Gates Family Summer Update

Hannah and her cute little "Shadow"

Maia and her cute little "Butterscotch"

"Cheep Cheep"

Well this summer we decided it was time to add and subtract from
our chicken family.
We added 8 new chicks and
eliminated 2 of the
"Old Ladies"
They were not laying as well so instead of
keeping them for pets Jeremy and his
Dad processed 2 of the non productive birds.
The Girls were on vacation so there
wouldnt be any hurt feelings.
They have become quite attatched to
some of them.
They had these named in a matter
of minutes! :)

Jeremy and I Celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary
the end of July.
So just for fun I pulled out my dress.
I still LOVE it after all these years.
It just didn't fit me so well.
It was pretty baggy and
loose but just as pretty as
11 years ago.
Kind of hard to believe it's been so
long.  Time flies when your
having fun!

We like to head to the local "Daybreak" Lake for an evening walk
and feed the giant geese and the new baby ducks.

We have had many fires in Utah this year but a few
of them came a little to close for comfort. This is taken
from our back deck looking South West.
Lightening started this fire.

Here my Very Fit Handsome Man is working on his newest and
greatest project.  We have a great garden, we have
thousands of bees, we have egg laying chickens
what more could we need....right???

A WINDMILL of course!
As of right now the plan is to get power to run the lights
in the chicken shed/coop.
I am so proud of Jeremy and his hard work at
making this work.
He amazes me every day.

What kind of update would this be without a Bee update.
We open the hives (2) every Saturday to see their
progress.
We have prepared a bucket with
cheesecloth and holes
in the lid so that when it's time
to harvest some of that delish
honey we are ready.  So far there are about
2 combs that we will harvest honey from.
We don't want to leave them
without what they will need to
survive through the winter.

This little candle is made from the comb wax
we gather each Saturday.  Some times
the bees connect the comb to places in the
hive that we don't want them building to
SO we gather it and melt it down.
Boy does it smell yumm-o!

Here I am "helping" to hold one of the combs.
Wasn't I SO brave!
"Look Mom NO gloves on those hands!" :)
Ha Ha Ha
I've come to really look forward to opening up the hive to
see what they have been working on durring the week.
We now know where the phrase
"Busy as a Bee"
comes from.
This particular comb is full of honey,
up towards the top of the bar it's about
3 inches thick and weighs about
3lbs if I had to guess.
AMAZING!

Fresh From Our Garden

We have been gathering LOTS of yummy veggies from our garden
the last few weeks. 
Zuccini, Green Beans, Corn, Strawberries, Spaghetti Squash
Sunshine Squash and a few Tomatoes.
They have all been very yummy!

Bee Update

Busy little Bees!
The white caps are the honey. Down towards the bottom
where it's darker that is pollen.

Our Bee's have multiplied in numbers by the thousands!



If you look closely you can see all the bees flying in the air.
And the cluster of bees on the front of the hive are protecting
the door and the bees and honey inside.  Each week that we
check on their progress we are amazed at how much they have
they have done.  They make a new comb each week!
Busy little things



God Bless America

Hannah with her friends Chloe and Charlotte who came to
watch the fire crackers and bottle rockets

Jonathan with his friend Charlotte.  Hanging out on the blanket
to watch the fireworks.  We love having
friends over to share in the fun

Sparkler time!

Pause and smile for the camera

Ooohs and Aaahs!

Yeah for fun fireworks

"Camping is when you slip on your slippers and sleep outside!"

The Kids being crazy!
When we were with Great Grandma and pa we went for a drive up
Nebo Canyon.  It's my favorite.  As soon as I stepped
out of the car so many fun memories came to my
mind.  We spent SO many summer time weekends
caming there.
We didn't camp this weekend but we hiked around for
a while and found lots of great camping
spots for next time.

It's cold in the mountains

Maia in her camping thrown

Hannah and Jonathan

Jonathan sized thrown

Weekend with Great Grandma and Grandpa

"A Dream Come True"
Jonathan LOVES anything Tractor.... Grandpa
worked on the Church Farm for 11 years so he
took Jonathan to the farm to see the tractors.



He was so excited! He loved climbing up the big ladder and sitting
in the passenger seat.  The tractors are amazing! Everything was
computerized.  It has GPS and knows just
how far apart to plant the seeds and were to place
the next row. AMAZING!

 

Quality time with Great Grandpa



The Kids with Great Grandma
We kept them busy doing lots of fun things.  We played the piano
and went for a drive and hike up Nebo Canyon. We
jumped on the trampoline, made yummy
lasagna and waffles.  It was a
great weekend.




The Kids with Great Grandpa
Grandpa taught the Girls how to widdle sticks.  They
spent a long time on the back porch creating
fun things.

I was so glad that the Kids got to spend a long weekend
getting to know the best Grandparents any kid could
have.  I have SO many fun memories
of spending time at their home during the summer, holidays,
birthdays, camping, rodeos.
I am a very blessed girl to have such amazing
Grandparents.
I have learned so much from them
and have felt so much love.



Busy as a Bee

After just one week of having our bee's this is what we found when we did
our inspection Saturday. Five new combs started!

Through the glare of the glass window you can see the comb and bees.
They have been busy!



Mr. Beekeeper checking on the hive.



The Beekeeper and his Bee's

Our New Family Adventure 2012

Construction of the hive



             

                                                 Jeremy hard at work on the hive









Finished "Top-Bar" hive. It looks amazing!



4 pounds of Carniolan Bees, that's roughly 10,000 bees!



Our new Beekeeper. Jeremy has been researching a lot about bees.  He "You Tubed" videos on the
different hives. Checked out books at the library. Read the  How-To's and the What-To's on how to make it the hive and also how to care about the bee's.
It's been amazing how he has learned so much about all of it.
He has even talked with some of our neighbors who raise bees.



In this picture he his holding the box that is holding the Queen Bee.  In one end there is a candy plug that the
other bees have to eat through in order to get her out.  It's their way of claiming her as their Queen.



My Saturday

I spent my day today doing what I wanted to do. It rarely happens but it was so nice! And much needed. Lately I love everything Pinterest. If you are not a "pinner" you may be soon. It is addictive! I love looking and finding new recipes to try, crafts to make and improvements to my yard and home. While on Pinterest I found these adorable felt flowers. I thought they were adorable and I just happened to have a pile of felt so I thought I would give making them a try. They were very easy. The girls had a tote full of elastic head bands that they didn't really wear so I used what we had and just dressed them up a little. I put in a movie, pulled out the glue gun and scissors and started cutting out circles. It was a good time and I think they turned out pretty dang cute. The girls really liked them too.I started out my day making bread though. Four whole wheat loaves. They are devine. My neighbor taught me the ins and outs of making yummy bread. So with her recipe I started making bread for my family every week. I usually only make 2 loaves at a time, but I was feeling productive and made a double batch. There have been times that we will make some super yummy pretzels too. I will have to make some for you some time! :)These baked apples are one of Jeremy's favorite bed time snack. He hollows out the middle of the apples and cooks them in the microwave for a few minutes while I mix the crumble topping together. We bake them in a 400* oven for about 20 minutes. A yummy and healthy snack. Some where I fit in my favorite workout of chose these days too. Zumba is a fun way for me to keep moving. I hope your Saturday was a fun and productive one for you. Love to you all, Heather

Hannah's Special Day

We are so proud of Hannah and her decision to be baptized. It was a great day. We were so glad to have friends and family there to support her. Hannah and Jeremy

Hannah with her cousins

Landon, Julia, Nathan, Ashlyn, Kiley, Brighton, Ethan, Hannah, Maia, Brielle, Jonathan, Nicholas and Noah.