Colony 1 and a Beautiful, Strange Bee

This has been some bee season already. Last year I was still mourning the imminent death of my colony (though it didn’t happen). This season we are, according to a local hive inspector, already in the month of May. Yesterday, finding it suddenly quite warm and seeing all the bees hanging out “on the porch” …

Resilience Gardening: Water and Animals

The last couple of days I’ve been in the garden. Mostly I’ve been cleaning up. I do most of my Fall cleanup in Spring, so that the fallen leaves can replenish and blanket the soil during Winter.  Soon I’ll put the leaf shredder to the humongous leaf piles.  That shredded stuff is great for the compost bins. …

Amie (6) Talks about Divine Punishment

The other night Amie didn’t want me to turn off the light in her room. She usually has no problem falling asleep without it, so I asked why. – Because I don’t feel secure. She used that word, “secure.” I asked what makes her feel insecure. – The evil spirits. – Evil spirits? – Yes, …

Stay Positive

Insight of the day: In this work you have to stay positive. Nothing is to be gained from becoming downhearted and negative. Nothing, not even your own personal satisfaction. And notice that I said “positive”. Not “hopeful”: that’s another thing. More on this later!

Hive Opening for the BEElieve Folks

The Transition Wayland BEElieve group met yesterday in my apiary, aka the “bee yard”, that is, in the close vicinity of my one hive (soon to be three!), for the first hive opening of the year. This is a cross post with the one I posted on the Transition Wayland blog, called “Wayland Voices“. ~ …

Faith in a Seed (Again)

I did it: I fired up up the seedling bank, lights, heat mat, timer, fan, mouse traps, and all! And everything still works. I discovered this nifty When To Start What “calculator” from Johnny’s Seeds. I’m behind, of course: should have started three weeks ago. It doesn’t matter for lettuce and kale and the like, because …

BEElieve Beekeepers Group and Feeding the Bees

One of my most favorite projects with Transition Wayland is the BEElieve group. We sent out calls for beekeepers and bee enthusiasts in Wayland at the beginning of the year on our website and in the local media. Within two months, we had twenty people on the email list. We held our first meeting last …

Riot for February 2012 – Month 40

Forty months of Riot! I love it, it puts real meat on the numbers. This is the Riot for the month of February 2012 for the three of us. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers! Gasoline.  Calculated per person. Our investigation of transport …