BEES!!!

The other day, we had bees. Ground bee yellow jackets, to be exact.

These little buggers (pun intended) attacked my husband as he mowed the ‘back 40’. We don’t have 40 acres, but it’s the back of our 2 acre lot. It seems like a long way to walk back there, if you’re up in age like we are.

He only got stung by 3 bees, but it could have been worse. These little guys will swarm in a heartbeat if they are agitated. The sound of a lawnmower chopping over their little hole in the ground stirs them up. Yeah! My husband was VERY lucky!

OK. Now my husband has a death wish for the bees. So do I.

Hubby’s version to kill: pour gasoline down the hole and light it. Right now!

My version to kill: Wait until dusk. Check to see if there are any bees flying around the hole. If so, come back a little later wearing long pants and a dark shirt. No bees? Then, soak the hole with a stream of foam wasp spray so they don’t fly back at you. Pour a whole quart of high-potency bug killer down the hole. Check for an alternate exit hole. You’ll definitely see them if there is one! Go away. Leave the bottle over the hole for a few days. Keep checking, from a distance, to see if any bees are flying around. If so, make other plans to have this baby professionally killed.

Guess whose version won out? Mine did. It would have been interesting to see hubby do a dance around the bee hole if he didn’t listen to me.

With ground bees, you have to destroy the WHOLE nest. Otherwise, they’ll just move from spot to spot and you’ll never get rid of them.

I’m so glad my Hubby is OK.

My Noisy Neighbors

This morning I decided to sit outside with my coffee and bagel after my hubby went to work.

At 5:30am, the morning is cool and clear - for a change. The stars are crisp, bright and share the deep black heavens with a little shiny moon which is on it's way to illuminate the next side of the world.

On our porch, I have a black steel dining set...nothing fancy. It's really functional. I put a towel on the damp seat and proceeded to have my coffee and cinnamon/raisin bagel.

NICE! Just me listening to the frogs and crickets chirping. A lone mosquito is buzzing my ear. She should've been in bed!

Then my noisy neighbors started. One after the other they yelled at each other. Don't they have any sense not to make so much noise this early in the morning?! Non-stop they went at it one after the other. In fact, they're still putting up a ruckus out there.

"Ar-a-roo-a-roo!" went my two boys. The farm to the left has a newly crowing rooster, so he was at it real good. The farm to the back had a pretty lazy rooster, young but lazy. He only let go once in a while. The farm to the right rear was going at it pretty good. They have a couple voicing their opinions. Theirs are young, too. The neighbor to my immediate right has two very young roos that crow a little. They weren't even in the picture this morning.

So, I counted. I had 6 noisy neighbors this morning, yelling at each other and trying to wake the world.

I wonder what they say to eachother?

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Do you think my hubby deserves this???

OH YEAH! He's been a really good hubby this past year.

This is his favorite cake - Mahogany Chiffon with icing. This is totally made from scratch and well worth the effort.

He informed me he likes a buttercream icing better than a ganache. Oh well. There's next year.

Happy Birthday, Honey!

Love from your devoted wife,

Michelle

CHICKENS?!

What do we have? Chickens! Twenty-some of them!

Here is a picture of my three hens sharing eggs to hatch. The brown one is Mama-Cup. She's a Buttercup who started the whole setting thing. The white one is Mama-Velder. She's a Lakenvelder who decided to help out. And, the one in back is Lana. She's supposed to be a Dominique. She has two sisters so I decided to give them can-can dancer names. However, I think she's NOT a Dominique because of the way she looks. I think she's a Barred Rock from the description in chicken catalogs.

This was a really fun thing to see! My hubby thought it was funny. The people at work were pretty amused at the sight of this picture (which is my desktop background).

No eggs hatched from the efforts of these three. There was a little bit of a problem one night. It seems something came in and ate 4 of the 5 eggs I marked so I would know which were being set upon. It must've been a snake. My chickens are pretty spaced-out when they set, so not much bothers them. A snake could've slithered into the nest easily and done the deed at night. The last egg was not fertile.

The other problem we had was Lana wasn't feeling too well. I think she just wanted to be near the some chickens. She passed away shortly after this picture was taken. I think she was egg-bound. That would not be the way I'd want to go. Sadly, that ends the life of some chickens.

Happy chicken farming to those of you who do!