Honey Updates and so forth…

I finally gave up waiting for the honey to finish straining on Wednesday and bottled what I could. I ended up with eight of these…

Yes, those are quart jars full to the top. I already sold them all as well, which is great. I got roughly $10 per quart, which is a touch on the lower side, but I do this for the joy and fun, not the money. I’m pleased.

I obviously don’t filter all that much, which is how I like it. I like my honey very lightly filtered, which leaves tons of “stuff” in the honey, like pollen and wax. I make sure, of course, that “insect parts” is not included in that.

Today, I took the rest of the honey and wax in that bucket and started the longer process of straining through cheesecloth. I ended up with two bundles of wax/honey hanging from a rod in our hotter-than-the-rest-of-the-house bedroom. I’d guess each bundle hit around 15 pounds, and they’ve been draining steadily for almost three hours now.

Here are both of them just dripping with honey.

I like to put them in our bedroom because it’s warmer in there and also because it is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing for me. If they were in the kitchen, I’d eventually just call it and be done. I’m so impatient that way.

Last shot for today and one I’m proud of. Check out that honey just pouring down the bundle!

On other news, a friend and I (Lee) have decided to try our hand at making–and selling–other bee related products, such as candles, balms, and so forth. Mackay is also in on this. So far we’ve spent about $150 buying $100 of wax foundation (rolled candles) and essential oils. We still need to pick up jars for the honey we have now and for the balms. All told, I’d guess we’ll spend another $50 to $100.

Later this fall, we plan on showing up at a local farmers market and giving it a whirl.

Wish us luck!

Read Full Post »

Honey Harvest: July 21, 2012

As I am want to do, I got stung. Right in the ear. Needless to say, I spent the next day looking distinctly like John McCain with half of my head being quite swollen. More on that later.

The most important thing is that we harvested. I suppose I should do a quick run down of our fast inspection:

Hive 1–Looking good. Saw eggs and brood, but this hive is not ready to harvest. I still think we’ll get 10 frames or so.

Hive 2–Harvested a medium super of honey! Looking great.

Hive 3–Still has brood in the honey supers. Grrr…. No harvest.

Hive 4–Same as 2, almost exactly.

Hive 5–Same as 3, almost exactly. Grrr….

All in all, we harvested 20 medium frames from two hives. Like I said I would, we did the crush and strain method, which I like for the wax production and simplicity. I hate spinning those frames for hours on end. It’s just not for me.

I did build my own crush and strain system, though, using two five-gallon buckets. I built it by cutting the top out of the bottom bucket and drilling holes in the bottom of the top bucket. You poor the crushed honey in the top bucket, it drips through the holes and separates from the wax. A few complaints:

• I’ve read from several beekeepers that it can take five days or more to fully separate. Ugh…
• The holes were too small, and they were clogged with wax pretty quickly. I had to cut the holes larger, which was extremely messy with the bucket full of honey. Plus, I know I got some plastic shavings in the honey/wax mixture, so no matter what, I will end up filtering any honey that I can’t plainly tell is clean. That will be a small portion, but it will be some more filtering.
• Did I mention the five days?

On to some pictures….

Scraping the honey free of the foundation.

I do like the plastic foundation if only because it makes this job easier. I suppose having real wax foundations means I’d just cut it out, though, so….

Holding a very lovely frame of honey. I was trying to figure out the discoloration in the middle, and as near as I could tell, this frame had pollen in it at some point. Guessing from the colors, I might also go as far as to say that it may even have had brood at one point.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a five-gallon bucket. And yes, that is the top of the five-gallon bucket.

Mackay caught in the act of knibbling on the drippings left on the table. This honey, like our previous batch, was really potent. We’ve taken to calling it dandelion honey not because it’s made from dandelion but because it packs a good punch. Very tasty in small doses, but for the love of all that is holy, don’t take a mouthful.

Tonight, two days later, I have about a gallon strained through the bucket, but I just finished enlarging the holes. I would guess by Wednesday night, we’ll be mostly done. Then I’ll start bottling and refiltering using cheese cloth to get a bit cleaner. In the end, I’m hopeful to get about four gallons of actual honey and a few pounds of wax.

Back to the sting…. After we were done, Mackay and I ran the wet frames back out to the hives for the bees to clean up for us. I didn’t dress up because I wasn’t going to be near the hives. I did, however, see a wasp carrying a dead bee off near the hives. That always ticks me off, so I grabbed a board that I use as a pseudo fly swatter, marched up to the hives, and killed the wasp. As I was leaving, a honey bee that was still riled up from the honey harvest nailed me right on the inside of my left ear!

OUCH!

Several others came after me, so I abandoned Mackay to finish because he was in his gear and went inside. I was sure I had the venom sack, so I sat down with an ice pack, but five minutes later the pain was getting worse and the throbbing just wasn’t going down. I had Courtney take a look and sure enough, there was the venom sack still pumping away. By the time we got it out, it was a shriveled up little husk of a thing. Sigh….

My ear looked like I had been boxing for a few years (thick and totally puffy) and the left side of my face was swollen about double the right. It was also hot and red like you would expect after getting that much venom. When I walked in to church on Sunday, someone took a look at me and mentioned that he didn’t know that John McCain was in our congregation. Sigh…. But on second thought, it was a well deserved comment. It certainly looked John McCain-ish.

And yes, I forbid Courtney from taking pictures.

I do think I’ll get another 30 or 40 frames of harvestable honey this year. At least I’m very hopeful that is the case. That would get me pretty close to the 200 pounds of honey I was hoping to harvest this year.

Read Full Post »

Daves’ WW of EU: Spelling Out Numbers

This is one of those areas where there is so much gray area that it is really almost pointless to try to define it. I’ve heard rules saying you should spell out all numbers under a hundred. I’ve also heard rules saying the same thing for twenty, fifteen, ten, fifty, and so on. Some say anything under twenty. Others say anything under ten. To make this simpler, I will show you the most common rule I’ve heard.

Twenty and Under Rule

This rule states that you should spell out every number that is twenty or lower. This rule also states that you should spell out large numbers that are whole. By whole, I mean you should spell out fifty, hundred, thousand, million, billion, and so on, but you would not spell out 57, 251, 1325, and so on. Simple enough, right? If you have trouble remembering it, a helpful rule to remember is to never spell out a word that contains a hyphen. When you write numbers, you always place a hyphen between words like twenty-one, fifty-nine, and so on. For example, you would spell 123 this way: one hundred twenty-three. You can also remember that you never spell out anything over one hundred unless it has lots of zeroes.

Yeah, it’s not necessarily precise to think of it that way, but it is accurate.

Personally, find a way that works and stick with it. Consistency in this case is much more important for messaging.

Read Full Post »

Top Bar Beehives

Here’s a guest post I wrote for Talkingwithbees.com on Top Bar Hives. Go check it out.

For what it is worth, I strongly agree with Roger (the author of that site) about how therapeutic bees are. I know some would disagree (and probably run screaming!), but I cannot think of anything more relaxing than being with my bees.

Read Full Post »

Dave’s WW of EU: Cardinal Numbers

Cardinal Numbers are your standard numbers such as one, two, three, and four. They are used to show quantity, but not order. In other words, cardinal numbers are not first, second, third, and so on (ordinal numbers).

The way to remember the difference is that Ordinal Numbers show Order, Cardinal Numbers do not. I’ve also heard the phrase “You count Cardinals (as in the birds).” Whatever helps you remember is fine by me.

One thing I did learn about Cardinal Numbers that I did not know is that they are a type of Noun Determiner. A noun determiner is a word that signals that a noun is soon to follow. For example, when you see the phrase, “I have three…,” you know that a noun is going to follow that cardinal number: “I have three oranges,” for example. One thing to remember is that Cardinal Numbers are NOT always noun determiners, but they ALWAYS refer to a noun. Don’t believe me? Watch….

• What time is it? Three. (The three refers to o’clock, which means “of the clock”)
• How many oranges do you have? Three. (Three refers back to oranges.)
• Choose a number, any number? Three. (Three refers back to the noun “number.”)

Granted, those are just three limited examples, but think about it long enough, and you’ll see that you cannot use a Cardinal Number that does not refer back to a noun and make sense. The only way you could is if you just randomly said a number. Not only would that not make sense, but you’d probably find that people would smile politely in your direction and then back away slowly.

What does it mean to me?

Honestly? Not much. It’s just one of those things that most people don’t think about but do perfectly without even trying. That alone makes it interesting and is one more evidence of the extreme complexity and brain power required to speak a language. It also explains why saying a random number without any context sounds… odd. It’s because your brain is searching for that noun.

On that note, I leave you with this wonderful message…

… forty-two.

Read Full Post »

Welcome to Silly Season

I have avoided a political post for quite some time, but I suddenly find myself on the verge of entering into the fray again. I had taken the break to try to prepare for what amounts to a long, arduous political run to November.

But here’s a few thoughts for you:

• On Romney’s potential VP pick…
  I love the idea of Condi Rice as his pick. I know many on the far right consider her a poor choice, but I’m not worried about a pick for the far right. I’m worried about him picking a capable person who, should the situation dictate, would be fully capable of taking the country.
  Condi Rice is that person.
  Her credentials are above reproach, she is capable, she’s extremely smart and talented, and she’s a moderate.
• On Obama’s suggestion that Romney’s time at Bain after 1999 might just be felonious in nature…
  What an embarrassment to Obama. I already disliked Obama, but to see him blatantly throw that kind of charge out there with no evidence in the face of all other evidence AND refuse to apologize or reign it in is an outright disgrace. You sir have moved beyond being just someone I didn’t like to someone I actively despise.
  I simply cannot understand how anyone can vote again for Obama as Class President. The man is a clown, despicable, and a terrible president.
  Ugh… the mere thought of another four years of Obama has exactly one silver lining: He can’t run again.
• On Romney out fund raising Obama…
  I admit I was surprised, especially considering that everyone assumed Obama would crush Romney. Do I think those numbers hold through the rest of the campaign? No, I do not.
  But the fact that Romney has held his own so far is both incredible and hopeful.
• On Romney speaking to the NAACP…
  I’ll readily admit that this is not an easy gig as a GOP candidate. But Romney gets some serious cred for doing it.
  I find it frankly hilarious that the news ran with the boos against Romney like it was some huge surprise. Even more hilarious is that some Dem commentators seized on Romney’s comments that he expected to be booed as “part of the plan to energize the conservative base.” What? Really?
  Don’t be so naive or pathetic.
• On Romney’s tax returns…
  Two minds:
  1–Romney should release tax returns and be done with it. I agree that there are those that will find concerns there, but let’s be honest…. They weren’t going to support Romney anyway. The real concern are those that presume there is something bad in there.
  2–Why does this matter? I really don’t care. Your own finances are personal, and while I agree that a candidate should be vetted, I don’t know that I agree that taking up a peek up the financial skirt is really warranted, especially going back ten+ years as has been suggested.
• On the Supreme Court decision regarding Obamacare…
  I think this was the right pick, and I think that NOT because I agree with Obamacare. I am as opposed to that rag of a bill as I was when it was first drafted.
  I think it was the right choice because of the implications of over-turning it AND because Justice Roberts put the ball squarely where it needed to be: Congress. His decision and the choice to deem the mandate a tax changes the picture and forces congress to address the issue again or admit that it is raising taxes.
  This is an uncomfortable position for Obama to be in on the tax issue, and it creates the opportunity to potentially look at this law again. Potentially.
  I could go on for a while on this particular issue, but then this wouldn’t be a run down of current issues, would it?

I’m not remembering any other issue that is at the top of my mind right now….

To sum up, I no longer dislike Obama. I hate him. He’s not just a bad president, but he’s the completely wrong choice president. I just don’t get what anyone sees in him. To be fair, there are plenty that don’t get why I support Romney, but there you go….

I didn’t mention this, but one of the great moments of my recent vacation was seeing NSG, an adamant Obama supporter last time, rip off both her Obama bumper stickers in my presence and declare her support for Romeny. She went on to say that she thought Obama was trying to run for class president and that he was a terrible choice.

Ah…that might just have made the entire vacation for me. It was already a wonderful vacation, but that was the beautiful, perfect cherry on top!

Now if only I could get her a Nobama bumper sticker. I’ve been debating getting one myself….

Read Full Post »

Book Review: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

How’s this for a book review…. Alas, Babylon was written over fifty years ago (1959) by Pat Frank. I actually read it for the first time as a… sixth grader? seventh grader? … Anyway, I’m sure I did a book report on it then. Wouldn’t that be a fun read?

AB, set in Florida during the early Sputnik days when the fear of nuclear war was rampant, tells the story of a rural community that struggles to deal with the impact of an apocalyptic nuclear war through the eyes of Randy Bragg and his neighbors. As a kid, I remember this book particularly well because I actually read it backwards. I have always been fascinated by apocalyptic literature, and I was so eager to see how it ended that I went directly to the last page, figured out who won, and then skimmed through the book backwards to find stories I thought were interesting.

In the last few months, AB hit my reading list again (how, you might ask. How else? I was trying to find some other apocalyptic literature….), and I was reminded of that during a recent trip to our friends in Idaho. Jeff just happened to be reading the book, and both Courtney and I stole an hour with it.When we got home, we grabbed it from the library and both conquered it the next day.

It’s just as enjoyable as I remember.

Frank, a delicious if slightly immature author in style, paints a compelling and consistently timely picture of an apocalyptic world by focusing not on the destruction of physical communities but on the destruction of emotional and relationship communities. The degradation of society is both believable and understandable. Though Frank certainly makes many mistakes in what might actually be missed and lost should such a calamity happen, as a reader, I came away with a particular understanding that there are a great many things that would be missed and lost. In fact, reading the book inspired Courtney and I to take a long second look at our own emergency preparations and long-term food storage and make some changes.

Compared to other apocalyptic literature, much of which I would not recommend to youth readers due to content, AB is appropriate, comfortable, and approachable for a wide audience. The story is as compelling as it was fifty years ago and although, like I said, some of the writing is somewhat amateurish, it still works. The book carries weight, ponderous thoughts, and plenty of introspection.

About the highest compliment I could pay to any book would be the desire to give it an honored place on a bookshelf where it would be shared and consumed by others. AB is not a feast to leave you full, bursting at the seams but a pleasing and completely satisfying stop on the tour of apocalyptic fiction.

3.5 out of 4 stars!

Read Full Post »

Is it just me?

Most of my friends and associates know that I’m a writer by trade and even moonlight as an editor every now and then. Because of that, I make a point to tell those who communicate with me by writing that I’m not “one of those” editors. Yes, I know exactly when you blow it when you’re writing or speaking to me, but I will rarely–if ever–point it out. It just doesn’t matter that much.

I started doing that because several people over the years have told me how much it embarrasses them to write something down that they presume I’ll then edit OR that they’ll misspeak in my presence.

I really don’t worry about it (but I admit readily that Ido notice if only because language is just that fascinating). That being said, I’m noticing it more, and part of me wondered if that were just me….

Is it?

Here are a few things that I’ve noticed most recently:

• Saying myself when you really mean me. For example, I hear people say, “You can give that to myself later” all the time.
• Adding a superlative to adverbs. For example, a coworker the other day kept saying “quicklier.” It should be “faster” or “more quickly.”
• Subjunctive. I recognize that English makes very little use of the subjunctive and most English speakers–including many otherwise seriously educated English nerds–probably have no idea what the subjunctive even is. Frankly, I’m not going to explain it…. I would almost suggest learning a romance language to really get it. Anyway… I hear people say, “I wish I was…” all the time. It should be “I wish I were….”

Realizing that I’m recognizing all these more commonly and naturally–because this is all very natural for me–made me wonder: Is it me? Do others see these things naturally? Do others even notice this?

Am I becomingthat kind of grammar guy?

Sigh… I hope I’m not, and I don’t remember pointing something like this out to anyone. If I have, forgive me. And if I have, shape up. This really is your fault for not speaking perfectly in the first place.

Admin Note: I actually really do NOT edit what you write or say. I just recognize it. And no… I rarely edit my own blog even. I might review some of my more important pieces, but typically no. I reserve that for one of my faithful readers who consistently finds the most egregious typos–of which there are many–and tells me to fix them.

Read Full Post »

Dave’s WW of EU: Flammable, inflammable, non-flammable

These terms are ones that are often confused simply because they do not mean what you think they should mean.

Flammable means that something is capable of being ignited, easily burned.

Inflammable means the same thing.

Non-flammable means incapable of being ignited, not easily burned.

So why the confusion? Well, the prefix “in-“ in English means “not” and is closely related to the similar prefixes “un-” and “im-.” That is how we arrive at such words like unfair, inexplicable, impossible, and so on. However, in this case, the “in-“ prefix is not the English “in-“ prefix. It’s Latin. In Latin, adding the prefix “in-“ to a word was a way of intensifying the term. We see this used in the words enflame, engulf, intense, and so on. The problem is that most people confuse the two prefixes and think that inflammable means that something cannot be ignited or burned. Not true.

How does this affect you?

Well, it probably doesn’t in your normal life. However, most usage experts agree that the term inflammable should be avoided since most people confuse the correct meaning. After all, you’d hate to make that mistake when you really needed to get it right. For the sake of understanding, use flammable and non-flammable.

Read Full Post »

Dave’s WW of EU: Among vs Between

Among and Between are two commonly confused terms. Most people don’t make much distinction between the terms, but among grammarians, there is a very fine line.

Among should be used when discussing three or more or a group generally understood to be larger than two like a committee, educators, athletes, and politicians. Between should be used when referring to two; no more, no less.

So, you would say, “The decision was discussed among the committee members.” You would also say, “I had to decide between taking the red car or the blue car.”

What this means for you

To be honest, most people don’t care which one you use in speech. You will find the occasional grammar nazi that will slip into a coma when you use it wrong, but for most people, it just doesn’t matter that much. In writing, you should make the effort to use the correct term simply because it is more identifiable, more recognized, and more looked for. Much like Good vs. Well, using the correct term does not bother those who do not know better, but it does impress those who do. Might as well use it, right?

 

Read Full Post »