Cappings

Since so many of you find the things I do in the world of beekeeping to be fascinating, I'll give you another glimpse into that world. Besides keeping bees and harvesting and bottling their honey there is the side business of the wax. I've written about the wax before and about how I always bring a small bucket with me when I work the bees because they like to build wax structures where they shouldn't. I cut that wax away and render it, but there is another opportunity to garner wax and it happens during the honey rendering process.

Bees store honey in combs and once they get ti dry enough they cap it with wax to keep moisture from getting into the cured honey. It's like how your grandmother put paraffin on the jars to preserve her jams and jelly. This wax gets cut or scrapped away to expose the honey in the comb and then the comb goes into a centrifuge to spin the honey out of the comb. The wax that was uncapped gets to drain and residual honey into a bucket.

Also while the wax comb is in the centrifuge small bits of wax breaks off and gets suspended in the honey. This wax gets filtered out before the honey goes into settling tanks or buckets.

The photo above is much smaller scale than what I work on. After letting the residual honey get filtered out there is still a little honey left that is stuck to the bits of wax. This is when I take the wax outside and let the bees clean it up. In the end I end up with about four pounds of wax flakes that looks like dry oatmeal.

This wax is pretty clean at this point, however there are foreign things mixed in that need to be filtered out such as bee parts. Next I stuff this wax into used stockings and melt it. The wax melts through the mesh and the nasty stuff is left inside the stocking which gets thrown away. This is when I pour the wax into forms and let it cool and harden.

I've Changed My Mind, Again

OK, I’ve changed my mind again. This time it’s about products from Burt’s Bees.

In the mid 1980, Burt Shcvitz was selling honey from the back of his pick-up truck. Roxanne Quimby helped him out during the summer and discovered that Burt had been saving up his wax for years. Roxanne got a book on home made products made from bees wax so she convinced Burt to join her in a venture to make candles and skin care products.

Burt was a simple guy who lived in and 8”X8” turkey coop, and from what I gathered he and Roxanne worked together for a few years and then she bought him out.

What turned me against Burt’s Bees products, was Roxanne was once interviewed and she admitted that she had no idea where her company was getting their bees wax from. Knowing what sorts of chemicals were being used in bee hives in the 90 and what awful stuff was being used in bee colonies in China at that time sent all my red flags flying.

Burt’s Bees was bought out by Clorox in 2007. I went to their website and I sent them an email asking where they got their wax from. I wanted to know if it was domestic or imported. After a week I got this reply:

"Thank you for your inquiry, our beeswax is sourced from Africa. The beeswax that we use is called "wild crafted" which means the bees are from wild and therefore pollinate in the wild. Using wild crafted beeswax there is no chance of contamination from pesticides because no pesticides are used in the wild forests.

We are aware of the recent news coverage about contaminated ingredients from certain parts of the world. Please be assured that we believe our products are safe and effective, and we do conduct product testing to this end. We have a Quality Control Department that sets standards for all incoming ingredients and outgoing product. We send all of our ingredients to be tested for contamination and only use those of pure premium quality. Further, our raw materials are purified to a cosmetic grade (cleaner then food grade less then pharmaceutical) and inspected lot by lot to meet specific standards. We choose sources from domestic, ecological, and fair trade organizations when available. We appreciate your concerns about this matter.

Burt's Bees remains committed to being 'seriously natural' and to you,our consumer. We will continue to provide you with safe and effective earth-friendly natural personal care products.

Thank you for your questions and your interest in our products!"

I am now convinced that Burt's Bees products are no longer evil. However I don't think they are as good as my products.

None of Your Bees Wax, Part II

Continuing with yesterdays topic, when I have a bucket of miscellaneous bits of wax I place them in a solar wax melter I built. It is a box with a small double pane window. On the top section I have a 9-inch square baking pan with a hole to train the melted wax on one side. The melted wax drips out of that pan into a bread pan. I place the solar wax melter at an angle to collect the maximum amount of the suns rays. After one batch melts I'll add more wax through out the day.



After the sun goes down the wax solidifies into an ingot that I remove from the pan. This wax is pretty pure, but it still has some impurities in it that need to be further refined by placing the ingots in a pair of nylons and reheating in a double boiler. Once refined again I pour the wax into forms that produce one-ounce ingots. This measured amount makes it easy to add the proper amount of wax into formulas that I use to make creams and balms.

Many people produce candles and I'm sure I have enough wax on hand to produce at least a hundred of them, but I use my wax sparingly because it is a rather precious commodity.

None of Your Bees Wax

Honey bees are insects that use every inch of space provided to them. They like just enough space to maneuver and they fill any additional space with wax comb to store nectar, pollen or brood. When ever I inspect my colonies I bring a small bucket to hold all the extra wax I cut away.




Wax is a lipid substance that the bees produce in small clear flakes that exits their bodies in the joining plates in their abdomen. They then chew the flakes and their saliva turns the wax white. Then they place it to build their desired structures. Honey bees have to eat 8 pounds of honey to produce one pound of wax.

Tomorrow I'll write about my rendering process.

Meadowfoam

I got some emails from a few of you about my products after I did the post about Burt’s Bees. I don’t normally talk about what I do, or make, or sell on the blog because I don’t want the blog to be a sales or promotional blog. However since so many of you asked I do produce a line of lip balms, and a hand and foot balm that actually puts an end to dry cracking skin. People also use it as a moisturizer.

The reason my stuff is different is mostly because it is simple with only two or three ingredients; two if unscented and three if it is scented or flavored. Most moisturizers, even the ones for sale at the Sunday Market are loaded with ingredients; many unpronounceable.

My main ingredient is meadowfoam seed oil. This is an incredible oil which is extremely stable for cosmetic manufacturing. I previously used grape seed oil which degraded quickly giving my products a shelf life of only a year. I have some meadowfoam products that I made three years ago and it is still as good as the day I made them.

I am not a chemist, but if you are interested you can get a lot of information about the history, the uses, the chemistry and biology of this remarkable seed crop that was developed and grown here in Oregon.
The website is http://www.meadowfoam.com/

Meadowfoam seed oil is pretty costly. The refined oil I use cost nearly $150 a gallon with shipping. The cold pressed oil cost nearly $350 a gallon.

My other ingredient is natural bees wax. Yes, I am a beekeeper and beeswax is one of the by-products of the hives. I don’t use any chemicals or medications in my hives. This is important because honey is hydroscopic and will absorb just about anything that it comes in contact with. The wax, which is a lipid substance will also absorb anything it comes in contact with. I feel confident that my wax and honey is about as pure as it can possibly be. I haven’t gone for organic certification, mostly because I think most organic certification is bull shit and my apiary is organically cleaner than most “organic colonies” I’ve seen. However, I cannot guarantee that some of the bees haven’t visited a neighbors flowers that received a dose of miracle grow. Honey bees fly over two miles to gather nectar and pollen. Drawing a circle two miles around any hive would mean patrolling 8042.5 acres for non organic food sources. That’s a lot of land and I doubt any certifier would bother going over every acre unless there were a toxic dump within a two mile boundary.

Rich, mentioned in a comment his doubt that Africa, where Burt’s Bees gets their wax, is as pure as they claim in regards to pesticide use. One never really knows. I am pretty familiar with the flight path of my bees and I feel I can attest that I have a pretty pure product. I feel good about it and the testimonials of those that use it are more than positive about the results they achieve.

Wax

One of the by-products of honey bees is wax. I've written about wax rendering recently and the photo above is the end product. In this photo there is about 25 pounds of wax. I rendered ten pounds this year and the other fifteen pounds is wax left over from previous years. The small octagonal ones in the foreground are generally one ounce ingots which I use to make balms and creams.

I have enough wax at this point where I need to consider getting some candle molds just to use it up.

One benefit to bees wax is the smell. It is remarkably beautiful and nearly as wonderful as the smell of a hive in August.

Honey House, Part 2

As mentioned yesterday, I let the honey settle in pales and I've taken all the boxes of frames outdoors for the bees to clean up. There is always residual honey left in the combs and the bees go crazy for it. After about two days the frames are all cleaned and the bees move else where to extract nectar from autumn flowers.

Though relatively clean, I can't just store the frames because of an imported insect from Africa known as a wax moth. This moth lays eggs in hives and the larva will eat through the comb and defecate in it rendering it useless.

Comb is an asset to the beekeeper. It bees have to eat eight pounds of honey to produce one pound of wax. If I can preserve the comb the bees can use it again in subsequent years and they won't have to waste energy building new comb from scratch.

Commercial beekeepers use a very nasty chemical to preserve their comb, but I don't use any chemicals in my hives. Instead I place all my frames into a freezer and leave them there over night. This kills any adult, larva or egg that may be living in a frame already. Wax moths are real tricky about laying eggs, so I have to take a torch to flame the insides of the boxes and lids. Once the freeze is over I can then store the boxes of frames in a shed for the winter.

This is also the time when the honey has settled in the pails so I can begin bottling. At this point the boxes of honey frames have been replaced by cases of honey jars in the house. Jarring the honey is also a messy proposition. The gate valves on the settling tank and pails often drip and leak. Sometimes drops of honey miss the mouth of the jar so cleaning is a constant activity.

Progress can be measured by filled cases and how many pails have been emptied and cleaned. At the end of the day all of the honey has been jarred. I save the bottom of the barrel honey for my self. This honey has some microscopic particles of wax in it and it looks almost opaque. This is really textured to the tongue. I like this honey more than clear honey.

After all this work I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel though another big part of the process is still ahead. Each jar needs to be cleaned and labeled and then I have to attach a hang tag. This is the task I have waiting for me while it rains this weekend. Come Monday I should have some to sell.

Bumble Bees

I had some email replies to yesterdays article asking what people can do to promote pollination for their gardens and for the environment since there are few wild honey bees found locally any more.

There is actually a great deal individuals can do. Today and tomorrow I will post articles on native pollinators. I hope this info helps.

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION: Bumble bees belong to the genus Bombus of the family Apidae, order Hymenoptera.

SIZE: 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches (19.1-38mm)

COLOR: Generally black and yellow

DESCRIPTION: Bumble bees are large, hairy bees that collect and carry pollen on their hind legs to bring it back to the hive. Bumble bees are beneficial insects.

HABITAT: Primarily found in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, often ranging farther north and higher in altitude than other bees. Fifty species of bumble bees are known in North America. They are most often encountered while foraging at flowers. They may nest in wooden storage sheds and small barns, in trees with natural cavities, and in cavities in the ground.

LIFE CYCLE: A queen, who is the egg-layer, heads Colonies. Workers are the daughters of the queen. Drones (males) are produced during the mating season in mid summer. Unlike the honeybee, the bumble bee colony only lives for one season. The new queens mate with drones in late summer and then hibernate alone through the winter. All drones and workers die before the winter. The new queen will emerge in spring to start a new colony. They normally do not reuse the hive from the previous year.

COMPARISON TO HONEYBEES: Strong bumble bee colonies may only have a population of 200 bees as opposed to the honey bee colony which may have several tens of thousand in their population. The bumble bee worker can use its stinger more than once and live to sting again, unlike the honey bee who can only sting once and then dies leaving its stinger behind. They do not use dance to communicate like the honeybee. Bumble bee and honeybee drones have no stinger. Bumble bees do not hoard and store honey like the honeybee, they use it as feed for their young and for the hive. Since only the queen survives the winter there is no need for honey stores to hold a colony over.

COLONY: The bumble-bee nest consists of a spherical chamber with a single exit. The queen chooses a preexisting cavity, such as an abandoned mouse nest, in which to begin her family. Most species nest in the ground. The queen forms a small mound of pollen paste in the middle of the nest, lays several eggs in it, and seals it with a small dome of wax. She also constructs a hemispherical wax cup, called a honey pot, in the entranceway floor and fills it with nectar. The queen feeds on this nectar while she incubates the eggs. The newly hatched larvae partially consume the paste in their cells. They are later fed by the queen through a small opening in the cell wall. When the larvae are fully grown, they spin cocoons in which they metamorphose, eventually emerging as the first workers of the new colony. The workers rear subsequent larvae in individual cells. Workers are small if born early in the year, and large if born later in the year.

POLLINATION: Bumble bees are important pollinators of many plants and are able to work in colder temperatures than honeybees. Both queens and workers collect pollen and transport it back to the colony in pollen baskets on their hind legs.

NEST BOXES: A bumble bee nest box is easy to build. You can attempt to lure a new queen into taking up residence by your garden. It is best to have more than one box. This does not guarantee that bumble bees will move into the boxes you provide every year, but the chances are good if you place boxes near areas where you have seen them foraging.

The boxes should be placed in full or partial shade. The entrance hole should be from 4" to 10" off the ground in an area where there is no possibility of flooding the entrance. The nest box needs to be elevated to prevent excessive moisture. Place weights on the cover to insure that weather and animals cannot remove it. Place it where children, pets or lawn mowers will not disturb it.

If no colony has been established by the end of July, return the nest box to storage until next season. Your nest boxes will last a long time since they will only be exposed to the weather during April, May, June, and July each year until they get a colony. Bumblebees emerging from hibernation in early spring are fertilized queens. They may search for up to two weeks to find an "ideal" nest site. A spring queen with pollen in her pollen baskets has already found her nest site. Avoid checking the nest box for activity. If a queen is disturbed before really settling-in, she will most likely move on. If you get one box in three occupied, you have been fortunate. Reinstall your nest boxes every year, and hope for the best.

A bumble bee nest is rectangular box which measures 6 inches tall, 6 inches wide and 13 inches long. Inside it has two compartments. The first measures 5 inches by 6 inches and serves as a staging ground where bees will defecate and set up defenses from the main nesting cavity located at the back of the house. The back or main cavity measures 8 inches by 6 inches and this is where queens will spend their lives.
Place cardboard on the floor of both chambers. This will make annual cleanup easier. Place cotton or wood shavings in the larger chamber to act as a nest.

You may also build in a covered peep-hole on side with sliding wood cover and protective screen. This allows visual inspection of the main nest chamber so you can view bees once they are living inside. It can also serve as a vent by keeping just slightly open if house is kept in excessively hot region.

WHERE TO USE IT: Outside where bumble bees are active. This could be in a garden, along a fence row, under hedges, between elevation breaks, by a flower bed, around mulch piles and just about anywhere bumble bees have been seen foraging. There really is no limitation or restrictions and since they make a great conversation piece, the more the merrier.

Construction and Placement of Bumblebee Nest Box

Construction:
Scrap plywood (1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thickness.)
A rough cut 2 x 4 (such as cedar) about 6½ inches long.
3/4 inch pvc pipe, 6 to 8 inches long.
1/8" x 8" x 15" clear acrylic panel (optional, but practical)
Dimensions:
Front and back each 5½" high x 15" wide
Sides each 5½" high x (8" minus two times the thickness of the material used), e.g. if using 3/4" plywood, the sides pieces will be 6½" wide.
Bottom 10" x 15"
Top about 14" x 17"
Acrylic panel 8" x 15"



Assembly:
Drill vent holes near the top of the side panels. Cover with fine screening which should be glued or stapled firmly into place. Assemble side panels to front and back panels to form a box as in the diagram. Fasten the box to the bottom plate with the landing area extending to the front as shown. The diagram shows that a 3/4" hole should be drilled through the 2 x 4 connecting the two chambers about an inch from the back of the box. Fit the roughly surfaced 2 x 4 to the bottom plate, front panel, and back panel, so that two chambers are formed. One chamber should be 5½" wide and will serve as a vestibule. The brood chamber will be 8" wide. There should be 2" of air space above the 2 x 4. Surfaces of the 2 x 4 need to be rough so that the bumblebees can climb over it with ease.

Drill a hole in the front panel to accommodate the pvc pipe. The pipe should extend from the front panel up to the hole in the 2 x 4. Before installing the pvc pipe, spray the interior of the pipe with black paint. Spring queens will be looking for mouse holes, so you want to minimize reflected light inside the entrance pipe. The pipe should be held in place by a tight fit in the front panel and by some glue or caulk between it and the bottom plate. Place a small quantity of upholsterer's cotton in the brood chamber.

The acrylic panel need not be installed unless you wish to inspect an established colony. Certain species such as B. fervidus and B. pennsylvanicus are known to prevent such inspections. Most others range from "slightly more forgiving" all the way to "quite docile." I prefer to install the panel so that an energetic skunk or raccoon that is large enough to remove the top cover will still have no access to my bumblebees.

The top cover should have some type of drip cap installed all around the perimeter of the underside so that no water could run toward the box. This could be done with 1/4" to 3/8" quarter round molding or any wood or metal scrap. The exterior portions of the box should be sealed and painted because there is no way of knowing how many years before any particular box gets a colony. There is no need to finish the interior of the box, because it is protected from the weather and should you be fortunate to attract a colony, it will be necessary to discard the box at the end of the season of actual use. Discarding a used nest box is important because there is no practical way to sterilize a wood box. There are a wide variety of parasites, which feed off bumblebees and the nest contents during the season. Eggs of these parasites may be deposited in cracks and crevices. Nest boxes constructed of metal or plastic could probably be cleaned with steam or chemicals. Wood boxes are quickly made, and easy to replace.

To Bee or Not to Bee

I will be concluding this Ag Business series next weekend. I think I’ve covered just about every topic for consideration. If I haven’t touched on an Ag topic that you wanted to hear about, let me know.

One other start-up Ag business one might want to consider is beekeeping. This is not for someone who gets ill being around insects. There are start-up costs and quite a learning curve before you can actually feel comfortable with your knowledge and proficiency.

One thing you would need to start with is a class on beekeeping. There are several offered around the state. See the events page at www.orsba.org. This is the Oregon State Beekeepers Association web site. It offers a lot of resources for beekeepers of every level. Next get a good book on the subject. And spend the next year reading and studying the craft. See if you can job shadow a beekeeper.

There is money in beekeeping, but the balancing act one must do to make a profit often unnerves beekeepers. The mistake that many make is they grow their business too quickly, and when there is a bad year it can financially devastate the keeper.

There is money to be made if you don’t mind transporting your bees to California where the almond producers will pay over $150 per hive for pollination. Don’t expect those prices for other crops when that season is over. Things like pumpkins or cherries bring in only about $35 per hive. If you can start in California, come back and work several other crops in Oregon each colony can yield about $300 in pollination fees alone.

There is also money in honey production, though commercial beekeepers that make their money on pollination see honey as a by-product. They sell off their honey to big distributors often for less than two-dollars a pound. Beekeepers who value their honey will bottle it and market it them selves. Good raw honey can fetch between six and eight dollars a pound. A well established colony will yield between 150 and250 pounds of honey in Oregon.

There are other hive products that one can sell or use in products in their cottage industry. Bees wax can be made into candles, but it can also be used in making hand creams and lip balm and furniture wax. Propolis can be made into a tintiture for cuts and scrapes. Bee pollen is another item beekeepers collect and sell.

Someone who is focused can turn a profit in beekeeping after about five years. It does take time to learn the craft, grow your holdings responsibly, and have the bees draw foundation into honey comb that can be used year after year.

Money and profit aside, there is just something special in watching bees come and go on a warm summer day. The smell of the hive is remarkably good as well.

Honey House

Finally order is restored to my house. All my equipment is back in storage for another season

Every year I take over a small section of our home and use the space by the back door for my honey production. Over the span of about a month I pull finished frames of honey from the hives. I put them in boxes and there they sit until I’ve collect all the surplus honey from every hive. By the time I am finished there are ten to fifteen boxes with nine to ten frames per box ready to be processed.

There are two reasons I store them in the house. First is so the bees can’t get at them. If they could they would rob all the honey and take it back to their hives. The other reason I keep it in the house is to keep it warm. If the temperature of honey goes below 55 degrees F for a short period of time it will crystallize.

Each week the pile of boxes grows. Each time I enter the room I can smell the delightful smell of the the frames of honey, wax and residual smoke from smoking the bees. It's a beautiful smell.

These boxes wait for the next rainy day. Honey extracting is a good chore for a rainy day when I bring in my centrifuge. I lay a tarp down on the floor and set up my equipment. I use a tarp because processing honey is a messy business. I have a bin that I scrape the wax cappings into and then I place the frames into the extractor. It's an old four-frame hand-crank model that spins fast like a washing machine. The frames are spun so fast that the honey flies out of the cells and drips down the wall of the extractor. Eventually enough honey is collected in the bottom of the extractor that the basket that holds the frames can no longer spin. So at that time I have to place a bucket under the gate valve and pour the honey through a screen filter to filter out the wax and bee parts.

By the end of the day I have several five gallon pales full of honey and I take the boxes of frames outdoors to let the bees clean the comb. The pales of honey get to sit for several days to allow any wax that could fit through the screens to rise to the top for skimming.

The smell of the boxes is replaced by the smell of honey. Even though I cover the pales with lids to prevent the honey from absorbing any of the moisture from the air, the smell of honey still circulates through the house.

Unprepared

It’s after Mid April and you’d think I be prepared, but I wasn’t. I was driving into town this morning and I could see it there in a tree hanging down like a dark stocking loaded with plums. It was a swarm of honey bees.

You probably are a person that has the ability to see things that others don’t because you are tuned into something so well because of association. I notice horses, chickens and honeybees. I noticed this swarm from 300 feet away. It hung low branch of a fruit tree. Had I been prepared I could have walked up to it and placed the five-pound cluster into a box and I would have a new colony of honey bees. I wasn’t prepared but I hoped for the best.

I went to town on my errand and later I went back home to get some swarm gear, but when I returned to the house where the bees were I found they had already been taken by another swarm hunter that can spot bees from 300 feet away or they had flown to a new location.

Honey bees are valuable not only because of all the things they do for agriculture and mankind and the honey and wax they produce, but they are valuable because these days a good five pound colony sells for around $85. Last year I collected four or five swarms. Every year I hope for more.

So from now until Mid-July I will be prepared with a bee box and a spray bottle of sugar water in the back of my truck for any other swarms I may come upon.

The Brownsmead Bees

I got a call from a guy in Portland. He and his brother bought a farm in Brownsmead. The previous owner told them about some bee hives that some old beekeeper left there ten years ago and has since died. He wanted to know if I could come and remove the bees.

This sort of call is always a crap shoot. I always hope to find healthy bees in nice equipment. I started to worry when he told me there were beneath a ton of blackberries.

I drove out and met one of the brothers who opened the gate. I drove across the bumpy field to the side of the shed where he directed me. The berry vines were so thick I couldn’t even see the hives. I fired up my weed whacker with the brush hog attachment. A half hour later the six hives were exposed.

I removed the dead hives to make more room to work the hives that had obvious activity. I opened the equipment closer to my truck and found that these hives were once active with mice and wax moths. They were deep in compost. There was actually soil that was several inches deep with worms in it. It was rich stuff. All this equipment was worthless and I just threw it on the truck to take to a burn pile.

The remaining hives with activity were also worn out with holes chewed in the sides with bees coming and going from several entrances. These hives were laden with dirt on the lower level and honey on the top level. I couldn’t separate the boxes so I dragged the heavy mass to the truck and I tried to cover every hole with duct tape.

I got everything home and I made some room for the new colonies and I placed them there. I was exhausted from spending several hours cutting brush and moving hives. I stacked the hives and left them. I’ll go in to see what’s inside some evening this week. All I can tell right now is the bees look good and healthy. I’m sure I’ll have to replace every frame inside the hives.

So now I have fifteen colonies, which is nearly twice as many as I want to have. I’m hoping for a good honey year.

Vocations

 

My wife was recently telling me about a friend who lives for photography.  When he isn't out wandering the outdoors with a camera he is at home editing his photos.  This has been his lifetime obsession.  I admire him for this as long term obsessions have always been difficult for me.

I've had many obsessions in my lifetime, however I've abandoned each of them as time went on.  Here are a few of them:

Bicycles: At one point I was cycling 30 miles a day.  I had two very expensive Peugeot bicycles, one for racing and one for touring.  When I moved to Oregon the roads were too rough and the tires were constantly being eaten and it was difficult keeping the wheels true, I ended up giving them away.

Photography: This started in high school.  I was confident and pretty talented.  I was published several times.  I had a fully equipped darkroom for color and black and white, but I lost interest when I moved to Oregon.  I gave away all of my cameras and darkroom equipment over the years.  Now I rarely ever take a photo even though I always have an iphone on me.

Music: I started playing guitar in the late 60s. I ended up with a Gibson SG Special, a Baldwin Bass.  I blew out my hearing in one particular loud garage session, so I sold all of my electric equipment and ended up with a Yamaha 12 string, and a big box Guild, an Ovation and an Arita Classical.  I haven't played in the last 30 years.  I still have the Ovation and the Arita.

Records: Back in my college days I had a radio show.  The station library was lacking and only stocked music that they received as promotional recordings, so I bought records and lots of them.  I haven't listened to any of them in hears.  I sold about 500 of them a few years back and I'm thinking of selling the remaining 500.  I don't listen to music much anymore.

Fishing:  I grew up fishing on the east coast and in Canada.  I loved it but moving here I found it difficult.  It's just so different in Oregon.  I gave it up, but I've since rekindled my interest just in the last two years with very limited success.  It's nice just to get out and be lazy in nature and I can justify my lack of general success by stating that I'm weeding weeding the lake or river or ocean one cast at a time.

Bees: Over the last 25 years I have kept bees, lectured, taught classes, appeared on radio and on TV news, captured swarms, wrote articles, sold colonies, honey, wax and balms and lotions from my efforts in beekeeping.  About two years ago I found that not only was it too difficult to keep bees alive due to varroa mites and climate change, but my annual crop of hundreds of pounds of raw honey dwindled to years of no honey at all in the attempt of keeping the bees alive through the winters.  I decided enough was enough and gave up bee keeping.

Books: Through most of my life I've been an avid reader, but something has changed either with my taste in literature or my attention span.  Now it takes me several months just to get through one volume.

Writing: In the past I've written several novels, and if you recall this used to be a daily blog. This blog has been running since 2006, but there was a point where I stopped writing for two years.  I've since resurfaced and now again I try pen my thoughts from time to time.  I've lost all but a few readers, but that's Okay.  I've always thought of this blog as a repository for my thoughts that I don't want to forget.

Chickens: We had them for several years.  We've kept as many as a flock of 20 and had a pretty successful egg business, but between marauding dogs and weasels, coyotes, rats  and once a bear or a cougar ripped the 1/2 in hardware cloth from the chicken yard... Well it just wasn't worth the trouble. I now park by tractor in the roofed chicken yard.

Boats and kayaks: I used to have two boats.  I sold the tinny (aluminum) because it was just too small at 14 feet and the engine I had for it was too heavy and powerful.  Then I sold the two kayaks because of rotator cuff issues, but took on another one which to too difficult ot get out of without getting wet. Now I have a 16 foot fiberglass tri-hull that I will be selling this spring.  It's just too much boat for me.

Horses: I got back into horses in 2002.  My little farm is based mainly around them. We've kept two horses here on our property continually for 20 years now.  I'm on my fourth and my wife has had several more.  We've lost count... I've had too many accidents on horses over the years and I just grew tired of getting injured.  That plus spinal stenosis made it necessary to stop.  I've had several surgeries on my spine since I stopped riding and I'm probably good to go riding again,  I  just don't have that passion any longer.  I am also looking forward to a second hip replacement so I am presently in too much pain to swing a leg over a saddle.

So in conclusion  I find it interesting when someone has a life-long passion and keep up the momentum.  I salute all of you who do.

Oil on Wood

One of my side lines is wood working. I have trees from my own property milled and that is what I now use for all my furniture projects. I have had a lot of other projects going on for the last year or so and my wood working projects were on the back burner. I was also letting some wood get seasoned. It is all dry now and ready to be used.

I started my first project about two weeks ago. It was a tilting mirror stand with arched legs. It was real simple and attractive, like Amish furniture.

Now here is my problem as a wood worker and what I do that makes other woodworkers cringe. I finish my products with boiled linseed oil. I should be using a special mixture I make up of lemon oil and bees wax.

To me, the boiled linseed oil brings out the warmth of the wood. It showcases the character of the wood, and it smells like an art studio. But woodworkers keep telling me that the oil draws out all the moisture and that it looks bad. I don’t agree. To me, seeing wood coated with plastics, such as polyurethane really makes me sick. So to each their own, live and let live. I use boiled linseed oil and I’m sticking to it.