Bees are Here!

Well-we finally got to pick up Jeff's bees in Navasota yesterday! Here he is getting ready to put them in the truck for the trip home-they rode up front with us all the way home! 3,000-5,000 honey bees with 1 queen!

Getting the queen out of the main package-she's in the small box with the orange tag.

Queen cage with a few workers protecting her.

Jeff's got the queen in the frames and the workers are going in!

These bees are busy(hehe!) It only took a couple of hours and they were about their business-coming and going-it was amazing! He'll take the lid off tomorrow to make sure the queen is out and everything looks fine-then it stays closed for 2 weeks. Then open it up to make sure the queen is laying-then let them do their job!

Nothing has hatched yet in the incubator-doesn't look good. Don't know what went wrong-but better luck next time I guess. The garden on the other hand looks wonderful! I took a pic the other day-I'll try to get it posted asap.

We had a great Easter-started with Sonrise service @ 7am-then breakfast-then normal services. Had lunch at Jeff's mom's and lots of family! Was a long day-but good! The kids enjoyed the Easter egg hunt as well.

Have a great week!

Update!

One of the sweet sea gulls on the beach last Wednesday-it was such a beautiful day-and we caught 4 fish while wading-but the water was like stepping into ice!

This hen found her way into our bedroom on Saturday afternoon-I had run her off the back porch all day-she scratched around and stayed awhile-but she didn't lay an egg. We might have to buy a screen door for our bedroom just to keep the chickens out-You might be a Redneck if...

The first picture of the new garden-taken 3/17-it was a little cloudy-but I want to remember to take pictures of it every week or so to keep up with the progress.

Ok-this started out as a different kind of Spring Break-from Friday afternoon until after we left for Church on Sunday morning-our lights had gone out 7 times! We had Jordan's birthday party in the livingroom-no moonwalk as planned due to the rain! We tried to start planting the garden on Monday morning-but after several rows-just couldn't stand playing in the soup anymore. We did get the corn and Jacob's cattle beans in, though.

We left Tuesday morning for the beach-tried to fish on Bolivar-but it was just way too crowded-we couldn't find a place without too many people. We rode the ferry over to Galveston and got checked into the hotel-had a really good few days!

We bought 2 pear trees while at the beach-so got them, along with the rest of the garden planted on Friday. Then when I went to check on it Sunday morning-the corn and beans we had planted on Monday were already up! Now even the seeds from Friday are coming up. And we got over 2 inches of rain today!

Jeff picked up a total of 12 bitties-so we have them out under a light. We set 18 green eggs and 8 turkey eggs in the incubator on Sunday as well. So hopefully-a good hatch is on the way in a few weeks-actually chicks should hatch on Easter!

We heard from the apiary-we can pick up the bees on April 7th-so Jeff's looking forward to getting them and getting them installed in the new hive.

Have a great week!

Kylee's First Tractor Ride!

Kylee got to ride the tractor with Grandpa for the first time today-she LOVED it!! I was worried the loudness of it would scare her-but no way! She wouldn't go to Alana or me-she wanted to stay on with Grandpa! She is crawling all over the place-pulling up and beginning to let go-and now has 4 teeth and 2 more nearly here and she is still so little-not quite 15 lbs yet!
Wow-have we had rain this last week-3 1/2 inches yesterday alone! Jordan had his 8th birthday party yesterday here at our house-it was planned for outside with the moonwalk-but not happening with all the rain! And to top it off-our lights had gone out 7 times since Friday afternoon! Luckily-they did stay on for the party-and haven't gone out again!
We got out this morning and planted a little in the garden-got the tomatoes-peppers-some comfrey I'd ordered-some dent corn and Jacob's cattle beans in. We had to finally stop-the ground is just soupy-it's so wet. I really don't want to complain about the rain-we went so long last summer without any! But the warm sunshine we got today was SO nice! And we are heading down to the beach in the morning for a few nights! We are packed and ready-we'll do some fishing and just hang out and relax a little bit. The beach always seems to have such a calming effect on both of us!
Have a great Spring Break-we're sure gonna try!

Spring is Arriving Early on the Farm!

The 3 eggs we collected today-one of each color!! I am so tickled! Finally got a green one after all these months. And even better news-we have 3 turkey eggs as well!! And a litter of bunnies was born today, too! And all this while I was at work! Jeff is having all the fun! He got the big tiller up and running today and tilled up our big garden-it hasn't been worked in several years-and also got his Mom's tilled as well. She was ready to go buy seeds and start planting!
Jeff is nearly finished with the greenhouse, too! It is looking great! Even better when you realize most of the materials were free-Yeah! And he picked up the steer from the locker plant last Friday-282 lbs of fresh beef! YUMMY! We had t-bones the first night-not much bigger than the size of your palm-just the right serving size! And very tender! Had round steak the other night-good eatin', too!
We've got several home improvement jobs to do in the next few weeks-got to get to our bathroom first. Got a leak somewhere in there-and the old gardentub is just getting to be a little bit difficult for Jeff to get out of-so we're gonna take it out and tile in a walk in shower-It'll be really nice when it's done. Also want to move the stove and frig around-so we can get a new frig-ours is over 15 years old and in a pretty tight space-so they will swap places so we can get a side by side. We've also got to replace some yard and garden fences before we plant.
The weather's been warm-then cool-then rainy-I'm ready for some sunshine and warm-It's comin' and then it'll be HOT. Have a good one!

Rain & Storm Damage

The high winds and rain-we got 2.2 inches!!-late Friday night and into Saturday caused one of the dead trees to fall onto the back yard fence-which just happens to be a pasture fence as well! But the cows weren't able to reach it-so they couldn't escape. But that didn't stop them on Friday morning-they somehow managed to get the pasture gate opened and Jeff's brother-in-law Donald called to say they were in his yard. No damage done-they are like a herd of puppies-just call 'em and they come running-kicking their heels up the whole way like it's some sort of cute little game to be escape artists!

Part of the tree fell across the fence and onto the kids trampoline-it was like a different playground for them-tunnels everywhere! Country kids can find fun in everything-not to mention all the mud puddles from all the rain we've been getting!!

Well-we now have one of the newest members of the LJH cheerleading squad living next door-Congrats to Hailey-she made the squad for next year!! We are SO proud of you! She was nervous-but at least she didn't have a panic attack this year like she did before drill team try-outs last year! It'll be a busy summer for her-and most likely for us as well!

We finally pulled up the brocolli plants and fed them to the cows this week. They had given all they could-I didn't think they were ever gonna stop making-but that's ok by me! I love brocolli! We'd picked up a few cauliflower plants-so we put them in their place. It's way too wet to even begin thinking about getting anything planted. We bought seed potatoes-but they will have to wait until it dries up a little. We aren't expecting any rain this week-so far- and it should be fairly warm-70's some days. Some of the fruit trees in the area are starting to bloom-my redbud in the front yard is starting as well. I really wish we had the bee hive already and didn't have to wait until the end of April to go pick them up. The tomato plants we started from seed are the most beautiful ones I think we've ever had. They are growing strong and healthy looking-looking forward to the fresh tomatoes they'll make this summer!

Father(Grandfather!) / Daughter Dance

Mady came home from school last week with a note for her Grandpa-an invitation to her school's Father/Daughter Dance! She wanted him to take her-not Uncle Randy or Uncle Ricky. So they had a date tonight! MaMa made her a special dress and Grandpa bought her stockings, new shoes, and a corsage! She was very excited! We'll see how the evening goes!

Jordan and Kylee enjoying a few moments together before we left for school yesterday. She's pulling herself up and standing against everything she can!

We've had a busy week around here-and MORE rain-thank you Lord! Monday started out with Jeff butchering the biggest hog-along with Titus' help. She was quite a big pig-so it took the guys all day and then some of the next. We don't know what we'd have done without Titus' help-he made things much easier for Jeff! The bacon is in the smokehouse now!

Jeff took the steer to the locker plant yesterday-so we'll have fresh beef next week as well! God is SO good! This is the reason we raise our own meat-we know what they've been fed and are processed in a dignified way. We are healthier because if it!

Tomorrow we'll spend the day in Conroe-gotta have new tires on my truck along with an oil change and new windshield wipers-I HATE to buy tires-one of my pet peeves-just don't like to spend money on them! Jeff needs new work boots-and I'm gonna get him an MP3 player for Valentines. I think he'll enjoy it while riding the tractor and while he's about his day. He wants to get a new pump for the well and get it back up and working. We haven't used it for years-even had dismantled the whole top part and gotten rid of it-so we need the motor and all. We need to find some more hay that we don't have to pay an arm and leg for!

Oh-and I ordered myself an eReader-should be here next week. I'm really looking forward to learning how to use it. I have the Kindle app on my laptop-but it isn't always easy sitting and reading from it. And this way the grandkids can have my laptop and I can still read.

We've started some tomatoes from seed and so far-they seem to be doing good. We bought a grow light to put on them last weekend and they are now getting their first true leaves. We planted Brandywine, Delicious, and Creole. We bought the seed potatoes last weekend as well-but we haven't gotten the ground even disced up yet-it'll get done when it gets done!

Garden Produce Bounty!

The first head of cabbage we've ever raised!! We've got 7 more out there!

More carrots-look at the one on the right-it had 4 seperate roots!

The broccoli just won't quit-no complaining here, though! We cut the main heads weeks ago-and the side shoots just keep coming!

The pictures speak for themselves!! The garden is doing great at the moment and we've been getting RAIN!! It actually is MUDDY around here!! We've got to get the big gardens disced up and ready to plant-too wet right now though-Blessings !!!!

The hens aren't laying at all-might get 1 egg a day. I'm thinking on getting some chicks real soon-and just starting over. The steer is just about ready to go to the locker plant-Jeff will probably call and make him an appointment next week. The hog is ready to butcher-we're just waiting on a good cold day to do the deed. Fresh link sausage will be SO good!

My Doc visit went well this week-I lost 10 lbs! Yeah!!In 1 month! The Doc said to keep on doing what I'm doing-borderline diabetes is enough to make a lifestyle eating change. Carbs are my issue-and boy do I love my potatoes, pasta and of course-Jeff's homemade bread. It's been tough-but I have to do this for my own health!

Have a great weekend!