July!

Splitting Firewood.  As beautiful as Copper Country summers are, much time is spent getting ready for next winter.



July Moon

Corn should be knee high by the fourth of July.

Alina and Jonathan heading out for a ride.

Misty mornings...

Strawberries!

Why work when you can lay in the sun?

In my early teens I picked berries for one of the local growers and got paid 7 cents a quart.  The work was hard and hot.  We had to get up at 5 in the morning and were on the field around 6.  The heavy dew on the plants was cold on the fingers and the mosquitos were biting.  By 9 the plants the sun had dried the plants.  By 10 it was hot.  Sometimes we picked until one or two o-clock.  The most I ever picked in a day was 93 quarts.  Sometimes I wonder why I still like to pick strawberries, but I love it.  Strawberries are Summer!

A swarm of bees that changed its mind and went back to the hive.

Roll out those lazy, hazy days of summer.....

Grandpa and Laku

A swarm of honeybees landing on a branch.  A big swarm makes quite a hum, almost a roar when they are all in the air. 

Everybody loves a hammock.

No, this really isn't dangerous.  The bees are not defending a hive.  Swarming is the way bees propagate to form a new colony.  Once a hive becomes crowded, the swarming instinct kicks in.   First the queen and about half the colony leave the hive and land in a nearby tree, forming a large mass.  Scouts fly out from the swarm  and search for a suitable new home, usually a hollow tree.  This particular swarm would have been the perfect  to capture.  All I needed to do was cut off the branch and shake the bees into a new hive, but I didn't act fast enough.  After this picture was taken I went back inside for coffee and strawberry shortcake, assuming that the swarm would stay in place for hours, as they usually do.  But by the time I had my protective gear on and my hive boxes in place, and was getting ready to cut the branch, the swarm dissolved and a hurricane of bees headed off into the woods.  I could have cried.