STORMY DAY AGAIN

After another week of rainy days, yesterday was hit and miss, ending with rain.  Saturday was a muddy mess out there and not much got done.  I couldn't even check the bees because it kept sprinkling and I didn't want to open the top of the hive and have water come in.  That's not a good thing for the bees.  

This morning we awoke to clear skies in town and were hopeful, but on the radar, there were big ones coming.  We stayed in town.  Above is the current radar image at the farm.  I had 2nd Family send a picture from the farm so we could see it and share it with everyone.  Here is that photo:

Storm clouds coming

There is an ominous beauty about storm clouds like this (along with a healthy dose of respect).  They will be keeping an eye on the sky and seeking shelter if necessary.  We're just bracing for it to hit in town, it's about an hour away.

Such a wet season we've had this year.  We'll never complain about too much water, but just wish it would take the weekends off, ha.

More later!

DODGING THE RAIN

Going to do some fence line clearing but as you can see in the lower corner of the picture, we have had rain...lots or rain...over 4 inches this week. 

But the clouds are building and getting dark and I think there will be more rain before the day is over.  We might have to just come back into town and give up for the weekend as there is still more rain in the forecast for tomorrow...but we'll see how much we can get done.

A GIFT OF FUTURE FLOWERS

One of our regular readers and special friend of the blog, the one that shared pictures of her beautiful iris garden a while back, sent two special packages to us in the mail.

Candy Lily Seeds

One was a large envelope full of seeds...seeds of the Candy Lily plant!  She was even so thoughtful as to add some screen prints from a website about the plant and how to care for it, etc.  We love the disclaimer on the outside of the package...'they may or may not bloom the first year'.  

Oh, how I know that all too well, LOL!  

The second package was a large box full of carefully wrapped divisions of the orange day lily plant.  Roots, leaves, and ready to go in the ground.  Again, a helpful printout of the details of the plant, how to grow it, care for it, etc.

Orange Day Lilly

A HUGE thank you to her, it's much appreciated and they will go into the soil at the farm very soon!  Being perennials, if they make it and grow and multiply, we'll always smile and think of her when we see them!

YELLOW AND GREEN, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Flowers on a fence line, image via Pinterest

Well, you know we are scouring online resources to get ideas for flowers to buy to scatter around the farm.  Usually the photos I find that we like best are an explosion of various colors; reds, pinks, purples, yellows, whites, etc.  This however is colorful for quite the opposite reason.  The color palette is about the same across the photo; yellows and varying shades of green but still, this is just so pretty in its own right.  Different textures, heights, etc and so pretty.  Maybe it is for just that, its simplicity.

Be inspired!

P.S. Blogger acting up for some reason, so this post is short, but please do still leave comments.  Will hopefully catch up on them tonight.

A MULE COMES TO VISIT

We always love when we get to experience the neighbors' livestock just on the other side of the fences around our farm.  It gives us a taste of possibilities for the future and lets us enjoy them while we are there part time without having to worry about leaving them alone.

White Mule

So we saw this handsome fella at the back fence line the other day.  He was definitely a looker standing there in the green pasture grass, dressed in his finest white.  Found out the neighbors got a pair of them to help protect their other animals from coyotes.  Apparently mules and donkeys hate coyotes and will chase them off if they approach the other herding animals. 

We had never heard that before but like that some animals will help to protect other animals.  I had heard of dogs doing this of course but didn't realize that other animals did this as well.  You learn something new every day!

GRASS SEEDING SUGGESTIONS

Anyone have suggestions for grass seeding the newly cleared area?

It's big and freshly turned, and we're getting regular rain.  Since we've never seeded a lawn from scratch, just wondering the process.  

It doesn't have to match, heck, I wouldn't even know what to match it too, farm grass is just a random assortment of green things growing close to each other, ha.  We just need more green stuff and less brown stuff!

2nd Family's "R" leveled it for us with the grader tractor attachment and so I think it's ready.  I've seen that spray on grass seed but pretty sure that doesn't work 'as seen on tv', LOL.  Scott's also makes one that is coated with nutrients and a method to keep it moist by holding water until it germinates.  Not sure if just throwing some out by hand would work or if I need a spreader or what would work best.  For now, we'd just like some green.

UPDATE:  We had a random thought tonight while reading your comments and looking at the pictures...what about anything edible?  Perhaps some sort of wheat type crop (not wheat of course but some other edible/usable grass?).  We could put regular green grass in the foreground portion of that middle picture but what about that big open space, anything we could plant that we could eat?

Thoughts?

HAPPY BEES HAPPY BEEKEEPER

So this weekend was bee checking time.  I always love walking up to the beehives, because I come at them from the back (their openings face SE per most beekeeping advice) and I always like how pretty and peaceful they look sitting there in the sunlight.

English garden hives

So a good sign of a healthy hive, or at least one that is producing "brood" (larvae/babies), is when the returned forager bees are loaded up with pollen on their pollen sacs or pollen baskets as they are called.  They mix this with nectar and/or honey to create 'bee bread' which then becomes the primary source of protein for the hive.  

Pollen sacs on bees

They were all coming in one after another full of pollen!  YAY!  Both hives too.  So there is good stuff going on inside.  Last week I was worried when I saw a few ants trying to get into Ariadne hive.  I had read that most times, if it's not a large infestation, the bees will take care of it themselves...  

...sure enough, they did.  Not an ant in sight.  Here they are just going in and out on a flight path, they almost needed an air traffic controller to manage it.

Honeybee with pollen sacs in flight

And finally, I just had to share a picture of this lady returning to Persephone hive, all loaded up with pollen, and her little shadow below.  Pretty cool!

So the bees are happy and that means we're happy.  So far, our beekeeping adventure is progressing as it should.  Next weekend, weather permitting, I will open it to check on the overall health of each hive.  Hope to see lots of comb being built and babies in various stages of development and maybe even some honey being capped off.  

BREAD SURPRISE TO END THE WEEKEND

It's been a good weekend, got a lot done (pics to come in upcoming posts), and now it's starting to rain.  Perfect timing!  And speaking of perfect timing...in honor of our first few weeks with the bees, 2nd Man whipped up a new bread for us to try.  He decided to make some white bread and added 10 grain cereal to the batch and then added honey to the dough!

Fresh baked bread

A nice, golden yellow in color...and when it was sliced open...

10 Grain Honey Bread

...lots of grains and a nice texture.  And the honey was a nice surprise. Of course, now I can't wait until we can use honey from our own hives!

Go bees!

Now that the weekend is officially done, I will catch up on comments this week, have a bit of a headache at the moment and will be going to bed early.  

Hope you had a great weekend!

OFF TO THE FARM

Two main goals today...one is to get this burn pile burned now that it has had time to dry out.  No worries on location, it's an optical illusion/camera angle and is not near the barns or the trees, ha.  Not sure it will all burn up in the first try but we'll see.

And I want to get this fence line and corner cleaned up because it's starting to merge into the yard and become one, LOL.  Of course mow again as well.  Our forecast is for potential flooding rains ALL of next week, which means next weekend might be mud and water again...heavy sigh.

SWEET DOG VISITOR

This is a neighbor's dog.  He periodically comes to visit us and when he does, he is usually glued to my side and follows me EVERYWHERE on the property.  If I get out of sight, he gets worried and comes looking for me.  Usually he's just walking beside me, almost like a guide dog.  If I stop, he stops and waits.  

He's a sweetheart.  His name is Rebel.  

I took his picture and when the shutter clicked, he did the little head turn to the side dogs do that is so freakin' adorable.

I told him I'd put him on the blog and he'd get comments from around the world, but he seemed unimpressed.  

 

"Yeah, yeah, I know I'm cute..."

FENCE FLOWERS, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Fence flowers, image via pinterest

Keeping with the flower and color this season, here is a look we like.  Of course, we don't have a fence like this, but we sure like it.  It's always nice to see some great combinations of color and this is a nice one.  I believe the lower flowers are zinnias...nice combination and great contrast against the green...something we sure have a lot of, hence the need for color, ha.  Hoping to get some more flower beds worked on this weekend.  

Hope you are having a great day!

Be inspired!

SNAKE IDENTIFICATION GUIDE

The size of this snake is hard to know in this picture, could be 8 feet coiled up under the bushes...or it could be what it is, a small snake I found under one of the landscape timbers recently.  Of course, on first reaction, it might as well have been 8 feet long, scared the crap out of me for a brief moment.

So it made me realize we need something to learn the good snakes from the bad snakes.

Snake guide for Texas

Having 11 acres of land, much of it still covered with trees and brush and a large area with a pond/swampy spot, we reluctantly share our space with snakes.  Even though I'm not a big fan of them, I'm also not the type to just kill anything that slithers if it's not dangerous to us.  For example, 'Texas Rat snakes' eat large quantities of rats and mice and if that will help keep the mouse population in check, we're OK to have them there.  

Snakes of Southeast Texas

But like the picture at the top of this post, I still need to know what are the good ones or the bad ones.  Recently, I found this guide on Amazon, it's called Snakes of Southeast Texas.  A slick, glossy, waterproof foldable that has pictures of each of the most common snakes found in our part of the state.  It shows which are venomous, which are safe, which are aggressive and which are not.  It will be nice to have on hand at the farm...

UPDATE:  I forgot to add, since many of you asked, what this snake is.  I ordered the snake guide, and then promptly left it at the farm before I had a chance to look at the picture again.  I will look at it this weekend and see what it shows.  I had intended to leave it in town so we could study it, but forgot.  I'm pretty sure, and with 2nd Family's thoughts, this is a harmless one.

MAY THE FOURTH

I ALMOST FORGOT!

Since we are children of the original Star Wars generation, we can't let today go by without acknowledging...

...Star Wars Day!  

May the 4th (get it?  LOL)

To view today's original post, CLICK HERE.

CORNER BED LANDSCAPING

A few weeks ago, I started on the flower beds around the house.  The first one I built was the corner of the house, between the two stairs.  

CLICK HERE to see the beginnings of it.

This weekend, I went to the garden center and picked up a flat of marigolds, two yellow coreopsis, and we still had a Texas sage in town that we bought on clearance last Fall.  I laid them all out to figure out where they looked best.

Then I added some good soil, tilled it into the existing ground, planted the flowers, and then topped it all off with black mulch.  

Landscape timber flower bed

So that's one step toward getiing some color in the yard...

Corner flower bed

...and we also think it makes the house look a bit more 'finished'.  Or as "J" from 2nd Family said, it doesn't look as lonely, ha.  We're going to continue it down one side and along the entire front.  The next segment I will work on will be the front on the other side of the stairs, just so you can see it as you walk in.

  

IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN

Yep!  They say a beekeeper will always remember his or her first sting.

It was yesterday at the Persephone hive.  I was putting the excluder between the honey super and brood box.  I didn't want to use the smoker because it was going to just be a quick in and out and I didn't want to upset the hives more than they would be but in retrospect, smoke would have been good.  Anyway, I had my bee suit on, but I still don't have the proper gloves.  I was wearing some gloves that have a latex coating on the bottom and fabric on the top.  I guess I wasn't quick enough and she popped me in the top of my hand, right through the fabric.

Image courtesy of Skripps.org

It hurt, I won't lie, but it was quick, like the needle when getting a shot.  It wasn't her fault, she was just doing her job.  I didn't panic, or flail about...I did however use a couple of profanities that I won't repeat here...but I kept working, gently but quickly, and got the hive finished and retreated to the porch.  The pain lasted for just a few minutes, which was unexpected (I thought it would be longer).  I had no swelling, no reaction, and now I can't even tell where it was.  I guess, for me anyway, that's a good thing to know, as it shows I didn't have a reaction to the venom.

Now I am going online looking for "proper" bee gloves.

It's been a good weekend (other than this, ha) but I'm tired for sure.  More updates during the week but I'll catch up on comments later tonight.

Hope you had a great weekend!

BEE QUOTE WITH PICTURE

William Longgood bee quote

Last year, I used a bee photo that I took and put a nice quote with it, you can see that result HERE.

I did it again but guess what this is?  It's one of our girls!  Last year when I took the other bee picture, it was a random bee from somewhere else.  This lady was on a bloom right near the hives so she's one of ours.  

How fun to think that now the bees on our farm doing their thing are bees that we are raising.  

Isn't she beeutiful?  

A SATISFYING BREAKFAST TO START THE DAY

Some hearty breakfast before heading off to the farm.  I woke up and 2nd Man had made breakfast.  I smelled bacon.  Is there any better way to wake up?  

I don't think so, ha.  

Steel cut oats with bacon 

This is a big bowl of steel cut oats and bacon.  Oh yeah, and it's topped off with some fresh maple syrup from our RECENT MAPLE gift package!

After this satisfying breakfast, as this posts of course, I'm off to get some much needed, long delayed yard work done.  Thursday, when I did the bee check with my half day off, I also edged around all the main areas, house, garden fence, driveway trees, fence line, barns, fruit trees, etc.  I like doing the edging first so that when I mow right up next to it, it magically looks perfect!  

Also going to give the bees their first real hive checks.  Need to see what's going on, check for eggs, larvae, comb building, mites, etc.  Fingers crossed.  

It's a beautiful weekend...cool, sunny, clear.  I can't wait!

SEEING DOUBLE AND BEE UPDATE

Twin Calves

One of my best friends, "R", sent us this picture.  This is one of his father's cows at their ranch.  This lovely lady just had twin girls!  What a cute pair of babies they are!  It's definitely Spring, as there are a few new babies at the neighbors' farm next to ours as well.  Love to see the babies of any animal.

Yesterday the bees were fine. I  filled the feeders and took a peak inside.  It all looked good and they were building comb and hopefully the queens are laying eggs and the next generation is being created.

Langstroth Bee Hive

There were bees coming and going at the entrances.  A couple of you left comments here and then I saw on Leigh's blog about how to watch for beeS returning with pollen that they had gathered.  I watched and saw several of them coming in loaded up with pollen so I hope that means good things are happening deep inside the hive.  This weekend I'll be removing the excluder placed on the bottom and putting it between the honey super and the brood box, and then putting the frames in the one super. 

More later!

FLOWER GARDEN, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Flower garden bed, image via PINTEREST

Since we decided to focus on adding color to the farm this Spring/Summer instead of veggies CLICK HERE to read about that if you missed it, we are looking online for inspiration.  We found this and just love the pop of multicolor in this photo.  It's so neat the way it is just a grouping like this, not lined up in a neat row, not in a dedicated bed, instead it's just a spot where they planted a bunch of flowering plants (side note, I love the pasture behind but I digress).

Hope you are having a great day. Today, I'm taking another 1/2 day for 'bee check'.  I swear I have the greatest boss ever..."Hey, would it be OK if I took a half day off to go check on the bees?  Sure, sounds fine!"  

I hope to also get the edging done before the weekend, it's supposed to be clear and beautiful and best of all, dry!

Be inspired... 

A BIRD IN THE CAN

Remember when I blogged HERE about my friend "R" finding the Creamy Crustene metal can at an estate sale?  Well the other night we went to dinner and he gave it me as a belated gift for my birthday!

Creamy Crustene

So here it is in its new home at the farm, up on top of the hutch in the kitchen.  It just needed a bit of cleaning and when I opened it, there was a bunch of tissue paper that I pulled out to throw away.  Wrapped inside was a little red bird, most likely a Christmas ornament.  I figured it found it's way to us so...

...we clipped it to a basket on the other end of the kitchen hutch and now it adds a little pop of color. We have cardinals at the farm so it only seems fitting that this one has a home in our house.