Fresh beginnings

Fresh beginnings
In 2005 we bought a piece of land right outside Johnson City, to have a place of the Hill Country that I love and as an investment. We did not have any concrete plans beyond- hey this is a nice spot lets plop down all of our savings here. Maybe it was a little more thought out than that, but not much. I must admit I am the dreamer and schemer. In 2011 I have started down a path that has led me to a new start. I have decided to double the number of bee hives on the BEE Ranch and the new hive is on order, and the bees will arrive in the spring, sometime in April. And I am going to expand the existing hive adding another level. I have more projects planned, but right now it is all about the bees. I have ordered the bees from R Weaver in Navasota, they are my go to apiary supplier. Meanwhile, in real life I am training for the MS 150 bike ride from Houston to Austin in April, so I better get my ass back to the gym and keep getting ready. I am starting fresh in 2011, healthier lifestyle, and new bees. A fresh beggining.

FREE HOME TO GOOD OWL

I have a free barn owl home up for grabs to a good hard working Owl. Plenty of mice, bugs, and small animals to feed on, lots of water too.
Seasoal work is OK. Bring the family or raise a new one. House is located in very mature Live Oak tree, stop by if you are interested.

Cedar fever!

I kicked my own ass yesterday, and I’m paying for it today. I have a reminder living in my head of the misery that Cedar (Ashe Juniper) can bring to visit some of us humans in the month of January in central Texas. Yesterday I was out near Marble Falls in Double Horn Creek marking a property line for an electrical underground service and I had to pick my way through some very thick Cedar to do the job, big mistake. A few minutes in I started sneezing, and then my nose shut down, and my eyes started burning. What was I thinking? I should have known better. Welcome to central Texas in January.I have sneezed my way through 3 boxes of Kleenex in the past 24 hours.

From Wikipedia:

Juniperus ashei (Ashe Juniper) is a drought-tolerant evergreen shrub or small tree, native to northeastern Mexico and the south-central United States north to southern Missouri; the largest areas are in central Texas, where extensive stands occur. It grows up to 10 m tall, rarely 15 m, and provides erosion control and year-round shade for wildlife and livestock.
The feathery foliage grows in dense sprays, bright green in color. The leaves are scale-like, 2-5 mm long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. It is a dioecious species, with separate male and female plants. The seed cones are globose to oblong, 3-6 mm long, and soft, pulpy and berry-like, green at first, maturing purple about 8 months after pollination. They contain 1-2 seeds, which are dispersed when birds eat the cones and pass the seeds in their droppings. The male cones are 3-5 mm long, yellow, turning brown after pollen release in December to February.
The pollen causes a severe allergic reaction for some people in the winter, and people who are allergic to Ashe juniper are also often allergic to the related Juniperus virginiana. Consequently, what begins as an allergy in the winter, may extend into spring since the pollination of J. virginiana follows after that of J. ashei. Ashe juniper is sometimes known in the area as "mountain cedar" (although neither it nor J. virginiana are cedars), and some locals refer to the allergy as cedar fever.

Although Cedar is native to Central Texas, the proliferation of overgrazing of livestock in the late 1800’s allowed by the invention of barbed wire, enabled Cedar to overtake the native grasses and dominate rocky areas like the Hill Country. I favor the eradication of Cedar. Each mature Cedar tree sucks 12 gallons of water a day from the soil, water that would otherwise nourish native grasses. I have removed about 15 acres of   Cedar on the BEE Ranch, and the native grasses have come back. I still have more work to do, but Cedar is losing the war. In the mean time January is a good month to take a vacation away from central Texas.

truth or its consequences

Truth or its consequences

There is an ancient Hopi saying making the rounds on the internet today, or at least I just saw it today. I’m always late to the party on these kinds of things:
“"When birds fall from the sky and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people ...shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. they will be known as the warriors of the Rainbow." —Hopi Prophecy
I have not researched this quote to see if it is in fact from the Hopi Indians, but it sounds interesting. I’ve never thought of myself as any kind of warrior, but if the shoe fits...I am all for the idea of making the world a better place so birds don’t fall from the sky, birds are not supposed to fall from the sky. And I like the idea of making the earth green again. I’m just not so sure about the warrior part. When I think of a warrior I think of some angry dude with weapons ready to kick some ASS and draw blood. That is not me.  If I’m a warrior, its one that works on what they believe in and follows through and sees results from the efforts of their labor. Maybe the Hopi had a different meaning of the word warrior from what my American past taught me. I can imagine sitting around the barn cross legged on the floor at the BEE Ranch smoking the peace pipe chatting it up with the spirits of some Hopi elders. The conversation would go something like this:
Me: So what to you elders think we should do about the sorry state of our environment? I mean like all we have done for 200 years is take, take, take, from our mother earth?
Elders: Well son if you don’t get your ass in gear to start changing your peoples ways, you are definitely screwed and it will not be a good outcome.
Me: I’m working to make things better a little at a time, but I’m just one person.
Elders:  A warrior leads his tribe, you must lead your tribe, and we must go.
And that is where they left it, so I’m working on getting the message out.

nurture positive change, nourish diversity

I look at a blank piece of paper before I write and see endless possibilities, and so it is with the world around us. The world is as it is-- one moment, and with our involvement it changes, maybe just a little, but magnify the effort of positive change by a billion and you can see the possibilities. The Bee Ranch is a teeny tiny speck in our great big world, but what happens for the greater good on the BEE Ranch gets added to the bottom line for the rest of the world.  nurture positive change, nourish diversity.

gone story telling

The BEE Ranch is my secret weapon. It helps me focus.I enjoy twisting a tale of the many stories that string themselves together in the dust and mud of my footsteps. In Texas there are more than a few larger than life characters big enough to fill a state bigger than most countries. One of those fellows crossed my path along the way to here, and we became friends and I have had the privilege of being his wingman on many interesting trips down this road.  I watched as Tarp Roller surfed a point break with double overhead barrels stretching into the distance on the south Pacific coast of Mexico in the mid seventies. He surfed, I took a few photos.   There were no tourists on the beach back then, just a few hungry goats. When the waves petered out Tarp Roller went fishing with the locals in a small fishing boat far enough out to sea that I could just barely make out the boat with binoculars. I stayed back in the shade of the palm trees and read a book. Late in the afternoon the boat came back loaded down within inches of sinking. Tarp Roller had landed a 350 pound Tuna with a hand line along with too many dorado’s to count. His hands were bloody, but his smile was big. These are the kind of moments that define Tarp Roller. Tarp Roller got his name playing football; he had the sticky fingers. He played wide receiver for the Mavericks, and if the ball even looked like it touched his hands he was gone to the house! The tarp Roller was the person in charge of the group rolling out the tarp to protect the football field in case it rained.  Tarp Roller did not need a group, he did the job of rolling out the tarp by himself, and did it fast. Tarp Roller is 6 foot 6 inches tall, with arms that can reach into tomorrow morning to grab a pass, and catch it with hands the size of frying pans. His legs are skinny, but strong like drilling  pipe. He ran over opponents or around them either way was fine with him. When football season ended Tarp Roller went to the beach. He could catch a wave with one stroke from his mighty hand and wave at the girls on the beach with the other.  Years later I had gone to meet Tarp Roller on a Caribbean Island because I thought it would be a nice change of pace. I watched one night in a little thatched hut in the jungle on the island as Tarp Roller gambled until he was down to his last beer and his last dollar. Tarp Roller is a risk taker he lives for excitement. He could feel lady luck whenever she was around. That night she walked in and sat down beside him. Tarp Roller was out of money; all he had left was his artificial eye. He popped out the eye cupped it in his giant hand, looked around the crowded room and slapped his hand down on the big pile of cash on the table. When he pulled back his hand and the eye stared up at the crowd the room went silent, you could hear a bird breathe. The cards were laid on the table and when the shouting settled to a roar, the pot belonged to Tarp Roller. Lady luck had smiled. Tarp Roller could pay off his sailboat that he lived on in the harbor, he wasn’t set but he had a fresh start.

It’s a dogs life

I set about the days tasks with the obvious attention of our dog Jake. Jake is a young man of a dog, he is a Border collie mix that we got from a shelter about 2 ½ years ago. Mixed with what we’re not sure, but no doubt his parents were a beautiful pair. Jake is a regal dog, and he loves to run and play on the BEE Ranch. He can amuse himself for hours chasing things only he can see, splashing in the water, barking at bugs.  We should all learn a thing or two from this kind of freedom; it is a freedom that is essential to being who we are meant to be. A dog always lives his highest truth; that is all he can do. That is why we love dogs so much. Dogs are totally honest; they don’t know any other way. It’s easy to sort these things out, and feel in your heart what your dog is thinking when there is peace and quiet like you can find in the Hill Country. In the city Jake might be inclined to test the limits of his truth and do something he knows he shouldn’t, but on the BEE Ranch he knows exactly where every boundary is, he recognizes them, and he protects what is ours, that is his job. If you pay attention you can read a dog like a book.  Jake got stung once by a bee when he wandered too close to the hive. He doesn’t go back over there anymore. If he thinks there is something that needs to be checked out by the bee hive he’ll let you know about it, but he won’t go, he will send you. When Jake’s not playing he likes to find a cool spot and rest with one eye open--- seriously. Nobody is sneaking up on him or us! At the first hint of anything unusual or out of place, he’s on it, bark first, ask questions later. And when things settle down he’s out like a light, but with one eye open. I am convinced that if a ghost came on the scene Jake could see it. And pity the poor ghost that crossed Jake’s path, he could turn the ghost into dust with his barking alone. And be careful when good food is around, because living your highest truth as a dog means going for the good people chow at all cost! If you turn your back for a second you will pay. I’ve seen Jake scarf 10 of my precious meat balls in the blink of an eye, that is to say they were there one second and gone the next. If I saw anything it was only a blur, so fast I could not even utter a word, except shit when my brain realized what had just taken place. This is how we pass the time, man and dog, but really it’s a dog’s life.

have your cake and eat it too

The BEE Ranch has the best of both worlds. It is located just beyond the city limits of Johnson City at the end of where Avenue N was plated many years ago. My family likes the convenience of a town nearby, and it is nice to have a short drive to the store, but we are out in the country where the coyotes howl at night and the stars provide the light. We are off the beaten path, but not too far. Good BBQ is close by, and friends don’t have to drive for a day to find us.  It does a soul good to find a peaceful place to rest. Even if you are engaged in what others might call work, the Zen aspect of the activity will energize you. I’m going to grow a garden, it will involve work, but the benefits will out way any physical effort required to make it happen. The BEE Ranch is the kind of place that will help one to live to a hundred, or at least 95. We invite friends to go there to let their creativity flow, like taking photographs, or making something from nothing, or to just be and relax. Slowly but surely the inside of the barn is going to be finished out, and eventually it will be heated and cooled, but one of the mandates is that the building be as  “green” and eco friendly as it can be. I’m thinking R-30 walls, and R-49 in the ceilings, using mini splits for A/C, so no duct work, and a wood stove to heat the whole barn. Eventually there will be solar power and rainwater collection too. We’ll get there, but vision takes time. 40 years ago somebody might have said, “man… that dude is out there”, today the same guy is main stream, maybe even leading edge. If you ask me it’s being in the Hill Country that makes the vision happen. And that is why I want to have my cake and eat it too.

	http://towheadvalleybeeranch.shutterfly.com

the weather is here

IMG_8842

The weather is here…

In the Hill country, and other parts of Texas you can count on the weather to change, sometimes, very quickly. There are an infinite number of terms describing the weather: colder than a well diggers ass (right now) on January 11, 2011, (the really cold stuff will get here later), raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock, hot enough to cook an egg on the sidewalk, (most days in the summer), so dry you can fold the clothes when they come out of the washer, and on and on.

I’ve seen hail the size of baseballs, snow that made snowmen before it hit the ground, wind that could blow a ship across the sea in a day. Texas Hill Country weather is tough. There is also the term Blue Northern: as defined by The Hand book of Texas online:

BLUE NORTHER

BLUE NORTHER. The term blue norther denotes a weather phenomenon common to large areas of the world's temperate zones—a rapidly moving autumnal cold front that causes temperatures to drop quickly and that often brings with it precipitation followed by a period of blue skies and cold weather. What is peculiar to Texas is the term itself. The derivation of blue norther is unclear; at least three folk attributions exist. The term refers, some say, to a norther that sweeps "out of the Panhandle under a blue-black sky"—that is, to a cold front named for the appearance of its leading edge. Another account states that the term refers to the appearance of the sky after the front has blown through, as the mid-nineteenth-century variant blew-tailed norther illustrates. Yet another derives the term from the fact that one supposedly turns blue from the cold brought by the front. Variants include blue whistler, used by J. Frank Dobie, and, in Oklahoma, blue darter and blue blizzard. Though the latter two phrases are found out-of-state, blue norther itself is a pure Texasism. The dramatic effects of the blue norther have been noted and exaggerated since Spanish times in Texas. But that the blue norther is unique to Texas is folklore.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Dictionary of American Regional English, Vol. 1 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1985).

And if none of this is clear to you,--- if you hear the term Blue Norther, get your ass inside, in front of a BIG fire, cause you will need it.

We have got the Hurricanes and tornados covered too, and don’t forget the droughts. Just this past September we had a Tropical storm Hermine, that brought almost a foot of rain to The BEE Ranch. Since then--- nada, now we are back in a drought. We never lack for variety with our Hill Country weather.

time keeps on ticking...

One of the things that one comes to notice rolling along life’s journey is that time is short. There is never enough, at least for me. I have made plans that stretch out far into the future. I have no intention of running out of stuff to do. 25 acres in the Hill Country can keep a man busy for a long, long time. When the Cedar is gone there are rocks to pick up. I’m just warming up. I’m on about round six of fighting the Cedar. A while back I tried the Cedar eradication equivalent of a nuclear strike, the hydro axe.  A hydro axe is a LARGE machine designed specifically for the purpose of devouring whole trees, or anything else; cars, you name it. It turns it’s prey into little bits the size of a football. It is impressive to watch. Trees are ground down to little nubs and all that is left is a pile of mulch. Where once there was nothing but Cedar there can be a pasture. I connected with an on outfit named appropriately, Cedar Eaters of Texas: http://www.cedareater.com/viewdemo.htm . The axe has a drum on the business end that turns at very high RPM, with steel teeth that have an insatiable appetite for Cedar- diesel in, mulch out. They could do in a day what It takes half a dozen humans a week to do.  That saved some time, but if the Cedars growing in rock you have to use other means. I’m finding out more and more ways to fight Cedar- next up a skid steer with giant hydraulic loppers to snip an entire tree just like cutting a piece of thread with scissors, sweet. 

In order to find out nurturing Hill Country land is your passion you have to know what is not your passion. This short side note,  In 1989 I had the opportunity to live what I thought was a dream, in the US Virgin Islands on St. Croix in the  Caribbean, on a beautiful island and soak in the culture, sail and snorkel. I lived in the basement apartment of a home 1500 feet above Salt River bay (one of the places Christopher Columbus landed), It sounds good in theory, but the facts on the ground are a different story. Almost all of the Caribbean is a third world country, and after being raised in the United States that can be quite a culture shock.  Then there is the discrimination. As a white dude from the states I was viewed with skepticism at the least, and more likely disdain and mis-trust, from the black local population. I was not an equal to a local in their eyes. The electrical power goes out regularly for periods from one to eight hours inexplicably. Then there’s the wealthy elite, gated away from anyone that is not also wealthy. There are other sub-classes on the island, but I already knew enough. St. Croix was a great place to visit, but I did not want to live there. There were not enough positives to overcome the negatives. Terry and I lived together down there, and were fortunate to leave just before the shit hit the fan with the arrival of Hurricane Hugo which turned the island into something resembling a war zone, with looting, and lawlessness, not to mention difficult living conditions after the storm. The rest I’ll save for another time.

The Caribbean experience gave me perspective to the direction of my interests and focused me to the diversity of the area around me. Over time I zeroed in where the proximity to home made a short leap to the Hill Country an attainable goal. Now I was busy riding the land of Cedar and laying plans for the future. Blanco County is by no means an agricultural mecca, but the future is opening up to the possibilities that are out there. Things like grapes and wine making are gaining popularity, and Lavender which thrives in the climate, are gaining traction each year.  I see a green thumb in my future, in time.

Everything’s better with Blue Bonnets on it!

May 31^st 2004, two weeks before my 47^th birthday we were blessed with the birth of our daughter Brooke. I just rolled back the clock 25 years. This is one way to kick father time’s ass.  I thought I was headed for middle age, but I was headed for Toy’s “R” US. At least I could look like Santa Claus when December 25^th rolled around.

One of the beautiful things about the Hill Country is the spring Wildflowers, they are world renowned. The Blue Bonnets, Indian Paint brushes, butter cups, daisies, they explode into a horizon of colors to dazzle the eye. When you have a baby, the wildflowers call to you with your child’s name begging for a picture with the baby in the wild flowers. It is impossible to resist. If you don’t give in you are a bad parent, and certainly not a Texan from the Hill Country. There are many iconic wild flower trails on the roadways of Texas. One of my favorites is the Willow City loop: http://www.lone-star.net/wildflowers/willowcityloop.htm , North of Fredericksburg; it’s about 75 miles from our home base in Austin. Any travel with a baby has to scheduled around naps and feeding, the rest is a crap shoot, and that means it’s all a crap shoot. No guts no glory! We packed the diaper bag, and the emergency backup bag and it’s backup and rolled out with 3 redundant systems of protection. The BEE Ranch is a short drive from the Willow City loop down RR 1323 going West, off Highway 281, North of JC. It was smooth sailing until we hit the loop. The wild flowers were sparse, the crowd was thick, and there was no place to turn around. I do not recommend this drive on a Saturday in the spring, especially with a baby. We looked for another spot; the side of Mo Pac sounded good about now. What were we thinking? Brooke was about 10 months old now, but not walking yet. We picked a spot, pulled over and gave it a shot, well we did, but Brooke could care less, and was totally unimpressed with nature’s effort to woo her.  2 hours of this fun was all I could stand, I didn’t want any more cheese, just let me out of the trap! (said the mouse). The knot in the loop bar was looking good about now. There is a store called Wild seed farms on Highway 290 a few miles East of Fredericksburg: http://www.wildseedfarms.com/ and they have the market just about cornered on all things wildflower. In fact it is a no brainer of a place to grab the obligatory baby in the blue bonnet picture and grab a beer after the photo shoot wraps, why didn’t I think of that? Every thing’s better with Blue Bonnets on it.

Getn’ ready for a barn raising!

All 44,000 pounds of the barn arrived in mid May 2009. It was time to get busy. The first order of business was to get the truck unloaded, and that job fell to me. Unloading the truck had to be done quickly and efficiently. I checked around and it seemed like the best option was to rent a rubber tired roll frame forklift with a 6000 pound lift capacity. I went over to Heart of Texas Rentals in Johnson City (JC), and met Mike and the boys and they fixed me right up. I started with a two week rental, but knew it might take a little longer- Mike said no problem, we have several.

Home building was slow (still is), so I lined up a first string crew. I was able to land my trim carpenter Bucks Hamilton and his crew for their wages, and I would pick up miscellaneous expenses, Bucks needed a job and I needed a crew. I knew Bucks could pull this off, even if he was skeptical. This is a specialized job, putting together an oversized jig saw puzzle. The only nails are in the siding and roof decking, everything else is either bolted together with a gusset plates, or screwed together with 7 inch or 10 inch screws that use specialized bits, and the screws had to be predrilled. This job would require some rigging skills, problem solving, ingenuity and quick thinking when called for. There was a set of plans and an instruction book. Luckily the instruction book was written in English by Americans and not translated from Chinese into English. That is when you end up with parts left over because something got lost in translation. Now it was time to get the fork lift and get the truck unloaded.

I asked how they delivered the forklift, and Mike said that would be $175.00. I only had to go about 2 miles on public streets and that seemed like a stretch. They said, why don’t you just drive it over to your place? If it was OK with them I was game. In JC you can do these types of things. If Barney Fife showed up I’d just wave and keep going. I had to go from Highway 281 past the courthouse through down town, down Pecan St., and down Avenue N to our Neighborhood Lake on Flat Creek, no problem. I learned the levers, I put the muy macho machineo in gearo and hit the road. Four high got me about 10 MPH. I started to daydream as I drove past the courthouse….

 What if I was down town--- back in Austin, stopped at a Red light and some young pin head lost track of his highest truth, copped an attitude and cut me off? All I would need to do to set things straight would be pull up, stick the forks under the pin head’s car, pick the car up and give the driver time to collect his thoughts while he searched for infinite wisdom! I can help with that! Then I could gently set the car down, say about 15 feet off the ground somewhere, all the while the young driver would have plenty of time to collect his thoughts, and re-consider what happened to his highest truth. Just like in the movie: The Big Lebowski the Dude needed to abide!  I pulled up on the BEE Ranch a short time later and started unloading the truck. The forklift made it easy; it must be idiot proof because I did it with just a few hand signals from the driver, picking up loads that were about 2 two tons, moving them and setting them down like they were puppies. It was time for the real work to begin. I had put the foundation in during April so it was ready for a barn. There are 4 big bents, (large bolted together trusses), and 8 smaller ones for the 2 wings of the building that form the skeleton, and they had to go up first. All of the bents had been pre-assembled at the plant knocked down, and put on the truck to ship.  The windows came separately on a smaller box truck. When we ran short of fasteners Sand Creek would overnight them to us so we were not delayed. That is service! From a residential framing perspective, this was not your run of the mill job. Every single piece had to be predrilled and screwed. It was like building a giant cabinet! It was bolted to the concrete and braced six ways to Sunday. It ain’t moving. I had debated about what kind of roof to use, but when I saw the barn going up there was no question, it had to be a standing seam metal roof. By the end of May 2009, the barn had a roof. There were still loose ends to tie up, but this was progress with a capital “P”. It was time for a septic system so we could flush! The boys at Dirt works were ready to go (need Dirt call Dirt, that’s his name). Everybody was hungry and willing to wheel and deal, the economy was barely sputtering and if you needed work done there was no waiting in line as in years past, the only people left with most contractors were their best people. The water line was run to the building and the plumbing was done in a day, the electrical took the same, roughed in and set fixtures all at once. Good thing the roof was on because it’s getting hot! If we were going to spend the night we better do it soon or it would be too hot.  I think I’m going to rest and have a beverage.

In the shelter

I’ve borrowed a song title from the author and song writer Jimmy Buffet for this blog. I have been a fan of his since the 70’s. We all have people that we look up to, to get us through challenging times and be an inspiration the rest of the time, and Jimmy Buffet is one of those folks for me.

One might ask what does Jimmy Buffet have to do with creating a Texas Hill Country life style. That would be a fair question, and to answer it you have to know your Texas history of singers and song writers. Jerry Jeff Walker is a Texas singer/ song writer of the first order. He and Jimmy Buffet became acquainted at some point, and Jerry Jeff took young Jimmy under his wing and showed Jimmy the way to Key West, Florida where Jimmy found his way to Margaritaville,  stepped on a pop top, blew out his fip flop and found his lost shaker of salt. I think he’s done all right since then. So bottom line is that Jimmy Buffet’s roots stretch all the way back to the Texas Hill Country with his friend Jerry Jeff. Jimmy also wrote a sound track for Rancho Deluxe a movie with Slim Pickens, a long time Wimberley, Texas resident back in the early 70’s. I’m not saying creativity starts in the Hill Country, but I am saying it dines here and thrives here. Luckenbach, Texas is about 20 minutes down the road from the BEE Ranch, tucked away a short drive South of Highway 290 just East of Fredericksburg, Texas. A man named Hondo Crouch helped put Luckenbach on the map with a little help from his friends: Waylon, Willie and the boys in April 1977, I went to college at Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, Texas in those days and made my way to Lukenbach a time or two before it hit the big time. I never met Hondo, but I’ve enjoyed his spot in the world. All of this brings me back to the BEE Ranch, our place in the Hill Country following in a long tradition of creative people and places.

The BEE Ranch is about 25 Acres, roughly 1200 by 900 feet. When I get on the property I can feel my attitude change, my thoughts settle, and worries start to melt away. Outside interference drops away. It is as if the world is put on hold. My mind is free to go where it wants, and I am the first mate, along for the ride, just making minor course adjustments along the way. There is nothing magical about 25 acres, it’s about having a place where you can get in touch with your creative side, and enjoy nature. It could be anywhere, the size is not important; it’s just a place to be comfortable, and let nature show its beauty. And to be comfortable we need shelter from the elements. I’m not planning on living out here just yet cause I’ve still got my day job gig going and I like it. But the BEE Ranch is a place to heal, reflect, relax and renew, while the wind blows in the grass, the birds sing, and I want to help bring out those feelings. It took a few years to figure it out, but we got there. First it was going to be a guest house, but then the economy tanked after the plans were drawn, so I twiddled, and I piddled, and eventually I landed on the idea of a barn, a utilitarian building with quarters to keep us comfortable and out of the elements, and the barn would have a bathroom, very important to the ladies, like the one I am married to, and my daughter. This was going to be a rustic, post and beam, timber framed Texas style barn evoking the rugged nature of the Hill Country’s past. I found what I was looking for in a Company located in Omaha Nebraska, Sand Creek Post and Beam. The trees are Ponderosa Pine sustainably grown in North Dakota, milled In Omaha, Nebraska, and shipped to your site on a big truck. We came up with a design that minimized interior walls and gave us the space and volume we wanted and the utility a barn provides. The whole thing came to Johnson City, Texas on the flat bed trailer of an 18 wheeler in May 2009.

Soon we would be in the shelter of our barn.

There's the honey!

This little journey I’m on has twists and turns to match the windiest of roads, with ups and downs to match. In the spring of 2007 I was ready to start being a bee keeper. I ordered my supplies, the hive, frames, suit, smoker, and miscellaneous bee tools thru Dadant and sons who has been in business since 1863. I ordered my package of bees from R Weaver of Navasota, Texas also in business over one hundred years. I had a lot of experience backing me up. And I had Colleen Gardner from the Bamberger Ranch to advise me locally. I was ready to get started. I had selected a spot in a cleaned out Live Oak grove that would be shaded from the afternoon heat. I located a source of water about- a hundred and fifty yards away- a wild life water feeder. The bees arrived late, it was already hot, and getting hotter when they arrived in mid spring. R Weaver had problems with the brood (young bees) building up, and the bees were not ready to ship until later than they were requested. None the less I was happy to see the bees arrive. I installed them in their new hive and set about making sure they had supplemental food (sugar water) and available water to survive the heat. The bees struggled from the start, and I checked on them at least weekly for about 8 weeks. At the end of that time it was clear to me they were not going to make it. I held on to hope, but when I opened the hive at the end of June 2009, all were gone, the only things in the hive was a scorpion, and a cockroach. That says it all. I was bummed, but also determined. I would learn from the experience. I think the biggest mistake was using an in-hive feeder. Bees are susceptible to drowning because they can’t swim so they would get in the feeder and drown. I tried to devise ways to help the bees, floating a piece of Styrofoam covered by a piece of screen, but they drowned any way. I lost a lot of bees that way, but the weather was a big factor too. I re-grouped and got ready for the next year.  

The following spring I started over, installed a new hive and went thru the process again. I noticed a difference right from the start. These bees were more robust, active and just plain stronger. It sounds a little strange describing one bee being stronger than another but when you see them interact regularly it becomes obvious. I have learned a lot from watching the bees, they are amazing little creatures, but first some bee facts: the life span of the average worker bee, (female), or drone (male is about 6 weeks from the beginning of the larval stage to the end of its adult life, the queen can live for several years, and the other bees sense when the queen is getting weak, and they can reproduce another queen insuring the survival of the hive. A bee is an amazing creature, the things they communicate is astounding. If you stand at the hive entrance you will see incoming and outgoing bees. The hive entrance is only about a half inch tall, but the incoming bees which you can see from about 20 feet out zoom in, and hit the entrance with the precision of a fighter pilot landing on a carrier deck. Then the fun begins, they do a little dance at the hive entrance communicating things like where the water is, how far away it is, what’s blooming, where it is and what time of day is best to go there. All of this has been documented, so I’m not making this stuff up!   My little bees are happy, and in March of 2010 I installed a honey super with a queen excluder to start producing honey. The queen is bigger than the other bees,  the queen excluder is a screen that keeps the queen out of the honey super where the honey is stored. This way the brood is not mixed in with the stored honey. I am looking forward to a small harvest in late summer of 2010, fingers crossed. The harvest will be uncharted territory for me, but I’m doing a mental rehearsal to get ready. I want to minimize  the time I’m disturbing the hive, get in get the honey and get out with as little disturbance as possible. I want above all to be ready, so I studied up, made a list and checked it three times, watched videos on youtube, and played the tapes in my mind.

To pass the time I also put in a big ass granite gravel driveway that I call the long and winding road. It ties in with a gravel road I put in a few years back, and makes a very large loop around part of the BEE Ranch.

When late summer arrived I was ready to go. I borrowed a honey extractor from my friends at the Bamberger Ranch and went to work. I smoked the hive to calm the bee’s, I used a fume board to drive the bees out of the honey super so I could get the frames out and take them to the extractor. It all worked out and to my amazement I did not get stung. I’m on my second bee suit, and I think I have a system down that work well for me. Now it was time to see what I had. I started to uncap the frames I had selected; I only took the 3 frames that were the most full, leaving the rest for the bees to get thru the winter. I uncapped the frames one at a time and put them in the hand powered extractor which spins the honey out by centrifugal force slinging the honey against the sides of the extractor and draining to the bottom where it runs though a screen and and is ready to drain into a bottle. I had some bottles to store the honey in that I had saved, so off to work I went. Since this was a small harvest I was done in a few hours and  the next thing you know there’s the honey!

It is amazing stuff, my first harvest!

we are one

What taught me to love this land, is the same thing the Indian's saw and experienced in the past. The Comanches, and the Apaches traveled though the area that I now call The Tow Head Valley BEE Ranch. The reasons the Indians were here are many, plenty of game for food, water to sustain life, excellent rock for spear points, beautiful country, and the ever present mostly peaceful nature all around. The pedarnales river is about a half mile away, there are spring fed creeks here that flow a short distance to the river, and the views from our place survey all 360 degrees of horizon, providing a good look out spot. We breath the same air, live in the same weather, we are more like the Indians than not. We each have different strengths, but beyond that the line blurs. I don't dwell to much on the past, but I recognize it's importance and the fact that I am connected to it. The Indians evidence is all around, you just have to know where to look. I have neighbors with arrow head collections, all found on places I've walked myself. The Indians left the traces of their presence hidden, but the first anglo settlers left behind relics of their past. Rusted pieces of their past attempts to tame the land. The indians flowed with the land and the anglo settlers wanted the land to bend to them. Only a compromise will win the day. Here in the 21st Century it is time to give the land it's due, and let it reveal to us what we need to know about it, and how it can help us. 
I wonder what the indians thought when they looked at the stars at night and saw the sky change with the seasons. I hold my iphone up to the sky at night turn on the pocket universe app, and I know to a degree what's up there. I can track the space station, watch the lunar eclipse, and the meteror showers, I can only imagine they just had to accept what was, just as we have to for things we don't know the answers to. 
Yes, we are one, you, me, the Indians, we are all one.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, 2011! We are making progress just like stepping into a new year. We started this journey not knowing where it will take us, only knowing that we wanted nature to step forth and play a bigger part in what we do, like a splash of water on your face when you wake up. In my world it does not get any better than the Texas Hill Country to make that happen. With the challenges of power and water solved it was time to learn more about the land. I learned a lot about land conservation, and caring for our limited resources in my youth growing up with a family that had a ranch in East Texas outside of Jacksonville, now it was time to focus on the Hill Country. I had spent enough time visiting friends’ places in the Hill Country to have been fortunate enough to have heard of the Bamberger ranch more than once. Any time there was a serious conversation about the Hill Country, and learning about the land, the name Bamberger would come up. I never got any specifics, but, it was always, “you just have to go check it out!” After hearing this for about a year, that is what I did. I had driven down Miller Creek Road outside Johnson City many times where the Ranch is located, I had a friend with a place on Miller Creek, but even he had not been to the Bamberger Ranch. In early spring of 2006 it was time to make the trip. I did a little research and signed up for a class on the Bamberger Ranch in land stewardship - perfect.

I had no idea what to expect. I showed up early one Saturday and was directed to a building called the “The Center.” It sounded like the home of a cult. But nothing could be further from the truth, the Bamberger Ranch is a 5500 acre ranch south of Johnson City, essentially an environmental teaching ranch with working ranch elements, and areas set aside to save endangered species, places for school children to visit and learn, places for demonstrations, and “The Center” was where a decent sized group could gather and spend the day learning how to take care of the land that takes care of us. The Bamberger Ranch was started by J. David Bamberger over 40 years ago - now that is some vision! J. David founded Church’s Fried Chicken and took the money from that success, and set out on his mission and passion of improving the land and teaching others how do it.

To break the ice, everybody introduced themselves and said where they were from and how much land they had. Folks had come from all over the state. I was impressed. Then they gave away door prizes, and I was lucky enough to receive one. I had the choice between an endangered plant the Texas Snow Bell, and honey that came from bees on the ranch. I love honey, and use it every day, so the choice was clear, honey it was. Little did I know where this would lead!

I soaked it all in that day, learning about caring for the land, and took away a valuable lesson: being a steward of the land is a serious responsibility, and to be good at it there needs to be a passion for it. I knew I was on the right track because I had passion for learning about, and caring for the land. When I left that day, I took my honey home to Austin, and part of my heart stayed in Johnson City.

The next day I tasted the honey, holy shit that was GOOD! It was like nothing I had ever experienced, flavors exploded in my mouth! Tasting that honey got me to thinking, I wonder if I could get some bees and be a bee keeper, and make my own honey. The wheels started turning. I knew that Colleen Gardner who is the executive director at the Bamberger Ranch, was the resident bee keeper, and I had met her at the class at the ranch. I got in touch with Colleen, and asked if I might watch her doing her bee thing sometime. We talked, and emailed and I ended up back at the ranch learning about bees. She guided me in the direction of where to get the bees, bee supplies, and she had me observe bee keeping activities with her. Eventually I was convinced that I could do this, (bee keeping). The following winter of 2007 I ordered my package of bees. A package of bees is 3 pounds of bees and a queen; there is only 1 queen per hive.  I ordered my stuff, and the bees, and I just had to wait for spring to get things set up. I provided a wildlife water tank so the bees would have water, and I went back to planning more future projects.

We had our 25 acres, and now I was going to raise bees on the property, we were making a dent in the Cedar, and we had a base camp with power and water. I decided to go out on a limb and come up with a name for our property. Some thoughts came to mind: We had a little ranch, with little critters, and we over looked the valley of Tow Head Creek. So it was naturally going to be the: 

                                         TOW HEAD VALLEY BEE RANCH