Dan & Jamie put the new bees in yesterday. We had to replace both our colonies, because one did not survive the cold weather and it looks like the other one may have succumbed to Colony Collapse Disorder. Jamie had better luck and only had to replace two of his six. I didn't get more pictures because after six months of going strong, the battery on my new camera finally died.
Our "gardening" has evolved into a rooftop garden, ever since cats and chickens wouldn't leave our flower boxes alone. Instead of buying everything at once, G & I are going to plant in phases this year. Since it was a beautiful day, we decided to visit the garden center to start this year's garden.
We hiked part of the Ice Age Trail, which included exposed Silurian Dolomite of the Niagara Escarpment, a geological formation that runs from New York (and Niagara Falls) through Ontario and Michigan to Wisconsin and Illinois.
We went geocaching with friends on Sunday. One of the caches included a Big Chicken as a clue. It turned out to be more of a Wild Goose. We ended up ditching the search to go for custard at LeDuc's, which was conveniently nearby.
We took the RAV4 four-wheeling into various corners of the farm. Here's a view of our cows on the ridge.
I finally feel comfortable letting G use the rider. With an assist from Dan, we got most of the yard done in two hours.
We got a robocall around 11 a.m. today informing us that three schools in our school district, including G's, were being closed because of a confirmed case of Influenza Type A H1N1. All middle and high school students now have a week-long holiday thanks to HHS. Since we've been instructed to limit social contact during that time and it's still too cold to open the pool, I'm not sure what we'll be up to. G's default mode is Gilmore Girls and Webkinz. Thank goodness we have all those new Scholastic books piled around ...
Didn't do much of anything but the Spring Book Fair this week. The Twilight and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series were the two big sellers -- we couldn't keep them on the shelves. G and I managed to keep our tab under $200.
We've been hearing this pheasant's vocalizations for about three weeks now. While there are wild pheasants around, we think he is an escapee from either a stocked hunting ground or a farm that raises them for restaurants, both of which are in the neighborhood. During the past week he's started to come into the yard and to shadow our chickens as they make their rounds. Maike doesn't seem perturbed by his presence and the rooster hasn't run him off yet. It will be interesting to see if he sticks around.
