Lughnasa Waxing Harvest Moon
Kate handed me a note with the honey harvest for this year:
Peanut butter jars (large): 7.5 x 3 lbs each for 22.5#
Pint jars: 17 x 1 lb 17.5#
1/2 pint 37 X 11 0z. 32#
1/4 pint 13 jars @ 5 oz. 4#
total 75.5#
This is not a large harvest as honey harvests go, but it more than meets our needs and offers us many opportunities to make gifts and to barter.
Kate’s the precise type, which is a good thing in a physician.
Lughnasa Waxing Harvest Moon
Tomorrow the season’s honey harvest. Kate and I will haul out the extractor, fasten it to the deck and begin uncapping our honey.
The process goes like this. Each colony with surplus honey, 2 & 3, has at least two full honey 
supers and a third with some honey. The bees have to be removed from the super, then the super covered with a bee tight lid.
The super goes in a wheel barrow and gets trundled to the deck. Kate will uncap the frames by sliding a hot knife over the capped cells. This is a sticky process, one that had several uninvited guests last year, but we’re taking steps to keep the bees away from the extraction.
In the first place we’ll only have one extractor load of frames at a time (6). That means there will not be frames sitting free, inviting bees. If we can, we will do the uncapping inside, further removing a source of attraction.
At any rate bees away from their queen are not defensive, so even if they do show up they’re not inclined to sting unless harmed.
Tomorrow’s work completes a journey begun two weeks late, at the very end of April and the beginning of May with three, three pound boxes of bees.
(6 frames go in the slots. The motor turns the frames and centrifugal force extracts the honey)
Colony 1, which will over winter, has no surplus honey, and I have yet to determine if it has adequate stores. That will come in the days after the extraction.
If my estimates are correct, we’re going to have a large harvest (for Artemis Hives).
Lughnasa New Harvest Moon
NB: prophet is a gender neutral word as I use it.
Kate. Always ahead of her time. When Kate was in high school in Nevada, Iowa, she arranged a deal to take most of her senior classes at nearby Iowa State. She’d run out of classes in the high school, at least classes that could keep her interest. In her senior year, just as the deal was to kick in, the high school changed their mind. Later, as a nurse anesthetist, she insisted on better pay for her position at Mt. Sinai.
After that, too long in the role of helper, she decided, at age 34, to go to medical school. The medical school thought that since she was already a doctor’s wife, she should be happy with that. She graduated and became a board certified pediatrician in the best medical delivery system in the US.
After a serious illness and poor treatment at the hands of her then partners at Metropolitan Pediatrics, Kate moved to Allina, its Coon Rapids’ clinic. While there she became frustrated with corporate medicine and chose to become lead physician for her group. Over her time there she integrated pediatric and family practice offices, initiated (by doing it herself) after hours care and agitated for a better deal for primary care docs in general.
Now, several years after she pioneered it, Coon Rapids’ peds has regular after hours clinic and the Clinic has an urgent care unit providing after hours non-emergency medicine. Kate works in the urgent care, part-time.
She has been tireless in haranguing me about the stupidity of pediatricians treating psychiatric problems for which they have little to no training. (see today’s Star-Tribune) The arguments about vaccine that I read in this months Scientific American I first heard over the breakfast table. She also campaigns against the overuses of anti-biotics, the over prescription of pain-killers and, most passionately of all, the need for a single-payer health system. An equitable distribution of health care services has been at the top of her need list for a long time.
She is a prophet in a system that, though excellent in its care, has become sclerotic in its administration. The current over managed (way too many administrators with way too much power) model, corporate medicine as she styles it, focuses its efforts on the bottom line (money), on standardization (easier to manage), on patient satisfaction (results would be a better yardstick) and on turning physicians into employees. Those who run these systems should listen to this practical, intelligent critic and change their ways.
Lughnasa Waning Honey Extraction Moon
“Through the years, a man (sic) peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, tools, stars, horses and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his own face.” – Jorge Luis Borges
As the sun retreated behind the spinning earth, Kate and I sat outside at Buona Sera, an Italian restaurant in Champlin. There was an umbrella over our table and pit a pat from time to time fell acorns, the harvest of fall already underway. Kate’s birthday itself is tomorrow, but she works, so we celebrated today.
This is my 22 birthday celebration with her and I look forward to 22 more. We met each other at a point where both of us needed some good luck. We found it.
There is something satisfying about a dinner with a long time friend, especially on an important event like the day of her birth. She is a long time friend now and my long term love. There is a sort of patina that gathers with age and repetition, perhaps akin to the wabi-sabi aesthetic of the Japanese. After long use, an item, say a humble tea scoop or a water ladle, takes on the character of the one who scoops tea or ladles water with it.
Our bodies, and our faces, are the same; so are the relationships most dear to us. They take on the character of the two who create them, a lustre of careful attention and loving touch.
As the sun set, we listened to the acorns, drank our coffee and enjoyed the patina of our life together.
Lughnasa Full Honey Extraction Moon
Mark has a new job in Ha’il, Saudi Arabia. He will teach English as a foreign language, as he did so well at AUA in Bangkok for twelve years. He worked hard over the last five months to recollect himself, to figure out next steps then find a job. This last he’d focused on hard the last couple of weeks and it got results.
Kate and I are both happy for him. He’s “wired” right now, still shifting his mentality from unemployed to suddenly employed and about to undertake a journey from Minnesota, which has begun to slide toward fall and Saudi Arabia, where seasons are much different.
His word and Mary’s, who’s worked with educational programing in Bahrain, for the culture there is austere, at least from a Western or Southeast Asian perspective. By austere they mean at least the prohibition on alcohol, unveiled women, internet censorship and the overwhelming presence of Islam and not just any Islam, but an Islam markedly influence by the Wahabi sect, spawn of Islamic extremists like bin Laden. Also no movies and sharia justice.
Mark has a German friend who attended a public execution, held on Friday right after prayers. He found himself shoved to the front of the crowd to experience the scimitar facilitated beheading.
This will also mean a change for us, a move back into Kate’s retirement, leaning into that more as Mark’s saga here, at least for now, comes to an end.
Lughnasa Waxing Honey Extraction Moon
“Those who go overseas find a change of climate, not a change of soul.” – Horace
Horace has an early version here of wherever you go, there you are. My brother has carried the same soul with him from the soi of Bangkok to the exurbs of the Twin Cities.
Mark, Kate and I took off through the beautiful backroads of northern Anoka county and made it, after a couple of years of talking about it, to the Running Aces Harness Track. I’m not kidding about northern Anoka county, much of it is as interesting and as attractive as the northern part of the state. There are large stretches of marsh land and forest, small lakes, pine trees and surprisingly few development thanks to a generally high water table. Driving back in the night it was exactly like traveling on county roads in Cook County.
Running Aces. A subculture, harness racing has a lovely track here with plenty of seating and parimutuel betting. When you drive up, there is a big port cochere, much like the entrance to a resort hotel. On the benches around the curve of the drive a man sat hunched over smoking, his peroxide blonde hair mussed, as if he had been running his hands through it. Just inside the glass doors a floor to ceiling painting commemorates Minnesota’s harness racing legend, Dan Patch.
Floor to ceiling glass doors allow a glimpse of the harness track off to the left, it’s gravel covered surface banked and curved. In the middle of a half moon layout and up on a raised floor was the off track betting area where races throughout the country showed up on several flat screens mounted one next to the other. A woman with bottle red hair, a jean-jacket and sequined cowboy boots passed betting slips to a middle-aged man with an impressive paunch. They studied them, trying to read the runes.
At the right lies the card room. Several Asian folks played Pai Gow Poker, an Americanized version of a game originally played with Mahjhong tiles. There were black jack tables, the James Bond favorite, baccarat, a Mississippi river boat table and several, perhaps 12 or 14 tables filled with 8 players each engaged in Texas Hold’em, the dominant form of poker played on the professional circuit.
We passed those by and headed out to the track. (Though I snuck inside later and checked them both out.)
The betting windows have wood fronts and look much like old bank teller cubicles, save for the How to Bet sign posted below. The betting windows and three lines of chairs occupy an enclosed area that has a full view of the track, but has either A/C or heat depending on the circumstances. Outside there were tables, rows of chairs, a few benches right in front of the track and a restaurant with a patio area.
Kate and Mark had purchased a racing program while I parked and they had it out, trying to read it, figure out the symbols and the information about horses in each of 8 races on the card for the evening. Post time was at 7 pm. We missed the first race, but saw the second. A white Cadillac has a long starting gate arranged like dragon fly wings while extended. The Cadillac takes off and the horses trot up as the Cadillac heads toward the starting point about half way around the large, 5/8ths mile track. When the Cadillac hits the starting point the dragon fly wings retract and the horses take off in a flying start.
Tonight a 3/4 Honey Extraction Moon sat directly over the far straight away as the sky went from blue to dark blue to bruised red then a clear night. The air temp was about 68 degrees. A perfect night for racing.
We didn’t understand much of what was said and even less of what was written, but we did see a couple of races where a horse came from back in the field to win at the end. I noticed a guy in jeans and a windbreaker come to full attention as the horses pounded down the main straight headed for the finish line. What happened mattered to him.
Lughnasa Waxing Honey Extraction Moon
Got excited during the Graphic Design class and ordered Adobe Creative Suite 5.0. It’s cheaper since it’s behind the latest iteration 5.5. I’ll be able to do my own eBooks, website, manipulate photos. It’s more software than I need, but I like to have the best tools when I’m ready to use them.
Mark has had a callback from Target Warehouse and a potential position in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabia position would be cosh, he says. After living in Bangkok, Mark has a lot of English slang from British expats. He’s excited. This working at looking for a job seems to be working for him.
Took the last bits of the truck back to its now lifeless body. We kept the old tail gate, hitch and bumper removed when we added the Tommy lift.
Kate and I spent lunch yesterday and the time after in a darkened Osaka, choosing shore excursions for our cruise. I haven’t run the totals yet, but I imagine when we add in dog boarding and the two additional days in Rio we’ll have a heft sum in addition to the cost of the cruise. All part of the deal. We still need to get our extra passport photos and start the Brazil visa process.
Finally got back to the aerobics yesterday. Slept better. The clay intensive and family reunion threw me off schedule. Getting back up one step at a time. First, aerobics. Then, resistance. Meanwhile practicing Tai Chi.
Mid-Summer New Honey Extraction Moon
Kate and I bought a new vehicle yesterday, a Toyota Rav-4. Well, we picked out the things we wanted, left a deposit and now wait for the finding. This may not be big news in most families, but the last time we bought a new vehicle was 1999 and before that it was 1994. Until Wednesday we still had both of them. The Tundra, the 1999 purchase, fell thanks to an oil-pressure hose providing cooling to the transmission. It blew, taking with it other essential fluids, the engine and the transmission. Bad luck. The Celica motors on, at its next oil change it will hit 275,000 miles. Toyota’s last and that’s what I want, have always wanted, in a car.
Our life has coasted back to a familiar routine from the intense clay week followed by the intense family week. Both were good, positive experiences, but there are reasons these events last short periods of time and the calmer times last longer.
Got a note from Mary, safely back in Singapore, who observed that international travel was easier than intra-US. She had a variety of air-related mishaps in her two weeks plus of traveling the US by plane.
Kate and I need to spend time in our gardens, two weeks away from them at this time of year leaves weeds as happy as the plants we want 
there. Also, the tomatoes have begun to ripen, peas have played out for now, though I’ll probably plant a fall crop, the beets have begun to fatten up (second planting), carrots, too. Chard and spinach look good and they, too, need replanting for fall harvest.
August will find us once again with the honey extractor set up, frames to uncap and jars to fill. Mark Odegard has begun work on the 2011 version of the Artemis Honey label. His first efforts looked good to me, but he’s a skilled professional and keeps adjusting, trying new things. We’ll try this year to uninvite the bees to the extracting party. They become a big bother, not appreciating the heist of their summer’s work. Who can blame them? Though, I should add, they put up a surplus well beyond what their winter survival requires. That’s why bee-keeping works in the first place.
Mid-Summer Waning Honey Flow Moon
Five days of clay. Whew. What did I learn? Well, I’m not holding my breath for that National Treasure for potting position when I turn 80. Maybe by that time I’ll have learned how to center, raise a cylinder and throw a bowl.
We’ve made some new friends, including our instructor and I learned a lot about the craft of pottery making, a lot that will be useful when touring at the MIA. Kate developed enough confidence to move forward with the work. I learned enough to tag along, though with low expectations. It was an intensive process and a good one.
We had a potluck today. Kate and I took my two iron tea-pots and an assortment of tea cups. Two Japanese potters on fellowship joined us, so I asked Rena what the bottom of my red, larger tea-pot said. She looked at it, fingering the kanji, smiled and said, “Made in Japan!” Oh. I asked Naota what he thought of the U.S. and he said, “Comfortable.” He comes from Tokyo and likes the slower pace of life here.
One of the women in the class, Claire, has 25 years of pottery experience and a studio in the Northern Clay Center, another, Alisha, teaches pottery making in high school. And so on. Kate and I were at the opposite end of the learning spectrum. We didn’t know enough to recognize that the class was for way advanced folks. Still, seeing others with skills working and taking lessons from a master potter was a learning of its own. At this level a lot of the instruction was on small technical aspects like really focusing on centering, or learning how to cut a tea-pot spout so the uncoiling of the clay in the kiln will move the spout to the right position. (You cut it at a 4:30.)
This was an immersion in another world, the world of potters, molding clay as our mutual ancestors have done for several thousand years. A craft and an art tied to the earth and seasoned by fire, to know those who make pottery is a window in to our deep past, yet an activity still very much in the present.
Mid-Summer Waning Honey Flow Moon
Turns out making cylinders is hard. In clay. Kate and I are rank beginners at this clay thing, but we are taking a class with others who aren’t. This makes life difficult for the teacher and for us rank beginners. Near the end of Day 2 today I think I got how to draw up the wall of a cylinder. Light touch, right hand and left hand equal pressure for pressure, move up, relax and the lip, repeat.
Kate’s arthritic thumbs gave out about 3 pm today. Now that she has the new hips and the back fusion, her pain load is less, but the arthritis moves around, finding new joints to bug. The hands have been less bothersome up till now because the hips and the back were worse. Now though… She also wears out after about four hours. She did the other day (did I write this already?) how surprised she is at the effect major surgery has on her stamina.
We’re both having fun though, trying out new modes of expression, learning new things together.
