Today started with a trip to the dentist for a small filling.
It must have been tiny as the dentist informed me that no anaesthetic would be needed. I can't say I was delighted at this news, but it was painless, and I was out of the chair and on my merry way home in under fifteen minutes.
I arrived home to find 30% deep in conversation with a chap who had come in response to an enquiry about having a solar array fitted to the outbuilding roof.*
The consultation was long and very detailed, possibly an hour longer than we would have liked, but we are definitely keen on moving forward with the installation of panels and a storage battery. Apparently it is possible to purchase off-peak power and store it in the battery and then sell it back to the grid during peak hours for nearly three times the price! That was obviously a headline claim, but the full range of benefits of home produced electricity make a compelling argument.
Also, I quite like the idea of actually being able to claim that I own a power station.
Having eventually got rid of the solar energy chap, I donned my bee suit and headed up to inspect the hives. Both were doing incredibly well. The supers on each hive were crammed with honey and the bees are in the process of capping off the cells. I estimate that each hive has about sixty pound of honey stored already.
There are a couple of fields of oil seed rape nearby and the bees are definitely foraging on that. They are also busy in the apple blossom, that is making the orchard look quite beautiful at the moment.
Another super was added to each of the hives and, weather permitting, I wouldn't be surprised if these were filled over the coming week. I should add that one of the colonies was storing so much honey that the queen was running short of space to lay eggs. I had to remove a brood frame of stores and add a frame of foundation in its place. I hope to see that fully drawn out in to comb, and filled with eggs by next week's inspection.
And now to the title of today's Journal entry.
Back in March I ordered some timber for a few projects. The order included roofing laths and these were used as spacer material for the security bars that I have just finished fitting. I massively overestimated the amount I needed and now have about forty meters of roofing lath sat in the car port.
When I say I over ordered, I think I may have included sufficient material to make a couple of trellises. I installed a couple of sections of trellis to the side of Rose Cottage last year, and I have a vague recollection that I ordered sufficient laths to also knock up a couple more sections.
Anyway, after inspecting the bees it was too early to do nothing, but too late to start anything complicated. So I grabbed a tape measure, saw, hammer and nails and assembled a section of trellis.
It wasn't really on my to do list, but 30% does want to move a Passion Flower vine up to the orchard.
---
* An acquaintance had piqued our interest in solar energy when he advised that the sub-optimal panels on his home were yielding a better return than having the financial outlay invested in an interest bearing account.
No comments:
Post a Comment