Monthly Archives: November 2012
A Scary Dry Skin Post
How are you dealing with the time change? And the fact it got so cold recently? Me…I’m out of whack.
We’re using the heat now, and my skin is dry. I have very dry skin. When I attended high school, I didn’t have a pimple. Not one. That served me well when I was 16, but not now. Tepid showers, tons of lotion, lots of moisturizer, vitamins, water, and humidifiers throughout the house. That’s me in the winter. I’ve got some good help with my employer, About Face Aesthetics, Skincare & Weight Management.” Lots of lotions and potions and facials and fun stuff that really help.
Still….I was sitting in the kitchen thinking about my dry skin on Tuesday. You were watching the election results…I was thinking about something of major importance…dry skin.
And then…I looked at this.
Honey
I looked at a pint of my honey. It has so many useful properties. I pulled out the iPad and googled something like “homemade honey facials.” Avacado, honey and olive oil kept coming up.
So I peeled an avacado, took about four tablespoons of honey and about one tablespoon of olive oil and put them all in the blender. Here’s what it looked like.
Have you seen the Exorcist?
And guess what I did next? My husband was totally grossed out. He would not look at me…much less take a picture! Chicken. So…I took one of myself.
Here’s another one. I think I look like a gay man in this one. Seriously. And here’s something else….Don’t my teeth look good against that green?
Maybe I can get in the movies!
And guess what? It worked!
Living in Mendota, Virginia
When I started this blog, I hoped visitors would find the answer to the question “why would anyone want to live there?” “There” being Mendota, Virginia — 17 miles from a grocery store and a minimum 35 minute work commute.
Here’s a whole post with a lot of pictures answering that question.
Let’s start with Saturday night at the Carter Family Fold. It’s a barn about 10 miles down the road from where I live. It’s a famous barn where Carter Family music is played on Saturday nights. Jeanette Carter promised her father, A. P. Carter, she’d keep his music alive. She did a good job. We lost Jeanette just a few years ago. Here’s her likeness…
Here’s the inside of the barn…
And where would you go and hear music and dance — all the while with this dog snoring on the stage? Those feet belong to a member of the Wayne Henderson & Friends band performing last Saturday. I’m not sure who the dog belongs to.
This next dog is also a regular at the Carter Family Fold. It’s “Opie”. Opie slow dances with a lady named “Debbie” who is a schoolteacher. (In the country, we know just about everything about everybody.) All that dancing gets a doggy thirsty.
There are lots of “regulars” at the Carter Fold. Here’s Poppy. He’s there with his niece, Pam. Poppy is in a wheelchair and this Saturday outing is one of the highlights of each week.
On Sunday morning, it is time to “make a joyful noise.”
Here’s a few pictures…
And another…
And another…
We closed with “I’ll Fly Away”. Chills.
Moving forward a couple of days. Election Day in Mendota. No lines here. We have under 500 registered voters, but we can count on a large percentage of them voting.
Voting means seeing friends…here’s Janette Dean and Diane Sproles. They check my voter card and photo identification. I know them well, but they take no shortcuts. Everything is on the up and up in Mendota on this special day. Integrity.
Voting is fun, because it’s also a time to eat and socialize. We can always count on food being there. There were homemade biscuits with pork chops this morning. I smelled soup later in the day.
Many hours go into cooking for Election Day. Everything is carried into the kitchen in coolers, etc.
During the morning hours following voting, Mendota resident Helene Holbrook, DNP at ETSU, administered flu vaccines. Free. She’s giving one to my brother-in-law, Gerald, in this picture.
And there’s seeing friends…
And that’s a few days living in Mendota.
Getting The Honeybees Ready For Winter
We’re still getting ready for winter here. The barn is now full of wood for the woodboiler. This will last us into next season. The woodboiler heats the guest house and our primary house as well as providing hot water in both houses. It’s a very warm heat.
It makes me feel secure when I look at the barn. Country people like being self sufficient. As I write this, our generator is self-testing–sounds like a train coming but I don’t mind! After seeing the news of what is happening in the northeast following Hurricane Sandy, I’m grateful once again that we have it. Our powerlines run through heavily-treed areas, and even with the aggressive tree trimming that took place this summer, an ice storm or heavy snow would leave us without power for days.
It’s also time to do some winterizing on the beehives preparing for harsh weather. During the honey flow season, we keep the bottom of the hive open so that bees may easily get in and out during their frequent foraging trips. Gotta make sure they can get the pollen and nectar in for yummy honey. As it got cooler last month, we inserted a spacer in the bottom which limited the access to about three inches. This was to keep mice out of the hives yet still allow a fairly easy exit and entrance for this season’s remaining foraging.
I’ll use the same spacer, but I’ll turn it so that the opening is very tiny. Here’s a picture of the spacer.
Can you see the small entrance and the larger entrance? The small one is for cold winter weather and the large one is for fall when the temperatures are just starting to get a bit cooler and, as mentioned above, mice are hunting a warm spot. We don’t want mice in our honey!!! Yuck!
Here’s the same photo with more description. Look what I’m learning to do in Photoscape!
And here is the photo of the beehive winterized.
When I was working with this hive, I found an alarming number of dead bees just inside the entrance. This hive has been strong, and I’d just been working with it three or four weeks ago when I put the spacer in for fall. No cause for alarm at that time. Now, however, I’m worried.
There are still live bees in the hive, but why so many dead ones in the entrance area?
We’ll be looking back in this hive next weekend. I’ll let you know what we find. I hope, pray that my bees will be healthy.
I don’t want to see this.
Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage, and thank you for supporting local beekeepers!