Going... going... gone?

We had a guy come out on Monday and spray the bees. He said we need to give them about 5 days, and if there are still some bees here, he'll come back and spray again. Now we just need to get rid of the honey before it starts attracting other critters, and/or starts melting.

We didn't see this before, but if you look there under the ripples, where the bee is coming out, you can see the honeycomb. Pretty cool huh!? I love this shot!

He had to go inside the house too, to spray from our closet, to be sure he got them from both sides. He had to poke a hole in the ceiling with his screwdriver. I thought it was small enough, but pretty soon, a bee came in the house seeking to get away from the poison. Not to worry, though, he put a piece of scotch tape over it and we haven't had a problem.

Our Bee Problem

What's all that stuff in the tree. It's a bird! It's a plane! Nope, it's a whole bunch of bees!

I went to the lot to bring Molly in the house and there were tons of bee flying around. We have know for some time that we have bees living in the eves of the house, but now that it's getting warmer, it seems to be a much bigger problem than we realized. We went in the house for a few minutes and called an exterminator. When we went back out it was very strange. There were hardly any bees. We went around to the corner of the house, and then I saw them! They had landed...probably to take a little break, and so we ran in to get the camera. 1st thing everyone thinks of when there are thousands of little stinging insects near their house right?

Peter got the best pictures. The above is really from zoom. I was about to go inside and get the phone ready to call 911 if he got any closer. When we were putting up the lights at Christmas time, he told me he was allergic to bee stings when he was a kid, but not any more. He got stung a couple of times putting up the lights, and I had the phone ready, but never had to call 911. They were a problem then, but this was so much worse, so if he got them to come after him, we would have really been in trouble. My dad told me later that they were swarming around the queen and they can be really unpredictable like this. They could have turned on us at any time. I'm glad we went back in the house when we did. We may have stayed out a little longer, but I was getting paranoid about them all flying around. My mistake was telling Peter that. When I finally got the camera to take some pictures, he stuck his finger in my hair pretending to be a bee. Hahahaha, very funny. I don't think I screamed, but I'm sure I swatted, and that was it for me.

This is their hub, and the place that was a problem putting up the lights, as you may well imagine. The problem is they are not only in this one spot any more. They are spreading out, and we can see them coming in and out on each side of this too now.

The strangest thing of all is that when we left a couple hours later, they were gone. There wasn't a single bee on that tree, and they were flying around a bit more, but not nearly as much as before. Now we think they may have killed the queen. I guess they can do that when they all swarm around her.

Weekend at the Cabin

The Hatton's, close family friends, allowed us to use their cabin for the weekend. It is up in the hills in Posey, about an hour east of Bakersfield. We had an absolutely fabulous time! Thanks, Dave and Denise! On Saturday, we pretty much stayed indoors because it rained and snowed off and on all day. Above is some snow in Peter's hair as he admires the scenery. Sunday we went to chuch with the Hatton's. They had a lovely Palm Sunday service. We spent much of the rest of the day haning out with them and their grand kids who were also visiting that weekend. The whole day was fun, but one of the best moments was when Dale, a freind and owner of the restaurant we ate at for lunch, asked Dave and I to sing one of her favorite hymns, "In the Garden". We had a great time visiting with them all and look forward to the next time we get to come up.

Peter on the porch which overlooks the creek and in the background you can see a few of the lovely daffodils. OK they are really small so I'll point them out. Look about halfway up the green cover on the right, and then just above the bottom railing, and you may see a slight yellow blur. In the picture, it came out much more clear. :)

Tracy enjoying the snow all bundled up in Peter's jacket.

I couldn't just leave you with a thought of daffodils, so I found a picture of the ones Denise had picked and put there in the cabin for us. It was so sweet of her to do that for us, and when we parted on Sunday, she said we could take them home with us. They smelled great and brightened our kitchen for quite a while.

The car COVERED in snow.

Before we left Peter insisted I get some peanuts. We just have to have some. He said. And make sure you get a lot. Well we had a blast eating them and feeding them to the blue jays. It's a bit tough to tell but I know this one has several in his mouth. We would put them on the ledge, and then go inside where it was warm and watch them all come after them. It was a great past time.

I was hoping I could catch a blue jay this close, but they were patient and waited until we were a little farther away before they came for the peanuts...

...so I got him in the tree instead.

At first, It hailed, but it wasn't normal hail. It was like little pellets of pressed snow rather than the ice that I'm used to.

Here is one of the lovely views of the landscape as we were heading back home. Ah, the beauty! God truly is an artist.

Ventura Raceway

Peter has been a fan of car races for I don't know how long. He and Uncle Ed used to go all the time, until his work schedule changed, and Uncle Ed moved away, and Oh yeah, there's me. We met in February of last year, so I don't think he was able to go to a single event last year. OK maybe one with Ed while he was in town, but that's about it, so on opening day at Ventura Raceway...here we are.

It looks like a hot sunny day, but we are going to be here for a while, and Ventura, as you know, is right on the beach, and it's going to get cold. Peter used to own a little dwarf car, and raced it a few times, but it can be an expensive hobby, and time consuming as well. In the background, is the car that he used to own. Steve and Cindy own it now and we get to see it in action tonight.

A nice view of the track.

The view from the stands of the surrounding area was spectacular!

If you look closely in Tracy's right lens, you can see Peter taking this picture of us. Isn't that hilarious?!!!

OK, it's getting cold so we need our jackets now. Also perhaps you noticed Tracy's new cap.

Here is a close up of Peter's old car. When he had it, it was #71. Cindy drives it now.

Here are a few shots of Cindy racing. It was fun actually knowing someone that was on the track, and being able to root for them.

Steve is also #33. They have been racing for a while, and sure seems like they have a lot of fun out there together.
The track is so small and tight, that there are many reasons people aren't able to finish a race. There were several crashes throughout the evening, but I'm pretty sure no one got hurt.

Another one of Cindy.
Before all the adults came out, they had some even smaller dwarf cars called minis. These were driven by kids ages 5 - 11, I think. They may have been a little older than that. I just couldn't imagine Ellie, my niece, or Adam or Gregory, Peter's nephews, out there driving around. It looked like they were having fun, but...

Guess whose driving that one...
Another thing they do is put a flag in the back window of all the rookies. It's pretty cool to see how far they get. Some are really good.

Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics of the Sprint cars, but they were there too. The funny thing about them is they have larger tires, and they go faster. Well this is my first time at the races, and though Peter warned me about the mud that would fly, I wasn't prepared for what happened. I was expecting slimy, wet mud that would get all over you, but it came at us in rather large chunks. It was moist but not at all like I was thinking. In fact, when they first started coming, I just couldn't stop laughing. I think I embarrassed Peter. I just know he was thinking, "I just can't take this girl anywhere".

Blueberry Picking

Spring and Hope were talking about going blueberry picking at the one day and it sounded like fun so I asked if I could tag along. They seemed excited to have me come, so Spring, Adam, Hope, Abigail, Faith and I were off to the Gerry's farm to pick some berries. Pop met us there and showed us which rows we were able to pick from. His company, Organic Ag, has done spreading there for years so that's how we were able to get in before the harvest.

Hope gathered quite a few and mentioned something about blueberry pancakes. YUMMM!!! That sounds like a good idea. Abigail seemed to have fun out there.

Spring found a row of berries that tasted sweeter than the ones we were picking earlier, but it was time to head out so we only got a few of those. Adam had a blast it seemed, but didn't gather too many berries. I'll have to see if I can get the one I took with my phone and add it later. I wanted to show Peter how many berries I collected. When we got home, I got out my recipe book. I think the 9 cups I gathered only lasted about a week. I made blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup (twice, maybe three times), blueberry muffins, and a blueberry pie. DELICIOUS!!!!! I think we also had some on our cereal one morning.

Treasure Hunt with the Nephews

Spring asked Peter and I to babysit so she could go to a photography class. It was in Pasadena, so she and Brian took the oportunity for a date night, and we had the boys. I devised a little treasure hunt to keep them occupied. Here is the clue on Molly's lot.

Molly came with us on the rest of the hunt.

Gregory had to make a few baskets before we could go on to the next clue. He really loves basketball, so when we were all done, we came back out and played for quite a while.

What do you guys have here???

OH! IT'S THE TREASURE!!!

They boys have been saving up for some legos, so this treasure will halp them get to their goal. Usually they have a story before they go to bed, but Spring said they were so tired from the day that they just wanted to go straight to bed.