2010 - Day One Hundred Thirty Six...

I will tell all of you something...that Mr. Speckles is one sneaky bull. We had another new calf appear this morning, although I am pegging him (yep, it's a bull calf) to have been born on Friday, and that is what the certificate will say. Anyway, even though I had some doubts early on in the process that Mr. Speckles was doing his duty, he has certainly proven himself. This calf was born by Lady Bug, the calf that I bought along with her mother Doodle Bug just after we moved tho this farm back in 2008. So, the new bull calf is Lady Bug's first calf, and he is a pretty one. Very good job Doodle, and congratulations to Mr. Speckles on another job well done.

About mid-morning, my friend Chris came out to help me work my hives, and we got three of the hives worked. All the hives we worked seem to be doing very nicely, and thee are no signs of distress in those hives, and there is evidence of honey storage and pupae in the hives. They will be having lots and lots of new bees in a very short order, so things are going very nicely. I will need to work the other two hives this week, but that should be okay, and I am pretty confident that I will be okay on my own. This photo is a frame of bees that I am holding. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself! Lots and lots of bees, and they were not at all aggressive during the time we were working the hives. Interesting to work the bees, and watch the progress they make. It will be more interesting when the time comes to harvest the honey!

The chicks are progressing nicely as well. They are all capable of escaping from the trough that I had tried to keep them in, so they now have free reign of the coop, such as it is. It will be another week or so before the coop is actually finished, and at least another week before they will be allowed to go out in the screened run area, but everything is going nicely and according to the plan. It will be interesting to see if they try to escape from the pen area, and I am certain there will be chicken tragedies before all is said-and-done. Life on the farm!

I went into Austin this afternoon to show some homes to my buyer couple, and this is what I encountered before I even got to the expressway. The auto transport vehicle should not have tried to make that turn, since he bottomed out on a hump in the road, and for all practical purposes, shut down traffic both ways on FM 972. Life in the country, you never know what to expect. Then once I got close to town, traffic pretty much came to a standstill; it seems an Interstate Hotel was on fire, and people all had to stop and look and take photos of the event. I was only a few minutes late for my appointment, but I hate having to be that close in my scheduling. I just do not like it.

This week should be a relatively calm one, lots of work to be done in the office, and that will give me time to catch up on my work and be calm. I also have lots of homework to do for the classes that I signed up for. Three classes done, six more to go.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, FIRES, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!