Our tree trimmer, Carl, came back to trim our last tree, instead of cutting it down.

Carl left with our view being much improved and my maple tree still intact. Our new "used" boat lift showed up from East Jordon, after Carl left.

There was a crew of 4 guys to get the shore station in the water. Joe was down there supervising.

We have a small spot that is not rocky along our shore where the shore station can be muscled into the water. Then it was floated over to the dock on the blue barrels.

While the shore station was going in, Mallery reminded me that it was time for her 4PM apple snack. She always like this time of the day when she gets an 1/8 of my apple.

Because we didn't have a car or truck that could pull our boat out of our shed, Joe asked the business owner of Swan Valley Marina in East Jordon, who he bought our shore station from, if he would pull our boat out of the shed and down to the marina, 2 miles down the road. He was so kind to help us out and even drove the boat from the marina to and on the shore station, as Joe rode along. He gave Joe instructions on how to operate the shore station and how to dock the boat onto it.The shore station is run on hydraulics power by a solar battery.

Dock in, shore station in, and boat on the lift. All is well in Joe's mind now. He is a happy camper, or should I say, Happy "Lake Home Owner" now.

It's not the biggest boat on the lake by any means, but it is a boat that works for us. Joe is happy with his boat,

Mallery's happy with her yard, and I am happy to be in one place and to have a home that has a little more room.

The weather changes very quickly here. You can have rain in the morning, sun in the afternoon, and fog in the evening.

This guy is not giving up his fishing, even in the fog.

This evening it was so foggy, you could barely see across the lake.