Two woodticks already this spring, brought in by the dogs most likely. They are healthy looking little critters, and I'm sure winter was a snap for them.
Organic as I am I do not allow pests in the house, therefore I use strong medicine to keep bugs off of the pets. All three.
I can't control what's outside, but I try to control what's in.
A mallard duck pair has taken possession of the fish pond. This is not a big pond: only 200 gallons at most. They find it sufficient for their needs, however, and sit on its edge all day except for brief dunkings. The dogs find the ducks fascinating, but do not bark at them as they do for squirrels. I'm glad. Surely nesting season will give them cause for moving on soon. For now I enjoy them cozily nestled nearby.
Standardized Tests arrived this morning. They will keep us busy over the next week. They are also a sign of spring.
Beyond our acre the world springs on.
Last night my husband and two of our children presented the Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association at an Environmental Fair. Very interested people showed up to talk to them. This is good for the bees. Perhaps more people will take the step of keeping bees, or at least inviting someone to come and keep bees on their land.
Perhaps by now it is apparent that we keep bees primarily not for the honey, but the good they do for our world. The entire diversity of our food sources is affected directly by bees and other pollinators. We must do all we can to preserve bees.
May I recommend another book? Gene Stratton-Porter wrote many wonderful nature-related novels decades ago. She herself was a fascinating person, complex and questioning. It comes through in her novels.
My mother loved "Girl of the Limberlost." I loved "The Harvestor." Other favorites were "Freckles," and "Song of the Cardinal."
I found a copy of the one she wrote about beekeeping at a used book sale. "The Keeper of the Bees." It sat on the shelf for some time, not compelling enough for the time being. Little did I know what an impact it would have!
It is the last book Stratton-Porter wrote, and perhaps the most pivotal. Her whole views of nature were shaken by bees.
About the time we were getting involved with beekeeping I got the book down and started reading. I took her insights on bees as instructive as her insights on other natural phenomena.
What surprised me was the conclusion she made in the course of the story. Stratton-Porter was always, her whole life, an ardent Darwinist. Until she worked with bees.
For someone as strongly Darwinian as she to honestly and candidly change is remarkable in itself, but she did, and in doing so influenced many others.
Shortly after she wrote the book she was in a car accident and died soon after.
Bees are God's gift. Plants need them, bees need plants. Bees operate as a co-dependent mass--as neurons in a brain---impossibly existing in any other way. They are created to enable survival on this planet.
I was chuckling one time during a beekeeping lecture at a university--the lecturer, a professor, could not bring herself to use the word "evolve" in her talk about bee development. I believe most beekeepers are closet creationists. No one will admit it openly, but they see the utter impossibility of bee evolution.
Isn't it funny when we all know something to be true, but can't say it for fear of condemnation?
This applies to so many things! Politics, social obligations, education.
What a spring. It's 2012!
Organic as I am I do not allow pests in the house, therefore I use strong medicine to keep bugs off of the pets. All three.
I can't control what's outside, but I try to control what's in.
A mallard duck pair has taken possession of the fish pond. This is not a big pond: only 200 gallons at most. They find it sufficient for their needs, however, and sit on its edge all day except for brief dunkings. The dogs find the ducks fascinating, but do not bark at them as they do for squirrels. I'm glad. Surely nesting season will give them cause for moving on soon. For now I enjoy them cozily nestled nearby.
Standardized Tests arrived this morning. They will keep us busy over the next week. They are also a sign of spring.
Beyond our acre the world springs on.
Last night my husband and two of our children presented the Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association at an Environmental Fair. Very interested people showed up to talk to them. This is good for the bees. Perhaps more people will take the step of keeping bees, or at least inviting someone to come and keep bees on their land.
Perhaps by now it is apparent that we keep bees primarily not for the honey, but the good they do for our world. The entire diversity of our food sources is affected directly by bees and other pollinators. We must do all we can to preserve bees.
May I recommend another book? Gene Stratton-Porter wrote many wonderful nature-related novels decades ago. She herself was a fascinating person, complex and questioning. It comes through in her novels.
My mother loved "Girl of the Limberlost." I loved "The Harvestor." Other favorites were "Freckles," and "Song of the Cardinal."
I found a copy of the one she wrote about beekeeping at a used book sale. "The Keeper of the Bees." It sat on the shelf for some time, not compelling enough for the time being. Little did I know what an impact it would have!
It is the last book Stratton-Porter wrote, and perhaps the most pivotal. Her whole views of nature were shaken by bees.
About the time we were getting involved with beekeeping I got the book down and started reading. I took her insights on bees as instructive as her insights on other natural phenomena.
What surprised me was the conclusion she made in the course of the story. Stratton-Porter was always, her whole life, an ardent Darwinist. Until she worked with bees.
For someone as strongly Darwinian as she to honestly and candidly change is remarkable in itself, but she did, and in doing so influenced many others.
Shortly after she wrote the book she was in a car accident and died soon after.
Bees are God's gift. Plants need them, bees need plants. Bees operate as a co-dependent mass--as neurons in a brain---impossibly existing in any other way. They are created to enable survival on this planet.
I was chuckling one time during a beekeeping lecture at a university--the lecturer, a professor, could not bring herself to use the word "evolve" in her talk about bee development. I believe most beekeepers are closet creationists. No one will admit it openly, but they see the utter impossibility of bee evolution.
Isn't it funny when we all know something to be true, but can't say it for fear of condemnation?
This applies to so many things! Politics, social obligations, education.
What a spring. It's 2012!
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