106 degrees and invertase

It was 106 yesterday and near that again today.  In 1952 when Granny was married, it was even hotter to put summer temperatures in perspective.

 I have been watering some of our plants around the house but have let the yard go (it is now brown).  We put up a mister using a spray nozzle and graden hose for birds and bees.  It have worked pretty well.  It only sprays about .1 gallons a minute.   I turn in on in the mid-morning and turn it off at dark.  We have had a lot birds fly in for a drink and a few took bathes.

We are going to finish up the honey harvest on Monday and Tuesday ... it is suppose to cool down below 100 degrees.  I am still moving some field wildflowers (mints and butterfly weed) up to the garden ... not a good time for transplanting.

I have stopped bush-hogging in fear of starting a fire.

I have started working on some school projects I want to do next year ...

I am also working on a presentation I am doing at the next beekeepers meeting on July 9th ... "Bees and Biochemistry".  A general review of biochemistry then some specifics on sugars, enzymes (invertase and glucose oxidase), royalactin in royal honey and pheromones (many ... I will have to limit it to two or three).  I will be able to use some of this Keynote presentation in my biology class.

Hot! Hot! and Mints Blooming

The hot weather continues (over 100 for the next 4 days) ... the corn is rolled and losing some leaves ... not good!  I would say that the yield will be cut at least in half.

The mints are still blooming despite the lack of rain ... I saw some Hoary Mountain Mint, American Germander, Slender Mountain Mint (about finished blooming) and Downy Wood Mint.  It is hard to believe there is enough moisture in the soil to allow them to bloom.  I am going to continue moving some of them to our garden.  The first pictures are of Hoary Mountain Mint nearly in downtown Holland and the last picture I have not identified yet ... it was in the bottom ... about three feet tall with large blooms over an inch.

Hot ... Clean up after first session of honey extraction.

I finished up the clean up from the first half of honey harvest.  I had to wash down the garage ... honey was on everything.  Took the dry supers to the barn to store away.  Will finish this in the morning.

We are going to try and wrap up Honey Harvest on Friday and Saturday.

Saw some European hornets hunting around the drying supers as honeybees finished up cleaning up the honey ... they are about an inch and half long and serious enough for me to put my bee jacket back on ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_hornet

Photo credit: Miroslav Deml

Honey Harvest ... Day three!

Blackberries are in and we picked this morning until it was hot ... Sue Neal took blackberries to neighbors afterwards.

I took sevcn+ supers off of three more hives later in the morning which means, we are half way through our hives.  We will start again later next week to finish up.  We are storing the honey in 5 gallon buckets and so far Sue Neal and I have extracted 600 pounds.  The hives we have left are generally not as strong so we are over half way done considering supers only.  Started the clean up this evening but will finish picking up all the newspaper in the morning.

Sitting on the porch this evening now that it has cooled off ... hundreds of lightning bugs in the field behind our house. The bats are out and we are waiting on the Barred Owls and coyotes to start up.

Honey Harvest Day 2 ...

We are in our second day of 2012 Honey harvest ... It could be a three person operation with one person taking care of the extractor and moving honey/supers while the other two decap the frames.  But, we are doing it with two ... Sue Neal is doing most of the decapping while I decap, move supers/frames/honey and load/unload the extractor.  Important items for converting the garage into a honey room ... tight encloser, fans, vacuum cleaner, lots of newspaper (put down at least three times a day to cover honey drops) and a large volume of drinking water ...

Our extractor will handle nine medium frames if you want to turn three frames half way through the extraction cycle ... we are running six frames at a time without flipping any frames.  We took off about 200 pounds yesterday and another 200 today.  One more day to get the best hives out of the way and then we will continue late next week to finish.

I have been putting our wet supers outside for the bees to clean up the excess honey.  Hope it does not lead to a robbing spree.  The wet supers are a couple hundred yards from the closest hives so I am hoping it will be okay.

In about 30 minutes after putting them out in the driveway, there are thousands of bees there to take up the free meal.

Congrats to KP for making the NFCA South Central USA First team ... All Americans will be announce next Tuesday ... she will have a chance.  KP was the only Kentucky player named to the South Central USA Teams.

https://nfca.org/index.php/awards/louisville-sluggernfca-all-americans/4817-2012-high-school-all-region

Star Lily, Blackberries and Honey tomorrow ...

Our dry spell continues but our Star Lilies are blooming, thanks to occasional watering.  Picts below.

Last night, we had our softball banquet.  Food was great as we said goodbye to seven seniors.  We ended the year 35-5 but, any year we don't make it to the state tournament is not reaching one of our biggest goals.  We had seven seniors last year also, which means the players this year below them did not have much varsity experience when they are called on to take those starting positions.  All in all, a great year but, our inconsistent offense against good teams was our Achilles heel.

This morning I got up and picked blackberries ... about 2 gallons.  It was beautiful and the birds were singing ... but, a little warm.  We will be picking for the next ten days off and on with family and friends.

Bush-hogged after blackberry picking until after lunch.  The rest of the day was preparing for honey harvest which I hope will get started tomorrow morning.  The extractor is cleaned and ready to go ... washing up buckets and containers this evening.

Snakes ... some evidence!

So far bush-hogging and walking, I have seen few snakes and all have been small.  However, while watering plants early this morning, I walked around the car with a hose to see a snake skin ... about 15' from the house.  I think it is from a black rat snake ... they love to climb the big trees around our house and torture the birds.

http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/reptiles/snakes/eastern-ratsnake/blackrat_snake.htm

I know Kyle and Aunt Kathy will love this pict!

Wedding Weekend and made in China ...

Last week, I had to buy a scoop shovel to unload mulch around our flowerbeds.  I use to use one infrequently when we farmed in Ohio,  I was probably too slow for my Dan and Grandfather. I had one at the softball field, but it had been borrowed ... probably permanently.  So, I bought a back-up from Southern States, below...

Made in China of course ... why? ... would be my question.  Since then, I bought a suit for the wedding last weekend and today I got new glasses ... frames made in China.  I really make an effort to by Made in the USA but, I am losing that battle.

Today, I watered our wildflowers in the garden before running errands with Sue Neal.  Lots of bumblebees warming up from the night.  They love the common milkweed below and try to get to the sunflowers before the other pollinators.

John and Claire's wedding was Saturday.  I was beautiful and we all had fun.  Today, Sue Neal and I went to the airport to retrieve a car (Hannah and Arlo took it down on Sunday morning) and later the tuxedos to Glasgow.  Sue Neal had a few returns to make in Bowling Green.

Sue Neal and I went to see "The Great Exotic Marigold Hotel" this evening after running errands.  It was excellent!

Last of the honey from 2011 and ticks.

Went to Sunday School yesterday with Hannah and Arlo.  Did not have to play the piano which is good for the congregation.

John and Claire came out to eat after church and Sue Neal had fixed everyone's favorites ... we eat good when our children are at home.

In the afternoon, we bottled the last of the 2011 honey.  Everyone helped as we filled 150 small bear bottles with honey to give out to guests at John and Claire's wedding on Saturday.  We had labels printed their initials and the date.  I put the remainder in pound jars.  Our bees for 2012 have done well so far and we will harvest the 2012 honey some time in July.

Hannah and I went for a walk late PM ... the tick situation is out of control even though I had mowed a pathway when we often walk.  I occasionally see a tick with a white spot on its back ... called a Lone Star tick ... Amblyomma americanum.  It supposedly does not carry lyme disease.


Female to the left and male to the right ... www.tickinfo.com

I am going to have to do more study on ticks ... I know we have wood ticks ( Dermacentor variabilis ) and deer ticks ( Ixodes scapularis - Ixodes dammini )



Deer tick above ... female ... adult, larva, nymph

Wood tick below ... female to the left and male to the right.




Most of the ticks we saw yesterday were wood ticks.  Permethrin clothing treatment kills ticks and deet-based skin repellent helps repel them.  We have been using Backwoods Cutter ... 23% DEET.  After yesterday, I looking for something stronger!

All images and info mostly from www.tickinfo.com ... check it out ... images are good!

KP - Miss Softball

Miss Softball and All-State was announced tonight.

Congrats to Kelsi for being named Kentucky Miss Softball.  This year, 30 wins and 405 strikeouts ... for her career, 112 wins and 1290 strikeouts ... both career marks are in the top ten historically.  Miss Softball is not classed and includes all seniors in Kentucky.  A great honor!

Also ...

AA First Team All-State - Sandy Young
AA Honorable Mention All-State - Emily Doss and Brittany Rippy

Congrats on a great year and for our seniors great careers ... next weekend at U of L we have KP, Sandy and Brittany in the East-West All-Star games.

Picked up Hannah and Arlo at the Nashville Airport this evening ... good to have Hannah home for awhile!

Fawns, Germander and more.

This morning I got our tractor and bushog ready and got an early start bushogging.  I saw three fawns today ... a set of twins in the long field close to Hwy 100 and another behind Granny's house. They were really young with spots and not too good at moving around.  I mowed the lanes in our blackberry patch ... some have ripened and next week we will have to start picking.

I saw lots of plants while bushogging ... a big American Germander patch on Aunt Nell's farm.  Lots of wild garlic and more slender mountain mint.  I am just getting started so lots to do next week.  Lots of butterfly weed (below) and passion flower / maypop blooming now!

Tomorrow our youngest daughter is coming home for her brother's wedding.  She has not been home since Christmas and we are looking forward to her visit.

High hive and Slender Mountain Mint picts

I went into school today to start finishing the paperwork for getting out of coaching ... still a lot of loose ends to tie up. 

I am still building frames for hives but have nearly caught up with all hives and can slow down and work on getting the house ready for our children to come in for John's wedding a week from Saturday.

Below, we have several hives with multiple supers.  This hive is at Aunt Nell's farm in Holland.  The bottom four medium supers is brood but the top has five full supers with some work in the rest.  I have to get a small step ladder to check the top.

Two of our honeybees on Slender Mountain Mint  (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium)

Two Silvery Checkerspot butterflies (Chlosyne nycteis) ... best guess ...  Their caterpillars feed on wingstem (which is abundant in Holland, KY), asters and Black-eyed Susans.

Below, lots of bumble bees as well as honeybees and butterflies in the late afternoon, still busy.

Field behind Granny's house in Holland with lots of Mint.

Calla Lily and Hydrangeas

Sunday, played the piano for Sunday school (I am usually the last choice before going on without the piano) then spent most of the rest of the day working around the house and building super boxes and painting them.

Sue Neal and I moved all our house plants to the back porch and I took a walk late (actually too late, since it was dark when I got in) down to Long Creek.

This AM, building frames for the supers I built ... a slow go, but in the shade and relaxing work.

Our hydrangeas have been beautiful this year, below ...

Sue Neal was given calla lily rhizomes from her cousins in eastern Kentucky during or trip there this Spring.  They are doing well and blooming now on the NE side of our house ... for few days, there was a wasp hiding in side this bloom.  Calla lilies are native to South Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zantedeschia_aethiopica

Building supers and coyotes ...

Today ... the day after the regional final was a day to stay busy!  It was only about 50 degrees F. when I got up.  Weird weather ... 90's for awhile and now much cooler.

 I built 15 supers and gave them a coating of primer.  I started checking hives today and the first two I checked on Aunt Nell's farm needed a super added ... I only had two made up with frames so, I put them on.  Checked on Granny and she was listening to a book.

I checked on our hives in the goat field and they will need supers soon.  Saw a huge coyote while looking to see if I had anything in a swarm box.  The coyote ran off quickly but if wolves are much bigger then I don't ever want to run up on one while walking.

Also power washed the back porch in preparation of moving our house plants outside.

Looking forward to getting back to reading since softball is over.

Out in Regional Final

Busy with softball this week ... won 12-0 against Metcalfe County on Monday, 1-0 against a great Bowling Green team (ranked 14th in the state) on Tuesday ... started our game with Greenwood (ranked 3rd in the state and our perennial nemesis) on Wednesday ... rained out in the first inning ... resumed on Friday evening.  We got down 2-0 immediately but tied the game and had runners on second and third and did not score.  They got two home runs ... ouch!  We fought back in the last inning, got a run and then with the winning run a first ran out of gas ... the end.   35-5, great season but, not back to the state tournament.

As usual this season some poor officiating...  The plate umpire was inconsistent and indecisive for both teams.  We had a terrible call at second for an out in the middle of the seventh.  Who knows how that would have changed the the game.  The speed of a great game is just too much for some of the fourth region umpires.  I complained about it a month ago and told the assigning umpire that a single call could cost you a big game.  Hard to tell if it cost us the game ... but it was a bad call for an out in a crucial time of the game.

Their pitcher stepped outside the 24" lane all night and was never called ... hard to call that when you are having difficulty defining the strike zone!

One of the best things about NOT coaching next year besides having hundreds of hours to do some things I should have done years ago and should do on a regular basis ...  is not having to deal with the lack of ability and lack of commitment among the majority of umpires in Region 4.  The half dozen or so umpires that work hard and get it right in Region 4 ... thank you!

Greenwood ... it is so easy not to like them and their fans ... they are burbacious (suburb dwellers thinking their better than the rural folk).

Our girls played well and never gave up on the game ... one of their best efforts of the year.  In the end, we had great difficulty replacing the offensive/experience we lost by graduation last year.

Working on bees today and washing down the back porch after it warms up.  Time to get ready for John and Claire's wedding.

rr