2011 was a tough year for Texas. Record hitting heat and drought had gripped the state, and no rain had fallen for several months. In September of that year one of the worst wildfires occurred in Bastrop, Texas. 30,000 acres and 600 homes were destroyed. The area is well known for its beautiful pine forests and the fire affected 96 percent of Bastrop State Park.

This year, for the first time the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department initiated a program to plant pine seedlings into the area and sent out a call to the local public to assist in the project.

So on Sunday (January 13th) we went out there to join 70 volunteers to help plant trees. We were all given hardhats since there was a danger of burned and dying trees falling in the stiff breeze. It was a brisk 41 degrees and everyone was pretty cold.

So armed with hardhats, sacks of tree saplings and a steel pole we were sent on our way to designated areas that were the most affected. Areas where the fire had burned so hot that even the pine seeds were sterilized.

Come on grow little sapling! You can do it!

Each sapling planted was marked with a little pink flag and after the day was done, all you could see were miles and miles of pink flags. This will allow TPWD to monitor the survival and growth rate of the saplings since this is one of the first of such endeavors.

1,913 trees saplings were planted that day and many more days have been organized for people to come out and plant. Hopefully we have some rain to help these little guys make it so that in 30 years we will have a strong, healthy young forest to enjoy.

There is just something so special about Eastern Bluebirds for me. Gentle, industrious and very diligent parents. Two years ago I put up two Bluebird nest boxes in late February and for 2 years now have had a family raise their young successfully. Last year we had 7 fledglings. The year before 8. It was wonderful to see the family raise their young and every evening since then the whole family comes to our house to enjoy an evening bath in our bird baths.Please excuse the blurry photos – they were taken through a window.

On Sunday I saw them take a bath in our tree birdbath in the warm afternoon sun. The other local birds wanted to get in on the bathing too!

Having a beehive in winter is definitely not as much work as during the summer months. It’s pretty much a sit and wait kind of deal. Instead of opening the hive to check on eggs and the queen every 11 days I just have to replenish the sugar water every 2 weeks or so. Once a month I open the lid to see if they need an extra pollen patty to help them survive the cold days. Beyond that though it really is more of watch and wait.It is important to protect the hive from the cold north winds that come blasting through. So Dick setup a very effective odd looking sail-like structure that works pretty well. (See image above) It directs the incoming winds over the hive.

We also took out the mesh front screen at the entrance of the hive that was so valuable in adding extra ventilation during those hot summer months, and replaced it with a wooden one that does double duty in keeping the hive warmer and preventing opportunistic, overwintering mice from climbing in and eating all the honey.

On this warm day, bees broke cluster and left the hive to do some ‘cleansing flights’ as well as search for nectar and water.

On cold days (below 54 degrees) the bees in the hive form a ball-like cluster so as to maintain the heat they need to survive. The colder the temperature outside, the tighter the cluster. On warmer days they break cluster and venture outside to see if there is any pollen or nectar to forage and to relieve themselves. We call this their ‘cleansing flights’. Yes, bees definitely do poop. 🙂

I have found several bees scoping out the compost pile and taking advantage of the juices of various fruit scraps. I have also seen them collecting some water from the bog of my pond. I did not know they would need water during this time. In summer they need water to cool the hive. Right now it’s cool, so I have no idea why they are collecting it.

I can’t wait for spring, to see what blossoms will emerge first and how the bees will respond to the change. I know that the first inspection of the hive in spring will be a messy one, since they have had all winter to seal up all the frames and boxes nice and tight with wax, so that no air can get in. One of the upper frames had broken during the last inspection, oozing some of their valuable honey down the hive box. They immediately started sucking up the honey and fixing the frames, ignoring my frantic words of apologies. Bees are very industrious and I am sure they immediately sealed up the frame and attached it to the lower frame box, which will make opening the hive and looking for a queen and eggs in spring a very difficult and messy task, to say the least! The bees will NOT be amused and I will suit up for sure! Should be very interesting. Hopefully they will survive the winter and early spring healthy and happy, and we get some replenishing rain so that we have a productive honey flow this year. Till then it’s a watch and wait……

The back of my 4 and half acre property is still unused at this time. Its where I keep my bees, but beyond that I have not yet decided what to do with it.

My beehive all tucked up for the winter with a wind break installed on the north side of it. Bees were actively hunting for nectar that day since it was so warm.

The previous owners had cut down all trees besides some Live Oaks (which promptly got Oak wilt -grrrrr) and had regularly mowed the grass down to the rocks so that it looked more like a moonscape when I bought the property than a grassy field. After taking the Master Naturalist course which included several classes on land restoration, I decided to leave it be and see what plants, grasses and wildlife would show up. Since late 2010 I have only mowed the entire field once and then let it do it’s thing.

My back field on a cloudy and humid Saturday 1/12/13 – un-mowed. You can see all the grass stalks for their summer seed heads.

The first thing I noticed in spring of 2012 (we won’t count 2011 because the severe drought left the field a brown dirt patch) was the amount of wildflowers that showed up. And with it the butterflies and native bees. The grasses started growing and throughout the summer I saw several different types of grasshoppers, Syrphid flies, butterflies and lizards scoping out the area. It became a welcoming place for many different species.

In mid summer I decided to mow one patch near the fence to see what a difference in wildlife occupancy it would make and come to find out it was a LOT. Even in winter. In the picture below you can see the mowed strip and while walking there I could not see any wildlife hanging around. I have also found that the long grass blades protects the underlying root systems of plants from the freezing nights we have been getting.

Mowed section of the field.

In early fall, all the grasses had finished seeding out and the local bird population had filled their bellies with seeds and bugs. Most of the wildflowers had faded so that the butterflies had moved on.  I started debating on when to mow the field. It has some invasive KR Bluestem grass on it, but more native grasses were growing too. Right now it looks like a yellow field of slender yellow sticks. On the one hand, I don’t want to mow the field down at this time because on a quick walk around the field last week I found small butterflies, grasshoppers and all kinds of bugs still living in the shelter of the grasses.

Can you see the grasshopper? This un-mowed field is still providing shelter for wildlife.

See him now? Excellent camouflage.

On the other hand though, dry tall grasses in a field can be very good kindling for a wildfire! So the debate continues. Fortunately we’ve had a very wet January so far with several inches of rain having fallen. Everything is still very damp. I think I will leave the field alone until it either gets too dry and becomes a hazard, or mow it in late winter just before the new grass blades and wildflowers start budding out.

At some point I will clear some of the more invasive grasses from an area in the field and spread out wildflower and native grass seed mix. I guess I had better get to shopping! 😀

The local cats think your car is the place to hang out!

I was visiting my friend in the city on an unusually cool Central Texas day. When I came out to leave, all her outdoor cats (they have all been fixed and she feeds them) had come out to snuggle on the warm engine of my car. They weren’t too happy when I told them that I had to leave.Talk about dirty looks!