Stupid Homesites Continued

Last Summer I had a post about stupid places people have built homes from a fire point of view. This shows some new homes in Utah County that are were built on sites that were made by cutting a swath from the face of a mountain side. and at the bottom of a major wash. The pictures should speak for themselves. The backyards for some of these homes are about teen feet deep. The house with all the windows is built up against an 80 foot cliff and alread has falling rocks bumping into the uncompleted house. All I can think is this home must be someone who is into rocks because that's all the family will be avble to see from the north-facing windows.



Sufficeth to say, there is nothing holding back the weight of the mountain, rocks will keep falling, and a heavy spring runoff down the wash (esepcially following a fire the year before) could bring lots of mud and stuff .



Who do we think we are to defy the laws of nature, not the least of which is gravity! Perhaps the problem is that our egos have blocked our thought process to the point that we've forgotten how to think.

Some Visuals

These are some images from a few weeks ago. I'll update and comment on them further at a later date. The topbar hive is pretty busy. I'm not sure if I should take out more corks oor not. The white hive that's so dirty was diseased and I lost the whole hive. I'm not sure what it was. I'm going to have an expert come by and have a look.

Perspiration and Inspiration

Saturday was a very good day. I went with my students to the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. Caru Das is someone I consider a dear friend and spiritual mentor. After a brief tour of the temple and an introductory overview of Hinduism, the students worked hard cleaning up the grounds, feeding animals and reorganizing parking spaces.

I've been acquainted with Caru and Vai for 16 years. I haven't attened services there for some time so I stopped by on Sunday to listen to Caru's lecture. It was such a unique twist on the topic of faith, given articulately and from first-hand experiences. Every time I listen to Caru I have a feeling of peace and a desire to search my innermost motives and yearnings more deeply. It's a feeling of, coming home.

I appreciate the diversity and unity that religions offer. Hiduism, as preached and practiced in Spanish Fork, is definitely a philosophy that unites.

SPRINGing into Things

It's been so long since I've taken any pictures. School has been busy, but most of my time is beingtaken with bees and garden. I've planted 13 new grapevines, taken out a gigantic blue spruce tree, more than doubled the amount of beehives I have (now I have 5) and am making more cheese than we can imagine eating. All very satisfying but really time consuming.

I'm going to see if I can't make some $ to offset some of the expenses, even make a profit at some point. I'm going to try to make some cooking and seasoning vinegars, hence the mini vineyard. It's all going to be organic and I'll need to renew a food-handlers permit, get certified and all that. I hope the money thingy doesn't overshadow the "spiritual" satisfaction and motivation.

I have come into indirect contact with people involved with the Provo Farmers Market. I may make it part of my Saturday routine. It symbolizes what I believe and what I'm hoping to accomplish, if only on a personal level.

Hopefully, I'll have some shots of the bees, the vineyard and the animals and such. Until then....

Home SWEET Home

The new bees have arrived and SEEM to have taken up permanent residence in one of my new hives. Here are a few pics of me introducing them to their new home.

The first picture is me carrying the bee package to the new hive. The next ones oare of me taking out the canned syrup so I can shake the bees into their prepared space.

The rest are of me preparing the queen and putting her into the hive; uncorking the entrance into the NOW-OCCUPIED hive; and lastly some random shots of bees.

TopBar Hive

I am moving close to finishing the two top bar hives. I'm not sure it wouldn't have been cheaper to purchase some already made. That said, it has been very satisfying to make them.








The pictures show things like the bottom with screen and cover; top bars being glued to the ridges; a lid under construction; the inside and a quasi-finished one with the lid on.

It's been a huge time and effort commitment. Hope they work.

Spring Fever

So much is happening so quickly. I'm going to put some pics in, quite a few, that indicate a fraction of what's been going on the past couple of months.
The garden will be bigger and better this year. Here are some pics of some seed boxes, my first real pruning effort (a gigantic cherry tree) and the area out in the orchard that a good neighbor has tilled for me. We burned the pruning pile: there was a lot of wood in it this year.




I haven't planted anything outside yet. We are in for a very stormy and cold week this week. This morning we woke up to 3-4 inches of snow.

Ebony had two pups. It was an accident that she got pregnant. My daughter saw a dog hanging around the pen and thought it would keep Ebony company. Now Eby has company. Anyone want a pup?

This is a time of life. Eby was not the only one to have a suitor last Fall. Our first baby goat was born March 24. Kids are up and on their feet from the first moments of birth.

Finally, I've been working on the new beehives, top bar. I'll include some pics in the next post.

FREEZE-thaw-FREEZE

We have experienced some very cold weather which, when coupled with the hefty amounts of snowfall, has left the ground white almost the entire winter. There have been some periods of warmer (in the 40's F) weather.
Here are some images of January 2009. They include the "vineyard," the goat and chicken pens and a couple of bee shots. I have to admit that I've been worried about the bees but they seem to be doing okay.

Top Bar Beekeeping

This year I think I'm going to try a few new things, one of them being top-bar beekeeping. It will require building a different type of beehive. This is a pic I got from the website called Barefoot Beekeeper.

Cheesy

I've been experimenting, not so successfully, with easy cheese recipes for goat's milk. My children pooled some of their shekles and got me a cheese press. It's pretty basic but it does make a difference.

Since I first posted this pic I have experimented quite a bit. I just cut into a cake of hard cheese. It's remarkably good. I soaked it in wine for 3 days and then let it age for 5 weeks. It's hard enough to shred over pasta or into soups or salads.