A Little Orange With That Green?

My tomato plants produced a massive amount of green fruit this season.  I have gotten a couple pounds of ripe tomatoes but the cold summer and fall have really put a damper on how quickly the fruit is maturing.  As leaves on the trees start to color, the morning air is becoming  crisp,  and the rains have returned,  I've decided to pick all the large tomatoes and see if I can ripen them in batches through the fall.

Fried green tomatoes anyone?

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday.

Surprise Guests

This summer, my brother gave me some of his old bee boxes and books on beekeeping. I gladly hauled the boxes home from Oregon and was excited to do bee research over the fall and winter, then buy bees in the spring for pollinating my berry plants, vegetable plants and fruit trees.  Of course the bonus of sweet golden honey to harvest later in the summer would be a welcome addition to our kitchen.

bee boxes 

One of the boxes had frames loaded with about 60 pounds of honey which I thought I would replace with new frames in the spring.

Last week while I was at work, my husband called and said one group of bee boxes was covered with bees and they were moving in!

The new tenants

Now I'm on a crash course trying to keep my new hive of bees alive through the winter and have gone from this....

to this.....

I'm feeling excited and a little nervous about my new tenants. If anyone has suggestions on winter beekeeping, please leave a comment.

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursdays.