Snow Tilling

I started rototilling the field this morning, and it started SNOWING!!!
We keep setting dates to plant the garden, but the weather is just not cooperating. We're aiming for next Saturday, April Fool's Day! I hope it won't be me that's fooled again. It's supposed to be freezing or below most nights this week, so we didn't plant anything today. Ben came by and said he'd come next Saturday and help, and I'll have my brother's girls, 5 and 7 years old. It's supposed to be in the 70's. I'll hope!
BG cleaned the basement apartment for company next weekend. A nice couple looking at the area to possibly move here when he retires. They would be a great addition to the area.
BG and I moved the old doors and trash off the downstairs porch and cleaned up the shed storage area to store them. BG has muscles! With her on the other end, we move air conditioners and building materials around to clean up an area that had gotten really messy. I got a workout, she wasn't breathing hard.
I picked all the lettuce yesterday, so the roots will have something to do besides grow. I hope to slow down the plants until I can get them into the ground. I divided the ones that had come up two or more to a place, and filled in the blank space in the planting trays. Busy work to keep me in the sweet smelling, warm greenhouse. Having done the taxes, I can see that it would be much cheaper to buy our veggies at the store.
I remember an essay by playwright Arthur Miller, who mused that there was something in him that demanded that he plant a garden every spring, but not for food, for the planting of it. He bought a farm for his garden.
Maybe I'm that way. I can't imagine not having something to plant in the spring. It represents so much: Hope, Faith, Connections. Like having children, a home by water, a real wood fire in the fireplace, a cold room when I'm sleeping, sunshine to wake me up, dogs, cats, stars in the sky, birdsong. I feel these things viscerally, gut-feel them. I need them. When I'm gone they will go on, eternally, here or on another planet.

Tulips in the snow

Winter Revisits

The plants in the greenhouse are ready to get planted outside. The beds are mainly ready for them. The weather was cooperating, until now. Night temperatures are falling into the mid twenties, and day temps are only into the 50s. I'm hoping that the spinach and lettuce will be alright if they're covered with frost cloth. The peas have been stunted by the cold nights; the broccoli just died. Rats! Replant!

Gardening Heaven

It was warm enough to check soaker hoses today. I installed them in the beds as I checked them, so it was a slow process. Tomorrow I'll finish installing them and start covering the weeded ground with newspaper. Then I can plant through holes in the paper. I'll put a time release fertilizer plug beside each plant and be done for the season. Hah! There are always problems: Hungry Bugs, especially.

In Ft Walton Beach, where family lives, it's already Summer. They are about a month ahead of us. Grass mowing has begun in earnest, and the heat has started. I envy them in the winter, but right now is such a lovely time here.

I'm looking forward to spring weather for the next week. I'll check on the bees after I get the Spring garden planted. They seem to be happy, though.

Season's changing

I can feel the world turning when I'm in the garden with the sun moving on my back. With the Maple blooms turning to seeds and the soil warming up despite the cool air, I feel the season turning into full spring.

The bees are seeking water, pollen and nectar in everyplace they can go. In the garden they're everywhere snooping around. Buzzzzing and tasting, hoping to find something good. I love to hear them, and rejoice seeing them, and have a vague feeling they're pulling me into spring. Silly me. I guess I like them for their optimistic hard work. No depressed honeybees! No sitting around, no philosophy, no dreamy bees! The antithesis of me! Hah!

I checked the baby plants that I'd covered with jugs and coke bottles, worried that they might be parboiled. They were perky and happy. I'm trying to think of how to keep the weeds down and the only thing that occurs to me is newspaper, so I guess I'll wet it and plant through it. If I use three sheets I can use staples to hold them down and the water will still go through. Next week it's supposed to be warm enough to check and repair hoses, a very wet job. Then I can put soaker hoses in all the beds. That's a job I should have done last fall! Shoulda, woulda!

The greenhouse is really full, warm and moist. It smells rich and loamy with all the growing plants. Most have their second set of leaves and will need to be set out in the next week.

Taxes are hounding me. Please, Lord, help me get them done soon. I have to force myself to sit and work on them!

Glorious Day!!

It was 78F in Richmond today. The air was like silk.
I met Dawn, a beginning beekeeper, here and we started looking at hives and putting in the pollen patties I made last night. The hives that had pollen patties looked stronger than the three that didn't get them last time around. They're bringing in pollen, but still eating the patties. We're going to have about 10 days of chill, so I figured I'd use this blessed warmth to stock them up. The hive where I'd combined two weak hives had died out. There were enough bees, but evidently they just couldn't make it. Mysterious. I think that the mild winter has allowed some of my weaker hives to survive. . I moved the honey to a hive that didn't have a feeder so they could use the leftover honey to feed on instead of letting the bees rob it out.
When I finished the bees, I cut the bottoms out of milk jugs and put them over the broccoli plant, then covered the 4 planted beds with the frost cloth, which I'd removed so they could soak up the last three days of sun and warmth.
I stayed outside until dead dark, bringing in the baby plants and watering in the greenhouse. I just hated to see this day end.

How's the Diet Going?

I've had to become diet obsessed to lose this accretion of fat. I'm using the Nutridiary website to help me stay in the healthy range, and it seems to be working. Right now I'm balancing on a plateau and learning what it takes to change the eating habits. One thing I've learned is that it's difficult to get enough iron and calcium. I thought that if I was eating meat and broccoli I'd be OK. Not so. I have to eat 3/4 cup of Total cereal to get the RDA for both those and A & C. I'm so surprised. I am aiming for 20% fat, 20% protein, and the rest carbohydrates. Most of the time I'm way over the limit of sodium, and I crave the stuff. I'm working to gradually lower it. It's a learning experience and my curve is very long and low. At the end of this Blog you can see my weight loss.

My goal is a modest one pound a week, and I'm losing at 2 pounds a week so far. As I lose the rate will slow, and the plateaus will get longer. I figure my body's getting readjusted to itself, and I'm content to let it do so. My mind, appetitite, and body image has to do that too. I figure plateaus are a learning experience. I'm on that 5 year plan: 2 to lose it and 3 to learn how to keep it off. The goal is to maintain a normal weight. The process, not an end-point, is the true goal. I'm weighing daily, to see how the water/salt combination makes my weight fluctuate. I also have 'off' days where I eat too much. No matter, as long as I record everything so the computer program is correct. GIGO...Garbage in = Garbage Out. I want to keep accurate information so I can plot my progress. So far, so good.

Today I made a big meal: pork loin, broccoli, baked potatoes, biscuits, tomatoes, rice, cornstarch gravy, broccoli, baked carrots & onions; ate mostly the veggies, and 2 biscuits. Sam was so pleased!

So that I will look in the fridge and find something healthy to eat, I chopped up lots of onions, celery, etc. to go with the chopped lettuce, cucumbers and grated carrots already there. I'll also use some to make faux crab salad and chicken salad for Sam and Susan. BG is keeping us in fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. A huge salad, with 1/2 cup homemade croutons is about 250 calories.

I'm still enjoying figuring out lower calorie recipes. Two days ago I concocted a big pasta salad w/ beans, celery, onion, tofu, grated carrots, grated cheese, etc with Fat Free Caesar salad dressing. It's really good, Susan even likes it. I figure for each 1 1/2 cup there's a cup of pasta and rest veggies, beans & tofu. It's about 250 calories for a cup and 1/2. I got some red miso & agar thickening @ the RIC health store, which I will try in my veggie-heavy chicken soup. That should fill me up

Taxes tax more than my income.

Every year I do my taxes myself. I figure that I'm the one who'll have to talk to the IRS agent, and I want to know precisely what I've filed. It's a matter of control. The buck stops here. I'm responsible. I do them with the idea that I WILL have to justify them to someone. Even if it's myself. Just the facts, Ma'am.
I start in February and finish by the end of March, at the latest. Then I think about it for two weeks, so I haven't missed anything, hopefully. I couldn't pay anyone to do this. I was given an estimate of $1000 to do them, and that was years ago. It would irk me to pay what it's worth, especially since most of the preparers these days want you to do all the adding up before they tackle the job. So I use the tax program and noodle all the figures myself. I take every deduction that is legal, down to the penny. I used to figure all the medical costs, even though they weren't deductible for us. I quit that. I am obsessed with taxes and accounting for TWO months.
Think of all I could do if we had a flat tax system. It'd put alot of folks out of business!

Maple blooms = Spring!!!

These arches between the raised beds are to grow beans and cucumbers,. or even indeterminate tomatoes. They're spaced over alternate walkways so we can work the beds from the non-arched side. The space will be filled with welded wire to make a continuous tunnel. We'll pick from the underside. The drawback is that they will cast shade on the beds. Another summer, another experiment.

Look up!

I showed CC the log with the older oyster mushrooms, pictured below. He looked at both it and the log I'd picked the 12 pounds off of, gazed around and said "Were those too high?" I finally saw this cascade of mushrooms about 13 feet off the ground. They're on both sides of the dead oak.

Snow is a Memory

Spring snows are so convenient. They come, they're gorgeous. They leave. A bit soggy, but that's fixed by the following sun.
I took the pictures in the vertical Flickr badge just as the sun was coming out. Within an hour most of the twigs had no more snow and by evening the only snow was where the sun couldn't reach. By Thursday it's supposed to be 65F. Spring is here. I know because I saw a maple blooming in the treetops where the sun hits. In the shade the bright scarlet blooms will be later. A beekeeping friend said that his girls were bringing in pollen in that last warm spell. Sunday the air will be back to 40s.
I'm hoping that the higher humidity, cold snap, and then the warm-up will bring out some more oyster mushroom flushes. I'll start hunting tomorrow.
BG and I potted up the plants that had sprouted and replanted all the flats with fresh dirt and new seeds. We didn't get a good germination rate on what we'd planted before, so we've used a planting mix that has a fungicide and fresh seed.
BG's foot massage, Reflexology based, has helped Sam's feet and legs immensely. He's sleeping without pills and walking steadier. She's going to work on a friend's feet this week.
I put all of my Flickr pictures on the 'Public' setting so they can be downloaded. No pride of authorship. The one with daffodils in the snow is my sister's favorite.

OH ! Snow !

I am so happy to see some of this white stuff! It's probably the last we'll see until the end of 2006, so I'm determined to enjoy it. It's supposed to snow all night, so I'll take more photos tomorrow.

Pictures can't do justice!

This Beech's earliest date is 1925

A kitchen full

The tree with older mushrooms

12 pounds of Oyster Mushrooms

It would have been 25 or more if I'd gotten out yesterday or before. I took a short-cut behind the sheds to check on a log that had been sprouting oyster mushrooms. Farther back there were two big tree boles covered with them. One had sprouted earlier than the other, so those were too old to pick. I picked most of the others. I'll clean and dry as many as I can fit in my dehydrator, and stew the rest for freezing. Oyster stew tonight!

Otters in the Lake!

I stand at the kitchen window and watch the waves in the lake made by our resident River Otters. I thought they were only passing through, but now they've been here long enough to be called resident... until they eat all the slow moving fish, that is.
I rarely see them, but I see huge rings of water and swirls rising from their antics underwater, mostly in the mornings. When I've walked around the lake they get curious enough to float with their heads and bodies just out of the water, like sea otters in California, and watch me. If I stop and look at them they'll dive, like porpoise.
I figure they're the ones who've been eating the Israeli Carp and leaving the skulls and sometimes the skeletons. They're called 'Fishermen's Friend', but all my redneck buddies tell me that I should let them kill them. A good pelt can sell for $1500!
Not in my lake! Too interesting to watch. Our lake needs some fish culling. Supposedly Bass are too fast for the Otters. We'll see!

Yesterday was a Gift!

It was 70F, but felt like 75 or more. Warm sun, light breeze, birds singing and most important: the bees were flying.
That meant there were fewer bees in the hives to get upset when I opened the hives.
It was predicted to be 50F & rainy. What a gift!
I loaded the Gator with the buckets of syrup (super thick, gooey), the bee tool bucket, bottles of water warm from the greenhouse & an empty bucket for trash. I raided the kitchen for scooping tools and a bag of rags.
Once into a couple of hives (nice girls!) I found out that some of the styrofoam top feeders had sprung leaks from being chewed on by wax moths. One feeder has wax moths salted through the whole bottom. They went straight in. Grrrrrr.
I think that I can coat the bottoms with fiberglass, silicone or something similar.
I was happily through four hives when I opened a feisty one. Like a cloud of avenging angels! I walked through the weeds back to the shed, looked for the duct tape, taped the ankles and wrists and lit the smoker. They were with me all the way! Fewer, but enough so they were a bother. Serious Girls: Bent on a mission!
When I got back and smoked them down, I found that they'd gone through about half of their pollen patty. It's two boxes, and they seem to have it filled. I really need to get some "Imrie shims" to give me enough room for a larger pollen patty and a bag feeder. All the bees were eating their pollen patties well. I need to make more and put them in the freezer.
That was one of the feeders that leaked, so I pulled an empty drawn frame and, using my hive tool, scraped some of soft sugar syrup into the wax cells. It worked fairly well. I did that on a couple other hives. I also filled the inner cover on the downhill side with the soft crystallized syrup. The bees will put it in cells where they want it.
Overall, they looked good. I think the tape and smoke will be necessary until 'real' spring comes. I still think I have a couple of losses to come. It may depend on the weather.

Down Two: 18 left

I found two hives that had dwindled and died. I now have 18 hives, two of which might still die. The girls were not happy to have their hives opened to put in the pollen patties! They told me so in unmistakable terms. Finally, I brushed them off my ankles and wound duct tape around my socks. Relief. Think of all the bees I saved from a kamikaze death. I still smushed too many by opening the hives. Woe.
I hope the addition of the pollen patties outweighs the bee's deaths. Some folks say that the bees prosper in spite what we do. It could be that my adding the pollen patties, breaking the seal of propolis that keeps the wind out, will cause enough of a heat loss that a weaker hive will die.
After the rain that is predicted for the next few days, I'll go back into the hives and give them more syrup. If I see a chance in between showers I may do it tomorrow.
Meanwhile, back to taxes.

Bees! Bees! Bees!

Today I answer the BIG QUESTION! How many hives do I have?
Everytime someone hears about the bees they want to know that number! So do I!!!
So, today, about 3PM the temperature should get close to 65F. I wish that would happen earlier, but this is still winter. I am going to put a pollen patty on the top of each broodnest, which should be in the top of each hive, by now, & I'll top up their corn syrup supply, adding water where needed to soften it. I'm debating putting a jar of water in a front feeder (boardman feeder) on each hive, since the bees need water to thin the syrup and to raise the humidity for brood rearing. I can do that another day. I won't leave the hive open for longer than necessary, so I don't chill the brood, if any. The forsythia are blooming, so there should be at least a tiny patch.
We have had some nights that were very cold, but no snow this January, so if I have dead hives I know that it's fewer than it would have been with a hard winter. We could have winter coming, but I'll be surprised. You can see the pictures of the daffodils in the snow from last years Mardi Gras snow! That cold spell killed two hives (sniff, sniff).
When broodrearing starts it will be a tiny patch, maybe only a few cells, that they can keep at 96F constantly. After capping the pupating bees don't need outside warmth as much. Once they hatch, they'll warm the hive so more larva can be raised. Even the tiny clusters of bees will raise some brood.
This is where the parasitic mites take their toll. If the wintering bees were not properly nourished as larva, their lifespan may not match the length of the winter, and the cluster will lose their warmth. That's often the case where lots of hives die in the spring. When the Tracheal Mites hit England the beekeepers had huge early spring losses. The mites can only be seen in the spiracules of the affected bees by a microscope. It took alot of research to find the cause. Now the bees and mites have developed a modis vivendi. We are all hoping that will happen with the Varroa mites. We are breeding for it, and the mites are inevitably working toward it.
End of lecture! I can see you're all asleep! Will report on the girls.

Woof! Woof!

Tax Time!!
Spring is creeping up fast, & I need to get the taxes done before the spring rush overwhelms me. About the time taxes are due the garden will be crying for work and the Beehives will need constant vigilance against swarming. I buckle down tomorrow and start the tallying process so I can plug the numbers in as soon as the tax programs gets here.
First I have to get the bookkeeping program fixed. Then enter a bunch of numbers into it. Time's awasting!!

Still stuffed, but recovering

I now know that one day of overeating can make me miserable for several days. Ugh. However, it seems to have broken the plateau I was on. I could only eat a little yesterday, and this AM I'm down below the plateau. Hooray!

It looked like rain yesterday, all day, but only tiny sprinkles. I'm looking forward to finally getting some rain to bring the oyster mushrooms & woodears back. I'm looking forward to tasting the woodears, since they are so prized by the Japanese. They use them in soups, like my favorite soup with clear noodles and asparagus.

The folks who came by Saturday were so excited about mushrooms and gardening that we never got into the bees. RG, the guy, says he's using hydroponics on his backporch and growing lots of veggies. He was very excited about the greenhouse. He and BMcD left with lots of ideas. RG says he wants to help us with our garden this year. He works out of town for two weeks on and home for a week, I think.

That tiny hive is still alive, but has dwindled so much that I have little hope for it getting through to the summer.

Culling The Herd !

I can hardly believe anyone would do this! (See the story in red) Truly they must feel immortal! Or they're such Adrenaline Junkies that they're using any excuse for a fix. Probably it just seemed like a good idea at the time!

There Ain't No Free Lunch!

I declared a free day yesterday. As in, I could eat anything I wanted. Indulge myself. So I ate homemade onion dip with saltines; spare ribs; hot dogs. I suffered most of last night, and today. My stomach was all twisted up, and let me know about it! I couldn't eat anything until this afternoon. Well, lesson learned? Yes, but with my hard head I figure I'll have to learn it over again. Bran Flakes never tasted so good! I'm still averaging 1500 Kcal. Back on the wagon!

Learning Curve

I learned how to re-boot the Local Area Network (LAN) for the house. It went down yesterday AM and the guys from HSC talked me through it this AM. So simple: Turn it off, wait, Turn it on. Voila! Everything re-boots re-loads the settings and we're back on line. The key is to know which button to push, and how long to push it. I would never have guessed that you have to just tap it to make it work.
I'm also learning that my Dear Husband (DH), wanting me to be 'Happy', will encourage me to break my diet. He likes the 'idea' of my 'slimming', but can't stand that I have to deprive myself to get to a NORMAL, Healthy weight. So he came to me yesterday and pleaded with me to take my book to a restaurant and eat 'a good meal'. Stupid me to listen to him. Foolish me to DO It. The thing I really craved was the chips & salsa! I'm craving salt. Imay need to re-educate my taste buds by going salt-free for a while. I suspect that will help the weight, too.
So, I'm back on the wagon. I'm going to look for some more of those oyster mushrooms today. Macks will love that.
The good news is that I got the scale's fat calculator working again. I'm 46% fat. That means I'm 111 pounds (!) (if the weight of the fat is removed). So all I have to do is set up the conditions to lose the fat and preserve the muscle mass. With a normal 20% fat I'll be 133. It looks so much more achievable that way. It IS achievable!!!

Oyster Mushrooms for Free!

I went for my walk in the woods today, and deliberately looked for the oyster mushrooms I found and ate the other day. I hit the jackpot. Picked 3# 10 oz, cleaned. They were heavy with the rain, so they'd weigh closer to 2# dry, I figure.
I made a mushroom stew by sauteing them with about 2 T garlic and adding the Garlic Mushroom soup (Campbell's) and beef broth. The water from the sauted mushrooms thinned it out. I had my first helping over rice, and the second on saltines! Very tasty! Mostly free, and right on my diet! I'll look for more tomorrow. This makes me anxious to go back out in the woods. I need the exercise, too.

News: Susi worked (kinda)

BG came yesterday, which meant it was a work day for me!! While my guests, the boys and the Father, did their visiting at Hampden Sydney College, she & I planted all the flats in the greenhouse with spring veggies. Then we went to look at the weedy raised beds. I was all for leaving them alone, but BG started tearing out weeds, and cleaning out the old mulching newspapers and plants that either hadn't flourished or were long dead.

Then she looked at the stockpiled rotted horse manure and so 'we' got the tractor out to start filling the beds with it. Of course, I'm a reluctant participant in this, since it's a lot of WORK!!! She has the energy & drive, and I'm still getting up out of my chair!

We used the front end loader to scoop up the well rotted manure. Sounds easy? It isn't. I'm on the tractor, BG gesturing which way to move the loader.... and I'm trying to remember how to move the joystick control to make it go the right way. And it's a hydrostatic transmission, which means there are two accelerators, one forward & one for backing on the right & the brakes on the left. I kept wanting to hit the forward accelerator to stop! WRONG!

My peabrain was overloaded. I had to tell myself what to do out loud, so I could translate BG's wishes into what I had to do with the controls. By the end of the task I was doing better, but poor BG's frustration level was high. She was shoveling the whole time, so each bucket load would be a full one. I was sitting on the tractor uselessly watching her work.

Each load she'd shovel in, because I couldn't get a full load by just scooping (unlevel ground, operator error). Then she'd jigtime over to the bed and guide me in so I didn't dump it on the ground. I'm sitting, she's moving fast. It didn't help that I'd had the stuff put on top of tarps which got tangled up in the manure, and made the last foot or so a dense muddy mess. We did this for about 3 hours.

How can she work at that pace! I called for the only break, as I remember!

See: New Permanent Pictures

I've added lots of photos to the Flickr website, so ask me to email you access to them. GT has ask me not to post folks faces so I can't do the one's of the Schlosser's wedding. I'm loading some garden pictures and will do some of P&B's girls if I can find some that fit GT's restrictions.

Buggy Woman!

We've decided to forgo a second dog. We say later, but that means Max will be our OAO (Navy for One & Only - LOL)
We're going to have a house full of young men this weekend, so my exercise is to clean the basement. That means I have to put the tiny beehive somewhere.
Yesterday I walked for 3 ½ hours around the Eastern boundary of our land. Macks had a ball! Woof! Woof!

I thought that guys weren't skittish about bugs, but GT told me differently.
She was the first to get to the St Vincent apartment & settled into what, by her standards was an OK situation. However her Roomie didn't agree and thought that it was substandard. They heard that a 3 bedroom in the same enclave was available & went to look at it. Before they did they asked the vacating guys why they were leaving so precipitously. One of the last two to arrive had found a spider in his room! Not just 'A Spider' but "A Huge SPIDER!!!!". It was as big as his palm. Gwin said the guys killed it, but refused to live there. Bear in mind, on this 3rd world island the spider population probably outweighs the human population, in the aggregate! But these guys thought that this spider was 'Apartment specific'. Wait 'til they find out the truth! Welcome to the real world!
GT, being my daughter, swept up the spider, taped up the cracks, and moved into the 'Spider room'. Their loss, her gain! She and Roomie found a likeminded third Roomie and now have a bath for each bedroom and better accommodations.

Angie & Joe's Blog !

Angie & Joe are going to keep us up on their lives, too.

http://theschlossers.blogspot.com

Now if I could just get our West coast contingent to do it....

Ahhhhh, Normal at last !!

I went outside yesterday for the first time in a week! Today I went to the Doctor's and then wandered my way back through Richmond and eventually Amelia County Courthouse and home.

Normalcy is underrated.

GT is starting her own web log: HTTP://Gwinny.Blogspot.com
I'll link to it when it's up and running.

The Doctor was pleased that all my numbers were good, and the fat numbers were the best I've ever had. Total Cholesterol was 167. Maybe they mixed the samples up.

I lost about 10 pounds while I was sick. Most of that was empty gut and dehydration. I'd rather lose it more slowly and keep it off. Tomorrow starts the regular walking. My first goal is to go around the small lake once a day. The rest of the trails will get used later. All I read emphasizes regularity over intensity for the first couple weeks. And I'll log it, like I'm doing the food.

The tiny hive I rescued from the tree is still alive. I don't think they'll make it through the whole winter, but I'll see how long I can maintain them. I got 5 pounds of pollen today for pollen patties this spring. February is the time for them.

BG seeded lettuces and I'm going to start some spinach, etc, asap. I stopped by the wholesaler and got two big bags of potting soil and a box of time release fertilizer plugs. They cost 6 cents each, but last all season. Great for me, since it means I can plant and cover the ground with mulch for the season.
I'm still hungering for a drip irrigation system. It would be a wonderful help with the raised beds.

Cruising to Recovery

I can't imagine getting this gut virus when on a cruise. It's been miserable enough being home with it. I'm sore from doing nothing but sitting or sleeping. Too sick and weak to read or do anything. I've done Sudoku and puzzles to occupy myself. Took me an hour to do a simple crossword puzzle!

I must be feeling better, though, since I've got a meatloaf in the oven.

To the Rescue !!!

Yesterday I was called to a friend's house to rescue a tiny bunch of bees from a tree they had just cut down. Bless them, they suspended operations until I could load up and get down the road to them. Then they helped me prise open the trunk and get the bees out. The queen was so young she could fly... and did, several times. We finally caged her and left the small nucleus (hive body) to let the flying bees smell out their Mom (or sister, if they superceded their Mom).

Not thinking of any other place to let them rest undisturbed, I put them in the basement bathroom, in the dark and warmth. I included some of their comb that had some honey in it, but I'll have to put a feeder on tomorrow. They had already been decimated by the cold, and there couldn't have been more than 3-4 cups of bees, but maybe they'll make it. I read that the smallest hive that had a chance of survival was 120 bees. This is surely more than that... with a very young queen.

I think they were a swarm from my hives, which my neighbors called me to come see. We couldn't find them when I got there, but this is the result. They would have died out with this current cold snap, except for their tree being cut and having been tucked away in my basement.

Unhappy Girls

Christmas Eve was warm, so I decided that was the day to check on the girls in the hives. Even though it was in the high 60's they weren't pleased about my nosiness.
There were two dead hives, too few bees to stay warm, and two weak ones that I joined up. I had to move some of the hives so the sun could get to them. The girls flew low and covered my ankles. I should have used duct tape over my socks. There's no brushing them off when your hands are carrying the hive to a new stand. It was more the actual pricking of my skin, rather than the venom, that made my ankles painful that night! Imagine poking needles all over your ankles. I took benedryl and lavished them with lanacaine before going to bed for 13 hours! Thank goodness my immunity to the venom held up. All was well but the bruising in the morning.
The girls who valiantly defended their homes died. I got off easy. It hurts more to have lost them than to have been stung by them. Their loss may be the difference between that hive living through the winter or dying due to too few bees to stay warm. Spring will tell.

*******Winter Wonders********

.....Mama Macks & Baby Booger.......

............Beehives in the Snow...........

Greenhousing

The greenhouse is cleaned out and ready to go! BG and I are going to figure out what seeds we have and need. Then, look at the calendar and figure out when we seed the flats for set out. Oh, frabulacious JOY! Spring is coming! The calendar is moving! I'm going to make a fire for the delight of sitting by it with seed catalogues on my lap! Now, if it would just snow.

Notice the New Link

LOOK TO THE RIGHT!

I have finally figured out the 'Link' problem.

You'll notice I put a link to Google News and to Maj Robert Bateman's Website. When I found his website I had to figure out how to link to it. He writes really good essays about military life, and things he's experienced in Iraq AKA 'The Sandbox'.

I'll add more links as I get to it: Iraq The Model; Yahoo News; etc

There are some blogs I've stumbled across that merit a link.

I've been playing Sudoku lately, and recommend it for those who are tired of crossword puzzles. It's pure logic, so no vocabulary is needed. Fortunately there are lots of easy ones. I'm afraid I'm not good at it, but getting slowly better.

A Mother's Prayer

Well, GT is getting settled in to another volcanic island in the Caribbean. So far it sounds better than Grenada: better grocery, phone and internet service, etc. The apartment has a good view and air conditioning, at least in the bedrooms.

Today she got the car, groceries, telephone, internet, and stuff out of storage (shipped from Grenada). She's unpacked and having a bunch over for supper, for which they're grateful, I bet. Last night was alone in a strange land, so I'm sure all are glad for company. (Haven't we all done that!)

Monday classes start. By then the island of St Vincent in the Grenadines will be a known area and a feeling of familiarity will have begun. I'm so glad that she went down early enough to get settled.

Booger & Fuzz-Butt

The Cat Boys, Booger & Fluff-butt, are sleeping off their encounter with my brother-in-law's knife. Most men flinch when they think about what our baby boys had done... You guessed it! They'll be Muuuuch calmer in the future! Gooooood boys. They come home tomorrow!

When Fuzz came home from Daisy's he fit back into the house, licking Macks, sparring with his brother in rolling fights all over the house.

By this morning, after a night of fun, they were best friends.

Wishing You a Happy & Productive New Year!

This year our family is looking forward to new members arriving. There's not much that says HOPE like a newborn baby.

Each new year is a tabula rasa, a blank sheet, to be written on in our best hand. I hope that our actions, in the aggregate, will inscribe this new year in such a way that we can look back proudly on our accomplishments. We will never walk this path again. We write in stone. Pray we write well.

Hope your Christmas was a good one!

My family has been to see each other in various places... Enjoying the catching up of news and the sight of loved faces. Face to face meetings are more than just seeing and talking. I believe that the scent, touch and body language of our loved ones fills the space in the meetings. Physically touching is so very important to our animal nature.

My brother has some traits that are remarkable in these transient times. He works to keep his family close and to keep his friends. He has never lost a friend, to my knowledge, and actively works for their success. When he has a business going he finds ways to profit his friends, who then work hard to make the business a success. Quid pro quo. He is well known in his business circle as one who treats his colleagues as well as he wanted to be treated when he worked for others. He makes friends wherever he does business. He gives, of himself, his time and his experience.

My brother also leads the way in family relations. He epitomizes the loyal, generous patriarch. He reaches out to us, even to the ones who are veering off the path and headed for trouble. I admire his constant reaching out to the extended family... Even those who might not answer him this year, but might the next. Gradually they realize he is not a fair weather friend. He treats family as if they were friends and works to make them his friends.

Back on the wagon!

OK, friends, start praying for this old tub of lard to shed some poundage! I'm using the website 'Calorie-count.com' to post food, exercise and thoughts about my struggles. The website has lots of solid info on nutrition and health. There's also a nice forum at 'Caloriesperhour.com' that seems supportive, along with calculators to see what you have to do. I used their calculators to find that my BMI is 35+ and it'll take me 18 months to lose this 77 Lbs. That's June 07! Sounds like by that time this new way of eating will be engraved in my head.

It didn't accrete quickly, so it will have to slide off gradually too! That's assuming no backsliding.

This is the third day, so I'm not feeling deprived yet. If I can manage it I won't get far enough into the calorie deficit to feel as if I'm starving. I really have to control the desperation that that engenders.

I have to push myself on the exercise part. Macks would love to help me with that, I think!

We have been given 3 gifts of oysters, so one of my meals today was 2 cups of them. I shucked them... then ate them, like the walrus in Alice in Wonderland... or was it Through the Looking Glass?

Musings

I’m thinking of doing a portable beekeeping library to carry to the meetings and let folks check out books. I have a step by step booklet on queen rearing which I think my fellow beekeepers would like to borrow.

I used a stethoscope to listen to my hives today (Friday- 48F so far). Most of them in the sun were flying. The ones I knew were weak were still alive, according to the hum I heard through the box walls. Mine aren'’t taking down any feed. This time last year they were all still taking down HFCS and brooding. This year they had no brood in October, except for the weakest one, which had a small patch.

Sledding & “Grown-up": Maturity is facing responsibilities, doing what you need to do, unpleasant or not. You can sled and clown around all you want and still be grown-up! When you're young is the time to experiment, and learn by failure/success. When you have youngsters/oldsters depending on you, you won’t have the latitude of your youth. When I see a fine young man working to improve himself it makes me proud to be his friend.

She's Home !!!!

I thought I'd posted here in the recent past... Sorry, I must have done it in my daydreams!
Sam's had another IVIg treatment that knocked him silly for about two weeks. BA massaged his feet and did him worlds of good, which helped him through the bad parts.

GT is in the states for about 3 weeks, too short a time to do all she needs to do. My brother invited her along on a trip to see the California part of the family. Babies galore! She's trying to see everyone, and still get the medical appointments and repacking done. Grenada is now in the past and she'll be doing hands on training and classes in St Vincent and the Grenadines, just Northeast of Grenada. She already has a apartment and will share a car with Julie to get around to the clinics. Busses are too undependable and dangerous for single girls. They'll still have to cook for themselves, though. She will at least be with her classmates. The class has shrunk by about 100 to 250. GT really misses some who were close friends, but have to decelerate. I'm pleased she's worked hard enough to stay up with the class.

In May GT returns for her Medical Licensing Board Exams. I think she'll chose the 6 week program in Delaware. Clinical Rotations start in the fall, hopefully in a setting where she won't have to travel extensively. Then she'll get assigned her place of Residency or Internship.

Black Booger Boy

Down at the bottom of this Blog you can play with Booger, a virtual pet who represents our horrid kitten, a spawn of Satan if ever there was one!!! He draws you in with his sweet purring and snuggling ways... then rips your hand into shreds. We originally named him Jazz, after WT's mean-as-a-snake black cat. This one must be a reincarnation and is determined to live up to his namesake. He 'nurses' Mack's, our male German Shepherd's, vestigial teats. Macks even moves his legs so the kitten can nuzzle in. Yesterday the kitten was chewing on Mack's teeth. Macks was holding his mouth open and looking at me with big brown eyes: "Am I being gentle enough?" We don't worry about Macks being bored while Booger is with him, since they play chase around the house. This was never a fluffy fat little kitten. He's always been lean and mean. We got him as one of the 2 week old babies that Daisy asked me to dropper raise. Booger was too dominant to leave alone with his sweeter brother, so I had to separate them. Daisy decided she only wanted the sweet fluffy boy. Sam got attached to this rascal. I thump him hard when he bites into me. He rarely bites Sam. He really is the 'Kitten from Hell'. The virtual kitten is fun. Click on the 'more' button and you can get a toy to play with this sweeter Booger.

Update on Bees and Garden

The sun is shining on the colorful trees, making the outside look like stained glass windows in a cathedral. The fall change came late this year, and slowly. The warming trend has extended our Fall season into mid to late November. Usually the leaves are in piles by now. Instead they are still on the trees, and some trees are just changing.
My thanks to all whose insights have helped me though my fourth summer beekeeping in Mid Virginia, USA.
My bee buddies and I have started a round-table group to share info from the web and otherwise help each other (2-125 hives). Your info is the major part of my input.
The following is an update on the bees here. Most beekeepers are treating, some with Apistan, others with Checkmite. Varroa is a major problem. A couple larger guys have left Apistan in all winter, despite warnings.
Referrings to my bees... note the starvation, which is rampant, after a promising spring:
After everything I have 23 going into winter (17 last spring). I'll be happy to come out with half, with no treatments & a hard winter. The Russians are wintering with smaller clusters, since they slowed down during the drought. We really suffered from July through September with no rain; had too much rain for several weeks into October. No nectar, little pollen, then rain washed out both.
I've ordered my Purvis Bros. Gold-line Queens for June 06. They are the mite resistant Italian bees. With last year's Blue-Line Russians mixed into the gene pool I'm hoping to produce honey & not have to treat. I'm hoping to give the Russians some drone brood to flood the area with better genetics. If I do then the supercedures and swarm virgins will have a chance at the resistant genes.
The bees are full of syrup, but have little pollen. Some pollen is still coming in, though. I spotted a couple hives that might not make it, but since they're Russians I couldn't be sure. If they were Italians I'd join them with stronger hives. Only one hive has brood, and that is the weakest of the F1 Jester hybrid Russians, with only two frames of bees and a three-inch patch of brood on those two frames. We'll see if she survives. There were no drones, and I saw every queen.
Without brood, and with small populations (one box), the bees should have shown some phoretic mites. I was looking very closely and saw one only, in a hive where there were three 'greasy' bees. I'm sure that's caused by a virus. I killed all of those. I went in very late in the day to forestall robbing. It was about 59-60F, and the long shadows were falling, so most of the foragers were home. They were feisty, but not unmanageable, since I took off all the tops and they had to defend every hive.
All in all, with the outbreak of EFB and my scare with AFB, they look really good. I'm confident I'll still be a beekeeper next year.
My bee buddy and I made a trip to Brushy Mountain Bees and bought 424 gallons of HFCS 55 at $2.02/gal. With gas & taxes it came out to $2.40/gal. We borrowed the truck and trailer for free and didn't charge for our labor. It probably would have been $3.00/gal with all that. That would still only be $15.00/5 gal bucket. ADM quoted me $17 plus shipping ($12.50 for a truckload with no shipping
Since I last wrote the garden has been cleaned up. Lessons learned are: 1. Plant earlier. 2. Don't plant Brandywine or Heritage Tomatoes (newer varieties are better) 3. Put row covers on the Brassicas early. 4. Do all the work before the heat comes. 5. Plant fewer beans in the same space. 6. Put up a canopy for beans that spans the grass walkway between the beds to save bed space and let the beans grow higher. 7. Put up higher pea-fences. 8. Plant more peas, lettuce, radishes, & beets. 9. Try carrots in the deep dirt. 10. The raised beds are better than the main garden area. 11. Weed more & Work harder.

New Behavior vs Old Behavior

Change is painful. Changing how one eats is painful & difficult. There are so many triggers to eating. Besides the obvious ones of smell, tummy growls, sight, mouth watering, the habit of eating certain foods at certain times really grabs me. I find myself eating before I think. I'm thinking of writing down the projected food intake the night before so i don't go on auto-pilot eating.

All day today I kept correcting myself, chanting 'New Behavior'. My mouth rarely stops watering. Time will solve that.