Anyhow...
Saturday, I drove out to White Hall and picked up my Illinois super (that's not "super" as in "awesome" but "super" as in "the part that goes on top of the brood chamber for bees to put honey in.") starter kit (I decided to not be a tough guy and go with three Illinois for the brood chamber rather than two standard hive bodies - full of honey, a standard hive body apparently runs 80-100#, while the smaller Illinois super only runs about 50-60#). I think Ruth is about as excited to have bees as I am - every time she sees a picture of one, she says, "we're going to have those!" Melissa and I are just trying to mentally prepare her for the fact that, if she ultimately helps me with the bees, she will eventually get stung (and hoping she doesn't turn out to be allergic).
When I got home, Ruth helped me paint. She'd requested pink, and I found some salmon-y color (as Melissa pointed out, very Baltimore) on the mistint shelf at Lowes - score! So we went out in the back and painted up the boxes.
Ruth was actually really good at the painting! I'm always amazed at how fast her motor skills are developing. And she was excited to come out on Sunday and put on another coat, so the boxes are all painted up and waiting for the bees to arrive (in mid-April).
The bigger part of prep is that I think we're going to need to finally replace our fence. We'd been putting it off because of the expense, but the chain link is looking pretty ratty, and we think it will be better to put the bees in the backyard - but then we'll need something solid both to prevent people from poking stuff at the hives from the street and to get them to spread out on their foraging flights a bit as they head out so as not to disturb the neighbors...
BONUS FROM THE RANDOM FILES:
Last night, at dinner, Ruth was smearing some strawberry on her knee and licking it off, which we wanted to nip in the bud. Then:
MELISSA: Stop licking your knee.
RUTH (begins kissing her leg): I'm kissing it!
MELISSA: No, stop kissing your knee!
RUTH: But I love myself!
