Sweazea Minifarm

Photo of an old whiskey barrel we use to keep on the front porch.
The barrel was full of bees.
I was working in Syria at the time.
The bees stayed several days, but moved on due to the heat or
the fact that there was only one entrance.
My wife later found them in a tree in the pasture.
She called a beekeeper and he came and took them for his hives.

Never kill honey bees if you can find a beekeeper.
As of 1999, 90% of wild honey bees had died.
Managed hives decreased by 50%.

This was due to an invasion of tracheal mites followed by
an invasion of varroa mites.

Another note: Honey bees affect one out of every three bites of
food produced across this country.
The value of their pollination is enormous.

This is what was happening. A loggerhead turtle.
Large turtles will pull a duck under, drown it and bury it in the mud to
tenderize the meat. Then come back later for a meal.
As you can tell, this one was getting fat, eating duck.
My family trapped him while I was on the road somewhere.

Stormy and Murphy
(eating my paycheck)

The goose in the middle is Jimmy Durante.
He is a Black-horned China Brown.
You can tell by the brown V-shaped ruff on the back of his neck.
He is a character and my favorite (if you can have a favorite goose).

The goose on the left is Archie.
She is an American Toulouse.
I guess she has been here longer than any goose.

The goose on the right is Jimmy's girlfriend.
She is a Norwegian White.
We didn't name her.

This is about the same shot as the previous.
There is no grass at all. No winter grass last year.
No Bermuda this year.
That green you see is some kind of weed.
It must taste bad, because the geese and goats will not eat it.
We are 25 - 26" below normal for the last 20 months.
We need a break.

This is a photo shooting from the side yard of our house
toward the pond. See all that green stuff. Called grass.
This was taken about three years ago. When we had rain.

This is Murphy and me during my Man-in-Black phase.
She was a doll.

This is Big Jake.
He's five or six years old now. Thinks he is the boss.
Only problem with Jake has always been keeping weight on him.
But even when he is thin like this, he will go at around 100 pounds.
(That's Boo in the background)

These are some of my barn cats.
Without them, we would be over run with mice and rats.
I'll tell you a little about them, left to right.

1. Smokey - Smokey has passed on, but was a good cat. He had been
placed with a farmer before us. One day the farmer was petting him
and Smokey bit and scratched him pretty bad. My daughter got a call
asking if we would take him. We did. He was very gentle and got along
well with the other cats. Then one day, I was petting him. I ran my
hand under his stomach to scratch him. I knew instantly I had made a
mistake. He scratched me up a little. Smokey had a hernia. We never
touched him in that area again and he never hurt anyone again.

2. Mz. Astor - She was born on the farm and was very wild for two or
three years. Then all of a sudden, she decided she wanted some
attention. Nice cat ever since.

3. Mr. T - One of the best barn cats around. Born here and will stay here
until he dies. One of my two favorites.

4. Romeo - Romeo was placed in a cage at a very young age and was
kept there for over two years. When we got him, he could barely
stand on his back legs. When we let him out of the cage, he walked
out of the barn and just looked up in amazement.
He has been here a couple of years and experienced a lot.
A great little cat. My other favorite.

A lot of people think they are saving animals by putting them in cages
for long periods of time. I look at it like this. I think a few months or
years of freedom is better than a lifetime in a cage. We have taken in
several cats from rescue groups. I make no promises. I just give them
a place to stay, food, water and a little kindness.