Triplets: New Life on a Cloudy Day

I went to SLC yesterday and got a new colony of bees. On my way home my cell phone rang and my daughter informed me that Pinky, our other goat, had triplets. I was grateful that my daughter was able to witness the birth of at least one of the kids. My own children have not been into my little natural-sustainable fettishes. Anyway, it is a cold weekend and I'm going to do everything I can to keep these kids alive.

I learned a new way of installing bees yesterday. I started doing it without dressing up but got stung a couple of times. I should have let them, the bees, sit in the hive for a while before opening them instead of hurrying to get done after the jarring ride in the field.

Bees, Vines, Goats and Soaps

Amazingly busy time of the year. I'm down to a single hive which is doing very well...knock on wood. I've ordered four new colonies and I'm going to have to pay closer attention. It makes me wonder how people do it with hundreds of hives. I guess they have extra queens and colonies all ready to slip into service if something goes wrong. I took the hives apart yesterday and cleaned them out. I got lots of honey and comb and tried melting down some wax. I wasn't very successful.

We have a new baby goat and should have at least two more within a week. We had twins a couple of weeks ago but one of them died, in spite of our best efforts. They were born while the weather was still pretty nippy and I think it was mostly exposure. As was the case last year with the other set of twins, she died in my arms. I hate that feeling of holding something as its life slips out of it.

I've gotten a bunch of new grapevines in during the past couple of weeks. I've shortened the goat pen and am making a regular little vineyard, much more organized than my usual style. I'm using rebar arches for support but the cover or roof will be flat. I've pruned everything down to about 3 buds for the roots to grow strong and will be a fairly diligent pruner that way for the next couple of years. So no great amount of fruit for awhile.

I'm also trying my hand at soap, so to speak. I'm experimenting with various oils and such but my primary ingredients are honey and goats milk. I've made three batches, each different than the others, and am learning, hopefully, from my mistakes.

Finally, I'm getting to be a little more active. Today I went on a 20 mile bike ride with my son and then on a 4+ mile hike with my pooches. My foot still aches from the December surgery but I'm hoping it's getting better. The puppies have grown. The one we kept is almost as large as her mother.

Every Seven Months, or so.

A few things of note have happened. I've lost a total of four hives. One top-bar hive swarmed, the other seems to have not made it through the winter. I mentioned the regular hive that seemed to have had some disease. There were a lot of drone cells so it was a matter of a missing queen. I went out and checked the remaining hives on a warm day in December and found that another had died. So this year I will buy some more colonies...at least two.

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....