Honey bees, Sunflowers and Honey!

This is our view from our driveway. Last year they planted corn, which did nothing but cause me to have allergies. This year, row after row after row, of sunflowers.

I have to be honest, I stole three. Good grief that looks bad, three sunflowers. Chad was not a part of it, only I. Even though I feel a little guilt, the smile I have on my face overpowers it!

Seriously, there are thousands of sunflowers.

The good thing is, not only do we get a wonderful view when we drive anywhere, our honeybees are going to have a field day!!

Honey and Bees!

As many of you know, we have honeybees! A couple of weeks ago we got our first honey of the season. Where we live at is a yearly event called the "Dixie Road Yard Sale". Or something close to it, it runs through Georgia and Tennessee, I believe.

Anyway, we went to the yard sales and all of a sudden it hit us, why weren't we one the side of the road selling honey??

Literally, on the side of the road! Many people had rented their yards to people but other rednecks, such as us, would just pull off on the side and have an instant yard sale on the side of the road!

So we ran home, grabbed the honey, a table cloth, and off we went! The table cloth was to make the tailgate look more homey. Redneck is one thing, but everything looks better with a table cloth. We actually sold almost all of the honey, believe it or not.

The point of this, is that while we were there a lady from church came by and told Chad she had a hive of bees in the wall of her HOUSE! And her daughter was getting stung. This lady is single with an autistic daughter, so you can imagine money is tight. She had talked to a professional about getting the bees removed in what they call a "cut out". The cost was more than she could afford, so Chad said we would take a look and see what we could do. (What a hoot, that we should be a HE. As I was thinking he was crazy!)

So we went by and he told her he could do it. He come home all excited about building a "bee vacuum" Yep, a special vacuum that will suck up bees. That he is going to build...

Saturday, low and behold, here is what happened!

This is what we first saw when Chad pulled the first board off.

You can see he has his handy dandy Bee Vacuum in his hand. Now, I have to say the whole day I felt like someone in the movie "Ghostbusters". Remember how they sucked up the ghost?

Finally, I decided to jump in there and join him! It was so amazing seeing the bees flying around my head and see them in their natural surrounding. Really, really neat!

That is the middle of the vacuum and he is about to pour the bees into a hive. It was a fun day!

A weekend escape!

These are random pictures from our weekend get away to North Carolina. The picture above is at the Biltmore House. We are watching how to make wine. If you haven't ever been to the Biltmore house it is wonderful! And this summer kids get in free, even teenagers!

We drove home along the Blue Ridge Parkway and it was Beautiful!!

We stopped along the way, and took lots of pictures. It's weird now the girls want pictures of me and Chad. They had a good time but once you get on the parkway there is very little food and a LONG drive!

Lauren at the Biltmore house farm area.

This is the finished picture, but Meghan took many a picture of me getting on the post. It took a boost or two from Chad.