Bears and Bees

I named this bear Adam, as he is the first of his kind. He stands 5'6" tall and is 3'7" at his widest point. He is carved from white spruce.

This is the bear I thought I was going to able to carve on my first try some 14 years ago. Better late than never.

Eyes, claws and teeth are all hand carved. I used "Ebony" and "Sedona Red" stains in the mouth and I also dry-brushed some white enamel onto the teeth before I applied several coats of matte clear sealer.

The beehive was made of cedar boards and a cedar shake roof. I carved a cartoon-ish bee character on each side of every super.

Craig

Also, here's a quick teaser for our next post! Check back to see the full video of us unloading our package bees.

Bird houses - Craig's Post

We have 14 bird feeders we maintain through the winter and will be adding a few Oriole and humming bird feeders as it warms up a little more. I never would have imagined we were the "bird watcher" types, but we love them! 

We were out of state for a few years and our resident bird population dwindled. The numbers are back on the rise and we want to encourage them to stay closer so we built some bird houses.


We looked online and found this model 

http://www.50birds.com/mpsidemount.htm

It is suited for Nuthatches, Chickadees and Downey Woodpeckers. We built 22 of these, 11 left hole entry units and 11, right.

We also built 4 Bluebird house of this design 

http://www.wildbirds.org/info/houses.html

We finished hanging all 26 of them on April 6th. So far we have no tenants.

We have made one of two bat houses, so far. We plan on building several Wren houses today; as well as a few squirrel houses, and at least one Barn Owl nest box.


Check back to see our progress.




Also coming up, a post to introduce Charlotte and the family, the long-awaited green cleaning post, and updates for the chickens, ducks, and rabbits. We've been busy bees these last few weeks and now have over 43 animals in our house! Speaking of bees, as long as they're still available, the hubby and I will be buying my parents honey bees for their anniversary! Happy anniversary, guys! We love you!!