Category Archives: Nature

Hydroponic Gardening

March 15, 2010Garden, Nature, WVFlooding, Garden, WVwarren

I have been itching to get dirty again working in the garden. Spring is nearly here and the snow has melted at the house. Daffodils are starting to poke through and I saw my first forsythia blooming today! Spring has to be my favorite time of year as life starts popping again. The bees fly and the birds do what birds do in the Spring. It’s just inspiring to me…I figure I have survived another Winter.

06_08_2008 009 — How the garden area normally looks

We’ve had a bunch of snow this year in WV and it is melting. Showshoe Mountain in WV actually had more snow this year than they had at Vail, CO. Snowshoe had 227 inches while Vail had 223. So, couple the melt with a good bit of rain and we’ve got flooding around Charleston and elsewhere in WV.

06_08_2008 010 — Note the fence and white birdhouse posts

03_15_2010 080 — The same view...you can barely see the white posts

We live on top of a hill in Charleston so we don’t really have any any danger from flooding at our house. Our garden, the one I have been itching to get into, is at Emily’s grandparents’ house which is near the river and a creek that drains one of the big nearby hollers. It is currently under about 5 feet of water. Nearby houses have significant amounts of water in them and many folks have been forced to leave their homes. Even with the flooding, the Corps of Engineers report that flood control dams prevented the water from coming even higher (check out the pictures. We were planning to have Abigail’s birthday party at the South Charleston Rec Center pool…which is now under water).

It’s hard to complain when I consider that our family is safe and our house is intact. Nonetheless, I am still bummed that the garden is under water and my garlic that was planted last fall is undoubtedly ruined. I suppose I will have a chance to work in he garden soon enough. First order of business will be hauling off the trash that washed in. We’ll have to find a compromise with the ducks and fish we have seen in our garden and consider a new place to plant our garlic this coming Fall.

Poop = Spring

February 23, 2010Audio, Bees, Nature, ThoughtsBees, Poop, Springwarren

Sunday was absolutely beautiful in WV. The high temperature was in the 50s and the snow started to give way to small signs of spring. Daffodils are breaking through the ground and my bees were able to get out of the hive to poop. Bees, you see, won’t poop in the hive. They also cannot fly outside in cold temperatures. Bees are cold-blooded so if they break the cluster (bees cluster together very closely in the hive in cold temperatures and rub together using friction to stay warm all winter), they very quickly slow down and die. What’s a bee to do then? Well, they hold it of course…sometimes for months!

02_22_2010 029 — See it? Yellow spots...both sides in the snow...relief!

02_22_2010 033 — Why am I fascinated with this?

So, it always brightens my day in the early spring when I see yellow…I love the yellow of daffodils, the yellow of forsythia, and the yellow of fresh bee poop! When temperatures rise such that any of my three yellows are possible, I get out and frolic a bit (not like the rabbits frolic of course).

02_22_2010 028 — Fifteen minutes after I washed my car!

I washed Steve Sunday morning and parked it in the driveway so I could watch it shine in the sun. Much like birds are able to find a clean car, so too can bees. Of course, remember that there can be as many as a quarter of a million bees in the hives at my house…and all of those bees have had their legs crossed for a long time. My formerly green car now has a yellow tint…but you know what…I love yellow…it means spring!

Emily says I am preoccupied with poop and animal anatomy so you can imagine my fascination with this pile of deer poop in my yard. My Dad used to call those pellets smart pills. I don’t think they really worked very well, but that’s another story. Anyhow, Momma deer are now with fawns so my finding smart pills gives me hope that I will get to see newborn fawns again this year.

Oh yeah, check out this bird’s song! Beautiful…and very springy! Charleston is starting to break through I hope (though we have snow forecast for the rest of the week…but I choose to ignore that).

By no means do I want my yard overrun with natural fertilizer, but I have to tell you, a little poop means spring and in my book, that’s a great thing!

Maple Syrup…teaching the kids to work

February 22, 2010Green, Naturemaple syrup, Naturewarren

When I was a kid, my parents fully believed in child labor. My brother and I shoveled snow and cut wood and actually had to clean up after ourselves. We also carried maple sap through the woods from trees that we tapped to the storage barrel where it was stored until we cooked it into maple syrup. Every spring we’d haul gallons and gallons of sap on our backs…well, as long as I was bigger, my brother hauled gallons and gallons on his back while I “encouraged” him. We built a huge fire every weekend and boiled the sap into syrup and generally had great times making the sweet magic from the trees. Anyhow, with their “advanced” age and lack of kids living in the house, my parents are now, fundamentally opposed to child labor (i.e. they don’t heat with wood).

Not wanting to deprive my kids of the joy that is child labor making maple syrup, we are tapping our tree this spring. Yesterday the temperature fit the bill for when to tap (below freezing at night, above during the day) so we did our work.

When I was a kid, we drilled a hole by hand and tapped a piece of pvc pipe into the tree to let the sap flow into our collection buckets. Our buckets were typically anything we could find that would hold liquid…from milk jugs to pop bottles to commercial sized grease containers. I found a place to order taps meant for maple sugaring and they work but sort of lack that originality that I remember as a kid.

Anyhow, we tapped our tree with two taps and the sap began to flow like mad. I only have small containers to capture the sap so I will have to get the kids out twice a day to collect it. They only have to walk 50 feet to do their chores though. Maple syrup for them may be waaaay too easy. Maybe we need to heat with wood…

Beekeepers buzz all winter

January 21, 2010Bees, NatureBees, Honeybeeswarren

You’ll never believe it, but some folks sort of look at us beekeepers and wonder if we lost every last ounce of sense that our Mommas slapped into our heads when we were younger…well, that’s how my Momma did it. Anyhow, we also have a reputation as being a fairly dull bunch. Wait, I know, it is hard to believe. So, to prove any doubters wrong, I am here to describe a great winter project that some beekeepers work on to keep the cabin-fever-crazies from setting in…candle making!

Honeybees make beeswax. That’s how they roll. Every egg that the queen lays and every ounce of food (honey and pollen) that they gather is stored in beeswax. They are industrious builders and sometimes become a little over-zealous in their projects. You see, honeybees like they hives to be orderly. One huge part of that is “bee space“. Bees like to have 3/8” space to crawl between frames and throughout the hive. If they have left, they typically fill it with propolis, a super sticky product they create to patch holes (or spaces smaller that the required bee space). If the hive has spaces larger than 3/8″, the bees will fill it with burr comb. Burr comb is just “filler comb” that they use to tidy up spaces and make every part of their hive the proper bee space. It works great for them and settles their nerves (which is good for beekeepers!), but it makes inspecting the inside of a hive difficult for a beekeeper. You see, we use those nice frames to keep things straight inside the hive so we can remove the pieces. Bees don’t see it that way at all and build their burr comb in every direction they feel inclined.

What does that have to do with candle-making you ask? Beekeepers cannot allow too much burr comb to build up or the hive becomes very difficult to manage without greatly disturbing the bees (by the way, bees have stingers and aren’t afraid to use them!) which is never a good thing. Each time I get into my hives (once a month…sometimes more often, sometimes less), I scrape the burr comb into a box I carry with me. Some beekeepers just pitch that comb, but that seems like a huge waste. I gather it and toss it in a solar wax melter and let the sun add its magical heat to melt the wax (the process, by the way, leaves the wax mostly free of impurities…the wax flows into a collector while the dirt, twigs, etc that I introduce by accident stay in the melting tray. Similarly, I also keep every bit of wax I remove when I harvest honey (honey cells are capped with wax which must be removed for harvest).

So, finally, we get back to candle-making. When I get a little stir crazy in the winter, I have a good stash of clean wax that is just begging to be made into candles. We melt the wax in an old crockpot so the wax heats slowly and does not get too hot. Wax, as you hopefully have never experienced, is very flammable and if heated too fast or hot, will give you problems. In my opinion, the only safe way to melt wax is in a solar wax melter or an old crockpot. So, we add chunks of wax we collected and melted all summer into the pot and wait for it to melt.

Once melted, the wax can be poured into all sorts of molds. To be sure, there are tons of candle forms that one can spend an entire inheritance on. I prefer the simple approach though. We add a wick to a simple jelly-jar or a small decorative jar. No wax is melted during the burning of the candle and I like how easy they are to store in jar-form.

By the way, pure beeswax is always some shade of yellow. Colored candles, by definition, are not pure beeswax. Pure beeswax candles are sootless when they burn and are the smoothest burning candles. Candles made from parafin (most candles) put off black soot and are simply not as pleasant to burn in my opinion.

There isn’t a lot to making candles in a simple form. Beekeeping is pretty straight-forward, but candle-making is even simpler. Many beekeepers in your area probably collect wax but don’t bother to make candles. If you are interested, you may consider approaching them and buying some beeswax. It’s great family fun and a simple, easy, wonderful gift you can give for any occasion!

Our first indoor allergy-maker!

December 1, 2009Family, Fun, Nature, Thoughts, WVChristmas, Family, Fun, WVwarren

Tomorrow is my birthday…it’s not a big one…not a decade mark, but I am pretty happy to celebrate another year. Both Emily and I have been around the sun a few times though and had never experienced a live Christmas tree. We never had live trees growing up because I am allergic to everything. Of course, I grew up in the woods so I was surrounded by evergreen trees, but they were never in the house. Anyhow, since I have been so sick the last month or so, I decided that a new tree can’t possibly make me feel any worse than I already do.

We loaded up the kids in the van and headed to the Capitol Market in Charleston, one of WV’s best farmer’s markets. This time of year, the sell only one thing…Christmas trees! We wandered through hundreds of trees looking for the cheapest price….erm..I mean the best shaped tree. About 2/3 of the way down the market, we happened upon the cheapest…erm…best shaped…trees. We talked to the folks working there and they told us where their trees were grown (locally) and their price was good so we picked out a tree.

The guy working there ran our tree through the wrapping machine and offered to run Isaac through as well. I told him I would pay him $10 extra to run both kids through but we measured and his machine would not quite handle their size. I bet for $20 he would have made it work.

Anyhow, we tied the tree atop the van and proceeded to cruise over all of the hills and curves back to the house. Neither of us wanted to look back fearing we’d see our tree rolling down the hill towards the next car in line.

We made it home and I manhandled the tree into the house and set it into the new tree stand we bought. The kids cut the tree-wrap into hundreds of tiny pieces that were left strewn about the house. Emily cut the last bit of the wrap as the kids and I cowered in fear of the tree’s opening.

We put lights on the tree and, of course, the kids started to fight. The good news is, they seemed to fight in rhythm with the Christmas carols we had playing so it felt like Christmas indeed!

So far, allergies have not been a factor and I have not yet keeled over dead. I am not any better, but I am not much worse either!

So, do you set up a tree? Live or artificial?

The rodent war of NW PA

November 12, 2009Family, Fun, NatureFamily, Fun, Naturewarren

My Grandpa is a pretty amazing man. He never cured any mysterious diseases or won a Nobel prize, but he is just clever and patient and a lot of fun…and he ended the Rodent War of NW PA.

I grew up in northwest PA where the chipmunk is the region’s mascot. You see, it is woodsy where my people are. There are miles and miles of trees and not a stoplight or fast food restaurant to be found. Critters sort of run the show there. When I was growing up, we had a bit of a problem with squirrels in the house. My parents used extreme prejudice in the removal of over 30 in one year…inside the house…in their bed, in the bathroom, the living room…everywhere in the house.

So folks in the area live a sort of uneasy coexistence with rodents. Everyone has squirrel problems and war is declared regularly. Actually, they are more like regional outbreaks and minor skirmishes, but tell that to the people on the front lines. Anyhow, most rational people know that they should be cautious as they go to sleep at night. The squirrels are relentless and merciless.

Anyhow, my Grandpa, the pacifist, sought to end the chaos of war in the area so he extended the olive branch to a local chipmunk, a local tribal leader and the spokes-rodent in the area. Slowly and patiently, he enticed the chipmunk closer and closer with sunflower seeds. In time, he was able to feed Edgar Snyder, the chipmunk out of his hand. He named the chipmunk Edgar Snyder after the locally-famous ambulance chaser who had really annoying ads on tv.

Anyhow, Edgar and Grandpa struck up quite a friendship and a relationship based on respect and trust. Edgar would eat from friendly people’s hands. Once in your hand, Edgar could be moved around by gently lifting his tail and shifting his backside. As long as the sunflower seeds lasted, he was happy to stick around.

I was fortunate enough to witness this beautiful thing they had together first hand…literally. I fed Edgar and asked him to send my best regards to his rodent friends. In time, it was apparent that my Grandpa had broken the rodent wars of NW PA. The truce lasted for some time and prosperity returned to the land!

Mushrooms aplenty

October 20, 2009Food, Garden, NatureMushroomswarren

I was pretty excited in July when my shiitake mushrooms first started fruiting. I inoculated several white oak logs (they hold their bark longer than other types) in August of 2008 with shiitake spores. It took a full year of my ignoring the logs before they started fruiting so, after all that hard work, I was thrilled to see the logs sprouting some of my favorite fungi. I was satisfied.

Just last week, as I was…um…doing nothing, I happened to walk around behind the shed where I keep the shiitake logs. I didn’t expect much…afterall, I had a great harvest in July…and I was satisfied. To my amazement, my friends, the old white oak logs and the shiitake mycelia had joined to give me a wonderful Fall gift!

I know it is not ideal to eat shiitake mushrooms when they are as big as my head, but I had so many huge mushrooms that I couldn’t even see my logs (which are 4 feet long and 6 inches in diameter)(ok…so maybe I am exaggerating…there weren’t that many mushrooms, but you get my point)! I began to harvest the beauties and they felt excellent to the touch….like a soft, tender cut of meat I guess (ok…so I know that’s weird but it’s hard to describe).

Anyhow, I did some talking to a friend and she said that mushrooms often delight their collectors when the weather changes, particularly when there is a lot of rain to go with it. That’s precisely what happened this Fall. They are so easy to grow and so wonderful to eat! My mushrooms…they always delight me!

So, do you like mushrooms? Do you grow mushrooms? Do you ever feel like a mushroom?

Housekeeping in a beehive

October 1, 2009Bees, NatureBeekeeping, Bees, Honeybeeswarren

I wrote a bit on this topic over at Not Dabbling in Normal today. Have a read over there if you get a chance. So, in general, bees are well into preparing for winter by October. They gather as much pollen and nectar as they can and they have begun to clean the hive and seal the cracks. Bees make this amazing stuff called propolis which is much like super glue and caulking…only stickier. It is made from a concoction of tree saps, wax and bee magic.

In large areas, bees often fill in gaps and cracks (they are particular about bee space…the only like open spaces of approximately 3/8 of an inch) with burr comb. Burr comb is basically just large chunks of “free form” honeycomb. Smaller cracks however, are usually filled in with propolis. Bees don’t typically freeeze to death in the winter but drafts and moisture can definitely kill. They take this preparation very seriously.

I guess it is sort of bad, but we always sort of enjoy another part of housekeeping that bees do. Male bees serve only as breeders for virgin queens in the early spring and summer. During the fall and winter months, they do no work in the hive, but rather consume precious food. Female worker bees are practical and toss the males from the hive. Male bees are larger than females but, (and no comments here) the females are far tougher. Females are hardened by work (in a non-Clint Eastwood or Sly Stallone sort of way) and have nasty stingers. Male bees do not have stingers. They are lovers, not fighters, remember? So, as the females drag the males to the edge of the hive entrance, we like to pick up the doomed males for careful inspection. Though they are bound to die, we like to observe and handle them as we ponder on the marvels of nature.

Bees are a tough lot, but their simplicity and practicality are sort of beautiful, in a strange sort of way…

Me Warren…you Jane

September 28, 2009Adventure, Fun, Nature, WVAdventure, Nature, WVwarren

I returned a bit to my primal-ancestral ways this weekend. Besides the urge I had to dance ’round a fire with a spear, I had an opportunity to swing among the trees. In Fayetteville, WV, there is a fairly new canopy tour among the trees in some of the most beautiful forest I have seen in a long time.

(yup…raining)

Anyone in this area knows that it rained cats and dogs this Saturday. The tour company cancels for neither man, no beast…only lightning. I guess the Post Office still has one up on canopy tours. Anyhow, we arrived in the pouring rain and prepared for our tour. My preparation involved hitting the restroom one last time and slamming down some health food…a Snickers bar.

The tour is 2-3 hours in length and there are no tree-side rest areas along the way. I suppose, since it was raining so hard, we probably did have some options but no one wanted to really go there when it came to going there.

So, we tied into our male-sterilizers…I mean harnesses and started the course. It was breathtaking. We whisked, platform to platform between what appeared to be ancient trees. At first, we started at near ground level. As we progressed slowly down the mountain, we quickly ended up in the tops of enormous hemlock and magnolia trees. At the highest point, we were 85 feet off the ground in a tree…not the top of the tree, mind you. It was far taller than that.

Hemlock trees are being decimated by a beetle that destroys entire forests. A portion of our tour fees goes to treating the trees to prevent their destruction. After standing high up in the tree, I am pleased they are dedicated to preserving such beauty. We could see all around. There were “fields” or rhododendron and mountain laurel. There were wild, rushing streams and rock formations formed long ago. It was incredible and a bit spiritual for me. It just felt like how life is supposed to be. I mean, the ziplining was a blast, but I think I may have enjoyed just looking out through the forest and seeing nature. The only noise was the sound of raining falling through the leaves (and down my back) and the rush of the streams.

(I am flying by…the photographer’s timing was good!)

So, as I mentioned, it sort of rained some….I think Noah once said that too. Anyhow, my pictures aren’t great, but I don’t think they could begin to do this trip justice anyhow. The Rivermen do a fantastic job and I can’t recommend them enough. If you have an urge to get outdoors, to have a thrill, or just do something different, try ziplining in WV!

Falling

September 15, 2009Nature, ThoughtsNature, Thoughtswarren

Just as Summer felt like it got started in the last few weeks, here it is falling into Fall already. We’re winding up the garden and lots of things are starting to just get that look. I sort of hate that look. I am a Spring and Summer creature. I don’t really have the time of day for Fall or Winter. I get the Winter blues and cabin fever and the croup and the grumps and the uglies in the Winter.

I am not exactly sure what it is that signals Fall to me. As I walked around the garden and yard this weekend, a few things just sort of struck me as Fall, but there is more to it than wooly worms (holy cow! he’s all black…that means a bad Winter!), and corn husks.

And why exactly does a grasshopper feel like Fall to me? I suppose that is from the movie “A Bug’s Life” where the grasshoppers come in the Fall to steal the bounty of the ants. Well, this grasshopper was huge. I sort of had a tingle in the non-existent hairs on the back of my neck thinking he might be able to take me too.

Anyhow, I suppose Fall is here and I will have to return to knitting and eating lots of soup to get me through the Winter. Does it feel like Fall where you are? What sorts of things make it feel as though Fall has fallen for you?

My Home Among The Hills

Life in WV!