Spring Bee Hiving Moon Well. Those bees I saw earlier. That got me excited about a successful overwintering. They were scavengers. Robbing the honey left […]
Read the rest of this entry »Practice Safe Orcharding
Mid-Summer Waning Garlic Moon Spent yesterday relaxing after an unusually busy week. I wasn’t home for supper the first four nights. I like the connectedness and sense of agency I get when the days get busy, but I also appreciate the calm of home. Not much Latin gets done when life gets frantic. There have […]
Read the rest of this entry »In the Garden
Beltane New Garlic Moon One of those nights last night, unable to get to sleep, still rolling around awake at 1:00 a.m. Up a little bleary. Wrote few e-mails, then out in the orchard, first. I’ve had tent caterpillars on two trees. Each time I have removed the tent and stepped on it or crushed […]
Read the rest of this entry »An Old Cannabis Farm, Right?
Beltane Waxing Last Frost Moon A long, 3 hour, nap, perfect for a gloomy, chill spring afternoon. Then off to the grocery store. With Mark here there are items on the list peculiar to him like Raisin Bran, lots of bread, more fish than usual (a good thing) and a greater quantity of fruit. The […]
Read the rest of this entry »Breakthrough!
Spring Waxing Bee Hiving Moon I have made several entries private and will explain that decision on Sunday. Stay tuned. The snow has only a few strongholds left in our front yard though the back and the woods still has plenty. The garden behind our patio has daffodil stems through the earth, a bit yellow […]
Read the rest of this entry »Integrated Pest Management
Lughnasa Waxing Back to School Moon It’s been a wet, cool few days. The Apiguard I picked up last night only works above 60 degrees and 70 is better. It recommends chemical resistant gloves. I’m using this on two colonies, the parent and the divide. I tested the divide and its high, putting the colonies […]
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 »Clearing the Paths
Lughnasa Full Artemis Moon Kate and I yanked up the carpet under the mulched paths in our orchard, cleaned it off and re-laid it after putting weed seed germination preventer and round-up on the green vegetation in the paths. These are the only chemicals, with the exception of cygon on my iris, that I use […]
Read the rest of this entry »A Two-Person Garden
Lughnasa Waning Grandchildren Moon Kate and I have shifted our bedtimes and risings to 6:30. This allows us to get out to work in the garden when it’s still the cool of the day. This morning Kate continued to restore the original look and feel to the orchard while I finished up the mulch in […]
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