Bees Are Here!!!!

 I don't know if you can see them but there are honey bees all over my corn! I was out in the garden this morning and heard a strange noise that I couldn't quite figure out. I'd heard it before but it has been so long ago. Then I saw them. Lots and lots of honey bees! I had to look close but there are a lot of them. All over the corn tassels. I am so happy to see them again. It's been several years. It used to sound like New York City while I would be picking beans from all the bees in the corn. I guess they were just waiting for the corn to tassel. I am going to plant some more corn this week, just for the bees. I love honey bees. And I was so worried that the GMO corn across the road had run them off. But they are here again. Sweet beautiful bees!

 I love to hear the buzzing the bees make when they are happy. And their little legs are just full of corn pollen. I wish I knew where their hive was. They are just the most amazing of God's creatures. So complex yet so simple. And we could not live without them, I believe. They give us so much. Sweet wonderful honey and so much food. They are just amazing.

There are lots of bumble bees and yellow jackets and wasps all over. But haven't even really seen too many of those. They used to buzz all around the fallen old apples on the ground. But I have been picking those up and either giving the really bad ones to the chickens or the not so bad ones to the sheep. They love apples now. They will not climb the apple trees like the goats do. They wai patiently every morning for me to give them their apples. Such sweet sheep.

More Sheep, Chickens and a Dog

 These are the boys. Abraham in the front, Alfie in the middle and Axel standing, guarding the chickens. They are so big. They were all born in March. Alfie and Axel are more of a hair sheep and Abraham is a Finn. He's so handsome. And the friendliest one of the whole bunch of lambs. I may keep him to use for breeding Lucinda and the ewe lambs in the fall.

Axel and Abraham.

 The chicken yard. It's pretty big.  They have plenty of room to roam. The bottom picture is the back so it is an L-shaped yard. They have eaten every blade of grass in there though. When I mow I will put the bagger on and throw that grass in for them. They love it.

 The 2 new Americana chicks. They still won't go out/ Here they are behind the cage, safe from the mean ole big chickens. It's the darker little one that is being bullied. Hopefully that will stop soon.

 And here is Stella Bella Luna. She comes in with me to see her sheep. I will keep her with me when I come into the ram yard. They are young and nice right now, but they will not stay that way. And there are 3 of them and only one of me. So she will help keep them back away from me when the time comes. She loves her sheep. And they tolerate her. I need to learn some sheep herding commands for her. She knows "back"  and "out" and "that'll be all". I learned that from Jenna at www.coldantler. She's a good dog.

South Garden

 This is a shot of the South garden, again looking at Pigeon Mt in the background. Such a beautiful view. The sheep pasture is beyond the garden to the right.

 And this garden gets watered. I soaked it good last night and also fertilized with manure tea. So hopefully it will revive. I am picking some squash but not many yet.

 These are some purple peppers. They are so pretty.

 And some yellow peppers. Yes, they are supposed to be yellow!

 And a beautiful patch of my favorite flowers, zinnias. Love them! You just can't have too many of these around.

 These are Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. The best ever cherry tomato. SO GOOD!

 Poor tomato plants. They are do needing a good rain. But full of tomatoes. And they are amazing and juicy!

 Some of my grapes. And talk about good! Yum! And seedless too.

And of course have to get my sheep in here somehow. Lucinda is up at the house in the shade so she didn't get in this picture.

North Garden

 This is my North garden. It's quite yellow, in meed of a good soaking. No rain in weeks. Although we did have a little strange pop up storm last night and the ground was a little wet this morning.

So these are the beans. Kentucky Wonder and McCasslen pole beans and Blue Lake and Italian Roma bush beans.  They are all starting to come on really good right now. The Roma bean plants are so pretty and full of flowers.

 You can see how the bottoms are yellow in this picture. But they are full of big pretty beans.

 This is looking at the chicken house.

 This is looking at Pigeon Mt. to the East of us. We are in a beautiful valley with Lookout Mt. to the West behind us.

 Pretty bean vines reaching for the sky. You can see some holes where the Japanese beetles are having dinner. Then they are dinner for the chickens later. The chickens love those nasty creatures! I take a bucket and go down through the rows and shake the beetles into the bucket. The chickens are standing at the fence waiting for them to fall from the sky for them to eat up every evening.

These are the field peas. You can just see the pea pods and the pretty purple flowers. These plants love the heat and they look great. And are FULL of nice young pea pods. Can't wait to pick some.

So this is the North garden. In full production right now. I am picking cucumbers daily. There is a sweet potato patch to the right but it's very weedy.

Potatoes in my pockets

I was out mowing the garden rows this evening. The row to the right is potatoes, then kale, then cabbage then chard, then more potatoes. I have been digging up potatoes the past few weeks and I need to go ahead and finish digging them all up now so I can start planting other things there.  So I am mowing and see some pretty red potatoes on the ground. I grabbed them and stuck them in my pockets.

Then later as I am mowing the other garden, I see some pretty cucumbers I missed yesterday. So in the pockets they go. Then look at the very short okra plants and see some okra. Picked them and there they went into the pockets too.

 Handy thing, pockets. You really can't have too many. I was wearing a skirt one day with no pockets and I locked my keys in my car. Not good. I always stick my keys in my pockets instead of my purse because they will always fall down to the very bottom. So a pocket is easier. And this time it cost me a cracked front window. $175.00. So I like to wear things with pockets. Very handy thing, those pockets.

105

That used to be our address in Flintstone, Ga. not long ago. Now it's the temperature here today. And will be til Tuesday. I just want it to hurry up and get here. And with a chance of some showers!! Oh how we need some rain. I have been watering everything the past several days.

Now I have to go pick beans for market tomorrow morning. I don't really want to but there are beans out there that have got to be picked or they'll be too big. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't like my beans too big. And I hope there will be some more cucumbers and squash and tomatoes too.

When I got home about 5:30, there was a sheep on the driveway. It was Alfie. He must have gotten out from under the chain link fence. I saw that spot and thought one or more of them might try getting under and out. Well, Alfie did. He was right there in the grass though. I wasn't worried that he'd run off. Not by himself. Uh uh. Not alone. And he didn't eat a single azalea or Crepe Myrtle leaf either. Good boy! Just grass. Now all 3 ram lambs are back in the bigger pasture. I am taking all 3 to a friend's yard next week for a few months to eat down a problem area for her. I might or might not miss the big guys.

And my ewes were all in the South pasture. No one was near death or hurt. I am very thankful. But there are still 3 more days of over 100 degrees to go.

And my arms and legs are SO itchy! From picking beans and squash and cucumbers. I wake up at night scratching. Ugh! And then the okra is starting to grow.

What's the weather like in your neck of the woods? I hope y'all are staying cool. I want a pool real bad.

What a Life!

Yep, this is where Bubba lives right now. It's such an effort to even lift his ole head up. Sorry I disturbed you. Now get back to sleep.