HUISACHE TREES ARE IN BLOOM

One of our favorite trees at the farm is the Huisache tree.  There area few on our property and the bees seem to love them too. 

It is also known as the Sweet Acacia.  

Huisache trees

They only bloom at this time of year and have these brilliant yellow flowers.  These are at the front of our property.

Huisache tree

They really stand out in the landscaping.  Above is an area I've been clearing, a couple acres away from the house.  We have visions, someday, of a large gathering area for parties, dinners in this spot.  Of course, the Huisache stands out in a blaze of yellow amongst the green. 

Here is that same tree up close.  In a few weeks, it will be green like the rest but in the short term, we get to enjoy it's beauty.  And if you think it's just yellow leaves or flowers, you have to see them up close..
.

Huisache Sweet Cassia flowers

They are puffballs of yellow.  Oh, and did I mention the scent is intoxicating?  We can smell it on the wind while sitting on the porch.  The scent just wraps around you like a familiar friend.  Many ranchers consider it a weed or trash tree and do all they can to eradicate it.  We'd love to have more scattered around.  It's a great tree to have on the property.  

Sadly, it has thorns, just like its cousin the Mesquite...but even the beauty of a rose is first guarded by its thorns...

HOW TO INSTALL A PACKAGE OF BEES

For this year's installation, I did it a bit differently.

First of all, I had to go pick them up.  Here they are, 10,000 bees and one queen.  All passengers in the back seat.  As I imagined last year, I was one car accident away from making the national news...or the Darwin Awards, LOL!.

There is however a soothing hum that emanates from the box, it reminds me of a machine of some sort. Upon reflection, I guess a functioning hive IS a machine of sorts.

I gathered up all the parts, the smoker, my suit, and some tools and got ready.  Again, you want to have everything together and ready because you don't want to be running around trying to find stuff with 10,000 bees waiting.

First I put the stand and bottom board onto the metal stand.  I also got the supers and other hive components ready with the frames in place.  

Package of bees with queen

Here is the package of bees, ready for queen extraction.  The spray bottle is filled with sugar water, you spritz the bees and it makes them more docile, albeit temporarily.  They are too busy eating.  I think we can relate, ha.  This is a standard package.  That round can is the feeding can. It's filled with sugar water and feeds the bees while they are in the package.  That metal strip you see is actually holding the queen cage.  Be careful as you pull the metal can out (this leaves a large hole filled with bees), and hold on to the queen cage.

Queen cage

Here is what it looks like when you pull it out.  The queen is in there, sealed up at both ends by a "candy" plug.  The bees all over it are called "attendant bees".  They are trying to serve their queen, grooming her, feeding her, etc.  She is in the cage however and so their goal becomes to eat through the candy plugs to get her out.  During this time, the thousands of bees bond, hopefully, to her and accept her as their queen.  

Here is where I had a bit of a problem.  I went to pop what I thought was a small cork out of the end where the plug was (so the bees can get to her easily) but it was the end of the candy plug and I inadvertently  released her!  D'oh!  It happens, especially if they been working hard to get through the candy plugs.  She climbed out onto one of the frames.  Thankfully, I ordered her "clipped and marked", so that means I could find her easily (she had a bright blue dot marked on her) and she can't fly away.  Now I only had to worry about accidentally smashing her.

Package of bees in the hive

Here is how I did it a bit differently.  Conventional wisdom has the bees aggressively shaken out of their box and "poured/dumped" into the hive.  This seemed to me last year to be kind of aggressive compared to what should be a gentle procedure (everything you do when working with bees should always be slow and gentle).  I found several places online that suggested this method.  You use an empty 'super' or two to create the space.  I placed the package, once the can was removed and the queen was in the lower frames, upside down so that the bees can find their way out.

You have to be gentle when you place the package down so that you don't kill any, or certainly as few as possible.  In my case, I had to also worry about the queen roaming around.  Anyway, by doing this, they can come out at their own pace instead of being unceremoniously dumped.  They will find the queen (usually in her cage) and then release her.  In this case, they found her quickly. Just put the top back on and wait.  NORMALLY, you wait a few days and check to see if the queen is out of the cage but in our case, I don't have to worry

 about that.  Now I just have to hope they all bond with her.

On Sunday I went back out and checked and they were coming in and out like they should.  That jar is the Boardman Feeder.  It has sugar water to keep them fed while they acclimate to their new surroundings. 

When you pull the package out, most of the bees have moved into the hive.  The few stragglers still inside will find their way home if you leave it on the ground next to the hive.

Here is a shot of the skies I was fending off both days.  Welcome to the world ladies, the rainy season is coming!

THE BEES ARE IN

So yesterday was hiving day and now, without further ado, here is the newest hive to join our existing one, introducing...

"Queen Hera"

We are naming our hive queens after Goddesses from mythology.  

Hera replaces Persephone who, sadly, didn't make it last year.  

Her next door neighbor is Queen Ariadne...

Garden Hives

I will have pictures about the installation later but it (mostly) went well, I'll have a post soon.  It was a good day, though it did rain and I had to cut the day short.  But I'm back again this morning to see how everything fared overnight and hoping for no rain today so I can get some more work done in the garden.

THE BEES ARE COMING

RAIN OR SHINE,
Today is bee arrival day! 

As this posts, I'll be in the car heading to a place just outside of Houston to pick them up.  2nd Man is not going, he is a bit apprehensive about riding in the car with 10,000 bees.  I can certainly understand.  He leaves the 'bee stuff' to me.

There is rain in the forecast and rain on the radar (red dot is downtown Houston) so it will be a wet day, hopefully though just hit and miss, with more miss than hit.

We ordered our replacement hive last December.  CLICK HERE for the post when we ordered them and what kind, etc.

Above is where they will be.  "Ariadne" hive (we name the queens after Greek/Roman mythology) is on the left.  The new one will be placed next to it as a replacement to the one that we lost last year.  

If when we keep two hives alive and healthy through a season, then this time next year we will be picking up two more packages of bees and adding two more hives on our property.

After the bees are installed in their new home, I'll be working on the garden area and the front flower beds the rest of the day, again, depending on weather, and then I'll have to go back out on Sunday to check on the bees and work some more on the garden (more weather).  I'll take pictures!

Hope your weekend is off to a great start!

DRIVING MR BLUE

On many Friday's, I post a picture of one of our cats.  

This time it's a dog...but not ours!

Blue Dog

This is "BLUE".  He belongs to 2nd Family that live on acreage that is attached to ours.  Blue came to them as a stray (possibly dumped) puppy.  He looks kind of intimidating to strangers but to us, and them, he's usually just a big ol' goofball.  "R" from 2nd Family came down to return a tool he borrowed and he had been to the store with him.  Blue wants to go anytime the truck is started up.  He wouldn't even get out of the truck to visit me, he just wants to sit in the seat and be driven around. "R" said he just leans back and looks around.

Some pets have the life don't they? 

FRIDAY is here!

FLOWERS ALONG FENCE, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Every Thursday, we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  

Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and hopefully recreate it...enjoy!

Image via Pinterest

We have a few areas on the property where there are long straight fence lines like this.  We always thought of flowers, but never thought about doing it like this.  Kind of a long narrow flower bed and then populating it with bulbs.  

Such a long space like this would allow bulbs that bloom at different times of the year as well.  Heck, this just makes us think of bulbs randomly along the fence line, not even in flower beds, instead of planting bushes.  There are plenty of spots for bushes elsewhere, this just seems kind of nice and casual.

Be inspired!

WILDFLOWER WEDNESDAY

On Wednesdays for the month of April, I will post wildflower photos taken around the farm.  It seems March showers bring April flowers.  At least in these parts of the country!

So enjoy the beauty of the famous Texas Wildflower season!

Here are some Indian Paintbrush...such a pretty flower, a brilliant orange, with hints of red.  They are one of the early bloomers in wildflower season.

These are in ditches on roads all around the farm.  We don't have ditches this deep in front of our property, now we kind of wish we did.  I'm not sure what these are called, I need to find our Wildflowers of Texas book...  

Here is a closeup...so pretty and these come up every year, growing wild with no human intervention, year after year.  Love them!

And finally (for today) this is the "buttercup" as it is called by many, but we believe they are actually called "pink evening primrose"?  

So refreshing and vibrant...

More wildflower photos next Wednesday!

RAISED BED COVER UPDATE

Several of you have asked how the covers worked.  I have posted bits here and there with weekend updates but thought I'd write a bit more. 

Plastic corrugated panels on raised bed

We put the covers on, plastic panels and weighted them down with 2 to 4 bricks (we tried experimenting to see what worked), on the corners.

After one particular thunderstorm, here is the result.  This bed that had one brick ON EACH CORNER and it still blew away.  Not sure what our solution will be.  I think because of the wavy nature of the panels, a path for the wind is created and the right gust just send them airborne.  

We also had a few crack and break, I guess because they get brittle in the sun.  Of course, being flung across they yard probably doesn't help.  We will have to replace a few of them.  I'm thinking of some sort of clip or bracket.  

As for what they were intended to do, when they stayed on, they kept the weeds at a minimum or nonexistent entirely.  The ones that have weeds are the ones where they came off during a storm and then the bed got rained on for a week before we could get out there to put them back on.  The weeds love that kind of weather and neglect, ha.  

Anyway, not a failure by any means, just need to figure out how to make them more durable.  They've definitely made my Spring job much easier than it would have been.

HAPPY BEES AND DEWBERRIES

I noticed recently, a couple of weekends ago, that Ariadne hive, pun intended, was buzzing with activity.  Thought I'd share one reason why...

The girls were flying in loaded up with pollen...

Then I realized that they are in close proxmitiy to a large dewberry patch on our property that I've been cultivating and mowing around over the years to keep it just dewberries.  See all those white flowers?

Beehive near dewberries

They are dewberry blooms!  That means that the bees don't have far to fly to reach this wonderful source of pollen.  A quick flight over...

...and back, bringing pollen to the hive.

Dewberry patch

This is just one part of this particular dewberry patch, it's probably an acre in size.  As I walked up to it, you could literally HEAR the buzzing from the bees.  We have dewberry patches scattered all around the property but because some areas are hard to reach, I've been mowing around this spot for a few years (and even cleared a path through it) to make gathering easier.

Bees on flowers

Can you see the bees in this photo?  There are four.  It was the best picture I could get because they were always in motion.  I wanted one that had lots of bees in it.  

We're not 100% sure it's the bees (possibly the mild Winter, or a combination of both), but 2nd Family said they've never seen this many blooms on the dewberries.  They also said their fruit trees are covered in blooms (and bees!) so we do believe that bees make the world a better place.

BEE READY AND LADYBUGS

It was a good weekend, as compared to last weekend's drama.  We were goat free, headache free and now, at least one black widow spider free.  Yes, I had to take care of that.  There was a HUGE egg sac now and I had visions of the garden being overrun with deadly spiders.  We know there are more out there that we can't see, and I hated to do it but it just couldn't be in the same place we will be on a regular basis.  We wouldn't leave a copperhead or water moccasin living next to a raised bed and so the black widow couldn't stay either. 

Hive wax foundations with frames

So yesterday, in between mowing, edging, clearing some new space, and a nap on the porch, I got the wax foundations into the frames...

Hive with frames

And then got the frames in the supers and put it all back together.  It's ready for the new bees that come next weekend! 

Raised beds ready for planting

I added a few bags of compost and soil to some of the raised beds to get them ready.  Not going to try to plant all the beds now (that would be something we'd have to be there full time for).  So this first season back after last season's continual rains postponed our garden, we think we are going to plant in four of them, three are 4x4's and one is an 8x4. 

Ladybug

To top off the day, there were ladybugs everywhere at the farm.  They were in the house (I captured them and released them outside) and they were on leaves and plants all over as I mowed.  Captured the picture of this one on the box while I was putting the wax foundations into the frames.

Next weekend will be bees and garden only.  I shouldn't have to mow so I can focus on getting the bees hived and getting the garden planted.

Fingers crossed!  

Back in town now to do some stuff here, 2nd Man asked me to make the slow cooker bbq ribs again so they are cooking as this posts!

Hmm, aren't ladybugs considered good luck?

A GOOD DAY

Got a lot done today, mostly mowing and edging and some more clearing... 

After I mowed, I went to the porch to work on the frames for the replacement hive...

...and I dozed off in the rocking chair.  I took this picture when I woke up.  More tomorrow!

Hope your weekend is going well!

CALF CUTENESS

Often on Fridays, I post a cute cat picture...

Calf

...today I thought I'd post a cute "calf picture", LOL!   Last weekend I saw this little one snoozing in the pasture behind the house.  I had to go over to the fence line and take a picture. 

Adorable!

TGIF!

BARN WEATHERVANE, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Every Thursday, we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  

Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and hopefully recreate it...enjoy!

While perusing the Internet, looking for inspiration for the farm, we were looking at barn pictures.  Then it hit us:  We need a weathervane!!!  I mean, is there anything more iconic on a big barn than a weathervane turning with the wind?  The big N, W, S, E directions, the arrow pointing into the wind...too fun!

So we did some Googling...wow there are are about a million weathervanes out there.  Everything from roosters and hens and cows to dolphins, sports teams, and power tools.  Who knew?   So we're on the hunt for a good one.  We have to get something the right scale for the barn. 

 Do we put one on the mower shed too? 

 Or just the big barn?  

Rooster or hen or some other animal?  

Decisions decisions!

Be inspired!

P.S.  Adrian is better, allergies and that time of year, and my headache is long gone so we're both on the mend.  Catching up on comments too, thank you all!

FARMHOUSE BAKING PANTRY

OK, so I decided to do something special at the farm for 2nd Man for his birthday.  Now that he has seen it, I can reveal it here.  This is what I did:

We had this pantry type space in the kitchen.  It is at the end of the wall where the stove is and next to the entrance to the guest room.  It's sort of the first thing you see when you walk into the kitchen.  After we had the house cleaned up and painted, we didn't know what to do with this space.  Of course, we could have put a door on it and made it a regular pantry but we already have all the shelves in the mudroom/pantry area.  This just sort of became a space for random stuff that didn't fit elsewhere. 

I had a different vision...

Empty Pantry

The first thing I did was the weekend of cleaning up the kitchen, CLICK HERE for that post, I cleared this out too and emptied it.  I ended up with lots of empty space just waiting for something...

Bakery Sign

I found this sign at the store and it is what actually inspired me to do this.  I hung it up above the space and started to work.  I had been buying jars of different sizes in preparation for this project, went to the grocery store and got out my handy dandy label maker with some clear labels...

Baking Pantry

Behold...

The end result!

I had a dear friend make these red ticking stripe curtains to give it a more finished, and farmhouse-y look...

And also provide some hidden storage behind them...

Labeled Jars

And here are the jars.  There are currently twenty one of them...the large ones on the bottom are duplicates of what we have in town, the three things he uses the most of, all purpose flour, sugar, and bread flour...

Cracker Jars in the Pantry

Above you can see the labels on the jars a little better.  I went ahead and labeled and filled a few that I know he uses often, and then left a few empty for him to decide what else to put in there.  We have space for two more of those smaller cracker jars.

I also bought him a new Le Creuset pan he had been wanting, just to be on the safe side, LOL!  He LOVED it all and it made me happy!

UPDATE:  Click HERE for a link to cracker jars on Amazon, now I found ours at stores around town but they do sell them online.