Again my day started bright and early yesterday with a trip to town to pickup a couple barrels of spent brewing grain. I had to take in the 6 empties I had from last week so they have enough barrels for brewing today. Tomorrow I go pickup grain at both breweries.
Before it got exceptionally warm in the morning I got out and picked a full bowl of strawberries which weighed 5 pounds.That is about 15 pounds now that I have picked from the rows and the plants are still pumping them out.
After noon I had the urge to go see if there were still bees from the swarm by the creek. When I walked up to the creek I could see the mas of bees on the branches on the ground. There was still a good number of them all milling about in a kinda pile. I figured it was best for me to try and gather a many as I could and dump them in the hive with the rest of their swarm.
I got my bee suit on, grabbed a 3 gallon icing bucket, and then scooped handfuls into the bucket. I got a pretty good number on the first go round. I had to walk quickly the few hundred feet to the hives with the bees all buzzing like mad. The bucket was vibrating from their wings.
I got the the hive, pulled the top and lid off, then pulled the cage from inside and I could see where they had started to build comb on the cage. I dumped the bucket of bees into the opening left then I slid frames in to fill the box back up. I put the cover on and went back for more bees.
I had about 2/3 of the pile of bees moved and spent a good little bit trying to get as many of the stragglers as I could. In the mass of bees I found where they had started to try to make comb in some leaves from the branch that the queen had been on prior.
I think I did pretty good in getting a healthy amount of bees on the second trip.
I popped out a couple of frames once I had the second load of bees to the hive and dumped them in as well. I put the hive back together and let them be the rest of the day.
I was taking the camping gear to the gear shed in the afternoon. I walked into the gear shed carrying air pads, sleeping bags, and tents to start hearing a hissing sound. I looked tot he pads thinking one of them might have loosened the valve and was sucking in air. I poked the pad a couple of times then I realized that it was a snake. This 3 foot long gopher snake was all kinds of pissed off in the corner of the shed. I moved everything out of the way as it tried to strike. I grabbed one of my ski piles and used the basket on it to catch its head so I could pick it up.
It was still pissed off the while time but it was a lot more mellow as I had its head pinched.
I took it through the garden and then dropped it through the fence below the apple tree. It hit the ground and sat there for a bit before slowly slithering its way into the grasses. I figure it can work on the mice around the garden now.
On our trip to ND I had picked up a set of arrows for target practice which I had yet to try out. I grabbed the bow, arrows, and trigger release and went out to see how bad my aim is. I setup about 40 feet from the target.
The first round was okay and I hit the target.
The second round I got better grouping.
And the third round I got much closer. I even popped two into the bullseye right next to each other. Not bad for not having shot a bow in years.
I got another one of my random irregular urges to goo hike up the hill to wander the sheep pen for feathers. Truly each time I get that urge and I listen to it I walk into the pen and invariably find feathers the eagles have left for me. This wing tip feather sat right beneath the nest tree.
The other inner feathers were along the fence line beneath their preening tree.
Once @stryeyz got home from work we all went dow nt othe creek to cool off in the water. The mid 90s F temps this week mean we will be in it every afternoon for sure, maybe even during the day. This weekend when it will be in the 100s we will probably be spending most of it in the creek.
I got a fire going in the grill again to cook the corn. 7 little sticks of wood makes a fire more than large enough to grill the corn.
While the corn cooked I chopped up a bunch more wood to have for the grill. I only need to use little kindling sized pieces to get a substantial fire going that pumps out the heat. The wood pile holds enough wood for me to cook daily on the grill for a solid 2 years.
Today will be hot again so I got the box fan blowing air into the house over night and I will be putting the second a/c unit in J's room. There are still strawberries that need picking, I have to hack back the leaves on the closest squash row to my tomatoes as they are invading the tomato's personal space. I still have weed eating to do around the farm which needs to be done early before the heat. Potatoes need more soil added to some of the bags and I will get the trailer and barrels ready for tomorrow morning first thing.
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CommunityIIDiscord
Strawberries doing very well! Don't envy you those temps....
It's supposed to be 110 here on Monday and Tuesday.... Not sure how long it will last like that. Pretty sure it will break records locally though.