Beehive, New pond

We've actually had a few free weekends which has allowed us to get some projects done.  As I was getting ready to work and getting my tools together on the tailgate, I noticed how all items made a perfect Still Life encompassed so many aspects of my work at the property.  Traps, sledgehammers  chainsaws, oil, camo, bullets, axes.  I should try and do a painting of this.

From 2013-03-31

We're getting excited for the bees to arrive.  The hive is all ready and waiting for it's new occupants.  I'm getting really excited to see if we can pull it off and keep them alive for a season or two and actually get some honey.

From 2013-03-31

Here are the components that make up the hive.  This will probably be the cleanest they'll ever be since the bees will soon start putting down their wax and propolis.

From 2013-03-31

With the growing amounts of manure coming from two donkeys, we've decided that it might be good to bring some home to fertilize our garden box and to start piling up the rest in a compost heap.

From 2013-03-31

Over the winter we were able to identify another good water collection point to turn into a pond.  I was able to get the bulldozer in and start deepening it a bit.  It always looks kind of rough when I first start, but after the dry season comes, we should be able to get it there and clean it up and get it looking real nice.

A little shaping, a little burning, a little cutting and a lot of grass planting and it'll be looking awesome.

From 2013-03-31

After all that work, I need a tree to hold me up.

From 2013-03-31

Seth and Sawyer helped me start a burn pile to get rid of some of the  cedars I'd recently bulldozed.  Judging by Saywer's pose, all that hard work must've made him a little goofy.

From 2013-03-31

A long view of the pond.  Hopefully we'll get a couple big storms this spring to fill it up!

From 2013-03-31

Trapping Coyotes and New Trails

We finally were able to make a dent in enemy forces in the Dog Wars.  The initial panic, as they killed my goats, finally passed and I was able to start thinking more strategically.

The first step in our comeback strategy was to set more traps.  Trying to sneak up on them was turning out to be too unproductive because the dogs came at such random times.  Here's a pic of getting the traps ready by boiling them to take the oil and scent off.

From 2013-03-12

The next step was to walk the fence line and find all the places the dogs were getting in and proceed to close all of them up except two.  The idea was to channel the dogs/coyotes to two easy entrances where I had placed the traps.

It worked better than I could've hoped for.  In a matter of days we were able to finish them off and I haven't seen a dog on the game cams for several weeks.  Below is where one of the traps is set.  Hopefully it's as invisible to the dogs and coyotes as it is to humans.

From 2013-03-12

I've also been working on a new trail idea I had a while back.  The idea was to create a meadow trail that connected all the meadows that are scattered through the thick brush.  Some of them are quite pretty but impossible to get to in the summer without a chainsaw or a machete.

Here's a pic of the bottomless sinkhole which is along the trail.  It actually does a have a bottom, but it's so deep that it's tough to see.  We like to see how daring we are and jump across it from time to time.

From 2013-03-12

The trail doesn't look like much at this point, but as we cut and clear, it'll start taking shape.

From 2013-03-12