Somewhere over the rainbow

Today was forecasted to be great. Somehow the forecasts of late have been anything but accurate but the early morning sunrise promised perfect weather for doing some overdue outdoor jobs.

Main task was at long last sorting out the bees and getting them "winter-fit". The wamish weather over the last weeks has been a bit difficult - on the one hand it did extend the honey season a bit but on the otherhand, one had the impression that the bees were very active but in fact the hives are far less filled than I would have expected. So doing a bit more feeding.

Before starting on the bees, allowed the temperature to rise so that as many as possible were flying and used the time to replace the two starter batteries on the tractor. They have held for 14 years which is quite something when you considerthe lack of use and the conditions. I have to thank my one time colleague Tom who back around 2005 fed up with my winter tales of woe regarding the tractors starting problems said I should hang them on a "maintenance charger" when the tractor not in use. A simple 15 Euro device that certainly paid off.

Poor tractor got a big shock when I started it for the first time - poor starter motor was not ready for the power boost! Nice to not have to think about hanging the machine on a machine an hour before you want to use it and then not being able to turn off the motor for a break somewhere not next to a power socket.

I then took an adventurous 100 metre drive with the digger, crawling along in 1st gear just in case it did tip up backwards. No real danger as the feet were no more than 10 cm off the ground. Great to have power steering for the first time with the front wheels only just touching ground. I have had a problem with the tipper trailer which I have been trying to restore for months and getting nowhere (not on Angie's priority list). Can tip it but can't get the hydraulic cylinders to let it down fully. Even MrB and Farmer Franz were lost for possible reasons. I enquired at the Deutz people on Monday and they said it was simply the failing weight (All sides and flooring removed) but I said I had even put the front loader on it to push down without a result. They said that that wasn't enough (my front loader can't press down). So used the digger and it's massive strength and sure enough it worked - a result..

Then the bees. Started well on the first two hives and then the weather changed getting cooler and darker by the minute. Somehow got all seven hives done but the last three was a challenge with pouring rain that felt cold enough to start sleeting.

Finished very late and without a single photo all day when the sky suddenly lit up with spectacular colours produced when the sun appeared and amongst others gave me the rainbow blipopportunity.
Hope i didn't do too much damage to the bees and that all the queens survived.

I must apologise to all for my dreadful lack of answering and commenting. It's not limited to Blip but also to loads of unanswered emails, facebook messages etc. Please bear with me and my heartfelt thanks for your continued support!