Why Live Anywhere Else?

Sometimes through the day, everyday, I say thanks to the Fates for allowing

me to live here.

While building a roundyard for my daughter today, an electrical storm came rolling in from the west.

As I made my way under shelter, I admired that my son has negun building himself a shed.

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More Spring Bee Lessons

Well my bees beat me up these last two weeks. To be fair though it was mostly my fault. So, I started with radix hives; two at coastal Merewether and two on my property near Paterson. Obviously the Merewether hives produced through winter and with a bit of an up-change in the weather they needed space for brood and honey. This caught me out (Lesson 1: don't procrastinate or aim to do the least amount of work. In other words don't be lazy.) I then had to rush around buying and assembling frames. Penders Bees reported that from their orders it's a bumper season. But I really need to not be so unprepared again. Adding Supers and extracting helped create space, but I'll be extracting again very soon with my spanking new machine. Unfortunately in hive #4 the Queen spent the winter above the Excluder and it really knocked them about. Removing the Excluder (which was a third full of dead Drones) got them working ok again. ...

Cycle Touring

Well I haven't riden beyond abput 40k's yet. But I've read lots of posts, articles and ebooks by long distance cyclists and I'm developing a body of useful knowledge. There must be a shiteload of interest in cycling because the amount of advertising, spam and pseudo advertising through blogs and books, is mind numbing. Honestly, every Goggle search reveals pages of crap: buy this bike, it'll make you feel alive, take you places you only dreamed of, make you feel cool or other amazing feats. Then there are the experts that push the novice towards high cost options, daily gym workouts and guided tours. All depressing reading. But occasionally there are gems. Just note i read an article by Magda in New York who wrote about her first 500 mile ride. She said something profound: "I hate experts. I wantto start a movement of people that defy experts and go on great adventures". Or words to t...

Transferring a Hive

In early February arrangements were made to meet Warren and see about taking my nuc hive home. I was really excited and nervous about whether I could actually keep some bees because my track record was pretty ordinary. I met Warren late in the afternoon because bees are best transported after dark because they're all "home" and are more quiet. He was tall, and older and seems busy talking and remembering to do stuff. Halfway through saying hello, he waved to a neighbour and took him of to show him a drainage problem, that had shown up during recent much needed rain. He opened his wagon to put stuff in and the forgotten smell of the smoker permeated my life again. The car was neat, but had seemingly everything a beek would need, ready to hand. Little did I know. In the half hour it took to say hello and get moving, Warren plied me with information about bees. I made mental noted on everything. I suspect he was also assessing whether I was up to the task. We drove to a si...

Novice Beekeeper

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