The Canada Day long weekend has been our first chance at an extended couple of back-to-back days at Wildwood...and of course the weather did its best to kill us. The forecast was 30+ Celsius and it didn't disappoint.
We started each day at 5am...and after coffee and stumbling about really got to work around 5:30-6am. Good thing too since by 10am the heat was on. Except when snap thunder/lightning storms blew through... The temperatures started to drop around 7pm...and it was dark around 10-ish. By the last day Cath was down and out with some heat exhaustion and I was wiped out.
We had a massive list of to-do's...and I think we got quite a bit of it done. Garden, bees, bunky, shed, swimming and ice cream...lots and lots of ice cream!
To cool down we bought lots of ice, cold drinks, ice cream and went swimming at Pt Petre. The water temperature was very Goldilocks & The Three Bears...one day the water was heart stopping cold, the next it was warm and the next it was just right. I'm always floored at the scenery.
The building project for this long weekend was to get the roof onto the storage shed and to start sorting out the tools and building supplies. Roofing in weather this hot is not the smartest thing, but we really needed this done sooner than later. I wish I used thicker sheeting and we made some goofs with the rafter notches, but lessons learned and I'm good with it. There's still lots to do to get the walls up, to do some more bracing and to rig up a rain gutter and water catchment system, but it's still standing!
The garden was weeded, watered (yeah...thanks rain for showing up after Cath lugged all the water jugs around!), and tended. The Rhubarb is fading in the summer heat, the Tomatoes are going nuts, lots of Squash and Hot Peppers starting. The leeks and garlic are coming along and the girls' garden beds are looking awesome.
One morning Cath put up the trim for the windows and I finally finished staining the bunky. It looks so much better now!
Of the 5 hives we're back down to 4. The purple hive has faded enough that Cath decided it was best to collapse it and move some of the bees into another hive. The bees seemed to be coping with the heat well enough, but we put out an extra watering station just in case. Most of the hives are producing really well and will get their honey super soon. Cath is already thinking of getting a honey extractor and how she's going to handle the honey harvest.