Trying to take care of my little piece of the planet
First, a photo from our recent trip to Asheville. Fortunately, other than one brief stranding of our van in an icy parking place, it really didn’t affect us too much. And yes, we had a great time. Perhaps I’ll manage a Biltmore House post later.
As for the title of this post; well, I’ve always been [...]
Posted on December 28th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Meat, Eggs, etc., Nature Diary | 1 Comment »
In this blog, I’ve been pretty consistent in keeping our private life separate from the blogosphere. Not for any deep and dark reason, and with the firm belief that if anyone wanted to spend a nickel and ten minutes they could correctly name and locate me and all that I hold dear. But humor me [...]
Posted on July 19th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Nature Diary | 2 Comments »
Last Thursday I bought a new three pound package of Italian bees from a local apiary. Along with a neighbor couple who are just venturing into beekeeping, we installed my package and two more at their house. It went smoothly, and despite grumpy weather on Friday, my roughly 10,000 new girls gradually settled in, with [...]
Posted on April 12th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Food Production, Nature Diary | 3 Comments »
We capped off a marvelous week with a trip to the coast, staying in a relative’s beach house for the weekend. It was forty-eight hours of R and R, returning home to our little place in the country a few minutes ago. Now, I’ve unpacked the van, built a fire in the woodstove and successfully [...]
Posted on November 9th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Family Life, Meat, Eggs, etc., Nature Diary | 2 Comments »
I know. The title of this post is so over the top. But the reality for me, silly or not, is that after the last eight years, I have been pathologically focused on tomorrow’s election. I spend far too much time at my desk checking and re-checking the news. I haven’t had any exercise other [...]
Posted on November 3rd, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Gardening, Nature Diary, Rainwater Collection, Rants and Musings | 5 Comments »
Last night after a quick run through the fall garden picking a handful of cabbage worms and webworms off the broccoli and collards, I settled on the porch to watch a beautiful sunset. Since my wife was watching a television program on the other side of the wall while making us another fabulous dinner, I [...]
Posted on October 14th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Books/Movies/Podcasts, etc., Gardening, Nature Diary | 2 Comments »
A quiet few days here, some work on various projects and some masterful goofing off.
One major item in each category. I finally got back into the beehive on Saturday with a couple of goals in mind. First, collect some honey by removing the shallow super that had been on all spring and summer. Second, check [...]
Posted on September 1st, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Meat, Eggs, etc., Nature Diary | No Comments »
A busy weekend, still catching up after being away the week before last. Yesterday was twelve hours of weeding, mowing and watering. And today included more watering, getting ready for some much needed rain (hopefully next week) and hauling a monster-sized truckload to the trash/recycling center. Part of my rush centered on the fact that [...]
Posted on August 24th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Family Life, Nature Diary | 1 Comment »
Not sure what the flowers are (other than they’re not roses), but the little guy is Hemaris thysbe, the hummingbird moth. We have black and yellow ones in our flowerbeds, but this gorgeous photo was taken in Pennsylvania by my brother.
Here are more images and info.
Enjoy!
Posted on August 19th, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Nature Diary | No Comments »
As I said earlier, this weekend was supposed to include mowing our fields, that mostly specialize in growing sweet gums (if left unmowed). So I was on my little tractor on Saturday and Sunday, four or five hours each day, with other chores thrown in to fill the days. Today I was mowing when I [...]
Posted on August 3rd, 2008 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Nature Diary | 1 Comment »