It’s been quite awhile (almost 3 months) since I have written anything and I am sort of bummed about that. This space has always been sort of my diary, albeit a public one. But it’s how I hope to keep track of stuff we have been doing, share pics with friends, and make new friends. It’s just that things have gotten so busy that writing has just sort of fallen by the wayside.
Basically, we have been very involved with band, sports, and life…some of the very things I like to write about. But this time around, it seems like those things are all we do and I cannot possibly write about the same three or four things over and over.
Anyhow, things have slowed down a lot and I am going to try to catch up. I am not sure who I am addressing and I hate those random vague thoughts sent out to the Internet that people seem to do far too often on facebook, but I needed a chance to just log in again and write something. Maybe I am just writing to myself as a sort of kick in the pants to get back into writing…
It’s late in the season for swarms to strike out from a honeybee colony. Typically, April through June are prime swarm months when the bees are building up to work the bountiful nectar sources during that time of year. As they get crowded from both the increase in bees as well as the stored honey and pollen, some of the bees along with the old queen strike out on their own and forma new colony. It’s natural and kind of cool, unless you are a beekeeper wanting to keep strong hives and make honey. It’s even less cool when you don’t see the swarm leave so you can’t capture them and at least keep the new colony.
A huge swarm of honeybees
Anyhow, swarming is a natural thing but it usually happens in the Spring and early Summer…and very rarely at the end of August or beginning of September. Still, somehow I got calls for two swarms recently and was happy to gather the new colonies for my apiary! The first swarm was at the local hospice house. A business across the road saw the swarm fly into a tree so called me. I hurried down and went into the hospice house. They didn’t know they had a massive swarm on their property but were happy to have me remove it. The receptionist announced over the intercom that everyone should stay inside while I did my work. Of course, that meant a huge number of employees ran outside to see what was going on. Among them was the media relations guy who saw an opportunity and called the local media. Two news crews came and before I knew it, I was being interviewed for the evening news! That was cool of course and I was happy to help hospice get some publicity as well.
Don’t try this at home
A good number of the people who had gathered had never seen a swarm of bees so it took a good bit if time for everyone to see what there was to see and to get pictures with the bee guy sticking his hand into the swarm (don’t try that at home). I love catching swarms and love an audience so it was a lot of fun and the swarm was huge and should definitely survive the winter, unlike many late season swarms that don’t have time to build up in number, collect nectar and pollen, etc.
A second, smaller swarmI always touch my swarms before I collect them…not sure why
Just a week or so later, Larry Groce of Mountain Stage fame called me with a swarm of bees in his front yard. Larry is a super nice guy and it was a swarm of bees so of course I gathered them as well. The funny thing is that I went to his place after a Rotary meeting where he was the featured speaker! We got to chat a bit about bees which is always fun! I collected his swarm easily and merged them with another colony so they should survive as well, though not independently.
Waspers!
And now this isn’t exactly a swarm, and I didn’t exactly catch them, but these buggers are still hanging out by my back door. They are sort of swarm-like, right? I mean, it’s a mass of stinging insects…I think they are beautiful so they shall remain until they move on…
A year or two ago, Isaac and a bunch of his buddies discovered hot peppers. They each grew various types and took them to school where they traded, challenged each other, did nerve damage to their tongues, etc…you know, guy stuff. Most of the guys had run of the mill peppers…habaneros, thai chili, cayennes, etc. To be sure, there are some good and hot peppers in that bunch and they were a lot of fun. This year, we decided to step it up a bit and planted ghost peppers, also known as bhut jolokia peppers. In 2007, it was rated as the world’s hottest pepper…a mere 401.5 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. For reference, a jalapeno pepper registers between 1000 and 4000 Scoville units. A freakin’ ghost pepper rates at 1,000,000 (1 million) Scoville units!
Ghost peppers
Anyhow, we grew a beautiful crop of ghost peppers this year. They grew nice tall plants and this week, started ripening into their beautiful red color. Isaac picked them on Sunday and ate the end off of one of them. We watched as his face turned red and he immediately had to get a tissue as his sinuses drained. He drank a ton of milk and had that goofy look on his face when you know you’ve made a mistake.
Eating a ghost pepper
Not to be out done, I decided to step it up a notch. I chomped the remaining pepper, including the seeds, and within 10 seconds, knew that I had really screwed up. It took no time for my sinuses to clear and then my lips and tongue felt as if they were swelling…I imagine they probably were. I could feel it down my throat and all throughout my mouth and nose (watch the video link). Finally, and this is the best part, within 3-5 minutes, I had to deliver my supper to the porcelain altar. Luckily, my mouth was so hot that I couldn’t taste a thing!
So, if you find yourself in need of something stupid to do on a Sunday evening, find a ghost pepper and eat it all in one or two bites…it’s for the teenage boy in all of us!
By the way, Isaac took a few to school to share with his buddies…sharing is a good thing, right?
About a month ago, I got a call from a local woman who had a bee problem. As a flower gardener, she knew she had bumblebees rather than honeybees, my usual bugs of choice, but she hoped I could help her. In her gardening efforts, she was getting stung as she worked near their colony. You see, in her beautiful flower garden, a nest of bumblebees had taken up residence in one of her birdhouses.
Bumblebee house?
I’ve never kept bumblebees, but I like all of the flying creatures with the word “bee” in their name so I said I would come and take a look. From talking with my grandpa a dozen or so years ago, I remembered that bumblebees do indeed make honey. As a kid, he said he and his siblings used to follow bumblebees back to their nest to collect the small caches of honey they made. Grandpa described their unusual-looking nest (better pictured here than my trying to describe it) and talked about the fun he had chasing after them.
A bumblebee nest
Isaac and I entered the woman’s garden and found, on an eye-level shepherd’s crook, a little birdhouse filled with a bumblebee nest, just as she reported. I told her I didn’t think I could get the bees out and she said, “Oh no, of course not, just take the house and all if you want to.” Of course, I wanted to so Isaac and I wrapped it in a sheet, returned home and placed it on a shepherd’s crook in my yard where it remains, still full of bumblebees.
Bumblebee helping my raspberry blooms
I am not sure how/if they will winter there, but I am inclined to leave it alone and see what happens. They have been a delightful addition to the yard and garden and we have enjoyed seeing them on blooms all over the yard!
A month ago, we actually made it to the Potomac, but rather than tubing, we spent the weekend boating. My brother and sister-in-law have a river house along the river and invited the family for the weekend. My parents and aunt came from PA and my crew drove in from Charleston.
The dock and watercraft
So, their place has a dock which was begging for something to be tied to it. My brother has a saying: “If you’re gonna be a bear, be a grizzly.” We use that all the time, but in our case, it’s usually when we screw something up…we go all-in. Anyhow, my brother goes all-in also but not usually in the screw-up department. My point is that when the decision to buy a boat came up, he decided not to settle for a mere 16 foot boat, but rather to buy a 30 foot long pontoon and two jet-skis that will knock the tears out of your eyes.
When I was a younger man, I had a motorcycle that I rode everywhere in all weather…even once in the snow…don’t ride a motorcycle in the snow…it’s cold and really really hard to not slide. Anyhow, I loved riding my bike but as newlyweds, we really needed a washer and dryer. I sold my motorcycle and never got another. So, the jet ski was a perfect sort of hearkening back to my motorcycle days. I could go crazy fast, do stupid stuff and have a much lower risk of getting killed compared to a motorcycle. It was perfect!
Anyhow, we had a great time at the river house and boating and eating all sorts of food. My brother cooked bacon outside on an electric skillet and my kids raved and raved about it. It’s hard to beat camp food or anything cooked outside for that matter. And of course, anything cooked by their uncle is good too.
That’s the bacon
I love these family times and boating and the Potomac, at least where we were, was absolutely beautiful There were eagles and lots of fish and turtles and ducks. People were nice and we all had a wonderful time sharing each other’s company! I’d call that a good trip!
So a few days ago, I mentioned a trip we took and how it changed because of rain. As you may remember, we had planned to tube the Potomac River on day 2 but the rain was so bad that the river was not going to be fun. Still, we wanted to save the weekend so we decided to visit Cass Scenic Railroad in Cass, WV.
Cass Scenic RailroadAt the Company Store
The Cass Railroad used to service a series of lumber camps on top of the mountain. The town was a company store kind of town which has been pretty well restored. The rail line is also well maintained and has covered train cars so it was perfect for a rainy day!
At the Company Store
The trip to Cass requires a winding trip through some beautiful scenic territory in the Eastern Mountains of WV. It’s amazing getting to Cass and even cooler once you get there. We wandered about the town waiting for trip up the mountain. I love trains and this trip reminded me of the several trips my family took when I was a kid. We rode several steam engines around NY and PA on trips just like this one.
Shay locomotive at CassReady for our trip up the mountain
I think I irritated Emily, but I just couldn’t get enough of looking at the trains and the dirty coal-men and the company store. I know it was a hard life and definitely not a romantic era for working folks, but for some reason, I sort of visualize the turn of the century as a special time that is intriguing to me if I had a time machine. Goofy, I know. Anyhow, I stared at the trains and imagined the people who used to live and die in the forest cutting massive trees with hand saws. I imagined the raucous parties when the men had a chance to go to town and I wondered if the life that seems so simple in my mind was something I would want to live. And then I remember that the average lifespan was poor and the time between birth and death for many of those guys was no dream…at least not a good dream.
Huge drive arms
Anyhow, we rode the specially built train up the mountain where it traversed an 11% grade. For modern locomotives, a 2% grade is steep. The train travels a series of switchbacks to climb and descend the mountain and I cannot imagine the guys who used to haul huge loads of timber down the mountain, counting on the brakes to keep them from rolling down the hill out of control.
One of the switchbacksSelfie on the ride up
Almost to Whittaker StationTouring the logging camp
I guess this train ride will be one I won’t ever forget. It was just special. The kids and I sucked on hard candy we bought at the company store and found ourselves chatting about…stuff. We took silly pictures and had absolutely no cell service at all so had to resort to conversation and our imaginations. We jabbered and day-dreamed as the scenery passed us by on the trip. In my mind, it was just perfect and without the rain, we would never have seen this part of WV!
The family at Whittaker StationClick for a cool video with the train whistle…wait for it
(If the video above doesn’t work for you or if you want a smaller but lower quality version, try this link)
After the train ride, we decided to go to Snowshoe Mountain Resort which is a well-known ski area in the winter. In the summer, it is sort of nothing I guess. There aren’t too many people around, but the mountain and scenery remain beautiful. We were fairly near the Greenbank Radio Observatory, a national radio quiet zone.
Greenbank Radio Observatory…in the rain
Cell service was sketchy and the resort facilities where we stayed were even sketchier…summer visitors have to endure repairs and upgrades from the ski season I guess. Anyhow, the technology-free weekend was a lot of fun. Of course, the rain continued and storms rolled in as well. We jumped into the pool at one point and 5 minutes later, they booted us out because of impending lightning.
In Lewisburg
We survived the night, had a great and greasy breakfast and drove to Lewisburg, WV where we ate lunch and walked around in town a bit. Lewisburg is an awesome town and we love visiting, even if we just walk up and down the street. It has a small-town-America feel…back to that romantic vision of a different time I guess! Anyhow, we ended up having a fantastic trip, even though our plans were so significantly different from what we originally planned. I think those sorts of trips may be the best kind!
A little over a month ago, we took a trip with our aunt and uncle. We all like to get outside and kayak, hike, swim, etc, so this was going to be a great trip doing a little of all of that.
Dam at Stonewall Jackson Lake
The plan was to head to Stonewall Jackson Resort in Roanoke West Virginia (not Roanoke, East Virginia) Friday morning, where we would rent a pontoon boat and tube/swim/boat on Stonewall Jackson Lake. The next day, we planned to drive to the Eastern Panhandle of WV where we would spend all day tubing down the South Branch of the Potomac River.
Does anything ever go as planned?
Nope.
Carp at Stonewall Jackson Lake
Well, we did leave Charleston on Friday morning, but it was raining as we pulled out. Still, we drove to Stonewall Resort, about 2 hours away. Just as we pulled into the resort, the clouds parted, the sun came out and our day was saved! Stonewall Jackson Lake, we discovered, has a carp population, to say the least. So, we watched the carp a little and headed out on the boat. It was an absolutely great time and we trolled around the lake taking time to swim here and there. The water was nice and we just had a wonderful time.
Trust us…we have a map
We returned the boat and decided to use the bicycle rental pass we got for staying at the resort. The lady at the counter warned us of a coming storm and that we simply had to be back by 8pm. She was certain that at exactly 8pm we would be under fire, so to speak. We looked that the radar and sort of figured she was crazy. Sure a storm was coming but it was a ways off.
It fits…I guessI love this pic!And this one too!
So we rode our bikes and had a lot of fun. We decided Abigail was not quite ready to drive a car as she was a bit wild. Poor Emily got the only non-mountain bike so she worked hard on the hills. She chose the bike though so…
And this one too!
Anyhow, our time was up so we returned the bikes. At 8:03 pm, I’ll be darned if the storm didn’t drop! We sat in the library at the resort and played cards while the storm raged a bit. The outdoor wedding on the patio below the library was sort of…ruined I guess. It was impressive and the rain was substantial.
Planning for the next day!
With as much rain as we got and with the forecast for Saturday to be full or rain, we sort of figured that the plan to tube the Potomac was out of the question as it would be raging. We worked out plan b which ended up being a blast…stay tuned…
Probably my all-time favorite fruit is raspberries. As a kid, we had a patch in the yard where we could stroll by and get berries any time we wanted. Raspberries tend to get a little wild and spread like crazy. Of course, that makes them wonderful but they can be a bit much for a smaller yard.
Red raspberries!
Of course,w e have a smaller yard in Charleston so we were unsure whether we could have raspberries. At some point, I stopped caring whether a patch looked good or not so we planted a dozen or so starter canes and our patch was born. Actually, we started a patch of red raspberries and a patch of black raspberries and then we added another red patch. All of them have thrived and produce probably 25 pounds of berries per year.
Black raspberries! (some were frozen)
We have made jellies and jams and syrups with them for several years, but Emily found recipes for black raspberry pie and for red raspberry muffins, both of which are to die for (yes, I said that).
Raspberry muffins
We freeze a lot of the berries and use them as we need them. My word they are just like fresh and so much better than the flavorless ones that cost too much in the stores! Thank goodness for backyard raspberries!!!
By the way, here are the recipes for the pie and muffins…Emily found these somewhere on the Internet so these are not our own…
So, our anniversary was last week and it is bound to be one of the more memorable ones we’ve ever had. We didn’t tour an exotic foreign country or watch the sunset from a hot air balloon while eating wine and cheese. We didn’t even go fishing with a 6-pack of beer. Let me back up and tell you the whole story…
Preparing for departure
My parents have lived in Tionesta, PA for 42 years, 41 of which were in the same house where my brother and I were raised. In the last year, they decided it was time to move to WV to be nearer to us so they bought a house here and listed their house there. About 6 weeks ago, their house there went into contract and they were given a closing date range of July 23-August 3. Mom checked around for moving companies and settled on one based in FL. They took her deposit and scheduled their move for July 23…our anniversary. That’s perfect…we could enjoy our anniversary and help them after as the movers unloaded the truck the next day.
On July 20th, the closing date was set…July 23rd. That date was tight for the move but the lawyer was leaving the next day for vacation…it was pretty much set in stone. Mom called the movers and confirmed that they would be there on July 23rd. They promised they would but did not have a time set. She called daily in the week leading up asking for the time. As late as the evening of the 22nd, they promised they were coming on the 23rd but didn’t know when.
It was a big truck…compare it to my Honda Pilot which is not a small suv
As you might have guessed, the 23rd rolled around and the movers didn’t show. They did call at 8:30 am telling my parents they weren’t coming after all. To be clear, the night before, they confirmed they were coming; the day of the move, they told her they didn’t service their area. This is after taking their deposit and promising repeatedly that they were on track to move them.
So, I get a call around 9:30 am on the 23rd with the bad news. Of course, the closing still needed to happen but they had no movers. I said I could drive up and return in a rented truck and let my Mom drive my car back. It was certainly not ideal, but was workable. My parents called around local rental truck places and even called the state-wide dispatcher in Pittsburgh for one company. Basically, all companies reported that there were no trucks available in the state (or at least the western part of the state) until August.
So, I called around Charleston and found a 26′ Ryder truck here. My father-in-law, a real trooper volunteered to ride with me. So, I rented a Hugh Jass truck (say it out loud) and headed 350 miles north to PA….at noon…on my wedding anniversary. My wife is a real trooper also of course as she is the one who suggested renting a truck here and driving it up empty. This truck rode like…well, a truck. It had air brakes so made all of the cool big truck sounds and I bounced around the captain’s chair that was on air shocks itself. It was not a comfortable ride.
Unloaded…and worn out
Anyhow, I got within probably 6 miles of my parents’ (former) house when I saw a sign for the upcoming bridge…clearance was 13’3″. I remembered that my truck had a clearance of 13’6″. I stopped 20 feet from the entrance to the bridge and it was clear I couldn’t make it through. This bridge has a blind curve leading up to it and is on a narrow state road so there was very little space to turn around. (Check out the first pic at this site. I was coming in through the forest at the left.) Luckily, another driver went and blocked traffic while I performed a 27 point turn to head back the other direction. All told, I probably had to add 45 or so miles to my trip to back track to a route I could successfully navigate.
Finally, we made it to my parents’ house where they had a small crew of dedicated and awesome people to load up their stuff (which fortunately they had already boxed up). We finished up the next day with the help of some young men from a local group and were on our way back to their new home in Charleston. Fortunately, the new owners were very understanding and even came to help move boxes and stuff.
Emily’s family came to help us unload on the WV side and we had the truck unloaded in no time! We were exhausted but everyone was safe and my parents are now in their new home in WV. I drove 735 miles round-trip and loaded and unloaded that truck (with others of course) in a 36 hour period. I am not sure I want to name the company but if you get ready to move, holler at me and I will tell you one company to avoid!
It’s hard to believe, but 21 years ago today, I married my best friend! We were young and foolish but the best decision I ever made was marrying Emily. We met during the first week of college and started hanging out regularly over hot chocolate around Christmas of freshman year.
I struggled and worried and acted all weird trying to work up the nerve to kiss her on the last week of freshman year and that sort of started it all. What a goofball I was…it was easy!
Fast forward a few years and I struggled and worried and acted all weird trying to work up the nerve to ask her Dad’s permission to marry her. What a goofball I was…it was easy! We were watching Spartacus which was intense enough, but he simply asked for a number of goats and sheep and it was a done deal! I’m still trying to collect enough to pay off that debt, but some day…
So, here we are 21 years later with 2 wonderful kids and a life I never would have dreamed of! I couldn’t be happier!
