O bumblebee, where art thou?

The plan for today was that I would sleep over at the house, get up, scrape and sand the garage for as long as the bumblebees permitted (last time that was until 10:30 AM), and then switch to finishing off the mortar work. After this I would then head home, finish using the weed-whacker on the dandelions and tall weeds, and then mow the lawn. (Reel mowers tend to just push over tall weeds, so I had to find some other way to remove them. I should really just use my weed-popper on them.)

Last night the weather forecast changed the plans: rain, definitely in the morning and then throughout the day. I decided to stay at home for the night.

When I spontaneously woke up at 5:30 this morning it was to discover that the weather system expected to bring rain had shifted to the East. It was not raining and probably would not rain throughout the day. (I have noticed that even short-range weather forecasts are becoming less and less reliable. Another consequence of climate change?)

So after a hearty breakfast of yogurt, cereal, and fruit and several cups of coffee, and after a few quick stops on the Internet, I was on my way. I set myself up at the garage behind the house with a wary eye for bees. I was glad that it was cold, but knew that that would buy me only so much time. Eventually, the bumblebees would rouse themselves and come out with their "hey you kids get off my lawn" message. I laid out my tarp and resumed scraping from where I had ended on Tuesday when a bumblebee shooed me away.

I started on the loose paint with my putty-knife scraper. I scraped, and scraped, and kept on scraping until there wasn't any scraping left to be done. No bees. I pulled out a different scraper and stripped the boards down to bare wood. Still no bees. I pulled out a wire brush and dug into the grain of the wood and between the boards - the bees hate that, but none of then came out to let me know. I got out my sandpaper and sanding pad and did a quick pore-opening sand on the wood. The bumblebees continued to ignore me. Finally, I got out a broom and began to sweep all the residue of the stuff I had just scraped and sanded off the sides of the building - this, more than anything else, really pisses off the bees. But none of them showed up.

So. Surprisingly, I had finished the entire door-side of the garage. (Aside from trim and parts that I will need a ladder to attack, and the parts that I will need to do while laying on the ground - I plan to do these all at once.) I checked the weather, saw that there was no rain expected within the next few hours, and decided it was time to paint.

As I painted the garage doors with several coats of white Barn & Fence paint (I've almost emptied my five gallon bucket, I'll need to pick up one or two more gallons to finish the garage off) the sun came out. Soon things were warming up. Now, for sure, the bumblebees would come after me. But no, still no bumblebees.

I finished painting the garage (with the exceptions noted above). I really didn't expect to get all this done. And the bees had left me alone for once.

Got my mortar work done, too - well, not done done, sculpting with mortar is more delicate than I expected. so I had to leave some empty chunks for later. Plus I was pretty worn out by this point. But I did make sure that I watered my concrete before I left.

Got back here and ran the weed whacker, but didn't mow. Screw it, that's for later. Tomorrow, unless it rains.

Now I'm wondering if whatever has been affecting honeybees has started affecting bumblebees as well. The few honeybees I have seen in the past few weeks have all seemed stunted, weak, and sluggish. I'll have to keep an eye out for my bumblebees the next time it's warm out. I still have some work left on the garage, so I suppose they'll have an opportunity to attack me next time...if they're still around.

Title reference: One of my favorite movies, O Brother Where Art Thou?