-
A perfect Maywood day
On a clear crisp October day, where better to be than at Maywood, with a kaleidoscope of leaves floating earthward? And what better things to do than sawmill and introduce a new family to the wonders of beekeeping? Top it off with a dinner of grilled bluefish caught last weekend in Cape May, N.J. and… Continue reading
-
Things that go “thump” in the night
Technically, 5:20 a.m. isn’t night. But it’s dark enough for a six year old to ask his mom, “When is the sun going to let us know it’s morning?” And it’s morning enough for John to be getting out of the shower. But it’s dark enough for me to still be completely comatose. “Craaaaaack! Whump!” That… Continue reading
-
Making room for a new season of venison… and football
We know it’s hunting season when friends show up with gifts–a heart and a liver that they just harvested from a doe in our woods. While they might normally toss them, they know that John will use them to make an amazing venison liverwurst. The new heart and liver will join what John has in the freezer and will soon appear as John’s redneck… Continue reading
-
Not a bee, not a yellow jacket, and why is it out at night?
Enormous “bees” bounce off the glass of our front door. Dozens of them. Unlike moths, which flit annoying around light, or June bugs, which bump clumsily against the glass, these look threatening, like mutant yellow-jackets. They are so big they make a wasp look like a mosquito. They scare me. Yes. They scare me. Me, beekeeper wife, who takes a cocktail down to the bee-yard… Continue reading
-
On Labor Day and Hobbies
Work should not rule one’s life. I say that one week into the school year with a three day weekend to run errands, take a nap, exercise, and play around with beeswax. But I mean it. And I’ll mean it in October when my body is screaming at me and I’m stressed for time–although I… Continue reading
-
Geezer’s World
Saturday morning my husband and I got an early start to do errands, one of which was to hit a big sale on compression socks at the new Austin Pharmacy in Cockeysville. This is how you know we are turning into old people: I–that’s right, me, myself–got up early on a Saturday to go buy John compression… Continue reading
-
Not ready to call it a summer
This is it. Back-to-school week for teachers. And I’m not ready. Oh, I’m “ready.” I’ve gone to Office Depot for a boatload of supplies. I’ve paid Toyota a significant amount of money for scheduled maintenance on my car. I have the weeksheets typed up for my first week of lessons. I even practiced using my alarm clock on… Continue reading
-
Tending the herb garden, with thoughts toward school
One advantage to ignoring the garden for awhile (like the entire ridiculously hot month of July) is that when you finally attack the chaos, the results are dramatic. Getting started, though is a daunting task. Where to begin? My philosophy on tackling overwhelming tasks is to start with one big thing that is really bugging me… Continue reading
-
Honey Harvest 2012
If there’s anything more satisfying to a beekeeper than seeing buckets of harvested honey, it is seeing that golden sweetness in jars. It’s a little bit arrogant on our part to take pride in a good harvest since the bees make the honey, but there’s enough work on the part of the beekeeper to justify it. … Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 