jdmidwest

You just forget about that one!

The hordes swarmed around here and clogged up everything. Glad to see you took advantage of the millions of acres of nice viewing areas. I drove around town watching the tourists with glasses on staring at the sun while working, dropped off at the house 30 minutes before, and saw it from the same place as 2017. Alone and quiet with a neighbor. Not a sole for miles, but only miles from the fiasco.

Just read this, thinking "Smoked Smallies" when I saw it....

Page out of the Mercury instructions. How could this go wrong??

Its only invasive if they don't use the lube....

Greer is a primitive camp with limited facilities. Everyone looks rough for a few days with no water or nice warm toilets. Should have toured the area some and stayed in town at Alton or Winona. So, where did you see the Eclipse?

My swarm settled in fine and was working well today while I was tilling. All is right with the world in that part.

Tilled that garden spot today behind that apple tree and the bee hive. Planted 2 rows of sweet corn and some zucchini squash and dill. Plenty of room to add more later on. Its only mid April, no need to rush it. Only had an inch at the farm this week, but St Francois jumped 10' on Thursday. Must have got a dump up near Fredricktown. 88 at farm this afternoon. El Nino winds. Did 3 more air grafts on the pear this morning also.

https://www.kfvs12.com/2024/04/13/oldest-living-conjoined-twins-lori-george-schappell-die-62/ Stuck with your Sister at your forehead all of your life, how could you ever relax and get comfortable, or even sleep. Never any alone time. 62 years.

Standard Lang hives are pretty easy. I took a full box split off the full hive, it was all brood, eggs, and stores on every frame. Drones were running around everywhere. The original hive may still swarm, but I gave them a full empty box of frames to grow with. The other hive was almost the same way, not as full. I grabbed 3 frames of brood and eggs with stores and added a few drawn comb to a 5 frame nuc. Then backfilled the original hive with some drawn comb from the dead out hive. With your long Langs, can't you put a divider in the there somewhere to break them up? Let them run as 2 separate hives for about 3 weeks then look for brood on both sides as sign of a new queen? Then pull one part out into new hive and open up the rest for production.

The goal this year was to rebuild the garden at the farm and build up an orchard. The original orchard behind the house has long gone. The last apple tree died a few years ago. It had not been managed properly in my lifetime and never produced any fruit. The last pear tree is out there still kicking. It has a big cedar and a elm growing up around it also. But it is still viable and bloomed this year. It last produced fruit about 10 years ago. I am trying the air root process to make clones out of the ones I have. Strip a section of the limb, apply growth hormone, put moss in a ziplock bag with a slit around the bare limb section, zip tie. In a month, it should root out, trim off and start new tree. I did a black apple tree I planted a few years ago with 4 others that failed. See how it works out. I have another tree at the other place that is one half yellow delicious and half granny smith. I plan on making some off of that one too to move out to farm. I will be really nice to get that one pear cloned. Not even sure which generation planted that. Probably Great Grandpa Hamp.

Lost one hive out of 4 this winter leaving me with 3. Good Friday I noticed one of the hives was bearding pretty bad in the warm weather, too many bees. I let it ride until I was actually home early on the Eclipse day. Did splits on both and resulted in 5 hives total again if they make a queen in each. Came back to farm this after noon and noticed a cloud of bees across the drive. Swarm going on, old queen left drawing away a support staff of workers. Old hive will have queen cells in place to hatch in a few days and a new queen will take over that one. Very big bunch of bees in a multifloral rose. I took a box down and did the shake. They all went in, off they went to the new location. The old apiary in the garden. 6 now.

I told my buddy that I may spend my last days in TN. Our family migrated and homesteaded the farm from TN to Wayne County MO in early 1800's and I am last to carry that family name and bloodline. Seems only fitting to come full circle. Good fishing, nice climate, great people, and fiscally responsible state. Reasonable cost of living.

Who would have known. Lives its life never ranging more that 15' from its safe spot. Spider monkey mated with a bowfin. Looks like something from Wizard of Oz.. https://www.outdoorlife.com/fishing/monkeyface-prickleback-world-record/

I was thinking someone was bringing up a gigging issue again.....

Yep. But School of the Ozarks has more guns I think. I was impressed.

The museum is nice, we visited it back in January. Large Firearm collection, bird Mounts, local stuff. Be sure to see it. Restaurant is good I am told, it looked closed for off weekend.

The traffic back up 55 to St. Louis lasted until late last nite I was told, bumper to bumper and 40. Going home yesterday after work resulted in all 2 lanes with bumper to bumper going every direction. But it was moving around 40 to 50.

We are dry in patches. The farm has not had any rain to speak of for a while. El Nino has blown it just north and kept it south. I think my total gauge for 24 is still around 5 inches. I think March was less than a half inch. The little shower we had last time sprouted mine. South of me near Dexter, they were finding 50 lb sacks of them 2 weeks ago. But they also have places near Greenville that did not produce a single one. Northeast of me over in Illinois, 50 lb sacks of them. Banner year also. Temps have been right, but moisture is a key. Too much cools the ground off too much. Funny thing about apple trees, the last tree in the old orchard died a few years ago. Its about 40' tall and has not produced an apple in my lifetime. Never saw a morel near it. Mine all come around the catalpas and a lone tulip poplar Dad planted after I left for college.

The girls seem to be liking other girls anyway, you don't have a chance. Picked about 60 in the yard at farm Friday afternoon. Best crop I have seen there in years. All other spots empty, too dry here.

We had 4 minutes of totality, I watched it off the deck of a customer in Cape county. Lights were dim for 20 minutes, but it brightened up fast after the moon started letting light back to us. Headlights came on vehicles and pole lights lit up.

I have seen it under sunny skies back in 17. I was looking forward to seeing how dark it could get under cloud cover. Guess I will wait another hundred years for a shot.

You would need to get that certified. The equipment it is attached to may just make it look bigger.....

I always like oils. Water color paint is really wishy washy. Hard to get fine details.

Nice ones. Heading to Pickwick in morning for a 3 day weekend with Grandson. 2 weeks ago it was bedding bass, skipjacks, and white bass.