Missing out, homeopathic treatments, busy bees, worries

I elected to not go to the Mission’s Conference service last night. Mama and Tres did get to go to the dinner prior to the service and to the service. Mama spent the service in the nursery tending to a sick toddler, but she was there to support the service. I was coughing in the way I typically do when this type of infection settles into my chest. I tried to watch the service online but failed on each attempt because I do not often get onto Facebook and was not aware of Mama’s username or password for her computer which would have opened the app without difficulty. Nor could I open the app on any other device. Unfortunately, Facebook is the only medium that the church uses to livestream the services. Fortunately, Victoria was home just before the service started and was able to get me logged into Facebook on our aged iPad using her login credentials. As expected, it was a great service, and I was happy to be able to participate at least in the broadcast. As things stand right now, I will not be able to attend tonight either and we will be on vacation next week – including Sunday. So, I will not see our church family until the 12^th of May.

The rain that thoroughly soaked our farm Sunday settled the pollen that has been such an irritant to my sinuses. The winds that have blown relentlessly through our area over the course of the past few weeks have settled down as well, eliminating much of the pollen from the air. That helps, but the infection has begun its course and as in all past such infections, there is little I can do to abate the symptoms. I did get out a neti pot today to see if I could flush out the irritants sufficiently to speed up my recovery. Mama and Victoria had conspired to give the neti pot away since it was not being used but that did not happen yet. My plan is to use the neti pot as instructed every hour through the day. In the very least, t will not cause me any harm and it may do some good. That is the best I can hope for. It is more than I have done in the past to combat the infection or abate the symptoms, so Mama feels very good about that, especially since we are heading to Florida early Saturday morning. We have already begun to hemorrhage money for that trip so I hope I can recover enough to enjoy it.

With the wet, still conditions the bees are far more active right now. They do not venture out in high wind conditions, nor do they fly out into the rain, so they have been hive bound for a couple weeks. Because of the light winds, they are out gathering all the available pollen to make up for lost time. It is fun to stand and watch all the bees coming and going at the entrance on each of the hives. Some are loaded with pollen that shows up as little colored balls tucked onto their back legs. Others are bringing water back to the hive for those bees who never leave hive. I have tried to capture a video of the activity but on the cell phone I cannot record it in way that gives a clear, focused video. Victoria has a digital camera that I can use to get some pictures that would be of better quality than the phone can produce, but it does not do videos and it does not have a Wi-Fi connection to get the images easily to the computer. Additionally, I do not have an easy way to read the digital camera card on my computer, so I have hesitated to use that means of getting the better images. I am sure they will be fascinating when I do figure out a good way to do so.

Mama’s anxiety is already peaked concerning the ongoing care of her chickens and goats in our absence. Tres is our backup, and he has done admirably in the past, but that does not keep Mama from seeing potential issues.  Tomorrow, Brittany is coming over to take the incubator which is keeping warm and gently rocking the eight eggs we paced in it. We have no idea if the eggs are viable, but we will know very shortly. Mama’s thought is that the eggs may hatch in our absence and Tres would be wholly unequipped to deal with the baby chicks. Hence, Brittany’s intervention.

Tres is out of the house very early every weekday morning which makes it a challenge to ensure the chickens are opened up to get to water at the beginning of each day. The alternatives are to leave them cooped up without water until he gets home -which is sometimes after 5 pm – or to leave the coop doors open overnight while keeping the yard gate closed. In the past, we have had raccoons or opossums gain access to the coops overnight if the doors that let the chickens into the coop yard are left open overnight. Snakes are another intruder we try to keep out of the coops overnight but that is a more difficult battle to win. Though the snakes do not require a door to get into the coop, they will certainly take advantage of it being left open.

So, we are packing, we are planning, and we are worrying. Wondering if we have done all in our power to set Tres up for success.

Time will tell.