Great news! We finally finished planting our seedlings! Most of them are already in the greenhouse. The weather also made a dramatic turn for the better. Nearly 100 percent of the snow is gone and we have had weather in the 60s and 70s all week. The forecast is calling for temperatures in the 80s on Monday and Tuesday. Our bees are doing great and we will be adding another brood box soon to each hive. The willow pollen has appeared and break up is not so muddy this year as in past years. Depending on the forecast we may be ready to plant our carrots and beets in the ground sometime between the 1st and 5th. We also inherited several flower planters and hanging baskets made of wood and have many flowers started this year in addition to sunflowers. This year may have started cold and dreary but we persevered and I believe we are going to have a marvelous garden this season!

Well so much for the weather. It did warm up for a few days. Then it cooled back down and has stayed that way for the last week or so. We actually got snow again on May 17th and it got down to 18 F last night. But the silver lining is that we are forecasted to have temperatures in the high 60s by the Thursday! Yay for that! Yesterday was spent transplanting all of our peppers into larger containers after transporting them to the greenhouse. I also got our cabbages and kale started a few days ago. We also moved 4 young guinea fowl into our greenhouse to help with insect control later this summer. They establish a home range at an early age so it is not easy to relocate guinea fowl after they have become adults. Today I hope to to build a quick fence around our compost area to keep animals out. Then I'd like to get the rest of our seeds planted that can be started and transplanted later. My husband and I will also be cutting the tops off of barrels we acquired for water storage and placing them strategically  around the garden. Our final goal for the day will be to start building cold frames for our raised beds. We haven't had to do this in past years, but this year is a challenging one for gardeners and farmers in Alaska. If we want to be successful we need to have warm soil ready to go as soon as possible. The latest we have planted crops is June 15th. But I prefer somewhere between the 15th of May and the 1st of June. June 1st is our official frost free date for the Alaska interior.

We transferred our tomato plants to the greenhouse yesterday and transplanted them in their 4" containers. They made it through the night so I guess the worst of the weather is past us now! (I'll cross my fingers anyway!)

Also, we received our bees on Saturday and hived them yesterday. Neither Marco or I got stung, but they sure were buzzing around like crazy! I don't think that is normal, but everything appears to bee in order this morning. Both hives are active and occupied! Bring on the honey! No, wait, bring on spring and some pollen, so we can have honey!