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!