Traditional Archery

In its purest form, archery requires a straight stick (the arrow) and another stick bent with a string (the bow). There is a whole lot of science behind archery. However, archery predates science. It has been around for thousands of years. It likely predates agriculture. So the term "traditional archery" doesn't really mean much. In reality, it would be better to refer to non-compound-bow archery.

Whatever the name, I have a fascination with traditional archery. The thought of going into the woods with a bent stick and a straight stick and matching my skill to the senses of another animal are highly appealing. Primarily, it comes down to one word... Skill. 

A compound bow can compensate for a low-skilled archer. Precision machined cams and sights and rests and releases make a beginner archer into a mediocre archer and a mediocre archer into a good archer. However, a traditional bow directly manifests the archer's skill.

In the past couple weeks, one thing has become apparent. My archery skills suck. I didn't shoot from January to July. Ideally, I would spend at least 3-5 days per week shooting year-round. Whatever...

I shot a few rounds at 5 yards, expecting to be rusty. Rusty would be good compared to the way I shot. After a couple days of shooting and bow adjustments, I was back into decent form. I moved back to 10 yards and have been getting better groupings each time. Soon, I'll move back further. I would like to be accurate in the 15-20 yards range before hunting season starts. If I can swing it, I'll push back to 25-30 yards but only take shots at 15-20 yard animals.

Fishing

It's been a long time since I posted anything. It seems like I should write something. So, what am I doing now? Among other things, I have been fishing. Well... That's not exactly true. I have been thinking about fishing and occasionally getting out. Now, I really enjoy fishing, but I'm actually really bad at it. Usually, I go out and fish for hours and catch 0-1 keeper-sized fish. Now, I can go catch scup all day, every day. Scup, for many, are the nuisance fish of Southern New England waters. They steal bait and are often too small to take the hook anyway. My favorite fish is summer flounder/fluke. That said, I have caught 1 keeper sized fluke in my entire life. One of the easiest fish to catch around here is bluefish. I have never caught a bluefish. I've cast into a frenzy and pulled a lure through without a hit. Meanwhile, everyone else on the shore was pulling in fish after fish. So, what's the point of all this? I made a list of all the types of fish that I've caught (keeper sized) and those that I haven't caught yet. On the "Caught" list:

• Striped Bass
• Fluke
• Black Sea Bass
• Squid (technically, not a fish)
• Atlantic Herring
• Dogfish (threw it back)
• Skate (also returned to the water)
• Sea Robin
• Scup
• Tautog

On the "Not Caught" (yet) list:

• Bluefish
• Winter Flounder
• Weakfish
• Mackerel
• False Albacore
• Bonito
• Cod
• Mahi Mahi
• Tuna

I'm sure, if I have any readers, this doesn't interest any of them. But, there it is anyway. I hope to add bluefish to my list this year. Only time will tell.

Hunting: Second and third hunts

We weren't expected for dinner until 3 so I decided to head out hunting mid-morning on Thanksgiving. It turns out, the deer were spending Thanksgiving with their families out of town. There were no deer to be found anywhere. After a few hours, I gave up.

I could have gone out on Saturday morning, but I would have had to go out at dawn (20 degrees) and only would be able to stay for an hour or two. I couldn't get out on Sunday morning, so I planned to go out for the afternoon. Seeing so few deer, I made plans to stay out until the end of shooting light.

There was a light drizzle, unseasonable warmth (48 degrees) and a very light breeze. I just have to say it is soo much easier to walk quietly on wet leaves than dry ones. Plus, the dripping rain concealed some noise too. I swung wide around the area on the North side since the wind was out of the South. I set up on a bedding area for an hour or so and saw nothing. I moved back out and continued around to a treed area. I squatted there for a bit but there wasn't any cover or natural funnel so I moved on. I explored a few more trails that I hadn't the first time, to no avail. I moved back to another, better spot on the bedding area.

I forgot my phone at home, but I knew it was official sunset when I heard the bugle call on the base. So, with half an hour of legal shooting light, I decided to go back to the wooded area since I read that early-rising deer will hang out in the trees before total darkness.

Well, the Internet was right. I saw a fluffy white tail bounding away through the trees before I got within 30 yards. For reference, my effective shooting distance is about 15-17 yards. It wasn't moving fast, so I backed out of the trees and tried to find a way to get ahead of it. There was no access to the woods on my side and I couldn't call to check if the other side was claimed , so I moved back to the trees to see if there were other deer that I didn't alert. Turns out, the answer was yes. I saw another white fluffy tail bounding away at about 50 yards. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

It was mostly too dark to shoot by now so I headed back to the car flushing another deer in the process. Seeing no other car, I decided the other side was empty. I took a quickish walk around the other side. I flushed another deer, heard a deer bounding away behind me, flushed 3 more deer and
heard one deer bleat-laughing at me. As a final, mocking gesture from the deer, 2 does were standing behind the guardrail on the side of the road watching me as I drove away.

Hunting: A first hunt

For those that know me, I am all about learning; Specifically, I have an obsession with learning how to do things and why. In some ways, I am a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. With a few exceptions, I learn just enough to be dangerous but not enough to be dangerous to others. For years, I have wanted to become proficient at archery. More accurately, I wanted to become proficient at archery so that I could become proficient at hunting. I am a bit of a traditionalist, so ideally, I would like a nice wooden longbow. The biggest problem is that wooden longbows are usually expensive, custom made jobs where you pay an amateur to mid-level bowyer to eventually make you a bow to his specifications. I could learn to make one myself (I actually have started that process) but it takes a lot of time to find the perfectly right piece of wood to make a nice American Flat Bow (the style I would make) and then a moderate amount of skill to not screw up that piece of wood. So, the alternative that I elected was to purchase a recurve bow from eBay. The particular bow I got is a laminated maple and fiberglass Bear Super Grizzly from the early 70s (I keep forgetting to look it up), so that will have to be traditional enough.

So, I practiced, took the hunter safety course, got my hunting license and permits, signed up for a lottery and then waited (impatiently) for my first session to start. Yesterday, it finally arrived. Unfortunately, it was a morning low of 22 with winds from 14-29 mph. More unfortunately, the wind climbed to 22-37 mph while I was out there. Even more unfortunately, in all my practice and planning, I neglected to plan for Winter to be cold. I don't get cold easily, so I figured long sleeves and fleece would be quiet and stealthy and plenty warm. In this case, 3 layers was not enough. I have never shivered so much in my entire life. To make matters worse, the wind was screaming so I couldn't see any deer movement because everything was in motion constantly. In addition, I couldn't hear any deer movement over the wind. The only thing I could hear was my insanely loud "stealth" finding every crunchy leaf and stick plus catching every briar on my pants. After 3 hours, I finally called it quits without seeing 1 single deer. I went back home and tried (unsuccessfully) to warm up. I decided to give it another try and went back out for a late afternoon hunt. Being more familiar with the area now, I moved to the spot I thought would be best. I sat and scanned for deer for a bit and saw nothing. I slowly stood up to move to one other area and then locked eyes on a deer bedded down 15 feet from me. It was much more reactive than I was because it bolted before I could even think of reacting.

All in all, it was a fun and informative experience. The best part is, I have 13 more days in this hunting session to try to bag a deer. If I fail, then I have another 2-week session in January. All I need is slightly better conditions and lots more luck (and skill) and I should have some meat in the freezer in no time.

Bees: Neglectful Beekeeper

I have been neglectful in posting and neglectful as a beekeeper. Last year, my bees got inspected once a week for the first month then every other week for the second month then a couple more times after that. They do a pretty good job on their own, once established, but I really feel like I have been shortchanging both hives for attention. That said, mostly I have neglected writing up anything. The biggest reason I didn't write anything up is because I haven't been taking pictures. Today, I managed to inspect my second hive (which doesn't have a name yet) a got a couple shots.

These bees are doing surprisingly well considering my gross missteps previously. I think they like their home, although they certainly made a mess of it. The first box ended up totally unmanageable. They built the comb in-between the frames instead of on the frames. At this point, my plan is to wait until Spring and take the whole box, frames and all and try to realign the comb when it's empty. They got a second box, this time with every other frame of drawn comb and every other frame of starter wedges. They did a great job drawing that out and filling it up with eggs and nectar. So much so, that they needed a third box. The new box is pure wax foundation. The bees seem to like it better than the coated plastic.

Anyway, here are some shots I got. One thing I found is that it is really hard to take good photos in bright sun while wearing a net over your head. Next time, I think I might bring the good camera and take the net off my head.

A little blurry with the queen (yellow dot)

Clear shot, but I missed the queen

Just got her this time (right edge) plus eggs

Bees: Making hand lotion

As I pass the dawn of my life into the middle somewhere, the skin on my hands has become more prone to drying and cracking. During Winter (from shoveling snow) and Spring (from dirt and subsequent washing) my hands have the texture of Velcro with random spots of blood from the deepest cracks. I just ran out of my Burt's Bees almond milk hand cream at work. I generally like it. It doesn't make my hands sweaty, smells inoffensive and comes in a nice little jar that fits under my monitor. That said, it's $9 per little jar (up from $5 a few years ago). I happen to have some extra beeswax so I decided to try making my own.

Ideally, I would replicate the texture, smell and performance of my preferred brand. If it was quick and easy to make in smallish batches, it would be even better. At the very least, I needed something functional and not offensive for less than $4.50 per oz., otherwise, I might as well buy it.

The basic principle is pretty simple. Beeswax is solid at room temperature. It needs to be mixed with one or more room-temperature liquid or semi-solid oils. As I said, I already have the beeswax. The stuff I like has almond oil plus some other things. Most of the recipes on the web call for olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, jojoba oil, avacado oil, etc. I happened to have olive oil and coconut oil on hand as well, so I decided to use those.

The wax and oils need to be melted together. I did this in a double boiler at a bare simmer, keeping in mind that I wanted the wax melted not smoking and scorching. I added 7 oz. of coconut oil, 1.75 cups of extra virgin olive oil and 6 oz. of beeswax.Once it was fully melted, it needs to be fully homogenized and emulsified. What that means is that it needs to be thoroughly mixed with a little water. From what I gather, if you don't mix it as it cools and/or you don't add water, it will be rock hard. I saw people suggest a blender or a fork as viable options. Personally, a blender would be impossible to clean and a fork would just be a pain. I happened to have an old KitchenAid stand mixer which was perfect. I used the mixing bowl as the insert of double boiler so there was less clean-up. Since everything I used is edible, I wouldn't be afraid to use the primary mixer (if my wife wasn't around).

So, I transferred the mixing bowl of melted wax and oil to the stand and turned it on. I tried a couple different speeds. It turns out that the slowest speed was perfect. It kept it mixing and minimized the solids that needed to be scraped down back into the mix. After about 15 minutes of cooling and mixing, I stopped the mixer, scraped down the sides, restarted it and added 1/3 cup of hot water. After that, it just needed to be mixed and scraped down a few more times until it was warm and soft, but manageable. I spooned it into four 1/4-pint mason jars and one pint mason jar. In other words, the recipe made a quart of lotion.

Lessons learned and personal review: I want to try some almond oil and possibly some other stuff like cocoa and shea butters. I might even consider using mineral oil. It had the right texture, but it had a strong smell of olive oil. I would also like a different scent to this. I like the smell of olive oil in my pasta but I don't know if I'll like it on my hands perpetually. I could see infusing some rosemary or lavender in the olive oil would be a nice addition. It had a nice feel on my skin, but it was really efficient so I used way too much the first try. I can see this will be a fun, quick project which I can mix it up every time I need it. Looking at the cost, the coconut oil was about $4 and the olive oil was about $6. That makes it $10 per 16 oz.

Bees: What ever can go wrong...

Yesterday was one of those "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" days for me, as beekeeping is concerned*. Back in January, I decided I wanted to ensure that I would still have bees. With care, about 33% of hives die in the winter. Without treatment, losses are typically 50%. Figuring that I would be unlucky, I decided to purchase another package. I had to pick it up in Northern MA, right on the NH border. It was a haul, but it seemed worth it to get bees this early. After it stopped raining, it was a pleasant drive.

I was a little concerned about hiving the bees in the cold, but really didn't have a choice. When I got the bees home, I sprayed them with a little mist of water. They settled down a bit, but still seemed a little on edge. As dinner time approached, I drove over to my hive that I set up on Sunday. I went through the process of hiving the package, but unfortunately a bunch of things went wrong. First, it was a little cool, so the bees were testy. Shouldn't be a huge deal because they should be a passive swarm. Well, passive they were not. Even after a little spritz with water, they were buzzing loudly.

Second, as I said, it was cool so I still had on my dark green fleece over my t-shirt. This, of course violates the first rule of bee-appropriate clothing which is to wear white or light colors because dark colors upset them. Oh, and speaking of bad clothing choices, I had lose-fitting pants and ankle socks which provides a nice patch of bare skin to angry bees. After realizing my fleece mistake, I took it off, thereby allowing access to my t-shirt sleeves which also make nice hiding spots for angry bees.

So, at this point, other than angry bees and bad clothing choices, things weren't too terrible. Well, I forgot to knock the bees to the bottom of the package cage, so as soon as I lifted the cover, the (angry) bees all swarm up and into my face and hair. Oh, a little side note... I don't own a bee hat/veil. My first hive was so docile that I never needed one before. I got one of those bug nets from WalMart, but expecting passive bees, I left it at home.

So, to recap up to this point, thousands of angry bees flying in my face, hair, and everywhere all around me. I figure, I just need to get them in the hive, close it up and get out of here. Well, in the rush, the queen cage fell to the bottom of the hive, resting on the screened bottom board. Figuring, I'll just grab it with the hive tool when I get the rest of the bees dumped out, I continue. Well, that's when the stings started.

First, they were stuck in my hair and started stinging my scalp. Then, they moved onto my back and face. After a couple dozen or so, I abandon the idea of doing anything else other than getting away. I got a few more stings trying to get away, but nothing as bad as the first round. I did, however knock off my glasses trying to get an angry stinging bee out of my temple.

Once safely away, I try to come up with a plan to get the two missing frames back into the hive, secure the queen cage and close it up considering the fact that I now must reek of hive invader smells from all the stings. Of course, the most useful tool aside from a full bee suit would be my smoker which was also securely stored in my shed. I figure, if I'm careful, I can generate a good amount of smoke with newspaper and arborvitae leaves (fronds, needles?).

I return to the hive with smoke and a spray bottle of water with my shirt tucked in and my fleece over my head to keep the bees from stinging my scalp any more. I slowly move up to where I dropped my glasses and promptly step on them. Fortunately, I was able to bend them back into shape and get the lens back in place. So, as I approach the side of the hive, the bees resume their attack against everything moving. A half dozen or so attacked the burning newspaper in a kamikaze raid. The smoke seemed to confuse them more than settle them, which I guess is an improvement. At the very least, I was only getting the occasional sting.

If all went well, I should have been able to scoop out the queen cage, secure it and put the two missing frames back. That, however, would require something to go right. Well, I decided to go with unwired "cut comb" foundation. That way, I could just crush and strain the comb to extract the honey. The wired stuff I started my other hive with needed no addition support or securing. This stuff was so light and thin that it just collapsed with the weight of the bees. The queen cage was now under a sandwich of 3 lbs. of angry, defensive bees and 5 medium foundation sheets. And, since I can't catch a break, it wasn't just a regular sandwich. It was a multi-layered club sandwich of angry bees/foundation/angry bees/foundation/etc. I tried to salvage the install, but the bees were now picking their attack back up. I had to retreat several times.

I almost wish I had just left the hive as is and let these bees die. I managed to get several of the sheets of foundation out, but darkness was approaching. I figured it would be better to lose the queen and let the bees settle down. I couldn't even find the cage under all that mess. I pushed the three frames with intact foundation together, put the empty frames in as well, put the feeder and cover on and left with two more ankle stings and an armpit sting for good measure.

I decided there were two highly remote possibilities that the workers could get to the queen and keep her from freezing to death. I went back today (with smoker and netting and light colored clothes and better frames) to see if they had calmed down. They were, if anything, angrier than yesterday. I couldn't get within about 15 feet of the side of the hive without being dive-bombed. I didn't even manage to get close enough to see if there was any hope of salvaging things. In reality, I don't know if I even want to salvage them. I ended up with somewhere between two and three dozen stings. I know they will be replaced by the queen's offspring, if she is released, but she likely didn't even survive the night given that she would be outside the cluster and it was just above freezing last night. Still, given they behavior, I suspect these bees have been somewhat Africanized. If that's the case, a queen from the same area would likely be just as Africanized. I'm going to give them a couple more days to see if they calm down. If not, I'll suit up in bee-proof clothes and exterminate them. Worst case scenario, I'm going to try to make a split or capture a swarm if these bees don't survive the installation.



* - Also, my car thermostat stuck open, I stepped on my glasses, and burned myself in the sink.