2011 - Day One Hundred Twenty; Saturday...

Busy, busy, busy, but what is a weekend without being busy. I was hitting it by about 7 o'clock this morning, and got a tremendous amount of stuff done. The worst I did first, which was dragging rail road ties that had been used as walkway borders out and putting them with the OTHER rail road ties in the back. I am working on getting things done so I can cut the grass more easily. A little bit here, and a little bit there...

Early this morning these clouds were really angry looking, and we were hoping there might be so rain in some of them. There was thunder (which surprised us all while we were eating breakfast) but no rain. There was something falling out of the sky that was kind of wet, but there were no spots of moisture on the pavement PERIOD. For most of the morning it was cloudy, so that was good, it kept the temperature down a little bit, although there was enough humidity that it was easy to begin glistening.

OH, when I was out first thing this morning, I was giving the girls some fresh water, and there was a SNAKE in the water hydrant thing (we have the hose-bibs under the surface like in a sprinkler control box so they don't freeze in the winter). It was dark, I had my flashlight, but I was not expecting the snake. Probably just another chicken snake, but I was SURPRISED! Did I mention I was surprised? Which usually goes along with me SCREAMING like a GIRL! I'm just sayin... My friend Joe Mac is gonna send me another e-mail about what kind of gun I should have for killing snakes, and I may pay closer attention this time!

Jody and I headed into Georgetown this afternoon and stopped at Dairy Queen (of course) and then we went to HEB to do a little bit of shopping. As we were getting home, we saw the mail man pulling out of the drive way, and I expected that meant our new Queen had arrived. I ordered a new Queen for my weak bee-hive, and they shipped her by Priority Mail. Interesting. I am not sure how many times this mail man has delivered bees, but he did not seem too concerned. This is a photo of the shipping package. I just think it is interesting you can get a bee in an envelope.

After we were home for a while, I was working in the back on the patio and saw this interesting moth. I assume it is a moth, but whatever it is, it has a really interesting pattern on its' body and wings. It did not hang around for too long, but at least I got a picture of it.

I also did some more weed pulling today. I fully understand that for every weed I pull out of the ground by its' roots, there are scores of other weeds laughing (and probably texting their friends) at my un-deserved self-glorification that I am superior to them. There is no way I will ever defeat the weeds. The weeds will be here long after I am gone, long after this house is gone, long after everything we know is gone. Weeds and cockroaches. Probably. Right now I am putting my money on the weeds. Weeds we got, cockroaches we ain't. Knock Wood...

Towards the end of the day, I introduced the new Queen to her hive. I did not introduce her the way she should have been introduced. She was ACCIDENTALLY released by me (it's a long story) instead of being introduced gradually. SO, I hope this all works out the way I want it to. I expect right now there is a LOT of activity in that hive, and there is a LOT of busy-bees in that hive. I hope the two Queens fight it out and that the new Queen is victorious. We will see in a couple weeks.

Tomorrow will be another day, and it will include a fresh batch of weeds.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, NEW QUEENS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Nineteen; Friday...

Attention K-Mart Shoppers; this is my 850th consecutive post. Crazy, right? Who wudda thunk it? Fer shure, not me. Eight Hundred and Fifty Days of posting to this journal, and not a day missed yet. Everytime I reach one of these 'markers' I wonder how long it will be before I miss a day, maybe because I forget (I almost forgot to post one day) or because there is some type of technical issue. I expect that will the real reason for the failure of posting at some point. Due to technical issues, I have come close to missing a post. I figure I have until midnight of any particular day to 'publish' a post, and if I get it done, that is fine. The reality is, I wonder when (not really if) I will miss a deadline?

The sun was rising beautifully this morning when I was heading out of the house to go to the office. Glorious. Can you tell that there are really no neighbors out here, and that we are just out here enjoying the peace and quiet? It is really nice. If more than a half-dozen cars go down the road on any given day (including the mail truck) we make not of it. We have lots of room out here, and we really do enjoy it.

Interesting concept; the end of the month is followed closely by the beginning of the next month. Since we do some property management, about this time of one month (to be followed by another month) folks are either moving out or moving in. Or they are paying their rents (accompanied quite often by a demand for some sort of repair). It is against human nature to pay the rent without complaining about something!

There is a new kid in the neighborhood and he is a BIG ONE. I was very surprised to see a crane lifting this big-boy into place this morning on my way to work. Much bigger than our turbines, probably at least three times as big as ours. On the way home tonight, I stopped at the house and knocked on the door (folks who do energy things expect knocks on the doors) but no one was at home. That's okay, there is always tomorrow. BUT, this turbine is a little different than others I have seen, this one has a vane that is not always in line with the blades, kind of like the old wind mills that pumped water. You could control the blades depending on how you set the vanes, and these vanes were not spinning as fast as I would have expected them. They would probably not spin as fast as our, but they are bigger and get more KwH for the revolution. BUT, I still think there is some fine tuning required, and I will let you know what I find out.

Five eggs from the girls today. Pretty soon, with the days getting longer, the girls are going to have to be putting me to bed instead of the other way around. When the sun does not set until almost 9 o'clock, I am not sure I will be able to stay awake that long.

More blossoms on the cactus in front of the house, but I waited too long to take the picture, the blooms are WAY past their prime.

There is going to be a lot of accomplishments made tomorrow. I have a very long list of things I want to achieve, and I will make some progress. I really do not think I will be able to get everything on the list done, but there will always be another day!

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

2011 - Day One Hundred Eighteen; Thursday...

When there is nothing going on in your life that is really that interesting to the millions and millions of fans that read your daily saga, posting a photo of the dog is always a crowd-pleaser.

Had a really nice time this morning/afternoon at the Austin Chapter of the Women's Council of REALTORS monthly luncheon and Cake Auction. $3,000 Was raised for TREPAC, and the cake I proffered earned $250. Not too shabby! I won the only pie that was entered in the cake auction, and it included four tickets to a Round Rock Express game with seats behind home plate. We have been fortunate enough to enjoy those sets in the past, and it is a BLAST! Always a good time. Thanks to Jim and Pam for the entry!

After that, I had a meeting at the Board and then headed off to CostCo. I have decided that everyone is in a hurry, and life would be really much simpler if everyone would just leave a little earlier. Patience is a virtue (one of which I do not normally claim), BUT if I ever want to get on my 'holier than thou' smugness attitude, I just go to CostCo or the Post Office. Both of those destinations are exercises in patience, and the more patience you display, the more smugness you have the right to display. EXAMPLE: When the herd is grazing up and down the aisles, exclaim 'Pardon me but while you are grazing could you move your cart to the side?'. It really never achieves the desired reaction because on one in CostCo knows what 'grazing' is, and really I do not have time to educate the great unwashed. I am aware that I was being totally witty and quite the bon-vivant, and that is enough for me!

Whatever...

Deeds, Actions, Changes, PATIENCE FER GOD'S SAKE, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Seventeen; Wednesday...

And now here is a short journey down memory lane. My memories, not yours, but you can have fun with this exercise. This photograph was taken 41 years ago, probably 41 years ago next month. Can you find me in the photo? Lots of people can't and I think that is pretty funny. This was my fraternity formal in my Freshman year of college. HINT: I am the one that looks like he hasn't got a clue! Oops...that may apply to everyone in the picture, but maybe not. It will be interesting to see your comments!

Anything at or around our house that has any resemblance to white pickets is just another way of saying 'CHICKEN VERBOTEN'. It is getting kind of crazy here, but it does seem to deter the chickens.

A very busy day today, and I am tired.

Tomorrow promises to be even more ordinary, and therefore not a lot of interesting information to pass along to all of you.

We shall see...

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

2011 - Day One Hundred Sixteen; Tuesday...

A good but late day today. Early leaving, late getting home. Tomorrow will be not so early leaving and MAYBE late getting home. That's just how I roll...

There has been a lot of FaceBook chatter this evening about the clouds in Austin. I am a devoted fan of clouds, and I took a few photos myself on the way home. Probably photos through my INCREDIBLY dirty windshield while travelling down (up) IH-35 are not the best, but you should get the idea. There are bad storms to the east and north of us, but little chance of any rain here. They say we are under a severe thunderstorm warning, but really, you will have to do better than that. Give me something to hope for in your forecast, or pretty much forget about it.

The chickens were baffled by the picket fencing we put up yesterday, and there is very little dirt on the porch. The one side is not yet finished, and they took full advantage of that, but the side we completed was left alone by all of them. There is plenty of other places for them to go and scratch. Once we get that bed established, we may take down the fence and segregate another area, we will just have to see. Five eggs from them today, so that is really a good thing.

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

2011 - Day One Hundred Fifteen; Monday...

Okay, since we have had the chickens, not quite a year in total, and we have been harvesting eggs from them for almost 31 weeks, we figure that each egg we have received cost us $1.05. EACH EGG! Since that first day that we got an egg, we have collected 919 eggs. Of course I keep a count, what are you thinking? We have received 919 eggs (not including the broken ones) and we figure we have spent $1,000 on stuff either for the chickens or to keep them out of something they desperately want into. Today, we got some little picket fencing to go around the front flower beds, to keep the chickens out of it. I think it will work, they do not seem to be the types of chickens that will work too hard to get into a flower bed, when they have so many other opportunities for 'scratching'. Only time will tell.

We also had out first official harvest today; okay we have taken a miscellaneous strawberry here and there, but we got our first tomato today as well. I call this 'Still Life with Strawberry and Tomato'. What do you think? We split them tonight for dinner. Yummy.

This was a pretty okay day, nothing extraordinary wither way. Tomorrow will begin early and go late, and I most likely will miss my beekeeping meeting. I will just need to see how things go.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, CHICKEN COMBAT, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Fourteen; Easter Sunday...

Another beautiful day in central Texas but we could really use some rain. Very windy still, but no damaging storms like they are experiencing north and east of us. No wild fires in our area either, knock wood.

Yesterday I found out I can only post five photos per post, so I am going to catch up with some from yesterday and weave them into this entry.

This morning I got started about 7 with breakfast and checking all the meters. I cut grass along the fence lines, and at one point I started paying attention because someone started a wild fire accidentally yesterday while plowing a field. No reason to expect you could start a fire by plowing, but it made me pay a little bit of attention. Everything is looking nice and 'paid attention to' so I am glad about that. Then there were tree limbs to trim, and just run of the mill stuff like that to get taken care of. First photo from yesterday, this is the antique style rose that I talked about yesterday, and it is still blooming it's heart out. There is no sign of it quitting any time soon.

I mentioned yesterday also, that I had one weak hive of bees, but I don't think I went into any detail. It looks like I need to replace the Queen in one of the hives, she is laying eggs and there are a good number of bees in the hive, but they are really not performing well, so I will get a new Queen and introduce her into the hive (hopefully this week). Once that happens, the new Queen and the old Queen will have a fight to the finish, and the stronger Queen will reign, and all should be good after that. That, in concert with the new entrance feeders I hope to get this week also, should put all the hive on track. This is one of the photos I was thinking of sharing yesterday, but did not have room for. Me and the hives.

Here is another photo I wanted to share yesterday, one of the buds of cactus blossoms that are just getting ready to bust forth. I really love cactus blossoms, but they come and go so quickly it is easy to miss them.

Jody and the dog went for a little ride this morning while I was feeding cattle and taking fresh bales of hay to the front pastures. They will only have access to one of the pastures, but it was a good day to take hay out to them, so I went ahead and put bales in both pastures.

This is a photo of the cattle, it kind of reminds me (okay this is a stretch, work with me here) of the water color painting of Koi I have in my office. You have to pay attention to the Koi in the painting to count all eight of them, and you need to pay pretty close attention to this photo to see ALL 14 of the cattle in this one shot. I did not have nearly as much trouble counting all 14 cattle today as I did yesterday. Everyone was pretty cooperative, although Daphne was a little bit stand-offish at first, and she stayed in the back of the pasture with three or four of the calves until I went back there with the tractor to put out hay. Eventually all the calves decided to follow suit, but they were in no real hurry.

Of course, Jody and I went into Georgetown for spoilers. You will be happy to know (I know we are) that Dairy Queen is open 365 days a year (add one if it is a Leap Year). It is comforting to know you can count on capitalism to come through in a clutch.

When we got back, Jody went down for a nap, and I went out clean the chicken coop and to install the automatic watering device that I bought the other day. I had contemplated several scenarios of problems I might encounter with this installation, and the only one I had not thought of was 1). The first hose I hooked up had a hole in it, 2). The next three hoses leaked at the hose coupling (where the hose is put together) and 3). Not even a variety of new and/or used washers could solve the problem. So, tomorrow, I will be going to buy a NEW HOSE to see if that will work. If not, the chickens now have a new and REALLY EXPENSIVE water bowl in their coop. I really hope I can get this thing to work. We shall see...

Okay, NOW HERE IS A SURPRISE to me, while we were out walking around this morning, one of the cactus buds was blooming, and it is really pretty. Just thought I would string you all along for a few paragraphs before I showed this to you. There seem to be dozens of more buds on the various cactus plants around the house, so I hope to get more photos in the next week or so.

Get some rest, tomorrow is a work day.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, CACTUS BLOSSOMS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Thirteen; Saturday...

Okay, I hope you are sitting down and have a glass of wine handy (or the beverage of your choice). I am considering posting seven or eight photos with this entry, so it is working up to being a long entry. BREAKING NEWS: I just figured out I can only upload five photos per post...what is not here today will be here tomorrow.

This is a photo of the chickens in the yard last night, after I cut the grass in the front. They especially like that the engine on the lawn mower puts a lot of bugs in a state of confusion, and they get to have a buffet in the grass trimmings. I 'cut at' the grass up by the front of the house this morning, so most of it all looks much better now. 'CUT AT' are the key words when I cut grass; I am not really that interested in the manicured look, I would just like passers-by to know we realize we have grass and pay occasional attention to it.

I headed out to the pasture where the cattle are this morning and as I was coming back, I spied these little eggs on the ground. They LOOK BIGGER than they actually are, they are about the size of a quarter or a half dollar. Not sure what type of bird laid them, but we have lots of birds that stay on the ground a lot of the time. So, I looked at them carefully (yes I did pick them up, but the mama birds won't mind, and if you don't believe me you can look it up), and came back into the house. I tried to note the location so I can go back and see if they are still there tomorrow, but I doubt if I could ever find the spot again.

This is a picture (SEE BREAKING NEWS ABOVE) of one of the old fashioned roses that was here when we moved. There are three of these bushes around, this one by the driveway, one out by the red-shed in the front, and one by the pool. I think the one out by the red-shed was here in the same spot when Aunt Mary had her house here, at least I like to think that. I have no idea what the names of these roses are, but it makes me think of a flora-bunda (sounds right anyway), and all I know is that flora-bunda is a TYPE of rose. Jody thinks they look very much like a Dorothy Perkins rose they had in Cleveland when he was growing up. A good climber, and prolific!

At close to 11 o'clock this morning, a group from the Round Rock Honey Beekeeping Class came out to work our hives. We worked three of the hives, and it confirmed what Konrad and I thought about a month ago when he was out here and we opened them all up. I need to feed the ladies, there has not been enough rain in the area for them to have enough to produce honey. All of the hives are strong (okay, four out of five of them are strong) and there are plenty of bees, I just need to feed them. AND, that means I need to get some entrance feeders, which I will have in about a week. I have top feeders, but they are really difficult to use, and you have to open the hives every time you want to feed them, so I am going to go with entrance feeders.

Tomorrow I will post a photo of me with the bees, just too much to talk about today, and since tomorrow is Easter, it should be a quiet news-day.

While Jody and I were on our way into Georgetown this afternoon (had to go to Dairy Queen) we saw some cactus blossoms, and our cactus have not blossomed yet. BUT, there is hope, these buds (SEE BREAKING NEWS ABOVE) look like they will be bursting forth just any minute. I really doubt that there is anything I like better than cactus blossoms. Okay, maybe morning glories and Iris will give them a run for their money, but cactus blossoms are just beautiful, and only last for a short time. Really wonderful, and exquisite. I am delighted that we will have some shortly. We are SO SHORT OF RAIN here, the Iris have done NOTHING this year, and it just reinforces our thoughts that we need to transplant what we can to around the house because they need more water than we can rely on from Mother Nature. The national weather prognosticators tonight said all the tornadoes north and east of us were caused by the La Nina affect, which we always thought meant more rain for us than usual, but that has not been the case this year.

I went out and replaced the water float on the cattle trough in the back laterthis afternoon, and it is interesting that Orchid has developed a habit ofcoming over and nosing around whenever I am messing with their water. It does make for interesting photographs, though, so I really do not mind. I really wish I had been a better dad to these cattle, we kind of have an estranged relationship. I am very jealous of the folks that can go up and pet their cattle, and they WANT to be petted, but the only one I can really pet is the bull, good old Mr. Speckles. They have finally started eating the hay we put out last week, so it seems they have gone through the grass. Tomorrow I will feed them and put another bale of hay out for them.

For the last several days, I have only counted 13 cattle out there, but I usually figure the other cow or calf is out there somewhere, so I do not worry about it too much. Today when I was out there working on the trough, I only counted 13 and they were moving around so I began to be a little bit concerned. I figured out that Daphne's calf was missing, the most recent calf. He will be a week old tomorrow. I could not see that calf ANYWHERE. I started looking, and I looked in all the likely places, and I just assumed the calf had died, but I had never seen any buzzards hanging around. And Daphne was with the rest of the cattle, and did not really act like she was distressed or any thing. FINALLY I found that little boy in the wood pile. He let me come up to him and rub on him, just a timid meek little soul, all fuzzy and trusting. SO, all is good at the farm.

Tomorrow (as I already said) is Easter. Have a happy one.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, LOST CALVES, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Twelve; Friday...

It really has been a Good Friday. Leading up to Easter Weekend, it has been a really nice day. Traffic on the way to work was very light even though I left about an hour-and-a-half later than usual. I was thinking I might do that more often, then I realized it was the start of a Holiday. That had the effect of taking the joy out of sleeping late. Whatever...

Once I got to work, it was really quiet. I needed to take care of some errands,and it was a good thing that I called ahead, because one of the stops I needed to make closed this afternoon at 2 o'clock. I left the office about 10 and ran errands and was back in the office by about 11:30.

One of the stops was to Buck Moore Feeds on North Lamar. My intention had been to buy four more chicks and the man there (John) and his wife (Dejah) turned out to be clients, and his grandfather was Buck. Small world. Anyway, the info turned out that I will be waiting to buy more chicks until they have some different varieties (probably in about a month or six weeks), and I am looking forward to getting some chicks that lay teal-blue eggs. That will be fun and interesting. I did buy some organic layer mash and a watering device that will give the chickens water automatically. That will be a big help! More chick news as it develops.

I did find out that the reason the wooden eggs (nest eggs) keep the chickens from breaking their own eggs is, once the try cracking the wooden eggs and find out they can't crack them, they think that is true of ALL eggs, so they just lose interest in cracking the eggs. True is stranger than fiction!

We all met up for lunch at El Chile on Barton Springs Road for a lunch to celebrate Tom's fourth anniversary with our company. We are all really happy to have Tom as a part of our team, and he is a tremendous asset to us and everyone around him. Thanks, Tom. I ordered the Chile Relleno, and it was DELICIOUS! During lunch we let Tom and Karla know that we were closing the office early and that after lunch, all they needed to do was close the office. Weird, but I left around two o'clock and Tom and Karla, Carrie, Chris and Toni were all still there.

Traffic on the way home was A BEAR and I don't know what the trouble was, but there was plenty of it, and it went on forever. Never did see the reasons for any of the back-ups, but, contrary to whatever Triple-A is reporting, there are plenty of folks on the road this weekend.

Once I got home, I went down for a nap on the couch. SWEET!

We got five eggs from the girls this afternoon, and all seems to be going nicely for them.

Konrad is sending a class out to the house tomorrow to check hives and extract some honey. That will be fun.

Gonna try and get the grass cut in the front yard this evening; if we don't get any rain, there will be no reason to cut the grass, it will all be burnt up.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, CHILE RELLENOS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 Day One Hundred Eleven; Thursday...

Another bang up day...Property Management meeting this morning, short and sweet! No problemos! I like it.

Next was my Meals-On-Wheels delivery. Seven clients today, and they were pretty much all glad to see me. There is one client who has a 'helper' and that person is not my favorite (that is awful, right), but the 'helper' was not there today, so everything was great. And my favorite client asked me to check out some items for her, and there was nothing I could help her with (but I did call her case worker for help) and my client said she would give me a big KISS, so I got a smoochie while delivering my route today. What could be better?

Lunch appointment with one of my colleagues (hey Ed!) and that was fun. He is very interested in Green issues, so I had an opportunity to talk A LOT about my car, and this and that. Ed drove us to Whole Foods where I got a pretty decent charge (for free) on their ChargePoint system, so all-in-all it was GREAT. This is a photo of my lunch, which I have to tell you was really a lot better than it looks. Some kind of chicken, some noodles and some fruit. Not too bad. I am saving myself for dinner tonight, see a couple paragraphs below...

On the way back to the office, it is not a good sign to see the traffic lights on 'FLASH' and the new Police Department 'class' practicing how to direct traffic. I took the photo anyway, hoping I could start some stuff, but they did not notice, and we went on about our way, after the 'changing of the directors'. Everyone has to learn their jobs, so I will cut them all a break.

Friends of this journal are contacting me with donations for the friends of our Administrative Goddess Karla, who were burned out of their home in the wild fires last week. A BIG SHOUT OUT to Joe & Carolyn, the management and staff of the Steve F Austin InterContinental Hotel, and all the rest of you for your kindnesses, donations and prayers.

The second half of today's journal will be completed once I get home tonight. It is gonna be LATE, but it will be done before midnight. I cannot miss a day!

Okay, I am home, and it is WAY, WAY, WAY, WAY , WAY past my bedtime. It is after 11 and I just came back in from turning on the cattle's water in the pasture and cleaning the skimmer basket in the pool. Walking back to the house from the pasture was really kind of fun; very dark but the light in the pool was casting a glow onto the back of the house. Very ethereal. I enjoyed it very much. AND the wind is blowing pretty nicely out of the south, so the turbines are spinning away, and I love that sound as well. Thumpa-thumpa-thumpa. You have to experience it!

SO, tonight was the Austin Chapter of the Women's Council of REALTORS dinner/dance and it was pretty much a BLAST! Our agent Chris was one of the coordinators for the event, and it was just a really good time (at the Elk's Lodge). We were joined by another agent Sytha (who is just a dream), and we were also joined at our table by John and Susan. All told, we had a really fine time. This is a photo of Carrie and Chris burning up the dance floor. Great fun...

What is it about tiaras that I just cannot pass up? I am like a moth to a flame drawn to them. Like an alluring siren I am bound to crash my ship upon the boulders just for one ecstatic moment of bliss with a tiara. Whatever... Anyway, Susan brought a tiara with her to the function, so of course it was a photo op for me. This is one of the more discreet photos, you will have to pay me if you want to see the others.

Tomorrow will be a nice day at the office, a happy end to a really nice week.

Later dudes...

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

2011 - Day One Hundred Ten; Wednesday...

The score is now Chickens, 0; Evans, 1. Not that important of a defeat for the chickens, but it is an overwhelming victory for me. The morning glories are really coming up after having surrounded them with various fences and paraphernalia to thwart the chickens from scratching up the seeds. My next move was to surround the morning glory beds with a moat, but I think that might be unnecessary. I am still considering concertina wore, but I also think that might be uncalled for. This whole episode kind of reminds me of Jack Benny going down to his dungeons to look at his money. Either that or one of those Rube Goldberg scenarios. Whatever. I am still ahead on this latest FIASCO. Okay, we are ahead on the egg count too. Today we got four eggs, and I am considering making a pilgrimage on Friday to Buck Moore Feeds to see what kind of chicks they have in stock. I think there are four more chickens in our future.

The cattle are all doing well, so I am happy about that. The more I go back there, the more they all think I am bringing them feed. They still have just barely touched the bale of hay that is back there for them, so that is good, it means they are taking advantage of the grass that is available to them. The new calves are all doing well. This photo shows a three day old calf on the left, and a two week old calf on the right. We are really getting some pretty calves this year.

This is a photo of my hay-bale gardening experiment. I put out these five square bales of hay a couple weeks ago, cut holes in them with a chain saw (these bales are packed really tightly) and put dirt in the holes. Then I put in cantaloupe and watermelon seeds, and covered them with more dirt. Water thoroughly. Wait. Sure enough, the seeds are germinating. This is not a new idea, and I think technically you are supposed to use better hay than the kind I am using, but the theory is the same; the roots will grow into the hay and the hay will retain moisture to help the plants grow. It was just something to do with the hay bales that I was not using, and if I get a couple cantaloupes or watermelons, it was well worth the cost of the seeds. We shall see.

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

2011 - Day One Hundred Nine; Tuesday...

It has been a long day. Well, I find most days to be long when I get up before 4 in the morning. Crazy, but I was kind of worried about Daphne which made me restless and did not enjoy a peaceful sleep. And of course, I worried about her most of the day and at one point considered turning the car around to go check on her. BUT, I devised a plan that, if she were feeling sickly (in my opinion) when I got home (late) this afternoon, I would work with her in the morning and do what had to be done. ANYWAY, once I got home, Jody and I went back there to check on her, and she was seemingly doing just fine, and the calf was nursing and all seemed fine. She still had the placenta attached but it was seemingly dry and not nearly as fierce looking as it was last night. TO make a long story short, she let me get close enough to her that I could grab the placenta and removed most of it with no issues. Just a little smidge of placenta protruding now, so I am less concerned, and I expect all will be well from here on out. This is a photo of Daphne this afternoon (pre-grabbing) and her two-day-old calf that is yet un-named, but I am kind of liking Oreo or Todd. He just kind of looks like he could respond to either one. We shall see.

While we were out there, one of last years calves (Sleepy Head), son of Doodle Bug (I think, it is kind of hard to keep up sometimes) was hanging out in the tank, and that is the first time I had seen any of them actually in the tank. I know they go down there, but I had never witnessed it. I like this photo.

Tomorrow should be more calm than today. Today was kind of a Monday-Squared.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, CALVES IN THE TANK, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day One Hundred Eight; Monday...

How many songs (sad ones) have been written about Mondays? Today was not a particularly bad day for me, the usual traffic challenges going in to the city. I had an early scheduled doctors appointment, and all was good. Blood pressure was GREAT, all signs are GO!

The Administrative Goddess in our office (Karla) has friends who home was DESTROYED in the wild fires near the Y in Oak Hill. So there were four adults and four children (all under the age of three, two less than a year) plus an assortment of pets all staying at Karla's house. KUDOS to the staff at the Steven F Austin Hotel and the Inter-Continental Hotel Group for stepping up and offering them refuge while they sort things out. Unfortunately, they will not be able to take advantage of it because they had found an extended-stay Hotel and had already paid their non-refundable fees and that was that. BUT, if you EVER need accommodations in Austin, I hope you will think of the Steven F Austin and the Inter-Continental Hotels wherever you go. I cannot imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and try to determine if you were having a bad dream, or if it was really true that you have NOTHING left. I cannot imagine it, so we at Austin REAL Pros are going to do our best to make it better for that family. I think we can really make a difference. If you can think of something to do, let me know.

I made it home a little bit early this afternoon, and Jody and I went out to check the cattle. The newest calf is doing wonderfully well, but I am a little bit concerned about the mama Daphne. She still has a little bit of retained placenta (I never even knew there was such a thing until earlier this year), and I will not be home until late tomorrow night. With the temperature in the 90's, it concerns me that it will cause an infection and affect both mama and baby. I will keep an eye on it as best I can. I am (hopefully) just too much of a worrier. These cattle have gotten along perfectly well for generations without my help and/or worry. I am certain the breed will survive.

Speaking of the weather, what is it with this heat? Right now, the temperature is somewhere between 90 and 95 degrees. It is almost seven o'clock, and it depends on which nuclear powered weather station you want to lend credence to. It is so hot outside (How Hot Is It?) that the chickens are walking around with their wings outstretched. And I don't think they are trying to take flight. Jody got three eggs today, and there may be more tonight, you just never know.

Tomorrow will be a nice day (knock-wood). I have a luncheon meeting, and pretty much other than that it will be working in the office. Tomorrow evening I am going to attend a private function with one of the Austin City Council Candidates. It will be fun and informative, I am certain.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, MORE RETAINED PLACENTA (Yuck), Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Seven; Sunday...

A really busy day today, even though I did stay in bed until AFTER 8 o'clock. I said I stayed in bed, I did not say I was asleep.

By the time I finally did get up, I made coffee and went out and checked all my various meters and gauges, and came back in and read the paper. By the time all that was done, everyone else was up (our guests Jim and Bonnie dress MUCH more formally than we do) and we decided to venture in to Denny's in Jarrell. What would you like with your bacon, sir? I think I will have more bacon, thank you! So, I had eggs over easy, a short stack and two orders of bacon. Nothing spectacular, but it was satisfying.

When we got home, Jim and Bonnie were ready to get on the road, so they left to go and visit with some friends in Georgetown. I went back into the pastures to make sure all was good with the cattle (it was about 10 o'clock) and Jody and I messed around the house doing various chores, and then we decided to go run errands in various cities; Taylor, Hutto and Georgetown.

In Taylor, I first stopped at Tractor Supply to get a new float for the water trough where the cattle are now. No floats. I am going to make this story shorter and less boring by saying we also went to the Tractor in Georgetown, and they had no floats either. I was given a stern lecture about the fact that there were 2,000 floats in the warehouse, and they could easily sell 1,000 of them, but could I please tell them why there had floats in the warehouse and not int he store? I decided it was 'human error' but I am not certain that the man in the Georgetown store bought my theory. I think he was more of a 'black helicopter coming over the horizon' kind of guy. They are supposed to have floats on Tuesday, but I think I will wait until Wednesday just to be safe.

Okay, next stop was at Beall's where I bought a nice Dockers three piece suit. Everything seems to be on sale 'pre-Easter' so that is pretty nice. Next stop was the Lowe's store in Hutto, where we purchased (more) supplies to keep the chickens away from the beds of morning glories. See the story about this several paragraphs below.

If you want to hear the story of us standing in line for four hours at Lowe's, you are welcome to ask, but my voice might become a little shrill. I realize that is nothing out of the ordinary for many of you, but...

Next stop (after the Georgetown Tractor Supply) was the Dairy Queen, where we each had a hot fudge sundae, and we contemplated the thought of having TWO sundaes, since we had missed a sundae by not visiting the Dairy Queen on Saturday, but we exercised considerable restraint, and settled for one each.

Next stop was Kohl's where I TRIED to buy a very nice suit; they had the correct coat size, but not the correct pant size. Here again, we got to stand in line for QUITE a long time (whatever happened to customer service you ask? Well, I can tell you, it was sacrificed for the bottom line!), to be told that they had the correct size pants at their Round Rock store, but if I wanted them to be sent to the Georgetown store (approximately 15 miles away) it would take SIX WEEKS. So, we asked them (since their computer said they had ONE PAIR of the trousers in Round Rock) if they could call the Round Rock store to confirm that and hold them, but the phones were not working. Not sure which phones were not working, but obviously one of the stores had not paid their phone bill, and communication between stores was at a standstill. BUT, I could go to the KIOSK and order a pair of trousers, and they would be shipped to me between April 21st and 28th. I went to the KIOSK and order the coat and the trousers, which only took about 20 minutes. AND I got $30 worth of Kohl's Dollars which will be available for me to use TOMORROW! BUT, I did find a nice pair of trousers on sale for $10, and I just had to have them!

That was the end of our errands, and we headed home. SO, BRING ON THE CHICKENS! I figure I have spent about a hundred dollars to try and out-smart the chickens and to try to keep them from scratching around in the areas that I am trying to grow morning glories. I am prepared to go as high as $1,500, but I hope this will do it. If this works, I will next remove all the dead morning glory vines from the trellis, but I must be careful to try and collect all the morning glory seeds that are still clinging to the vines. I will try to save them for next year. I think that will be possible, but about this time next year I will be wondering WHERE DID I PUT THOSE FREAKIN' SEEDS that I spent hours last year harvesting? I know myself WAY TOO WELL! But, just let one of those chickens even try to get into this little area. Only time will tell.

I was inside watching the news stories about the wild fires in Oak Hill (still not clear on exactly what is happening there, I will pay better attention during the 10 o'clock news) when Ira came to say he was pretty much finished with the fence. We both went back there to check things out, and it all loos very nice, much better than it has been, and of course I was counting cattle. I only counted 12, and Ira said there was one cow way in the back. He said it was pretty unusual for one cow to be hanging away from the rest of the herd, but I told him she looked alert, no signs of trauma, but I thought she was getting ready to have a calf.

About thirty minutes later, Jody and I were getting ready to have dinner, and I told him I thought Daphne was getting ready to have a calf. I went out by the pool to empty the skimmer basket and I took the binoculars with me. I saw Daphne had some placenta hanging and saw a little black and white lump in the hay, and I went back in to tell Jody she had calved. The two (formerly) most recent calves were hanging around, very interested in what was going on. Jody and I got back there, and Daphne let me get right up to her calf, close enough that I could check HIM out to see that he is a bull calf. As I posted a little while ago on FaceBook, we have bull calves coming out of our WAZOOS! BUT, this calf is another beauty. Very nice...

The perfect ending to another great day on the edge of nowhere!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, NEW CALVES, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Six; Saturday...

Helen, this is what the adolescent egg loaf looks like. Just wanted to document this for you! The day started out kind of early for a weekend. I needed to be up early because I was teaching a class in Austin beginning at 9 o'clock. So, in order to get there in time to make sure all the computers and everything else were working okay, I needed to leave the house at 7:30, which meant I had to have breakfast completed before that so I could get ready to go.

Everything went well, and I was back home just after 1 o'clock, and then we headed off to Round Rock to watch a bee 'dumping' (not sure if that is the right word). Basically it was a demonstration of how to get your 'package' bees into their new home. There were several people there (probably about 40 or more) and I was there just to learn a little bit (I was not getting any new bees this season), but my friend Jim was getting a 'package' of bees, so I was there to help him. Our friends from Houston went with me, so we all learned about bees, and then headed to Jim's house in Hyde Park. There were no incidents, although I was not taking any precautions. I look a little bit overdressed in this photo, totally suited up, and Jim has on nothing but a veil, not even gloves. I did not get this old by being stupid, and playing dress up is really a lot of fun!

We made it home by about 5 o'clock, and shortly after decided it was time to go into Georgetown for dinner. We headed off into Georgetown and went to the Catfish Parlour and all had a really nice meal. On the way home, we took the long route, and went through the Berry Creek Park and it was really a lovely evening just kind of wasting time. Wonderful.

We made it home (again) in time to sit out on the porch for a while, and the girls came up every now and then, but they were a little bit skittish. Finally Bonnie and I went out to see if we could get them into their pen, and I got Mini-Vera and handed her off to Bonnie. We herded them into their pen (mostly voluntarily) and they were pretty happy to get their food for the night. It is dark now, so I will need to go put them to bed for the night in just a few minutes. Jody got five eggs from them today, and still no more crushed or damaged eggs since we put the nest eggs in their nesting boxes. That would be really great if that solved the problem.

While we were at the bee demonstration, another friend of mine (Chris) told me how to go about integrating new chickens with an established flock. So, I am not a little bit more comfortable with the idea of adding about four more chickens to the flock.

Stay tuned.

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

2011 - Day One Hundred Five; Friday...

Yes, yes, it is Friday. I am really getting old, I CRAVE the weekends. Weekends are what I live for most, second only to eating. I love weekends, and I love eating; not necessarily in that order.

Our friends Jim and Bonnie are here visiting from Houston, and it is WAY past my bedtime right now. We had a wonderful dinner tonight at Montana Mike's in Georgetown, and we got home just before sunset to put the girls to bed, and we have been sitting out on the porch talking ever since. I have had an overload of wine this evening, I am working on my third glass of wine, so I am not responsible for anything that may be written tonight in this journal.

Jim and Bonnie also brought us this wonderful wind chime. It is fantastic, and we both love it. It fits right in with everything else in the yard and it makes noise too.

The coyotes were having a party out by the road this evening. Not very far from the front porch. It was interesting, neat and just a little bit unnerving. I love living on the farm. I need to get up early tomorrow (since it is a weekend) to go into Austin and te

ach a class. Then in the early afternoon, I am going to held another friend install three pounds of bees in his new hive. It will be fun!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, GOOD FRIENDS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Four; Thursday...

Pretty much a normal routine day. I started out with a trip to Home Depot to buy bird seed for the feeders, and some wire fencing to go around the area where we USED to have morning glories. I am pitched in battle with six chickens, trying to keep them from scratching in a particular area so I can once again get the morning glories to propagate. I doubt that I can out-fox the chickens, but I am up for the challenge. Only time will tell...

After that I headed straight to the Board for a Town Hall meeting with much (okay about 150) of the membership. Neal Spelce was the guest speaker for the event, and it was very entertaining. He forecast much of the same for Austin in the near and short term; more job growth, more population growth, more need for infrastructure improvement. Get this: ten years ago, Detroit was the fifth largest city in the country. Now, the population of Detroit (according to the most recent census figures) has a population of approximately 713,000 people and Austin has an estimated population of 730,000 people. That is mind boggling. This is a photo of me with Neal Spelce and our agent Chris.

Guess which one of these fans of mine insisted on showing me her shoes this morning during the meeting? I think it is interesting that no one pays any attention any more if I am photographing women's shoes. AND, I am getting volunteers for the photos. I do indeed need to say that these shoes are KILLERS! And that is not in a good way feet wise, but in a killer way look-wise. Can you all really stand up and be comfortable in those for extended periods of time?

Once I made it home this afternoon, I went back to make sure the cattle had water, I still have not fixed that float in the trough yet, but I will this weekend. Anyway, the cattle could not have cared less that I was back there, and did not pay even a little bit of attention to me. That in and of itself is a good thing, it means they are contented and not needing anything from me. I am happy with that. Jody got four eggs from the girls today and all seems to be going pretty well. NO news there.

Tomorrow is FRIDAY, and I am darned excited about that. We are having guests from Houston over the weekend, our friends Jim and Bonnie. On Saturday I am teaching a class in the morning, and then planning to go and help another friend Jim with his bees. We will see if the other Jim (and Bonnie) are interested in that event or not. It will be fun dumping three pounds of bees (probably between 3-5,000 bees) into a new hive. Of course, that will be after a briefing on how to do it with the fewest stings. Really, when I ramped up my five hives last year, I do not remember getting a single sting. I cannot say that for every time I have worked the hives, but starting a new hive is not something that generally causes problems.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, HOT FEET, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Three; Wednesday...

A wonderful day in the neighborhood. I was given the unique opportunity to sit in the office for several hours today, and got several things accomplished. Touched a lot of things, was able to make progress on projects, got everything finished up for a listing appointment in the late afternoon, attended a meeting and generally just had a wonderful day.

Once I got home, I visited with Jody for a little while, and headed off to one of the pastures to check on the cattle's water. The trough where the cattle are now is not shutting off properly (problem with the float), so instead of wasting water (probably about 20 gallons a day) I had shut the water off, and wanted to make sure they had water. The pasture they are in has a tank that STILL has water in it, so there is not a concern they will die of dehydration, it is simply that these giant Chihuahuas prefer city water over muddy water in a big mud-hole on the ground. What were you expecting? While I was messing around with the float, Orchid decided to come over and investigate, and I took the opportunity to take this photo. Doodle bug decided to come over a little later, but I was not prepared camera wise, but I think the photo of Orchid is wonderful.

Here is another photo of one of the Iris, one of the more interesting Iris too. When you are just looking at this particular plant, the blooms ALMOST look like they are black or dark grey. With the flash on the camera, it shows the real color which is a dark burgundy color, very pretty. I have plenty more photos of interesting and exotic Iris around the property, I just do not want to totally bore you to death with them; I will save that for a little later.

This is a photo of the path Miguel is putting in between where one path ends and the yard begins. I expect we could have easily just not messed with it and worn a path in the grass, but that would not have been acceptable to me, I think a nice cottage path is definitely more inviting than a long dead place in the grass. AND OF COURSE the chickens had to get in on the act. Yesterday we got three eggs, today we got five. Since we put the nest eggs in the nesting boxes, we have not had any more crushed eggs, and the eggs we have been getting have been cleaner. AND they have left much of the hay and grass in the nesting boxes instead of IMMEDIATELY scratching it out onto the floor of the coop. Of course, since I am bragging on them now, there will be crushed eggs and no hay in the boxes tomorrow. We shall see...

Deeds, Actions, Changes, WATERY COWS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred Two: Tuesday...

Last night, I went out after publishing my entry, and took a photo on these Amaryllis that are blooming in one of the front beds. Many of the Amaryllis we have here (really only about three or four now) were given to us by friends, particularly Joe Mac and Carolyn. Since we have just a little history of moving now and then (I am a Texas REALTOR) we have planted Amaryllis at SEVERAL different properties, and they are always beautiful once the naturalize and bloom. Very, very nice!

Today was a very interesting and very rewarding day. It was the annual REALTOR visits to Capitol Hill, and the day was a tremendous success. Great successes like these are not easily achieved, and most of the credit lies with the Government Affairs and Political Action Committee staff at the Austin Board of REALTORS. They all (Earl, Christina and Anna) did a great job preparing us and tutoring us on the issues that we presented to our elected officials, and we were warmly received. This photo is of me, my business partner Carrie and our great agent Chris. There were REALTORS from all across the State, and it was a wonderful grass roots effort.

This is a photo of me at the Capitol, and I am just throwing this one in because I like the photo, and it is my journal, so a little bit of this self-aggrandizement is to be expected. A big shout-out to another valuable ABoR staffer Kate for taking the photo. I expect there are a lot of photos floating around right now, and I would be happy to be the recipient of any you might like to share.

I attended several sessions with our State Representatives or their counsel of Chiefs of Staff. After all, the legislature is in session, and we have a tremendous number of really important issues that need to be decided this session, including our looming budget deficit. My groups met with representatives for Representative Elliott Naishtat, Representative Mark Strama, and Senator Kirk Watson.

The highlight of MY day was being the Team-Leader for State Representative Donna Howard, one of the most endearing and delightful people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. She is truly an asset to her constituents and is certainly a friend to REALTORS in her District.

Our day ended with a meeting with freshman Representative Paul Workman, and he was very candid with us about his learning the ropes during this session, and his earnest efforts to make sure all his decisions are for the benefit of all.

A truly enlightening day for all involved. My thanks to everyone that had a part in this annual event, and I hope to be a part of it again next year.

So, even though my Hill Visit was pretty exciting, there was fun stuff happening on the home front as well! Miguel came out today and started (and almost finished) our new path from the front of the house to the front barn and chicken coop. Can't really tell much about it right now, but I am thinking it is going to be pretty darned nice. Photos tomorrow or the next day. We got three eggs from the girls today, and there maybe one or two more, but we are not really sure why the production has decreased in the last week. Maybe they are just going through a phase. We shall see...

Deeds, Actions, Changes, HILL VISITS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2011 - Day One Hundred One; Monday...

Another day of pitfalls and pick-me-ups! Remember, for every valley there is a peak.

We were really lucky and got about a third of an inch of rain last night. Jody got up in the middle of the night and closed a couple of the windows (we have the LOUDEST windows in the world) and I did not hear a thing. I woke up at one point, and Jody said we were in the second round of winds and rain, and I was totally oblivious to the first onset. Self-medication really works!

Pretty much a full day in the office, and there were a few challenges; but nothing that won't look less disastrous after a good nights sleep.

Once I got home this afternoon, I went out to take a look at the cattle; I think we should be having another calf or two in the not too distant future. The cattle are all happily ensconced in the other pasture with plenty of nice ripe green grass. they have not even touched the bale of hay that is out there with them, and with the rain last night, the other two pastures should make a nice and speedy recovery.

Here are a couple pictures I want to share with you. First, this is a photo of the bottle tree that Miguel and I got started yesterday. There is plenty of room for additional bottles, and as you can see, I only drink the cheap stuff. Here is a question for you; do you have any interesting bottles, particularly the cobalt blue ones? I am not opposed to buying wine based on the color of the bottle, but in my experience a bottle of wine in a blue bottle costs at least $7. Out of my league. So, just in case you need a new source of recycling... I would even consider a pick-up service, just let me know what you need.

The next photo is just kind of an oxymoron to me...a nice oriental carpet in the living room, a lovely needle point chair (that I am really partial to) and my work boots next to them. I just thought it was a humorous sight. If you really want to know what I thought, just ask me.

Tomorrow will be our Hill Visits. We expect about 2,000 REALTORS to descend on the Capitol, and we will be making the rounds of the Travis County delegations. There will be folks from all across the state, and this will be my first experience. I will be in charge of a team of REALTORS that will be visiting State Representative Donna Howard. A very nice woman; I have met her a few times, and she is just delightful.

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

2011 - Day One Hundred; Sunday...

Already one-hundred days into this year. Pretty soon it will be Christmas, and we will be planning next years gardens and transplanting things. All the work I have done this year will be forgotten but not necessarily unappreciated. I spent two or three hours this morning pulling weeds in the front circle and the back circle. Lots of Georgia Cane and other little pesky weeds. Interestingly, all the Georgia Cane is on one long continuous root; maybe not really, but they have expansive root systems. I do not think my weed pulling days are over for this year, but they are over for this month at least. We shall see.

Miguel and I kind of went our separate ways around the property today, I (remember) was busy pulling weeds, and Miguel re-worked the fruit tree staking that he did last week, and then watered the trees up by the road. I pulled weeds and Miguel went on to something else. I pulled weeds, and Miguel started something else. Get the picture? I pulled weeds, Miguel really has no interest in pulling weeds.

Late morning Jody and I went into Georgetown to make a Home Depot run and then a stop at the Dairy Queen. Sorry to say my visit to the Dairy Queen today was not particularly satisfying. Jody had his usual hot-fudge sundae, and I opted for a root beer Freeze (which is really a root beer milk shake), but the guy making it was a rookie and it ended up being something like root beer with a little ice cream in it and it was really THIN. BUT, I was basically craving fluids so it was okay, but not sinfully delicious.

When we got home, I cleaned the chickens water pan and hanging water buckets, and Miguel and I started moving flat rocks from here and there to make a path from the end of the front garden to the front of the property where the barn and chicken coop is. That will be a job, but Miguel will be working on it during the week as well as on the weekend, so that will be good. I also took some square hay bales, dug holes in the centers of them and put dirt in the holes. Then I put some cantaloupe and water melon seeds in the dirt, and I am going to see if that will work for a hay bale garden. It seems like the hay will retain water well (doubtful it will retain water as well as I do, nothing does), but I think it is a good theory, just not sure if it is too late to start anything or if it will work or not. Time will tell. It is an interesting concept though.

Once Miguel left, I took my first jump into the pool. As they said of the water when the titanic was sinking 'it is definitely not hot'. After the initial shock (to several parts of the old bod) it was not too bad. And it is true that I do not have any shame what-so-ever since I am in total control of the photos I publish on this blog. No shame what-so-ever!

Jody and I went into Jarrell for dinner tonight at one of the local Mexican Restaurants. I had the three quesadilla plate (it was DELICIOUS) and Jody had the chicken enchiladas which were really good too. We had been there once before and were not terribly thrilled with it, but it was really good tonight.

On the way home, we were driving through a little subdivision and came upon this kind of old stretch Lincoln limousine, and I had to go back just to take the picture of the front end of this car. Fabulous!

It is going to be a busy week, but at least tomorrow will be a day of mostly office work.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, HORNY LINCOLNS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!