The bunny wars continue, and guess who's winning?! Me! I put up a little 2 ft. fence around my next year's strawberry patch and replanted the buckwheat for the fourth time, and it's working. The buckwheat is coming up nicely and either the bunny has moved on, can't jump over the fence, or one of the neighborhood cats has conjoined forces with me. Monster kitty tried to catch him once, and it was hilarious watching him chase it  around the garden bed. Monster's tail was bushed out to twice its normal size and he was having the time of his life, but he just wasn't speedy enough.

Whatever the reason, the buckwheat is coming up nicely and should make a tasty treat for my bees while it regenerates my soil in preparation for next year's strawberries.

I finally got the bottom board on the top bar. It was scary as heck, even though I did it early in the morning before the bees were even out and about. I had to get the board lined up so the bolts went through all 6 holes and it was unwieldy and heavy, then get the washers and wing-nuts on. There's not much space between the hive and the garage wall, so it was a very uncomfortable feeling of being trapped. I tried doing it without the smoker and the veil, but soon discovered that wasn't going to work. Every time I tried to get the board on I had to rebrush the bees off the bottom, and then it would clunk on the bottom of the hive and cause more guard bees to zoom out looking to drive off the intruder. There weren't very many bees hanging out on the bottom, but they sure were determined to get right back  to their hang-out after they made a buzzing pass at my face. I'm afraid a few are entombed between the board and the hive until spring, but it couldn't be helped.

While I was out there I had the treat of seeing  my morning hummingbird up close and personal. It was hovering on the Russian Sage just two feet away from me. I was really bummed not to have the camera with me.