Busy Bothered Bees

I'm supposed to be on my way to my vacation destination, but due to unforeseen events, I am not leaving for a couple of more days. Which in reality is better, because we will not be rushed and I can leave my house sparkling clean, which I like to do.  

One of the chores my husband needed to do before we left was to check on the bees.  In this 102 degree weather, they looked mad and hot.  I guess even bee hives get hot and I imagine these bees are fanning each other, trying to stay cool.  Hart took a frame full of honey from the hive and replaced it with an empty one.  There is already about 30 pounds of honey.  Yummy!

Special moment

Congratulations to Dr. Jered Hull!

When Lauren and Jered moved to Atlanta five years ago to embark upon this journey of Chiropractic school at Life University, little did they know they'd finish with a degree, a toddler and another little girl on the way!

Such a joyous occasion all around!

And yes, Lauren deserves praise too, for grad school isn't hard just for the student!

I love these series of photos.  They are unedited and depict life with a toddler perfectly!

(Cate got some perfectly posed shots of Jered and the family later.)

Gabriela had had enough waiting for the ceremony to end.  It was a lovely graduation.  I loved the bagpiper leading the graduates  in and out of the auditorium.  Ela was a good girl while waiting for her daddy to graduate.  I am so proud of them all.

Mourning chickens

I'm really sad today.

 My little Blue Cochin chicks are gone, vanished overnight.  Gone.  No little chicks in the locked chicken coop this morning.

Siblings.  The white one is a rooster.

The chicken coop on the left.  

We introduced them slowly to the chickens and coop, letting them stay in their cage.  Monday, we let them out to wander around the chicken yard and closed them up in the chicken coop for the night.  Tuesday we let them sleep in the big coop, putting a small box in there so they could huddle together.  I locked the door to the coop, went out the gate into the fenced in garden and then locked that gate too.  When I went to let them out this morning they were gone.  The only sign of them was a pile of black feathers and a pile of white feathers--outside the locked chicken coop!  How it all happened and what happened I will never know.  All I know is that something got them and they are gone.

They were really cute.  They always walked in threes. They were gentle in that I could scoop all three of them up in my hands at once.  They were young and little.  I am so sad.

  

I know that they are just chickens. But we incubated two of them and watched them grow from the egg to being ready to be on their own.  We had to let them go , they had outgrown their small cage and needed to stretch their wings.  Poor chicks.

I admit I shed a few tears when I saw the pile of feathers. I know if I lived on a farm I'd see death like this
more often and I know that in the scheme of life, chicks aren't much.

  


But I really liked them. 

 I will miss my fine feathered friends.