Some success, losses, Chase, traveling issues

 After making five gallons of sugar water for the bees last week, I thought I had failed in the attempt to feed the bees. They did not seem interested in the syrup I had made for them. At least, that was the case for a full two days. On Wednesday evening when I checked the feeder, the bees were all over it. Praise the Lord! Since Mama and I were gone over the weekend, I was interested in seeing how soon I would have to mix another five gallons for the bees. I hoped the five gallons would last a week or more, but I  was wrong. I was a bit shocked to find that the feeder had been drained as far down as the syrup could flow out of the feeder as it sat level on the block holding it. So, I tilted the five-gallon bucket to allow the last of the syrup to flow into the hollows encircling the top of the bucket. I further tilted the bucket today and will plan on mixing another five gallons tomorrow afternoon when I get home from my half-day class.

The heat is still taking a toll on our flock. We have lost a few more chickens and one more quail. We are doing all we can to help the chickens and quail to make it through the heat, but there is actually very little we can do. I am not sure if the dry conditions are beneficial or harmful, but it is what it is. So, we are giving plenty of water in the morning, Mama refreshes the water containers in the afternoon, and we redo all the water dishes and the duck pool every night. We wet the ground for the birds and try to keep little hollows in the ground behind the coop full of water – Mama-made mud holes. The ducks require a lot of water, but chickens like to get their feet wet too.

Today and tomorrow, we will get a respite from the heat with the temperatures remaining under one hundred degrees. It is difficult to imagine that those ten degrees make a difference, but they do. We hope that the temperatures will start to drift lower over the next couple weeks, but as always, we will take what we get. Meanwhile, we will do all we can to help our flocks and herds cope with the heat.

One the bright side, we have eight nanny goats getting larger and larger as the babies grow inside them. The goats love the heat. Several are looking very close to kidding. By our calculations, we ought to have the first few kids introducing themselves to us within two weeks. Right now, our feed bills is so much higher than we are used to that I am finding it difficult to buy enough feed to last us a month, which is our normal buying cycle. At the moment, we have only enough feed for one more morning feeding. Yesterday and today, we eliminated the afternoon feeding so we could at least feed in the mornings. Tomorrow, we will be buying more feed – some of which must be ordered – but we will have emptied all of our feed containers as we waited to make the trip to the feed store. That is the first time we have run so low because I did not anticipate how much feed we needed between purchases. Hopefully, we will buy enough feed to last for the entire month this time. The timing of the feed purchase is a matter of money, rather than a certain elapsed time.

Mama and I got to Amarillo a little after 5 pm Friday evening and met Chase, Makaila, Owen and Gailynn at a Thai restaurant a little after 5:30. We had a great visit with them even though our time was limited by their very busy schedule. Owen had some memories of us, so he warmed up to us quickly. Gailynn does not require any introductions to a stranger. She may have had some very vague recollections, but it did not matter. She is extremely outgoing. Makaila told Mama and I as we were greeting inside the restaurant Friday night that Gailynn, who is just now connecting titles/names to individuals reassured herself as to the purpose of this gathering that we were indeed meeting her daddy’s “father and mother”. A bit formal but totally correct. We quickly became Papi and Grammy to both children. We spent some time at a park Saturday morning as Chase taught a class at their gym followed by a short time at their home, but Chase and Makaila had some work that was time constrained, so we said our goodbyes about noon. Mama and I did a little shopping and headed out.

The visit was far too short of necessity. Mama and I headed home from Amarillo about 2 pm. Our drive home was far more eventful than the trip over. We drove through some very high winds blowing thick clouds of dust across the road and troubling all the large vehicles and trucks on the road. Just outside of Electra, TX all traffic was diverted off the highway onto a narrow backroad. The closing of the highway was due to grassfires being blown by the howling winds we had been driving through for the past hour. The smell of smoke was thick on the wind. We followed those secondary and tertiary routes for about twenty-five miles and got back on the highway in Iowa Park, TX. The detour added about forty-five minutes to our trip home.

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No complaints on my part. That kept us far East of the fires.