This was Ryllee's weekend at the farm with Nana and Pappy. She'll be five next weekend and we had such a good time. Well, my blog site has gone to heck in a handbasket. None of my pictures are posting in the right place - and after 4 tries, I really don't care anymore. So there. Nothing's going to be in order - or in the right place. This will be like putting a puzzle together. I hope you enjoy a challenge! We started the weekend with a cool mani-pedi then jumped in the truck for the trip. God bless Apple and Ipad's. It totally makes the trip bearable. Even Frankie was chillin'. We picked dewberries out in the field. You know, blackberries are big, dewberries are small. You have to really work hard to pick enough to make jelly. It only took Ryllee about 3 minutes to figure out the thorns were a bad idea. So, the rest of the afternoon, she would find some and point and I stuck my hands down in the thorns to pick them. One of us is really smart! Everybody works at the farm. Water those plants! Get to work! Fine. Go ahead and take a break. Have a good time with Pappy - I'll just stand over here and work. Well, maybe I'll just take more pictures. Saturday morning we got up and tried to find the birds in the trees that were making all that racket. Cousin It and her side kick Little It. Ryllee's growing her hair to be as long as Nana's. We found a baby cricket!! How exciting is that?? So we captured him and put him in the bucket with grass. Yeah, that makes captivity all better. But we picked a flower to brighten his cell before he was released into the wild. This tiny skinny child is an eating machine. She looks like she doesn't ever eat - but all weekend: Nana, I need a snack, I need an apple, I need a fruit snack, a juice, milk, crackers, the kitchen sink, the couch...oh wait, maybe I got carried away. The child eats every hour on the hour. She ought to be as wide as she is tall. Pappy spent all day mowing the back pasture and took Ryllee for a spin. I can't believe I'm even putting this picture in - I don't even go to the grocery store without makeup. But we were so tired, we took a 2 hour nap. We took a quick trip Sunday morning into Lufkin for supplies from Lowes. Check out those muscles. Yes, farm life is hard work! Then we came back and got dressed for church. Isn't she adorable? Saturday morning, she said she wanted a pair of shiny black shoes. I said, "this is Corrigan and there's only a Dollar Store here! Where am I going to find shoes?" So we went to the Dollar Store and I thought I could distract her with a toy. There was one pair of shiny black shoes in her size sitting there. That was $7 well spent! After church, we had more yard work. Then the drive home. More Ipad and more Frankie chillin'. She found out that Mom and Dad bought a new pool for the back yard and couldn't wait to get home. We instantly became second place to that! Dad came to pick her up when we got home and she practically jumped head first into the back seat. Oh well, that's life. We had a great weekend!

Nana and Pappy took Finley to the farm by herself for the first time.  She tried on Pappy's hat to make sure she looked good in a straw hat.

We were on the road when I realized we had not brought along her blanket.  THE BLANKET.  The blanket that she drags around the house morning, noon and night.  The blanket she's never slept without. OMG!  I somehow forgot the blanket!  I tried adult reasoning and explained that we were going to have to buy a new blanket at the next Walmart we found.  I took her in to the baby section and we looked at all the blankets and she calmly chose a Dora fleece blanket.  Then I distracted her from concentrating on the new blanket, by getting 3 new outfits and a new pair of shoes.  A girl can't resist shopping!

 

It worked! She sat in the backseat with a box of honey bees buzzing on the floor and didn't fuss about it.  We had been in the truck for 3 hours and she hadn't stopped talking, singing, crying, laughing, talking some more and 30 minutes outside of Corrigan, she fell asleep - with her new blankie!    There is nothing to compare to the power of a Nana.

Here's one of her dresses.  Doesn't she look cute- but I think she knows it.

 Saturday night we all had spaghetti at Stella and Ben's house next door.  Here Finley's eating dinner with Grandmother.

Here she is eating with PaPa.

She thought the chocolate cake was the best and wanted a second piece.  However, I, being the possessor of Nana power, knew that a second helping of sugar meant I wasn't going to bed early. Oh come on- she only cried for a few minutes....

See, I knew what I was talking about.  Sleeping like an Angel.

Mike and I snuck outside early Sunday morning to enjoy a cup of hot tea and listen to the birds while Finley slept in.  We must have been too loud because she didn't sleep long.  But she was willing to sit in my lap for a while.

Pappy made us breakfast which was a big hit.  She insists on wearing a bandana on her head as soon as I put one on.  Look at that face!!

 

I brought along a plastic fish watering can for her to help water the plants.  She put on her rubber boots, her hat, sunscreen and we watered the muscadines, the sunflowers, the pecan trees and the grape vines. She got a little tired and had to sit a while.

Very independent.  She didn't want me to help at all.  She wanted to hold the water hose all by herself.

After she soaked herself with the water hose, we changed into another pair of pajamas!  Then we walked next door to see cousin Stella.

 Finley is such a good worker!  She walked and watered and walked and watered.  I gave her the Ipad to look at on the way home and she was asleep within 5 minutes and slept almost the whole trip.  YESSSS!

Finley's trip to the farm is over - we had such a good time!

We finally did it!  We picked up our honey bees from R. Weaver Apiaries on Saturday morning.  They came in their own little wooden screen box for transport.   We put them in the backseat of the truck with our 2 year old granddaughter, Finley and headed to the farm.  Caution:  hold the box by the wooden ends and not the screen side!

The queen is hanging in the middle of the box in her own tiny little cage giving off pheromones so the other bees will start to accept her.

Here’s the bottom box of the hive getting ready for the bees.  We removed 4 to 5 of the frames to make room for the bees.  There’s the bee brush to move the bees around without crushing them.  There’s my gloves that protects my hands and arms.  And there’s the bottle of sugar water to feed the little guys until they start collecting pollen.

Here’s the last picture I took for a few minutes.  Did you know you cannot use the iphone camera with leather gloves on? I know! It surprised me too!  However, when Mike took the lid off the bee box to remove the queen – they were really ticked off.  They came zooming out of that box flying around and I was SO GLAD I had on a bee hat, veil, leather gloves, and Velcro around my ankles so they did not fly up my pants legs!   I promise, every possible bee available opening was covered up!

After we hung the queen in her little cage in the bottom box, we sprayed the bees with sugar water to make them sticky – it makes shaking them out of the little box into their new home a little easier.  That’s right, you turn the small box upside down and SHAKE them into the big box on top of the queen.    They love her and groom her and feed her until they can get her out of her little tiny cage.  It has a candy plug at the bottom that they have to eat through to get to her.

Whatever bees don’t come out of the box when you shake it, they get to climb out on their own.  So you put the box on the ground and somehow they figure out how to escape out that great big hole in the top and get in the big box.

This is the entrance for the bees for the first couple of weeks.  It’s right there.  See it?  Ok, it’s “bee” hind that clump of bees.  Oh come on – it’s the first pun today!

Here’s the final picture of the hive.  The top honey super also has frames and there’s a lid on top of that which makes it really heavy.  However, a couple of weeks ago something knocked the top lid off a couple of inches and several red wasps decided it was the perfect place to live.  Mike had the honor of getting rid of them – without wasp spray.  You can’t spray poison into a bee hive!

OK, one last picture.  I’m happy, happy, happy that this experience is over.  This is the happy face of a new “bee-keeper.” 

Maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to take my own picture anymore….

You know what?  I’ve been holding back showing family pictures and outings because of Facebook.  I’m not sure I want everyone knowing my business.  So from now on – you two people who actually read my blog will have to go find it on the blogsite.

So….strawberries are in season!!  Mike and I took all four grandchildren to the strawberry farm in Magnolia to pick strawberries.  Ok, we let Amy and Kyle go with us.  J We got there about 10:00 in the morning.  We heard they were short on containers, so we took our pink Easter buckets.  Not only did the girls look so cute carrying them, but Mike looked awesome!

Amy and I took turns carrying Levi around – that boy is getting heavy.

 

We also took both of the red wagons – what a life saver – those girls are getting heavy too!

There were strawberries everywhere – and so sweet.  I’ve only had strawberries from the store.  Absolutely no comparison.  I knew right away I had to add a section to my garden for strawberries.

The girls got the hang of it – OK – not really.  Sophia wanted to ride in the wagon and eat strawberries.  Ryllee wanted someone to pick strawberries and put them in her bucket while she stood there.  And Finley wanted to run back and forth over the rows stomping on strawberries.  Wow, did we have a good time!

We took drinks and sandwiches in a cooler and ate lunch in the back of the truck afterwards.

Mike and I actually got a picture of us with all the kids.

I brought home a bucket and intended to making strawberry jam.  But you know what?  I actually had to work this week and didn’t have time.  

So, I reverted to the old standby – the dehydrator.  I sliced the strawberries and added lemon juice and Splenda.  Then put them on the dehydrator trays for 24 hours.

Five trays of strawberries filled two thirds of a quart jar.  

Can you say FLAT berries?  Well, maybe Mike and I ate a few.

Mike!  Can you build me a strawberry garden? Right now?

Mike and I finally got to attend the “Homestead Beekeeping Seminar” in Waco last Thursday.  It was an 8 hour class – and it was only part one!  We didn’t go back the second day for part two- I didn’t know it was offered and it was full by the time we asked about it.  Well, if I feel the need later on – I know where to find the class.

We sat in class the whole morning and learned about the importance of managing your hive, the biology of the honey bee, pollination and importance of bees and on and on and on.  You think you just throw a box in the back yard, put some bees in it and collect the honey, right?  Oh heck no.  You have to learn to tell the bees apart – and I don’t mean like “this is Jane” and “this is Bob”- you need to be able to identify the queen from the drones and the worker bees.

After lunch, we suited up and headed out to the hives.  There were eight of us in the class and most of us were new bee owners. 

 

Here we’re learning how to start a fire in the smoker.  You smoke the hive to calm the bees before you open it.  When the bees smell smoke, they start eating the honey because they think there’s a fire and they’re going to have to relocate the hive.  When they’re full of honey they calm down and don’t swarm.  OK, that’s for the bees in the hive, but the ones coming in from the field were not smoked and they were not happy we were there!

 

Here are two of the five top bar hives we checked. 

 

This is Jacob who taught the class.  He’s been bee-keeping for 13 years and he’s got to be at least 22 years old!  What a really nice guy.  You see he’s only putting on the hat and veil.  No gloves.  No bee suit.  Show off.

The combs hang from the wooden bars shown here.  We pulled them out one at a time (that’s every bar on every hive)  and checked for the queen  (there’s only one in each hive.)  You should see on one of the combs where she’s been laying eggs.  The poor woman lives 2 to 3 years and lays 1000 to 1500 eggs a day.  The problem is - it looks like a small grain of rice in the bottom of a well.  I’m going to have to buy tri-focals.  If another queen hatches – they fight to the death.  You go girl!

 

You should also see drones and worker bees hanging out.  The worker bees are all female.  They are responsible for all the maintenance of the hive,  and feeding the babies, and collecting the pollen and nectar and guarding the hive.  She only lives about 45 days.  Please, I’m surprised she lasts that long! The drones are the male bees who do absolutely nothing but hang around to mate with the queen – who by the way only mates once and that’s it – it’s over.  They get to live a couple of months.

OK, class is over.  Walking back to the class room to take off the suit.  I felt like a warrior coming home from battle. Spending an hour with bees crawling all over you is nerve wracking – even with a full suit.  Nobody got stung – not even the crazy instructor who didn’t even wear gloves! 

We pick up our bees on April 27^th – I think we’re ready!

I like Daylight Savings Time.  It means I can come out of hibernation! I’m pretty much worthless in the wintertime.  It’s dark when I get up, it’s dark when I get to work, and when I home from work it's dark and cold.  I just put  my pajamas back on when I get home and go get in bed.  Makes me no difference that’s it’s only 5:30 in the afternoon.

But when the time changes – I get to work in the yard.  Oh yes, I did just say that.  Today, first day of the new time change – Mike had me out raking pine needles for hours.  I used muscles I haven’t used since last fall and I hurt all over.  HA!  I just watched Mike limp across the room – I feel better already!

Anyway, last weekend we had 12 tons of lime delivered to the farm.   According to the soil sample analysis from the Texas Ag Extension service, our PH balance was way too low –too acidic.  We sent in four samples and got eight pages of data back, so we called the agent and had him come out to explain.

It seems that weeds, vine and such like a low PH.  Hay and grass like a medium PH and you fix that by adding lime.  Ours required one ton per acre.  What????  2,000 pounds per acre?  That seemed like a lot to me, but who am I to argue with the experts.

12 tons required 2 trucks –and here they come.  

They sling the stuff out the back-end of the trucks.  Oh, I see why you need so much – half of it blows away into your neighbors yard.

Then one of the trucks got stuck in the pasture.

30 minutes later it’s all over and they’re headed back to the fertilizer store.   

Well, for what they charged, I’d better get a strong stand of hay this year.  I’m going to keep checking over the fence at Abner’s field – the wind blew half the lime into his pasture.

This is some really exciting stuff!  We're taking soil samples to see what will grow in our pastures.
We walked back and forth, up and down, digging holes and putting dirt in a bucket.

Mike dug the holes, I carried the bucket (you know I had the hard job!).

 We took 4 different samples and then today mailed them off to Texas A&M for analysis.  Had to pay to mail dirt. Somebody actually has a job that requires receiving dirt in the mail from strangers -opening the bags and running analysis on it.  I'm just saying, there are some freaky people out there.  All of a sudden, accounting doesn't sound so bad!

 Our hay is still in it's winter stage - brown and crispy.  In a couple of months it'll be 3 feet tall and we'll be spending hours on the tractor mowing.
 
 The nectarine tree is covered in blooms - I wonder if it will survive the next freeze?

 Well, that's all I have today.  It's kinda slow in the winter.  I just have one question:  does this look safe to you?