Home life

Sun. Aug. 24, 2014

Mon. Aug. 25, 2014

First day of school for Jones, Georgia and Annie. I give the girls a love necklace each year. This year was a heart necklace and an impromptu note.

Aug. 26-30, 2014

Baby Brown #6

Milam Loye Brown

Aug. 18, 2014

5lbs 14oz

20 in

1:12pm

Born at 36 wks. Emergency csection for prolapse cord. NICU for one week. 

 We are home!

B-Day

Finally got my prep work done, watched plenty of youtubehowtos, and amazon shipped the stuff I ordered to become a beekeeper.

Thursday evening was go time.

I found a cheap veil/smock combo online.  It shipped from Hong Kong and it sure enough fit like it was made for a little Chinaman.

I ordered this box with 10 prefab beeswax frames.   

I built a base box and a lid.  As I was putting things together and reading I discovered that I should have ordered a queen excluder and an extra set of frames and a whole bunch of other stuff that wasn't in the budget for my bee experiment.

Here's Jonesy carrying the lid to the hive box.

 And here's the final setup.  I set the legs into cups of water in an effort to keep the fire ants out.

Jonesy assisted me and documented everything with photos and video.  (check out my youtube channel to see the complete play by play) While we were getting things ready we heard Annie and West coming down the creek bed.  Apparently they told Mama that they were, "Going outside."  Not really a lie, just not the whole truth.  They had followed Jones and I from a distance and after a call to Mama to let her know where they were I let them stay to watch from afar.
One of the many things I did not order was a bee smoker.  I made due with Swishers and a small smokey ground fire a couple yards upwind.  I removed the extra rods and tackle from the storage bin the bees were shacking up in and then separated the combs from the inside wall.  This was when they really got to buzzing.  I shook the comb off into the new box.  Then dumped what bees had fallen into the storage bin into the new hive, put the frame box and lid on and that was that.  We kept the biggest pieces of comb to taste and take to the house.  Some of it was capped honey, some of it was capped bee larvae in various stages of development.  After we were back in the house, one baby bee emerged ready to go, but Mama didn't think it was a fascinating as I did so that one only breathed free air for about 30 seconds.

Extracting the honey.  We got enough for a few biscuits.

Unfortunately when I went to check on the bees yesterday evening they were gone.  Or at least not many out of the hundreds I moved were in my hive box anymore.  There are still lots of bees in the area. I must have lost the queen during the transfer or she didn't like her new digs and vamoosed .  Probably should have sealed them in for a few days like some of the guys I saw on youtube.  Not one to be dissuaded, I moved the hive box into a clearing and left it set up with a sugar water feeder.  Jones found another swarm in a hole in the hillside nearby so hopefully some of them will decide to make my hivebox their new home.  I'm going to keep at it, but I'll hold off buying anymore beekeeping junk until I get some bees to stick to the hive.
 If I sell the honey I've gotten so far at $34.59/oz I'll just break even, but the time with my kids in the woods is priceless.

My New Hobby

The girls and I went on a night fishing adventure last Friday.  We went down to the lake just before sundown to set up.  I keep a plastic tub hidden in the bushes down there with extra rods and tackle to keep me from having to carry so much back and forth.  It'd been about a month since I had messed with it, and I found some squatters had moved in......


I like honey and I have so much extra time on my hands so I've decided to become a beekeeper and attempt to adopt this swarm.  In preparation I've ordered one of those veil hat things and I've been watching lots of beekeeping-how-to youtubes.  The differences in the ladies from  Michigan and England versus the guys from Alabama and Mississippi are interesting.  I think I get the general idea.  The Africanized bees are intimidating.  Not sure what I've got. 

We didn't fish long. We only had a limited supply of fishing rods and tackle since the bees had commandeered our box, but Jonesy did catch this big drum.

What it is.....Summer 2014.

Went to Lubbock for the first time in a long time and attended my 2nd littlest cousin's wedding.  Good to see some family and friends, but I left feeling old.
I got to attend the 7th annual Weekend With a Bunch of Guys With Whom I Went to College get together.  Spent the weekend feeling young again.  Felt old on the way home.
The kids have attended 5 or 6 VBSs and day camps.  Racking up the miles on the Joy Bus.
I took the girls on the 2nd Annual We Got a Free Ticket to Six Flags trip to San Antonio.  A little different than last year's trip.  Annie came along and Jonesy developed a fear of heights and freaked out on the ferris wheel.

School is starting again next month.  Boo.
Spent a lot of time in the pool and in the lake this summer.  Jonesy's new dream is to be an olympic swimmer.  She's got a great breast stroke and has the build.  Who knows?
Milam will be on the ground in two months.
I don't think Loden's going to handle it very well.  He's a mama's boy.
Leslie and I marked our 11th anniversary.
My wife looked great on our wedding day, but I think she's prettier now than when I married her and I'm thankful for that.  She's still nice to me too.  I know a bunch of guys who's wives have just gotten b    r and meaner over the years.
Jones and I are planning to go night fishing tomorrow night.  The mayflies are hatching.  Should be a good time.
If I didn't have to go to work I probably wouldn't leave the house except to go to HEB.  I like being home and there is enough there to keep me busy.
I'm finding the politics and cultural shifts of our nation depressing.  The next two years will be pivotal.  God bless Texas.
I've been reading a lot about the Great Depression, Dust Bowl, and WWII.  Hope I can raise kids that are that tough.  It may be an impossible task.
West is a good boy.  A four-year old struggling between having three big sisters and wanting to become a man.  I think he'll make a good husband and daddy someday.
I think I'm about 3 years away from a mid-life crisis.  When it hits please be patient with me and I'll try to get it over with as quickly as possible.
It's the middle of July and the weather is cooler and wetter than normal.  If this is climate change, I like it.