Remember THIS POST about the bees who adopted us and our back yard? Well, take a look at what those little creatures have been up to!


Daniel found a beekeeper and asked him to come out and help him take a look at our bees. They cut open the computer box that the bees had occupied and found this beautiful honeycomb!


We are thrilled about this sweet surprise from the Lord! Daniel learned all he could about how to handle the bees, and the bee guy gave us a smoker, which is used to calm the bees while they are being dealt with.


The bee guy said these are excellent honey bees, and very docile. These are bees that people WANT to attract, or go out and purchase. And they simply came to us. I think the Lord sent them. :o)


We cannot allow them to stay in our cardboard box because it makes harvesting the honey difficult. (Not that we complain about mounds of luscious honey in the comb.)


..So the guys began to carefully remove large portions of honeycomb, and the bee guy tied them to the panels of the artificial hive Daniel had bought. These panels can be inserted into a honey extractor in the future, which will spin the honey out of the panel without damaging the honeycomb.


Our bee guy found the sections where bee larvae were, where he knew the queen would be. He said once she was in the new artificial hive, the other bees would follow.


Looks like the transfer is going beautifully. I hope they like their new home!

Meanwhile, back in the house...


We have this beautiful comb in three big bowls, draining the sweet honey out. Yesterday at church we presented our firstfruits to the Lord and asked His blessings on our bee hive, and shared our abundance with the brethren.

One nice aspect about beekeeping is that it really does not require much time or expense. Another is that raw, natural honey is so nutritious, and renders many health benefits. I'm so thankful that we will be able to harvest our own now. Thank You, Lord!

Friday is almost gone, and I am just now remembering to do my Food on Fridays post!

Today I am featuring the steak that Daniel brought home recently.

Meet T-Bone:


If you think it looks a little fresh, you're right.


T-Bone still has some growing to do, so these city-slickers-turned-ranchers are learning how to fatten him up. If you have any pointers, I am all ears!


He has just learned to eat grass, and we also give him feed. We have told the children that T-bone is not a pet, and named him carefully to remind us of that.

Just have to be careful not to look at those big, sweet, brown eyes with the long lashes...

Marla is one of the young people that attends the church in San Juan. Saturday her family invited us over for lunch at their house.

This is Marla's mama. Next to her is their woodburning stove, where our meal was cooked.


Here is some of the group that was there:


Left to right: Marla's mom; her sister Dora; friend's mom; friend whose name I can't remember; Marla; and another older sister who cooked our delicious meal.


Johanna's digging in!


We had chicken that reminded me of a Guatemalan dish called Pepian, but it wasn't exactly that. I would call it Chicken and Broccoli Yum!


We enjoyed the Guatemalan hospitality. Casual, comfortable, and so friendly...
















And look what Jillian, our animal-lover, caught:


This little pigeon flew down to the patio, Jillian cornered it and caught it, and it seemed perfectly happy to come home with her!

It is raining almost every day, and with the abundance of rain comes an abundance of toads! I guess this got the wheels turning in the mind of Daniel, who happens to be our school principal. In some biology class he took during his junior high and high school career, he got to dissect a frog. Do you see where this is heading?


So a few nights ago, he and the children caught a couple of those toads outside with the intent of dissecting them for a homeschool biology project. (Notice I said he and the children are doing this. I wash my hands of this one. And I made them wash their hands, too, as soon as they came into the house.)


Then they had these poor toads, frantically trying to leap out of the jar. What now? How to, umm... euthanize them? Not knowing what else to do, they stuck them in the freezer.

I bet you don't have Frosty the Frozen Frog in your freezer, do ya? And I bet you don't even envy me. :o)

Anyhow, frigid froggies pose a problem. Ya can't dissect 'em. So the Principal is looking into obtaining a preserving solution to put the toads in. He asked around, and it was suggested he ask for formaldehyde at the only place in Xela where they use the stuff... the mortuary.

This saga is not over. I will keep you posted, as I'm sure you are all on the edges of your respective seats. I know I am, but I'm not leaning in too close.

Post Script: For those of you in the know about toads and frogs, we are aware of the difference between the two, even if we sometimes use the words "frog" and "toad" interchangeably. It's just that "froggy" is so much more fun to alliterate than "toad". :o)


Froggy foto credits to my favorite fotographer, Daniel!

First Alma blew into town from the Pacific. She stuck around for a few days, then left in the night. But right on her tail, Arthur blew in from the Caribbean, and it seemed to us (right in the middle of it all) that it was all one big rainy party!


That's Mexico on the left, the Yucatan Peninsula at the top, and Guatemala in the center.

Five or six days is a long time for the children to be couped up in the house, so whenever the rain would let up, we'd run outside and play for a little while.


There were some new creatures to investigate...


This was one of the itsy-bitsy toads. At night, his HUGE brothers and sisters and cousins and the occasional GRANDPAPPY toad, are all over the place. Also...


This fellow dropped in for a visit. I think it's a heron, and we don't see these too often up here in the mountains. I'm pretty sure he's on his way north for a Florida vacation.

I've been out to check on my garden, which seemed close to flooding, but we built up the beds enough that the plants are still high and ...well, not dry, but not floating away, either! :o)