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!
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