The winds began from the north this morning, and through the course of the afternoon shifted to bring up some warm southern air. Over the past week, I have been working on odd jobs and spring prep here on the farm.

I had planned to get in some bee work today, but I ended up running all over town trying to find items that were no longer available. It is really frustrating to waste weekend time, but this is something you deal with in country life, a trip to town means at least an hour of your day is gone. For those curious it was an insulator fastener for cattle fencing, we used to use them on all our steel fence poles when dad was farming beef, but I guess somewhere along the line they stopped making them available.

The fastener that wasted my day!

Some items that will carry into next week are, cleaning equipment, melting wax, and fixing equipment.

The bees tend to fill comb and propolis into the queen excluder by years end, I will melt it off to give them a clean slate for the current year

I spent the majority of my time at home today working organizing the shed and garage, shifting from winter garage, to summer (knock on wood). I got side tracked and began a working on a project that has been sitting on the to do list for a few years. With my garden tractor I received a pull behind tiller with a blown independent motor. Last year our walk behind tiller gave up but the engine still runs decent, so I have now decided I will try installing it on the tractor tiller. I had originally planned to buy a new motor for it, but anyone who lives in the country knows the money runs out before the projects do. I purchased a few parts for this mid 70s motor off of Jacks Small Engines website. What a good resource, showing all parts available for nearly any small engine, and any aftermarket replacements. Shipping to Canada was steep as it always is but I sent it to the depot in Walhalla, ND for 1/3 of the price.

The mid 70s Briggs Motor I am switching onto my tractor tiller. New air and fuel filter are on the way.

Here a sneak preview on what I expect next weekends blog post will be about:

Mini queen mating nucs