New bees

So we decided to try bees again although I failed the last two years. The pictures above are two different hives We got two swarms from a man I met in my bee class a couple of years ago. Swarms are suppose to be stronger than packaged bees. They seem pretty happy so far and have been very busy flying in and out of the hive and I noticed a lot of pollan on their legs on the returning bees. - more later :)

Solar Class

I'm taking a Solar Design class which is harder and taking more of my time than I expected but I am learning a lot and hope it will help me find a job if I need one - hopefully I don't but you just never know these days.

Last Saturday we installed a Solar system on a pretend roof. I forgot my camera but my classmate Bill emailed me some photos so I can post them here. (thanks Bill) Luckily the roof is at ground level so I don't have to worry about heights. Installing the Solar Panels was easier than I thought it would be. The live electricity part still scares me. The system was 8 modules in series and put out 1.4KW of power. I actually enjoyed this lab.

We got our last quiz back last night and I only got 72% right - I'm not use to doing so bad :( I spent hours last week studying and memorizing all the mathmatical formulas and the quiz last night didn't even have any questions on those. I'm not really sure what to study for this class - there is so much material and what I think is most imporatant hasn't been on the quizes. In the end I think it will be on the certification test so I'm probably not wasting my time at least. Can I live with a bad grade for the class??? Will anyone ever look at my transcripts??? I doubt it.

Ok - so I'm afraid of heights and afraid of getting electricuted so why am I in this class??? Well - I'm hoping that I can get a nice desk job somewhere or maybe a Project Management job at a large enough company where I won't have to do the heavy work. PG&E is at the top of my list right now.

On another note I'm dropping off 2 beehives at a friend's house on Sunday who collects swarms in Santa Clara. Once he gets a couple I will go pick the hives up and bring them home. Keep your fingers crossed that they stick around.