MOVING!!!!!!

Well, this was the weekend that we finally "moved" to Brenham. Thank God for Katie and Moose. We truly could not have done it with out them! We rented a U-Haul and Moose and Katie showed up at the Barclay at 8:30. Moose and I loaded until 12:30 and Katie and Sally packed. Thanks goodness the weather cooperated. It was only 101 so it was pleasant. We go to Brenham and unloaded the truck. After a short cool down period, we went to the airport for dinner. Very nice evening. Saw a restored Chinese Yak.

Sunday morning, Sally and I got up early to change out the entrance reducer on the bee hine. I suited up. I went to pull it out and it didn't work. SWARM!!!! OMG!!!! I swear thousands of bees instantly swarmed Sally and me. Since I was in the suit, I was ok. Sally was not so lucky. She got stung three times in the head!!!! After that we cooked blue berry pancakes and took the truck back. Then Katie and Moose went home.

After the kids left Sally and I cooked a meal that came completely from our garden. We had peas, cucumbers and onions and tomatoes. It was truly fabulous.

One down!

Well, by tommorrow morning, I will have completed my first grad school class. I am very pleased wirth my performance. It was a little rocky at first. Sally thought she was going to have to either kill me or leave me! Thank God she agreed to stay! Here is a link to what I created for Horticulture 605: http://people.tamu.edu/~Yupneck1/Project/JUA_Index.html.

I really enjoyed learning to do this. I hope the rest of my grad school experience is as pleasant as this has been.

Sally and I are now offically in "hair on fire" mode. Our house closes on July 6. We have to be out of the house by July 3 so we can help Heather move in on July 4. Sally is going to Tulsa to help a friend so I will be trying do most of the move by myself. Katie and Moose and Chris are coming on Saturday to help me get the big stuff. The race is on!

On a more zen like note, the garden is really coming in! We have onions, squash, egg plant and tomatoes! However, the thing we have most is PURPLR HULL PEAS!!! I have been eating peas for a week! God how I love those black eyed peas and cornbread! Thank goodness Sally knows how to cook them.

April 14, 1912, 10:00 pm – What a marvelous day! Boat handling like a dream. New York in one day away. At this point I cannot help but be overwhelmed at just how lucky I am and how fabulously my life is going. Truly at the top of my game! Top captain on the top boat on the top line in the world! God is good!!!!

This is an excerpt from Captain Edward John Smith’s diary (not really, I just made it up. However there is a point to it so follow along). In case you don’t know Captain Smith, he was the lucky man selected to pilot the HMS Titanic on her maiden voyage. As we all know, after writing this journal entry, his life began to spiral downward very quickly.

After this past week, I know exactly how Edward must have felt about 11 pm on that cold April night. One minute, life is so good. The next, your cold dead body is bobbing up and down with Leonardo DiCapprio’s body in front of Kate Winslet!

That is pretty much how my week has gone. Sunday, after running the nightly processes for the Budget apps I went to bed. I was awaken by a terrible rumbling down below. OMG!!!!! I WAS SICK! SICK like I have only been one other time in my life. I will spare you the details but I WAS SICK! Then, to top that off, the budgeting system was refusing to work. So for the next 5 days my life has been nothing but work, sleep and work some more. Then, to make it just a little more special, grad school started on Monday. Talk about stress. Oh well. What does not kill us makes us stronger.

With all of the work problems and grad school stresses I have been an absolute bear to live with. I am sorry Sally. You always take your frustrations out on the ones you love. And, unfortunately for you right now, I love you a bunch!

Memorial Day Weekend

Sally and I started our weekend with a lovely bike ride. We went on a very pretty and hilly route that leads to Greenvine. She did much better this time. The Heather, Jessie and their “kids” got to Brenham around 1:00. Just in time for it to start raining. It rained almost the entire weekend. We needed the rain but it did put a little bit of a damper on our plans. It wasn’t a total waste. When it stopped raining, we made a new friend. Saturday night we went and saw "Angels and Demons. TWO THUMBS UP!!!! I definitely recommend you go see this one.

Sunday was a work day. Sally and I worked all day at the church festival. Very fun. The girls came and helped for a while. Then we all got to play. We all won prizes at the various booths. Heather and Jessie cheated. They sat and watched the wheels and determined which numbers were coming up the most often. Then they bet on those. It paid off as we took home a cake, cupcakes, mystery cookies, a diet coke and TONS of PLANTS. After the festival, Then we went home and grilled. AWESOME!

The girls left Monday morning. Sally and I went to work. We mowed down the bluebonnets and edged and cleaned the yard. I washed the truck and she cleaned the house. The place really is lovely when it is mowed. Pulled our first produce of the season; an onion. All in all, it was another fab weekend in Brenham!

Multi Picture Test

Here is Whitney and Sally holding our very first container of bees.

This is what greated us at the nest Tuesday night. Very lovely and very big chicken snake. Since I like snakes, I did not bother him. Unfortunately, my neighbor does not share may affinatinely for our legless friends. He killed this one and its mate Wednesday morning.

Bee Ranching!

Since our place is too small for cows, we figured we would raise bees. They are hard to milk and the meat is a little tough but man do they have some good vomit!!!!!

As you can tell from that little bit of sillines, yesterday was BEE DAY at the nest. It was a blast. Whitney was there and we just had a marvelous time. Spent the morning finishing the bee yard and making sugar syrup to feed them. Then we went to visit HomeSweetFarm (http://www.homesweetfarm.blogspot.com/). This CSA farm is very close to our house and we look forward to getting to know them better. After that we were off to R. Weaver Apiary (http://www.rweaver.com/) in Navasota, Texas. We were so excited to got our bees. We had so much fun hiving them and then just watching them. They were so calm. None of us suited up. Sally wore the veil and gloves, I wore gloves and Whitney wore no protective gear. We were working in a swarm and no one got stung. Seems the girls are very tame and apparently like us very much.

Hulabaloo Canek Canek!!!!

Well, I am officially an Aggie!!! Yesterday I enrolled for my Master's of Science in Horticulture. Thank you Sally for encouraging me to do this. It would not have happened without you. I am very excited and humbled at the same time. It never ceases to amaze me the way life winds and twists. Like Forrest said, " I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floatin' around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it's both. " God is truly blessing Sally and I right now! Sally, I am so glad it was our destiny for you to float into my life!!!!

Back to the normal stuff now. We got to nest early on Friday. We were greeted with the most beautiful day lillies ever. Thank you Nana! Everything is beautiful right now. The veggies are doing great (got out first tiny little new potato on accident). Some flowers are justing popping up, others are about to burst and still others are showing all their color and glory! The humming bird bush and the bottle brush are breath taking.

Sally and I went ran to Waco to she Ginna and Gran. Went to Allanah's recital and got to hold Katie. Megan looked truly happy. I am so happy for her and the life she has built hor herself. Sunday we took Mary to church and visited with friends. Then it was back to Brenham. We just took it easy Sunday afternoon. had a couple of beers with the Popisil's and toured ther garden. What a garden he has put in! I have garden envy. he gave us a small mess of new potatoes. Sally cooked them up and they were wonderful!