Picture Day!

My life is crazy right now - busy at home, busy in the garden, busy with friends, and extra-super-busy at work. Whew! I need a vacation from my life. LOL

Anyway, because I'm so busy, today is going to be Photo Thursday (something I just made up). Hopefully, my nutty life will provide you a few minutes of entertainment today. Enjoy!

- Alex

Enjoying a gallery show in the neighborhood.

Having (many) good dinners with friends.

Trying to decide about siding and windows for my house.

Attending cool charity events with awesome people.

Going to conventions.

Dealing with my bees building crazy comb. (An experiment gone awry)

Marveling at my hive.

Meeting cool people (at conventions).

Attending graduation parties and EATING. 

And eating...

Enjoying my peonies and my bees (who are enjoying my peonies).

Visiting the company's "Corporate Art Sale". 

Having a sleepy, allergy-ridden Sunday.

Visiting the company warehouse to prep for another trip.

Wishing I had the time to just sit and knit (maybe next winter!)

It's Never the Bee's Fault

This was my face on Monday morning.

You may have figured out from the title of this post that my swollen eye is the result of a bee sting. The dear girl got me right on the eyelid, just below my brow. Now, I'm not allergic to bee venom but, when you get stung where the skin is so thin and the capillaries are so close to the surface, everything swells up BIG. It was pretty impressive.

People always ask me about bee stings and I always answer honestly, "It's never the bee's fault."

Here's the thing... honeybees have jobs to do. They're busy and they don't have time to worry about the random person walking down the street or even coming near them when they're collecting pollen. A honeybee will NEVER, EVER sting a person for no reason. However, when you have a hive with tens of thousands of bees, and some of those bees are tasked with protecting the hive, there are certain rules that you must follow in order to avoid getting stung. 

Needless to say, I managed to skip a few of those rules on Sunday.

Here are some things to know - basic rules for mitigating bee stings:

1. Don't wear dark clothes if you're going to interact with a honeybee or hive. Large black, brown, or navy blue masses approaching a bee or a hive looks like a bear or similar threat. This is why bee-keeping suits are generally white.
2. If you don't wear any other safety equipment when working with a hive, you should always wear your veil. Honeybees instinctively know that the eyes are the most vulnerable part of a mammal and they will dive bomb your head if they think they're under attack. (Can you guess what I WASN'T wearing when I got stung?)
3. Don't make sudden, fast movements around a bee. Don't swat at them or yank their hive boxes apart. Just move slowly and steadily. I've been able to successfully scoop bees up from my clothes, or a curtain, or the window and cup them in my hands to take them back outside. I almost always bring a few hitchhikers into the house with me after a hive check.
4. Listen to your hive. If the buzzing starts to ratchet up to a higher pitch, they're getting agitated and are more likely to sting you.
5. Don't walk barefoot in a heavily bee-populated area. This would seem like common sense, wouldn't it? I've stepped on more than one honey bee in my time.

Now, this last one is up for debate. Popular wisdom says not to wear sweet smelling perfumes, lotions, etc. because you could attract bees. However, actual scientific research has proven this to be untrue. Regardless of which is right, I don't risk it. I try to avoid poking around the hive if I have any artificial scent on my body or clothes. Of course, there's nothing I can do about my hair - my shampoo and conditioner have scent - so maybe that's why my bees like to sit on my head. LOL

So, when I say it's not the bee's fault, what I mean is that I haven't done my part to appropriately integrate into their world. On Sunday, the bee who stung me was a guard bee - tasked with protecting the queen. She shot out of the hive the minute I started to remove the frame that had the queen on it and she "bee-lined" straight for my face. In my hubris, I wasn't wearing my veil because the bees were so docile and sweet that morning. In other words, it wasn't the bee's fault. 

One last tip about honeybee stings. When a honeybee stings, it releases a pheromone that the other bee read as "danger" and it makes them more prone to attack. You'll hear the buzzing get more high-pitched. That's the time to walk away slowly.

Remember this, if you get stung by a honeybee, the bee that stung you dies. It's a "one and done" deal for them so please try to respect the fact that she thought she was doing her job and she sacrificed herself for the hive. :)

My eye is better and I'm none the worse for the sting but, needless to say, I'll be much more careful and remember my own rules in the future. 

- Alex

For The Love of Bees

You know it's spring if Alex is posting about bees - even though Wisconsin woke up to 1.5" of snow on the ground this morning!! WTH?

Here's what this morning looked like:

Photo credit: Muskrat John

Photo credit: Muskrat John

Seriously. It's April 15. I love Wisconsin but this must be some kind of cosmic joke.

Anyway, on to happier subjects... BEES!

As you all probably know, I started my first hive last year. If you're interested in reading (or re-reading) about my adventure, here are the posts: Home At Last (Part 1); Home At Last (Part 2). Also, this is a fun post about keeping the bees: Feeding Bees.

So, last year I didn't actually get  my bees into their hive until mid-June. This is super-late in the summer if you're a bee-keeper as it only gave them about 10 weeks to build up to a critical mass strong enough to survive a brutal Wisconsin winter. Add to that the fact that my bees "lost" their queen partway through the summer and started over with a new queen and I'll bet you can guess what happened... The hive died.

There may be nothing as sad as a hive full of dead bees. It was heartbreaking. Fortunately, I anticipated that this might happen and put in an order for a 2 lbs "package" of bees. This is, quite literally, a box of bees with the queen in a separate box. Like this:

So, I cleaned out the hive, watched a video on how to install a package, and went to pick them up.

Side story... my dogs went with me out to the farm to pick up the bees. They had a blast running around the grounds and smelling all the smells. They refused to go anywhere near the outbuilding where the packaged bees were - they know the sound of bees and they avoid them. :)  Then, I loaded the dogs in the car, brushed the bees off the outside of the box, and put the box into the way-back of my station wagon. The dogs could hear the buzzing and totally freaked out. They spent 10 minutes of the drive home in a panic, watching over their heads for flying stingers. Poor pumpkins.

My new bees are beautiful. They're golden-yellow, fat, and super-docile. They took to the hive right away - immediately cleaning, foraging, and just generally being bees. After a few days, I released the queen from her box and she disappeared into the hive. At some point in the next week or so, I'll take the boxes apart and try to find her - just to make sure she's doing her queenly duties.

I'm pretty sure that my bees are either Italian or Buckfast - two of the breed types of honey bees. These two types are yellow, like mine. The Carniolan bees are mostly black and much smaller. Here's a great article on the types of bees and their traits: Major Types of Honeybees.

Finally, here are a few pictures I took about a week after they were installed in their new home. I'll keep you all posted on how things are going this summer. I like to think that, because I got an earlier start and I'm blessed with such healthy bees, I might actually build up a hive that will survive next winter. Fingers crossed!

- Alex

Enjoying the sun

Pollen patty and sugar syrup - YUM

Enjoying a mid-day meal

Checking out the new person

I'm a Little Buzzed...

Oh lord... get your mind out of the gutter, people! I'm talking about bees again. Seriously, do I talk about much else these days?

Hard at work! (Bee trivia - all worker bees are female!)

Everybody do the bee dance! I got word last night (Sunday) that my bees are nearly ready to come home. The estimate is about nine more days - which is perfect because I'm still waiting for my equipment to show up!!

The woman supplying me my bees has offered to keep them and do some evaluation on the brood frames - these are the wooden frames that the bees build their comb on. She's also kindly said that I could come over and get a lesson on what to look for. I have to say this... as hobbies go, beekeepers are such a generous group of folks! Everyone has been super-helpful and really gone out of their way to ensure that I'm fully informed. Hmmmm... now that I think of it, maybe they're just trying to make sure I don't kill myself (or give beekeepers a bad name!) LOL

Anyway, all the basic stuff I need is ordered. I considered trying to save some money and buy stuff from Craig's List and eBay but, frankly, the convenience of being able to order everything from one place won out.

Here are some of the things I had to buy:

A hat and veil - so bees don't sting my face (this is kind of important)

I'm too sexy for my veil. Too sexy for my veil. So sexy I won't fail...

Gloves - so bees don't sting my hands while I'm poking around in their home.

I defy any bee to sting through that leather.

Tools - because... well... all beekeepers should have hobby-appropriate tools. My favorite tool, by far, is the smoker. There's something weirdly romantic about being able to calm the bees with a bit of smoke.

Just like in the movies! I'm going to smoke bees!

Yeah... it doesn't look like much but it's indispensable.

This is a thing. Not sure I really needed it but it was cheap.

Not sure I couldn't have just bought a brush at the dollar store but...

And, of course, the big-daddy of beekeeping purchases - the hive itself.

So gorgeous!

After much debate and emotional roller-coastering, I decided to go with a standard Langstroth hive. Well, not exactly standard - I'm using the smaller (less popular) model - but standard in that this is the style of hive most people use. In the end, I decided that adding a layer of complexity to my beekeeping was not how I wanted to start out my hobby. And, to be perfectly honest, I met an amazing woman who's been keeping bees for five years and she teaches beekeeping classes. She took all my concerns about Langstroth hives and all my reasons for thinking about other hive types and gave me answers and solutions to remove my worries. So, Langstroth it is. Maybe someday I'll experiment with some alternative hive options and see if I like them better. :)

I'm stoked about the hive I bought. It's made from red cedar (sustainably harvested, of course!) and looks gorgeous. The guys who run Legacy Apiaries seem like really fine people and I'm looking forward to a beautiful, long lasting hive in my yard.

So, stay tuned. I'll try to take some pics when I go meet my babies and, of course, when I bring them home and install them, I'll be sure to give you all a complete update. And, don't worry... I'll get distracted by something else again soon so it really won't be all-bees-all-the-time forever. :)

- Bzzzzzzzzzz Alex

"I'm Covered in Beeeeees!"

Here's a little something to start your week off right:



And, believe it or not, there's actually a reason for this small bit of comedy...


My first time in an official beekeeping suit!

This was me on Saturday!  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I finally donned a bee suit and took a beekeeping class. I know that I've talked about getting bees for a couple of years (post #1 and post #2) but this weekend I took the steps necessary to make it happen this year.

The class was awesome. It was taught by Nathan Clarke of Mad Urban Bees - a unique beekeeping operation in Madison, WI. Nathan has been keeping bees for seven years and moved from hobbiest to entreprenuer last year. He partners with Madisonians to house his hives in backyards around the city. He cares for the bees and harvests the honey and the host families get free honey in exchange for the use of their yards. The also get the benefit of having pollinators living with them... Any gardener knows the value of that alone.

Nathan Clarke - awesome teacher, beekeeper, and entreprenuer.

Nathan sells his honey at a few local, specialty markets as well as through a honey CSA (community supported agriculture). He teaches classes because he believes that everyone should keep bees and help rebuild the bee population. He is building a cool, unique business while being an incredible steward for the earth. I was very honored to be able to learn from him and to have him as a resource.

I learned so much in this class - and I thought I'd done all the reading I needed! As Nathan says, "Ask 10 beekeepers a question and you'll get 13 different answers". As it turns out, beekeeping is a very personal pursuit and everyone has their favorite ways of doing things. However, one of the best things I learned was about how to mitigate mites organically. I was afraid, after all my reading, that I'd end up having to use chemicals to deal with these awful, pesticide-resistent parasites that destroy entire bee colonies. But, as it turns out, there are a number of chemical-free things you can do to help keep them at bay.

The last thing I did this weekend was join the local beekeeping association. Yea! I'm on the path to being a backyard beekeeper for realz!

While it's late in the season for getting bees, I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to get my hands on some to start my hive in 2013. I need to get them established in the next four weeks so the heat is on (so to speak).

Here are some photos from my class. Enjoy!

- Alex the (soon to be) Beekeeper

How the hive is assembled

How the queen is shipped.

My class, suited up and READY!

Opening the brood box to check out the bees.



How to feed the brood.




Crafty Resolutions 2013

Another new year and another opportunity to take stock, judge our past 12 months, and resolve to create a new and better life in the coming year.

2012 brought an unexpected job change for me and, along with it, a massive distraction that has kept me from any meaningful crafting for months. My life was upended and the ship hasn't righted itself yet. Things are very out of balance.

I miss being driven to "make". My brain has been so filled with all the new stuff I have to learn (a new industry, new people, new tasks), I've had trouble lighting the creative spark. I need to find a way to bring that back to the forefront - to look forward to what's on my needles or what new craft I can learn.

A very wise friend and mentor told me once that resolutions "set us up for failure and feeling sh**ty about ourselves. The resolutions people make are usually about fixing themselves and their lives, based on “there is something wrong here” or even worse, “there is something wrong with me.”

[Editorial tangent: if you're interested in doing something more productive than just making resolutions, I invite you to visit his blog post entitled "Looking Back, Looking Forward" which is a three-part exercise developed to help you create closure for this year and plan for the next.]

So, I figured it might be a good idea to apply this thinking to my crafting. There are a lot of things I'd like to to with my knitting/sewing/upholstery/etc but I need to be realistic about what I can accomplish, especially considering my current "creative block". With this in mind, here are a few crafty goals for 2013:

There's an app for that.

1. More sewing. Cassandra far surpassed me in the sewing category - from her gorgeous Bernina machines to her amazing foray into quilting. I bought the materials to make an apron and have had my eyes on cool aprons that I've seen in stores. My resolution is to make at least one apron from an original design this year. And maybe start a quilt (although that might be stretching it a bit!)

This can't be too hard, right?

2. Knitting cables. For those of you who have read our blog for a while, you may recognize this resolution from a couple of years ago. Sadly, I STILL (two years later) have not actually knitted cables yet. *facepalm* I cannot begin to express how embarrased I am by this admisssion. So... this year for sure! Maybe something easy, like a cabled hat.

Something like this...

3. Needlepoint. Years ago, a dear friend of mine's grandmother needlepointed new seats for her dining room chairs. I was enamored of the finished product. They were sturdy and beautiful and had the advantage of being exactly what she wanted in her dining room. I'm fascinated with the designs of William Morris and want to do something in that style for my chairs. It's a huge undertaking so my resolution is not to do them all but to find some designs I like and to start one. I'll be learning a new skill so I expect my first to be a bit wonky anyway. :)




The chair that started it all.



4. Finish upholstering stuff. I originally took the upholstery class because I didn't want to pay someone to recover a particular chair. I'm now working on chair number six. Sadly, I thought I was going to have all my upholstery completed by December 2011. Ha!! I took one semester off and I had one project that was a total bear and took an entire semester to finish. However, I have no space for new furniture so my goal is to finish what I've got left by the end of fall semester 2013.



I want a Kenyan Top Bar hive.



5. BEES! I've talked about getting bees for the last three years. I came close last year but waited to long and then it was too late to order the actual insects. I've decided on the type of hive I want so I just need to buy one and get the bees at the right time this spring. Fingers crossed that it actually happens in 2013.

I hope that 2013 brings all of you health, happiness, and success in whatever goal(s) you set for yourself. Just remember, don't make resolutions that make you feel sh**ty about yourself. Set goals that, when you reach them, allow you to celebrate how awesome you are.



Happy New Year, friends.

- Alex

Drumroll, please....

And we have a winner!

Congratulations to pinkundine - the winner of Mighty Distractible's very first give-away. She will be receiving a lovely skein of Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter yarn in the colorway Woodsmoke.

Thank you to everyone who participated. We really enjoy trying out new products and hope to do more reviews and giveaways in the very near future. As a matter of fact, if you have anything in particular you'd like us to try out - a book, a fabric, a yarn, a notion of some sort, etc - please let us know!  Just email us or leave a comment in our comment section.

=========================== Today's post:

In keeping with the review theme, I'd like to tell you all about a movie I saw yesterday. Queen of the Sun is a documentary about bees - specifically, about the bee crises that we're facing in the US and Europe. It was fascinating and I'd really like to encourage everyone to see it.

Bees are suffering from something called "colony collapse disorder." This is a phenomena where an entire colony of bees will abruptly disappear for no apparent reason. In the US alone, we've lost over 5 million colonies in recent years which accounts for nearly half of the country's the bee population. Interestingly, Australia and New Zealand have not experienced colony collapse, as yet.

Scientists are scrambling to discover why this is happening - and for good reason. Bees are critical to our ecosystem and, if we don't have them to pollinate our fields, we will, quite literally, have no crops. Imagine if your only food was oats and potatoes... no fruit, no vegetables, no tree nuts, etc. And, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The domino effect that would happen if the bees died out is really complex and frightening.

For years people have speculated that colony collapse is a result of pesticides, genetic engineering of crops, the widespread use of hormones and antibiotics in farming, and various other reasons. This movie posits that the real culprit is mono-culture farming - ie: 600 acres of nothing but soy. Or corn. Or almonds. Or whatever. When you farm a single crop over such a huge expanse, the bees can't live on that land year-round. They need things that bloom throughout a long season so they can build up their stores for winter hibernation. If they can only pollinate for one month (or less) they die out, or move somewhere else.

Perhaps the most disturbing image in the movie was the scene of tractor-trailers trucking thousands of hives across country in order to pollinate the almond crop in California. It was the most unnatural thing you could imagine - they feed the bees corn syrup laced with antibiotics in order to "wake them up" so they can pollinate 600 acres of trees and then get shipped back to their home state - sometimes as far away as New England. Many bees die along the way and the mix of bees from different regions of the country means that they're passing mites and diseases back and forth and then trucking those illnesses back to their home states. It's just wrong on a lot of levels.

He brushes his bees with his mustache

Now that I've totally bummed you out, I promise that the movie is hopeful and lovely and sweet. Biodynamic and organic beekeepers from all over the world are interviewed for this film and they are a amazingly dedicated and quirky bunch of folks. The gorgeous shots of bees and flowers are interspersed with fun, animated sections used to illustrate some of the stories.

Those who know me know that I've been talking about having a backyard hive for a couple of years. Last fall, I cleared it with my next-door neighbor (just to be sure no one was going to totally freak out) and I picked out the hive I want to buy (a very small, low-honey-producing one.) So, now I just need to get everything ordered and join the local bee-keeping society because I'm pretty sure I'm going to need some help with this new hobby.

Please read about hive collapse or see the movie. There are a lot of threats to our ecology today but this one is fixable if we act now.

- Alex