Around the Grounds

CHECK UP: It had been well over two weeks since we checked on the health of our hives, so yesterday afternoon we finally took a peak.

We were happy to see that the bees are business as usual. Both hives have tons of bees of various types, larvae, an abundance of honeycomb and lots and lots of honey. 

We have purchased an extractor, so in the not-too-distant future, we'll be taking a rack out, putting it in the extractor and giving it a spin, literally. Here's an example of what a honey centrifuge extractor looks like.


I SPY: Our garden continues to go gangbusters. Below, can you spy spaghetti squash?

We have some big boys nestled among our new clover lawn. I wonder when we should harvest them. I've not grown spaghetti squash before. ... 

It blows my mind that this enormous plant sprawling all over our yard came from a single seed, sown just a couple months ago.

VOLUNTEERS: This morning, I took the kids to Liberty Park in downtown Renton. It's the city's annual Renton River Days, a festival with music, food, commercial booths, an art show and more. 

CJ and Annabelle had volunteered to man the "Go Fish" booth for Birthday Dreams, an organization to which they often donate cakes for homeless kids' birthday parties. 

ROUTINE: Yesterday, SpaceX successfully launched its 18th resupply mission to the International Space Station. While doing so, they reused a Dragon capsule that had already been to the ISS twice (April 2015 and December 2017). It was the first time a Dragon had been used three times. Also, booster that had been flown once.  Inside the capsule was 2,628 pounds of science investigation-related materials, 514 pounds of crew supplies, 346 pounds of vehicle hardware, 346 pounds of stuff needed for future spacewalks, 37 pounds of computer resources, and an external payload of 3,918 pounds. 

If you'd like to see the launch, here's video from the broadcast. (The actual launch is just after the 14 minute mark of the video, if you want to jump ahead.)

It's pretty astounding when you think about it, how this is the new normal for American spaceflight - a privately-owned company carrying out what not-too-terribly long ago had been government business.