These last few weeks, Carmel Lavender has been working hard bringing more lavender to Carmel Valley.

Here in the photo is foreman Alfonso, Jose, Nick, Jay, Nico, Charlie, and Eliodoro standing in the new median field. In a couple of months the hundreds of plants will begin spiking lavender turning this avenue into a purple dream.

This field was prepped by ripping to a depth of 2 feet, which brought up a lot of the roots. And then disked. But each plant had to be hand placed. Drip irrigation lines were run down the rows subsequently. But lately irrigation has not been necessary. Mother nature has been taking care of that quite handily.

Hive Building Time

This weekend, I am building bee hives. More bees are coming in about a week. So I have to get their homes assembled and painted before they arrive. The weather is making this challenging however. This spring has been fairly wet for this area. That's great for the plants. But not so great if you have things to get done outside. For example building and painting bee hives.

So the first thing I did was try to make a covered area where I can work in a light rain. I got a cotton drop cloth. Cotton, not plastic. Cotton isn't waterproof, but hopefully will shed a light rain. Unfortunately those plastic tarps are an ecological disaster. They don't last forever. Then they start flaking into little pieces that wind up all over the planet. Nope. I'll try my luck with cotton. I hung this out behind my lavender workshop and leveled the area a bit. Then I set up two 2x6 rails on which to set the newly assembled hives for painting.

In the picture above, you can see me putting one of the hive super boxes together. They are already cut. I just need to glue the corners, and then put screws to hold them firm. Once they are all built, I stack them on the rails for painting along with the bottom boards, lids, and stands. Here I am enjoying my new outdoor hive workshop!

When I finish assembling, I paint! Unfortunately the sprinkling has started. Cold weather is not the best to paint in. But I suppose the show must go on. At this point, it is still cold enough I wish I could wait an extra week for things to warm up. Would be better for the bees too. Nice for them to have good weather when they start their new colony. Of course, the rain should mean there will be plenty of flowers for them to forage from when it does warm up.

Everything has it's benefits and nuisances. I guess there is something to be said for having a really big barn! Maybe someday.