Randomness

Listening to a news article on modern discoveries from shipwrecks. I am scared out of my mind at the thought of diving with sharks, but I would love to scuba dive in a wrecked ship.

Peas, beets (three types), lettuce and carrots are in.  Squashes, shallots, tomatillos and peppers are all growing in small pots in the basement.  Warmth... PLEASE!

If I ever change careers, archeology would be a possible choice.

I loved the book, Water for Elephants so much that I am leery of seeing the film version - thoughts?

My basement and backyard are flooding - not a lot, but enough to be a royal pain in the tush.

Going on a field trip with the kindergarten class on Friday to the Audubon Bird Sanctuary.  I hope it is dry.

Cleaning out the dead bees

  Yesterday the weather was fine - warmish and sunny so I spent some time outside - planted twenty bayberry bushes and cleaned out one of the hives.
    The hive I was working on was my first hive - and they were dead and moldy. Yuck!

 I know they died of starvation as many of them were head first in comb, obviously trying to get to the last bit of honey in each cell.

you can see all their rear ends sticking out of the cells

The irony is there were probably thirty pounds of honey in the hive when I opened it.

Apparently it was so cold, fairly early on in the winter, and for so long, that they were unable to break from the cluster and move over to the next frame of honey, thus starving. 

So, I undertook the unenviable task of scraping out the dead bees, and gouging out chunks of comb in which many of them had died.  

I feel terrible after all their work to cut out so much comb, but it will get rebuilt by the next ladies in the hive.  I had a few wild bees sniffing around the hive as some of the honey comb dripped a bit, but not the robbing I was anticipating.  My bee guy who I order my packages and nucs from has called postponing the arrival of the new packages three times. At the last notice we should be getting the girls around May 28. Not the most convenient time, but that's what happens. 

    So, the Flower Hive is clear and sealed up to keep robber bees out. 

 This week I will crack open the Blue Hive and get that cleared out before I have to start work on my next show, get into finals week, take my Scouts camping and go to my children's various games and races.

    

Maple Syrup, as promised

  Just a few shots to finish the discussion of how we do our backyard sugaring off.  My husband created a temporary fire pit of cinderblocks and the grill off of the barbeque.

 We burn deadfall from around the yard.  The most helpful thing is to use a pan with a large surface area and low sides - in our case, my turkey roasting pan.

I keep a metal bowl  or a small pot to the side to start warming the sap before pouring it into the boiling sap in the pan. The key is to keep the sap boiling to have the most efficient evaporation. Since there are the occasional ants or flies in the sap bottles, I pour it through a sieve before putting it in the side bowl, then again before putting it into the pan, to help filter out ashes that might have flown in.  The sieve is also useful in skimming off the tan scum which forms on the surface periodically.  I do not know what this is, but ridding the pan of this scum leaves more surface area for evaporation.

It usually takes us all day to boil down about 40 gallons of sap.  When it is too dark to really see the surface of the boiling sap, or when we are  well boiled down, we move the process inside to finish on the stove.  This is a sticky process, so I  surround the burner with aluminum foil. There will be small sticky flecks of syrup all over your stove.

Being careful not to boil over, which I assure you is a smelly mess, you boil the syrup until it is about 7 degrees above the temperature of boiling water. (This  number varies depending on how high above sea level you are).  We boiled a bit longer than usual this year, trying to create a slightly thicker consistency to the syrup that we have had in past years. 

 Some folks store it in coffee cans and keep it in the freezer, we just put the syrup in mason jars and store it in the basement storage room.  Do not pour it straight into the jars or cans you plan to use. There is a substance which forms called nitre (some folks call it sugar sand). It settles in the bottom of the jar and is very bitter.  To remove this, long ago it is said that men filtered it through their hats - the wool felt caught the nitre and allowed the clear syrup to run through.  I use a damp piece of wool felt (NOT craft felt which is made of polyester or acrylic and can melt). The process is not swift, but do not cut corners as you will have bitterness at the bottom of the syrup. 

  So there it is - very easy with the investment of a small amount of equipment and some time.  There are folks who have much more elaborate systems - I even know a guy with a professional sugar house - but this suits us fine. We have the satisfaction of  making our own syrup from our own trees, and in teaching the children that with some time and effort, they do not have to depend on the grocery store for everything. 

Random

• Very tired and I did not even stay up/get up to watch the Royal wedding!  What kind of Anglophile am I? it has been too long since I lived in England I fear - and I miss Princess Diana...

• Am trying to figure out a way to get my son to his soccer game and my daughter to her canoe racing practice at the same time on the same day in towns 40 miles apart... something has to give there

• I wish it would stay sunny for more than 2 hours at a time. I also wish that even if the sun does not show up, the rain would stay away for a few days so my basement would dry out. And my slippers - I am tired of the dog drooling in them every time it thunders!

• Opening the show Home Fires and Reservation Roads  tonight.  I did props and costumes - maybe this is why I am tired.

• I have 20 more bayberry bushes to plant.

• My Girl Scouts are not very dedicated to getting things done this year... sigh... 

• Tomorrow I think I will stay in my jammies all day.

Who's Afraid of Thunder?

   "Not I," said the little red hen.
We have been having some ridiculously strong thunder storms this week.  Last night the thunder and lighting was amazing, but very unsettling to the children. Not one of them was asleep on time, and my eldest was still walking the floor at midnight due to the noise of the thunder.  The dog who is horribly afraid of storms, drooled on everything, then followed me into the bathroom when I was brushing my teeth, and climbed into the shower and hid behind the curtain. I guess it is easier to clean up any drool from in there!
    Even so, this is nothing compared to what the folks in Arkansas and other sections of the South and Midwest are getting.  My thoughts are with all of them. I have been vividly remembering the floods of 2006 when we lost a good chunk of our back yard to flooding.  The hill just dropped off and became a cliff, taking 5  of our pine trees with it and exposing part of the septic tank.
    Today we were in the 80's with sunshine and summer like humidity.  Tonight we are in thunderstorms again.   I suspect all the peas I planted are going to rot and I will have to reseed. What an odd spring.

Easter Monday

      Back to work - three more weeks of classes, then busy with summer stock.  In the meantime this week we have the show Eric Gansworth wrote to be performed at our college, so we are all getting ready for that. I am doing props and costumes, so I am a little busy.

      Easter was spent at Mom's house with many of my nieces and nephews, as well as three of my sisters. We had a good weekend.  We celebrated with Easter egg dyeing,

an egg hunt and a football game

but all on Saturday as we all had to travel on Sunday.
    Sunday we all  drank far too much coffee in a sad attempt to wake up after sitting up until past 4 a.m. talking.  There are some things that are great while you are doing them but the next morning you wonder what you were thinking...this was one of them.   Still, what a treat to spend hours talking with my youngest sister (who lives on the West Coast) and my second youngest niece, who is in college.
    Off to grade papers which should have been done last week, but I allowed myself to break during Spring Break!

easter thoughts

We know the Christian traditions often sprang from pagan  ceremonies in an effort to convert new folks to the Church as well as to aid the Church in being accepted by others.

Early Pagan traditions for Spring Equinox.

Easter eggs

Easter Bunny

 Just some fun reading for the holiday.