the queen lives

Called the neighbor and he said to check in the hive and see if the queen was alive. He thought maybe the hive wasn't getting enough food, or else one hive was just calmer than the other. We'll they are eating, so I opened the hive last night and looked for the queen, she is there and alive, I was so excited to spot her than I put her right back into the hive, didn't look to see if she is laying eggs, that will have to be next time I open the hive. So it seems that one hive is nicer than the other.

There was ice on the mud puddles this morning, it's suppose to get up to 50 so that will be nice with a little rain. I raked last night, walked the dogs, had a fire in the fire pit to burn the sawdust and bits of wood from cutting wood this winter, usually I can't get a fire going very well, but last night I couldn't get the fire to go out, stayed up past midnight to make sure all was well.

finally did it

This is the white sands area.

Another pic from NM this is the horse that carried my butt on a desert ride.

My bee's seem to be doing OK, one hive is really active and attacks me when I open the top, the other hive I think is not doin so good they don't come out and attack me. The MX that ordered the bees for me was down this way but he didn't have time to come look at them. So now I need to bug my neighbor to come check the hive out.

The other new is I finally did it, I bought a long arm quilting machine. It's not my dream machine that's out of my price range right now. But I did get a brand new machine, that is being shipped to the house in ANC. The lady that sells the machine has a small quilt shop in Copper Landing. I won't get the machine until after our trip to HI, but am excited.

pic from NM

The bees finally arrived Thursday did get them in the hive, not sure how they are doing its been really windy.

I haven't blogged for awhile been missing sleep and stewing lots. But finally going to do it going to buy a long arm quilting machine. So more on that later..ll

bees

been so long since was on this site almost forgot the password. Did that at work changed my password then couldn't remember it the next day. Had to call the IT guys.

The bees were suppose to be hear last Sat, then they said Wed, had my son already to drive the bees down he got to the place and there was a sign on the door said, Thursday, so he stayed in town and hopefully bees will be ready today but I am at work so hope it all works out.

good to be back

Finally got out of ELP at noon, sat in PHX airport til 730pm, got into ANC at 1am, and to SXQ at 4am and back out of bed at 6am to get to work. Good thing its an easy day at work, I am tired, but glad to be back in the clear Alaska air. It was a great visit with my folks, I really enjoyed all the site seeing and eating out, it really is a healthy life style in NM, just to dang hot for me.

what luck?

After the weather yesterday in El Paso, this was the view this morning from the hotel window. That should be a picture of Mexico. Last night on the way to the hotel the van driver had a good idea for how to spend the day in El Paso, I checked out of the hotel, left my bag with them, the van took me to the mall where I wandered around for 3 hours. It was very busy in the mall, school was closed to day, and people were out shopping for Easter. I really thought I was in a foreign country. I was the tallest, whitest person in the mall, and I didn't know what anybody was saying because I didn't hear any English. The little kids were staring at me. It was a good way to spend extra hours before I had to go to the airport. So got to the airport, and was waiting at the gate for the airplane which landed. It was the later activities that had reason for consern. The copilot walked around the plane and looked at one of the engines really long. He then went and got the captain who also looked at the engine. The ramper parked the bag cart by the belt loader, but didn't put any bags on the loader. Then all those people started pointing and talking. The captain and copilot went back inside the plane, the rampers all looked at the engine and then drove the bag cart away. The captain came out with a piece of paper and had the ramper put the belt loader up to the engine, he then climbed into the engine. The ticket agent and some important looking guy all went out and looked. The ticket agent then announced that the engine had ingestested something and that plane wasn't going any where so please go back down to the check in desk and get rebooked. So bottom line is instead of being on my way home, I am once again in a hotel room in El Paso. I have no more clean clothes so going to sink wash some clothes. I am going to try for a earlier flight tomorrow and sit in PHX airport instead of ELP for most of the day.

new mexico trip

If you see some grass like this at the white sands it isn't really grass
Move to another area and there will be a little bit more showing out of the sand
Look to another area and that is what the grass really is, the top of a cactus.

I had a wonderful visit with my folks in New Mexico the adventure is not over yet. The weather was not good at the El Paso airport when it was time for the plane to land the wind was blowing about 50 mph there was lots of dust in the air, so the airlines cancelled the flight. There were lots of unhappy people as the flight was over sold. Working for an airlines for all those years it was understandable for me. Rather be safe. So my trip was extened by a day. I am spending the night in El Paso TX, looking out the hotel window at the many lights of Mexico.

On my trip I got to go to the white sand, the area is very interesting. Went on a very long horse ride, there is a local place that takes people on rides, it was just me and a cowboy, the ride was suppose to be for 2 hours but we decided to go off road with the horse and checked out some amazing desert country. I was so surprised at the things we saw, there was a waterfall, some old tailing where some one had been mining. The horse I rode was very carefully with his steps and liked to pick his own way, he did try to knock me off a couple times and I got scratched on the face and arm, but I managed to hang on and not fall off. Had a great ride for 3 1/2 hours. We also took a drive up to the mountains to a Indian Reservation casino, they have a great view of Sierra Blanca a snow capped mountain and a good buffet. Drove to another town in the mountains that got 130 inches of snow this winter and the average is about 8 or 12 inches a year. The ski resort stayed open all winter long and just closed last weekend. We went out to eat at many neat places, there is great art work to be seen.