Thursday, July 4, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
Gangbuster!
Our fuzzy bugs are going gangbuster - that's really the only way to describe their activity level. Seriously! There is no stopping them from drawing comb, raising baby bees and loading up on pollen and nectar to feed everybody and hoard for the coming winter.
Heh, that one cracks me up. If they only knew. Our girls are from Minnesota and are probably expecting massive snowfall and months with temperatures below freezing. Man, are they going to be in for a surprise.
Ahh, sunny Florida. Living here has its perks.
We try to inspect our hive every other week but because the weather had been hot, humid and Hordor! , I mean, wrought with thunderstorms, we missed one. That taught us that our girls aren't to be trusted to stay in line. Since they had an extra week of unsupervised activity, they came up with a few small, but crazy cross comb sections that we had to adjust which they didn't like as much.
Imagine you discovered the mother lode of all thrift stores going out of business and bringing home all kinds of cute side tables, chairs, chests, baskets, etc. only to have a cleaning crew come in and leave with half of it. Without asking.
Not cool.
Despite us rummaging through their stuff, they were still pretty mellow. They grumbled i.e. their buzzing sounded quite a bit louder and urgent than their usual constant hum, but there were no defense flights or straight-out attacks.
We also discovered a few small hive beetles which didn't make us too happy as they can become a real pest, even overrun your hive, but down here in the south it's like termites: the question is not 'if' you will have termites but 'when'.
Our bees weren't crazy about the little bugs either. We watched them chase them around and even tackle and wrestle with them, so that's good. We'll help them out by installing a beetle trap to manage the numbers.
The coolest thing about Sunday's inspection?
One of the pieces of cross comb we had to cut loose (and shamelessly kept to ourselves) was stuffed with honey. Once we closed up the hive again, the three of us ended up in the backyard again, breaking small pieces of comb running with golden honey over our fingers and getting a first taste of what our bees had produced.
O-MY-GOD! So good! So sweet! So beautiful!
You stick whole chunks of comb into your mouth and chew it like gum and all the honey bursts out (you don't have to eat the wax; you can just spit it out and return it to the bees)
Simply amazing!
Since this is our first year we are not expecting an actual honey harvest; the bees will need pretty much all of it to build up the hive and to last them through the winter so sneaking a bite (or two) is very very precious and a much treasured experience.
Heh, that one cracks me up. If they only knew. Our girls are from Minnesota and are probably expecting massive snowfall and months with temperatures below freezing. Man, are they going to be in for a surprise.
Ahh, sunny Florida. Living here has its perks.
We try to inspect our hive every other week but because the weather had been hot, humid and Hordor! , I mean, wrought with thunderstorms, we missed one. That taught us that our girls aren't to be trusted to stay in line. Since they had an extra week of unsupervised activity, they came up with a few small, but crazy cross comb sections that we had to adjust which they didn't like as much.
Imagine you discovered the mother lode of all thrift stores going out of business and bringing home all kinds of cute side tables, chairs, chests, baskets, etc. only to have a cleaning crew come in and leave with half of it. Without asking.
Not cool.
Despite us rummaging through their stuff, they were still pretty mellow. They grumbled i.e. their buzzing sounded quite a bit louder and urgent than their usual constant hum, but there were no defense flights or straight-out attacks.
We also discovered a few small hive beetles which didn't make us too happy as they can become a real pest, even overrun your hive, but down here in the south it's like termites: the question is not 'if' you will have termites but 'when'.
Our bees weren't crazy about the little bugs either. We watched them chase them around and even tackle and wrestle with them, so that's good. We'll help them out by installing a beetle trap to manage the numbers.
The coolest thing about Sunday's inspection?
O-MY-GOD! So good! So sweet! So beautiful!
You stick whole chunks of comb into your mouth and chew it like gum and all the honey bursts out (you don't have to eat the wax; you can just spit it out and return it to the bees)
Simply amazing!
Since this is our first year we are not expecting an actual honey harvest; the bees will need pretty much all of it to build up the hive and to last them through the winter so sneaking a bite (or two) is very very precious and a much treasured experience.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Framed!
Heat, humidity and mosquito population have skyrocketed in the last two weeks, and has turned chipping away at flaky paint on the exterior of our little old house into a slightly less pleasant task.
We have reached the eaves on the backside of the house and are gearing up for minor siding repairs, the restoration of some window trim, and lots and lots of caulking. I'll make sure to share progress and more detail on the window trim project soon, perhaps even this week (*keeps fingers crossed*).
Summerbreak with little trips here and there has begun in earnest, and Little Man is enjoying his camps.
Since it was just too hot to do much outside I decided to crank up the AC and tackle part of our upstair's landing. It may be too hot to strip the remaining stair spindles with the heat gun but I had a couple of doors and frames in mid-progress (i.e. partially stripped, sanded) and what better time to stop procrastinating and getting'er done when it's too hot to do anything else?
So I cranked up the AC, turned on the music and got going. The process is the "same ol, same ol" - strip, sand, prime, patch, caulk, sand, prime and paint.
After a coat of primer and a quick spray of 'vintage brass' for the hardware
and with a first coat (of three) of sweet glossy Behr "Ultra Pure Premium White" it looks like this:
Why the prettifying inside?
Well, the inlaws are expected to arrive at our little old house in a week from now and, boy, do those visits ever generate a flurry of activity around here!
We have reached the eaves on the backside of the house and are gearing up for minor siding repairs, the restoration of some window trim, and lots and lots of caulking. I'll make sure to share progress and more detail on the window trim project soon, perhaps even this week (*keeps fingers crossed*).
Summerbreak with little trips here and there has begun in earnest, and Little Man is enjoying his camps.
Since it was just too hot to do much outside I decided to crank up the AC and tackle part of our upstair's landing. It may be too hot to strip the remaining stair spindles with the heat gun but I had a couple of doors and frames in mid-progress (i.e. partially stripped, sanded) and what better time to stop procrastinating and getting'er done when it's too hot to do anything else?
[A relic from the husband's bachelor days ...No, I have no explanation why it's still around]
After a coat of primer and a quick spray of 'vintage brass' for the hardware
and with a first coat (of three) of sweet glossy Behr "Ultra Pure Premium White" it looks like this:
Why the prettifying inside?
Well, the inlaws are expected to arrive at our little old house in a week from now and, boy, do those visits ever generate a flurry of activity around here!
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Save Our Springfield
After more than a year of no demolitions we lost two houses to so-called emergency demolitions through Code Enforcement within the last four weeks.
Something is foul in the State of Denmark ... would Hamlet say, and we are again in need to raise our voices and fight for the preservation of our nationally registered historic district. It's bizarre - you would think that this is a no-brainer - but time and time again we have run into the same scenario where houses are torn down for thousands of dollars in tax payer money rather than mothballed and preserved for a fraction of the cost and less devastating to the architectural and cultural heritage of the city.
Something is foul in the State of Denmark ... would Hamlet say, and we are again in need to raise our voices and fight for the preservation of our nationally registered historic district. It's bizarre - you would think that this is a no-brainer - but time and time again we have run into the same scenario where houses are torn down for thousands of dollars in tax payer money rather than mothballed and preserved for a fraction of the cost and less devastating to the architectural and cultural heritage of the city.
This house is no longer. Just a few houses down from the last 'emergency' demolition, this former boarding house with the massive wrap-around porch was destroyed last Friday - nevermind the fact it had official NSP funding and was a restoration in progress with new trusses, studs, and duct work. The mind boggles.
You see, an emergency demolition means it poses an 'immediate threat to the physical safety of the public'. How a house can pose such a threat if it refuses to fold and collapse even after a bulldozer has been eviscerating it for four hours is beyond me.
Something is obviously foul in the State of Denmark.
We have started a petition to review and change the process of demolitions in our historic districts and requested a moratorium on all demolitions until the ordinance has been changed. If you feel strongly about preservation and our historic district, I urge you to join your voice with ours and sign this petition:
Councilman Robin Lumb has already voiced his support, standing up once again in support for our historic districts, but we need your support as well!
Friday, June 21, 2013
With A Little Bit Of Luck
(source: www.happyhens.me.uk)
Hens in Jax has been pushing and making huge strides in changing local ordinances to allow backyard hens even in our downtown neighborhood and we finally have an official proposal headed for city council:
"Amending Section 656-403, subpart B, part 4:
(g) Hens shall be permitted in conjunction with a single family dwelling. No more than 4 hens may be permitted on a lot in conjunction with a single family dwelling, unless the property is larger than one acre. Four additional hens may be permitted per each additional 21,780 square feet in size above one acre. Roosters shall only be permitted in AGR and RR-Acre districts. A shelter shall be provided for any hens. It shall be unlawful for a person to allow chickens to run at large upon streets, alleys, or other public places, or upon the property of any other person; chickens running at large within the city shall be deemed a nuisance."
Keep your fingers crossed!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Springfield Home Tour Picture Show
Did you miss it?
Did stuff come up and kept you from exploring my 'hood, aka Jacksonville's best kept secret?
Well, there are always pictures!
And of course the next Springfield Home Tour, so stay tuned!
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