Friday, April 5, 2013

Cows, Tractor Dog, and Fruit Trees!

 Oreo and Cocoa pushing each other around-well maybe! The red one sure has been looking more and more like her Dexter parents lately. The BIG bull in the background is the one that keeps jumping the fence. We think he might have bred Oreo and Sugar this last week, so we'll be checking dates in three weeks to see if they come in heat. Jeff and I fed them all bread this morning, and that HUGE puppy just stuck his big head right over the fence, stuck out that LONG tongue, and nearly sucked my arm straight into his mouth! All we could do was break out laughing-something THAT big is So tame.
 We spent most of the Easter weekend cleaning out Mom and Shorty's barn. I took some before pics, but want to wait and post them with some good after ones. We did get a place cleaned out for the rabbits and got them moved in on Saturday evening. And for some reason, Rascal decided she needed to ride the tractor with Jeff. She actually climbed up the steps while we were talking and just settled in. Jeff had to finally make her get down-she was in his way!
 This isn't a good pic-it was cold and windy-but the orange tree we thought was going to die has just been full of blooms! And they smell awesome! The bees think so too!
 And this is one of the lemon trees in bloom-they looked just awful, too, but now are full of blooms.
And the best of all-these are little apples on 1 of our trees-we are SO excited! Hopefully they will make it to ripe, green, tart apples!

We've had another busy week and another cold snap as well. No freezing temps this time, just COLD. We had a wonderful Easter with Sunrise service at 7 am, then breakfast, Sunday School, and a PACKED house for services. The guys had to bring chairs into the center isle, then we had to leave the doors open and people had to sit outside! It was such a great site!
We go in the morning to pick up another package of bees. We haven't had the best of luck lately-until today! The hive we bought from out of Ohio last year didn't make it through the winter and the one Jeff captured from the fallen tree didn't make it either.Shorty's bees swarmed today while Jeff was still there and he was able to capture them!! He cut the limb off the tree they had gathered on and got them installed in the hive! Only problem, he never thought to get the camera! :(   I'll take it with us in the morning and take new pics as we get them into the new hive.
I'm dealing with a pretty good patch of poison ivy on my left arm. The barn had quite a bit of it and I was wearing sandals, so I half expected it on my feet, but not my arm. I mixed up some lavender, tea tree, and peppermint essential oils in a base of vegetable gylercin and have been applying it to the bottoms of my feet twice a day and putting it directly on the blisters. I don't know if its my wishful thinking or not, but it seems to  be clearing up faster than usual. Hopefully it will be my new cure for PO.

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