Bailey's on Court Street

I am determined to get this posted! I have been wanting to tell you all about Bailey's since we went last week for the first time. In our town of about 26,000 people, we have a decent selection of food options, compared to other comparable towns. Average, I'd say. It's always nice when a local eatery opens rather than your typical chain places. And while I LOVE all our Mexican food restaurants, it is nice to have other options as well. We met a marketing items sales person at Bailey's for lunch - we want to get some snazzy bags for our honey sales. Anyway, the converted building looked great inside and the food was very good - we'll need to go back so I can try the chicken salad. Mark had it and said it was GOOD. My lemonade was very good (hard to find) and my Veggie Delight on shortbread was very light yet filling. You get a lot. I wish it had just a little more flavor but I'd still recommend it. I love veggie sandwiches sometimes.



The seating is limited and a bit on the tight side, but they do have two tables outside on the back porch, which is under some huge oaks - so go early and grab one of those great tables so you can enjoy your food outside since our weather's been so awesome lately. There's also a little gift shop inside so check it out. I saw several things that were reasonably priced that'd make nice little Christmas gifts. You know what that means - another trip back to Bailey's for sure.

Happy Friday From the Llamas!

Have you seen a llama lately? Up close? I had not until last weekend when we went to visit our newest bee yard off Capote Road just outside the city limits a bit. It's so lovely out there that I can never turn down an opportunity to be out there now that my allergies are better. And I'm so glad I went because these two llamas were really making me laugh with their inquisitive nature. They were really fun and I'm glad they are the bees' new neighbors.

Hope everyone has a great weekend - enjoy the gorgeous weather if you're in the South Texas area. It's going to be another great weekend.

Election Day

There's still some time left in case you haven't voted yet. We went to our usual polling location at Our Lady of Guadalupe and as usual - no wait, no fuss, friendly assistance. Voting rocks and I'm glad I live in a country where I can do it so easily and safely. :-)

Halloween Sweetness

Hope you all are enjoying your Halloween weekend so far. It's been a gorgeous day and tomorrow is suppose to be more of the same. It'll be good weather for trick or treaters so I hope we have plenty of visitors tomorrow evening.

This cake picture is one of my favorites and has about 3,700 views to date on my photostream in Flickr. People must find it as fun to look at as I have. It's fun to see how creativity people can be with their baking and decorating!

October - Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Check out how great our new hospital makeover is looking these days! I had a 7:30a appointment so the lighting is a bit on the dark side. I’ll try and go back on a beautiful afternoon to show some panned views of the completed front – it looks so great and really adds a classy look to Court Street in that area.

My appointment was for my annual mammogram. We all know how important early detection is so I hope all you ladies out there are taking care of yourselves! This was my third year and every time I visit the Imaging Department at the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, they are so wonderful to me. And while I have heard not-so-great stories about mammograms, my checkups have been just fine – no horror stories, no pain, no drama. The machine below is what is used and I can’t remember what that white plastic piece is called that’s above the plate but it is was purchased about 1.5 years ago as a trial to see if it would help with the discomfort of the exam for some women. Seems to work for me. I hope you go. :-) Please visit the Susan G. Komen site for more information about breast cancer.

Sky Watch over Texas Agricultural Education & Heritage Center

Recently Mark participated in Ag Week at the Red Barn here in town. We call it the Red Barn but officially, it is the Texas Agricultural Education and Heritage Center, founded in order to educate the public about the importance of agriculture as part of our heritage and how it impacts our lives today. Mark was out there speaking about the importance of bees so I was glad I had a chance to visit during lunch one day because I had not been to the center – it is really neat out there! I still need to go back sometime and check out all the buildings since I only had about twenty minutes there during that visit. Here are a few shots of my brief visit.



Above, Mark is speaking to one of the many groups of fourth graders from surrounding area schools that have been scheduled to visit during Ag Week. They asked questions if there was time and shared stories about getting stung and interesting things they know about bees. When asked if they knew what food bees make, he said one of the kids told him bees make cereal (as in the Honey Nut Cheerios from the commercial that many kids like to tell us about when we go to fairs and shows). Too cute.

Below is a shot of another group I passed by out in the garden area. I think it’s great that the kids are learning about gardening and the benefits of growing your own in addition to having produce from the farmers in the area. There are so many other things to see out there, I will be sure to visit again and highlight other things for you.

The skies have been gorgeous lately as we move from summer to fall. Be sure to check out other skies on the Sky Watch page. Have a great Friday, everyone!

Busy as a Bee

Here's where I spent most of this beautiful weekend so I thought I'd share it with you so you'd know why there aren't other photographs to share right now. We are super focused on our bee biz and that means getting lots of photos and some videos for a new website we are building. We are so excited about it but it does take a lot of our time getting all this going so for a while, that's what will consuming us. :) If you'd like to see the video I was shooting in this photograph, you can visit our GBR YouTube page.

Check out the bees below. They are carrying pollen into the hive like there's no tomorrow. Do people still say that? LOL, I do! Anyway, I LOVE to watch them doing this - the way they land, the little steps they take to get into the box, the way they sometimes flop over clumsily. So cute.

Evening Out

Things are settling down just a tad now that the Fair is over. Our bees are back home in their hive at the bee yard and Mark and I go back to work. Me at the mill and Mark at the Heritage Farm, educating hundreds of fourth graders. Tomorrow I'll go visit him during lunch and take some pictures of that place and event. I've been wanting to go check it out!

Here's a lovely little nest I spotted as we departed the Big Oaks bee yard this evening. It was a perfect Texas evening - I love this time of year. The weather is gorgeous and the air was perfumed by the numerous flowers still in bloom. Seriously, this year has been an incredible flower year. AND my allergies are in good shape - maybe because I've been downing quite a bit of our honey the past two years. No severe headaches after an hour or two outside. I couldn't have done this before so thanks little bees!

And thank you to those of you who stopped by our GBR booth during the Fair. We enjoyed meeting you and we're glad you stopped by and talked with us. Always fun to meet folks. :) Y'all have a GREAT week!

Grand Champion Honey!

Hooray for us - our comb honey entry won Grand Champion in the Home Products category. We are very happy and proud as can be. :) Here's where we'll be spending all our time through Sunday.

Guadalupe County Fair - 2010

Time to hit the Fair again, folks. Come out and enjoy the beautiful fall weather for us since we'll be inside the entire time! :) If you come to the fair, be sure to stop by our booth in the Coliseum and sample some Guadalupe County honey - mesquite and wildflower. AND meet about 20,000 of our sweet little bees and their queen. Mark's got the observation hive ready to go. We had a lot of fun in Gonzales and we look forward to seeing how this year's Fair goes for everyone. Check out the Fair's website for more information.

Here's when we'll be there:
Thursday, October 7, 3-8:30pm (Free until 6p)
Friday, October 8, 11am-9pm (Students Free until 6pm, Military Free All Day)
Saturday, October 9, 9am-9pm ($5.00 per person – Children 12 & Under Free)
Sunday, October 10, 11am-6pm (Free for everyone!)

Come See Us in Gonzales!

Sorry but it's been a super busy week between work and prepping for the Gonzales Come & Take It Festival. Gonzales is a quaint town about 30 miles from Seguin on 90 - come and visit our Gretchen Bee Ranch booth if you are in that area. We're on the square on the side closest to the theatre (can't recall the name right now). We're there through Sunday and so are about 20,000 of our little bees in their snazzy observation hive. You know you want to see them up close! :-) Have a great one, everyone!

Mushroom Beauty

I have noticed some really interesting looking mushrooms around lately and wanted to share two of my favorite shots. The top one is one that Mark noticed out in the countryside along a fence line as we excited one of our bee yards just outside town on Highway 123. The one below is a tiny little one (of many) that I saw hidden under all the overgrown grasses at the same Big Oaks bee yard. Both times were evening lighting and I changed the lighting just a touch on the shot below. The shot above I changed lighting a color just a little also.

Seguin Trade Day Fun

Today was tiring but a LOT of fun - thank you to those who stopped by to visit with us. :-) Always great to see friends (like you fellow blogger, Hope!) and meet some blog followers (hi Lisa T. - sorry we didn't make it over to visit your booth before you left! Next time.) We sold a good amount of honey but what was even better was getting to give customers some face-to-face times with the bees thanks to the observation hive. Very nice and everyone seem amazed by their activities. Pretty neat that we can watch the queen lay eggs about six inches from us. Cool stuff for sure.

Below is one of my favorites during the day's event - this is Dino, is he cool or what? Loved it and had to get a shot. :) Hope you all have a great Sunday! I'm going to crash now. Talk about tired.

Seguin Trade Day - Sept. 25

Would you like to see what's behind that wooden cover? :) I think if you have checked out our bee blog before, then you might already know. But if you'd like to meet us and some of our bees, we're going to be downtown on the square tomorrow all day (8-5p) at Seguin Trade Day. Our lovely booth will be directly behind the Court House and we'd love to meet you if you are in the area.

This event happens about every other month though with the holidays coming soon, we will be at the October one as well. Hope to sell all our honey by the end of that event!

Here's a peek inside:

Sheep, Sheep, Sheep

Recently I got to visit a dear friend of mine and her kids breed show sheep. I have often wanted to stop by and snap shots of the little, little ones but haven't managed to do that yet. At least we have some grown ones to oh and ah over. The babies are even more adorable! I love these black face sheep. Something about them that appeals to me more than the pale face ones.

Fun fact: You can "rent" male sheep for breeding. TRUE! :) Just like breeding other animals to maintain a high caliber stock. Interesting. I just never thought of it until they told me that during my visit.

US Postal Service

This shout out is for our friend Jim, who works for the US Postal Service here in town. He was so kind and kept an eye out for our special delivery of queen bees that came shipped through the mail. Did you know you can do that? Before I learned these beekeeping things from Mark, I never even thought about how beekeepers get their supplies. And then I learned that you can order and receive equipment AND live bees in your mailbox! Or sometimes they may call you to come and pick up your package. :-) Must be something to process livestock in the mailroom. Can you imagine the buzzing?? lol

This is our box of twenty queen bees from Zia out of New Mexico. The free-flying bees are attendant bees who are tasked with tending to the queens' needs. Beekeeping is so cool!

Rain & Clouds

We've been having some wonderful rainy days this week - we sure needed the showers. Since Saturday, we've had between 6 and 8 inches! Woo hoo! Plus all the weather has created an amazing number of interesting looking clouds much like these though this was snapped prior to this week's weather. Hope you're having a great week so far!

Insulator Sky Watch

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you all have had a great week. Ours has been packed and here are some highlights -

1. We are set for trade shows to sell some honey. I'll share dates when I pull it all together! Several events here in Seguin and one BIG one in Gonzales.
2. Mark's computer died but we have a replacement. Woohoo!
3. We finally got RAIN! And a decent amount, too. I am very happy that our trees and lawns got some great relief this week. A north wind started blowing today and it got down to the upper 80s. NICE for us!
4. We had a nameplate contest at work - I didn't win but I had a TON of fun with it and got to know several coworkers better. It was awesome!
5. I have great friends and I just want to thank them for their love.
6. I got my first paying photo gig. :-) Cool!

Ok, that's enough catching up. Sorry I've been so busy!

This shot was snapped when we spotted them on the way to one of our bee yards. Lovely to see glass insulators in the sunny sky - much more beautiful than the clay ones being use predominantly these days. Aww...reminds me of when Mark and I had time to go insulator hunting when we first met over 12 years ago. Seems like yesterday! lol

Be sure to check out the other cool shots at Sky Watch!

Peekaboo Animals & Unidentified Flower

Last week Mark and I went for a ride just outside of town so he could show me some flowers the bees are working right now. While we were looking in a pasture for the flowers, I spotted these little wild piggies. There were a lot of them! And they looked different from the domestic pigs - well, at least to me. Kind of cute but they ran off when they heard us coming. As did some of deer we saw - good points of them, too.



The baby cow didn't seem to mind me and he did well when we called for him to look at the camera. :-) And below is the flower we have been trying to identify. I zoomed in as far as I could since they seem to be located in pastures to which we do not have access. boooo! If you have any idea what it could be, please let us know. It's always nice to know what our bees might be feeding on since they are still making honey.

Hope you all have a GREAT weekend! Another hot one around here - upper 90s into next week and still no rain. Let's pray for some relief SOON.

Busy August

If you have wondering what I've been up to lately and why there's a lack of posting, then here's why - honey harvesting time! :-) It has been a busy, busy but truly awesome year for us. We have been so blessed and here's why:

1. The bees are doing GREAT this year thanks to an awesome spring filled with plenty of rain which helped with all the blooming wildflowers. That was harvest #1.
2. The mesquite bloomed way after the wildflowers faded for some reason. That was harvest #2.
3. Last year we harvested about 200 pounds of honey. This year, we got about 3000 pounds! Yes, amazing but true.
4. Mark's successfully split our strong hives and now we've grown from 25 hives to 40 and they are still looking strong.
5. We are having a TON OF FUN together with this bee and honey business. We are very lucky and work great together.

We've enjoyed steady sales since we first announced the availability of our honey and mostly we have been selling to friends, family and folks who knew about us last year. A lot of word of mouth. After our venture into farmers markets and trade days (Marion a couple of weeks ago), we are ready to take on additional shows in the next two months as everyone gears up for holiday shopping. Wish us luck! And I'll post ahead of time where we'll be in case you want to come out and see us. As always, I love to meet new friends. And I'd love to introduce you to our bees - we got a cool observation hive this past weekend!

Happy Friday Skywatch!

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you have had a great week and will have an even better weekend coming up. Here's a shot of the sky right in front of our house recently - isn't it lovely? Lately it has been hot, hot, hot here with temperatures in the upper 90s and sometimes a heat index of over 100. Blazing sun with no clouds to buffer the intensity. Still, it hasn't been as hot as last year! :-)

Check out the other Sky Watchers as well for some great shots!

Sky Watch Over The Mill

Mark called me one day and told me to check out the sky because it looked really neat. So here's what I saw outside and I'm so glad I did! Hope you guys have a great Friday!

An Apple A Day

So I'm driving home yesterday and I see this truck and its haul going in the opposite direction - well, it was simply to intriguing not to turn and follow. I couldn't make out what they were at first (besides being apples, obviously). Luckily for me, the driver made a pit stop at a gas station and I got an easy shot.

These are from a ride that you might see at a carnival or fair. They are so beautifully bright and eye-catching, aren't they?

Super Cool Weathervane

I am so tired but I wanted to share this shot with you before I call it an early night. The heat really drains me I guess. I love weathervanes and this one rocks because I am a Taurus and so, how can I NOT love this? :-)

I hope you all have a really wonderful weekend ahead! We have an awesome birthday party for a special nephew tomorrow. Maybe you'll get to see a picture.

Stormy Tuesday

This evening certainly got exciting as we were finishing up dinner - the winds picked up quite suddenly and then the skies opened up and dumped a ton of wonderful rain on us! Yay - no lawn watering for another long spell. :-)

We went out and about after our workout and caught some beautiful skies. We love to sky watch, especially when you have awesome colors and cloud formations such as these.

Thank you, love!

Today was a difficult day and I want to say thank you to my wonderful love for being there for me; for hugging me and holding me; for reassuring me; for making me laugh; for watching How the West Was Won with me; for making dinner with me; but mainly for just knowing when I need his strength.

These wonderful heart tokens were a gift to Mark when I had to do some traveling a few weeks ago. If you haven't been to the Gift & Gourmet shop on Austin Street, then you need to head over there! They are also online and on Facebook if you're interested. It's one of my favorite locally owned gift shops in town.

Summer Bloom

It's been blazing hot lately but nothing like last year, that's for sure. In our garden, we still have several sunflowers left to enjoy though they are fading. I'm still amazed at many different blooms we have seen this year and it's still kicking. On our drive to Lost Pines (Bastrop) this weekend, we saw many fields of sunflowers (the smaller variety) and other very small yellow flowers (not sure what they are). It was lovely!

I hope you all have a really WONDERFUL week ahead!

Happy anniversary, honey!

Nine years ago today, Mark made me the happiest person in the whole universe. After a long courtship, we married and life just gets better and better every single day. I don't know what either of us did to deserve this much happiness. All I know is this - we are truly blessed. Okay, now I need to go get a tissue.

Gorgeous Blooms in the Summer Heat

I have great news to share with you! Mark's book got a great review in Southwestern Historical Quarterly and I am SO PROUD of him! I read it and my chest felt like it was going to simply burst, I was so happy for him. Congratulations, honey!

What does that have to do with these pictures? :-D well...all weekend he tried a source where we could access the quarterly (typically an institutional subscription rather than an individual subscription) and read the review. Unfortunately, our public library didn't renew their subscription so we trekked over to Texas Lutheran University but they were CLOSED since it was a summer weekend! Rats! BUT...the trip was not wasted. I spotted these lovelies right outside the library. They are, by far, he largest Hibiscus blooms I have seen and I loved the color! Gorgeous splash of vibrant life in the sweltering summer heat. I loved it. Hope you all have a GREAT week!

Dad in Action

Yesterday, in honor of World Cup, I had intended to post a picture of my dad and his soccer team from when he played back in Viet Nam. Unfortunately, I could not find that picture (boooo!) BUT I did find this one. And I wanted to share it since my mind was on Viet Nam after reading the story in our paper about our local historian, who also served during the Viet Nam War. That's my dad in the center. He worked with US forces during his time and through his friendships, we were able to find a sponsor and move to the US in '75. We were very lucky to make it here all in one piece and altogether.

This picture makes me think of the story my mom and dad told Mark a couple of visits ago when we saw them. Apparently, while my dad was out in the field at one point, my mom took ME out there so he could see me. WHOA. Out in the field. During war. With bullets flying. What was amazing to me was that I had not known that all these years and Mark was the one who told me about it.

And no, this post has nothing to do with Seguin besides me and our local historian's story. But I just had to share it. :-)

Walking Stick

A couple of weeks ago, before I started traveling, I accompanied Mark out to one of new bee yards, affectionately called Pizza Yard. I love going out to the country around here because you just never know what you're going to see. This year, there's an abundance of flowers AND bugs, insects, and creatures bigger. :-)

I loved this walking stick! I had not seen one in so long and I don't recall seeing one this big before. I believe he was perhaps 4-5 inches. I saw a smaller one in a different part of the yard but it was too hard to get a great shot because it was on the move. Anyway, wouldn't you know it, Mark went to another bee yard without me on a later date and he saw one that had to be about 9 or 10 inches! WOW, that would have been so neat to see and photograph. From what I saw on his phone, it looked a little menancing or at least freakish. I'll see if Mark will send it and I will share.



I want to say hi to a couple of ladies who have stopped by the house within the past several weeks to discuss our bees and honey (I didn't ask you so I didn't want to put your names on here but you know who you are!). They are fans of the blog and told me how much they enjoy looking at it, which made me feel so bad I have not been able to post as often as I'd like. THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading the blog, for your kind comments and for introducing yourselves to me either at the house or at an event or virtually. I love those encounters and they encourage and inspire me to keep blogging. Hope you have a fabulous Sunday and upcoming week!

Sky Watch Welcome

I shot this awesome sky earlier this week as a front came through our area. We've been enjoying some much needed rain while I've been gone. Sure will green things up again. :-)

Check out the other great Sky Watchers for some awesome photographs. Have a great weekend and a wonderful July 4th everyone!