Feeding the Bees

Who would have thunk it? Sometimes bees need to be fed. 

Last week a very helpful fellow beekeeper came over to give me a hand with my weekly hive check. I had one, main concern and that was finding a queen - either the one I'd started with (whom I hadn't seen in three weeks) or a new one (which my bees were hell-bent on making).

This is a "queen cell" where a new queen grows. My bees made about 10 of these...

After digging around in the hive for about 30 minutes, we found her. A brand, new queen - already laying eggs. Whew!! I was relieved. Then my new friend said something that concerned me. It turns out that my bees had spent so much time making new bees to fill out the colony and worked so hard at making a new queen, they really hadn't spent enough time making honey. This is bad because they could, potentially, not have enough stores to get them through the winter.

So, what does one do? Well, it turns out that you feed them sugar syrup that they make "honey" out of. It's honey that's good enough for them to live off of for the winter but it's not really "proper" honey because it's not made from nectar. At this point, I just want to make sure I still have bees come spring time so it was off to the market to buy a bunch of plain, white, granulated sugar for me.

When you feed a bee sugar syrup in the autumn, you feed a thicker 2:1 (sugar to water) by weight concoction. I did the math and I needed 2.25 cups of sugar to 2 cups of water. Then I checked out the various methods of delivering the syrup. Most people just punch a few small holes in the top of a mason jar and place that over the frames in the hive. The syrup drips, the bees eat, and there you go. Then there's the Ziplock bag method (I love this one) where you fill a gallon Ziplock back 3/4 full with sugar syrup, lay it on the top of the frames, and then cut a 1" slit into the top of the bag with a razor blade. The bees eat from the slit in the bag. Pretty efficient and not as drippy as the mason jar version. Then I stumble on the delivery system I decided I liked best - the chicken waterer.

Basically, you can buy these things for about $4 that fit on a mason jar. For chickens, you fill the mason jar with water, screw on the contraption, flip the whole thing over and the chicken drink from the little bowl. I like it because it means less syrup "drip" in my hive. The one thing most folks don't know is that bees are prone to drowning. They need something to sit on in order to drink from a pool of anything (including water) or they will, in fact, just drown. So I had to "fix" the waterer so the bees could use it. My beekeeper friends suggested using wire - so, this is how it happened:

Mark the wire mesh where you want to cut it.

Snip with tin-snips.

Ta-da!

Push the wire mesh into place.

Fill the mason jar with sugar syrup.

 Screw on the waterer and you're off!

The waterer gets placed on the top cover, like so.

You place an empty hive box around the food supply and then put the lid on the whole thing.

My bees ate two quarts of sugar syrup in less than 24 hours.

So, I was kind of freaked out by how fast they ate what I put out for them. One of my fellow beekeepers said that I needed to think in terms of GALLONS of syrup, not quarts. LOL  Turns out bees are sort of piggy.

Here's the new batch I made last night. Just shy of 10 lbs of sugar made a gallon and a quarter of syrup. I get the feeling I'll be doing this a lot for the next couple of months. 

- Alex the sticky beekeeper

Friday Finds: Don't Judge Me...

When you spend a lot of time in doctors' offices, you read a lot of really crappy magazines - most of which are seriously out of date as well.

As we mentioned in recent posts, I've been spending a lot of time in doctors' offices lately. A few weeks ago, I had a series of appointments in an office that, for some reason, had an abundance of copies of Every Day with Rachel Ray. Now, I won't bore you with my tirade about why I don't care for Ms Ray but, I will say this... I've had to amend my tirade to include, "But her magazine is really good."

Occasionally the magazine is dumbed down to the point of being sort of offensive but, overall, it's accessible, nicely laid out, and chock full of usable content. 

Here are just a few of the recipes I captured while sitting...waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

So, don't judge me (I can do that on my own, thanks) and definitely check out a copy or two of Every Day with Rachel Ray. 

- Alex the Convert

Map of the World Quilt

The Wisconsin Quilt Expo is this coming weekend. Last year Alex and I had a blast meandering the vendor isles, admiring prize-winning quilts, and chatting with other crafty folk.

One of the things that really caught my eye was a colorful map of the world, baby-sized quilt on display by one of my favorite local quilt shops, Stitcher's Crossing. It was adorable but I couldn't justify another small blanket at my house. About a month later I realized we could use some car lap blankets for the kiddos so I ran over to Stitcher's and bought a couple of their last "Map of the World" kits.

Cuteness overload I tell ya.

The fabric is "What A World" by Jill McDonald for P&B Textiles. I can't seem to find the entire line available anywhere (must be the end of the run for this design) but you can find bits here and there.

I'm not one to usually buy a quilt kit (I fancy myself some kind of designer dontchaknow), but I didn't hesitate with this one. It was perfect because of it's simplicity. The fabric really needed to be the star anyway.

I did make some of my own modifications to the pattern. I added some ties so this quilt could easily roll up for storage in the car. I also complicated the quilt back by adding another fun panel from this line with a border instead of the all-over print included. It was REALLY frustrating once I went to quilt these suckers...but in the end, they turned out great.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to share these finished little cuties with you!

–Cassandra

Earl Grey Cupcakes

Man-o-man I love earl grey tea. I drink two huge mugs in the afternoon at work and at least one regular sized one in the evening. I'm pretty sure I'm an addict.

So it was no wonder that I got excited when I stumbled upon an Earl Grey Cake on Pinterest. The recipe is from the adorable Hummingbird High blog.

It made the most gorgeous cupcakes.

Now, technically, it is a lemon cake with meringue earl grey frosting. Yes, I said meringue, and no, it wasn't hard.

Part of making the meringue is to pour hot tea into the whipped egg whites. Like magic it transformed into easily the prettiest frosting I have ever seen in my life. So shiny with a tinge of grey. The next time I would have probably steep the tea even stronger, maybe even overnight. It had a hint of earl grey, but my addiction requires a punch.

The lemon cake was fine.

I'm sure my blasé attitude about that part was just me. I have a problem loving lemon cake. I love lemon flavor in almost anything, but in cake it can be kind of weird. It punches up the taste of the eggs and then all I can taste is eggs. I know, I'm an oddball. Everyone else in my house thought it was just fine.

There is something about these dainty cupcakes that make me feel super ladylike. Like I could slap on a string of pearls and have you over for a cup (not a mug) of tea.

–Cassandra

Jewels of Denial

Today Alex is a bit under the weather. But lucky you...I found this great post of hers from a couple years ago that deserved another look. Enjoy!

I was an artistic kid. Right on through college, my focus was on art, in some form. Sometimes it was drawing (I'm pretty mediocre), sometimes pottery (also mediocre), some art history, and eventually interior design.

Then I got married, had a baby and, suddenly, didn't have time to sit around a contemplate the mysteries of  cerulean blue or Basquiat. In 18 months, all my dreams of being a boho artist in NYC were dashed.

Interestingly though, creativity can't be killed. It will bubble to the surface somehow, someway. For me, it came out in cooking. I had to cook every day and I discovered that I could get pretty creative with recipes. As a result of years of playing around in the kitchen, I'm a confident and decent cook who will, often, take risks with good results.

Once my son was in high school and fed himself most of the time (Easy Mac and potato chips, mostly), I found myself in need of a new creative outlet. In my neighborhood, there was a bead shop that had the most enticing front window filled with a gorgeous array of semi-precious stones and stunning finished jewelry. After a number of weeks of window gazing, I finally screwed up the courage to go inside. I wandered around, entranced by the colors and shapes, and was pleased to find that a strand of semi-precious stones isn't all that expensive. I also discovered that (like most craft shops) the staff was completely willing to help me learn whatever I wanted to learn. I had found my new muse.

Cassandra and I have spoken before about the siren song of craft supplies. When one starts a new craft, it's very easy to become enthralled by it and want to buy all the gorgeous bits that go with the new hobby. With beaded jewelry-making, very few tools are actually needed but it's not unusual to fall into the abyss of beads. As I mentioned, even semi-precious stones (including pearls) are pretty inexpensive when viewed individually. It isn't until you have a rubbermaid container full of them and realize that it's a few hundred dollars worth that the depth of the obsession comes to light. Like with yarn, there comes a point where I had to put a moratorium on bead buying. The rule (for all my crafts) is, "Supplies can only be bought with a specific project planned."

Another issue was that, while I enjoyed the action of making jewelry, I'm not an active wear-er of jewelry. I created hundreds of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and more - sometimes even specifically FOR myself - but rarely, if ever, wore them. I'm not a big jewelry fan. I like it on other people and I like to wear things that belonged to my grandmother or mother but, in general, I wear the same silver hoop earrings and single silver ring every day. So, for the most part, I just gave it all away as gifts. Eventually, I stopped doing this craft because I figured people were sick of getting my jewelry for every gift-giving opportunity.

A rosary made by me

So, I'm left with a big box of beads, good tools, and an occasional desire to break it all out and start again. I won't get rid of my supplies because the day will come when someone wants a necklace for a wedding or a specific pair of earrings and I'll be able to make these items without having to re-invest in the hobby. Plus, every once in a while, I love just looking at the beautiful beads and imagining what they could become.

- Alex

Feather Quilt Block

I am a super-fan of Anna Maria Horner. I love her fabrics, patterns, and books soooo much. So, needless to say, I let out a little bit of a squeal when I saw her Feather Bed Quilt pattern for the first time. So clever, so colorful, sigh.

If you follow us here at Mighty Distractible at all, you will know that I like designing my own quilts very much. So, sadly, I couldn't see myself following her beautiful quilt pattern anytime soon - until I started design on Little Bear's big-boy-bed quilt. His room is nature-themed, so a few feather blocks were right at home in the design. Four to be exact.

The feather blocks measure out to 9x18, so I used them as big, bold accents. Below you can see my design in-progress:

I was so excited to piece these blocks that they were literally the first thing I tackled on this quilt. They are done and laying on a table all pressed, just waiting to take their place in the big design. As I work on the other blocks for this quilt, I will admit to stopping to admire my feathers about every hour or so. Crazy, huh? But I just love them.

wait for it....wait for it...

yay! a feather!

The pattern was very clear, easy to follow, and the templates provided pieced together perfectly. This was the first time I ever actually sewed a block that was cut from printed out pattern pieces (as opposed to blocks like a log cabin or propeller). It has sort of opened up a whole new design thing for me. I would love to try my hand at designing a quilt block of this sort. Curiously, the whole process kind of reminded me of garment sewing.

I'm sure there is more to come on my quilt as it comes to life. Stay tuned....

–Cassandra

PS - Did I mention that Anna (I like to think we are on a first-name basis now) is giving her Feather Bed Quilt pattern (and tons of others) away for FREE?

Vintage MD: Bonafide

We continue this week with another vintage post. Let your craft flag fly, high and proud!

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Monday, September 20, 2010

Bonafide

“Craft is the word of the decade,” says Murray Moss, founder of the design gallery Moss in New York. “It went from having the most pejorative meaning to being embraced.”

photo courtesy of Die Hipster Die!

Crafting has been enjoying a resurgence in recent years. Some view it as a desire to connect with our past, or a movement to a 'softer' aesthetic, or, simply, an extension of the hipster milieu - like ironic facial hair on men. There are, as with all things that reach a tipping point, myriad theories for "why."

Perhaps it's our attempt to hold on to something "real" as our society moves farther and farther into the world of information and technology. Crafting recalls our history. Crafting results in a single, finished, imperfect product and adds a bit of beauty to the world. Crafting creates something that can't be digitized or duplicated.


Our great-grandmothers did these activities out of necessity. Frugality was the primary reason to learn to cook, bake, sew, knit, etc. But there was also a cultural need. Cooking and baking were part of the woman's "job" and women used crafting as a way to stay busy and to socialize. Sewing, knitting, or quilting in a group was a great way to spend an afternoon gossiping with the girls.

Today, frugality doesn't even come into the equation. It's rarely, if ever, cheaper to make something by hand - including a meal. Cheap knit goods from China, fast food restaurants on every corner, and mass production, means that crafting today is exclusively about aesthetics and the pleasure of creating. Interestingly, this dynamic has also created a  big gap in the perceived value of  hand-created items. A "non-crafter" has no real sense of the time, effort, and cost associated with that gift they just got or that cool piece they just saw at the shop. For the crafter, that misunderstanding of the "value" of the finished item can represent a huge blow to the ego. When you spend three months knitting a baby blanket for someone ("every stitch is knit with love!") it's tough to see it given the same reaction as the one purchased from a big-box store.

I'd like to think that, as crafting becomes more widespread and legitimized, more people will recognize the beauty and value in hand-crafted items. I got my first taste of legitimacy when I saw the movie Handmade Nation at our local film festival. But, it was an indie film with a narrow release so it really wasn't changing too many perceptions. Today, however, the Wall Street Journal Magazine helped us take a great leap forward. In the story titled "A Gripping Yarn," the WSJ editors explore the phenomenon of neo-crafting in regard to home furnishing and interior decoration. It's an intriguing article in both the subject matter (knitted chairs??) and the validity it gives to the crafting movement.

For me, personally, this article represents the moment that my hobby became bonafide - legitimate and beyond scorn from those who give me "the look" when I knit in public. Now, if the NY Times will just do an in-depth article on the cost and effort to create something from scratch, maybe my sister will stop looking at my "homemade" gifts as though they're dead rats.

– Alex