It's nice someone is enjoying the great, hot outdoors. See the green grass? We pay a nice price to keep it going for our bee classes. Who wants to learn about bees or light a smoker when the grass is brown and crunchy. I get scared just thinking about it.

Beware the Bike Cop

 
Beware - they are out in full force now that school has started! I have seen two officers on bikes but luckily they haven't gotten me! :-) I've been wanting to snap a shot of them in action for a while but I'm always driving or without the camera. Plus it's tricky trying to discreetly snap a shot while they are stopping someone. This is a favorite spot of theirs on Cedar near Guadalupe. So be careful and you won't have a problem. There's a school zone right around the corner and people often don't slow down.

Rain Gutters & a Dove's Nest

 
You never know when we'll get rain but you do know you want to be prepared. We've neglected the gutters for a while now so Mark took advantage of the 80-something degree weather to clean them out and guess what he found!?! Dove's nest! The mama flew off and managed to avoid Smokey's clutches (thankfully). I did yell at Smoke and throw sticks at him to distract him from hunting the poor mama dove. :-( I was just wondering the other day where this shell came from and what came out of it. Now I know. 

 

Hello Clouds

 


I am writing on what we hope will be the LAST 100 degree day of the year! That's right; I wrote it. Let's hope it comes true despite my putting it to writing. We have had either 52 or 53 days of 3-digit heat this year and we are eagerly awaiting an unusual 54F degree night tomorrow. WEIRD to go to such extremes but I'll take it. I believe this week should only be in the mid 90s. I can't wait for even cooler temperatures. But until those days get here, we are happy to see clouds in the sky so that we get a touch of cover from the intense sun.

Pigeons' Watering Hole

Today we had a TOUCH of rain but we'll take it. It was enough to create a few good puddles here and there and to green up things a bit. Maybe that's because the dust was washed off things and so things looked like the popped a bit more than they have been as of late. Sure wish we could get a little Hurricane Irene action.

This is a shot I took with Mark's iPhone this morning as I watched the pigeons through the back door - explains the weird coloring in the picture. The birds are taking turns watering from the dish we use to put rocks in when we collect them during travels. I had watered the lawn in that spot last night and I guess some water collected in the dish. I'm glad it provided them with a bit of relief. You can also see how brown our garden is - I gave up on trying to keep it going. Too hot. Too dry. Maybe next year we'll get more done in the garden.

Dublin Dr. Pepper for Friends

This special Dublin Dr. P is just for my special friend Down Under - hope you are well, friend! :-) Thanks for continuing to check on me.

And another special shout out to my other special friend Little Jess - thanks for bringing us some special Dr. P! Love you.

In the Year of the Drought

You know it's a bad rain year when the prickly pear is looking like this. :-( We need rain! And some relief from 3-digit heat wouldn't hurt either. Just saying...

Here's how lovely the prickly pear can be -

Drink, anyone?

We have a new liquor store in town, in case you haven't noticed it (if you live here). It's where the Blockbuster used to be - that's right. No more Blockbuster video rentals! I haven't been inside the new store but when we drive by there in the evenings, I am always drawn to the beautiful and colorful glass bottles on display. Unlike most other beverage stores I've ever see, this store has the bottles displayed quite nicely against the clear glass windows. Nice design. Snapped this with an iPhone - doesn't do the colors justice but you get the drift.

H-O-T

Today's temperature as I reached my driveway after work; the car had no shade all day while I was at work. Lordy, it is blazing hot. I accompanied Mark to a bee yard for about thirty minutes as he fed the bees some pollen supplement (they are also struggling in the heat and drought conditions), I wore shorts and tee. I could only stand the direct sun (around 5:45p) for about a minute on my bare legs. After that time, the burn of the sun was quite hot and somewhat unpleasant. It's not so bad in the shade - you're still hot but at least you don't feel as if someone was holding a magnifying glass between the sun and you. Stay cool, everyone.

Camo Lizard

Anybody know what kind of lizard this is? He was very fast when he saw me coming and I barely caught sight of him before he dashed up the tree truck and went up pretty high. He changed colors very quickly which I thought was pretty neat. I spotted him while I was visiting a friend out in the country.

Hot As All Get Out!

Have you heard that saying before? We used to say it all the time when I was growing up and then I grew out of it. But these days, I have been using it again because it's funny. Makes me smile. Speaking of it being hot, this week is suppose to have record high temperature days. Awesome! Not. I wish we had a pool summers like this.

So this picture is what happens when you go to a bee yard and you have your phone in your back pocket one minute....and then next thing you know, it's not there. Luckily it was a small parameter I kept walking so I could easily retrace my footsteps. Took me two rounds but I found it! Face down in the dirt for maybe ten minutes. Luckily it did work after it cooled down for a while in the truck. Safe and sound. Below is a shot of the yard where I lost it. :-)

Rain!!!

No huge writeup on this but I just want you all to know how wonderful it was to see this sky and to finally get some rain. WOO HOO!!!

Texas Sky In July

Hello folks. Was feeling under the weather a bit this weekend so I am behind. I actually wanted to share this on Saturday but oh well. My world was tilted so no posting from me. Anyway, this is our lovely, hot sky above Seguin from one of our bee yards. It has been about 100 degrees everyday, not counting the heat index. We sure do need some rain and tomorrow is predicted to have a 40% chance of rain. Come on rain!

Intro to Beekeeping - Explore the Hive Video

This is part of our beekeeping class we did in our backyard last Saturday. I just realized it was posted on the KWED YouTube channel. Cool!

Monday Sky

Here's what today looks like from our backyard and on the ramp of the honey house. It's HOT. Oppressive really, but the sky is lovely. Hope you had a good Monday. Four more days until some chill time. :-)

Bee Suits, Not Aliens

No, aliens did not land in Seguin this weekend, in case you drove by our house and wondered that. It was the first official beekeeping class in Seguin, as far as we know and have heard. We had a great time and we think the students did also. It's a lot of fun to introduce new things in our community to people. Already looking forward to the next one on Saturday.

Here are two write-ups on the class in case you're interested:

Our official GBR post from the beekeeping couple's perspective (or the wife part of the couple, at any rate - Bee Ranch Blog

Our friend and reporter, Jessica Domel's perspective (very hilarious) - Jessica's Blog

Team USA Rocks!

Today Team USA was welcomed home when they arrived at San Antonio International Airport, which is about a 40 minute drive from Seguin. It's either here or Austin. I pick SA every time. :-) Very manageable traffic and airport. This is the softball gold medal team that beat Russia in the championship round of the Special Olympics World Games in Athens! I work with one of the team coaches and his son is a team member as well. We are so extremely proud of everyone. I just had to share!

Circus Train

Here's what Mark saw passing him as he drove to Marion to restock the honey shelves - the circus train! I wish I could have seen it with him. He said there were passenger cars, then animal cars, then equipment cars. Neat! I haven't been to the circus in so many years but it's always a fond memory I have of elementary school and going with my class. Though I do recall not volunteering to go down to walk around on the floor because no one explained to six year old who just came over from Viet Nam that participating with the circus folks won't mean that they'll take you away for forever.

Watermelon & Bees

Hope everyone had a great fourth of July today - filled with friends, family, parades, good eats and plenty of fun and laughter. But one thing I know we didn't have at all this year are the fireworks - banned due to the drought. Oh well, it is better to be safe than burnt up more than we already are. I'm glad for the precaution because we are still in need of rain.

This is a gloriously sweet watermelon a friend brought us in exchange for some honey. Her family apparently has quite the garden and we bartered for fresh veggies and fruit. Wonderful deal for us! We've enjoyed cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, squash and zucchini, cantaloupe and now this. It was so sweet and delicious. Nothing said holidays more to me than snacking on watermelon all day. Especially after a hot spell out in the sun as Mark helped a faithful honey fan get rid of some bees whose home had tipped over to reveal all that honeycomb. Luckily they were not Africanized. The watermelon on the trip back to Seguin sure quenched our thirst.

Look Up for Mistletoe

One of the things I love about Texas - abundant mistletoe. It just doesn't matter if it's 20 degrees outside or 100 degrees. If you look up, you will see mistletoe here in South Texas. I LOVE mistletoe because it always makes me think of the Christmas season and that's one of my favorite times of the year.

Hope you are all having a great Fourth of July weekend.