As a homebody, I haven’t been bothered by having to social distance. The toll that the virus is taking on people, overall? That’s another story. But being at home and trying to be somewhat more self-sufficient isn’t so different.
Here’s a late May update. Things have been greening up for quite a while. The gardens are taking off. I’ve also got veggies in the greenhouse, some of which could fill in if anything in the raised beds fails hugely.
The bees seem to be taking to their new, 10-frame Langstroth hive. This is definitely not the way I wanted to go, but the switch was necessary. I would advise anyone against building hives with butt joints and bad big-box store lumber. Thank goodness for Gorilla brand products, as they bought enough time to transfer the bees out of the Warre style hive. All seems to be OK now, and the pollen is coming back to the hive like crazy. The bright side is that during the transfer, I saw the queen and how busy she’s been. Yes, that’s a row of gray blocks cozied up to the green ones. There was quite a hive size difference.
Better digs 
After Warre to Langstroth transfer
My husband finally talked me into pulling the dying junipers and boxwood out of the front gardens next to the house. It looks much nicer now. We picked out some azaleas, catmint, and a rosebush together. And guess which Montana girl finally scored a pine tree for the back yard!
Cascade 
A pine for the back yard
I look forward to the spring rush being over.
