Happy New Years!

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable Holiday season!

As we do every year to welcome the new year, all the decorations from

Christmas are put away, the house has been cleaned from

top to bottom, all the excess has been donated to the needy, the fridge is full

& all the chores are done.

... exactly the way you want the rest of the year to be...

A friend posted on her blog about the top ten things of 2010,

thought it was a great idea so here goes:

1. Being shown over and over why my husband is the best!

2. New business plan and employees.

3. Finished all the dogs in the house

4. New Friends!

5. Started the plans for a spring litter

6. Got rid of all the junk!!

7. Learned a ton about bees

8. Won the Dane Specialty

9. Had a blast in Calgary

10. Discovering icanhasbheezburger.com

New Look

I got some colour!

I figured it was high time to get 'creative', I do it to the dogs all the time,

the way it's dyed males it hide-able...

Or punky...

Trailer Park Trash

I'm sure that this is Darcy's new attempt to drive me crazy, but if you were to ask him I'm sure he'd deny it and then giggle maniacally!!

So he decided that he wants nothing in the garage and it all ends up in the front yard/drive...

Jody (our neighbour) brought over his big hoe to help - can you see Darcy on top of the canister?

Darcy taking a ride in the bucket!

We bucked it out and look! No more Trailer Park Trash!!

The few things that you see have to go to recycling, so they can't be moved just yet, but I can live with that. Can you see the truck shaped space we got now that the canister is moved?

Here is our burn pile!

Honey collecting!

The Honey Flows!

... even artistically!

uncapping the honey

Look how full the extractor is! It makes me laugh that this was the part that we couldn't get the boys to move away from!! Especially Tony!

More uncapping

Looks like we collected just under 5 gallons! Yeah!

Getting Excited!

On August 15th we are going to be collecting and spinning down the frames of honey!!

And although this sounds amazingly fun, bees are very protective of all their hard work over the spring and summer, making this the most likely time to get stung!

FYI: If you get stung, put a penny on the Bee-bite-is (sting mark) and the swelling and pain will be greatly reduced.

I will post pictures of our escapades on Sunday, it should be interesting to say the least!

The New Logo!

Okay so for those of you you haven't heard the news, we have bees!

I love it, it's something that Darcy and I do together. Plus I get to learn new things (which I love doing - what can I say, I'm geeky that way!).

I can't remember who asked what we would call our bee adventure, at the time I shrugged it off and said I will always stick with "MiHi".

But anyone who knows me, knows that I ruminate, so this is just what I did.

A friend of mine always teases me and pronounces my kennel name as Me-He,

instead of My High, and although I love him dearly, it irks me to no end. For whatever reason I had that floating around my head when I came up with Mi Hive, but all I could think of was that he referred to it as "Me Hive" he would sound like a strange pirate!

So there it is, the new logo for the Apiary side of MiHi, hope you like it!

I also make all natural lip balm & lipstick (customized colour for you), moisturizer, shampoo & conditioner (for humans and dogs) and anything else you can think of with

honey or beeswax in it!

We also have honey, bee-bubblegum, chocolate covered combed honey, and honey garlic glaze.

Mad Scientist Part 2

Every mad scientist needs their muse, mine is Pepsi! I believe that if you look in the last post you will see my glass in the photos as well!

All my supplies

Darcy laughed at me for several minutes about my organization of the product, but I'd rather know what I used and in what order then just guessing!

Here is the colour that I concocted!! Bronzed Earth is what I'm calling it - unless someone comes up with something better.

It's bronze mica mixed with Earth oxide.

Now it's poured into the containers, cooling and then off for testing!

Of course testing just means whom ever I can con into putting it on their lips - ssshhhh, don't tell anyone I made it!

Mad Scientist!

Here is the lab

This is melting the Bees wax, straight from the hive (bur comb)

Straining the melted wax

Pouring the melted wax into plastic egg containers this makes for easier usable sizes

Here is the first phase of the Mad Scientist's lab!

Next phase (tomorrow) is turning this into lip stick!

Oddities

Here are updated pictures of The Bee Yard.

We ordered 2 of our own hives after having to much fun with Katie's Hives.

Here is a picture of G1:

Of course never wanting to disappoint of the oddities that we expose ourselves to, here is the video of a friends Owlets. Alfalfa the little guy 'dancing' fell in love with Darcy!

The blank canvass...

A Celtic design

A close up of the Celtic design on Fergus.

You gotta love when clients let you play and try something new!

Bee-ware!

Ever wonder why someone firmly encased in the dog world would venture out and play with bees? Me too! I have no good reason other then the bear inside me demands it.

Honey is yummy!

Here Katie and Bill suit up - I'm taking the photos and Darcy is taking the video of us.

Pulling our first hive apart - thank heavens for Bill, what a nice guy!

You can see everything here from pollen (the yellow/orange), the brood (where the bees are), and the white, which is honey!

It's like "Where's Waldo?" Can you find the Queen?

(hint: lower middle/left)

Here is Katie's first hive - they were unimpressed that their house is being disturbed.

Bill just installed 2 Queen cones (they are the upside down pylon looking things)

Bill says that on of the hives staying at our house can be split in about a week or two!

Happy Bees make HONEY! I'm so happy.

Goodbye Sweet Girl

Can Int'l Ch Lincoln's Tonka Toy, TT, TDI

aka: Velvet head, Tonka, lamb-face

crossed over to be with my Mom today.

Oct 13 1997 - Feb 25 2010

Not a day will go by that I won't think of you.

Poor Old Dog

Tonka is starting to go down hill. It really hit her last week and I have been having a heck of a time bringing her out of it. Don't know how the week will play out, but keep her in your thoughts, I was hoping to at least have the summer with her.

Fun Day at the shop

Lorek was such a good sport today as I tried some new product and a stencil I cut out of cardboard.

For a small fee Lorek will come to your house and drool on your loved ones for you - please pre-book for Valentine's Day as we suspect he will be busy!!

Cooking for a Party

Well, the photos loaded up in the wrong order but here was my day of baking for a party!

Phyllo pastries filled with Brie, red and yellow peppers, eggplant and homemade sauce - not baked yet of course!

Cupcakes for the birthday girl!

The start of the whole process.