Pregnant Again!

Ahh Haa!! I knew that would get your attention!!! No, I am not talking about Brooke and I am definitely not talking about myself, for that matter!! So....who is pregnant again, you may ask? Let me explain.

For about the past six months or more Monroe and I have been in a disagreement about Missy, our cow. When she was "in heat" several months ago the neighboring bull kept calling her name. You know what I mean. He was bellowing sweet nothings in her ear. Actually, it was in ALL of our ears ;-) He was telling her how beautiful she looked and how she was the only one for him, etc. Monroe decided to put Missy over on the neighbor's pasture so the two lovebirds could .... well.... you know! As it turned out, Missy's little visit was only about 10 minutes because the whole time MerriBell, her grown-up calf, was crying for her Mama to come back. So rather than having to repair fences, we put Missy back on our side with her overgrown, spoiled rotten baby. After that day, the bull never called on Missy again and I was sure they didn't have time to get anything accomplished. As the months passed Monroe and I watched Missy to see if she was "showing". Nope.

I couldn't tell at all. She is a very, shall we say, full-figured female so I didn't see any bulge. Monroe, on the other hand, saw all the action that blissfully romantic day and was certain she was pregnant. I mean, come on, 10 minutes, folks!! That is all the time they had together. Apparently our Missy is like me and dare I say, Brooke. All our husbands have to do is walk in the room and we are pregnant! (Thank you Lord for the blessings of our children.)

Anyway, back to my story. My dear hubby called me on the phone yesterday afternoon and all he said was, "We have a calf." I was very surprised, to say the least. In fact, my two younger ones kept repeating my high-pitched reaction to the news all afternoon yesterday, "WHAT...WHAT????" Wise Guys!

So, being the humble wife that I am (chuckle here!) I ran out the front door and yelled to my dear husband,

"You Win!!" To which he very graciously just grinned back at me and said nothing. Smart Man ;-)

Here are a few pictures of our newest addition. The little white bull is our brahma, Little Bit. He just wouldn't get out of the picture! You would think HE is the proud father! The lighter brown cow with horns is MerriBell. This new calf attracted a lot of attention from everyone. I have learned cows are very curious creatures! Notice the big guy on the other side of the fence. He is the proud Pappa. It was almost as if he knew it. He hung around for a long time yesterday.

Poor MerriBell. She has been forced off of Mama's lap, so to speak. I am waiting to see if Missy will continue to let MerriBell nurse as well as the new calf. We may have some sibling rivalry!

I have so much more to share but I have been too busy to post. Also, my card reader has been broken so I couldn't put up any pictures. Bear with me. I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Honey Update and More BEES!

Busy, busy, busy! That is life around my house lately. Now I understand what I have heard others say about springtime on a farm and the busyness of it all! Whew. I literally fall into bed every night exhausted but satisfied with all that was accomplished for the day. It is a good kind of tired!


The final count on our wildflower honey is 15 quarts. While this is not my favorite honey it will be put to many uses like baking bread and making smoothies, etc. We are very excited to get all this delicious, nutritious honey with very minimal processing. This honey was extracted and then strained...that's it! Mmmm, mmmm, good!!

While we were working outside a few days ago, Brandon spotted a swarm of bees out by the garden. The problem was where they chose to gather. Can you see them in the side of this bank of dirt? This is the dirt hill Monroe made for the boys to climb with their four-wheeler.

Here is a better shot of the swarm.

We were expecting rain later that afternoon so Brandon was anxious to get these little guys into a new home. Naturally the next thing to do was to call Ethan for advice and he, not seeing the situation, suggested putting a new box over the swarm. We just couldn't figure how to go about that so Brandon just put the empty frames close to the bees. There was a small amount of honey left on the frames so that would entice the swarm to come on in. A few of them were interested but not enough of them to persuade the rest to come along. The rains did come but it didn't seem to bother the bees. We learned that they squeeze together so tightly that the water just runs off their backs. Amazing!

The next day our hero, Ethan, once again came to the rescue. Even he said this was a tricky place to try and catch a swarm. I watched from a safe distance ;-) and every once in a while I would get brave enough to snap a picture! After working with the bees about 45 minutes Ethan was able to coax them into their new home.

You can see how the homeless little fellows are liking their new hive. It didn't take them long to move in once they got word that it was a safe place to go.

Orange blossom honey season is from March to April so I was hoping we would get another hive of orange blossom honey. We shall see. It takes them some time to establish their new hive so they may need all of this season's orange blossom to "set up house". That will be okay. We are just thanking the Lord that they chose our property to swarm to! Another blessing is they landed right beside our vegetable garden. We left the hive box right there hoping they will be busy little bees and pollinate our garden!

Have a blessed and joyful Easter Holiday!

HE IS ALIVE....HALLELUJAH!!