Cheers to You, Fall

Yesterday marked the first day of Autumn, hand up if this is your favorite time of year!  To mark the arrival of the new equinox we even busted out some Fall / Halloween decorations.  The act prompted a serious debate with the Queen on the accepted timing of décor placement.  My obsessive compulsive tendencies dictate a regimented schedule for autumn activities:  Sept. 1- begin burning apple scented candles; Sept. 15- transition to apple/pumpkin candles, begin eating peanuts mixed with 3:1 ratio of candy corn; Oct 1- pumpkin candles, decorate with pumpkins & mums and commence baking all things pumpkin.      

 

The arrival of the glorious season marks the awakening of our shotguns from their summer slumber.  Dove hunting on indian summer evenings really gives you all the feelings!  Nothing humbles you quicker than trying to hit a walnut sized target whizzing through the air at 100 mph.

      

By the time I am mixing candy corns with peanuts and searching for caramel covered green apple suckers, it's time for early teal season.  Early Teal Season is a gateway season for regular duck season which is still a few weeks away.  

Birds & Bees

Spring has taken off like a rocket!  Turkey season was really weird...first, Kansas reduced hunters to just one spring turkey tag instead of two and then to lessen the spread of the Rona, out-of-state tags were eliminated.  None of the weirdness kept us from laying the hammer down!!

Things have been really busy at the farm, the new and improved garden has been planted, complete with new drip irrigation system.  The bee keeping operation has really expanded.  Earlier in the spring we caught two swarms of bees and did some hive splits.  Putting a swarm of bees into a hive is one of the coolest things to witness in nature.  You basically shake the swarm of bees out onto a bed sheet and they quickly organize and proceed to march directly into the hive.  Click on the picture below to watch the video!   

 
In just a few weeks we will be planting the first round of pumpkins in the new and improved patch.  This year the patch will be almost an acre!