Bees Update #2

Yesterday afternoon, I lined up a man from the Santa Clara Bee Keepers' Guild to come over and deal with my bees. They must have heard me, because about 20 minutes later they flew away. Problem solved.

Bee Update

I've been in touch with the Santa Clara County Vector Control folks, and they said to contact the members of the Santa Clara Bee Keepers Guild (www.beeguild.org). So I've left a couple of messages on members' phones, in the hope that one of them would be interested in coming over and rescuing my swarm. Hubby says I should call Terminix and get them "removed" (aka destroyed), but that's only because he has a deep seated loathing of bees that originated from being stung many times as a child (when, to be fair, he had apparently covered himself in jam, so he was asking for it). Given the fragile state of the world's bee population right now, I'm not going to do that.

Here's a pretty interesting article with photos on bee swarms. Sounds like we only have a small one. http://www.beemaster.com/site/honeybee/swarms.html

Bees in Trees

Here's a photo of our bees...

Squatters

At about 2:00pm today, I looked out of the office window and thought "What the heck is THAT?" Upon closer inspection, it was apparent that a swarm of bees had arrived in our back garden. They swarmed around the first redwood tree and gradually settled on a branch, where they currently sit like a thick cuff around the wood. I am told by SS2 (who says he watches a lot of National Geographic), and also a friend who knows about these things, that the bees will probably stay for a day or two and then move on in search of a more permanent residence.

A No Excuses Day

Very sunny day today - after a blazingly hot weekend. The stone mason is hard at work in the front yard laying the paving. The fencing guys are back, currently building the double gate at the side yard from scratch. Site Supervisor II has gone to the cabinet makers' shop to tell them to get the inside of the TV cabinet right, and to pick up the framing that needed to be adjusted in order to allow the cabinet doors to close as they were designed to do. Santa Claus appears to be working in the pool. Well, I guess he has to do something in the off season.

Shopaholics

I took Hubby and the kids down to Scandinavian Designs in Cupertino this afternoon to check out the bed. After much discussion of whether we wanted mocha (his choice) or cherry (my choice), we plumped for the cherry. I poisoned his mind by commenting that the mocha had a purple hue under the table lamp lights. We held off buying night stands (bedside tables to the Brits) as we don't think they'll fit in the space where we're planning to put the bed. They can always be bought later if necessary. Follow this link to see a picture of the bed ("Reflections"). We also chose a new mattress from Beauty Rest. This will be delivered next weekend.

We took a break in Peet's Coffee, then headed into a store we'd not visited before, called "Nu Image Furniture for Modern Living". Very stylish stuff. We ended up making an impulse purchase of a funky coffee table which has two glass surfaces and chrome legs that allow the surfaces to swivel across each other; four kitchen chairs in orange and white plastic with chrome legs; and three matching bar stools in orange/white/chrome. These should arrive in about two weeks.

We are definitely in stage two of the remodel now. Stage one is when you spend all your money on updating and extending the house. Stage two is when you spend all the money that remains on furniture to fill it up and make it look like the remodel was a good idea. Home Beautiful magazine, here we come.

Fences and Concrete and Doors, oh my!

The sun is shining and most of the fence - back and left - is done. Presumably the right will be done on Monday, although they might be waiting for some of the material that is piled against the fence to be removed. I'm trying to entice one of our friends, who has just started a remodel, to take our used redwood siding, which is apparently quite valuable and in pretty good shape. Site Supervisor II says that if he had anywhere to put it himself, he'd take it.

The concrete has been poured in the side yard and looks pretty sinuous and interesting. Now we have to resist walking on it till Monday.

SS2 has been working around the house all day picking up small jobs on the punch list. Most of what we have left is for the electrician and plumber.




A man came from a local garage door supplier today to fix our garage door. He changed our motor unit, including the chains and what nots that make the door physically open; tightened all the springs; installed the sensors that prevent the door closing on someone's head; and programmed two remotes and an exterior keypad. All this for $371, which seems a bargain. SS2 installed the light bulb for me, and that was another job done.

We also had a visit from the local BeamCo representative - that's the central vacuuming system. We've never used our whole house vacuum, as we've lacked a hose and the inclination; but as we made the effort to have the vacuum extended into the new parts of the house, I thought this would be the moment to find out how it works. Anyway, the rep came and had a look round at our floors. He recommended a hose and brush attachment and said he'd mail them to me. I asked him to show me how to empty the unit. We went into the garage and he began to demonstrate - and the unit basically blew up. He then spent almost an hour repairing it! After that, he decided to walk through the house with a stethoscope, listening to the walls to see if we had decent suction everywhere. The upshot of that was that there is a leak in the pipes somewhere in the extension...and he'll be back next week to crawl through the attic looking for it.

In other news, I think I've found a bed that I'd like to buy. We're planning to move our 12 year old gothic wonder into the new bedroom and have a new bed for ourselves.