I am absolutely in awe that God has sent another little one into our family. It amazes me that I’m over halfway through this pregnancy already too. I am so blessed.

When the wax in the honey strainer bucket was pretty much done filtering (see here for the first post on processing honey), we put it in a pan and set it on the porch so the bees could take the last of the honey from it. There were a TON of bees on that wax. We really enjoyed watching them from inside the house, but Stephen went outside and took a short video. It was neat to see how clean the wax was when they were done!

This post is linked to the Homestead Barn Hop.

We started working on harvesting honey today. Our home smells amazing. There have been some questions asked about the process we use, so we took a lot of pictures this time.

This is the super we’re harvesting today. Each layer in a hive is called a super – it is a box of frames that the bees build comb in. We have 8-frame hives, because the supers are easier to lift than ones with 10 frames. This particular hive had three honey supers on it, but we only took one to harvest today.

Our honey straining bucket can’t hold the honey from all eight frames at once, so this super will probably take most of the day to deal with.

Here’s a look directly down inside.

Let the kids take a peek, and then shoo them out of the kitchen. No need for them to get sticky and messy too. :O)

Here’s a look at a frame that is ready to harvest. The white coating is a thin layer of wax (cappings) that keeps the honey from oozing out.

We take a frame at a time, and cut the comb off with a bread knife. We’ve found it’s easier to cut it into two or three sections, just so it doesn’t fall on the counter and make a huge mess.

Here’s a closer look at the comb:

Then we take a pastry blender to crush the comb. We use the crush and strain method (more info at the blog Linda’s Bees) because we like to use the filtered wax for other things.

The comb once it is crushed:

Then we pour the crushed comb into our straining bucket. The filter holds about three frames’ worth of honey.

The empty frames get placed in a bowl to drain further. When they’re pretty much done, we’ll set them outside for the bees to finish off. They’ll take the last of the wax and honey back to the hive and reuse it.

After about an hour, the wax has filtered pretty well. It’s not done yet, but there’s definitely progress.

When the wax is completely filtered, we’ll rinse it and put it in the freezer for later use.

The next step is pouring the filtered honey into jars. We probably won’t get that far today. We will wait until the bucket is mostly full first – right now the honey is about two inches deep in the bucket. It filters pretty quickly but doing all the frames will probably take most of the day. The main project for today is to get the comb crushed and filtered.

It’s sticky and messy, but the end result is so worth it.

Caleb helping me in the kitchen. That 5-gallon bucket on the counter is our honey bottling pail – hopefully more on that in the future

This is going to be a totally random post, with random pictures. Hope that’s ok. I got a new camera last weekend, and wanted to share some of the pictures I took over the week. Most of them are pretty random though.

The week started out busy. I played for a choir concert on Thursday evening, and had rehearsals the first three days of the week. I arranged for a sitter and assumed everything would go as planned.

Caleb came down with some sort of throat bug the week before, and by Monday, he was better, but Samuel had it. Thankfully, Stephen ended up working from home that day so we didn’t have to expose our sitter to the bug.

Tuesday the kids were better, and I went to the rehearsal and taught piano lessons as planned. That night, we got an insane storm. According to the news, the winds were 60-90 mph. I believe it. I have never been so scared in my life. I honestly thought the wind was going to pick up our house and just throw it. I kept thinking of the recent tornadoes in Alabama and the nearby states, and kept praying that God would keep us safe, as well as the house and cars. He did.

We lost the last tree out front and it missed the house by about 6 feet. I am so thankful it didn’t hit the house! The kids like playing on the stump now though.

Our power went out in the storm, as it usually does in a lot of wind. We were shocked at the damage through our community though. There were trees and mangled power lines everywhere. The electric crews worked almost nonstop, trying to get the power back on. Ours came on two days later. My in-laws got their power back on Wednesday afternoon, so they let us stay there during the day on Thursday. It was so humid out that we were thankful to be able to crash there for a while. The concert was that evening. It went well, but it was nice to have it over with too. The power came on that evening, so by the time we got home, the house had even cooled down.

Friday my friend Sara came over again to help me finish getting the rest of the Groopdealz bracelets in the mail. I’d been working on them as much as I could, but just having another person to help was wonderful. Stephen has been helping as much as he could all along (what a guy!). It was one crazy day, and there were bracelets and packages everywhere. I was hoping to get them out sooner, but did the best I could. Stephen took the last set of packages to the Post Office for me on Saturday. I learned a lot about producing jewelry in bulk, and there are some things I’ll do differently to make things go faster if there’s ever a next time. I enjoyed it though. And I learned one thing – even after making 637 bracelets, I still love making jewelry.

As the kids have been outside playing, I’ve been playing around with the macro settings on my new camera. It’s a Canon Powershot, and is so much more of a camera than the little Fuji I used to have. Not that the Fuji was bad, but this Canon is everything I’ve wanted in a camera. There is SO much for me to learn. . .but it has been a lot of fun playing with it too!!!

Friday Stephen came home from work to tell me that we were taking his car to the mechanic immediately because the brakes had gone out. Saturday it was finished, so we went to pick it up. It started raining while I was on the way home, and when we walked in the house, we discovered the new roof we had put on last year was leaking. I called the company right then, thinking to leave a message for this morning, but they called me back almost immediately and said they’d be out today to come look at it.

They were an hour and a half early this morning. They were so early that the only one of us who didn’t still have pajamas on was Stephen! *Note to self, when expecting a service call, get dressed immediately upon waking.* You’d think I’d know this by now. . .

The good news was that the roof is still under warranty. They fixed in in about 15 minutes and we didn’t have to pay a dime. What a blessing.

Yesterday, Anna started a runny nose, and felt a little warm. The way she’s been chewing on everything, I assumed it was because she was teething. As of this afternoon, all three kids felt warm. I’m hoping it’s not another virus but it certainly looks that way.

Later this week I have a midwife appointment (LOVE her!) and an ultrasound. We definitely have things to look forward to, and many more things to be thankful for!!

We harvested our first frame of honey this week. We’re not ready to do a full harvest of the main hive yet, but since this frame was completely capped, we took it inside to harvest it.

Stephen’s initial thinking was to wait, but I asked him if we could harvest a frame so I could have some honey to take for allergies. Nothing like fresh, local honey from your own back yard to take for seasonal allergies!

It’s not that difficult to cut the comb off the frame, but it does become a sticky mess.

The cut comb is so pretty though – I love looking at it.

We just bought a 5 gallon bucket for straining the honey this year. It is SO much easier than the mason jar method we’ve used in the past. We both agreed it’s money well spent.

Tulip poplar honey – nice and dark with a spicy flavor. I love it.

The one frame had enough honey in it to fill two pint jars, plus a little left over. It’s nice to know the amount of honey we’ll be getting from each frame once we do harvest it later this summer.

We’ve waited 3 years to be able to harvest our own honey. Although we’ve done a few frames at a time from our old hives, none of them have done as well as the one we have now. We’re really excited to see how they’re doing.

My friend Sara took this picture of Anna and I yesterday at our church’s Mother Daughter banquet.

I’m so thankful God let me become a mother! I am so blessed!

My desk has been piled high with bracelets ready to package and ship, but it’s been fun. I’d never used Paypal’s Multi-order shipping before yesterday, but I am thankful for it. It makes things a lot easier than doing it individually, that’s for sure.

These bracelets are just about done – they’re just waiting to be shaped. I’ll probably find a movie on Netflix or something to watch while I work on them. There are actually several jars on my desk, with bracelets in varying stages of completion.

It’s been kind of crazy around here, but that’s ok. The craziness will be over soon enough. . .and then we can relax. . .

Our bees have been doing so well lately that Stephen has been doing inspections weekly to keep up with them.

The new comb is so white – a far cry from the really dark comb we had when we first started years ago.

I keep thinking of what pretty candles the wax will make once we remove the honey. We do the crush and strain method so there should be plenty of wax left over.

We have started experimenting with letting the bees draw their own comb lately. For some reason, the girls do NOT like the foundation from a local farm supply store – they just won’t build on it. The other places to get it are either pretty pricey or quite the drive, so we’re experimenting to see how this goes.

Until recently, I was never that interested in doing hive inspections. Now I’m out there frequently with Stephen, just watching. We only have one bee suit though, so I don’t get as close as he does. :O) That’s ok. One of these days we’ll get one for me. . .

This post is linked to the Homestead Barn Hop.

Did you think I was going to say I’m overwhelmed with the number of bracelets there are to make? If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, take a look at this:

650 bracelets. Unbelievable. That is far higher than I ever imagined!

Believe it or not, I’m not overwhelmed at the number of bracelets to make. I’ve been working steadily on it and they’re coming along nicely. There are almost 200 done on my desk, and the supplies to make the next 500 are on the way here. So that is going well.

What I am overwhelmed about is God’s goodness. I prayed He would let the deal do well, but only prayed that He would let the minimum amount sell. . .I didn’t know what I could handle so just left it in His hands for the final number.

Tuesday and Wednesday were crazy, watching the numbers go higher and higher. I probably refreshed the page a thousand times just watching it.

It is such an honor and an amazing blessing to see how these sold. I can’t say “I sold. . .” because I didn’t. God did.

So today, I am absolutely overwhelmed at God’s goodness. I’ve been praying about how to grow my jewelry business but haven’t been 100% sure how to go about it. I’ve been doing LOTS of reading and researching. But this was wonderful.

God is so good.