• Tag Archives Rigel

  • Gotta Hive Those Bees

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                               Waxing Flower Moon

    Kate’s off for Denver, excited as a small girl at Christmas.  Seeing her grandkids makes this lady levitate.  Even her dinged up right hip seems a bit better this morning, partly from anticipation and partly from the steroid injection she had on jen-kate-ruth-gabe300Tuesday.   (Pic:  Leadville, Co Halloween 2009)

    It will be a busy time for me while she’s away.  I have two tours later this morning.  Then it’s over to Mother Garden to pick up a few things I need for this year’s garden:  bush bean seeds, leek transplants, coriander, dill, cosmos, marigolds.

    Back at home I’ll have to have a long nap to make up for getting up this morning at 5:45.  After that I have to buy more sugar and a spray bottle for the new bees, put foundations on the frames for their hive box and level up a spot for their hive.  Later, after 4:30 pm, I’ll drive out to Stillwater and pick them up, bring them home and hive them.

    Hiving a new package involves spreading the 2 pound package of worker bees over the floor of the hive box, then gently releasing the queen, replacing the four frames withdrawn, carefully (to avoid killing the queen which is bad) and putting a bit of pollen patty and a feeder on top.  That’s where the sugar comes in.  The spray bottle is for the trip home and the time lapse between then and when I get them in the hive.  It helps them stay nourished and calm.

    On Saturday I have to figure out why Rigel and Vega dug a large plastic pipe out of the ground, what, if any, function it serves, repair it, cover it over, this time with a board or something that will resist further digging and hope they don’t go all round the yard  digging up irrigation pipes.  I think they dig when they hear the sound of the water running through the pipes.  Oh, boy! Oh, boy!  Something’s there.  Something’s there.  Gotta get it.  Right now.

    With that work done I have to get back to amending the soil in the raised beds and planting seed.  If I have time, I’ll get in some weeding, too.


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Bees Dogs Garden 📎and tagged

  • Doing Stuff

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                                      Flowering Moon

    The netaphim ruined last year by dogs Rigel and Vega has repairs.  The repairs sit safely inside fences that Rigel has shown either no interest or no capability to penetrate.  They should last.

    The bees will wait until a less breezy tomorrow.  Wind blows the smoke around and I have to perform a reversal, hive check and clean off the bottom board.  The reversal of the top 2 hive boxes encourages the queen to move into the top box and lay eggs there to create an ovoid shape of larva outside of which the nursery bees will complete a ring of pollen and a ring of honey.  This makes the planned colony split on May 15th assured of one hive box full of larva, hopefully the top one with new larvae and therefore newly born nursery bees.  Nursery bees take more kindly to moving around than the older worker bees.

    Irrigation folks have scheduled Tuesday to come out and turn on the irrigation system.  A good thing.  They usually wait until the second week of May since our average last frost date is around May 15th.  I imagine that’s moved up closer to the first week of May on average, but a frost outside the average is still a frost so most planning still accommodates the old date.

    Tomorrow the bees and soil amending, that is, putting in composted manure and humus on the raised beds and adding some sphagnum moss (some more) to the blueberry beds.  The outdoor season with sun.  The great wheel turns.  Again.


    📂This entry was posted in Bees Garden Great Wheel Great Work 📎and tagged

  • Buried

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                      Awakening Moon

    Business meeting mornings always kick up stuff to do.  Sometimes it’s an odd collection.  This morning is a good example.  I saw an article about VO2 testing and decided to make an appointment. I go on April 20th at 2pm.  We agreed to at least register for cremation services so I printed out two forms.  In tandem with that I decided to look at columbariums in the interest of having a place for descendants to visit.  Yikes!  They’re expensive.  Real expensive.  In the 5,000 to 11,000 range.  Much more than a grave.  Then there was the person who might be able to help us think through our medicare options.  Out until April 19th.  Kate wanted me to look up information about the Segway so I did that.  I needed to see if the guy from whom I ordered bees cashed our check.  He did.  That means I’ll get some bees on April 24th.  Ordering the insect shapes bundt pan from Solutions, Inc. and getting a frittata recipe from Williams-Sonoma.  That sort of stuff.

    We also discussed Kate’s possible hip replacement, as in when to do it if the minimally invasive guy says it would work for her.  We had a moment of silence for the money we thought had and now know we don’t, then moved on past it.

    After the nap I worked out in the garden, repairing damage created by Rigel and Vega last fall.  I found residual anger, sadness, frustration not far below the surface as I tried to recreate the beautiful work Ecological Gardens had done just a month or so before all the digging.  It’s not hard work physically, but I’m finding it hard emotionally.  I love the dogs and I love the garden.  When the two conflict, it leaves me in a very unpleasant place.  We did put up the fence that should preclude any further damage.

    At the moment I have Wheelock open on my desk, blank file cards ready and a yellow pad for the translation work that will follow.  Last week I found a notebook to contain my translation of Ovid and notes I make as I go along.  It’s ready, too.  Valete!


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Dogs Family Garden 📎and tagged

  • Dogs and the Night

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                    Awakening Moon

    Some nights.  First, Kona had to get out of her crate about 10:30 pm.  She never gets up until morning.  She ran outside, ran around the shed, came back inside and went back in her crate.  Then, around 1am Vega starts whining.  Won’t let up.  So, I get up, let her out. Again, this is very unusual.  She also sleeps until morning.  When I let Vega out, Rigel wanted to go, too.  They ran around a bit.  Vega came back and laid down in front of the door.  But. Rigel wanted to stay outside.

    15 minutes or so later, we’re at around 2am now, I decided enough.  So, I got out the flashlight and proceeded into the woods.  This is not easy at 2 am with no moon light.  Overcast.  The best route around the woods is the path running alongside the fence all round our property.  Only.  I put up an electric fence and the path runs uncomfortably close to it.  One trip over a root or fallen branch and I’m a cow that needs to go anywhere but close to the fence,

    Anyhow.  I gave up after 10 minutes of wandering and stumbling, the flashlight a poor substitute for clear light.  As I headed back toward the house having decided to let Rigel sleep outside, she came up behind me and to my right.  Suddenly.  Scared the bejesus out of me.  So, around 2:15 or so all dogs in bed and me, too.  Of course, getting to sleep after all that putzing around is not so straightforward, at least for me.  One of those nights.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs 📎and tagged

  • And then, another escape!

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                    Full Awakening Moon

    I spent a good part of today carrying former split rails from their storage place to positions along the bottom of our chain link fence facing north.  After I placed them one by one, end to end, I took out a roll of baling wire–it really is an all elecfence09purpose fix it tool, like duct tape–snipped off 12-18 inches pieces and wired the rails to the fence line.  At some point while I had this task underway, Vega came out and sat down on my feet, not at them, between me and the fence.  She just wanted to help.

    (pic:  this electric fence is still working.)

    After moving and wiring, I let the dogs out for the afternoon because I have a meeting tonight in the city.  So, I’m reading my e-mail, I look up and there going past the patio door is Kona.  Uh-oh.  If Kona’s out, where are the big dogs?  I moved upstairs,  fast, got to the deck, only to see Vega and Rigel  both standing there, looking around.  In this instance Kona had removed the board I used to block the gate from the fence to the lower perennial garden, the one right outside where I work on matters like e-mail, etc.

    So, on the first nice day of spring, both of my inmates who tend toward escape have tested the system and found it wanting.  Geez.  What will next week bring?


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs 📎and tagged

  • A Rite of Spring

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                    Full Awakening Moon

    Liberal II:  The Present is now on the website.  Executive summary:  We live in a world dominated by liberal tendencies and that are, therefore, best understood and managed by a self-consciously liberal politics and faith.

    Let the games begin.  The rite of spring has struck 7 Oaks.  We have received the breathless call:  One of your dogs is out!  Rigel.  Again.  Her more substantial sister, Vega did not follow her.  Kate went out in the truck to hunt her down while I walked the perimeter.  Again.

    A circumstance I have hoped to avoid has come to  pass.  Rigel had dug herself out underneath the fence.  Denied the opportunity to belly over the chain link she has now decided to burrow out under the bottom.  This presents its own problems.  Electric fencing is more difficult close to the ground because weeds will grow up and short it out.  I guess the only answer this time is wiring boards to the bottom of the chain link, something I’ve done around much of the other 1/4 mile of fence, but not the part that Rigel chose for her daring, WWII attempt.

    I know she loves us, but like many star-crossed tails, she has the wander lust.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs 📎and tagged

  • Busy Day

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Winter                                Waning Moon of Long Nights

    Final travel arrangements for Denver finished.  Car.  Shuttle reservation.

    Business meeting this morning.  Money fine.  Next week for Kate planned. Looks good.

    Slept badly last night, so a long and hard nap this afternoon.  Got up, wrote for two hours.  Worked out, watched a bit of TV.  Read.

    Vega and Rigel killed a rabbit and a squirrel this morning.  Doggy pride in a kill matures them.  Vega guarded both critters with careful attentiveness.  Sitting in the path that led to the rabbit.  She needed no barking or growling.  Her presence was confident and brooked no intervention.  This from the dog who usually occupies low spot on the canine totem pole here.

    Both Vega and Rigel went round with their tails held high, a bit of a swagger.  I’m a dog, yes I am, and I can’t help but being a dog.  Yup Yup.

    When I come upstairs after exercise, Vega rolls over and thumps her tail.  She puts her paws around my neck, licks my hand and thumps her tail some more.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs Travel 📎and tagged

  • Rigel and Vega. Persistence.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samhain                                        Waxing Wolf Moon

    Rigel and Vega have remained outside in the woods tonight.  Kate and I got up with flashlights and went outside to find them.  They were back in the southeastern corner worrying something, growling and running around, back and forth, a lot of vigor and intention, little focus.  Vega came in for a bit, but she whined to go back outside and help her sister.  She’s out there now.

    It’s a cool, rainy night and they’re out there committed to a coon-hound thing; stay with the animal until it’s caught or shot or escapes.  They’ll come back in the morning when they want breakfast.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs 📎and tagged

  • The Neverending Story

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samhain                                    Waning Dark Moon

    The Neverending Story:  Rigel and the Fences.  Now after all the digging spots she has used have been blocked, after all the beds in which she dug and chewed up irrigation line have been fenced, after the chain link fence she climbed has an electrical fence to defend it, after the truck gate has been chained, blocked with granite and secured with a metal fencing post, I have put up the last of a run of plastic coated wire over the top of the split rail covered with green mesh.  The intent is to keep Rigel from climbing back into the orchard which she has done with impunity since we fenced her out of it.  Her move.

    A slow day today, the rhythm of Sunday afternoon, a late lunch, reading a new book, watching a bit of a game about which I cared little, all followed by a nap.  This evening was more of the same, a sweet languor.  I watched a bit of the Cowboys and Eagles game, but wasn’t really into it.  The Place of Execution, an English mystery on public television, ended tonight.  Like I said, a slow day.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs 📎and tagged

  • A Good Day

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samhain                                     Full Dark Moon

    Rigel and Vega spent much of the day defending us from visiting neighborhood dogs.  Of course, thanks to our record setting fence-lines no battle could be joined, but jaw-boning was much in evidence.  This evening they came in, flopped down on the couch and went to sleep.  That is except for the show on birth and babies in the animal kingdom.  Rigel turned her head toward the TV and watched a mule-deer born, penguins enfolding their single chicks and musk-ox turn to face down the white wolves of the Arctic.  Would loved to have been inside her head.

    Kate worked outside today, weeding the blue-berry patches and other parts of the orchard.  The good news is the clover has become established and has choked out the weeds.  The bad news is that the clover threatens to choke out the blue-berries.  Sigh.  She is only two weeks out from her procedure tomorrow.  Amazing.

    Our defended (defenced?) vegetable garden can now be worked without fear that a Rigel or a Vega will come along later and try to emulate any digging I might have done.  Their work is not up to my exacting standards.  The last greens came out today with the exception of some Swiss Chard that still has vitality.  All that’s left in the garden now are strawberry plants, asparagus, garlic, parsnip and carrots.  The first two are perennials, the latter three crops from this year that can stay in the ground for a while, carrots, or need to over winter, the parsnip and garlic.

    I couldn’t bring myself to patch the damage from the dogs.  It is quite extensive and I find myself reactive when I work on it.  It will keep until next spring.

    Then of course there was the Vikings-Packer game.  Our defense had a bit of a let down late in the third quarter and the first part of the fourth, but they played brilliantly otherwise.  So did Favre.  At one point a Packer named Jennings fell on the Viking sideline very near Favre.  Favre’s concern and his action, bending down to see how Jenning’s was, moved me.  He seems to genuinely care for his team mates both current and former.  He also plays like a little boy, jumping and waving his arms, picking up players who’ve just scored a touchdown.

    After the game he had an interview in which he spoke warmly of the Packers and the fans there.  It was a mature and sensitive moment.

    It’s fun to see him play as a Viking.  Didn’t think I’d feel that way, but I do.


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Dogs Garden Health Sport 📎and tagged