This is certainly a day for exclamation marks and LOL's, isn't it?!
Today was just perfect, QA; and one of the things I love about beeking is the zen of working the hive.
Now you need to move some chairs over there so you and E can start listening and sniffing, and journaling in your notebook about that hive of yours.

just heavenly
Seriously you can learn a lot by listening to the sound of the hive a little every day at different times of the day. When your colony starts producing drone bees, you will automatically be able to tell the difference between a worker leaving the hive to forage and a drone leaving the hive to hit the local drone congregating site (a drone sounds like 747 compared to the worker buzz of a small personal plane).
E did show me all the plants he had but I didn't look at how many of them he and TR put in the buckets and the car. The plants are now sitting on the back deck waiting for TR to plant them.
and even if TR doesn't think it's necessary, I don't mind in the least if you come down every 3 weeks to check on my bees!
Funny girl! Do ya wanna be a bee-keeper or a bee-haver?? I know you are just kidding!

While I would love to do just that - drive to your place to
watch you work your bees - I am not sure how that will work out just yet.
But think of how amazed your family and friends will be when they get a teeny 4 oz jar of your own $200 honey and a teeny votive beeswax candle made with your own beeswax at Christmas!
BTW, even if you don't get honey your first year, I recommend that you start thinking up clever labels for those jars. Our label changed 4 times before we got to the final one.......