Backyard Honeycomb

I have been waiting for this day! Last year we didn’t get any honey from our hives because Paul wanted to leave all the honey we could for the bees to last the winter. I’m the selfish one. I want my honey! 🙂 With being such a harsh winter, it was a good call to leave them lots of food.

Paul purchased a new tool to try out. It’s like a knife that is serrated on both sides. Why serrated on both sides? I don’t know, maybe to cater to a lefty? Ha!

Working out of the back of the truck 🙂 we scraped off the wax caps from one side of the frame. If we scraped both sides, the honey would seep out before we could finish and get the frame in the extractor.

We normally borrow our neighbor’s honey extractor, but he moved 🙁 so Paul had to purchase one for us. He purchased one with a motor! NO hand cranking with this batch!

This side of the frame is still capped.

Look at that golden honey! The side we scrapped off is placed next to the side of the barrel. We waited for today to do honey because we needed a hot day to help the honey spin off the frames. The temperature was only 85′, but beating down in the garage it was extremely hot. The heat was doing it’s job! You can see the honey dripping off the bottom of the frame.

The extractor can hold four frames at a time.

As the extractor spins, the honey flies off the frames and onto the sides of the barrel, then slowly slides down to the bottom of the barrel.

This is the spun side. All the honey has been removed.

After all the honey has been extracted, time to pour it out and into a double mesh strainer. This mesh strainer is placed on top of a clean bucket.

You can see bits of wax in the top strainer and nice dark honey in the bucket. It’s working well!

All the boys tasting the honey 🙂

After the honey drains through the strainer, the fresh honey falls to the bottom of the honey bucket and the wax remains in the strainer.

Inside we drain the honey from the bucket into jars.

We are very pleased with the amount of honey we harvested from this hive.

Lots of wax to melt into candles. Candle making will be a project for this winter. I tried/made a few wax candles a few years ago and I need some practice. We had a little sparkler show with my candles!

Paul and Eli took the four wheeler up to the top of the ridge to deploy wild life cameras. Eli was so excited because this was a long ride.

This has always been a rough ride, but with the amount of snow we received and water runoff, made for an extremely rough ride.

But, when you finally reach the top, it is very beautiful up there.

Up at the top, the wild flowers were just coming out.

More trails to ride until we find our spot we like to hang the cameras.

The found snow!

Stopped to eat lunch. When the got back I was quite surprised Eli didn’t enjoy his ride. He said it was too long and too rough and he doesn’t want to do the ride again. Hate to tell him, but we have to do the ride one more time. In another month or two, we need to head back up and gather the cameras before it snows.

The first year we were married, Paul took me to this tree.

This tree grows the biggest pine cones. Well, the biggest for Utah anyway. Paul thought it would be fun to gather more ….

Funny thing. We hiked all the way up. Gathered several, but then remembered we didn’t bring a bag to carry them back down. I found some rope that some deer hunters left in the tree. Gathered some sticks,… weaved them together…

Not bad! We were able to carry them down the mountain side.

Went back to the lake and this time we brought the paddle board. We couldn’t get Eli off it. 🙂 Looks like we will be purchasing another during prime week!

On our morning run, Eli needed help getting up the hills. Took a lot of work getting me up to the top while pushing him. 🙂

Papa was still around.

The animals were really active. This guy just walked through camp. Can you spot the buck?

Paul and Eli tried to do a little fishing, but…

We cooked a lot of tin foil dinners this trip. Salmon again….

Ugg.. they cooked their own dinner of brawtworst and hotdogs. …

Brought several Ghiradellli caramel filled squares. Not going to run out this time, ha!

This little guy swallowed a squeaker toy. Then…9 sun flower seeds.

Went on a little mile and 1/2 hike.

I didn’t video or take a picture of Eli, but he was NOT happy for the entire morning.

We stopped at a beaver dam.

On the way back, Eli found another rock and had to take it down with us.

When we drove into the valley, the temperature was just unreal. 105′! We were tempted to turn around and head back up.

A few days ago we were up North, so we stopped in at Union Station to look at the trains. Of course they were closed today 🙂

No worries. We walked around the front of the station and saw the trains in the front yard.

Eli still says he wants to be a train driver when he grows up. He hasn’t lost his fascination with trains.

We had a fun night of bowling and laser tag.

This is a terrible video, but it’s all I have. Eli lap swimming. He loves the water!

Speaking of swimming. This picture was a surprise to me when I downloaded June pictures. Not sure when he took this, but this was just before his swim lesson. 🙂 This boy makes me laugh. I love his personality!

I don’t think we will ever break ground to start building our new home, but when we do, this will be our kitchen faucet. I love it!

We went to the Saratoga Springs temple open house. I got pretty emotional in the sealing room. The last time the three of us were in a sealing room, was when Eli was six months old and we were sealed together as a family. We are so blessed to have him in our family.

Went to Pie Fight for the best pie ever! I get the box of scrappies. Oh, I could go for a another box right now. Delicious!

A fun movie night in my parents garage.

One last picture! Doesn’t matter if it’s 5′ or 105′, Eli will have a blanket over him. Mormor gave him this Minky Couture blanket and he has been wrapped in it day and night. He won’t go to sleep without it, and won’t enjoy a fun movie on the couch without it. Nothing wrong to be cozy. I raised him right 🙂

That wraps up June!

He is a talented whistler as well 🙂

Camping for two weeks at the property. Oh, how we missed coming up here.

We crammed in as many things as we could each day. I don’t know where to begin.

We rode the four wheelers every day and every night. Eli drove and loved every minute of it and couldn’t get enough. He is becoming a good driver. Look at that hair, ha!

Every evening we would go for a ride to look at all the animals. We saw papa moose every night.

We saw a lot of deer with their fawns. Too cute!

Went on lots of hikes.

Paul and and Eli went running with me. I haven’t been on my route in four years. It was nice to run it again.

During my route, we have to cross a bridge…

Then go up a hill…

Through the bushes…

Over the top of the cliff and back down the other side.

Eli complained every day, but when he got to the top of the mountain, he enjoyed finding rocks.

Every morning we would see different animal tracks, and some of the same. This moose track appeared on our bike tire track from our yesterday’s ride. Eli was so excited to see this track!

And then run the road back.

Took us an hour, ha! Having to carry/push/pull the bikes up and down the mountain, stopping at every snake, eating a granola bar at the second bridge….I’m amazed we did this in an hour!

The wild flowers were incredible. I haven’t seen so many different colors or varieties up here.

I should have taken some video on this, but the pollen in the pine trees was out of control. If you touch or brush against the pine trees, a 5 foot cloud of pollen dusted the air. Not fun with the allergies, but Paul powered through it during the two weeks.

One of the days we drove down to Taggart to Taggart’s Grill for lunch. Their homemade pita sandwiches are worth the drive. Oh, and their desserts are worth running the miles.

How do you choose? I need to reconsider my New Year’s resolution. Instead of learning a new language, I’m replacing with trying every dessert in the case. Now, that’s a goal I can accomplish.

Eli wanted the pink cookie. Again. 🙂 Paul picked a toffee cookie. It wasn’t very good. He wished he got the cheese cake. So did I. I would have loved to sample another dessert. 🙂

I got the German Chocolate cheese cake. It was a hit with all three of us! It also took three days for us to eat it. Don’t let the picture fool you. This was a large and heavy cake. So, delicious!!

We took the canoe out.

Ate s’mores every night.

We tried caramel filled dark Ghiradelli chocolate squares with our s’mores. I will never use plain Hersheys chocolate again.

This is love. I only brought three squares with me to try them out. I absolutely fell in love with them, and wanted to eat the other two. But I shared. Even though I reluctantly shared, I still shared. I shared one with Eli…

And the last one I gave to Paul. They were so delicious, I was tempted to drive down to Kamas to get more.

I don’t know what to say. 🙂

I know, I know. Don’t feed the wildlife. But we do. We feed the chipmunks and the squirrels. Look at those perfect rows. How can a chipmunk resist that presentation.

Lots of fun. Lots of family time. We were sad to head home, but we will be back next month for another two weeks.

This morning we went up Provo canyon to the Buffalo Peak trailhead. The road was closed due to the snow, so we couldn’t start at the trailhead. We had to start further down the mountain.

Eli was somehow motivated to hike. Not sure why or how! Whatever we did, we need to do this next time. He didn’t stop for a moment.

Wild flowers are not quite out yet, but very colorful.

We didn’t make it to the peak, due to not being prepared. We were not ready for Eli to keep going! We didn’t have enough water with us so at mile one, we had to turn back.

Give this mountain side two weeks, and it will be full of yellow flowers!

Since we didn’t make it to the peak, this will have to be on our list for a quick fall hike.

I know this sign is for high school graduates, but it fits with a second grader as well!

Something fun for the last day.

We made it! There has been some struggles during the year and we over came them all! We are so pleased with this little boy. I’m pushing back tears, but there isn’t time for crying. We have a lot planned for this summer. Pool days, water slide days, camping, hiking… lots of fun for the next two months!