Sunday, February 27, 2011

Random Thoughts: Follow Through

I have an issue with follow through. OK, I said it. Happy? To explain further, it's not with everything. Also, if I allow myself an excuse/justification, eventually I finish most things... Eventually... Except when I don't.

Personality-wise, I see big projects like chess. I look ahead, assessing actions and results with steps along the way. Psychologically, my brain doesn't differentiate between completing a task vs. thinking about completing a task. This is especially true with leisure tasks.

It gets simultaneously depressing and overwhelming to think about the things undone. I have about 20 pages of a science fiction screen play; 6 parts (chapters?) of a story; a partially disassembled 1938 Cadillac; an unopened gallon of paint for the dining room; a gaping hole in my garage ceiling; the parts needed to make a cider press; etc., etc., etc.

One thing that makes my 'habit' particularly bad is that I am a jack of all trades. I never shy away from learning something new. I like to be self reliant. I don't like to pay someone else to do things that I could do myself. And without arrogance, I can pretty much do it all... electrical, painting, auto repair, writing, computer programming, etc. I see myself as a new Renaissance man.

So what is the point of all this? Damned if I know. I guess I'm just doing a self assessment of my accomplishments in life. I am looking to finish something lasting; a legacy of sorts. Although, I am also considering starting something new. In order to succeed at whatever I do, I need time and a goal plus ongoing motivation to keep progress moving. I need a deadline which I cannot allow to slip. It would also help if I had others awaiting my completion, but I realize that's a lot to expect. As I write this, I just decided that I'm going to brush the dust off some things. I don't want to deprive the universe from what I have to offer.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Honeybees: Step 2 - Parts, and pieces and a plan

Part of my plan was decided for me. My loving wife got me a beginnings of my bee empire. Using her normal careful review and selection process, she bought me an 8-Frame English Garden Hive from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. I love the look of it. I especially love the copper clad roof. The only downside of the roof is that it is pitched. I've read that the lack of flat roof means that you can't rest your beer on top of it while you work.

Traditionally (the last 100+ years), beekeepers use what is called a Langstroth hive. The typical setup consists of 2 boxes known as deeps (or deep supers or hive bodies) with 10 removable frames each. Once the bees are established in their hive, a shallow super (Latin for above) is placed on top. The frames are either wax with embedded wire or plastic coated with wax. The bees draw out the honeycomb cells and use them for raising brood, collecting nectar and storing pollen. In recent years, the trend has been to move towards more manageable hives. Enter the 8-frame medium hive...

A 10 frame deep hive body weighs up to 100 lbs. An 8 frame medium hive body weighs around 43 lbs. The other advantage is that all frames are interchangeable. If the bees build up instead of out, frames can be swapped. The advantage of interchangeability are more prominent when you consider multiple hives. A weaker hive can be enhanced with the resources of a stronger one. Currently, I only intend to have 1 hive, but I could see getting a second one. Still, it would be much easier to handle 43 lbs of tens of thousands of agitated bees and frenzy-inducing honey.

One problem with all medium equipment is the start-up cost is about 150% of what it would be using deep and shallow equipment. Three medium supers are equivalent to 2 deeps. 8 frame hives are 20% smaller than 10 frame hives, so I'll need to compensate there too. The hive that my wife bought me came with 2 medium bodies. I picked up and assembled 2 more medium bodies and before I'm done, I'll probably buy or make 2 more. In a good year, I probably wont need more than 5 medium bodies. In a great year, I would expect to use the 6th super though. This year, though, I don't anticipate using more than 3 mediums, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

As for other equipment, I have a landing board (not really needed), a screened bottom board, an inner cover and the (previously mentioned) copper clad outer cover. My wife also got me a really nice smoker to go along with the hive. I decided to paint the hive a cream color. I would have used a natural finish, except the first two bodies are cypress and the second two are pine. I chose cream because of the copper. Any paint has to match new copper plus weathered green copper. I still need to pick up a hat and veil, although I am toying with the idea of using a bug net from Walmart with my wide brimmed camel leather hat from India. I still have to decide on that one though.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Honeybees: Step 1 - Knowledge

I suppose "Knowledge" is really step 2. Step 1 is really "Desire." That said, I desire a lot of things. If I counted desire as step 1, I would be on step 1 for many things in my life. That's such a depressing outlook on life that I choose to discount it. If anyone disagrees with me, we can just call "Desire" step 0 and move on.

OK, so I know nothing about keeping bees. I don't know anyone who currently keeps or previously kept bees. I need knowledge and there are only 2 possible options. Option 1 is going to the source of beekeeping knowledge in my area. Specifically, I am referring to the RI Beekeepers Association. Like most beekeeping groups, they offer a bee school for beginning beekeepers. It's a viable option for most, but with a wife and kids, I don't feel like devoting hours of time to the classes.

Option 2 is my forte... Book learning. Somewhere in my boxes of books is a copy of The Backyard Beekeeper. Unfortunately, I have a severe lack of book shelves. As such, I have 12 file boxes of books stacked in a corner. Instead of trying to find it, I went to the bookstore and picked up a copy of Beekeeping for Dummies. It is straight forward and direct. It expresses one perspective of typical beekeeping with some alternate theories and ideas presented as well. Some of the information is dated even though it was revised in 2009.

The next source of information is the Internet. While the Internet has many facts, figures, parts, and pieces of information, there isn't a huge single point repository of information about individual subjects. I could search for a specific topic and find millions of entries, but most would be useless. That said, once I know a single good site, it is a short step to find other useful cross-linked sites. I started on the beesource.com forums. I found a few useful blog sites through the signature lines of posts. I found a totally different approach to beekeeping on Michael Bush's Bush Farms beekeeping site. He advocates for a natural course of actions.

I'm probably more of a nature, hands-off kind of person, but not to the extreme. I like my actions to be fact/cause driven. Most traditional approaches require a standard, unchanging routine. That's all well and good if you are a commercial beekeeper who can't afford to take many hive losses. As a backyard keeper, I have to luxury of screwing up. I really like the idea of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). In all my gardening, I follow an IPM approach, so beekeeping should be no different. If I run into a problem like a mite infestation, I will treat, but until then, I will just wait and see. Next time, I'll lay out my plan of action and the parts and pieces I have bought and the reasons.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Busy as a bee

... Or should that be "bees?" Specifically, I'm talking about my newest endeavor. I am becoming a beekeeper (or beek). Thanks to my loving wife, I have a very pretty 8-frame English Garden Hive. The boxes are cypress and the roof is copper clad. If nothing else, I'm sure the bees will appreciate their top quality, split level home in the high rent district.

It's strange. Keeping chickens seems like a much more intuitive task. You shelter them, feed them and water them and they give you eggs. Bees, on the other hand, are more self sufficient. You dump them in a box, give them a little sugar water to get started and walk away. Typical advice suggests that you inspect their hive every couple weeks. From what I've read, though, there isn't much you can do but hope for the best.

That just seems foreign to me. I pay a couple hundred bucks, then 6-18 months later, I get 50-200 lbs. of honey. It almost feels like planting a fruit tree. I feel like I should have to earn my reward. Maybe there is more to it that I don't see yet. Only time will tell.

So why would I start keeping bees? Well, I really like the prospect of increased crop yields from my yard/gardens. I suppose the honey will make nice Xmas presents too. Mostly, though, I can't help but feel that my kids are missing something I got as a kid. I remember going out to the crab apple tree in my parent's yard with a baby food jar. I would see how many bees I could catch. Usually I would only get 3 or 4. One time, I managed to get 11 in a peanut butter jar. When I look at my back yard fruits, all I see are carpenter bees, mason bees and other tiny bees, flies, etc. I rarely see a honeybee. My kids need the option of catching bees in jars. It just seems to make the world a more magical place.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Where to next?

We've been back from our vacation for a couple weeks. It was our first real vacation since Dec. 2004. Recently, I've been thinking about my long term travel plans. I have this idea that I will hit all the major countries of the world, plus a bunch of smaller ones. I have an amorphous priority list of where I want to go. I also have a couple different categories of destination.

In my mind, there are major once-in-a-lifetime destinations. These would be places like China, Egypt, Kenya, etc. They are so totally different from my daily life that they represent a unique experience. Usually, they represent a significant amount of travel time, and consequently, a significant financial investment. Destinations in this category require a trip duration of no less than 2 weeks, preferably 3.

The next category of destination is more common. Places in this category typically represent a significant cultural or historic value. Italy, Japan, and Spain are examples. I want to go to these places, but they aren't my dream destinations. I could go to them without fear that they will be unreachable in the future. I would still want to spend 1-2 weeks in a given place, but places like Paris or London could be covered in a long weekend. One hindrance to choosing one of these destinations is that my wife has already been to many of the places I would consider my top choices. While she would always accept a vacation, I'm sure she would prefer to go someplace new instead of someplace she lived for years.

The last category is the generic destinations. This covers places that I would like to go for one reason or another, but I could just a easily go tomorrow as I could 20 years from now. Most of these destinations consist of states in the continental US, the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico. Some could be longer trips, but most could be covered in a week or a long weekend.

So, right now, my top destination choices are:
Category 1: Kenya, Australia, and Greece.
Category 2: Spain, Paris, and Italy
Category 3: Grand Canyon, Alaska, Florida, Northern California and St. Lucia

So, which would you choose? I'm thinking Florida would make a nice Sat. - Sat. vacation next Christmas. The kids would be a perfect age for the theme parks and my wife likes to go someplace warm. I also think we might try to do a mommy-daddy weekend in Paris sometime when we find cheap airfare, but I'm not too keen on the French based on my personal experiences. I think Greece will be the next big vacation, but given past experience, that won't be until 2016-2017.