Bar Room Politics

So yesterday Stephen gets a call from this guy who seems to think he spoke to Stephen the day before about some bees that he and his friends had found in a tree. Stephen assured him that he had not received a call but he would be glad to come have a look. Turns out they are in a community that is so close you don't realize you are leaving Colbert before your actually in this community, really close in other words. The guy says call when you head over and we will meet you and show you where they are.

Last evening after work we called and said we are on our way, the guy says oh just stop out in front of this bar and we will come show you. So ok I am thinking that the tree is behind the bar, but no the guy was in the bar having  a few, and had already had a few. 

Partly because it was raining and partly because we really didn't want to cut open a tree full of bees with a half drunk guy standing there who maybe wouldn't be able to run away if the bees where really aggressive, we made plans to come back this morning around 10 am. Safe time right 10 am wont be to much drinking going on. 

We call the guy back this morning and say we are on our way, he says meet him at the bar........... So we did, this time there where three guys. They went with us to where the tree was, as we are standing around watching Stephen cut the bees out of the tree I found myself listening to these three guys discuss every day life really. Even though I am not much for being at the bar all the time, I find the bar room politics to be funny at times. Here are a few of the discussions they got into: 

First the tree was at the back of the property, but at the front there was another tree that had these tiny white flowers in it. We had to go have a look because the three amigos where insistent that some bee activities where definitely taking place in this tree. They where very right, as you approach the tree you can hear thousands of bees buzzing around. No the discussion takes a funny twist when two of the guys want to debate rather or not the sound was coming from a hive of bees inside the tree attempting to cool down their hive or was it coming from the literally thousands of bees buzzing around in the tree on those tiny white flowers.  

One guy insist that you can only hear bees when they are cooling the hive, another argues that there may very well be a hive inside the tree, however the noise you hear is from the bees buzzing around the flowers. It as comical to see these guys in their 60's having this discussion each repeating the same information over and over, and each time one would state his argument they would look to me for confirmation. I kept saying I can hear a bee any time it buzzes by me, but when they are cooling their hive it is just louder and more noticeable, in other words your both right you can hear the bees buzzing in the tree and in their hive. I guess because I wasn't taking either ones side, they where compelled to re-hash the topic a few times. You really had to witness this discussion in order to find it as humorous as I did, because your missing out on the facial expressions and body language!

Then there was this discussion on rather or not the queen bee can fly. One guy insisted that yes she does fly, another insisted that no if the queen leaves the hive the other bees carry her. Again they rehashed their points and opinions a few times and looked to me for confirmation.  I kept telling them that a queen can fly, she just don't very often, she flies to mate and flies to swarm off but other than that she stays in the hive tending to the brood or making more brood. They would say ohh and aaahhh and then rehash their points. 

They where funny and kept moving from one topic to another and back to the first all the while repeating their points and insisting that the other was just drunk and didn't know what he was talking about. 

The third guy that came had apparently worked on a farm at some point where they had a hive or two. He felt kind of smarter than the other two because he had a little experience with bees. So he spent a lot of his time assisting Stephen. Apparently yesterday after we had looked a the bees the boys got to discussing the issue at the bar, the guy who was assisting Stephen had said he knew a little about bees and wouldn't be scared to come rob some of the honey. It seems he left the bar, went to the tree and stuck his hand in to get out some comb with honey to take back to the bar. Only a few short minutes later he returns to the bar with a small piece of older comb that didn't actually have any honey in it any more. However according to the guys he had 50 bee stings! lol I doubt that he actually had 50 but he apparently got stung getting some empty comb from the tree. 

Today at one point he was keeping the smoker going for Stephen and of course he didn't have a bee suit and felt brave and wanted to be involved.  Me and the guys look up to see him standing there with the smoker, watching the bees buzz to him, as each bee approached he would puff a little smoke at it. You have to picture this grown man with a smoker doing a little dance trying to hit each bee with a puff of smoke. It was to funny for words!  One of the guys says to him "man I got up at 5am this morning and started drinking, what time did you start? Cause I am thinking it was before I started" 

First of all who wakes up at 5am to start his drinking for the day? Second of all maybe it is true that smoker guy was a bit tipsier than 5am guy! This cracked me up again. 

When Stephen pulled out the first comb and put it into a rack, there was some left over, of course the guys wanted to try the honey. At some point of one of the guys gave their dog some of the honey. From that point on the dog's owner kept telling them to stop cause the dog had eaten enough but the dog wasn't having it. When they wouldn't give her some comb and honey she started licking it off of the tree! 

Then Stephen got to a point where there was a huge limb and we didn't know how much farther up the comb was, so they went to the other side of the limb and cut into the tree to find that there was no comb, so the theory was that the comb stopped some where under this huge limb. 

The guy who showed us the hive yesterday announces that if Stephen will cut a line on the back side of the limb he will go get the back hoe and use it to pull the limb off. Not a bad idea..The owner of the tree and land says oh don't go after the back hoe, just get the tractor. He then gets confused and thinks that his buddy has has Stephen to cut the limb down the middle instead of at where the limb connects to the tree. It appeared that his confusion then got Stephen confused he had this look like "what the heck do they want?". 

So as back hoe guy goes off to get the tractor and a chain that weighs more than he does, I attempt to explain where the cut needs to be made. After some hand demonstrations every one seems to be on the same page and the cut gets made. Then it was a debate over where to put the chain! lol 

Finally the limb comes off and we realize that the honey and comb stopped at the bottom of where the limb connects to the tree. Job done all the honey is out and placed into the hive and the bees are slowly making their way to the hive. 

The boys invite us back to the bar for a drink. So we went, I had water and Stephen had a beer. As we sit out in the back of the bar and discuss the bees, Stephen ask how exactly did they get his number because his name and number seem to be getting around and we don't exactly know how, some one told us it was in the phone book but we never listed it. 

The guys went in and retrieved a note book and a piece of paper. The tree and bar owner says he called some extension office and ask about who could save the bees, they gave him some phone numbers. As he explains it the first number he called was some woman who made out that she has a bee farm, however he didn't like her much because she told him to exterminate the bees asap! He can't remember her name and he scratched it out on the paper because he didn't like talking to her once she said to kill the bees!  Then they called some other number and told this man about the tree and the bees. The man apparently assured them that he wanted the bees and would come for them.  Some how the next day when they went to open the bar up there was a note on the door with Stephen's name and number and a note that he would come get the bees. Now  we have no clue who put the note, and the men thought it was the guy they called the night before. We have no clue but it's interesting that people know his name and number and hand it out when bees come up as a topic. 

Now the funniest part of the whole morning came as we sat there discussing the mysterious note. We heard a car wreck, one of the guys thought that maybe a car had hit one of the stray dogs that often roam around this community. He was saying as much when an instant after we hear the bang sirens go off. Another of the guys comments that its interesting how quickly the police sirens went off, it truly was ...bang then siren in only a second. . The man's comment was actually this :

" Interesting that around here if some one hits a dog  the cops are right there with sirens going, now if it had been a gun shot there wouldn't be any sirens"

Again these old drunk guys had me rolling most of the morning!!

OMG How can Kten News be sooooo irrisponsible!!!

Stephen has been overwhelmed with calls the last couple of weeks. It is bee swarming season and our number seems to have been passed around. Not complaining though because every hive we can capture is a hive saved.  

Stephen has been asking people how they got his number, every one says they got it from the phone book under exterminators, ummm we haven't listed a phone number at all so I am lost as to where this came from.  Very strange. We only have cell phones so we don't even have a phone book, so   I decided to search the net to see if I could get his name and number off the net. I didn't have any luck but I did stumble across a Kten news story about bees and now I may never listen to their news again!! Below is a quote from the news article, I also included the link at the top for the actual news article!

Although some people prefer to leave their wild bee swarms alone, since many of the swarms move on in 3 to 4 days, the safest course in urban areas is to hire a professional exterminator to remove the swarm or exterminate it, before it can discover a way into your home.

Homeowners can also handle the job themselves with an inexpensive sprayer and soapy water.  Liquid dishwashing detergent mixed with water can be sprayed through a sprayer to kill exposed bees.  Soapy water is less likely to agitate bees than other methods.  A mixture of 1 cup of liquid soap in a gallon of water will immediately disable bees that are wetted with the solution.  Wetted bees die quickly.  Continue to spray the swarm as the outer layer of bees falls to the ground.  All bees must be thoroughly covered with soapy water to ensure that the swarm is eliminated.  Catch dying bees in a garbage bag or trash can as the bees are sprayed with soapy solution.

Regular honey bees and Africanized honey bees ("killer bees") are so closely related that it is impossible to tell them apart except with genetic analysis or under a microscope.  Both types of bees are sensitive to nest disturbance, however, Africanized bees respond more quickly, send more bees from the colony to drive the intruder away, and pursue intruders farther than regular honey bees do.

The venom of Africanized bees is chemically identical to regular honey bees, but they are a greater threat because they are more likely to sting in greater numbers.

For more information on bees, please visit http://honeybee.tamu.edu.

All I could think the whole time I was reading this garbage was why couldn't this empty headed reporter actually inform people about the beekeeping associations and agricultural departments in the viewing area. This information would provide viewers with contact information to organizations that can assist people in finding a beekeeper to safely remove a swarm of bees rather than exterminating them! In case people aren't aware honey bees are rapidly disappearing. With out honey bees we won't have produce. How could any reporter encourage people to kill such a vital link to our food source! Wow how irresponsible of the reporter and even more so the news station for not better monitoring the information they are putting out! 

 Oklahoma Beekeepers Association at (405) 433-2362, evenings, or the Texas Beekeepers Association at (512) 388-3630.

 

Some times Stephen makes me laugh

Every since the day I met Stephen he has been 100% supportive of me going to school and getting an education. I don't know if he will ever realize how much this means to me. Its difficult to go to school as a single person with no worries, its beyond difficult to do as a single mother or if you have an unsupportive spouse. Having him back me up was one of the main reasons I was able to finish my Associates degree and the only reason I am now working on a Bachelor's degree.

Not long after I met Stephen I found myself making a not so smart deal with my X and living in an old rent house that my X-husband and I had purchased with the idea of completely remodeling it for our children to live in as they went to college. With the divorce came a lot of changed plans and no child support. Because I had signed over every thing I was in this small apartment with no yard and to many collage parties going on, so out of pure desperation I agreed to free rent instead of all the back child support that was owed to me. So me and my girls ended up living in the house before it was really ready. Stephen was amazing, he helped close in the garage, patched the kitchen floor (it was falling in) worked on the sewer and built a wonderful cabinet to hold the fish tank with the left over wood he build me a desk on one complete wall of the closed in garage. This was a huge work space for me and where I studied, paid bills and really spent a lot of my time. Unfortunately the desk was built into the wall and when I moved I had to leave it behind.

There are only two things I miss about that ran down house, one is the enormous fenced in yard with a great storage shed and room for a garden, it was the kind of yard you could let your kids play in all day and not worry about a thing. The other thing is that built in desk, I miss it every day really.

When I moved into our now home, I was so excited to not need a plumber on speed dial, not worry about unsteady floors and to have a place that my X couldn't barge into any time he wanted. Stephen was in the UK while I was moving so it was a bit difficult for me and my kids go do all of it on our own. I resorted to moving a little each day after work. This wasn't the best idea because I got a few essentials moved in, beds for the girls, some of our clothes, the couch, our computers and tv, the amazing cabinet that Stephen build with the fish tank on top and the refrigerator then wham the old house was robbed and we had nothing left to move, just a huge mess to clean up. We had no dishes, not all of our clothes, I didn't have a bed here yet, no desk no tables nothing. At the time I only had a couple of classes left so getting a desk wasn't top priority.

In our kitchen built into the cabinetry is an area that was created to put a phone, pay bills or use as a work area. I plunked my laptop down there and finished my schooling in the kitchen with the TV going, kids running around, music blaring and every day life going on around me. It wasn't easy really, I require a certain amount of quiet and privacy in order to really study and work. But again buying a desk for my bedroom wasn't top priority, dishes where.

As soon as Stephen got here he bought a small desk and set up his computer partly for work and partly because he is a computer geek who needs several hours a day on the computer in order to not be grouchy. His desk area quickly grew over whelming so one day I moved the desk over and put in a table to hold all his clutter. That didn't last long before I was putting in a bigger table that he now works on but really he needs an ever bigger one ( his current table is big enough to seat 6 people and that really isnt big enough) I have spent the last 3 years stealing time on his computer a little here and a little there. Once I finished school computer time wasn't a necessity for me. Really the only time I got out the laptop was when I went to drills and only then so I could Skype Stephen at night.

Stephen has really tried to be generous with the computer and letting me have time when I ask. but it never takes long before he is standing over my shoulder politely nudging me to "get the hell off his computer" he never says that but I can read him like a book and I know it drove him nuts giving up the computer to me. At times when he stood over my shoulder I commented that I really needed my own desk and work area. He really wants me to do a lot of the photo editing but he can't stand to not be at the computer so he often moves me on so that he can get back to his desk. Any time I mentioned that I needed my own work space he always unhhnned me and went back to his stuff. It wasn't a priority and we really didn't have the space and he really don't mind me using his computer blah blah blah.. I wasn't to bothered because I didn't really get on there that much.

So when I enrolled in school recently I said to Stephen "how are you going to handle it when I start school in two days time and I need hours and hours every day on your computer? How are you gonnna deal with little to know computer access every day? ". His reply was "ummm couldn't you do that on the lap top" I said " I guess but I can't do all that work in the living room or kitchen, I need a desk and the ability to close the door on all of you!" That very day Stephen managed to help me pull out his old desk, move his book shelf to another room and set up a work area for me. I couldn't help but laugh, he was never bothered to help me do all of this because he always knew that if he stood over my shoulder and gently nudged me I would move on and give up the computer, but going back to school meant I wouldn't be able to do that and he would have to relinquish the computer time to me. It is funny to me that threatening his computer time put him into instant action.

I don't think this is just a Stephen thing, I think its more of a man thing, they really have to have a reason to take drastic action. There isn't always this thought about what every one else needs, if it don't affect men directly they seem to block every thing out. Men make me laugh, especially Stephen!

adding my most recent drawing from art class. I have a long way to go but working on it.

don't look a gift horse in the mouth!

Normally at work I listen to audio books while I work so that people's chattering don't distract me. I love doing this and have a shelf full of books.I have listened to each book at least 3 or 4 times each, and every one there that has books has traded back and forth with me so I have listened to pretty much all the books floating around the office. It is for sure time to visit half price books as soon as possible.

Today instead of re-listening to a book I turned on the radio. It didn't take 2 minutes for me to be mad, this is why books are better! People where calling into this radio station bashing the US forces for not acting quick enough or doing enough for the people in Haiti. Let me say for the record that my favorite part of being in the military is the fact that when disaster strikes I may get to run and help. I was there a few days after Katrina hit New Orleans and I loved it. But it really ruffles my feathers when you try to help and get treated like crap for it!

Like I said I was in New Orleans right after Katrina hit, I didn't see any other countries dropping supplies down to those trapped people! No those trapped people ate the MRE and drank the water that we had in our personal bags to feed us while we where there. We went there knowing that supplies where short so we took as much food and water as we could in order to sustain us (the troops) until supplies where delivered or we went home. Most of the people in the Super Dome had been with out supplies for 5 days when we arrived, most of us took the food and water out of our personal bags and handed it into the crowd for the young and elderly to share.

I saw US forces bring supplies before to many days passed but I never saw any foreign countries hovering over our disaster and dropping supplies to us.

The US has suffered other disasters, tornadoes that destroyed OKC and Dallas, and again we sustained our selves and took care of each other but I don't recall other countries jumping in to help.

Now don't take me wrong I am all for helping but why can't people just be thankful for what help they get instead of complaining that it isn't enough! Why is the responsibility of the US to take care of every country? One of the people that called into the radio station today was complaining that the Haiti people are living outside, hello our country is struggling at the moment we have a lot of people living out side too! And don't they realize that all of your troops that are over there right now are living outside to just so they can help!

Say thank you to some one once in a while instead of complaining that they don't do enough for you!

school so far

Ok

OK huge relief when Monday afternoon rolled around and my class was all set up I discovered that all those books posted out there didn't apply to my class. I only have two books and a lot of reading but not nearly what I thought was posted.

I am actually taking two classes but on Monday there was only one class set up. Today I had a voice mail from my advisor (who I have never spoken to before) telling me that she had my second class set up and I could start attending now. I have yet to get a response from the  advisor or instructor about how this will affect my required attendance or the lateness of the 3 assignments that have already been due. The new class is an art history class and already on day one I am wondering why exactly do I need to know about prehistoric art. Yes it is interesting and I think I will like looking at it and understanding what it all means but why is it important to a photography degree?

The first class is an art class where I actually have to draw stuff, scan it and turn it in so that the entire class can see. The first thing we had to draw (first pic above) was odd. We had to put the paper and pencil to in a position so that we could not see it, and then draw our hand, but with out looking at the paper, we had to draw our hand 3 times, non of mine look the same and all of them look like some little kid drew them. Sara and Shelby burst in and had a look at my drawing and burst out laughing, I was really feeling down about it until I posted mine and wondered through the class looking at all the other student's drawings. Yeah we all drew strange looking pics of our hands.

The second assignment was to do almost the same thing, only this time we had to be holding something in the model hand and we could look but not draw while looking, in other words we could stop take a peek to see if the where heading in the same direction (but don't lift the pencil) then stop looking and start drawing again. Once again I had a less than attractive picture. I just want to start drawing something I am good at, I am back to the idea that I should be blobbing paint on a board and calling it art! But either way the drawing is a bit of fun. I am thinking I better enjoy the art classes because I know that when I get to the photography classes and they start talking fstop and aperture and all those things I will be struggling to keep up.

starting school

Well I finally enrolled in school to start working on a Bachlor's degree. I am taking the classes on line at The Art Institute. I assumed this would be just like the online classes I took at UOP. I was a little off on my assumptions!. I got my first assignment from my advisor, he emailed it to me and said here it is for Monday you can go ahead and look over it. So I did, this assignment just reaffermed my incorrect ideas that it would be the same. Basically write a little bio, post it, read the other students bios and reply to them. Great just like UOP.

Then I decided to have a look at the rest of the week's assignments. OMG there are 17 books with 2-3 chapters to be read from each book! Ok we had one book per class before and a couple chapters from that book. I am blown away at the amount of reading I have to do and the subjects as well. I enrolled for a Batchlors in Photography, the books are about being a professional sales person, archatector, video game design and web page design. Wow I am in for a lot of long nights!

All I can say is I really want this degree so it is reading time!

I added a photo from a recent wedding, Stephen and I really want to start doing a photo a day but with hawk, work, kids, broken down car and now school I am not sure when I will have time!

Fav photo of the day

Stephen booked a wedding to photograph yesterday. I was not pleased with most of the photo's that I took through out the day, mostly because I was struggling with a flash that wasn't taking commands from the camera. The flash wasn't zooming in and out like it normally does, I suspect this is because I was jacking around with it and changed something I shouldn't have. Thank God Stephen is the photographer and we rely on the photos he takes and not the ones I take.

I did however manage to take this photo at the reception, which isn't of the wedding its self, does not have the bride or groom or wedding party in it but is still my fav for the day. Not so much because it is a great photo but more because the family was so willing to huddle in close for a snap shot of them celebrating a special event. There where some people who didn't try to hide the fact that they really would rather not have their photo taken, one lady even told me I couldn't take her photo. A photo means 10000000 times more when the subjects are happy to be photographed!

Braces

I told Stephen to let me do the braces, then they would have looked like the ones that I did like these pics!

our evenings

this is what we now do with our evenings

Hawk Hunting!

Stephen received his final falconry permit on October 13th. Every since that day we have spent every afternoon and entire weekends looking for a hawk for him.

We have driven every back road from Colbert to Ardmore, Tishamingo, Atoka and Durant. I am positive that we have put in over a 1000 miles. Up until this point Stephen and his mentor has spotted on passage bird (a hawk under one year of age) but the spot wasn't a good one and the hawk wouldn't attempt the trap due to traffic.

We have seen a lot and trapped a few but in the end it was always a hag (a hawk over a year old). So a lot of other falconers have been going on about this place called Hackberry Flat/The Wet Lands

Hackberry Flat surrounds Fredrick , which is a good 3 hour drive from where we live and we need to be there by sun up. Hawks hunt at sun up and in the evening, they like to sore during the middle of the day. Needless to say we woke up at 3 am yesterday and was driving toward Fredrick and the Flats. We met up with Sephen's mentor and his daughter on the way and traveled by two vehicles with hand held radios in each for communication. Stephen and I took with us our 18 month old daughter (Katie) who has been a real trooper with all the driving around the last couple of weeks, and Our 11 year old daughter (Shelby) who only got involved with the whole hawking adventure because she wanted to keep the hampsters that we used as bait. Now she is an Ace Hawk spotter!!

We arrived about 3 minutes from Fredrick just as the sun was rising! I think this is the first time Stephen and I have ever watched a sun rise together and we spent it looking for hawk movements lmao..

Once the sun was up and we where moving into Fredrick we spotted some birds. One amazing looking hawk that was uniquely extremely dark. In fact we had written him off as crow when Stephen and Steve (the mentor) both realized that no this was a really dark hawk. Unfortunately this hawk was no fool and the trap was not about to trick him.

We then found a passage bird that hit the trap before we could turn around to see it. This one made me sad really. She was a beautiful bird but it was apparent that she had an encounter with a power line and didn't fair so well. If I had all the qualifications to rehab birds this one would have been my special project! She was missing a lot of wing feathers and some of her tail feathers had came out and she now had 2 red tail feathers to replace them, but the red feathers where damaged and her future wasn't looking bright.

Stephen has been trying to get me to look into all the test and requirments for rehabing birds but I have been reluctent, that is another story for another day. But I think this bird changed my mind and I can see Stephen and I getting into the rehab area.

Steve had to head back at noon because his daughter had a soccer game to attend. By noon we where tired and thirsty and hungery but not willing to give up. So we left the flats and headed into town. We had sandwiches and soda and went right back out looking for more hawks. Determined that we wanted the trapping to end and the training to begin.

We drove around until 3pm, my eyes where acking, my body hurt and I was beyond exhausted. Stephen was getting down about the whole thing as well. We spotted a bird and chose to trap it just for moral really. This was no nice bird! we sat the trap and went to turn around and she was already on the trap. Stephen did the release but the bird had grabbed hold of the towel that he used to cover her face and refused to let go. in the end he had to just lay her on the ground and walk away so that she could fly off. Most birds fly away from you as quickly as possible. This hag flew straight up to the pole that we had trapped her off of, by the time we got in the car and started to leave she was eyeballing us, feathers all turned out and was actually stomping her feed like a child throwing a fit! She was pissed and we couldn't help but laugh.

After that we drove around some more until about 4 pm. Stephen finally said look we aren't getting the hawk today lets just drive home. However we did choose to drive the longer way so that we would be in Oklahoma the entire time so that if we happen to spot a hawk we would be legal in trapping her.

At a few minutes until 5 we spotted two hawks on poles and decided to go on and try trapping at least one just to see what happened. The first one bumped off and wasn't interested so Stephen moved the trap just 3 or 4 poles down to the next hawk. Before we could go half a block and turn around she was on the trap and flapping around.

We sped up to her and jumped out of the van. I had to pause to grab my camera so Stephen got there before me. He had a towel on her before I could get the first shot. but her feet and tail feathers where out. All I could think or say was " those are not red tail feathers!" ( red tail feathers meaning she is over a year old) . By 5:05 pm Stephen was standing my the side of the highway with a shit eating grin on his face showing Shelby his hawk!

We had to finish our drive home and didn't get here until around 9:30 pm, unload every thing and wait for Stephen's sponsor to get here to help him with the initial stuff. Putting on the leg straps and showing Stephen how to handle the hawk.

The hawk had not been happy to be shoved into a box and driven hundreds of miles in an unfamilar place. We could hear her in the box having a fit and before long she stunk up the van. It turns out she had already eaten a lot and threw it all up. I was shocked to see how much she had thrown up. She had to be pretty much full when whe went for the trap, greedy bird is all I can say.

Official gender of the hawk, per Steve, a female, we named her Zoie. Stephen was up until almost midnight just practicing having Zoie on his hand. This is the first steps of training her, because she isn't used to him and he isnt used to her, they have to spend a lot of time just getting used to being near each other.

Stephen says his arm is sore and Zoie is still a bit shy but she isnt trying to fly off of his hand any more. The next 3 weeks should be interesting. I for one am pleased that the trapping is done and the late night training falls on Stephen!

Bee Killers!!!

Right now I should really be helping Stephen develop some 500 photos that are due tomorrow but I needed a minute to rant!!!!
A couple of years ago Stephen happened into trying to save a hive of honey bees. Now for those that are unaware honey bees are disappearing at a rapid rate. With bees disappearing the price of produce is climbing. This issue will only get worse until bee keepers across the world can bring the bee population back to a rate high enough to pollinate enough produce to meet the consumer demand.The last bit of information that we read indicated that bees are under government protection. To kill honey bees could cost you a nice hefty $500.00 fine! I suppose we need to do the research and verify if that is indeed still the current law. With our with out government protection one would think that with most local news channels buzzing about the missing bees most people would be aware that killing a swarm of bees is not a good idea!

At the time that Stephen saved his first hive there where two other people with him. Those people wanted to rob the honey from this enormous hive and let the bees fly off and either find a new home or die. Stephen's one good Samaritan hive is now 8 hives buzzing up our back yard.

In the process of all this I got sucked into the bee saving missions. I have learned quite a bit about bees, their life cycles and their purpose in this world and find myself as focused on saving them as Stephen is.

One of the men who was there when Stephen got his first hive lives only 2 houses down from us. Today there was about a thousand bees laying dead in this man's drive way. We heard of this because a local cop stopped us and ask if we knew what was going on and why those bees where dead. Of course we had to go see what was going on.

Apparently the man's wife saw a swarm of bees in their drive and instead of calling some one to remove them (most people charge for this service, we NEVER charge for removing bees) .. she politely takes a can of bug killer and sprays the swarm!! THIS IS SOOOOO WRONG TO DO!!!!

Stephen was so mad, but just informed the man that what his wife had done was against the law.

There where still a lot of bees swarming around and we couldn't find the queen in the pile of dead bees. So we picked out box and I went into the house to find some lemon grass oil. We happen to store the extra boxes next to he bee hives, so in order to get to them we have to walk right in front of the 8 active hives.

I came out of the house with a q-tip that had half a drop of lemon grass oil on one end of it. (Lemon Grass Oil attracts bees). As I walked in front of the bee hives bees pretty much swarmed all around me and followed me to where Stephen was waiting with the bee box.

We then went to where the dead bees where and set up a box with this q-tip inside it. I of course had lemon grass oil on my hands. I wanted to recheck the pile of dead bees for the queen. As I was looking for the queen bees where buzzing me.

The photos above are of the bees going into the box to get the lemon grass oil. We are hoping to catch enough of them (and the queen) to save the swarm.

Tuskahoma Oklahoma

I took the time to upload more photos than I normally do because I just couldn't choose which ones I like best ..

We went to Tuskahoma Oklahoma on Friday night. Tuskahoma is the Capitol of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Apparently Choctaw put on an amazing festival every year. This is the first year that we have known about it. It was a drive to get there but for 10 bucks a tent you can turn up on Friday and stay until Monday. Its a lot like the Magnolia festival we here with a couple of big differences. First of all no on camps at the Magnolia festival and second a night at the Magnolia festival always cost us an arm and a leg.

The festival at Tuskahoma is pretty close to absolutely FREE!! yes a said free. You have to pay for camping ($10.00) and your food (which you can bring your own, buy it there or go about 5 minutes down the road which is really cheap) and if you want to play carnival games ( where you win stuffed animals ) that cost, But the rides are free and the concerts are free.

I have no problem saying no to carnival games, I always have felt that they are a rip off but the rides, well its impossible to take a child to a carnival and say no to the rides.

This week end they had Billy Currington, Wynonna Judd, Gretchen Wilson and a few others. Just for the record this is my 2nd time to see Gretchen Wilson at a Choctaw event and it confirms to me that I just cant support her music, I love some of her songs but She has lost my respect. Choctaw is very anti-alcohol. Their reasoning may be debatable (they feel that Indians are very susceptible to become alcoholics but they support gambling which also can be an addition) but rather or not Choctaw have a debatable reason they are the one's who hired her and she should follow their request.

The first time I saw her was at the Casino and my daughters and I met Gretchen Wilson back stage, she was three sheets to the wind and left her dressing room trashed with beer cans. This time she pulled out the whiskey on stage and her and her band members drank it in front of the crowd. I am not against drinking and had a glass of wine tonight but she was told she couldn't drink but openly did any way. Needless to say I have lost respect for this woman and won't purchase her CDs any more.

Other than just not respecting one of the singers and taking cold showers we had an amazing time this week end. I however will not complain one bit about sleeping in my own bed tonight! lol

Yesterday we had a stroll through the arts and crafts building and then Stephen wanted to find a place to go swimming. We got directions but we ended up some where other than the swimming area. We really have no complaints about getting lost. The whole area is so beautiful we enjoyed just driving around for a while. It rained for just a few minutes and then we took a few photos.

First there are a couple a photos taken from the window of the van as we drove 50 mph across a bridge.





Then here are a few that we took just after the rain stopped.











I was driving back and I saw this amazing view through some trees, so I stopped, backed up and went back to get a few photos..




Then finally there are a few of this man in the arts and crafts area that was using this odd tool to whack on a rock that eventually becomes an arrow head. I found it interesting and I also found the man interesting.

Alexis Rae

ok for those that don't know my life story, I got married right out of high school to a man that was almost 10 years older than me. Yeah dumb teenager!.. My now X had two children a 4 year old boy (Steven) and a 2 year old girl (Summer). The very weekend that I was moving in the kids where coming for a week end visit. That visit lasted until the kids where 15 and 17! One longggggg weekend. My X drove over the road for several years and then worked nights when he stopped driving over the road. I always worked a full time job and managed what eventually was 4 children. I may as well have been a single mother of 4 for many years.

Even though I didn't give birth to Steven and Summer they are my kids and always will be. Today they are grown and have children of their own.

Yesterday Summer gave birth to her second child. Talon Joe was her first baby almost 2 years ago, yesterday she brought Alexis Rae into the world at 6lbs 15oz.

Steven has a daughter, Cloey Lane and is about to have another daughter in the next couple of weeks. Cloey is 3 years old so for the last 3 years there has been a battle of wills over what they should call me and now my husband too. I am way to young to be a ganny, nanna or grandma, pluss they have their birth mother to name as well. Steven and Summer's birth mother told me yesterday at the hosptial that if she is being called granny then I better anny up and get a "grandmotherly" name! lol.. I just feel like I am not old enough and not ready for that kind of name.. I have to sort out something quick because the kids have started telling them to call me "mimi" or something .. I am only 34 I should not be worried about "granny" names yet!!!

However the granny name does not change the fact that I have the most beautiful grandchildren in the world!!! So welcome to the world Alexis Rae and I promise to get a name sorted that suits us all before Alexis can talk!

The photos above are my son Steven, his wife Carissa and Cloey, then Talon Joe holding his sister Alexis, next is Summer holding Alexis and the rest are Alexis as it was her birthday!

We had a strange visitor in our flower bed today

This morning I decided that it was past time to weed the flower beds. The last time I did this was for the 4th of July!! Yea umm we had as much grass as flowers. Shelby was gone to a friend's house, Katie was in her play pen with Stephen and I and Sara was making random appearances at the door. I think she just wanted to remind us that she was here and totally bored with the whole gardening thing..

At one point Sara ask what was this huge bee thing, I assumed it was a honey bee (because we have several hives in the back yard). I didn't think much of it after that But then after several hours in the sun we had a much needed water break and I sat on the front steps. I saw yellow and black and again though it was a bee.

Stephen pointed out this "bee" to me and we both realized this was no honey bee. I was so amazed just watching this thing buzz around.

It just happened that the cat had been attacking me (in a playful way) earlier and I had taken a photo of her, so my camera was just inside the door. Lucky for me that the camera was there because I impressed myself with a couple of the photos that I managed to get.

I did a little research and found that we had a Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth in our garden! Apparently these are moths that look a lot like a bumble bee but hovers and flies a lot like a humming bird.

any way I was amazed by the moth and impressed with the photos that I managed to snap.

sometimes a new look is just hard to find

So Shelby is the one person in our house that is bold enough to go REALLYYY short with her hair. I some times think about it but well my ears are way to big!!

Shelby's hair is better short, its extremely straight and healthy but if it ever grows past her shoulders it starts to get thin and ratty. There is nothing like spending an hour after every bath trying to untangle that mess while she cry's because it hurts.

Shelby finally talked me into letting her go reallly short a year and a half ago. It took her a good year of asking before I gave in. She went short and spiky in the back and left the front fairly long. Its a hard look to pull off but for Shelby it just fit her.

We really should buy stock in the Got 2 B hair products. The first thing we used was the Got 2 B Glued, from there I think we have tried all their products. The Glued is the best spiker ever and I like some of the hair sprays and gels to.

Honestly since she got that hair cut, I have never taken her any where that people don't stare and people always comment that they love her hair. She always gets "cool hair", "I love your hair" and "mommy I want hair like hers!!".

The first photo is one of my favorites of Shelby, yes there is something drawn on her face, it was left over halloween make up and we where playing around with it. Several people have said she looks like Twiggy in this photo.

When it starts growing out its a bit difficult to do anything with and starts looking a mess. But after the same hair cut for a year and a half she wants something different. Its a bit hard to go different from SHORT!! She found a photo of some girl with her hair cut except the bangs where cut short also. We did it tonight, I think Stephen isn't happy with it but Shelby is and well its hair and will grow back. I suppose we will still be supporting the Got 2 B collection because its the only hair product that holds Shelby's hair. With out the Got 2 B Glued her hair would never stand up. My mother would have never let me do any thing like this with my hair and I always said that with the exception of coloring it black they can do any thing they want. I wont let them color it black because its difficult and extremely damaging to reverse. My kids have had all lengths and pretty much all colors of hair. This summer it was purple streaks. Its been pink streaks and blue streaks, what ever its all temporaryy and hopefully a phase they will grow out of by the time they are ready to get jobs!

As for Shelby's new look, I think I like it and really wish I had the face for it, simple and easy and hassle free!!

where does the week end go?

So Stephen and I went fishing Friday night. We staid until late then went decieded we needed some fishing gear. We made a run to Wal-Mart and got new poles and a few gadgets. Saturday morning we where up early and back at the river.

It was so strange being at the river when the water so really low. The fish where every where, and jumping up into the air like crazy. There where several people out fishing at 6 AM but no one was catching anything. This young guy offered us his left over bait and one fairly large catfish. He had been there over 12 hours and caught one fish!

I actually saw several large fish surface for a second, then duck down and come back up to do a big flop but none of them seemed bothered to even nibble at our lines. I finally gave up and took a wonder down the river bed.

There are some amazing birds that tend to fly low and right over head. Of course when I remembered to bring my camera none of the birds flew close enough to get really good shots. I only took one lens and really was wishing that Stephen had brought his camera and his big lens. I have put a slide show on the side of my page with the photos that I took (oh and one photo of a fish that Stephen caught Friday night).

Spent the rest of Saturday with my niece, her husband and their 4 year old son (Keith). It was Keith's birthday. The boy is really into the Transformers at the moment. It was fun to see him get so excited over his presents. I am glad they are back in Oklahoma for the moment but honestly I am not sure she will last long. The thing about my niece is she has been in California for several years and she is very independent. I really don't think she will be happy back here where family is so close. Not that she and I don't love our family but neither of us are the clingy type and most of our family is clingy or at least in your face types of people. I don't think it will be long until she ventures at least to OKC or Dallas.

We spent this morning working in the yard. Stephen finally figured out what the huge flowers are that we have for the fist time this year. Hollyhocks. Those things are huge (7 to 9 feet tall) and beautiful while they are blooming but once they bloom they look really shabby. I wanted to find out if we could trim them of if they where the type of flowers you let bloom then cut down until next year. Turns out we can trim them so Today I did just that. I still have yard work to do but it just got way to hot. We escaped the heat by coming indoors and spent the rest of the day moving Katie in with Shelby.

I am not sure that I will sleep tonight because this will be the first night for Katie to sleep outside of our bed room. She is 14 months old and I am just not sure if she (well maybe it should be I) am ready for her to move out!

I am exhausted though so we will just see what happens.