The Beneficial Bee

Our Blog Has Moved!

2011-06-20T00:47:00.000-07:00

Please visit us at our new blog:

http://www.thebeneficialbee.blogspot.com
link to blog

We no longer have access to this account on our computer (but somehow my phone has miraculously opened it).
We hope you will come on over and follow our new blog! Jess and Glenn

A Warm Winter Beach Day

2011-01-16T20:46:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those rare days where we didn't have any plans, play dates, or appointments. Glenn had to work, so it was just me and the kids. I let Oliver choose what he wanted to do with our afternoon. "I want to show Pearl the beach!" Pearl is four and a half months old and had not yet felt the salty spray of the sea on her face or the mush of the sand between her toes. I loaded up all of the essentials in a beach bag and we headed down to Avila Beach where the weather was 76 degrees!

Oliver wanted to make sure we had all of Pearl's "beach firsts" captured on film. Here is "Pearl's first time with her toes in the sand."

Next we have "Pearl's first time with her toes in the ocean."

I captured "Pearl's first time watching the waves." I think she enjoyed watching her brother screaming with delight and running from the waves more than the actual waves.

The beach was a huge hit. It was therapeutic to sit in the warm sun with two happy children all afternoon. I felt so filled with gratitude for my family and deep contentment with my life as Pearl and I watched Oliver discover shells and rescue lady bugs (so much so that I felt like blogging instead of eating chocolate and moping).

Oliver was rewarded with an ice cream scoop for his great idea on this unusual January day!

Oliver Update

2011-01-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

This blog has been neglected recently due to my new obsession: craniosynostosis. I will be so happy when this seven-syllable word takes backstage to our normal lives. For those of you who want to keep updated on Oliver, we have started a CaringBridge page. Here is the link:

Oliver's Page

Surgery is scheduled for February 16 in Dallas, Texas. We are flying to Dallas for surgery because one of the best craniofacial teams in the United States is located there.

Oliver doesn't yet know he will be having surgery. We have been hiding our worries and tears (just mine; Glenn is going to get ulcers if he doesn't cry soon) and spelling out any suspicious words. We are going to tell him three days before surgery, so he has enough time to process the event. Glenn had surgery at the age of four as well and he keeps telling Oliver about his good hospital memories (such as his dad reading to him).

Here is Oliver on New Year's Eve, being silly as usual. Pearl is smiling at her funny brother.

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Mojo

2010-12-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

Banjo has had quite a month. Back in November we loaded him up in the back of the Subaru and drove him to a sheep and goat dairy. The owners of the dairy had met Banjo earlier and were impressed by his beauty. They wanted to incorporate Banjo's genes into their herd.

Everyone knows how much Banjo enjoys time with his lady friends, so we agreed to let him stay with the girls at the dairy. I'll spare you all of the gory details, but I will show you the "R rated" photographs of Banjo's first few minutes with the females. He went "nuts."

We missed our sweet buck, so we made a visit to the dairy. He ran over to us and seemed to plead with his eyes, "Please get me out of here! These goats are going to kill me!" And just like that, Banjo's stud service days were over.

All of the animals in our pasture happily greeted Banjo when he returned. Oliver and Pearl were pleased to have their buck back, but something had changed in Banjo.

His tail at half mast and his ears drooping sadly, Banjo wanted nothing to do with our female goats. It was almost like he was saying, "Can't we just be friends?" or "Not now, I think a migraine is coming on." It went on for days and I transferred all of my worries about Oliver onto Banjo. I drove Glenn crazy fretting about what might have happened to him at the dairy.

Finally, after a week, Banjo made a pass at Serio, one of our females. Our penis-swinging, urine-drinking goat is back and he is here to stay.

Nature Therapy

2010-11-25T09:22:00.000-08:00

I looked up the seven stages of grief because I am sure I have experienced all of them over the past week. Sure enough, it was clear that I went through disbelief, denial and bargaining right in the doctor's office when Oliver's pediatrician said, "It looks like Oliver has craniosynostosis, we should order a CT scan." What?! His head is like that because he was a preemie! I don't think we need to do anything. I'm sure he will grow out of it, he just needs more time.

Next, after Oliver had a nervous breakdown when he saw the CT scanner, dodging technicians as he ran the halls of San Luis Diagnostics, I felt depression and anger set in.

Then, because I had the whole weekend to do research, I oscillated between guilt, depression and anger. How did I not notice this when Oli was a baby!? Why did his pediatrician think he was fine, too? What will we do if our baby needs surgery?

One support group and two specialists later, we have some preliminary answers. Oliver does most likely have craniosynostosis. He does not need a CT scan (I'm so happy he ran from that room) and according to the top craniofacial doctor in Dallas, he probably will need treatment to relieve the pressure on his brain (separation and removal of a fused suture in his skull: a craniectomy).

So, how have we been coping? The only way I know how: nature therapy! We have spent the week splashing in big puddles, going on hikes, and boating and fishing for leaves in the "river" near the road.

Oliver, the paleontologist, acting like a T-Rex.

Sleep Hiking

Pearl worked up an appetite from all of her strenuous sleep hiking.

Oliver's pirate ship trailing my party boat.

This leaf fish tasted delicious with a little lemon and olive oil.

Finally, yesterday, as Pearl and I watched the boys bake a pumpkin pie,
I felt some acceptance start to creep in. Stage seven arrived with a wave of peace and relief. I have so much to be thankful for this year. Pearl was born easily, on time and has been the picture of good health. And I'm thankful for Oliver for putting a smile on the face of nearly every person he meets. Each challenge he has presented to our lives has made us better parents and more thoughtful people.

Either way this thing goes, I know Oliver will be fine. He's got the personality to pull of a slightly different head shape and gumption to make it through a difficult surgery. After all, how many four-year-olds can dress a baby AND bring sexy back? See for yourself!

Scarier Than a Hive of Angry Bees: Eighth Graders! and Beekeeping with Baby

2010-11-11T21:45:00.000-08:00

Pearl had her first beekeeping experience on Tuesday. I can't believe it took me ten long weeks to get her out to the bee boxes during an inspection. Before you call Child Protective Serves on me, we made sure to keep her a safe distance from the boxes as the bee hat is a bit too big for her at this point. Here you can see Glenn in the background tending to one of our hives.

Oliver, Pearl and I sat in a field to watch. I couldn't take close up shots of bees, so I tried to take some good pictures of me and the kids. Pearl had her eyes on Daddy the whole time (or possibly a random tree-it's really hard to tell at this point).

Daddy and the newest member of our beekeeping clan.

In other bee news, Glenn and I were asked to give a presentation about beekeeping to eighth grade students this week. I have been afraid of eighth graders since the eighth grade. I had visions of the students calling me Dumbo (you can guess why) or chasing me around the room trying to poke me with a safety pin (yes, it happened and I am still traumatized). We love beekeeping so we decided to face the dreadful eighth graders on behalf of the bees.

I emailed my blogging friend Barbara in Canada (I just love Canadians-don't you?) to see if she could help us with our presentation. Barbara is passionate about educating people about the honey bee and had so many great tips to share with us.

As it turns out, the talk went really well. The students were polite, asked questions, seemed interested in bees and were eager to try the honey we brought. I'm not sure if kids are getting nicer in general or if these children were really special. They warmed my eighth-grader-hating heart.

I think Glenn and I are ready to take this presentation on the road. Anyone need a presenter?

Vegetarian Turned Scavenger Turned Poultry Farmer

2010-11-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

I started eating meat this year when I found out I was pregnant with Pearl. Our bodies need so much protein to support a healthy pregnancy and I'm just not as creative with food as some of my vegetarian friends. The first meat I ate was what I call "meat without the guilt." Our friends at a local sheep dairy had recently had a mountain lion attack and leave a lamb for dead. They gave us a large portion of the lamb, which Glenn made into a fantastic stew. I tried to think of ways to scavenge all of my meat, but as it turns out, half eaten fresh meat is hard to come by. So I ate pasture-raised chicken and happy cows from a farm in Cayucos, CA. It's not that I have anything against eating meat in general, it's just that I think mass production of meat in the United States is disgusting, unhealthy and inhumane. Ideally I would hunt for my food, if only I had the cojones.

When Glenn brought up the fact that he would like to raise meat chickens, I was a bit apprehensive as I was sort of happy living on a "no kill" farm. We live close to a farm that sells pasture-raised chickens at the local farmer's market. The difference between pasture-raised chickens and free-range chickens is incredible. Pasture-raised chickens actually live outside and are free to eat bugs, seeds, plants and insects. They also have a shelter at night and nesting boxes. Free-range chickens are not confined to cages, but there are no rules about the size of their roaming area.

Glenn heard there is a demand for heritage chickens that are pasture-raised, so he started doing his research about different heritage chickens. Glenn would like to breed the chickens, then sell the chicks to our local farm to be pasture raised. Glenn ordered three rare heritage breeds from the Sand Hill Preservation Center: Buckeye, Mottled Java and Delaware. Several weeks ago he sent one rooster from each kind to the farm to be pasture raised. When the roosters reach optimal size, we will have a bar-b-cue to find out which one tastes the best. Next year Glenn will focus on breeding that heritage chicken.

The Buckeye was the first breed of chicken to be developed by a woman. It was originally established by Mrs. Nettie Metcalf in the late 1880s. Nettie wanted to develop a hardy chicken that could withstand the cold Ohio winters. This chicken looks like a Rhode Island Red, except it has a pea comb.

The gentle Delaware first originated in the state of (surprise) Delaware by a man named George Ellis. He created the breed in the 1940s and wanted to call them Indian Rivers (which I think is way cooler than Delaware). The breed was once very important to the poultry industry, but was pushed out by the White Cornish Rock. It is now critically endangered.

Also critically endangered is the Mottled Java. It is considered to be the second oldest breed of chicken in the U.S., developed around 1840 from Asian stock. These guys sell for $5.00/chick! Thank goodness they all survived (and three out of four turned out to be hens!).

I'm on board now with the chicken killing. People are going to eat chicken and isn't it better they eat a chicken that has climbed a tree or chased a butterfly than some poor soul that has never seen the sun? I'm also happy we will be raising endangered heritage birds. At least we will be helping in a small way to keep one of these breeds from going extinct.

Happy Halloween from a Raccoon and Refried Beans!

2010-10-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

Pearl is one happy side of refried beans!

The final product: a delicious veggie burrito.

We found a large raccoon today on our morning walk!

We decided to keep him. He will live out in the pasture.

It was a long walk so finally we broke down and ate the burrito.

Have a safe Halloween!

Stressing Out

2010-10-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

I have realized over the past nine weeks of being at home that my brain craves a little bit of stress. At work I am used to having my heart pound daily and breaking out in a cold sweat at least once a week. "Oh my gosh, I still have seven patients to see and it is four o'clock." Or, "Is this biopsy site going to stop bleeding? Please God, make it stop!"

My heart rate at home has barely topped 100 on my most stressful day. To keep myself stimulated, I intentionally try to keep some stress alive in my life. On snack day I decided to make tuna boat sandwiches with little cheese sails for Oliver's preschool. I regretted my decision at 11 o'clock the night before school when the little cheese sails kept splitting under the pressure of the toothpicks and Pearl wanted to be bounced around the house. But that morning as I saw my final creation on the counter in Oliver's classroom, I felt a sense of victory (but unfortunately forgot to take a picture).

Another project I have been working on is a paper mache moon. Oliver finally moved out of the family bed and into his big boy bed. Chimpanzees move their kids out of the nest at the age of four to make room for a new baby, so we followed that wisdom. Glenn and Oliver painted his new room and added glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. It was missing a moon and I thought, "How hard can it be to make one?" Ten hours of work later and we have the ugliest glow in the dark moon you have ever seen.

My latest hobby? Embossing! I'm planning a Mother Blessing (a ceremony to celebrate a new mother) for a pregnant friend. A sale at Michaels convinced me I should buy an embossing kit and hand emboss the invitations. I'm so pleased I did because embossing is so much fun! I keep trying to think of things to emboss (Hmm, that piece of paper would look so much nicer with a gold butterfly on it). It is just so satisfying watching the powder heat up and melt into something pretty.

Oh, I also thought maybe we should start TRYING to sell lip balm, why not? I opened our etsy shop up again and started a Facebook page. Check it out here:

The Beneficial Bee

If only this little girl were more fussy or difficult, I could stop giving myself projects.

And don't worry, my house is a mess and the laundry's not done-so really I'm not stressing myself out too much. Happy Halloween!

You Give Me Fever

2010-10-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

Once a week or so we put Banjo and Pumpkin in with the animals in the front pasture. This is our lazy way of giving everyone some extra exercise. Banjo and Pumpkin love getting to spend some time with the girls. After humping Pumpkin all week (and being humped by Pumpkin-it's only fair), Banjo is eager to get his hooves on members of his own species.

When Pumpkin and Banjo are initially released into the pasture, there are always a few minutes of pure chaos. The alpacas do not like Pumpkin and make effort to stomp him to death (don't worry about Pumpkin, he loves it). Lotta spends her time trying to get between the alpacas and Pumpkin. Once the stomping fest is over, Lotta and Pumpkin wrestle until they drop.

Banjo could care less about all of the chasing and stomping. He has one thing on his mind-Leche. Leche is apparently very "hot" as far as goats go. She is even sexier from the back side as far as I can gather from Banjo's behavior. Poor Leche has to be on her toes to resist Banjo's advances.

She escaped! I'll be frank-I put in this action shot because I think Banjos swinging sac is funny (sorry).

Here Leche is using Glenn (and Pearl) as a human shield.

Finally, Banjo got so fed up with trying to catch Leche he tried to make it with Oliver. Oliver politely declined the offer and went on playing with his stick.

I'll end this post with a picture of our new rooster. He is gorgeous and needs a name! We welcome suggestions. Photo by Glenn.

Oh, and also a picture of Pearl. I can't leave her out!

The Skinny on the Guineas

2010-09-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

Glenn and I moved the guinea fowl over to their new roost several weeks ago. We let the guineas get used to their new home, then decided it was time to let them see the world. Teaching the guineas how to leave the roost and fly back in the evening has been a patience-testing experiment.

First, we had to get the guineas to leave the roost. Glenn opened the doors and expected them to take flight right away. The first day, only two guineas ventured outside to the perch, then quickly retreated. Oliver decided to give them a lesson about the joy of flying. The guineas were not impressed and stayed inside.

On day two, all of the guineas finally decided to go outside and check out the view. We waited quietly under a tree until finally, all at once, they took to flight. I was happy I had the camera ready to capture their first moments in the air.

Once the guineas were out, the next big challenge was figuring out how to get them back into the roost. Glenn and Oliver spent many hours trying to find the easiest way to get the guineas back inside. In the picture below, Glenn and Oliver have herded the guineas under the roost and are contemplating their next move. The local wild turkeys stopped by to watch the action.

Glenn thought trapping them with a bird net and putting them back one by one would be a good idea. Oliver and Glenn expertly herded the birds into the net. Oliver's bird herding skills are truly remarkable (if only school tested him on THAT ability rather than his ability to pick out the letter "P").

Glenn decided herding the guineas into nets was too stressful for the birds, so he has tried many other methods over the past three weeks. On various evenings you could find Glenn and Grammy up in the hills with headlamps, Glenn and Oliver patiently sitting under the roost, or me and Pearl, covered in baby poop, yelling at the guineas to just fly inside already! One day we even had Glenn, Grammy, Pop and three boys in capes all trying to help the guineas get back to the roost.

The guinea fowl might be time consuming, but they are definitely intriguing creatures. Once they learn how to roost on their own, I'm sure we will feel better about all the hours we have spent outside with them. Pearl found them so interesting she had to pop her head out of the Moby to watch as I took pictures. Lotta also finds them fascinating. We won't tell her how delicious we heard they are.

Sleep, Eat, Poop, Package!

2010-09-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Holding a newborn for hours on end every day is blissful. And just slightly boring. The endless cycle of sleep, eat, poop makes the day go by slowly (which is good because I want to soak up every moment).

Oliver is used to a more exciting way of life and has been bouncing off the walls with energy. If only we had cable, just for a couple of months! Our daily thrill includes feeding the animals in the pasture. We introduced the baby to all of the animals and everyone seems happy with her or at the very least wants to lick her.

(Thanks Erin for Pearl's lovely white dress! We should probably keep it out of the pasture.)

What was the highlight of our day today? A package arrived from our friend Doris (and Gizzy) at Crocheting in Georgia! Doris makes great crocheted items. Check out her blog to see some of her amazing work. She made a beautiful blanket for Pearl, hats for the boys and a cute bee kitchen scrubbie for me (although it is too nice to get wet or dirty!). She even sent a funny onsie that sums up my life right now, " Loading Diaper, Please Wait...".
Photo credit: Oliver

Thanks Doris! We love everything you sent.

As an added treat, we ran into this baby snake when we went outside to take pictures! Can anyone (Kate?) tell me what kind of snake this is?

Our Smelly Visitor

2010-09-10T21:56:00.000-07:00

Even "experienced" parents learn new lessons all the time. What did I learn today? Never attempt to sneak up on a wild animal to take a photograph of it while holding your nine day old daughter.

Pearl and I were just settling down to read a book when I heard a funny scratching sound in the laundry room. Last night I heard the same sounds coming from the laundry room and managed to get a glimpse of a black and white tail escaping through the cat door. I needed proof that this was not just a large cat breaking into our house. I grabbed the camera, ever so quietly walked toward the laundry room, aimed into the darkness and took a picture.

This scared the "big cat" and he promptly lifted his tail as if to spray (I could see this with my flash as I was attempting to take a second picture-but wimped out instead). Pearl and I ducked around the corner and the skunk ran out the cat door.

I wanted to see if he was brazen enough to come back inside, so we waited patiently to see what would happen next. Sure enough, the skunk popped his head back through to check things out. I yelled at him to leave while his bum was still safely outside. Now our skunk friend is attempting to break down the barricade I have rigged in front of the cat door. Well, at least we have had a little excitement on this quiet Friday evening!

Here are a couple of pictures of Pearl while I am at it just to satisfy grandparental needs:

The Beautiful Birth of Baby Pearl

2010-09-04T14:17:00.000-07:00

I went to bed last Tuesday thinking I would blog the next morning about the guinea fowl, Pumpkin and Banjo, or my mom and dad's 35th wedding anniversary party. I spent the evening getting all of my favorite pictures ready. Little Pearl Kathryn decided she would be arriving instead. I woke up at four in the morning with contractions every seven minutes and I knew we would be having a baby in the next few days. Here is a picture I took of Oliver kissing my belly the day before I went into labor.

My experience giving birth to Oliver four years ago was pretty traumatic. For the two of you who haven't heard about Oliver's birth, you can read about it here:

Oliver's Birth

I had a miserable surgical birth and I was praying for a normal birth experience this time around. I spent the day at my sister's house in early labor. My contractions were regular and strong, but didn't appear to be getting any worse after 14 hours. My sister decided we should try to move things along, so we went for a walk down her block. I felt a pinch during a contraction and then felt my water breaking all over her neighbor's driveway. We laughed and Kate (my sister) vowed to bring back a hose later. Once my water broke, I knew we were going to be meeting the baby soon. We headed to the hospital where I was hoping to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean section).

My mom met us there and knew I was in active labor when I politely asked for some f****** water. I always hoped I would be "zen" and quiet during labor-a birthing goddess if you will. I was more of a birthing drunk sailor, loud with a foul mouth. No more "fudge crackers" for me, it made it hurt less to just say f***.

We arrived at the hospital at 7:30 PM. The nurse checked me and told me I was three centimeters, then patted me on the knee and left. She was assuming I would be laboring for the next 12 hours or so. Luckily my mom, sister and Glenn were all there to be my support people, because I was left alone by the hospital staff. They were all so helpful during my three and a half hours of active labor, cooling me with cloths, squeezing my hips, staying calm and letting me hang on each of them. I can't imagine how anyone could labor naturally without proper support. When I felt as though I might split down the middle, I insisted the nurses call my midwife. She came in to check and I was six centimeters. An hour later I had to push during a contraction, then thirteen minutes later Pearl arrived.

I thought I would save you from having to see the crowning pictures. It wasn't even close to being orgasmic (thanks Ina May Gaskin for that shred of hope), but it was painfully wonderful. I would do it all over again to meet my daughter in such a peaceful way, surrounded by the love of her family.

Oliver came to meet his little sister at the hospital the next day. You can see how thrilled he is to finally meet her. We were released from the hospital later that afternoon (thanks to our groovy postpartum nurse) and have been enjoying our quiet time at home together as a family.

This morning we had a placenta burial in the garden. My mother/baby blessing gift was an apricot tree to plant over Pearl's placenta. I'm sure next year we will have the best tasting fruit in town.

So, that's it, the perfect birth of our daughter.

Guineas, Melons and Alpaca Corralling

2010-08-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

I have learned a valuable lesson. I will never again talk about erections on my blog. Using the word "erection" in a post title alerted the people at Viagra to the fact that I am now running a pornography site. So, if you see random advertisements from Viagra in my comment section, please disregard. Here are a few recent farm updates.

The Guinea Fowl Roost

Glenn is loving my maternity leave. He has all day to work on the many projects he has going around the farm. Yesterday Glenn finished the construction of the guinea hen roost and decided to paint it red (like we are planning to paint the barn). We will be moving the guinea fowl into their new home this Saturday.

Big Melons!

We ordered seeds for this large "Bidwell Casaba Melon" from the seed saver catalogue last year. Glenn picked this variety because it was developed in Chico, CA and he thought it would have a good chance in our climate. They are turning out to be huge and so tasty. We will be planting this variety again next year for sure!

Alpaca Grooming

A couple of weekends ago we decided the alpacas were looking a bit unkempt so we gathered them up for a morning of grooming. Alpacas are decently easy to corral. They can be captured with only an (extremely frightening) rope. I watched as Grammy and Glenn roped in the alpacas and began to wonder why we even built a fence for them. It seems like we could have saved some money and made a large enclosure out of ropes. You can see Leche and Serio (the goats) laughing at the alpacas in the photo below.

Grammy haltered all of the alpacas and then I began to work out Remy's knots.

We "let" Glenn brush Pablo because he is a bit more wild than the other two. It was fun to watch them dance.

Finally, all the boys were clean and I was able to snap one quick picture before they rolled in dirt.

Our audience: Oliver and my two cute nephews, Reid and Owen.

Our Romantic Anniversary: A Vigorous Erection and Hours of Pickling

2010-08-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Glenn and I celebrated six happy years of marriage. To honor the occasion, we spent the day getting "farm chores" done, then had an excellent evening together getting foot massages and having dinner out on the town.

Glenn's big project this weekend was erecting his guinea fowl roost. We wanted the guineas to be close to the garden and the front pasture to keep bugs and snakes away from the places where we spend most of our time.

Oliver and Glenn spent a long time thinking about how to most easily get the roost up without getting hurt. Glenn decided Oliver and I were pretty worthless, so he asked Grammy and Pop to come over to help.

Glenn put on the final touches on the roost and I decided to check out the guinea fowl view. Not bad.

Finally, after two hours, Glenn was fully erect and boy was he proud!

Here is a picture of one of the guinea hens. She is at the awkward teenager stage, but you can see how pretty her coloring will be.

We wanted to hang out and admire his erection all day, but we knew we had a big pile of cucumbers waiting for us inside. Our excellent neighbors donated all of these cucumbers to us in exchange for some pickles. After our jam experiment we were ready to take on more canning.

Glenn filled the jars with fresh dill and other spices. He really had to study the directions as making pickles is slightly more difficult than making jam.

My job was to cram the cucumbers tightly into the jars. The sad thing about this picture is that this is my attempt at making a "sexy" face. It is a wonder how I ever got pregnant.

The final product: eight jars of pickles! We will have to wait two to three weeks to try them. Pickle photograph by Glenn.

Raspberry and Apricot Jam and a Huge Spider!

2010-08-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm embarrassed to say I have never canned anything until last week. Feeling like country folk fakers, Glenn and I finally decided to break out the canning equipment his mother had given us when we moved to the sticks. For years Glenn and I have talked out canning pickles, tomatoes and other goods from the garden. We never seem to have enough of a surplus to actually can, so the jars have been collecting dust in the barn. We decided to start with jam because that seemed like a simple canning experiment.

Last Saturday, we had a long day of picking. First we picked apricots at our local university, then we headed to the coast to pick organic raspberries. After nearly two hours of raspberry picking, we were all ready to collapse. I estimated that our raspberry jam would cost us about ten dollars a jar at that point if we considered paying ourselves a decent wage.

Canning the jam was fairly simple. Each batch took about an hour to make and an hour to clean up. When the jam cooled in the jars, we were excited to hear the popping sounds of the canning lids. Oliver's favorite part was sampling the fruit throughout the picking and canning process. I love looking at the finished jars, knowing we will have delicious homemade jam for at least the next six months!

We found this cute little guy in one of the canning jars. He nearly stopped my heart when I saw him. We let him go outside and are praying he finds a home far away from the house.

Banjo Bigalow: Goat Gigolo

2010-07-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

As a nurse-midwife, I spend much of my time at work counseling teens about the physical perils of unprotected sex: unintended pregnancy and infections. Imagine my shock and dismay when I pulled into the driveway and noticed multiple teens engaging in risky sexual behavior, right in the front pasture. Banjo, with his smooth black coat and long spotted ears, has swept our neutered male goat and two female goats off of their feet. When Oliver screamed happily, "I see his penis!", I knew it was time to separate the goats. There will be NO teen pregnancies-not on THIS farm.

Glenn decided to put Banjo together with the only animal he would be unable to hump: Pumpkin. Pumpkin was overwhelmed with excitement to have a new companion. It took Banjo several hours before he decided he liked sharing his space with Pumpkin. Now the two are enjoying the benefits of bachelorhood together: late nights in the dog house, mid afternoon wrestling, and just chilling without any distraction from the ladies.

AND THE WINNING NAME IS.....

2010-07-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

BANJO!

A panel of eight impartial judges had the difficult task of narrowing our ten favorite entries down to one. In a surprise turn of events "Banjo" slipped into the top ten early Saturday morning and gained momentum throughout the day. We appreciated all of your thoughtful, funny, gross, literary, cute, gangster and regal name entries! We especially loved Ramses, Henry VIII, Rex, G-Love, Artax, Gobo, Yagi, Mac and Guenther. A special thank you to Kelly for entering the most disgusting name: Squirt.

Congratulations Andrea! Banjo thanks you for an excellent name.

Beneficial Bee Lip Balm Giveaway!

2010-07-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

We need help naming our fourth baby goat. Glenn, Oliver and I picked him up last Wednesday and have yet to figure out a fitting name for him. This goat will be the father of all of our baby goats in the coming years. We are told he will be big, stinky and urine soaked, but sweet.

The Rules:

1. Please leave your name suggestion in the comments section of this blog. You can leave as many name suggestions as you want. If you feel weird about leaving blog comments, you can e-mail me.

2. If your name is chosen, we will ship your lip balm to you. We are happy to ship all over the world.

3. Names like Shadow and Midnight will disqualify you immediately.

4. The winner will receive a four season gift pack (all four of our lip balm scents in a cute box).

5. The winner will be notified on Saturday July 17th.

6. Bribes will be accepted, but will not guarantee a win.

I tried to take some nice pictures of the new goat this afternoon for the blog. My plan was to have an Oliver-free blog, but the new goat decided otherwise. Like all of the other animals on this farm, the goat thinks Oliver is the greatest. So, Oliver ended up being in virtually every shot because the goat wouldn't leave his side!

The Prize (minus the bees):

Naked Goat Wrestling + Breastfeeding Squirrels + Poultry = A Wonderful Wednesday

2010-06-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

Oliver had another wild, naked morning in the pasture today. I think he would be happy if we just left him out there to live with the goats. At times he certainly acts more like a goat than a human. Patches and Oliver love to knock heads together while Leche always tries to get a piece of the action.

Oliver finally put on some clothes and he strapped on his squirrel to head to town for my doctor's appointment. At the young age of four, Oliver is already quite the staunch lactivist. He is not ashamed to nurse his squirrel named "Pearl" on demand in public. If his baby needs a nurse, then damn it, she is getting one. As you can tell, she is one satisfied squirrel.

After measuring my belly and listening to the baby, Oliver and I headed to the post office. We opened the door and could hear loud chirping sounds. Our chicks and keets (baby guinea fowl) had arrived! We ordered our birds this time from Sandhill Preservation because we like that they are a no-kill chick facility.

Oli really enjoyed being able to hold one chick and one keet.

The babies are all settled in for the night. I'm looking forward to see what guinea fowl personalities are like. The keets are the smaller brown or lavender babies in the photo below.

As an added bonus to an already spectacular day, our resident wild turkey "Gerdie" decided to hang out with us all day. She has two poults and does an excellent job of keeping them from being eaten by a fox. I'm happy she has chosen our property as her home! I think it's a pretty nice place to raise children.

Oliver and Mommy's Day at the Beach

2010-06-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

Ninety degree weather and women in the seventh month of pregnancy do not mix. I feel like a sloth in this weather, moving slowly from one resting place to another. Glenn had to work today, so Oliver and I decided to have a Mommy/Son day at the beach. I considered packing my book in the beach bag, but quickly remembered these one on one days are numbered. I made it my mission to focus only on Oliver today as he will be sharing virtually every "Mommy" moment with another starting sometime in the next ten weeks. We packed up the car and said "later" to all the animals and headed to cooler weather.

As usual, Oliver had me laughing all day. His ability to make friends with strangers amazes me. Oliver is a bit more scared to approach kids because they often do not share his willingness to be fast friends. Oliver slowly built up the courage to show these girls his boat. You can see his smug expression as he proudly walked back to our towel. I think the girls liked his boat.

Walking the pier with Oliver also cracked me (and everyone walking by) up. Oliver's legs were shaking and he said "scary step" each time he walked over a crack in the boards. He was convinced (like many kids) that he would fall in. Somehow we made it back to the beach without slipping through the cracks.

Although I can't wait to meet my new baby, I am trying to appreciate this short time in my life while my son is still my one and only.

The Beneficial Bee Sanctuary?

2010-05-31T17:35:00.000-07:00

I was doing dishes and thinking the other day about bees. Word has gotten out around town that Glenn is a beekeeper and we have received several calls over the past two years from people needing help with bee swarm and hive removals. The calls are generally from people who love bees and wouldn’t consider exterminating them, but who cannot afford to spend two hundred dollars for live removal. Unfortunately, bee boxes are expensive and Glenn has been unable to help remove bees in many cases because he has nowhere to put them.

For Christmas, Glenn’s parents bought him two new bee boxes. Glenn used one box to capture a swarm from one of our hives and the other was sitting empty waiting for a bee call. Our neighbors up the street are renovating an old school house for a wedding venue and needed to find a new home for the bees that have made their home in the school house for the past six years. Glenn was intrigued by the challenge and agreed to help move the bees out of the school house.

Later that same week, we got a call from the county. Bees had made their home in a gas well head on a county work site and had to be removed. I initially said we would be unable to help, as we were out of bee homes. When the county found out it would be cheaper to purchase a bee box for us than paying an exterminator, they called back with an offer.

The county transaction led to my deep bee thinking. What about starting a bee sanctuary? We could offer to remove bees and move them onto our property if we could get a donation for a bee box ($60). Bee lovers could “sponsor” a hive that would have otherwise been exterminated. They would receive a picture of their hive with an annual update or something. Glenn and I would donate our time doing something we love: helping honey bees. Hmmm, now how can I set up a nonprofit in my spare time?

The calls made for a stimulating and sticky week of bee removals. Glenn and Oliver removed the bees from the county site first. As soon as I could leave work, I met them at the site to take my honey covered three-year-old home. Oliver had a great time helping his dad. When he wasn’t being chased by angry bees, he was watching hawks and finding snakes.

We scheduled the school house removal on a weekend so I could be "the assistant to the beekeeper." Grammy and Pop came along to help keep Oliver busy and take photographs. My mom gets the photo credits for (most of) these pictures.

The Assistants

Hive Removal

Smoking the Hive

Removing Comb

Brushing Bees

The Final Touches

Oliver's Favorite Part: The Honey!

Oliver is our preschool bee ambassador. On his share day he brought in a section of comb collected from the county site. The children were fascinated, but mostly wanted to smell the honey. Oliver did a good job trying to describe the process to his classmates.

After the hive removals, several bees were left stuck to honey covered hives in buckets on the porch. Oliver and I set up a M*A*S*H unit to revive the survivors. Grammy came to help with the bee saving efforts and we were able to get around 100 bees total back in the air next to their new hive. Each bee was carefully lifted out of the honey, dunked in water and dried. The bees seemed angry, but I'm sure they were thankful inside.

Can you guess how many stings we endured over the week of removals and revivals? ZERO!

Good News (Another Annoyingly Optimistic Post)

2010-05-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

1. Thank You Pacific Wildlife Care!

A few weeks ago Glenn found an abandoned baby bird near the milking parlor at Rinconada Dairy. He brought the little bird home to me to mother. Usually I jump at the chance to help a little animal, but domesticated animals are more my bag. I like to leave wild animals in the hands of professionals to ensure correct diet and care (plus, it is illegal to keep wildlife). Luckily we have a great local organization called Pacific Wildlife Care. I called PWC and was met by a local volunteer named Debbie. Debbie, a fellow nurse, took our baby sparrow home to help her feed and grow.

Oliver was not too happy about having someone else raise his baby. He named her Celestial and the two had a lovely breakfast together before we made Oliver say goodbye to his new friend.

Last week Debbie called us and let us know Celestial was doing great and was ready to be released. She was being raised with two other sparrows. Debbie wanted to know if we would like to be present for the release. We decided to release all three sparrows at Rinconada Dairy because it is a great place for a sparrow to live.

It was wonderful watching all three birds fly up to the nearest oak. They are already surrounded by a family of sparrows. In the picture below I have circled all three birds at the time of release. They moved so fast, it was hard to get a clear picture.

2. Business is Booming (or Beeping Just a Little)

I don't write about our small business too much, mainly because it has taken a back seat to everything else in our lives. We finally got it together enough the past few months to create a display for our balms. We are selling at two cool shops: one in California and one in Rhode Island. The lip balm seems to be doing quite well as we have gotten orders from both shops to refill the displays. Perhaps next year on our taxes we will be able to show that we broke even rather than claiming -77 dollars!

3. Jessica B-B, Author?

Some of you (the three of you who read my blog) might remember that I was attempting to write a children's book. I wrote a book based loosely on this blog post:

Another Weird Bee Post

Then one night back in December I was feeling adventurous, so I sent an email query to an independent publishing house. I was surprised to hear back from the editor the next day requesting the full manuscript. Then five long months later, after I had finally given up all hope, I received an email from the editor. She said my manuscript was a "strong contender" and wanted to send it to a focus group. She asked if the publishing house could have exclusive review of it during the focus group process. I'm so satisfied to have made it this far in the children's book writing experience, I don't really even need my MS to be published (although that would be unbelievable). An editor read my MS and actually liked it-I'm THRILLED!

4. More Chicks

(Photo credit: Glenn)
Our friends have decided to start keeping chickens. Instead of ordering chicks, we picked out several pretty eggs and put them under our broody hen (she really wanted some babies). On day twenty, I checked under our hen Etta and found one chick. Over the next two days, four more arrived. One disappeared the first day. We think she may have fallen into a ground squirrel hole we didn't notice under the brooding box. Glenn cemented the floor of the coop and we haven't lost anymore. Poor little chick (I just had to bring things down a little). So now we have four chicks, two from brown eggs and two from blue eggs. I hope at least a couple will be egg layers!

4. One More Goat!

The sister of my coworker lives on the most beautiful property between Morro Bay and Atascadero. She raises goats and knew we were looking for a male (with different genetics) to eventually breed with our females. She called us because a shiny, black male was born a few weeks ago and wanted to know if we would like him. Here are pictures of our fourth (and final) goat. He will be staying with his mother to nurse for a good long time, which we are very happy about. Now we just need yet another name!

Shorn 'Nuff

2010-05-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

My dad gets the credit (or blame?) for this week's blog title. This Cinco de Mayo we celebrated by going to an alpaca shearing party. Art picked up our boys and drove them to the farm of their youth (Alpacas of Cripple Creek) for the shearing day extravaganza. Mic, Remmy, Pablo and 43 other beautiful alpacas lost their fiber to help commemorate the Mexican victory over the French in 1862.

Out of our gang, Remmy was chosen to go first. He was walked out to the shearing mat, flipped on his side and tied down. Glenn tried to comfort him during the process. As you can see, the whole thing was mesmerizing for Oliver.

Remmy's thick blanket was shaved off and collected in a bag. His leg and neck fiber were collected in a different bag. The bags were then weighed. Remmy only lost 4.4 pound of fiber, but it looks as though he has lost 50.

Pablo and Mic were not quite as easy. I don't think Mic was too happy about having his head shaved. Here is the last picture of Mic in all of his furry glory. He is getting his legs sheared.

Pablo's teeth were getting too long and need to be filed. If you love the smell of burning hair, you would have been excited to witness Pablo's teeth cutting. I sort of wish I had stepped outside (at least it was over very quickly).

My job was to run around and collect fiber and put it in the proper bags, then sweep quickly, while staying out of the way of the shearer. What I learned from my experience is that you never, ever lift up and tug the shearer's electrical cord in order to sweep better. As Glenn and my dad later reminded me, "Never get in the way of a man and his electrical cord."

Here are the "after" head shots:

Mic

Remmy

Pablo

Poor Remmy is looking at the still furry alpacas wistfully.

Three Goats, Three Alpacas, Two Swarms, One Livestock Guardian Dog, and a Fetus

2010-04-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

I have several farm updates! I planned on blogging last week, but I got sick with a gallbladder issue and spent the last part of the week throwing up, going to the ED, and eating a liquid diet. (By the way, I promised myself I would not mention poop or vomit anymore in my posts, but here I go again, sorry). So, the good news is that I have lost a few pounds over the past few days. I was starting to get a little big around the middle. So here are the things that have happened around here over the past two weeks.

1. SWARM CAPTURE

Glenn was working in my parents' greenhouse last week, when he heard a swarm of bees fly into one of their oak trees. Glenn excitedly called me, so I rushed home from work to help him capture the swarm that landed 15-20 feet off the ground. I didn’t do much but take pictures and curse when the swarm landed on my head under the tree, but I can’t miss an opportunity to watch a swarm removal. Glenn went up the ladder countless times to collect all of the bees. The bees are satisfied with their new home and now live in our front yard.

2. ALPACA, DOG, GOAT

The three alpacas, dog and goat have all managed to work out their differences and seem to live in peace with each other. Our goat, Leche, thinks she is an alpaca, and has been seen grazing, sleeping and frolicking with the alpacas. When Lotta gets a little too rough for her, she runs to the alpacas for defense and they actually seem to take care of her. You can see Leche in the shelter eating with the alpacas, while Lotta is forced to stay outside.

Occasionally, Lotta will do something silly, like wake Mic up from a nap. Below Mic is giving Lotta a good warning spit in the face.

3. BABY BB

We decided to have an ultrasound this time around for some peace of mind (mine, mostly), but we did not find out the sex of the baby. Both grandmas came to the appointment as we were lucky enough to schedule it when Glenn’s parents were in town visiting. Here is a peek at her profile. Glenn is already claiming she looks like him. He’s probably right, Oliver was born looking like a miniature version of him (and that’s a good thing; Glenn is pretty cute).

4. NEW GOATS

Glenn brought home the new babies! We have been working with them, trying to get them on the bottle, but the male in particular seems to like eating alfalfa instead. Here are both Grandmas, each holding a new baby goat. In the second picture we are attempting to lure them back to the house with an alfalfa “carrot.”

5. WILDFLOWER BIKE RIDE

The annual Wildflower bike ride rode through again this year. As usual we woke up early to cheer on the bicyclists. Our alpacas and goats were quite a hit. Oliver served as the alpaca guide, taking photographs with the bicyclists and alpacas, and correcting people when they called Remmy or Mic a llama.

6. BACKYARD SWARM

Yesterday I heard a loud buzzing sound in the back under the oak trees. It turned out to be a swarm in action. I have only seen swarms once they have settled onto a tree, so this was a real treat for me. The air was thick with bees. It was beautiful! Just look at how many bees were in the air at the time of the swarm.

A Big Spat, Alpaca Style

2010-04-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I can scratch "Watch two alpacas get into a spitting fight" off of my "things I have to do before I die" list. I have been trying to make a list to make my friend Erin happy. Her list was long and exciting and mine was short and uninspired (I couldn't come up with anything). Anyway , Mic grew annoyed with Pablo this evening shortly after receiving his allotment of pellets. He began grunting and spitting little bits of food at Pablo. I'm sure looking back at the situation now, Pablo wishes he had kept his cool, but in the heat of the moment he decided he had enough and spat back.

Mic lost control at Pablo's blatant display of insubordination. Within moments, necks were intertwined and spit was flying. I remember yelling, "Move back!" to Oliver as I saw Mic going for the "Killer Spit." Alpacas lack sharp teeth, claws and muscular arms, so they must defend themselves by inflicting emotional pain on their enemies. They do so by being as disgusting as possible. When one hears the word "spit", one generally thinks of saliva. An angry alpaca may start off with saliva, but when the fight escalates, stomach contents are the weapon of choice.

It was a magical thing to witness; two large mammals wrestling with long, graceful necks, showering each other with florescent sprays of bile. Finally, Pablo gave up and the fight was over. Both animals were grossed out; they spent the next hour open mouth breathing, their lips dripping yellow fluid. Mic even tried to rub his bile off on the walls of the shelter.

It is a shame I didn't have my camera on hand to capture the fight. I was, however, able to capture some post fight pictures. You can see the look of horror on their faces as they tried not to breathe in the stench. I only hope they will learn to work things out in a civilized manner in the future.

Here is a picture of a bee in a calla lily I took recently. I just wanted to end things on a not so gross note.

There's a Goat in My Bed!?

2010-04-06T20:44:00.000-07:00

Oliver woke up this morning to find a goat in his bed. It is hard to express his joy and excitement in words. I would have to compare it to the feeling I might have if I woke up to find Johnny Depp in my bed. Johnny Depp with his "Don Juan DeMarco" haircut and scant facial hair. For Oliver, this morning was quite possibly the best morning that ever happened.

Glenn surprised us today with the first of our three goats. Our kid, "Leche" was separated from her mother last night. Leche's mom has been added to the milking line. Leche is old enough to eat on her own but still wants to suckle everything. We bought her some milk replacer and a bottle, and she seems much more content with her new situation. As you can see, the alpacas were extremely interested in our kid.

Leche LOVES Oliver. Where ever Oliver went this afternoon, Leche followed. They played in the front field, collected eggs, relaxed on the front patio and ran to Grammy's house to plant a lemon tree.

We planned on having Leche sleep in the barn tonight with some blankets. Just look at her sweet face. You can probably imagine where she ended up.

Kids and Wildflowers and Peanut

2010-03-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we went over to the ranch to pick out our three kids. The decision was quite easy as all of the kids are gorgeous. Christine, the ranch owner, knew this little male was ours as soon as she saw him. We agreed and decided immediately he was perfect for us. Look at the cool spots he has on his back.

This female lost her mother at birth and was adopted by the mother of our male. We figured the two kids would be happier moving to our farm as a pair. I love the band around her waist!

Our third female fell in love with Oliver right away, so we knew she was smart. She has white hind legs, which set her apart from the other kids.

We are in need of some good goat names. Any suggestions would be appreciated. The goats will be coming home in a couple of weeks when they are done nursing!

Oliver and I decided to pack a picnic dinner and drive out to photograph the wildflowers. After one emergency side-of-the-road poop stop (Oliver) and one emergency side-of-the-road pee stop (me), we finally made it to Shell Creek Road (about 20 minutes from our house). Here are some of my favorite shots. I had more fun taking pictures of Oliver in the flowers than the flowers themselves, as you can see.

Peanut is doing well. Her dressings have stayed on and she is not showing any signs of infection. She does appear to be a bit embarrassed about her naked bum. She would not let me photograph it for the blog.

Alpaca Video

2010-03-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

I will be updating the blog soon with pictures of our three baby goats. In the mean time, I thought I would share a cute alpaca video made by our friends Rodney and Jen.

The Alpaca Arrival

2010-03-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was the big day-the long awaited arrival of our three fluffy alpacas. It felt like Christmas morning, watching Art pull up the driveway with a giant white present holding our boys.

The boys were given a grand tour of their new pasture. We walked them around to show them their toilet, watering and feeding area, and shelter. Once released they seemed to be content with their new surroundings and were happy about all of the fresh grass. They even went over to the toilet together and pooped unanimously.

Lotta (their brave guardian) has been introduced slowly over the past couple of days. The alpacas scare the bejesus out of her. Mic is the most dominant and wants Lotta to know he is in charge. At this point I can't really see Lotta taking on a mountain lion, but I think Mic can take care of himself.

Here is a picture of poor Lotta trying to sneak around the pasture without disturbing Mic.

I have had fun trying to take pics of the alpacas. Here are their "head shots."

Mic

Remmy

Pablo

Our evenings have been spent sitting in the pasture, enjoying the funny sounds the alpacas make. It is even more interesting to watch all of our neighbors stop to talk to the boys. You would think we had giraffes in the front pasture with all of the slowing down and goggling these alpacas have caused.

In other news, the same Tuesday the alpacas arrived, Peanut was attacked by a fox in front of Glenn. Glenn managed to scare off the fox, but the fox got Peanut's tail and left her with some lacerations. My experience fixing up Ethel made this repair a bit easier. She will be on the mend for a few weeks, send her some good vibes if you can!

Spring is Here!

2010-03-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

The weather is warm, the wildflowers are blooming, and my baby just started giving me little taps. I am a happy girl! Oliver and I have been making the most of this glorious Spring weather. We went to visit the goat kids and lambs that were recently born at Rinconada Dairy. We haven't yet picked out our kids as there are many more to be born by the end of the season.

Here is a picture of Oliver being mauled by the lambs.

The lambs in this part of the barn had lost their mothers and loved to suck on everything. (Photo credit: Oliver)

Here are a few of the adorable goat babies. The two boys below had the most friendly personalities.

Oliver and I have also been fishing, taking pictures of flowers and hiking with Grammy. Life is great!

You may have wondered, "Where is Glenn?" "Has he been enjoying this lovely Spring weather as well?"

Glenn and Pop have been out in the front pasture for the past couple of months installing a fence, putting in a water trough, and building a shelter. Yes, it has been difficult, back-breaking work. But, I'm sure both men are thanking their lucky stars for getting to spend so much quality time together. How many men get to spend hours upon hours with their father-in-law? Just look at the loving look Glenn is giving my dad as they hammer at the shelter.

(It is possible Glenn was making that face because Pop just stole the hammer from him and said something like, "Get out of my way, boy.")

Thank you Glenn and Pop for all of your hard work. The alpacas (who are being delivered this Tuesday) will appreciate their new home!

Beekeeping Fashion Tips and Other Hive News

2010-03-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

I made an amazing discovery today. Maternity jeans make for excellent beekeeping pants. I was able to tuck my shirt in with ease, the cinch the waist just tight enough to keep bees out. I felt very proud of my outfit until Glenn made a snide remark about looking like I belonged in the 1980s. Apparently men do not find this look "sexy" anymore. So, I wouldn't recommend wearing this outfit on a first date, but maternity jeans do come in handy when checking the hives with no one else around.

Yellow and orange pollen made for some beautiful bee shots today. I believe the orange pollen was collected from our blossoming pluot tree. We saw the bee in the second picture doing the "waggle dance" to show the other bees how to get to the pluot tree. Bees are so smart!

Glenn had a tough day today. While inspecting hive number two (our previously stronger hive) he was attacked by ants. His smoker then went out in the middle of the inspection. Here he is trying to light the smoker and fight off an ant at the same time. Keep in mind, this is the same man who made fun of MY beekeeping outfit.

You can see Glenn freaking out a bit about the health of hive number two in the picture below. Glenn thinks the hive has chalkbrood, a fungal brood disease. The brood looks spotty, and the whole bottom part of the hive was empty. The second picture shows what we found in the cells in the bottom part of the hive. Can any beekeepers tell us what we are looking at? We will keep you updated about the health of hive two.

February Updates (We Are Expanding Again)

2010-02-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

Alpacas!
The best thing ever happened this month. A long time dream of mine has been fulfilled. You might be thinking, "Did you win the lottery? Are you going on an exotic trip? Did Glenn give you a big diamond?" Even better. We are officially the co-owners of three alpaca males!

Welcome to the BB farm, Rembrandt, Pablo, and Michelangelo.

Michelangelo (the chocolate colored alpaca):

Rembrandt:

Pablo:

The Pasture

The latest property project has been building a pasture for the new goats and alpacas. I'm glad I have the "pregnancy excuse" and have not had to help digging holes. The plan is to have the fence built by the middle of March and to move the alpacas in by the end of the month.

Eggs...Lots of Eggs.

The increasing sunlight has increased egg production. We are getting 15-20 eggs daily! This is a picture of Bea, who has been broody for the past couple of weeks. She gets so irritated everyday when we steal her stash of eggs.

Hikes
We are still hiking every weekend. Last weekend Oliver dragged me out to the "golden pond" for some rock fishing.

In this photo Oliver is attempting to have "quiet time" to appreciate the sounds of nature. Quiet time usually lasts for about ten seconds.

Lotta
Our puppy is now bigger than Pumpkin. She gets along well with Pumpkin and is great on hikes. We are excited about introducing her to her "herd" in March.

Evenings at our house generally look like this:

Happiness Is....Throwing Up a Banana?

2010-02-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

I have a good excuse for not coming up with any amusing blog posts for the past month-I’ve been puking. I spend most of my waking hours worrying about when I'm going to vomit, dry heaving, or being thankful that I am not vomiting. It leaves little time for me to come up with something “cute” about chickens or snakes.

This morning I had a breakthrough. I ate a banana before my morning shower (knowing in advance I would be spewing shortly after getting out of the shower). This was my first banana morning. I had tried nuts, fruit bars, cereal and bread. Well, the banana came up like a dream-smooth and somewhat delicious. I actually smiled and said, "Not bad!" when it was over. Who knew that puking up a banana would be the highlight of my day?

I should start feeling better in three short weeks. Until then, please excuse my absence (or presence with a lack of creativity).

Sincerely, Jessica

PS-This is just my weird way of saying I'm pregnant.

Tide Poolin' with Grammy

2010-01-17T19:51:00.000-08:00

There have been so many changes lately here on the BB "farm" that I have fallen asleep too early to blog each night. I will post a quickie now, before it gets too late and I lose my will to blog. We have plans to build a fence to make a pasture for the goats, turkeys, and guinea hens arriving this Spring. I will have a lot of property posts coming soon, so I decided to post about life off the property.

Oliver had the "most fun day ever" yesterday looking at tide pools with his Grammy. I enjoyed my role as photographer. I know Oliver is going to love looking at pictures of himself and his grandparents in the future. I love seeing old pictures of me and my Grandma Maxine or Grandma Jean. Grandparents are a vital part of a happy childhood and Oliver is lucky to have four young, healthy, fun grandparents.

These Oystercatchers had a pretty good day too. Check out the satisfied look in the second picture.

We Got a Puppy ( AKA Livestock Guardian Dog).

2010-01-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

For some weekend excitement, our family went to a farm up the road yesterday to visit chickens and quail. On our way up the dirt road to the house, we saw giant white dogs hanging out with goats. Then we saw five white, fluffy puppies. The puppies are 14 weeks old and weigh over 40 pounds.

The farm owners told us the white dogs in all of the goat pens are called livestock guardian dogs. These dogs (part Great Pyrenees and part Anatolian) protect chickens, goats, and llamas from cougars, bears and other dogs.

So we decided as a family (Grammy and Pop, too) to get a dog to protect our goat babies and chickens. Glenn works on a sheep ranch locally and there has been a major mountain lion problem (killing sheep). Instead of an electric fence, we got a beautiful dog.

We went back to the farm today to pick out the best of the remaining puppies. Pop named her "Lotta," which is short for Whole Lotta Dog. Pumpkin is in love with his new puppy friend. After he got over the initial excitement of having another dog around, he cuddled with her next to the fire. Welcome to the family, Lotta!

My Camera Sickness

2010-01-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

I've been on call all week, so instead of getting tipsy on the 31st, I stayed sober enough to answer compelling questions like, "Is my fallopian tube coming out of my vagina?" Don't worry, it wasn't. I also spent the week taking hundreds of pictures. I have been a little sick about having my camera available for pictures. Driving home from work (without my camera), watching the blue moon rise, was agonizing. I also tried not to have a fit when I learned that we drove right by a golden eagle devouring its prey. I'm sure those "once in a blue moon" opportunities will present themselves again.

So what to do with the hundreds of pictures? I decided to pick my favorites and publish them here. I'm hoping to blog about something a little more exciting tomorrow. We will have to see how things turn out.

Slender Salamander

I took this picture for our new lip balm display.

Pumpkin Smiling

Blue Moon Behind a Tree

The neighbor's puppy stole Oliver's sword.

Frozen Bee

My New (Slightly Used) Christmas Toy

2009-12-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

I wasn't expecting anything for Christmas this year. After I crashed the car, I figured I had used up any extra Christmas money. My wonderful husband really surprised me this time. He got my parents and his parents involved and bought me a beautiful new camera. Now he is going to be faced with even more annoying pleas to stop the car. Stop the car, I have to take a picture of that long-horned cattle nursing her calf! Stop the car, I need to get a shot of that herd of elk!

Christmas was exciting for Oliver as well. He received great toys, books, clothes, a Mac Truck (the highlight of the morning) and a bike. And to think I actually worried he wouldn't have enough to open. After he put all of his new toys into a box (to save for later), he spent the rest of the morning playing with a wrapping paper roll, his trampoline and dirt. I know what I'm getting him for Christmas next year!

We finally pried him away from his cheap/environmentally friendly toys and forced him to try out his bike.

I convinced Glenn this morning that we needed to drive to the coast to practice taking pictures with the new camera. We bundled up and headed north of San Simeon to take pictures of the elephant seals. My new camera is a bit more difficult than my trusty old Olympus. I think I need to spend more time reading the manual and possibly take a class to get some better pictures. Here are some of our highlights from the photo shoot today.

Jessica:

Oliver, in his usual fashion, made friends with a cool couple from Santa Barbara. He sat with them and ate their picnic. Making friends with complete strangers is a piece of cake with Oli.

Some seal shots:

Glenn:

Glenn got this cute picture of Oliver holding my old camera. He looks like a little photojournalist.

Yikes-attack shots!

Oliver:

Oliver took this great pic of my camera from Glenn's shoulders. Isn't it pretty?

Here are Oli's seal shots:

Alpacas and Olive Oil

2009-12-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

I LOVE alpacas. Those eyes, that adorable mop of hair, those skinny necks! Alpacas even use a predetermined toilet. And alpaca fiber is so warm and soft. Name me a better farm animal! Just try.

Last weekend we were treated to a tour of a local alpaca farm. Alpacas of Cripple Creek is the most clean and beautiful alpaca farm we have seen (and we have visited our share of alpaca farms). Art, the owner, is interested in breeding the darker colored alpaca fibers (blacks and grays), which makes for some cool alpaca color combinations.

Art and his wife Lynn also grow olive trees and make olive oil. We were given a tasting of their three very different (and delicious) oils. Did you know that you should slurp when tasting olive oil?

After the tasting we went back to the alpacas to visit with the males. Our dream is to purchase two males from Cripple Creek.

The alpacas seemed to find Oliver very interesting. He can tell you there is nothing better than receiving an alpaca kiss.

A Bag of Bones, A Naughty Christmas Letter, and More

2009-12-10T20:40:00.000-08:00

I have been away from my blog this past week because I put all of my energy into my Christmas letter. Every couple of years I write a highly inappropriate Christmas letter and send it to three people. My letter this year is so over the line that I may only send it to two people. Anyway, I'm back. Here are a few things that have been going on in Santa Margarita the past couple of weeks.

1. I crashed the car.

I'm a busy lady. I was trying to read the mail and talk to Oliver at the same time. Apparently I forgot to put the Subaru in park and pull the e-brake. As soon as Oliver and I got to the front door of the house we heard a loud crash outside. It was dark and I assumed it was a murderer or something so we ran inside and locked the front door. Glenn found his car smashed against our truck and a tree when he got home from work at eleven o'clock. I tried to be positive about the whole thing. I told Glenn that he needed a new paint job on the door anyway, "Merry Christmas." Can you believe he was still angry? Then we found out the poor car was totaled.

We got a nice check and set out to find an Outback. Isn't she pretty?

You're welcome Glenn.

2. I sent my son to school with a bag of bones.

Oliver and I found an owl pellet on a hike. Some women may get excited about finding a beautiful pair of shoes. Owl barf really does it for me. We found a perfect specimen and began the joyful task of dissection. What kind of meal was it? Could it be a mouse? Look Oliver, a scapula! It turned out to be a bird. I collected all of the little bones and sent it to school with Oliver for show and tell.

3. Our Araucana laid an egg!

You can see how much darker her egg is compared to the Ameraucana egg.

4. California "Winter" is here.

Oliver and I have had a great time taking pictures of the rain and ice lately. Here are some of our shots:

"Why did it die?" By: Oliver

"Salamander" By: Oliver

"Mommy Splashing" By: Oliver

"Ice Oak" By: Jessica

"Enjoying the Rain" By: Jessica

"Cold Cactus" By: Jessica

Happy Thanksgiving from the Hens

2009-11-26T22:25:00.000-08:00

The chickens had one of their best Thanksgiving celebrations ever today. I went outside to investigate after hearing dancing and loud Mariachi music playing on the back deck.

All of the dancing helped work up strong appetites. The chickens dined on persimmons and sweet pumpkins for dessert.

Pepper even got a little drunk and tried to fight the cat.

Then back to the nesting box to relax and lay an egg. A perfect day!

Manzanita Bees

2009-11-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

I planned on not blogging this weekend to give myself a break. Oli and I went on a hike and took our cameras along in the hopes of spotting a bear. Instead we found this beautiful Manzanita in bloom with dozens of bees collecting its pollen. I can't resist sharing some of our pretty pictures.

Jessica's Pics (Olympus Camedia camera):

Oliver's Pics (V-tech Kidizoom camera):

Big News! We are Expecting...

2009-11-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

Goat Babies! I'm so happy we are adding new babies to the family. And I don't even have to get nauseous or swollen (although I do feel for the goat moms). The goats are currently pregnant and will deliver in early Spring. Our house is about ten minutes from the farm, but I will be ready with my camera to try and capture the birth of our kids. We plan on getting two females and one male (who we will neuter). Later we will get one male from a different farm to breed with our females. Yesterday we went to visit the ladies and give them kisses. Here are some of my favorite shots.

This ram was wishing he could knock me over the entire time. Too bad for him there was a fence.

Our favorite goat, Lilly, died on Saturday night. She is the goat in the photograph below with short ears. She was a sweet girl and lived to be nine. As a tribute to her, I posted a picture of her great granddaughter below. She has got some strong genes!

Stress Relief

2009-11-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

Work was unusually stressful last week. Glenn found me under a blanket on the couch last night fretting about silly things. I decided today would be spent focusing on what really matters. I stayed in bed until ten reading to Oliver, kept my PJs on until two, and spent the rest of the day hanging out with my boys, the bees and the chickens. I feel like a human again. I had to remind myself life is actually about...

1. Teaching Oliver about bees.

2. Taking hundreds of pictures of the "flight path" and never getting a great shot.

3. Witnessing a bee being born (emerge from a cell).

4. Doing art in the backyard.

5. Finding a salamander when we weren't even trying.

6. This sweet face.

Now to top things off with a glass of wine and a movie. I love a wild Saturday night!

Berry: My First Child

2009-11-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

I feel bad that I have written 60 posts and have not yet mentioned Berry. Berry came into my life when I was 20 and living on my own for the first time. Some awful person had put Berry and her brother Bugsy in a bag in the garbage. Berry and Bugsy were dropped off by a Good Samaritan at the clinic where I worked as a veterinary assistant. She was just days old when I took her home. Caring for Berry was similar to caring for a newborn baby. I set an alarm and bottle fed her every three to four hours and took her everywhere with me. Berry loved sleeping on my head as a tiny kitten. I think my hair was the closest thing she could get to a warm mother cat's belly. I have added a couple new people to our bed and Berry has taken it very well. I was worried she would be upset when Oliver was born, but she accepted him right away as a member of the family. As you can see, she now has a new head to curl up against. After ten years of sleeping with a cat on my head, I am quite pleased with the new arrangement.

Have a Spooky and Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Another Weird Bee Post

2009-10-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

We have a small overflow pond that hydrates all of the local deer, our cats and the bees. This body of water keeps us endlessly entertained. We head outside to visit tadpoles, fish, snails and eggs on a daily basis. Last Thursday we found a drowning bee at dusk. Oliver pulled her out of the water and named her "Mac."

It was cold and Mac was wet, so we took her inside. Oliver read her a book as she sat drying on a pillow.

We figured she would recover faster with a belly full of honey. She perked right up!

It was getting dark, so Mac wouldn't fly back to the hive. Oliver was thrilled when I told him Mac would be sleeping inside with us.

He made her a bed and syringe fed her some water. We tucked Mac in next to the heater and went to bed.

The next morning, Mac happily flew back to the hive. To thank us, she circled back around and pooped on Glenn. No, thank YOU Mac.

2009-10-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

I got this crazy idea that I could actually write a picture book. Then reality set in. I learned some interesting facts about the children's book industry. Apparently, celebrities use ghost writers. And editors receive more manuscripts in one day than they publish all year. There are also a few topics/styles to avoid: rhyming books, stories about anthropomorphic animals and stories about your pet. In conclusion, I have decided not to send my story to editors. I wrote a rhyming story about my pet-the horror! I spent so much time on it that I decided to publish it on my blog instead.

Oliver's Hen

Lou Ellen was sick; no one knew why.
She wobbled and struggled; she would not fly.

We gave her water, medicine and melon.
We’d do anything to help our Lou Ellen.

Oliver fed her and treated her with care.
Think he’d leave her side? Oliver wouldn’t dare.

Lou Ellen, she loved her Oliver, too,
Happy doing what he wanted to do.

Lou Ellen started to walk; she seemed to heal.
And she even began to finish each meal.

Daddy always liked Lou Ellen next to his feet,
A help in the garden, many bugs she could eat.

Oliver will remember one warm Saturday,
When he and his hen began to explore and play.

First, Lou Ellen listened to Oliver’s sweet song.
I’m sure on the inside she was singing along.

It is true that illness can be healed with a touch.
A massage from Oliver was enjoyed so much.

Then off to his trampoline to jump around.
Lou Ellen watched her friend, safely from the ground.

Next, Oliver and his hen hopped on his swing.
Just look at the bliss an old tire can bring.

They wandered around and climbed in a tree.
How much more wonderful could one day be?

Oliver said “Goodnight” to his fine hen,
Knowing what a perfect day it had been.

Something heartbreaking happened the very next morning,
It was something that happened without any warning.

Oliver found his hen covered in dirt.
It looked as though poor Lou Ellen was hurt.

He ran to check her, her feet in the air.
He called out “LOU ELLEN,” but she wasn’t there.

Oliver comforted, “Mommy, don’t cry.”
“I love her the same. I know that inside.”

So grandpa came to help dig a small hole,
And he laid to rest her beautiful soul.

Oliver cut flowers to cover her grave.
At three years old, he was amazingly brave.

Most chickens, you know, live their lives in a coop,
And some even end up in vegetable soup.

There was one exception; it was Oliver’s pet.
Her three weeks in our garden, we’ll never forget.

Lou Ellen’s short life was one filled with joy.
How many chickens are loved by a boy?

Cats With No Nipples, Eating Placentas, and Bees on Farm Equipment

2009-10-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

Every so often I thank my lucky stars that I was able to find a man who supports my sometimes unusual behavior. For example, in the early years of our relationship, I rescued a feral cat and let her give birth in my closet. She delivered six adorable kittens but did not have a single working mammary gland. I bottle fed all of her babies until the day she went nuts and tried to tear my eyes out. Who do you think bottle fed the kittens while I was recovering in the hospital? Glenn.

And later, when I told Glenn of my plans to write my thesis about placentophagia, was he disgusted? Yes. But after reading my thesis, it was Glenn who offered to fry up some of my placenta and serve it to me after the birth of our child (although we never actually followed through with those plans). Just last night he surprised me yet again. I decided to dress up one of our bees for my friend Doris’s pet costume contest. Did Glenn roll his eyes at my picture of a bee on a tiny John Deere? No. He enhanced the photo with the most amazing bee-sized boots and hat. Man, I am one lucky girl.

Seattle (Oliver's Great Adventure)!

2009-09-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

We have been on vacation in Seattle for the past eight days, so I don't have any bee or chicken news to share. I decided to post about our adventure off the property. Vacationing with a small child poses many challenges. For example, Oliver was so excited to be on a bridge in downtown Long Beach that he peed. Although Glenn and I shared his enthusiasm, we were able to control ourselves. The benefits of traveling with a three-year-old include excellent perks and enthusiasm for the mundane. First I will show you a couple of perks.

The Pit
I have never, in all of my years of flying, been invited into the cockpit. Flying with a cute little boy is like holding the golden ticket. Sure, I was only allowed in to take pictures of Oliver, but it was still special.

The Moose
How many baseball games have I attended? Twenty. How many mascots have I encountered? At least five. How many have stopped to take a picture with me? None.

The Fountain
"Mommy-quick! Take off your shirt! Let's run in the water!" Before having a child I would have admired the fountain from a distance. Oliver made me realize how much more fun it is to enjoy the fountain while in the fountain.

The other great part about traveling with a child is just how amazing everything is. For example:

The Slug
"Oh my gosh, a slug. COOL! Where are the eyes!? Yay! A Slug! Aren't we lucky!?" (Okay, much of the excitement was probably mine-but still.)

The Shrimp
"A giant shrimp! I want to meet him! MOMMY! There he is! Can I see the picture? Why is he a shrimp? Why? Why?"

The Space Needle
"Look, it's SOOO TALL! A huge space needle going 'round and 'round!" Can you believe it Daddy? There it is AGAIN!"

The Flight
"We are FLOATING! In the AIR! Thank you pilots! Look at the ground Daddy. Are we going to splash dive into the water? YAY!! How did we do this?!"

A Warning for Parents

2009-09-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what happened to those poor babies whose parents let them sleep in their beds, carried them everywhere, and breastfed them well past the age of speaking? I give you naked dancing boy. This could happen to your child too, if you are not careful.

Camping, Chickens, CCD, Coop Changes, and a Snake

2009-09-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

My creativity has been completely sucked dry lately by another small project, so I'm going to make this another boring old update post.

1. Ethel
Ethel is doing great and has finally moved back in with the other chickens. She is so happy to be back with her friends. You can see the wound on her left thigh is healing still. It gets smaller every day.

2. Bees
Our hives have been doing well, too. We opened the hives to taste the difference in the honey flavor. Our first hive produces a much sweeter honey. The bees are not actually strong enough for us to rob large amounts honey from them. We are looking forward to next summer, when we can bottle some.

This pretty lady fell into the sugar water. She looked just like a cat, cleaning the sticky water off her body.

3. Chicken Coop Renovation
Glenn and my dad opened up and enlarged the coop. Glenn made this cool before and after picture so you can see the changes.

4. We spent a wonderful weekend in the Sierra Nevada Mountains camping a couple of weekends ago. Here are three of my favorite shots from the trip. The adorable boy is my nephew, Reid.

5. CCD is Here! :(
Our neighbors recently lost their hive to (what we think is) Colony Collapse Disorder. One day the bees were a healthy, active group, the next every bee was gone. Being the annoying bee lady that I am, I asked if I could photograph the empty hive. It was really strange, no bees, no honey, no nothing. It was as if the contents had been suctioned out. Beekeepers, do you think this is really CCD?

6. Aracauna Chick
Our friends gave us five Aracauna eggs to put under our broody hen. Only one hatched-isn't she cute? She is now a couple of months old.

7. And a Rattlesnake for Good Measure
Sorry, I didn't want to do this, but I can't help myself. We met this friendly guy on our hike this evening. I promise not to publish a picture of the next rattlesnake I find. I'm done, I swear.

Goodbye Hen

2009-08-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry to report the passing of our sweet chicken, Llewelyn. Oliver and I found her dead in the garden, partially buried by Ethel who didn't want to leave her side. "Don't cry Mommy, I still love her," Oliver offered as we collected flowers in the garden for Llewelyn. Pop came over to help dig a proper hole for her.

Oliver delivered a short eulogy. "Llewelyn died so hard. Then we put her in a hole. Thank you for the eggs." Oliver is a big fan of the song "Old Blue."

I'm sad that I wasn't able to save her, but feel some solace in knowing that Llewelyn's last days were so special. I am grateful for pets like her who add meaning, happiness and sometimes sorrow to our lives.

Llewelyn and Ethel

2009-08-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

I thought I would give you an update about the progress of our kitchen table chickens.

Ethel, who was attacked by a fox two weeks ago, is still healing from her wounds. She started with three large lacerations, two on her back and one on her leg. The two on her back have healed completely but the one on her leg has slowly been closing. We have been doing daily wet to dry dressings on the advice of some of my nurse friends. It seems to be working but Ethel hates every moment of it. She actually pecks me when I change her dressing. I love her attitude.

We thought Llewelyn was a goner about a week ago. She was hardly able to move and would only drink when we syringe fed her. She has been on Bactrim for about a week and a half and has slowly regained her strength and balance. Both chickens live in the garden during the day, eating our vegetables and bugs, then move back to the kitchen table in the evening. Llewelyn and Oliver have a great time together. I took some pictures of the two of them this morning.

The morning started with a back massage.

Then Oliver sang to the girls (um, I think this might be something he picked up from me).

Oliver and Llewelyn went for a walk.

Oliver decided to take Llewelyn to his trampoline.

Llewelyn waited patiently while Oliver jumped.

Next the pair went over to the tire swing. Llewelyn enjoyed watching more than riding.

A little tree climbing?

Then back to the garden where Llewelyn helped Glenn (by eating bugs).

He's Got Skills

2009-08-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

Oliver won first place at the Mid State Fair for his Crab photograph. He got a check and a nice blue ribbon. I got a disgraceful honorable mention for my Thirsty Bee photograph, no ribbon, no check. Oliver wanted to know why he won and I didn't. "You must be the family photographer.," I said. Oliver took this information and decided he really is the best photographer. He now wants to use my camera and is often showing me how to take good pictures. This week Oliver may have finally convinced me that he has superior photographing skills. I might just listen the next time he tells me to get closer to my subject or advises me to get down in the dirt to capture a mushroom. Here are our fair photographs:

Below you will find an example of an Oliver versus Mommy shot. I was trying to take a good picture of Llewellyn in her cage for the blog.

Mommy's Shot:

Oliver's Shot:

As you can see Oliver's photograph is interesting and conveys more emotion. My picture focuses on the cage while Oliver's picture captures the essence of the chicken.

A few nights ago Oliver and I heard an owl in one of our oak trees. We went outside and quietly sat on a bench in the dark waiting to photograph the owl. Bats started flying close and for the hundredth time I tried to get a shot of one. They are so fast and impossible to see. I was excited to get this picture of a bat. Can you see it?

Oliver then asked if he could try to take a picture of the bats. I rolled my eyes and handed my camera over. He held the camera up took aim and as the flash went off we could both see a bat light up in the sky. "Oh my gosh! You actually got one!" We were both laughing as we ran to the house to download his picture. I just love it. I'm only a little jealous.

How My Dining Room Table Turned into a Chicken Infirmary

2009-08-01T22:23:00.000-07:00

Llewelyn should have been a rooster. She was sent with our order of chicks as a “packing peanut” Barred Rock (or Dominique?) rooster. We found homes for our roosters one by one but couldn’t seem to part with Llewelyn, our smallest and spunkiest rooster. Finally when our rooster Carlos began developing his waddle, we knew Llewelyn was a hen. And what a fine hen she has been. She is by far the best flying insect catcher and the most comfortable around humans. She will often lounge with me on the back deck or sit with me on a bench near the coop. Yesterday, when she jumped directly on my lap, I knew she wasn’t feeling well.

Last time we had a sick chicken (about a year ago) our local veterinarian thought we were crazy to spend money trying to save a chicken. The chicken ended up dying and we realized the vet visit, while expensive, did not help at all. After our chicken passed away, Glenn found a website that reviewed chicken examinations and treatments for sick poultry. We did an exam on Llewelyn and found that she was dehydrated and seems to have lost her balance. I took her inside and began feeding her an electrolyte solution with a syringe (which she will happily drink). It was during one of her feedings that I happened to look out the dining room window and see a fox running toward our chickens.

“FOX, Glenn, FOX,” I screamed as I ran out the back door toward the chickens. Glenn was right behind me as we reached the chickens. We were able to see the fox stop and stare at us for a moment before he started running into the bushes, one of our chickens in his mouth. Glenn ran toward Pumpkin’s enclosure to let him out as I continued after the fox, screaming like a maniac. Before Pumpkin could even begin chasing the fox (Pumpkin is not fast enough to actually catch a fox, don't worry), our chicken Ethel stumbled out of the bushes and ran past me toward the house. I couldn’t believe the fox dropped his prey, our oldest and sweetest chicken, Ethel.

Once Glenn was able to catch her, we recognized that Ethel’s injuries were grave. She had three large lacerations and we could see her muscles and bones. I immediately called our local emergency vet clinic and was told that the veterinarian who sees chickens was about to leave, sorry. I called another emergency clinic and was told that the veterinarian did not see chickens.

Desperate, I decided to fix the chicken myself. We drove down to the clinic where I work as a midwife, and I gathered a few supplies. Glenn and Oliver were my assistants and we slowly put Ethel back together. She was amazingly brave and never struggled.

We have two chickens on the dining room table, one injured, one sick. Please send healing vibes to Llewelyn and Ethel, two wonderful hens.

Spiders, Swelling and Super Neighbors

2009-07-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

If Oliver could tell this story he would tell you this morning was the best morning ever. I personally have had better. The day started for me with a strange sharp sensation in my shoulder. I rubbed my shoulder and was surprised to find a raisin there. Then I opened my eyes and realized there were long, creepy legs everywhere and the raisin was actually a smashed spider. (Oliver is holding the pieces of the spider in the photogrpah below).

I have a bit of a spider phobia so having one smashed on my body was not the best way to start a Saturday. I went into the bathroom and noticed that my eyes were looking strange. Oliver and I watched as one eye started developing hives and began swelling. Recently at work we had anaphylaxis training so I was especially concerned that my eye had started swelling quickly. I drank some liquid Zyrtec and hoped for the best.

About ten minutes later, I began having difficulty swallowing. Glenn was at work and I was home alone with Oliver. Although we live 20 minutes away from the nearest hospital, we happen to live across the street from our local fire station. We walked over and found four young firemen doing their morning workout regimen and I instantly wished I had taken the time to put on a bra. (Below is a picture of Oliver and his cousin Owen waving at the fire truck last Spring).

The firemen had no access to an EpiPen and decided it would be best to call an ambulance. They sat me in the fire station, gave me some oxygen and took my vitals. This is where Oliver's life got really good. Oli was given a fireman hat, stickers and a bracelet. Then two of the firemen asked Oliver if he wanted to play in the truck. As we waited for the ambulance to arrive we could hear Oliver over the loudspeaker, "Hi, Mommy! I love you Mommy!" One of the firemen came back in to the fire station with a walkie-talkie. Oliver apparently wanted to talk to me. "What's your 20?” he asked. The firemen with me told me to say, "The fire station. What's your 20?" Oliver listed the number of his engine.

Over the loudspeaker Oliver announced, "The ambulance is here Mommy!" The Zyrtec seemed to be kicking in by the time the ambulance arrived, and after an assessment, I was cleared to go back home. I found Oliver on the shoulders of a fireman looking for lizards. We walked across the street to our property and Oliver asked if I could get a spider bite again soon. We'll be back at the fire station tomorrow with cookies. Thank goodness for our great neighbors!

The Dos and Don'ts of Rattlesnake Relocation

2009-07-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin tried to attack a rattlesnake last night. Grammy heard him barking frantically then observed him trying to bite a small animal. She promptly pulled Pumpkin off his prey, an adolescent rattlesnake. The snake was pissed off. We watched him carefully as he rattled his tail next to Pumpkin's dog house. There were two sensible options. 1. Kill him. 2. Leave him alone. Kill him was out. We also didn't want to leave him in Pumpkin's enclosure because we knew Pumpkin would be all over him in the morning.

Luckily, we had been drinking wine, which helped us come up with a more creative plan. This is what I learned from my experience last night.

DON'T wear old, baggy jeans for snake removal when your bum could potentially be in all the photographs.

DO put on bee gloves and boots for a false sense of security.
DON'T assume you can lightly nudge a snake and it will crawl into a recycling bin. The snake will quickly crawl under the bin toward your feet.

DO sneak up behind the snake and flick it into the recycling bin.

DON'T drop the bin as you attempt to stand it up. It will make everyone watching you jumpy.

DO make sure your toddler has a healthy fear of rattlesnakes (but don't freak him out too much, snakes are cool).

DO drag the recycling bin as far away as possible from your house.

DON'T do it when the neighbors are watching.

DO let the neighbors know that you have a squirrel in the recycling bin if anyone asks.

DO relax and enjoy another glass of wine knowing that you worked hard to relocate a snake, and put yourself in danger, but the snake will likely be back in the dog's enclosure by morning.

Do you want to make lip balm?

2009-07-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be kind of fun to do a tutorial on my blog. I was trying to think about what I do that not many people know how to do. My work experience in the veterinary and medical fields has provided me with a few talents I considered sharing. Hmmm, I know how to express a dog's anal glands, I could share that with the world. Or what about treating genital warts? It's a useful skill occasionally (although you do need to have access to acid or a cryo tank). All of my ideas seemed a bit inappropriate. I finally decided to share my side job, lip balm making. And don't worry; I wash my hands really well.

So, here it is, step by step.

Step 1: MELTING THE BEESWAX. We get raw beeswax from a local guy who uses no chemicals on his hives. Glenn then filters it and saves it in these handy one ounce molds. I know one ounce of beeswax will make one batch so it saves us from having to weigh the dry beeswax. We use a double boiler to melt the wax. Beeswax is highly flammable so never leave it!

Step 2: HEATING AND MIXING THE OILS. We heat organic almond oil and organic jojoba oil in a little pot (never over an open flame). Then we add to it heated coconut oil. I like to use about 50% liquid at room temperature oil with 50% solid at room temperature oil (coconut oil)/beeswax mixture. You can change the ratios depending if you want a hard or soft lip balm. I add the beeswax last. Keep the temperature just high enough to keep the beeswax melted.

Step 3: ADD THE ESSENTIAL OIL. This is the last step as the essential oils will burn off quickly. I used organic lavender oil for this batch. Don't attempt to take a picture of yourself during this step as you will lose count of the drops. I do about two drops/tube of the lavender oil.

Step 4: POUR THE MIXTURE INTO CONTAINERS. If you have a toddler, he or she will start begging to be held during this step, then throw a tantrum as you frantically try to pour the mixture into the tubes before the oil burns off. I recommend a Winnie the Poo video. This part takes practice, but is easily mastered. My sister invented our handy lip balm holder (you can buy holders for those round tubes, but not for our oval tubes). If we ever make it big with our business, I'm giving her ten dollars of gratitude. So you want to fill up the tubes (if you are even using tubes, you can pour the mixture into any old container) to 2 cm from the top. Wait until it has cooled then fill it the rest of the way. Let cool completely, then cap.

It's totally easy and my lips have never felt better. Feel free to e-mail me if you need more info. Maybe I will write about something more challenging for my next tutorial, like the hand maneuvers for delivering a baby. You never know when you will have to deliver a baby on the side of the road (I keep hoping but to my dismay it has never happened). I'll leave you with a pretty picture of the bees in our artichoke plant. I hate having an entire post with dull pictures! Jess

Beekeeping

2009-06-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

Glenn attended a beekeeping class last weekend. This was a class specifically for new beekeepers on the central coast of California (which we are), how lucky. The teacher, Jeremy Rose, owns The California Bee Company. Jeremy is not only a great teacher and beekeeper, he writes as well. He gave us all a copy of his yet to be published book about beekeeping in California. We have found it very interesting to read.

I was really happy to see the large turnout of new beekeepers. Backyard beekeeping seems to be getting big in our area. I would like to think we are trendy and hip, but for some reason I think this doesn't count. Oliver was the youngest student with Glenn coming in at a distant second.

For Father's Day I made Glenn and Oliver matching shirts. I was inspired by Barbara's Spot on the Blog, where she posted about a funny shirt she saw at a beekeeping convention.

Oliver is One Lucky Boy

2009-06-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to my husband, the best Dad in the world.

And Happy Father's Day to my daddy, Oliver's best buddy.

Bear Hunting

2009-06-14T22:25:00.001-07:00

I heard there were black bears at our local lake (Santa Margarita Lake). Not a big deal for some people, but for a girl who has only seen two bears in her lifetime, exciting indeed. I got the boys on board, put on my bear hat for good luck and headed out to the lake.

Glenn was leading the way down the trail when we spotting some bushes moving. Several baby quail started running for their mother who was calling for them from a bush closer to the lake. A few more steps and Pumpkin startled three deer, which went bounding into the trees. At this point I realized I needed to be in front to spot the bear. I was NOT going to only get a glimpse of the bear’s tail as it retreated into the trees.

I was happily leading when I looked down and saw this next to my foot. Oliver now knows the meaning of the word “shit.” I actually think I said, “Shit, shit, SHIT, back up, RATTLESNAKE!”

Being the loving wife that I am, I decided Glenn should have the opportunity to experience all of the wildlife first for the rest of the hike. Oliver and I followed behind carefully, eyes glued to the ground.

This hike was incredible in terms of cool animal experiences. Glenn saw a fox (I saw its tail retreating into the trees-go figure), we found a lizard that WASN'T a western fence lizard, a tarantula, turkeys and their poults, a giant dragonfly and a snake skeleton.

Turkeys and their poults

This cute little poult got separted from its mother. They were able to reunite after calling for eachother.

Tarantula!

I have to look up this lizard but I can't find my herp book. Anyone know what it is?

Oliver took this picture of the snake (or lizard?) skeleton and his walking stick.

We returned to the ranger station just as two women were pulling up. “We just had the most amazing bear experience!” “There is a mother and baby bear hanging out and everyone saw it!” “They are right down the road, hurry!” So we jumped into the truck and drove around the lake for another hour. No bear. Was I jealous? Yes, but still happy about all of the other animal encounters. Next week we are waiting in the truck for sure.

Another Good Day

2009-06-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a video for Oliver to celebrate his first three years. Going through the pictures makes me nostalgic about each stage we have passed. How I would love to hold my baby in my arms or talk to that adorable one year old again. Looking at pictures also helps me remember to live in the moment.

Today is one of those days I will look back on in a few years. I'll think fondly about my adventurous toddler who loved being with me on a nature hike above almost anything. During our hike today in the backyard, I tried to soak up every moment of our time together, as I know these beautiful days won't last forever.

Oliver and I packed up our cameras, put Pumpkin on a leash, and dressed in long pants and snake boots. He took me up the highest "mountain" he could find. Once we reached the top, Oliver stopped to take a picture of the view.

We also found some lichen. Oliver shows us in this picture how a true artist works. He climbed into this precarious position to capture the lichen patch at the correct angle.

Oliver showed me how real hikers descend from mountain tops (on their bums apparently).
And the greatest find of the day? It was a full baby snake skin, hanging out of a hole. Oliver suggested it might be a baby dragon skin, which is why he looks slightly nervous holding it.

Snakiss is Back!

2009-06-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Oliver and Glenn found Snakiss sunning himself in the garden this morning. He quickly retreated back into the original gopher hole when I tried to take a picture of him.

Well, I'm sure you are all sufficiently sick of hearing about our gopher snake. I'm sorry to say I'm sure there will be many more snake posts in the future as the rattle snakes start to come out of hiding.

Carrots, a Dead Gopher, Bees, and Chickens

2009-06-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have been taking pictures thinking, "This might make for a good post," then I realize I really only have one or two sentences to say about the topic. I decided I would blog about those topics not quite interesting enough to warrant an entire blog post.

1. My husband's huge carrots

This post was Oliver's idea. He wanted to show off the biggest carrot we have ever been able to grow. After years of trying Glenn finally grew this amazing carrot. It was delicious.

2. Poor dead baby gopher

Our cat Otter (previously a pacifist) killed his first animal. After murdering this cute gopher, he went inside to eat some processed dry cat food. We were actually kind of happy Otter killed this gopher (who recently ate all of our peas) until I brought up that some mother gopher just lost her baby. Then we got a little sad.

3. Honey and Bea update anyone?

Some of you may remember Honey and Bea from our previous posts.
The Beneficial Bee: Honey and Bea
Bea was injured as a chick and we worried she wouldn't be able to walk. Look at her now, a healthy young chicken. You can always find Honey following Bea around the coop (Honey is white, Bea is black)

4. Bees in the garden

We have had very few of our bees visit our vegetable garden. Now thanks to our sunflowers, we have many more bees buzzing around the garden.

5. Introducing our new head rooster: Eddie!

Carlos found a new home on 20 acres where he will be used to fertilize eggs (and where he will not be able to attack toddlers). It is free range and happy and I'm not just making it up to make you feel good. Eddie has a much more gentle style. Oliver and I watched him take the most sensual bath today with two of the hens. Just look at the expression on his face. Have you ever seen a happier rooster?

Special Report- Bee Attacks Man, Man Turns into Rodent

2009-05-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

My husband has a nice nose. Just look at the above photograph. It took a honey bee to help me appreciate the beauty of my husband's nose. One of our sweet bees was in a bad mood this weekend and decided she wanted to take Glenn down (he was quietly watching the hive from ten feet away). She circled Glenn a couple of times before stinging him right on the nose.

Is he a rat? Is he a squirrel? I haven't made up my mind. Thank you bee for reminding me what an attractive fellow I married. And thank goodness swelling goes away.

In other bee news, we decided to do another inspection this week and found that the hives seem to be strong. We found plenty of eggs and larvae in both hives and could locate both queens.

Here are a couple of fun honey bee pictures I took this week.

Snake Update

2009-05-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Look who we found today. When Oliver heard that our snake was out in the garden he made sure to put his snake boots on. We strive for safety in this family. Here is Oliver showing me the snake ("Snakiss").

Otter (our cat) finally noticed Snakiss and jumped a mile in the air. The butterfly, however, appears to be unfazed.

A Snake Saves the Day

2009-05-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

We have a gopher in the garden. He has been creating tunnels under our peas and destroying them one by one. The battle between Glenn and the gopher has been intense this week. One could find Glenn in the garden digging up Gopher holes, filling in gopher holes, putting road flare smoke into holes, and even setting our cat over a hole. The gopher has won every battle by digging new tunnels, avoiding the smoke and laughing at our inept cat.

Then this beautiful gopher snake came into our lives. My sister and her family accidently picked up the snake (it climbed under their car and hid for a week) while visiting the Carrizo Plain. My sister gave this wonderful gift to Glenn after she learned of his gopher problems.

Here is a picture of my mom holding the snake. She was the only one brave enough to touch the snake so I could photograph him. I made her wear our bee gloves.

We put the hungry snake into the gopher's most recent hole. So far the snake appears to be winning. We have not lost any vegetables to the gopher in the last twenty four hours. We did, however, lose some trees to deer and have a new bug eating our artichoke plant. And the battle continues....

Glenn's Garden

2009-05-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

I take no credit for the wonderful vegetables growing in our front yard. Glenn and Oliver have planted nearly every seed, watered every plant and pulled every weed. We moved into our house about a year ago. The place where our garden now grows used to be fill dirt, plastic, rocks and ugly pompous grass. Glenn wasted no time moving out rocks and moving in sheep and horse manure. By June of last year, Glenn had a small vegetable garden growing. This year we have already eaten peas, artichoke, beets and chard from the garden.

This first shot is of the garden in June 2008.

Glenn put in an irrigation system this year which saves him several hours a week. This is our garden in March 2009.

April 2009

May 2009

On a side note, I found this lizard living in our artichoke plant eating ants. Oh, how I love reptiles!

Lip Balm Give Away

2009-05-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

Glenn is taking a Master Gardener program through the UC system in California. He is learning so much about seed saving, irrigation, plant disease and native species. One of Glenn's assignments is to show some flowers and vegetables at the Mid-State Fair. I thought it would be fun to make it a family affair and show some of my pictures at the fair too. Here are three shots I took yesterday for the "Nature" category.

I wanted to do a lip balm give away on my blog so here it is. Just comment or e-mail me at beneficialbee@wildblue.net and let me know if I should enter the lizard or one of butterfly pictures.

***I'm already changing my own rules. On Wednesday I will put all of your names (those who e-mail or comment) into a "hat" and pick one. That way everyone will have an equal chance! The winner will receive two lip balm scents of their choice.

Rainbow

2009-04-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

Glenn, Oliver and I went on a walk today to look for wildflowers. We were almost able to find ROYGBIV. I had to settle for a ladybug because we couldn't locate a red flower.

Otter followed us the entire way. He is a good example of "gray."

My Neighborhood

2009-04-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

I’m proud to live on Parkhill Road. We have it all here on Parkhill, beautiful land with oak trees, neighbors growing vegetables to feed the neighborhood, donkeys, gun shots and meth labs (or so I’ve heard). On a typical walk you can encounter wildflowers, deer, friendly people, barking dogs, and people peering at you through the windows of their trailers, ready to shoot the moment your foot clears the property line. I checked and not a single Parkhill neighbor has made it on the registered sex offender list. Thank goodness there isn't an illegal drug list. I took pictures to give you an idea of the wide range of encounters one will have strolling around our neighborhood.

Oliver took this picture of one of the friendliest horses on our walks. I love being able to run into horses and donkeys just a short distance from the house.

Ahh, some of the beautiful wildflowers we saw on our walk.

If there is a dead deer within one mile of the house, Pumpkin will find it and try to bring its leg home to chew.

Look at the beautiful orchard just up the road with unique “dandy lions.”

This gate belongs to one of our friendly neighbors. The sign should say “shot, then eaten.”

Oliver, don’t touch that latex glove! We found this glove, an empty pack of cigarettes and a beer can on this stretch of road. Being a nurse, I guess I'm pleased they used a latex glove. Safety first but please don't litter!

Wildflower Bike Ride

2009-04-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

People who ride bicycles are cool. I do not own a bike. I do however want to support bike riding when I can. That is the reason Oliver and I got out of bed at 7:30 today. The annual one hundred mile Wildflower ride includes our country road (Parkhill). Oliver and I headed down the driveway to cheer on the riders and take photographs. EVERY rider waved, said good morning, or rang a bell for Oliver (and we watched the riders for almost two hours). I'm hoping these types of experiences will help inspire Oliver to love bicycles!

Here are a few of the shots Oliver took of the bicycle riders this morning:

Swarm Update

2009-04-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

Glenn and I (with help from Grammy, Oliver and Owen) opened up the new hive today and were pleased to find the swarm bees busy at work. I have been reading "Beekeeping for Dummies" and found the inspection much more interesting with the information I picked up from the book.

We observed drones in the new hive. The drones are male bees and are pretty much worthless except for their mating abilities. They are easy to spot (when you know what you are looking for) because of their large eyes and large bodies. Did you know that the male bee dies after mating with the queen? His member gets stuck inside the queen during the act and then he falls to the ground to die. I circled a drone from our new hive (hive two).

Our new queen has been busy laying eggs. You can see a nurse bee tending to the eggs in the picture below. Can you believe the bees have done all of this in five days? Bees are excellent creatures.

Our old hive (hive one) seems to have less bees than the new hive, but appears to be healthy and increasing in numbers. Here is a picture of my nephew Owen checking out hive one for the first time.

An Easter Swarm

2009-04-12T22:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen a swarm of bees? Before this evening we hadn't and yet Glenn still seemed to think it would be a piece of cake to remove a swarm and take it home. He read about it in a book. How difficult could it be?

Rebecca, a fellow SLO County Mommy, emailed me to tell me about another Mommy who had a swarm of bees fly across her yard this afternoon. The bees conveniently landed on a trellis, five feet above the ground.

You would have thought Glenn won the lottery when I told him about the swarm. Glenn has been waiting and waiting for our neighbor's bees to swarm so he could add another hive. Glenn had all of his supplies in the truck in minutes and we headed out to Paso Robles to try to pick up the swarm.

I have to give Glenn credit, he looks like a professional. I think he was made to keep bees!

Chicken Drama

2009-04-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

I’m fortunate to have a somewhat uneventful life currently. No births, deaths, moving, divorce, job losses, or family drama. See, I’ve got nothing and it’s harder to blog when things are pretty boring all of the time. This is the reason I live vicariously through my chickens. My chickens have it all-new chicks, sex with multiple partners, hawks trying to kill them, a rooster who loves one son and hates another, and brothers fighting to the death. And all of this happened today.

Carlos our oldest and most aggressive rooster is the proud father of two sons and a daughter. The relationship he has with his children is, well, weird. For instance, this evening he watched his son copulate with his daughter before he decided he wanted a piece of the action. It all makes me want to vomit. I guess chickens don’t quite see family relationships the way we do.

This post is actually about the complex relationship between Carlos and his sons Eddie and Clumsia. Carlos and Clumsia get along well and work together taking care of the hens. They also would both like to see Eddie dead. Eddie is a goofy, gentle rooster, the kind of rooster I like. Eddie has been sequestered away from the rest of the flock since we noticed his foot was injured. We have five new chicks almost ready to join the group, so we decided we would let Eddie take care of them. Glenn let all of the chickens out today in order to set up two separate hen houses. I noticed Oliver transfixed on something he was watching outside as I tried to get him to eat yogurt. I asked him what he was looking at and he said, “They are attacking!”

Poor Eddie was being beaten down by Clumsia. You can see the damage done to Eddie’s comb and wattle. Eddie now has a nice wing of the hen house and his chicks moved in this afternoon. We hope our outcast rooster finds a little bit of happiness with his own group.

This is a picture of Eddie's new family a few weeks ago. Honey, Bea, Last and Georgie are in the picture.

A Boy and his Dog

2009-04-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven’t yet blogged about Oliver’s best friend, Pumpkin. Pumpkin came into our lives one fresh fall morning in October 2007. Glenn woke me up saying, “Honey there is a Pit Bull on our doormat.” Back then we lived in a barn on a sheep ranch- we were used to finding all kinds of animals on our doormat. Pumpkin was thin, hyper and pooping acorns (not to mention the funny blink that he had). It took us ten minutes to realize he belonged with our family.

I made a meager effort to find Pumpkin’s previous owner, knowing he was probably dumped out in the middle of nowhere. After a few weeks of caring for Pumpkin, it became obvious why he was dumped. Pumpkin was not neutered and while he looks fierce, he has a heart of honey. He was also raised without any sort of obedience training and his huge frame frequently barreled into me or Oliver, knocking us down. Pumpkin also was in need of an expensive eye surgery (the reason for his blinking).

I have to admit, it is hard for me to like Pumpkin at times. And I know it will get easier as he matures. He frequently takes off (Oliver like to let him outside to play with the dogs across the street), chews up grandma’s quilt, or lifts his leg on me during a walk.

Don’t feel bad for Pumpkin. Pumpkin will forever be loved deeply and unconditionally by his favorite human, Oliver.

Bee Inspection (3/28/09)

2009-03-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

We opened up the hive this weekend to find all of the things we we hoping to find: honey storage, new brood and our queen. There should be quite an explosion in our bee population in the next couple of weeks. We are also patiently waiting for our neighbor's bees to swarm so we can start a second hive. Steve and Floyd (the neighbors) have been keeping bees for years, but do not harvest honey. They enjoy having bees in their large vegetable garden. You can see our queen easily in the photo below.

The bees love the wildflowers that have recently bloomed.

Here are a couple of our ladies getting a drink.