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Snow or not Im expected to be at work . I took a salary posistion about 25 years ago and any calling out or leaving on time was over .
The county doesn't plough or salt the rual road I live on and its mostly hills and curves .
I will call out if its ice instead of snow .
 
I am happy to announce that the cold snap this week did not kill my bees.

It was in the 60s today and bees were out and about enjoying the sun.

Since this is my first Winter with bees, I was rather nervous.
Our bees didn't make it through the summer. They were all killed by yellow jackets. We'll try again this spring, but we'll locate them in a different area where we think there will be fewer yellow jackets.
 
Our bees didn't make it through the summer. They were all killed by yellow jackets. We'll try again this spring, but we'll locate them in a different area where we think there will be fewer yellow jackets.

I've read about yellow jackets causing problems. Is there a chance of finding their nests and burning them?
 
I've read about yellow jackets causing problems. Is there a chance of finding their nests and burning them?
I destroy all the nests that I can find and put traps out, but I don't know what their range is or how far they travel. This spring I'm going to locate the new hives near the pond where I haven't seen many yellow jackets before. The only problem is that I'll have to move them closer to the house before winter. Or plow a 1/4 mile road to access the hives to keep them cleared of snow.
 
@Arcticdude

I just watched a video showing a yellow jacket raid on a bee hive, in slow motion. One of the points being made was to make a smaller entrance hole into the hive, thus allowing the hive bee's a better chance to defend against the Yellow Jackets. Here is the video:
 
The last two days we've had over 2 feet of new snow fall. Today we've only had an inch or so. Yesterday I worked on plowing the road until 8 PM and for another 5 hours today. One of the construction guys slid off the road yesterday coming to work. I had to pick up the front of his truck with the tractor and drag it back up on the road. We've got about 3-8 inches of ice under the snow too so it's a little slippery around here.
 
Yesterdays snow. We're supposed to have clear weather until Friday and then another 7 days of snow. Temps down around zero or below. Just normal weather for this time of year.
Cabin.jpg
 
we've had a couple of winters with really little snow,now,enough to cover for all those winters,in my neck of woods it's about 2 ft average depth..
and they said it could come 2 feet more within the next 7 days...aaaaah,the moaning about it,feels like people have forgotten we have 4 seasons
and winter is one of them.
 
I finally got the road open on Thursday. It took a week of plowing to make it passable, so we lost another week of construction on the house. I picked the wife up at the airport on Friday, of course it was snowing when we got home.
For the month of February we had snow on 26 out of 28 days. I'm guessing that we had around 10 feet of snowfall for the month.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day with a high temp of 33 degs. It won't be long now before the snow starts melting.
We had another chimney fire late last night. I climbed on the roof and dumped snow down the chimney to put it out. I was planning on cleaning the chimney yesterday too but got lazy and put it off. As soon as it gets light out I'll be back on the roof with my chimney brush. It's getting a little cold in here without a fire.
 
The bees are out enjoying the sun. I have placed my new hive and expecting the nuc in 3 weeks.

It is missing the bottom board that goes under the screen and the entrance reducer. It was a brand new box. Oh well, I can fix all of these problems.

I'm just happy both hives made it through their first winter. My son said he could smell honey.
 
Robin, when you have a warm (60F+) day, do an inspection. They maybe hungry and you'll need to feed them if so. Now is when hives starve to death.
 
It got up to 49 degs today after a low of only 29. It's melting fast but we're not flooding yet. A couple of our creeks are just now starting to flow in some places, but most are still covered in ice and snow. With these warm days our road has water running over the ice in many areas making it extremely slick. I still have to plow every day to keep the road passable. We're down to about 3-5 feet of snow.
 
This is the white stuff on our trees right now. Well, for some reason it won’t upload any pictures right now. It was of a Japanese cherry tree in full bloom right now. Beautiful. Guess you’ll just have to trust me on that one.
 
Spring is here. We're down to only about 1-3 feet of snow on the ground in most places. Some of the south facing slopes are clear of snow. Most of my road is clear of ice now but in many places the road is under water. One area the creek is over the road and has washed out a section. A few places on the road are getting pretty muddy too. It won't be long now and the snow will be gone and the grass will start growing.
 
The greenhouse and garden are looking really good now, most of the plants are recognizable now. I’m itching to plant the warm weather stuff but know it’s still too early. It was really hot today,but had frost this morning. The weather really does seem more extreme than it used to be. I’m considering installing the white plastic over the entire garden area since it has made such a difference in the greenhouse production. It gets brutally hot here during the summer and the translucent cloth keeps the sun from cooking everything. If I do this I will need to address the rain run off being directed back into the garden area. Right now I water the entire greenhouse from the well as the rain can’t get thru. I would like to find a white reflective covering that would let the rain thru as well. Might be worth looking into.
 
We've had a lot of rain and warm temps over the last few days. And more rain and snow is predicted for the next 10 days. With the rain and temps in the mid 40's the snow is melting fast and flooding is becoming a problem. The bridge on the only road to town is close to washing out. Water is almost to the top of the bridge. I'm going to pick up a few supplies in town and then head home and work on diverting the water that's washing out my road.
Heavy snows, landslides, fires and flooding is a lot of what I prep for, not zombies or the end of the world.
 

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