6 Random Things

Children in the Corn tagged me for 6 random things. I haven't done this before so this could be really random. :)

Here goes:

* My husband and I (now including children) have moved 15 times in our 18 years of marriage. No, we weren't running from the law.. just lots of transfers and changes. :) Hey, we figure that some people live in one place most of their lives, then when retirement comes, they travel. We thought we'd just do the opposite. :)

* Along the lines of moving... We lived in a camper for 2 1/2 years near a lake. That's a whole story in itself. Good times...

* My first car was a 73' yellow Volkswagon Superbeetle. I learned to work on cars owning that thing, lol. Who doesn't when it comes to the old beetles? I loved that car and was sad to see it go. A young hippie girl wearing a skirt and combat boots bought it off of me.

* Speaking of combat boots... I served in the US Army as a combat medic. Lots of cool stuff to learn there, like patching someone up with just about anything. Give me a limb and a shirt and I'm good, lol. At least for a while that works. :)

* Funny thing about being in the Army... I was also Homecoming and Prom Queen in high school. I came home from my initial Army training with a farmer tan and had to go the next day to crown the new Homecoming Queen in a sleeveless dress. Good times..

* I pulled out all of my eyelashes when I was in 2nd grade. Don't ask me why, it just seemed like the cool thing to do at the time. They do come out pretty easy ya' know and I have the lovely school pictures to prove it.

Well that's enough to keep you in entertained for a while. :)

Now I'm tagging:

Meadowview Thymes

Little House In The Suburbs

The Tin House

Here we go! Life with the Shibaguyz

Vegplotting

Robert's Roost

Rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Our First Egg! Woohoo!

Well, we've done it! Out of our first batch of chicks we got this past summer, we have an egg! :)

We've been waiting patiently over the past few weeks wondering "who" was going to lay the first egg. As the girl's combs began to fill out and turn from pink to red, we knew that them laying time was getting closer. Our Penelope seems to be the most developed of all of them, so we think she's the lucky one.

The egg was surprisingly huge. We were expecting something really deformed and unusable, but lo and behold this one is larger than our store bought large eggs. (Ours is on the right)



I thought this would also be a great time to post the origami chicken that my son made for me a few weeks ago for my birthday. You know you've crossed over to being a chicken lover when your family starts to include things such as this for personal gifts. I was completely impressed at the time and effort he went to in researching and making this for me. I had to include the first egg with his creation. :)


Life is good... Now, how hard is it to eat this treasure we've been waiting on for months? Well, we may have to plan something special. :)

My Nemesis...The Fire Ant

nem·e·sis [ némməssiss ] (plural nem·e·ses [ némmə sz ])


noun
Definition:

1. unbeatable opponent: a bitter enemy, especially one who seems unbeatable

2. source of harm: a source of harm or ruin
Chocolate chip cookies are my real nemesis.

3. deserved punishment: punishment that is deserved, especially when it results in somebody's downfall

4. avenger: a person or force that inflicts punishment or revenge

[Late 16th century. < Greek, "Nemesis, righteous indignation" < nemein "distribute what is due"]



Well, I've just been out treating multiple mounds of fire ants here. They are a challenge at almost every level imaginable here in Texas. They are everywhere and make gardening difficult when a mound gets in your lawn and garden. Plus the painful sting/bite they inflict (Ouch!) when you just happen to pull up a weed that unleashes 100's of them.

This is one area I am challenged as a gardener using organic methods. Finding ways to get the fire ants out of my veggie garden without poisoning our family has its limitations. I have to use several methods of treatment to get them to move away.

Here they are:

1) Bait - There is bait on the market that needs to be applied outside of the veggie garden area, but close enough to attract the ants. Putting the bait out in the mornings and evenings is best because that is when they tend to look for food.

This method is effective because the ants carry the bait w/insecticide to the colony and queen. This does the least harm to surrounding garden soil. It's a slow process, taking up to two weeks to see results, but really the best way to get rid of the source of the problem.

2) Mound Treatment - This is a different kind of insecticide. (Do not use in your edible garden) The product label will specify how it is used. Using fire ant mound treatment in high traffic areas and around the house will keep the problem somewhat under control. (They are bad when they get in your closet!)

I hate having to use any kind of insecticide, but with fire ants, the choices are limited and it's best to know what my options are to keep our family safe. Texas AgriLife Extension has great information about fire ants and explains how to deal with these awful insects.

If you have fire ants in your area, what do you do to keep them at bay?

Texas Rose Rustlers

All of the talk about roses lately has reminded me of rose rustling! This is an interesting endeavor for those who:
#1 love roses and like collecting them
#2 want a rose that will grow without our painstaking care
#3 help preserve long lost breeds of roses from days gone by

Texas Rose Rustlers is just one of many associations that does this. There are others throughout the country.

Check out their "rose etiquette" and "propagation" sections. They are wonderful!

To Bee Or Not To Bee.....

Do you ever find that some things just keep reappearing in your life making you ask yourself, "Should I should really check into this or that?" That is the story of my life! I can tell you that it has made for some very interesting projects that I thought I would never have been involved in on my own. It has led to homeschooling, gardening, keeping chickens, woodworking etc. Each in many ways connecting to the other.

Keeping bees is something that has sparked my curiousity over the years. Dancing through the yard bare-footed as a child hoping not to squish the bees feeding on clover to my master gardener training program. Not to mention the fact that my name, Melissa, means "honey-bee"

Here's the definiton I found on my name:

The girl's name Melissa \m(e)-lissa, mel(is)-sa\ is pronounced ma-LISS-ah. It is of Greek origin, and its meaning is "bee; honey". Mythology: the name of a princess of Crete who was changed into a bee after she learned how to collect honey. The name was used since ancient Greece.


I must say that I'm hoping the part about turning into a bee after learning to collect honey isn't true, lol.

In my endeavors of sustainability, beekeeping has its rightful place. I need them and at the looks of the devastation on bee colonies, I think they need me too. Feeding people, animals and insects are what I seem to do best right now. It will just be another excuse for me to plant more bee food!

After some research and looking at my pocketbook, I think I'm going to look into Top Bar Hives for keeping bees. Here's why:




Top Bar is known to be economical for the backyard beekeeper plus healthier for the bees and the beekeeper. One of things I hadn't considered was how hard it can be on one's back with the traditional hives as below:



That's a huge factor in considering my own sustainability! :)

Research is underway on what is causing the deaths of so many bees. There is a list that's pretty long about speculations. Top Bar benefits seem to help bees in the fact it allows them to build more natural sized combs and each cell is regulated by the bees, not hive dimensions -one of the many thoughts on what may be part of the colony collapse problem.

I personally am looking for a healthy hive, ease of use and overall lower maintenance and cost. If you start to calculate all of the expenses on setting up an apiary with all of its equipment, it will take years to see a profit. Top Bar is more geared to the rest of us non-commercial producers, no matter what size of backyard you have.

Here are a few websites that have helped me:

BackYardHive
BeeKeeperLinda
TopBarBees

There are directions for building your own Top bar beehive on two of the websites.

I'm hoping to take a course in keeping bees this next spring. I'll keep you posted on my progress in that direction. :) Hopefully I'll still be able to type if I turn into a bee!