Rare mussels found near farm, pigeons

I just saw a news article about a wildlife biologist who found some rare mussels in the Emory River in Morgan county not far from where we live.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/may/26/rare-mussels-found/

I've read other stories about all kinds of unique species in the Smokies, the Knoxville area (some rare cave dwelling species), and the Cumberland Plateau. We have all sorts of fascinating things on the farm, from flying squirrels, interesting birds, colored salamanders and frogs, turtles, snakes, insects, bats, even leeches (ask John how we know about them).

Interestingly enough the reporter is the same one who came out and interviewed me a couple of years ago about homing pigeons.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/feb/24/winged-wonders/

I still get contacted by people because of that article, just last week a woman called to say that she had a banded racing pigeon show up whose owner could not be found and so I met her and picked up the bird.

Peachy

Picture shows a baby peach on one of the two peach trees we planted this year.

Easter Egg Hunt 2011

The kids always enjoy the Easter Egg hunt held at our church.

Flooding April 16, 2011

This is a picture of Clifty Creek overflowing the Clifty Creek bridge on April 16, 2011. This is right next to the Emory river so it might be more appropriate to say that the Emory flooded. We've seen high water levels a few times in the past several years but this was the first time we saw water go over the bridge. Second picture shows the waterfall at the bottom of our driveway taken the same day.

End of the Rainbow II

This morning Debby called out from the kitchen for everyone to come and look. Out in the pasture we could see the end of a rainbow! This was the second time we've spotted the end of a rainbow, the place where it touches the ground, from our house. The first one we saw was about 250 feet from the house near the barn, this one was probably 500 feet away looking South. Debby said there must be a pot of gold around here somewhere.

Fireflies

I just stepped outside to see what Pup-pup was barking at. It's a beautiful evening, 59 degrees, with a nice moon. And fireflies, I believe these are the first I've seen this year. Very pretty.

Strawberries

Debby and Mary have been working in the garden. Today Mary picked the first strawberries of the season.

Bee hive inspection

John and I inspected the hives on 5/7/2011. The first hive appeared to be doing fine, we pulled a few frames and saw honey cells and brood, the bees still have a few empty foundation frames to build on. When we removed the top cover on the second hive we could see that the bees had built comb on top of some frames and connected to the inner cover.

We carefully removed the inner cover and cut/scraped away the extra comb. The bees in this hive are ready for a second hive body, they have almost completely built out the first hive body.

John and I wore protective clothing but the bees were really gentle. We used Dad's old smoker.

Warning: pictures are large, about 3 MB each.

Old Rag April 2011

Another great Old Rag hike!

Orchard planting

In March we planted a few fruit trees. The soil was in good shape, every hole we dug had earthworms, grubs, and organic matter. The chickens jumped right in and ate several bugs.

Mountain horse?

Also from February, picture shows Spirit on top of a huge pile of dirt that I excavated from the pond last year.

February Skiing

I took the kids skiing at Cataloochee in February, just found a couple of pictures. We had a great time.