Caelifera femur

It's just fun typing that.

Ah, the smell of tractor fumes in the morning

The big boy is Curly. I'm talking about the bull. See photo at bottom if you doubt his bullness. Curly works hard to maintain his alpha status. Here he's troughed a bull calf who's just starting to emerge from the four-leg dunking. What better way to say you're #1?

Alright Already

I'm finding these on a regular basis. Yesterday we found a huge Black Widow in one of the hives (in the screened-off bottom area -- separated from the bees/honey). She was sitting next to a spiked egg sac -- which strikes me as odd since I think the spiked variety belongs to the Brown Widow (pictured here and populating like crazy). Black trumps Brown? Daaamn! I'm not keen on either.

Residents and Visitors

The top critter has moved in and set up shop (hmmm). The cute little bee (that's my thumbnail) had deformed wings and was only able to scramble along the ground, alas). Don't ask me about the cicada-bee-goliath thing (first time I've seen anything like it). The last one, you tell me. I generically call it a garden spider (kind of like LBJ with birds -- Little Brown Jobs).
Welcoming all insights.