Regional Round 1 finished ... one more day of school!

We are into two days of finals.  First and third block took finals today which included a final in AP and Exit Projects in Selected Topics.  Tomorrow, second and fourth blcok will take finals.  Wednesday is closing day for teachers and Friday is an inservice day.

Yesterday was the first round of the regional tournmanent.  We drew #6 state-ranked Greenwood and struggled with their pitcher's slow curveball on the outside of the plate.  Even though they had more hits than our team, we were able to string some hits together and play some short game to score two runs.  We won with a final score of 2-0. 

We made a couple of errors that did not hurt us and made several great defensive stops. KP pitched well and struck out 8.  It was a tough game but we move on against Metcalfe County tonight at WKU.

Very hot and humid this week ...

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The Mega Hive video ... a great queen or something!

I am going to try and post a short video of one of this year's mega hives ... several medium supers already filled and capped with honey ... the two on top were added recently so the bees are busy drawing out the comb in those supers.  Got a close up of the opening with bees going in and out ... one bee fight in the middle as it appears one bee is tossing out an intruder.  This hive has a lot of bee traffic ... a good sign of a strong hive.

Farm Picts and Sunday ...

This morning and early afternoon, I checked all our hives after checking on Granny.  She was up and going by the time I rolled in to check on her.  All our hives seemed to doing okay.  We have two mega hives this year that have already put in four medium supers of honey ... over 150 pounds each and it is still May.  Both are second year hives ... one is Italians and the other Buckfast.  I took some video from the one closest to the house and will try and post it.

We had hitting practice late this afternoon and it went well.  Tomorrow we will start our regional tournament with our long-time arch enemy ... Greenwood.  Should be an exciting game!

This evening I planted some seeds in flats and watered them ... mostly sunflowers and gourds.

John is here for the night ... it is good to have him home occasionally.

Below is a picture of a tree frog I found on a hive down at Long Creek.  It was on top of a white plastic top hiding in the center of a cement block on top of the hive.  It was nearly white.  I took it to the fence line and put it on a tree ... then took a picture of it.  The other pict is the corn in our second bottom ... I don't know when Rocky got it planted but between rains he did and it looks good.  My Grandfather Roberts would not be happy with the not straight rows ...

Softball draw and a long weekend!

Painting some hive bottom boards this morning early and put some foundation in about 50 frames in preparation to check our hives this afternoon.

Went to the Region 4 softball draw this morning at Warren East.  Taylor, AP and Amanda were there for the draw from our team.  We drew Greenwood, the loser from District 14 but, probably the second strongest team in the tournament.  Would have to play them to get out so why not the first game!  We both have 30 or more wins ... the only time in Region 4 history where two 30-win team faced off in the first round.
We have practice at noon on the WKU field.  Practice went well.  Stopped by for ice cream on the way home.

Got home and worked on some hives ... move one out of a nuc into a 10-frame hive.  Checked several more but all had empty frames in the top super.  I have to rework a big hive tomorrow that has an empty super on the bottom ... a lot of heavy lifting.  Will check the hives on Aunt Nell's farm and the goat field.
Hitting at 4:00 tomorrow at BSA

Went up and spent an hour talking with Granny.

David Woods helped coach Beech HS to a AAA State Championship in softball this weekend ... good for Hey Man ... he loves softball and got his start as an assistant years ago at ACS.

John is coming over to spend the night tomorrow.

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Rain ends, no practice and wrapping things up!

It rained this morning ... but, is clearing off for the weekend.  Finally some sun and maybe our bees can get back to work.

In Selected Topics today we finished our animal survey ... most students are done with school in general and it is a task to keep them going these last days.  Our exit projects presentations begins tomorrow.  Two students have quit school to get the GEDs this week.  They panic at the end of school when they can't get caught up and I guess quitting is attractive ... there seems to be a Daymar connection which I find highly suspicious!  It is all about profit ... isn't it?

AP Bio seniors are finished ... we have some videos to complete tomorrow ... looks like most redesigned game boards for our AP Review game are finished ... I have to admit ... some might be better than mine ... a least more colorful!

Softball is back to work tomorrow with practice on the field at 3:00.

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District 15 is over and storms tonight ...

Today at school, in AP Biology, we started filming our One Minute Moment in Biology videos.  Short video skits with an AP Bio topic in mind ... so far so good.

In Selected Topics we are winding down our study of the Animal Kingdom and will start on our final push to finish our exit projects.

Tonight we beat Barren County 3-1 in the District 15 Championship Softball Tournament.  This is the 14th straight year we have won ... dating back to 1998 ... and our 15th straight trip to the Region 4 tournament dating back to 1997's Auburn hosted tournament in Logan County.  A lot of years and a lot of great players.  Congrats to all from 1997 to present ... years and years of great softball!  On to Region 4 ... first round will be on Monday.

A storm line is going through Kentucky this evening ... another interrupted night sleep.

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District 15 final today and still raining!

Storms came through yesterday morning and dumped a lot of rain ... over an inch.  I ditched out the field yesterday afternoon and we will be able to play today if the rain holds off.  Hit at BSA.

In my AP classes we had BYO breakfast ... a good way to end up the year and celebrate a lot of bio talk.  Game boards are about done and our video taping begins today.

We took our BIG BIRD test in Selected Topics ... several students have been telling me the birds they have seen outside.  How can you appreciated biodiversity if you know it?  Our students generally need to get outside more!

Got home in time to tie down two hives that are really tall with an anchor and wire ... in case of high winds ... cut away the weeds from the front of several hives ... and worked in the yard some.

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First Round of District Tournament over! ... 6 more days of school!

In AP Bio today several groups wrapped up the redesign of the Review Game board.  One Minute Moment in Biology will be filmed starting tomorrow.

Selected Topics has their BIG BIRD test tomorrow ... also finishing invertebrates.

First Round of the District 15 Tournament was tonight at Allen County.  AC-S won their first round game against Monroe County in four innings 15-0.  Barren pulled off a mild upset over Glasgow in the second game which experienced a rain delay of over 30 minutes ... hence,  the late blogging.

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Busy Bees and a busy Sunday!

Checked a few hives late this afternoon ... one in the goat field is really putting away honey ... added two medium supers with frames and foundation to draw out.  The picture below is a frame from the top most super on a hive near Long Creek.  The bees in this hive is the swarm that ended up in an empty hive in our barn.  I am starting a new yard down near the creek about a mile from our house.  Should make some interesting honey.  The bees are drawing out wax on foundation in the top super ... new wax is alway so white before bee traffic dirties it.  Will have to add frames next week.

After getting in late from our barnstorming tour, I had to be at South Warren HS for the West All-star voting.  Congrats to Catie Yates, Kelsi Pardue and Sandy Young for being selected for the East - West All Star games played during the third weekend of June at UK's Field.  We have had a couple dozen players play in this series and all enjoyed the experience.

Stopped by to see Granny in the hospital upon returning to Scottsville ... cleaned and gassed the bus before helping on the softball cleanup day for our District Tournament this week.  The Patriot softball team has won the District 15 Tournament every year to date since first winning it in 1998.  That is a long winning streak!

Not much other news ... will get back to work tomorrow in AP and Selected Topics ... wrapping up our final projects.

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Softball Regular Season over ... 7 more days of school.

On Friday, AP Biology worked on their final exit projects ... letters of colleges/universities, AP Review game board redesign and The One Minute Monment - youtube video on selected AP Bio topics.

In Selected Topics we will have our BIG Bird test on Tuesday and later next week finish our Animal Kingdom review ... Big 100 Test for our final.

We ended our softball season with a barnstorming tour.  Three playing sites and five games in about 24 hours ... On Friday evening after school we beat Shelby County 10-1 and a good Franklin County team 6-1 before moving to Lexington to spend the night.  Next morning, we beat Lexington Catholic 6-1 and Lawrence County 11-1.  Got on the bus and drove down I-75 to play Corbin and won 12-0 ... their field was beautiful!  Headed home and ate a London, got in a big storm just before Somerset on the Parkway ... got home about 10:30.

Finished the season with our maximum of 36 games (a reason to win) and now off to post-season.  When we play our best we are as good as anyone and better than most teams in Kentucky.  I am hopeful for a great post-season.  There has been the regular and irregular drama this year.  Losing Macey (broken leg and smashed knee in a car accident) as a player has hurt us.  We will see ... We break out with "Count on me" and I am counting on our players ... Playing without hope of victory or fear of defeat ... One game at a time and we will see where it takes our team.

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Back from Owensboro ... again!

Started our final projects in AP Bio today ... Selected Topics is working on a review of the animal kingdom and preparing for the bird test ... yearbooks being handed out was the theme of today.

Beat Apollo HS 10-0 in five innings ... a good post-PROM start.  Off Barnstorming tomorrow with 5 games in 24 hours in three locations to end the regular season.

Going to bed!
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CATS testing over ... back to work.

Today was the last day of CATS testing for our juniors.  Today they completed the last section of Social Studies.  We have nine school days left in this year.

In Selected Topics, we are working through the Animal Kingdom ... today Nematodes ... roundworms with lots of time spent on parasites both in the US and in the tropics.  Some nasty pictures and videos held everyone's attention.  We also spend time drilling for our bird test.

AP Bio will finish the year with a couple of projects ... redesigning our review game board ... one minute videos on AP Bio review concepts ... and writing some colleges for posters.  Also a few pages out of a couple of my favorite books.

We had softball practice after school ... relays and baserunning drills, catcher throwdowns, catcher pickoffs ...

Stopped by to see Granny before heading home ... with longer days, I had time to check some hives and put on two supers on good hives.  Mowed the yard at our property in Holland ... and did some work at the house.

We are voting in Region 4 for the All-Region Seasonal teams.   Voting is due tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are going to Apollo for games then this final weekend of the season, to Lexington for five games in three locations ... a reprise of Barnstorming 2009.

Election Day and no school and picts!

No school today.  It was primary election day in Kentucky.  Today was cloudy and cool ... highs in the 50s ... not a good bee day although I saw a few out.

Tomorrow is the last day of CATS testing.  Selected topics is doing an animal survey and preparing for their bird test.

I have been looking for a softball game to take the place of the Edmonson County game that was cancelled on Monday.  Added Corbin on our way home from Lexington Catholic games Saturday morning.  Almost a repeat of our Barnstorming Tour in 2009.  We will play Franklin County and Sheby County in Frankfort on Friday night.

We had practice today and worked on bunting and bunt defense.

Today, I put foundation in about 50 frames ... too cold to mess with the bees today.  Took our mower to get repaired and then went to softball practice.  Lots of work around the house today ... planted some dahlia bulbs and worked on some flower beds.

Checked our hives in the goat field and across from Granny's.  Took some pictures in the goat field which is north of Holland but not far from our house through the woods.  The field I planted in hairy vetch, austrian peas, oats and clover is doing well.  The vetch and peas are blooming ... the picture below is of the peas and vetch ... pea blooms are unique, large and beautiful.  Also below is a picture of the two hives I have in the goat field.  The tall hive is a second year hive of Buckfast bees from Texas.  This hive has done well and has two full medium supers of honey already.  The shorter hive is a new hive.  The Weaver Italians I had there last year failed during the winter ... one of two hives I lost over the winter.  I put in some Italians I got from Kelley's in early April.  They seem to be doing well.

Sunday - Flower picts and busy day!

I went to Sunday School ... almost had to play the piano but the pianist arrived at the last moment ... good for me and the congregation since my ability to read music has deteriorated over the years.  Anything more that one flat or one sharp and it will hurt your ears.

I went in to see Granny after lunch.  She is about the same and still cannot walk.  While there, the Edmonson County coach called to cancel his game tomorrow.  Went over to the school and emailed over 20 schools to try and replace that game.  This week is the last week of regular season.

I went up to the field and ditched out a couple of wet spots in hopes of playing tomorrow.

Stopped by Food Lion for groceries on the way home.

Planted some potted plants late this evening in the rain and took some picts of my covercrop fields.  The hairy vetch is about 2-4 feet high and beginning to bloom.  Too wet and cool for honeybees but a few bumble bees were working the field.  That was surprising.

Tomorrow the CATS test continues and we are off on Tuesday for state elections.

Hairy vetch (with the oat nurse crop) below and a field daisy.

Friday and PROM tomorrow!

Wrapped the school week with the CATS science test this morning.  Generally easy questions over five areas of science ... biology, earth science, astronomy, physics and chemistry ... for juniors.  I am too tired to go on a rant about this test.

Sue Neal and I went over to see John and eat in Bowling Green.  Returned to check on Granny in the hospital and head for home at near dark.

Going to get some rest ... it has been a long 8 days with many late nights.  Will catch up tomorrow!

Hope everyone is careful tomorrow during our PROM and afterwards!

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Home early tonight!

Since we are down to varsity only, I got home from practice before 6:00.  It was wonderful!

We are doing CATS testing at school ... we were in testing about two blocks.  Met with my Selected Topics class but they (juniors) were fried from testing.  We reviewed a little for the Science test tomorrow.

Picture today tomorrow for softball and then for the most part, we are off for PROM until Monday.  I hate late PROMs ... it will be hard to get rolling again before the District Tournament.

I got our tractor started and moved some big limbs out of the yard that have been there for three weeks.

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Last game before PROM and KATS testing underway

In AP today we began to take up books and wrap up some loose ends before regrouping for a project or two as we finish the year.

In Selected Topics in Science we did a CATS practice test ... Science starts on Thursday.

We had our final softball game before PROM today and won 4-1 over Bowling Green.  I wish we could put more runs on the board early so I could get younger players more varsity experience, but, we have struggled to score runs lately.  I will be glad to get PROM out of the way and start preparing for post-season.  The District 15 tournament is at our field.

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Loss to Christian County and AP Bio test in the books!

Our AP Biology students took their AP Exam today ... the "to make a 5" question was about water potential from the diffusion and osmosis lab ... the equation and more ... will get to see the free response questions in 48 hours so will know more then ... lots of positives since the transformation lab, Hardy-Weinberg and genetics was tested heavily.

Students don't understand it is not like an exam at school in which you have to make a 90 for an A.  You only have to get about half the questions correct to make a 3 ... we will see in July!

Played Christian County after school today, they are ranked #2 ... we had 5 hits and they had 4 ... we struck out about 5 times and they struck out 14 times ... hard to believe we lost 4-0 ... but, they had three home runs.  They have always been able to hit well ... they are the poster children for a short to long swing.

So, after two losses we will be out of the top place after carrying that burden for over a month.  Time to step back and take a little time to plan a path to get better before post-season.  PROM is Saturday so we will have a few days off before a big last week of play in regular season.

That's it for today ... a long day!
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Late Nights and putting 2011 AP Bio to bed!

We had our final review for AP Biology today at the HS ... We had about 15 students there reviewing for the big test.   We missed three weeks of school which is a lot of time out of a semester effort to teach the AP Bio course.  We were able to get in the all the AP Labs ... a total of 30 lab days ... leaving the rest for content.  Several students have reviewed well so I am optimistic that we will have several 3's and a few 4s or 5s.  It will depend on the free response questions.

Played in Owensboro three nights straight returning home at 2:00 AM last night.  Today in addition to a 2 hour review session, I checked all 19 of our beehives and added frames with foundation.  All are doing well and a few have full supers already full of honey ... about 40-50 pounds each.  Need some sunny days with no wind!

At the softball tournament this weekend, we won 4, loss 1 and tied one (on time limit) ... Had OCHS beat but lost with several errors ... both Catie and KP pitched well and generally we played well in the tournament with some timely hitting.  We will take the loss and try to get rolling again tomorrow against #2 ranked Christian County at home.  We are now on track to play our limit of 36 varsity games.

Our freshman team won the Warren East Tournament this weekend.  This is their last week of play.  All together we are getting in about 70 games this season at all levels ... not bad for the wettest April on record.

All our children checked in for Mother's Day ... Rachel was in Miami this weekend, Hannah attended a Giants game and John is preparing for finals at WKU ... all are busy like Sue Neal and I.

It was a beautiful day here ... lots of sun and warm.

Good luck to all AP Bio students!  Get some sleep tonight!

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Review, review, review ... AP Test Monday

We will be reviewing Sunday at 4:00 ...  for the AP Bio Test at the HS ... I know it is Mother's Day ... pledge to give her a 3+ ... that would be a great Mother's Day gift.

Got home after midnight from the Owensboro tournament and going up again this morning ... beat Madisonville 2-0 and tied with Fern Creek 0-0 ... offensively anemic performance ...

Bp before school, acs 11 - glasgow 2 and more AP review ...

Today we had batting practice for the varsity starting at 6:15 ... hitting then breakfast!

In AP Biology, we continued to review our cheat sheets for content and labs ... also, we looked over previous free response questions.  Review continues tomorrow!

We read in our Current Science magazine in Selected Topic and continued to work on our exit projects.  Organ systems and CATS review tomorrow.

We played our last district game against Glasgow this evening and hit well ... maybe it was the AM practice.  We had not played in nine days which is too long.  We play at Daviess County tomorrow.

Stopped to see Granny on the way home.

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AP Bio Review tonight ... hitting early AM

We had AP Bio review from 5-7 this evening ... we went over the last ten years of free response questions ... some themes ... proteins/structure and function, Central Dogma/replication-transcription-translation, food chains/energy flow ... photosynthesis and respiration,  genetic crosses, 12 labs of AP ...  we continue our review tomorrow.

Selected Topics worked on their exit projects.

In softball today we were in the gym then to hit at BSA, varsity only.  Looks like we will be back on the field tomorrow to play Glasgow in our final regular season district game of 2011.

Stopped by to see Granny at the hospital after AP Bio review ... she is having a hard time getting back on her feet.

We have hitting before school for the varsity ... thinking about moving a hive on Thursday morning before school while it is cool.

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One week until the AP Bio showdown!

A rainy day again in southern Kentucky ... the weather is suppose to clear up after Tuesday.   The blackberries are blooming so our bees could put away some great honey.

In AP today, we worked on some organ system questions and finished our AP Lab cheat sheet with the graphs from all our labs.  We are working in review now until next Monday ... Tomorrow, we will have an evening of review from 5-7.

In Selected Topics, we are studying organ systems.  Today was a discussion about the immune system and muscles  ... a case for breast feeding and what make a good muscle contraction.  We also worked on our Exit Projects.

We were suppose to play Riverdale HS (TN) today but rained out.  We hit at BSA after school, 40 players and three hours of hitting ... another 3000 swings.  We added two games at the end of our schedule.

Grading papers tonight.

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Sunday ... rain of course!

After Sunday school and after lunch, I worked the rest of our hives adding new frames.  They are in various states of working into Spring ... I still am worried about one hive swarming ... maybe two have already swarmed ... hard to tell at this point and I am rarely home to check on them.

We had some AP review between 3-5 ... at the high school.   Afterwards, I put all the beekeeping supers and equipment away.

This week is review week for AP ... every day and some other times.

Selected Topics will finish their study of organ systems and work on their exit projects.

My hairy vetch covercrop is starting to bloom and I will try to remember to take some pictures.

Tomorrow our softball team is suppose to play Riverdale HS in TN.  They are ranked in the top 10 of the national NFCA high school poll.   Weather does not look good!
We have a busy week in softball ... lots of week games and two tournaments this weekend ... varsity and two teams in Warren East's freshman tournament.  After this week, it will be varsity only for the rest of the season.