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For the past five or more years, our house hosted a next of honeybees. They had taken up residence inside the siding and wall of the house at the base of the balcony on the upper story on the back of the house. Given the threat to bees from sudden death and disappearing colonies syndromes, we did not want to kill them.

They were so healthy over the years that in May, 2008, they spawned two distinct and separate swarms over a period of three days, swarms which after organizing and talking it over, set out to create new colonies. Leaving at the time a continuing healthy colony in the wall of our house.

Several times over the years we invited bee keepers out to examine the situation. We offered them the bees, if they would climb up to the base of the third story and pry them out of the wall. Interestingly enough, all never called back to carry through. What could possibly be an issue with hanging onto a ladder three stories above the ground trying to pry a bunch of bees out of their home inside the nice, safe wall of a house, right?

This Spring, as the weather warmed up during April, 2010, giving us days in the 70’s and even hitting 80 a couple of times, we observed that there was no activity from the nest. There was no stream of bees in and out of the side of the house, gearing up for another season’s business.

We contacted a local company that does siding installation and repair, and today they came out, climbed up their ladders, and after very carefully reconnoitering and prying up the edge of the siding and venting under the overhang, and discovering only a few remaining dead bees, they proceeded to open up the venting under the protruding joists, and to remove not only handfuls of dead bees, but the assortment of honeycomb in the pictures below.

Obviously, the older generation comb is the black, and the more recent the light “honey” colored comb pieces. All were empty of any honey, and clearly had been cleared out by the departing colony as they left.

Needless to say, in a world that needs their work to pollinate the plants and trees that grow much of the food we eat, we wish them well. Especially in a home somewhere other than in the interior of the walls and joists of our house. The guys who did the cleanup and repair reported no evidence of damage to wood and siding, and they sealed up all along the edges and corners the bees had used as their entrances, just to discourage any future tenants.

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The last two pictures I took before the last of the snows melted were the two below. We noticed the woodpecker, a Downy or Hairy, hanging onto the rail, and not moving. After a couple of minutes, we became concerned, because even though we were moving behind the glass doors, enough usually to startle any birds feeding on the upper deck, this bird was absolutely immobile.

I got the camera out and got the two photos. Finally I got right up to the glass and moved my hand. At that point, he moved, and flew away.

We were just glad he was OK, not injured or ill. Maybe he was just posing for the camera.

This winter for the first time in several years we enjoyed doing a couple of large, complex crossword puzzles. We devoted the dining room table to this. Over Christmas and finishing up for New Years, we did a 1,000 piece puzzle of a New England water mill. Then we did a 1,200 piece puzzle of a beautiful snow clad, wintery Schloss Neuschawnstein in Bavaria, southern Germany. Both were difficult, but a lot of fun. If you are into complex pattern recognition practice, this is a great way to spend some time during the short and dark days and longer nights of winter.

We had tilled and prepared about half the backyard vegetable garden, with added peat moss, composted manure, and some 10-10-10 fertilizer, last Fall, before cold and wet weather set in. For the past three weekends this Spring, we finished up with final tilling of the upper part (on the left of the first photo below), and on Saturday, March 27, we planted four kinds of cabbage, kale, collards, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower, some of the cold weather plants from seedlings. Since then, we have finished the two of the three newer beds, the one to the right and down in the second photo below, which will be the expanded herb garden, and the leftmost of the two smaller plots in the upper part of the second photo. The smaller one at top of the photo will be planted with okra this year. Okra is always the last thing to plant, well after last frost, it wants the soil temperature to be very warm, or it will not sprout.

We are going to take a picture every day or so of the garden this year until end of season, to document its progress, and, we hope of course, success.

Last year we expanded till the total area was about 1,400 or more square feet. This year, it is probably somewhere between 1,500 and 1,600 square feet.

The pictures are from left to right, taken from the upper deck.

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Two snow storms swept through Indiana in February. These storms dumped up to three feet of snow on the east coast. Washington, D.C. had “storm of the century” snowfalls. Here in South Central Indiana, the first wave was about four inches, the second wave dumped about  seven inches on us. Here are some pictures from the February snows in Indiana. The bird shots are from the first wave, the rest of the photos are from the larger second round.

Red Bellied Woodpecker at the feeder on upper deck

Two male cardinals taking turns at the feeder.

The house and drive after two rounds of shoveling snow. We did one sweep after the first three inches, then another when the main wave was past. At this point there was about 5.5 - 6 inches accumulation. Another inch fell during the following night.

Bucky, our part Maine Coon cat, was made for this weather.

The Red Flamingo that watches over the garden in summer looking somewhat cold and forlorn. Bales of peat in the background. We got half the garden tilled and prepared, but bad weather set in and the second half is waiting for early spring to finish prep for early planting.

Sticker bush with caps of snow. Bucky keeps getting into this plant, and we keep having to pull the huge burrs out of his long fur.

Indiana University Memorial stadium, view from south standing below the scoreboard looking North.

Indiana University Memorial stadium, view from the balcony outside the Hall of Champions level of the newly built and occupied North End Zone addition.

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