Archive for August, 2010

Shame, Guilt, Fear

Lughnasa                                                  Waning Artemis Moon While it’s fresh.  A meeting this morning with our financial manager where we went over, again, the various moving parts of our investments.  It resulted in a down feeling, almost defensive.  What was this?  He said we’d be fine financially and I believed him.  We overhauled our whole approach to money […]

Read the rest of this entry »

A Real Boy

Lughnasa                                               Waning Artemis Moon Had an odd experience as I rode the lawn tractor back to the garage after putting all the no longer needed honey supers in the shed, putting the spun out frames back on the hives and heading back along the vegetable garden toward the truck gate.  I felt like a real […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Bee Diary: Honey Extraction, Photos

Lughnasa                                           Waning Artemis Moon By Kate’s calculation we have 4.875 gallons of honey.  Not bad.  In terms of, say, filling up your car, 4.8 gallons doesn’t sound like much, but in terms of filling up canning jars filled with honey, it’s a lot.  The following photos will give you an idea of how the day […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Bee Diary: Honey Extraction, Day 2

Lughnasa                                       Waning Artemis Moon Artemis Hives have given up their surplus honey, all under the Artemis moon.  We started this morning with Kate putting a plastic drop cloth down on the deck while I went out to the colonies to see what was still there.  The divide had, as I expected, nothing.  That means, oddly […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Bee Diary: Honey in the Jar

Lughnasa                                    Waning Artemis Moon The waning Artemis moon has a golden hue tonight, honey colored, as it sits on the northeastern horizon.  A band of clouds created two dark lines, parallel to each other and about a third of the way down.  It looked like a view of the moon from an ukiyo-e print. We […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Bee Diary: Honey Extraction

Lughnasa                                   Waning Artemis Moon The honey extraction has begun.  Kate and I assembled the extractor this morning.  I am not at my best during the accomplishing of mechanical tasks and got a bit testy.  Kate gave me some space; reengaged.  Then I considered aligning myself with the flow of our day–instead of bucking it because […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, You Gotta Think About It.

Lughnasa                                           Waning Artemis Moon Went to office max and had the smaller artemis honey labels printed up.  Now it’s time for a workout then the vikes at 7:00. As to demagoguery in our time.  Glenn Beck and his band of merry men and women, almost all white, want to return the country to the God […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo Time: Late Summer

Lughnasa                                            Waning Artemis Moon Late summer taste treats.  We have red and golden. These are the hives with their maximum honey supers.  We extract honey on Monday. This is just one of several deep cave descents attempted by the Andover Speleological Society, Rigel and Vega founding members. The newly mulched orchard from the perspective of […]

Read the rest of this entry »

An Aging Bull Moose

Lughnasa                                    Waning Artemis Moon Easton and Ray, both soon to be seniors at Andover High, worked this morning, moving wood chips, laying them down on the paths Kate and I cleared of weeds yesterday.  Both fit and energetic they kept at it, moving 9 cubic yards of wood chips with a wheel barrow.  That’s minus […]

Read the rest of this entry »

For Everything

Lughnasa                                      Full Artemis Moon A full day today and another one tomorrow.  Late August through early September are busy times here at 7 Oaks and Artemis Hives.  Kate’s worked like a Trojan, the Norwegians of Greece, pulling weeds, making piles, churning through task after task.  She wears me out.  And she’s older than I am. […]

Read the rest of this entry »