Art and Culture, Friends, Great Work, permaculture, Sport

Superman

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Beltane                           Waxing Dyan Moon

“It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.” – William G. McAdoo

Boy, is that true.  Look at Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld, oh my.

Had lunch and a by the seat of the pants tour with Mary and Frank Broderick.  It was fun, wandering around the museum looking at art with friends.

Obama is such a smart guy.  Speaking to the Muslims yesterday, visiting Buchenwald today.  He does not allow the dust to settle in any one place before he moves on, readjusting the tunic of America’s presence in the world.  In such a short time he has restored my feeling of good fortune in living here.  Geez, just to have a President who can string together a complex sentence is enough to make me cry.

Following the low bar of the Bush presidency has eased Obama’s transition, but he would have looked good at any point.  Now he looks like superman.

The first phase of the growing season, planting and amending soil, has come to an end.  Almost.  Now mulch goes down newwork09and surveillance for pests.

This is part of the new work we had done last week.  The vegetable garden area has no more grass, just chips.  It also has new beds with flowers, shrubs and space for some more vegetables.  We have made another step toward a permaculture suburban acreage.  The small white form in the upper left is the bee hive.

Family, Great Work, permaculture

Pictures. Puppies and Plants.

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Beltane                    Waxing Dyan Moon

dogfamily

Poppa (the big gray wolfhound, Guiness) and his children.  Our new pups are in this picture, but I can’t pick them out.

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orchfirstgrowseas

The orchard early in its first growing season.  Currants in the foreground to the right, cherries and plums the trees in mid-ground.

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potatoeyeview

A potato eye view of its bed.

Bees, Friends, permaculture

A Good Night at Cards

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Beltane                          Waxing Dyan Moon

“After another night of losing sheepshead, it finally came to me.  These guys have been playing a lot longer than I have.  Bill since childhood.  Roy and Dick since high school and Ed since entering the Jesuits.  Now I view them as my mentors.  That way I can lose and learn, instead of just lose.”   from a May 7, 2009 post after I finished at the bottom again.

Some nights the cards change and the tide flows with  you.  Last night I got great cards and did well.  Anything I’ve learned in this reprise of my brief sheepshead career in Appleton, Wisconsin, I’ve learned from these guys.

Those cells I thought were queen cells were drone cells.  Drones have a life devoted to the vain pursuit of sex.  Sounds like the American teenager when I grew up.  Drones fly out and around, hoping to find a queen who needs him.  This is a very rare occurrence, so only the most fortunate of these bee princes ever become king for a day.

Yesterday I planted squash, melons and beans, thinned the turnips and replanted carrots and beets.  The last time I dicentra09planted carrots and beets I didn’t water them in.  Probably should have.  The potatoes needed mounding and I discovered that the beets and turnips both benefit from mounding too.  If a portion of these tuberous vegetables stick up above ground, they turn green and inedible.

The red car got expensive again and will get a bit more so.  This time it needed a new radiator and coolant flush, a flush of brake fluid and steering fluid, a new transmission gasket and a flush of the transmission fluid with new replacement fluids.  It probably also needs a new master brake cylinder, but I said no to that out of sticker shock.  After consulting the mechanic, I’m going to order the part and have it replaced.  Suddenly having no brakes is not a good thing.

Our Land and Home

Puppies

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Beltane                    Waxing Dyan Moon

Kate and I went out this afternoon to Loretto, near Corcoran.  This is a horsey part of the metro, but we wanted to look at dogs, specifically an Irish Wolfhound and Walker Coyote Hound mix.  The man who bred them, Julian Lehman, has the unusual occupation of master of the hunt.  That is, he trains both horses and fox hounds to ride after a scented lure.  He also rides with those who hire his services.  Can’t be many of those in Minnesota.

These dogs were, for us, perfect.  They retain Wolfhound features and personality, but will probably be about 2/3’s the size.  With the hybrid vigor of a mix and a smaller overall body we hope they will live longer.  We went for it, buying two litter mates, this time both bitches.  Our last two Wolfhounds, Tor and Orion, were unneutered and this caused problems for them and for us.  Our fault of course.

We won’t bring them home until after our trip to Indiana, but after that Blue and Cleo (their puppy names) will live with us.

Politics

Conceptual Theatre

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Beltane                  Waxing Dyan Moon

“The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses.” – Edith Sodergran

Waiting for Al

Act VI

Curtain rises on Al and Norm, their heads peak out from two ballot counting machines.  Al is stage left; Norm is stage right.  Debate on the floor of the US Senate floods the audience.  First Norm, then Al, turn their heads as if trying to listen.

The stage has no props other than the two voting machines and a small bench.

As a debate over the appointment of Supreme Court nominee  Sotomayor turns harsh, three persons dressed only in black robes come out, stand in front of the bench, then sit down.

Al and Norm cannot see the bench.

Al spreads his face in a patented Saturday Night Show smile, wide and goofy, then turns serious as a voice in the senate debate suggests Sotomayor is a racist.

Norm starts to smile, changes his mind, a look of concentration.

A voice from the Senate debate:  “We cannot allow racial or gender politics to have a place in the decision to place a candidate on the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court is for all the people, not just special interest groups.”

Another voice, this time a woman’s:  “… pregnancy and a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body.”

Nods from the three in black.

Norm and Al furl their brows, show evident interest.

An Al Franken campaign appears on a rear projection screen behind the justices.  No sound.

Al breaks into another wide smile as the ad plays though he cannot see it.

A Coleman ad.  Norm smiles.

The three persons in black robes rise off the bench and say together:  “Things are Normal.”

Al and Norm’s heads disappear inside the ballot boxes.

Great Work, Travel

Gators

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Beltane              Waxing Dyan Moon

gatorThis southern gentleman showed up on my tour of Okefeenokee Swamp.  He hissed and opened his mouth wide. (Does that mean he’s related to Jesse Helms?) After we moved past him, he moved to another patch of grass and rolled over on his side, happy at having driven away the intruders.

The gator is the moose and the wolf of the south.  It shows up on license plates, as school mascots and in tourist ware like mugs and hot pads.

Chip, the crocodilian biologist who gave me the tour, said that the crocodilian’s basic survival strategy got put into place 30-40 million years ago and has not changed since.  They hunt the shoreline and low water edges, relying on stealth and speed to catch birds, deer, fish.

The females (you cannot tell a female from a male without opening them up) lay a large number of eggs, guard their brood and hope for the best.  It seems to work.  Think of all that time.

Bees

Queen Bees

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Beltane                  Waxing Dyan Moon

thebeekeeper Hat jauntily askew and ready to check on his bees.

The bees have been busy since I left two + weeks ago.  A lot more worker bees, probably three times than the original packagae, so maybe 24,000 bees.  Also a lot of queen cells so I think they are not far from swarming.  I have to contact Mark, my bee expert, and found out if I did the right preventative measures.  Using the hive tool, I opened the queen cells and destroyed the brood.

This sounds cruel, but the purpose of new queen cells at this point is to produce a swarm with its own queen.  Without them, they will continue to build more worker bees and produce honey in the hives.

Trellis and planting next.

Art and Culture

The Victorian Subversives

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Beltane              Waxing Dyan Moon

The pre-Raphaelite crew met today at the MIA.  We discussed the peculiar social habits of this genus of artist, their wonderful paintings and the meanings of their careful constructions.  Their jewel like paints make their canvases leap off the wall and a book page.  Their often medieval subject matter brings back the whimsy of knights and chivalry, while some classical allusions, the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hamlet, and Jesus, for example create odd artistic resonance.  They are beautiful and rich with meaning.

Wendy, Allison, Joy and Antra were in attendance.  Allison presided with her usual vigor, taking us to places to see her new discoveries.  We all peaked in at the exhibit, just now being hung, craning our necks over the barrier like groupies at a rock concert.

This will be a very fun show, I hope it finds an audience.

General

The Lords of Finance

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Beltane                  Waxing Dyan Moon

Spent this morning planting egg plant, building trellises for the peas and getting familiar with the current state of the garden.

A note from my sister said the presentation of her thesis work in Athens (Greece) went well.  Quite an accomplishment.  Way to go, Mary!

Still in a post-vacation fuzz, lost naps catching up with me.

Got the docent sign up form for next year and it has to be in by tomorrow.  Since it’s a first come, first choice deal, I’m not gonna get my first picks this year for the first time since I started as a guide back in 2001.  It means I’ll most likely miss touring the Louvre show.  Darn it.

Reading a book right now called the Lords of Finance.  It explains in detail the precursors to the great depression and the central bankers who made it worse.  I’m not sure why this kind of reading appeals to me, but it does.  The story so far shows the intimate linkage between World War I and the economic devastation wrought by it and the subsequent market failure in 1929.  Reparations by Germany and the damaged economies of France and Great Britain after the war created a chaotic finanical situation in which policy decisions by central banks factored more than ever before.  Some of those decisions made things a lot worse.

General

Back in My Burrow in the Gopher State

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Beltane                           Waxing Dyan Moon

3122 153rd Ave. NW, Minnesota, USA, the mind of God

Home again and good to be here.  A couple of extraneous posts still in the netbook and I’ll get them up today sometime.  There is a lot of work to do in the garden.  A lot.  So, I have to get to it.

Boy is it good to type on a full-sized keyboard again.  My netbook’s keyboard is 92% full size and great as small portables go, but nothing beats full-sized and split for ergonomics.

Wonderful weather, though dry.  The new work by ecological gardens is in and I still have to take in all that they did.  Gotta get out there and build a trellis and plant beans, then we’ll see what comes next.  Oh, and check on the bees.