Progress

Adam's working on the boat again since the weather has improved. He finished sanding this side of the hull, and it's so smooth it makes my fingers tingle unpleasantly when I touch it.

He put a stripe of tape on the water line, but will redo that with a thinner tape. Painting of the hull will commence very soon.
Today he filled old holes with epoxy resin.

Lots and lots of holes. Anywhere on the boat where anything was attached -- mast, lines, cleats, winches, all the hardware. Holes galore. All must be filled and later re-drilled when the hardware is re-attached.

Then he started on the anti-skid. These are portions of the deck surface where you want good solid footing. No sliding on deck in a gale! He taped off the areas.

Then he applied epoxy resin to those areas and put lots of clean sand on it while the resin was wet.

Later he will brush off the residual sand, and we'll see how it looks.

How are the bees progressing, you ask?

Just fine, thanks! The hive on the far left will be compressed to encourage the bees toward swarming so they will form new queens. Then Adam will split the hive before it can swarm. He hopes to get a couple of new hives from that hive this summer. The 2nd hive from the left -- his goal with it is to transfer it to larger Langstroth boxes. The hive in the middle is doing so well! We thought it might die at the end of the winter, but it's very active (see below). Adam will check it this week; he hopes to get a split out of it also. The little nuc box (4th from left) is coming along. Each day more bees go in and out, which indicates the brood has hatched. Adam will check it this week also to see if any new brood has been laid, which would indicate they now have a queen. The hive on the right also needs to move down and transfer into Langstroth boxes. So each hive has a goal for this year.

We love to watch the bees. In relaxation levels, watching bees is right up there with watercolor painting.
Spring is progressing too. The forsythia bush is half-green now.

My little business continues to grow. It's dandelion season, so I'm picking lots of dandelions and infusing them into safflower oil. It's nearly time to make my summertime insect-repellent lotion bars.
On bright, sunny days I put the bottles outside so the oil warms and the dandelions turn it a golden yellow. Dandelion is good for your skin. Actually, most parts of the dandelion plant are healthy for you.

This week Christians are progressing toward Good Friday, and then Easter. We simultaneously mourn and celebrate both the most painful and the most happy aspects of our faith.

My mother gave me this adorable ceramic egg. When I was a girl, each year she put peanut M&Ms in it at Easter. I try to remember to carry on the tradition.

We've moved so often that some years the egg is in a box of dishes, and I forget. Not this year!

I told Adam yesterday, "Only three each day! Then they will last till Sunday." Ha! Like that worked for either of us! But I will add, since this is a post on progress, that Adam still makes great strides in his health and weight-loss plan. He now rides his bike on a stationary trainer many days, so he can ride in the rain or the cold. He is really becoming fit and losing so much of the fat he used to carry around. I'm very proud of him, plus ... he's looking mighty handsome!