For the second year in a row we are dealing with a cool wet spring. Last year I tried to plant my squash "by the calendar" and suffered very poor germination and a slow start for the plants. I ended up replanting twice before finally getting everything to germinate. This year the ground was too wet [...]
Nosema Ceranae
Parasites and their hosts live a delicate dance. If the parasite kills the host, it may lose its habitat and perish as well, so most parasite-host relationships develop such that the parasite is a nuisance, but not life threatening to the host. The problem we have with our bees at the moment, is that the most troublesome parasites [...]
CCD onset or Chilly Bees? Nosema!
The bees continue to keep me guessing. A couple of weeks ago I placed the thymol pads on my bees to knock down the mites. The bees never really enjoy this, and often engage in significant hive ventilation such that the entire hive emits the dull roar of fanning bees. Both of my hives [...]
The Varroa Mite Treatment Decision
There is no single answer as to when to take arms against Varroa and subject the mites and the bees to an onslaught of chemicals. But in our area, now is the time that decision has to be made. Temperatures are warming to the point where Formic acid and Thymol miticides are becoming effective, and it's nearly [...]
Powering Down in an Age of Irrational Politics
The politics of pain that is the fashion these days offers an unprecedented opportunity to advance a power-down agenda that will become a necessity in the years ahead. The defining characteristics of the Great Recession, and the Great Depression of the 1930's, are very high unemployment rates while interest rates remain very low. High unemployment [...]
Quadricycle Fun
UPDATE: Check out our replacement vehicle, the DateTrike! For all the alternative bike builders out there, if you get inspired and build something similar, please send me a note and a picture! There is nothing like a trip to Burning Man to open your mind to the endless possibilities of human-powered transportation. The main mode [...]
Battling Blackberries
This is the time of year I go after the invasive plants that live among the big trees on our lot. The worst offenders I have to deal with are English ivy, Himalayan blackberries, and English holly. None is fun, but the blackberries put up the best defense, and despite wearing gloves, by the end [...]
Vanishing Bees
The warm stretch of weather last week provided an opportunity to look in on the bees. Two of my three hives are doing well, with bees filling at least a full brood super and generally a healthy appearance. The other hive, the one that was strongest last year, is suffering. It appears to have the now all-too-common symptoms of [...]
Catabolic Collapse?
It's not every day that someone is willing to stick their neck out and tell you exactly when all the malaise and despair of the modern era started, but that's pretty much what John Michael Greer did in a recent essay. The date he picked for America's pinnacle moment, 1974, coincides with the Arab oil embargo, oil price [...]
Squash Seed Saving
Now is the time to be eating all those winter squash harvested in the fall. For squash seed savers, this is the opportunity for quality control and seed selection. Easy control over the selection process is one reason squash seed saving is so much fun. Squash eaters know that there can be large differences in quality from [...]
