Happy Birthday, Gorgeous! (New Photo's added)

It occurred to me the other day that, although I couldn't remember the exact date, I knew that I'd missed Pan's 13th Bday! :( So I rummaged through the filing cabinet and found the records from when she came to live with us. Turns out she was born on June 15th, 1996.

Following are some random pics from over the years that you might enjoy seeing of our Dear Queen, Pandora Carroll. (remember to click the pic to see the details)


In the bag, yet again... one of the easiest ways to amuse Pan is to give her something to crawl in to.

As she has been for so many years, now, in her basket in my office. When she's in the office, she's either in the basket, on "her" chair or chillin' on the rug behind my chair. Never knew a cat could be such company.


Last year, I believe: All ready for Thanksgiving, eh?


Playing a vicious game of Can You See Me Now? in the sleeper sofa.


Probably ~2004, hanging out under the apple tree in her chair. When we're in the back yard working, gardening, etc, in a perfect world (her's and ours), this is where you'll find Pandora.


This was taken when she was working with weights and before Pilates :)


Ah, Christmas... probably about 2000... waiting for room service, I suppose.


Looks like we're going snowboarding, doesn't it?


This is a great picture of Pan and her dad, Scott, back in '99ish. Note their shared sleeping style :)


Tough cat - gonna be heck to pay and this basket's doing the paying!


I have many "favorite" photos of Pandora... and this may be at the very top of the list. I remember that day very well. It was Fall and Pan was under the apple tree, teasing Penny (Dee was in her chair, watching the whole thing.) and we were all having a great time just hanging out.

And here are the TwoBigCats in the House on Walnut Drive, "back in the day".


Here are a couple of pics of me and Pan when she was a kitten... likely in late '96. Notice she had no gray hair back then ;)
Notice how she is sitting in / with my arms circled around her? When physically next to me, that's often she is - her tucked in my arms... and it's her default, "GrandpaCat's protecting me" position when we visit Dr. Ueno. She's quite a luv, Pan....

Over time I'm sure I'll post more Pan photos, but in the meantime, enjoy these.

Fly Swatter

First you have to pick up the fly swatter.

Then you kill flies.

Then you have to hang up the swatter to receive your score.

Have a nice day ;)

InternetFlySwatter

From the Department of Obvious: Cats Do Control Humans, Study Finds

Not much more to say here, is there?

Story on Yahoo.com

Well that's just dovely...

Remember back a month or so ago when the doves outside our bedroom fledged? Not long after, the parents returned, laid a few more eggs and have been posted to the nest non-stop for the past couple of weeks.

Today during a changing of the guard I was able to see the tiniest little dove head / beak reaching up to the parent's to be fed.

If all goes well, we'll have flight school again in a few weeks.

(We'll never compete with Al's boomer nest of 4 set of young this year, but we're doing A-OK :)

Bee doody...

Well, it's been an interesting time around the ranch the past few weeks.

The pole beans, various yellow squashes, leafy green lettuce and tomatoes have gone crazy. (All the plums from 1 tree are now gone, the other's about to start dropping so if you're in the hood, stop by for plums. Please.) Turns out these things are so simple to grow that even I can do it (of course, I'm constantly supervised by the Missus, but that's another thread.).

Here's an update on the bees:

Last week I removed the top brood super from Ray and moved the bees to the bottom brood super, keeping the honey frames for harvesting. Today I went in and inspected the lower brood for a Queen and brood of any type - sadly, none to be found at all (though I did witness a baby bee emerging from her cell.) Since I did not locate a Queen or brood of any types and because I'd harvested and jarred the honey (a couple of gallons, it appears) from the top super, I exchanged the lower brood / honey frames and replaced them with the upper super / harvested honey frames... don't worry, there is still a lot of honey and nectar for the remaining bees). I would like to install the remaining colony members of this hive on top of Freddie (the very strong hive), but because the honey super on Freddie is doing so well (read about it in the next paragraph), I'll keep them in their current brood super / hive for another week.

About 10 days ago I corrected my improperly installed (don't ask!) honey super on Freddie and let the girls have some time to settle in. Yesterday I checked in on them and they're going great guns (!) with 9 of the frames in the honey super completely built out in fresh comb (which is very, very pretty)... and the comb is filled to ~2/3 capacity with uncapped nectar (remember: nectar is >21% moisture content and shouldn't be combined with honey for storage because the moisture will cause it to ferment). So, I'll give them another week or so to fill and cap that super (at which time it will be between 21-17% moisture, and therefore, honey) and based on what's going on in Ray's hive, I'll either steal, er, harvest Freddie's honey super or just place Ray's remaining super on top of Freddie's honey super and let nature take it's course. During this wait time, the bees in Ray will eat and clean up the frames / cells and, I suppose, continue bringing in pollen for stores. (They're worker bees, it's what they do.)

Tomorrow I'll harvest the remaining honey from Ray's lower brood supes, filter and jar that, too. Then I'll take those cleaned frames and install them in a "bait hive" that I'll also dab a bit of lemongrass oil on (the inside) to attract any swarming bees looking for new digs. To sweeten the pot a bit, the cleaned frames will also include brood cells so the bees will have a nice & comfy, proven home to hang their tiny little hats.

If you ever hear anyone say that beekeeping's easy, ask them to define "easy" for you... It's not like digging ditches, but there are times when a long-handled shovel or the 9:21 train looks like a pretty good option.

As always, thanks for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.

hal
btw, from the initial harvest I also recovered a 9" x 1/2" round chunk of beeswax that I'll break up, melt down and form in to a more usable block of wax (via quart milk carton).

Dave Newhouse: An Oakland teacher starts a new life

Do us both a favor and take a few minutes to read Dave's story. In a couple of days, I'll tell the story from my point of view.

It's a really, really good story - one that I hope I can find just the right words to share with you what this teacher has meant to me and our family.

Til then, thx for stopping by, etc.

Photographer Janie: What a great pic!

I received this pic from our friend, Janie, up in Oregon. She and hubby Kevin had been out kayaking on a local lake, noodling around and taking some pics. Lots of the typical "here we are paddling from our left side, here on our right. Oh, and this one is the back of Kevin's head" kinda stuff - you know, record keeping (the kind of shooting I do :(

And then she took this one:


Although it reminds me a bit too much of my drinking days, it's actually weeds in shallow water.

Very nice, Janie - keep up the very cool work! (And, of course, taking pictures of the back of Kevin's head ;)

We are sad...

Last night I received an email from my decades-long friend, Suzanne (and Ben), that their dog of 13+ years, Mack, had passed away. I know from our conversations over the years that Mack was a special part of their family and he will be greatly missed.

Ben and Suz, we are very sorry to hear of Mack's passing and your loss.

So your kid / grandkid / niece / nephew / dog / cat / fish is smart, huh?

Beat this:

Hello / Goodbye

In the (nearly) 11 years we've lived in our home, the neighborhood's seen a lot of changes. From where I sit, the changes have been mostly for the better.

Homes have been refreshed pretty much within the character of our historical background, although there have been a few McMansions that might fit better in another area. Neighborhood children have grown and moved off on their own, visiting during school breaks and holidays. Folks have moved out and on to new lives, while others have moved in and to begin new phases of life. (We've got some of those within arms reach :) All pretty much normal stuff that, if you're not careful, might be missed in the daily rush of life.

In this post, I'm writing to acknowledge the return of some former neighbors whom we're glad to see again and are looking forward to visiting with in the coming months. I'm also writing, though, to say "see ya" to another family that is moving so their child can be in (what they feel is) a more appropriate, nearby, high school district.

We're glad to see the old timers return and sad to see the older timers go.

I hear there's a neighborhood gathering in the works to let everyone say (as did the Beatles), Hello / Goodbye :)

He drives just like you or me or...?

Just saw this video posted @ a forum I frequent and thought you might enjoy it - even if you're not a hot-footed, hair-on-fire wannabe driver. This driver is uh-mazing and the video presentation is wonderful... it's 7 minutes long but (I think) it may be the most interesting 7 minutes of anything I've watched in years:



WOOF!

Happy Independence Day to America

A quick note to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July... we hope yours is safe and healthy.

I also wanted to suggest to those who display the American Flag to consider these basic guidelines for properly displaying the flag. In particular, please note the very first line item: it's customary to display from sunrise to sunset.

http://www.afa.org/members/uscode.asp

Sunrise to sunset.

If it's dark outside, take the flag down or keep a light shining on it. Not a hard rule to remember, but a key tenet in displaying our flag.

We now return you to our regular broadcast - have a great night!

Welcome back, Steve Jobs

Seriously.

I thought it was as great day when he returned to Apple years ago and am very pleased that he's recovered from his health issues enough to return to work on a limited basis. I'm sure his family and friends are very relieved, but still concerned for his long term health.

With Steve Jobs back on the job today, the world seems a better place.

And in case you're wondering, no, we don't own aapl stock, but Joanne was part of the Mac launch activities in '84 and we've been Apple - and Steve Jobs - fans since then.

As always, thx for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Hold your honey...

Yep, it seems in all my excitement of seeing jam-packed honey frames in the 2nd brood supe of Freddie (hive #1, ~75,000 bees in residence) and putting on the 1st honey supe, I may have over anticipated how much honey would be coming our way. I'll explain.

Yesterday when I went out to check on Freddie's honey super, it was like a GM factory with a night watchman walking around with a flashlight in there... maybe 3 bees, tops... and not a lick of fresh comb. (Remember that I'd put on a queen excluder - kind of ironic to be using that on a hive named Freddie (Mercury, of Queen), isn't it? Anyway, I wasn't feeling the love so I put the cover back on and let them be. (Hive #2 - Ray (Davies) of The Kinks - is filling up nicely with honey and larvae so maybe another week before putting on Ray's honey super.)

Anyway, I came back in, called Mr. C and explained the "no bee left behind" situation. He ever-so-gently explained to me that the honey flow (nectar collection from flowers used as basis for honey) was just about over and I may have missed it this year.

Fine, I'll just throw myself in front of the local train.

"Well, how about if I harvest a few frames of honey for our use and let nature take its course?" Well, you could do that but you need to leave enough for them to winter. Ah. The bees have to "winter" and I have to use brown sugar in my coffee instead of TBC Honey. (Man, what'saguygottadotogetabreakaroundhere, anyway?) We hang up and I head to Mr. C's to rent an electric capping knife (don't ask.)

This morning Joanne and I headed to Santa Cruz to see the Woodies on the Wharf (no, it's not an all-nude Chippendale show!) and were back home by 11. We swung by Fuzzies (local beek I mentioned last week) and told him of my situation.

Fuzzy: Are you using an excluder? Yup.
Pull the excluder and they'll work up, no problem.

Me: What about the honey flow being over?
Locally, we're running a few weeks behind so it'll be good for 3+ weeks - the sprites are just now blossoming and they're a great source... be patient and by the end of August you'll have two full honey supers on each hive.

So I returned the knife to Mr C, told him of my plans and returned home to an air conditioned house (it was ~100F here today). Ahhhh.

Until about an hour ago when I went out back to remove the excluder. No smoke, just suit / gloves, etc. Popped open Ray to see how they were doing and, boy howdy, they sure move fast when they think they're being invaded, don't they? (Note to self: Always use smoke) Popped open Freddie (with Ray's bees crawling allllllllll around my suit / net, trying to get in my ears, nose, eyes - you name it, they were out for revenge!) and found another roiling mass of 50,000+ bees coming up from inside the hive.

Removed the honey super, queen extractor, put the lid back on, then the cover and I was outtathere... my suit and netting crawling with verrrry angry bees. Eventually I walked over to the sprinkler that was running to water the lawn and stood in the spray until the bees left me alone.

All except the one that stung me in the neck... well, more appropriately, in one of my chins ;) I seemed to have scraped the stinger out before I got out of my suit but went over it again with a knife and have had ice on it for the last 40 minutes or so.

So far so good but the hive is down at least 1 bee as a result of tonight's work :( Hate to lose a good worker.

Back to the honey: we'll see how things progress over the next week or two and if it looks like things "ain't happenin'" in the honey supe, cover me, I'm going in!

As always, thanks for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Plums. Man, have we got plums...

It's that time of year again. Our two plum trees are ripening and fruit is beginning to drop (in addition to the walnuts the squirrels throw at us... but that's another thread.)

Anyway, Steve and I had guitar practice yesterday and between songs you could hear, "thump", "thump", "thump" coming from the back fence / corner area. Yep, it was the plums dropping to the ground... kinda like a towel-covered base drum being hit (almost) in perfect time. After practice I headed out and picked them up... probably about 5 lbs in the bag (with another 5 lbs on the ground that we won't keep).

If you're a local, in the neighborhood and want some fresh plums, shoot me a note / gimmeacall and you're welcome to have some. (This big bag is going to my barber and her shop but there will be another bag that will hit the ground today, so no worries.)

And squash... well, the squash have exploded, too, so if you like squash (we have 4 types), stay tuned.

As always, thanks for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

TwoBigCats Campbell Honey available

Greetings,

Having put on my first honey super the other day (as opposed to Super Honey, which happened years ago. ahem.), it appears our girls are in full production mode and making tons of TwoBigCats Campbell Honey (a product of Bright Orange Software, Inc. - hey, honey's soft and some people wear it from time to time. OverSharing, are we? ;)

Anyway...

I need to review / understand / follow Fed / State / Local / Natural laws on making honey available to "the public", but since I've started getting inquiries about getting some TBC Campbell Honey, I thought I would outline the basics as I see 'em:

I don't really want to be in the honey-selling business but I DO want to get rid of the honey our gals produce, so I've decided to make it available via two methods:

Pre-harvest
Allow people to "sponsor" 1/2 frame of a hive and when harvest time rolls around, they receive 1/2 of the honey from that frame. What's a frame you ask? Read on and find out...

• Each "hive" consists of boxes called "supers". Each hive has two large "brood" supers .

• Each "super" has 10 wooden frames with a piece of "foundation" in them. The bees use each side of the foundation to build comb for eggs / larvae / pollen / honey storage.

• Our honey supers are "medium" supers, as opposed to "standard" or large. (the reason for using medium vs large is ease of handling... a full, large supe weighs 90 lbs :(

Our "reserve program" consists of:

• A donation of $10 to reserve one side of a frame's honey production. My sense (Because I don't have great experience with it just yet) is this should produce slightly > than 1qt / lb of campbell honey, though there are no guarantees. (As I understand it, honey is sold by the pound). By comparison, a qt / lb of our honey sold post-harvest will likely be $15+.
  
  
• Participation in harvest day... much like when everyone got together to make Pomegranate Jelly over the years, but stickier and Pooh-Bear delicious.
  

Post-harvest

You're gonna pay out the kazoo for it - at least $15.99 a qt / lb and likely $18+. Times are hard, bees gotta eat. If you need it shipped, you're gonna need another kazoo ;)

So if you're interested in reserving / sponsoring a frame / helping with the harvest of this year's honey (You can choose your hive, Freddie or Ray ;), just shoot me a note and let me know and we can take it from there.

And, just in case you've never had any of our honey, well... it's uh-mazing stuff.

Although in some ways I wish it did, our honey really doesn't pour like some dreamy, backlit commercial or film you've watched. No, our honey is so jam-packed with pollen (great source of protein and - apparently - has helped eliminate my hay fever / seasonal allergies this year) and has such a low water content that it doesn't pour (at all) unless the jar is heated in hot water first. Great stuff, but not for honey-sissies.

As always, thanks for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work... I'm off to research the issues surrounding selling Bright Orange Software's, TwoBigCats Campell Honey :)

best,

ha

New pics on a nice day...

I know some of you would like fresh pictures of Scott and Charlotte.

Charlotte (who turned 3 last month):



And the two of them having more than a little bit of fun outdoors:


Nice pics to receive on a special day!

One day, Two Beeks(!)

It's Father's Day here in America, so Happy Father's Day to fathers everywhere :)

Joanne and I headed out on an amble-through-Campbell bike ride this morning (picture perfect weather, btw) and as we cruised down one road through the next, we came across a woman we'd met a year ago... working in her large garden, just as she had been a year ago when we met. Her name is Joanne. In addition to having one heck of a (working) garden, I recalled her husband as being a beekeeper. (A beek)

We stopped to chat for a few minutes and I was astounded to hear that this season he's already harvested ~400 pounds. At 1 lb. per quart, that's a lot of honey - and we're not even half way through the season. As I peppered her with questions, she finally said, "I'm not the beekeeper, go 'round front and I'll have him come out and talk with you." And so she / he did.

Nice fella. Like most beeks I've met (not many, btw) he wasn't exactly a fashion plate kinda dresser. In fact, I swear he had on the same sweats as the beek I met a few weeks back over in Saratoga.

Anyway, he came out and introduced himself: "Name's Jim but everybody calls me Fuzzy". Turns out (no surprise) he knows Mr. C. We spent about 15 minutes with me asking questions, him answering... probably the longest 15 minutes of his life ;) He looked like he was starting to wilt a bit so we bid him adieu and pedaled to the next street over where, rumor had it, another beek lived.

One down, one to go.

I think I may have mentioned it in an earlier post, but I've come to the conclusion that beeks have a different perspective on flora and fauna and the relationship it plays in our lives. In days gone by, I thought it was important to remove / kill any / all weeds on our property. Ugly. Ruined our lawns. Made the property look crummy.

After becoming a beek, I began to look at weeds as food sources for our bees. Nectar and pollen are what our bees need and, don'tchaknow, weeds have some of both. And when they are converted in to honey that I eat, my allergies get reduced to non-issues - no drugs. no shots. no surgery. The just go away. (or should I say, after 38 years of terrible suffering from hayfever / allergies, I no longer have any symptoms. Could be our local honey. Could be the allergy gremlins just moved on to pimp somebody else - it's your call as to which you believe.)

Where was I... oh yes, returning to our amble, as I turned the corner on the street where I thought the other beek lived, I looked for the front yard area that appeared unattended... dry grass (if any), weeds... you know, raggedy. And I went up, knocked on the door and asked if this was the house of the beek.

Lucky guess on my part, eh? :)

Turned out to be true. It was before noon and it was a Sunday, so she wasn't exactly ready for unexpected company / drop-in visitors, so we chatted for a few moments (we have a friend in common) and said our good-byes.

Two beeks, nice bike ride and Father's Day... doesn't really get any better does it?

Sure it does: I cooked one of the Abalone I caught on Thursday for mid-day Supper. Herbed rice, brocoli and Ab... just like "back in the day".

Two beeks, nice bike ride, Father's Day and a wonderful Ab dinner... doesn't really get any better does it?

Sometimes it does: Owen and Scott called today and we had good discussions about life and the challenges / rewards of being a good parent.

Just doesn't get any better, does it?

No, I'm not sure it does.

As always, thanks for stopping by. Be well and don't forget to write when you get work.

hal

I can't stop myself from posting this... (Not Safe For Children)

(a joke that's been posted to another forum I belong to.)

A guy out on the golf course takes a high speed ball right in the crotch. Writhing in agony, he falls to the ground, when he finally gets himself to the doctor.

He says, "How bad is it doc? I'm going on my honeymoon next week and my fiancée is still a virgin in every way."

The doc said , "I'll have to put your penis in a splint to let it heal and keep it straight. It should be okay next week."

So he took four tongue depressors and formed a neat little 4-sided bandage, and wired it all together; an impressive work of art.

The guy mentions none of this to his girl, marries, and on his honeymoon night in the motel room, she rips open her blouse to reveal a gorgeous set of breasts. This was the first time he saw them.

She says, "You are my FIRST, no one has ever touched these breasts."

He whips down his pants and says... " Look at this, it's still in the CRATE!"

Family is what you make it...

Self-explanatory:

Kitten / chicken

So, about those jam / jelly jars...

Recently we've received cases of jam / jelly jars from multiple people who like our goodies but are out of the area. (Although you'd think it would happen as a matter of routine, "local" recipients don't often return the jars and receive their refills.)

Anyway, we know this may sound just a little strange to some but if you've got to buy & ship cases of jars to us, we'd much prefer that you contribute that amount to a charity / cause of your choice! Seriously, we appreciate the thought but are pleased to provide you with the goodies and have the organization of your choice benefit from your generosity instead of us.

Ok, enough on that. Overnout.
hal

Meeting new (fruit tree) neighbors...

Yesterday I was returning from Nob Hill and took an alternative to San Tomas Aquino / Winchester... I took the route I often do when I'm on my bike and I want to cruise a neighborhood and "smell their flowers" a bit. (ok, these days I'm really looking for other beekeepers :)

Anyway, I was driving Joanne's car and not long after I turned on to the new street with lots of old, old houses, what appeared to be a Chihuahua puppy darted out in the street, across my path. Cute little guy with a plastic flea collar on his neck and hanging down by the ground. I slowed and, speaking to him, asked if he'd come visit. Not a chance, but he did run in to the yard of the house immediately to my right. So I pulled in to the property and was immediately aurally assaulted by a wiry small-dog-on-a-rope (very different than soap on a rope, btw) who was making it clear I wasn't welcome. Not a very attractive dog, kinda like a bottle brush with mange.

Anyway, I called "hello" a few times while bottle-brush kept up the barking attack and after about 5 minutes the proverbial little ol' guy came out to greet me. I told him about the puppy in the street and he apologized (no need!) and said he'd gotten out a few times lately... the puppy was only 4 months old. Cute puppy, very friendly until bottle-brush started in on me again.

Anyway, while I was standing there, I was struck by the number of fruit trees and beautiful flowers on the property. To tell you the truth, the house and the property could have used some sprucing up but the fruit trees and rose bushes were gorgeous. Clearly, the little ol' guy had his priorities straight.

Turns out he's from Austria and as we discussed fruit trees / rose bushes, I made sure to let him know I was a beekeeper... it always leads to interesting conversations. As soon as I mentioned it, his eyes lit up and he told me when he was a boy in Austria in WWII, his father had 30 hives. With sugar at a premium / unobtanium, they used to eat and sell all the honey they could get from the bees. We talked a little bit about his childhood experiences with bees / honey and his current experience with his fruit trees - he consumes all that he grows! (looks like about 10 trees, but I didn't go in to the back yard area.)

Anyway, if you're at one of our neighborhood gatherings and you see a "new" little ol' guy with white hair, twinkling eyes and an Austrian accent, you'll know it's him.

I've taken some pics lately but don't have time at the moment to post them... hope to over the next few days.

As always, thx for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.

hal

Doves, doves, doves...

You may remember last week when I posted some random pics that included our new baby doves? (http://twobigcats.blogspot.com/2009/06/random-pics.html)

As they say, they grow up and leave so quickly... the following pics were taken of them in the time since that last post. (Click the pic to see full details)

Here they are in the birch over the patio on their first morning as fledglings - who knew they would fly in their first day?! I call this picture, "I've got your back" as they are sitting tight, next to each other, facing in opposite directions... likely to keep an eye open for predators (Coop, the vegetarian Cooper's Hawk that lives in our neighborhood.)


Here they are on the ground, apparently warming themselves on the rocks. Over the next few days I would find them foraging in the bushes / plants for seeds, bugs, etc. No doubt they were trying to retain cover from Coop, too.


Don't know where this one's sibling was, but this one was keeping itself pretty warm and snuggly on the patio umbrella. As I went out to shoot the pics, I said in a low-key voice, "Keep your eyes open for Hawk - it's always looking for food and you're on the menu." (No acknowledgment from the dove, btw.)

I took this picture on Wed morning, through the screen in my office window. Here they are sitting on the fence, spending time together again... keeping one another company. As I stood up to take their picture, I said to them, "You be careful of the hawk" and I called Joanne in to see them. She left after a few moments and no more than 5 minutes later, damned if a Cooper's Hawk didn't drop out of the sky - wings flapping, legs / talons extended, trying to grab them - and darned near got one of them.

BAM! The one on the left managed to make it to the fir tree not 5 feet to the left, the one on the right flew through the citrus trees to the right. Hawk tried flapping it's way in to the fir tree but got caught up in the jasmine, so turned around and stood its ground on the fence. I tried to shoo it away but it wasn't about to leave two oh-so-close meals without a fight.

So I headed out of my office, around the house and (trying to get a picture of it for you), it spooked and flew off. I was sweating bullets about the babies until I saw them later in the day but reached the conclusion that it was Darwin / nature at work and they'd all have to figure it out for themselves. Right?

Yup. So, know what's really funny? As I'm typing this on Thurs night, the two babies have just landed on the fence outside my office again and are watching me as I sit behind the display.

I've got more carving show pics to post and will do that over the weekend.

As always, thx for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal
btw, It occurred to me after I posted this (so I've come back to edit) that some might wonder why in the world I would care about a couple of baby doves, or the baby black squirrel who seems to have taken up residence here... or the hummingbirds, finches, etc.

Good question.

I care because their presence is good for the health and well being of our property and neighborhood. Birds eat lots of insects and seeds and "redistribute" them throughout the gardens / neighborhood where they improve the condition of the soil (also spreading weeds, no doubt, but I've already told you how I feel about weeds now that I'm a beekeeper :) I also feel like their songs - the hummingbirds are unique (besides, they're such characters) and the finches sound great, the cooing of the doves is relaxing and if you listen carefully enough, you can begin to hear different meanings in the sounds squirrels make as they chatter throughout the day.

So that's why I care. (in case you care why I care ;)

For you who have boating memories...

Saw this on a Boston Whaler site I visit and thought of several of our visitors who, like us, have spent hundreds - if not thousands - of hours on boats with their families and friends.



Safe and happy weekend. Thx for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Carver Carousel

Here are the finished pieces that we have in our house as of today - the rest you can see at the SVCG show this weekend. (Click the pic if you dare, but to tell you the truth, there seems to be an issue with focus on these photos... don't know why and need to figure it out. Bummer, because they're really good looking pieces up-close.)

Joanne's carvings for Carver's Guild Show

The Santa Clara County Carver's Guild Show is being held this weekend in Saratoga and here are a couple of pieces Joanne has prepared for the show. As always, click the pic to see a larger, more detailed presentation.

Great job, luv!

Random pics...

Pandora supervising Joanne's work on the Carousel Rooster.



Mom Finch. This is a female Red Headed House Finch who has made a nest in our (now) year-round wreath outside the kitchen. With her having set up house @ that place, it's an awful lot like having an observation hive for bees - we can watch her / the babies (when they hatch) go through this phase of their lives. Very cool.



Our first-ever baby doves - these are in the eaves right outside our bedroom French doors. When the babies hatched, the mother took their shells and removed them from the nest to give them all more room and to make sure the shell / materials didn't attract ants / other birds. They've been out of their shells since Memorial Day.


Ah, a pollen-laden worker bee making her way in to the hive. See the pollen on her legs? Pollen is held in "pollen baskets" and when she locates what she feels is the "right" cell, she'll lower herself abdomen-first in to the cell, then push the pollen off with the same movements we would push off muddy boots as we sat in a chair.

The pollen is brought in as a source of protein for bee larvae and, in case you didn't know but are interested, nectar is brought in as carbohydrates for the larvae, too. Nectar is stored in capped cells where the water portion will begin to evaporate through the porous cap, turning the nectar in to honey. When there is more nectar / honey than needed to feed the colony, the overage will be stored in extra supers (that I've placed on top of the hive) that will be harvested (um, stolen) by me later in the summer.).

Phew - if you've stayed with me this far, you've read enough that I am now pleased to dub thee Beginning Beekeeper!

Now, buzz off :)

Thx for stopping by, be well and dont' forget to write when you get work (I'm off to clean carpets :(

hal

We've got peepers... and they're growing up so fast!

After missing our Red House Finches the past two years, I stopped putting out feeders of thistle (and attracting Gold Finches, who displaced our House Finches) in hopes the House Finches would return and raise their brood around the house.

It worked (or happened naturally, and I'll gladly accept the credit ;)

A breeding pair took up residence in our Passion Fruit vine on the garage wall. About 3 weeks ago I heard some very light cheep cheep cheep when the parents would fly in to the vine to deliver bits of food. Early last week we had some major CHEEPING going on, though no fledlings that I could see. By the end of the week, we had a 5 member flight school going on... beginning at ~5 each morning. All day, every day - they're out and about - lots of noise, lots of wings flapping / feathers flying as they go about their business.

And we love it.

What's kind of a hoot is watching Molly adapt to it all - she has taken to flying to me and hovering not far away from me... maybe 2 feet, then jetting to shoo off one of the finches that has taken "her" roosting branch. (I say this with only a tinge of sadness: I miss watching Dee watch flight school - probably her favorite time of the year... so many tasty morsels flying around and all she could do was run from door to door, window to window, and watch them fly away... I always called it her "bird channel". Love you, Dee.)

(Mom-dove, just outside our bedroom french doors, has hatched her first brood of what appear to be 2 babies. They're able to hold their heads up pretty well now and she's leaving the nest to get food, so maybe we'll see some dove flying lessons in a week or two. It's all pretty cool.)

Thanks for visiting, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal
btw, the cherries and apricots are good and the blackberries will be ripe by week-end. drool on.

Love is in the air.

Yup. We're out of Spring and in to Summer (well, not technically, but almost) and love is in the air.

How do I know that, you ask? Simple:

On Saturday, when Joanne and I were working in the back yard, I walked through the gate to the driveway and heard this terrible clacking / yammering / quacking from the sky above Bill & Francesca's place. All sorts of duck noises I'd never really heard before.

I looked up in time to see what appeared to be an amazing hairball of ducks falling from the sky in a not-so-controlled crash. In spite of feather's flying and one of them seemingly upside down, it seemed pretty clear to me they were making an unscheduled stop someplace awfully close - like our back yard.

I remember thinking, "That's odd - we've been here 10 years and they've never landed in the pond yet, what are they thinking?"

By the time I ran around the the patio (Joanne screaming at me at the top of her lungs from the lower 40, "DUCKS! DUCKS! DUCKS!), they'd landed (in the truest sense of controlled crash) in the backyard and were thrashing around the rose bushes against the back fence: two Mallard males and one female playing a really rough game of "Hey Baby". That lasted all of 30 seconds and they were out of there, taking off and just barely clearing our bedroom chimney and missing the Birch tree.

So, love is in the air - I know, cause I saw it.

If you use Windows XP, you want this free product!

Seriously.

http://windowtabs.com

Watch the video (which has no sound, btw), then check out the features page: basically, it lets you lump the apps you're using into groups that are accessed using tabs - just like you do with your browser.

The demo is full featured and not time-bombed - it's perpetual - but only allows you to place 3 apps in a group; the paid $19 product allows unlimited (or lots, I can't remember).

Very cool and for my use, is free. Go get it.

Now.

Free SnagIt download available

In case you want / need an extremely easy and powerful photo capturing / editing tool that is (for a brief period of time) available at no charge, RUN and download SnagIt via this link:

http://www.techsmith.com/Covermount/covermount.asp?ID=8

We've used it for years and love it.

hal

Friday Post: One man's weed is another man's movie ticket

Can't believe it's Friday afternoon already.

Back when the kids were growing up, Friday afternoon equaled, "XXX new movie's out today, I'll have the kids at Saratoga 6 / Century XX @ 4 and we'll catch the matinee." Just about every early / late summer / Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas week, that's what Friday afternoon was for our family (and some of the kid's friends).

Then the kids grew up and moved away... and we got busier / more involved in careers that had us staying later and later on Fridays. And then we moved to the House on Walnut Drive - where we have more green / various colored stuff growing than I ever imagined possible in my lifetime. Truth be told, over time, TCofMN'sB (takin' care of mother nature's business) got to be a little much when compared to doing our historical "fun stuff" (bike riding, movie-watching... hell, just hanging out.)

And then (to paraphrase Ray Stevens), along came the bees.

It's obvious to everyone that keeping bees is good for the local environment... they're wonderful pollinators and a number of neighbors have commented on how well their plants are doing these past two years since we've started keeping bees.

It's probably just as obvious that keeping bees - when they're healthy and productive - results in honey... maybe even more honey than Pooh Bear could eat.

But I'll let you in on something of a secret I've stumbled across since becoming a beekeeper: When you keep bees, you get more time to watch movies and do fun stuff. How does that happen, you ask?

For me it happened when I realized that all of those pesky "weeds" we'd always been so worried about pulling and cleaning up are really excellent sources of pollen for the bees. Which, in turn, goes to feeding the colony / hive. Which then goes into honey and, in turn goes in to me. (I've had bad hay fever the past several decades and it's become practically non-existant this year.)

So I let 'em grow. Those bright yellow things out in front of our house? Dandelions. Lots of dandelions. "I'd love to take those out, but the bees like / need them."

So instead of spending late Friday afternoon doing yard work so the neighbors across the street have a better view, I'm going to leave the CampbellHoney dandelion buffet table up indefinitely.

It's Friday afternoon and "Up" is released this afternoon, anyone up for a movie? :)

As always, thanks for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Campbell Honey (dot com)

Given the current good health of our hives - both colonies are doing great, both queens are very productive, bees are going out "empty" and coming back laden with all sorts of pollen - bright red (neighbor's bottle brush), neon orange (beats me), luscious gold and gorgeous bright yellow (lots of bright yellow weeds growing everywhere - not to mention tomato plants and sweet broom have lots of blooms on them) - I've installed the 2nd brood supers on both hives. I'll check them for early comb and egg production tomorrow (Memorial Day). Once the 2nd brood supers begin filling with eggs, larvae and honey to feed the brood and worker bees, I'll keep an eye on things and add the honey supers when appropriate.

Assuming we keep heading in the right direction, it looks like we'll have a decent honey production this year. (I'll be using medium supers - they're only ~60 pounds each when full of honey vs 90 pounds for the deep supers). Although I wasn't much of a "honey guy" (except the non-bee kind of honey :), I've come to appreciate the honey our colony made for us last year - very rich, full of pollen & proteins... helping me fight off most of this year's allergy problems. That said, Lord willing and the creek don't rise (something my mother used to say), we could well end up with 15-25 gallons of honey this year.

That'salottahoney! (I think I dated her somewhat smaller sister, Bit'o'Honey ;)

Anyway, there ain't no way I'm going to put away - or give away - 25 gallons of honey, so it looks like we'll make some of our honey available for purchase. I've always planned on doing "things" via TwoBigCats but - just in case - today I registered the domain CampbellHoney.com for our Campbell-created Honey.

As always, thanks for stopping by, be well until next time and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Owen & Chrissy's Hummingbirds

Early morning fly-in breakfast.

End of the day, last night before bedding down meal.


They've pretty much got a buffet line going here and - apparently - #3 is the high-octane fuel preferred by the locals.

Great pics, Owe - thx for bringing them up with you on your last visit!

Why men shouldn't take messages...

Just taking a little swim, thx for asking...

It snowed on the Los Gatos Creek Trail

Or so it seems, eh? (Dood, you really have to click the pics to see the full details.)


A couple of weeks back I was bicycling in to Los Gatos one morning and notice a lot of white fuzz / fluffy stuff falling from "above". When I stopped to check it out, I notice that some of the trees seemed to be dropping stuff and when I looked down, darned if gravity hadn't done its job and pulled the fluffy stuff all the way to the ground.

Then, looking around, it seemed like the entire creek bed had been layered with powder snow or cotton balls. (As usual) These pics don't do justice to what I saw as I was standing there, but they'll give you a pretty good idea.

Snowball fight (or facial), anybody?

(Of course, to some of you I'm sure this will seem like a scene out of a Vincent Price, Bela Legosi or Boris Karloff movie and a hand will reach up out of the fog / goo / snow / cottonball stuff and grab you.)

Samurai BeeKeeper

Not exactly Bruce Lee or even Bruce Mackin (Judo instructor when I was freshman. Cardoza, Dale and me.) am I?

Looking at this photo it appears I'm practicing my sticky-fingers technique... I'm working with bees and honey, right?

(and just in case you're wondering... no, it's not easy being this serious about life, day in and day out :)

Mother's Day woodcarving...

Owen was up for Mother's Day and here was how mother and son spent part of the day:

I don't have any thumbs or I'd carve, too...

Notice who's at the door looking out? (C'mon, click the pic for a great close-up)

Yup, Catgirl-Carver Pandora.

(Now, I may be a little different than you on this but when I see things like this I hear Pan singing... to the tune of "If I only had a brain" from Wizard of Oz.)

"If I only had a thumb
I'd be carving up some wood-sies
I'd be doing it real good-sies

If I only had a thumb."

Family Is What You Make It

Yesterday morning Joanne and I headed out on a early morning bike ride. Nothing too strenuous, just down the Los Gatos Trail into downtown Campbell for a bit of fresh air and coffee. I grabbed my camera, checked our tires and we headed down the street.

Just as we were entering the Trail park area, we came across a long train of Canada Geese and their young working their way across the trail and the grassy areas. As we watched them stretch out to a very long line of parents and young, we couldn't help but notice there was one that appeared to be a little different than the rest... not quite as big. not quite as fuzzy. not quite as fast at a normal gosling pace... and it was a bit darker, too.

So we tried to get a little closer to get a better look at it and in the process, we realized what it was that was different. Here's the pic - can you spot the one I'm talking about and why it's different than the other goslings? (feel free to click the pic so you can see it up close)


So you figured out the one I'm talking about is dead-center in the photo, (right?), basically standing this side of the center goose?

Do you notice its shape is similar - but very different - from the other goslings? Notice it's head / bill is shaped very differently? And its body shape is much more formed in shape and less fuzzy than the goslings?

That's because it's a juvenile Mallard Duck that has apparently been taken in by these families of Canada Geese. Seems pretty likely it was separated from its parents (we came across a similar very tiny duckling about 5 years ago) and bonded with the geese. We watched them for a few minutes - this little one scurrying to keep up with the greater-striding Geese... and usually staying somewhat - but not entirely - to the side of the elongated flock as they moved along. It was clear to us that this duckling is now a member of this flock of geese. It may look different. It may sound and smell different. It may be slower than the rest. But it's found a home with the geese and for some period of time, it'll receive pretty much the same care, protection and socialization provided the goslings of the group.

As we watched this scene in front of us, I turned to Joanne and said, "Family is what you make it, eh?" and we both choked up.

I think we choked up because - as the years go by - Joanne being an adoptee, me having lived in the Home, us having blended our boys / lives into one family, having lost parents and other beloved family members (human and animal, alike) and each of us having many decades-long friendships that have become more than just friendships... I think both of us are sensitive and appreciative of the fact that Family Is What You Make It.

So whether you're family or friend (or both) or stranger, as always, thanks for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work. You're welcome to forward the link to this post to those who are in your family that you'd like to share a little duck-love with :)

hal
(I have many more pics from this past week to post, but I'm tired and it's coming up on 9pm so... well, you know what that means. nite.)

Owen the BeeMaster

Owen wanted the full treatment while he was visiting so in addition to carving bark objects with Joanne, he went out back to work the bees with me today.

Some guys have all the luck.

Now that I (apparently) know some of what I'm supposed to be doing - and what to look for - Owen got to see both hives in all their making little stingy-things glory.

Fresh eggs? yup.
Larvae? yup, tons throughout both hives.
Capped larvae? ditto.
Bees emerging from their cells? yup.
Queens? yup.
Pre-honey nectar? yup - everywhere.
Honey in brood-feeding cells? yes, by the pound.

No supercede Queen cells. (good)
No drone cells. (good)

Both hives are getting close to filled with brood / honey, so I'll put on the second supers this coming week to give them the room they need for the nursery.

(Oh, and... Owen has an audition tomorrow for an upcoming motion picture... keep your toes crossed.)

Star Trek x2

Yup, saw the new Star Trek twice this weekend. What a great movie - lots of fun, adventure, special effects, yada yada.

Since Owen was coming in for Mother's Day yesterday @ 2, Joanne and I caught the 11AM @ Cinelux. Loved the flick, like everybody else in the theater.

We mentioned that we'd seen it to Owen and he was disappointed that we didn't wait for him to see it with us.

Being good parents, we couldn't let him down so we saw the 11AM this morning. Loved the flick, like everybody else in the theater.

Unlike the multi-decade milking / re-milking of the Star Wars (or is it, Star Bores?), this was a great re-start for a great movie "franchise".

My vet's office can beat up your vet's office (and my "family" doctor)

Yup, it's true.

In today's world of how much money can I make off this patient / person / client and then get them to leave so I can get to the next patient / person / client, we are blessed.

As you know from the last post, Pan had surgery on Thurs and was making her way through recovery on Friday. Not much eating / drinking / movement going on. Called the vet's office to ask about the need for a hydration IV and, weighing it against the stress of visiting the office again, decided I'd take Pan in for a fill-up. Just before loading her up, I put a bowl of food and water in front of her and... wouldn't you know it, she ate a bit of food and drank some water.

Ah. Saved her the stress of the trip and us the extra jack for the visit / IV.

The next morning while I was out for my bike ride, Dr. Ueno called to check on Pan... how was she doing, was she eating / drinking, able to move around ok, etc? (Yes, Joanne said, she was back on the road to recovery.)

So how come I said my vet's office can beat up your vet's office?

Because he called us while he was away on vacation.

(edit on sunday night)
I wanted to return to this post to emphasize how grateful we are for the folks at Kirkwood and their support and care of our entire pack, including you-know-who ;)

We've paid for another wing of the Vet's facilities...

(Just kidding :)

About 10 days ago Pan began to act a little unsettled... which, by now, we've come to notice means there's something going on with her that we need to figure out sooner rather than later. After waiting for her to settle down, I took her to Dr. Ueno for an exam. Turns out she had another massive hairball in her gut. Doc said to give her petromalt / mineral oil and see how things turned out.

Sigh. Another week of doody-watching :( (Point of reference: Bee keeping's not much better - the little ba$tards sting you!)

Anyway, no improvement in behavior and her eating was slacking off, so we headed back on Wed for another exam / xray. Hairball still there and needed to come out via surgery. Poor Pan - she's already had 4 of these surgeries, 2 knee surgeries and thyroid cancer / treatment. Doc U said he thought she'd do great because she's so (otherwise) healthy and strong - weight was back up to 18 lbs... and no fat on her.

Yesterday morning I took her in early and dropped her off. One unhappy cat, I'll tell ya. And just before taking her in, Joanne discovered Penny had chewed a hole in her fur/scalp on her back - she and Pep have been chewing / licking a lot lately. So after dropping off Pan, I came home, loaded up Penny and took her to see Doc U. Turns out it's fleas - and Penny's very allergic to them. Another coupla hundred dollars worth of meds and we were outta there.

I picked Pan up @ 5:15 - still under the effects of anasthesia - and brought her home in her basket. Ended up putting her on the guest bed / fluffy comforter to let her sleep. Spent the night with her, locating her at various times in a closet and then under Joanne's desk. She was a little brighter when I got up this morning, so I put her on her couch / blankie to sleep... where she still remains, sound asleep.

My sense is this surgery is taking it out of her and will take her extra time to recover from... so to reduce / eliminate the chances of this happening agian, it's heavily clipped kitty from now on. Period. Overnout.

That's it for now.

Thanks for visiting, be well until next time and don't forget to write when you get work.

Oh, and... Happy Mother's Day!

Carousel Rooster carving...

Here's Joanne's very latest work in progress - a Carousel Rooster - for the upcoming Santa Clara Valley California Carver's Guild show.

Note the combination of carving and burning... to which she'll begin painting it so it appears as a traditional Carousel Animal. (Remember to click the pic for full details!)






I call this last one "Dead Rooster" :)

What's a "Campbell Minute", you ask?

You've heard the expression, "New York minute", yeah? Well, if you're like me (in this respect), you probably know that it means in a real hurry but after that, it's non-specific.

About 20 years ago a New Yorker that I worked with broke the code for me: A New York minute is - when you're at an intersection - the amount of time it takes the car behind you to begin honking after the light has changed from red to green.

Ah. I get it. Faster than the blink of an eye.

In Campbell, things are a little slower than NY but I've noticed a unit of time I've come to think of as a Campbell minute. It occurs somewhat frequently, but never on Sunday.

You see, most mornings I get up ~4AM. Early for some, late for others. Just right for me.

Every day but Sunday I have two papers delivered to the end of the driveway - the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal.

The Times shows up first, usually around 4:27 and the Journal shows up on a less precise schedule, but always after the Times. I know the time-shift sequence is about to occur because of two indicators: (1) I hear a racing car engine as it accelerates away from Chapman toward our house and (2) the pattern of weaving headlights against the front of Lettie's house. (I'm often making coffee by the front window and can hear / see the oncoming signs.)

So with my coffee brewing (in the French Press), I head out front (checking for skunk traffic) to pick up the Times. That in hand, I turn back to the porch to find Pan watching me from the front door window / basket perch and head indoors. Remove the plastic wrapper, head to the couch (Pan jumps to her blankie) sit down, pour myself a cup of just-brewed Java and...

WHAM!

The Journal lands on the driveway immediately following the instant I plant my butt on the couch.

It doesn't happen this way every day, just often enough to become noticeable and deserving of its own definition.

A Campbell minute: A unit of time that occurs immediately after optimal comfort is reached but requires deferral.

1 Tomato, 2 Tomato, 3 Tomato, 4...

Ok, so I fudged the saying a bit... you get the drill, right?

Here are our 4 tomato plants - the first pic is from a week ago, the second was taken today - they're sure growing fast, aren't they? Just in case you're interested, note that we're using earthboxes as a means of optimizing water usage / reducing water loss and it seems to be working out pretty well. (Remember to click the pic to... well, you know.)

Thorny subject, but let's talk about it...

Back fence roses, May '09.

Iris I knew what you were thinking...

Joanne asked me to take these pics today so she could research their proper names. Me? I just call them the pretty-but-smelly flowers.

Enjoy - click these pics to see the really detailed shots.

Joanne started remodeling and here are the latest pics...

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but Joanne's been working away pretty hard on a few carvings for the upcoming Santa Clara Valley Carver's Guild show. Over the past few months she's gotten particularly interested in carving bark and this is her first bark project for this year's show. (She's about half way through the 2nd bark house and is about to begin painting the miniature carousel animal she's been spending so much time / effort on.)

Enjoy!
(And don't forget to click the pic to see the larger image / more detail)

Danger Will Robinson...

As you can see, Penny's getting used to the costume for her audition for the new Lost In Space tv show. (or maybe she's wearing it to help her stop chewing on her hind legs... some darn allergy thing going on there)

And a few happy things, too!

"Things" have been pretty busy around here.

Joanne continues to be extremely busy with work... but enjoying the challenges a great deal, so that's good! Her wood carving activities continue - I'll shoot a few pics tomorrow and put them up, they're great! And our Spring yard clean up / gardening efforts are beginning to, er, bear fruit. Pics of that stuff over the weekend, too.

More to come over the next few days, so until then, thx for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Acknowledging a few sad things...

Try as I might, I can't let the month close without noting the 28th was the two year passing of our sister, Chris. We miss hearing her cheerful voice and laughter on the phone... but we are eternally grateful she was such a big part of our lives.

And it's with an almost-equal amount of sadness that we note that April marked the six month anniversary of losing Delilah. We miss her extra-large dose of Catitude around the house... perhaps the most at tuna can-opening time ("Hey, Old Guy - how hard can it be to open a can and put the fish in my bowl?") and catbox cleaning time ("Hey, Old Guy - you about done in there cause nature's calling and one of us might get hurt if you don't hurry up and move outta the way.")

Yup, we miss them both: Dee and Sis.

Man's best friend?

Here's mine.

Monday night about 11ish, Joanne came in to wake me and tell me she was sick. She looked horrible - in fact, the very worst I've seen her in 26 years. (Flannel jammies, aside.)

So I got up to help her and take care of things around the house a bit - settle the pack down a bit, make sure Joanne had what she needed to be comfortable and then I headed off back to bed.

Next morning I woke up sicker than a dog. Whatever Joanne had the night before, I had in spades, too. For the next 36 hours or so both Joanne and I were unable to do much / take care of much around the house (Thx, Ellen! for picking up ginger ale, gatorade and checking in on us). I'm sure we slept at least 32 of those 36 hrs. I couldn't help but notice every time I woke up, Pan was beside me on the bed / couch / wherever I was, she was always there.

Eventually, Joanne began "responding to the bell" before I did and put fresh food out for Pan since Pan hadn't touched her food in over a day. No response from Pan (if it were Dee, the second she heard the opening of the can, she'd have left me in a Campbell Minute* - assuming she would have been by my side in the first place!). But when I got up to go to the kitchen for a few minutes on Wed, Pan jumped up to "her" island and ate both bowls.

I said to Joanne, "That's odd - Pan just two bowls of food, gobbled them right down." Joanne said, "She hasn't left your side for 2 days. She wouldn't eat. She wouldn't drink... I was worried about you both. Now that you're up a bit, she'll eat and return to normal on your schedule."

I think I've said it here before: We'd always been dog people. Never had a cat of my own. Didn't want a cat of my own - everybody knows they're aloof and self-centered. Clearly, not true.

Joanne and I are almost back to normal, now (thx for asking and...)

Thx for stopping by, be well until next time and don't forget to write when you get work.

best,
hal
* I'll tell you what a Campbell Minute is in an upcoming post.

Update on the newbies

I just returned from working the bees and found both hives very heavy with activity.

Both hives are being rapidly filled with fresh comb and pollen, and both hives previous honey stores appear to be in the process of being moved (by worker bees) so the queen can use the center frames for brood.

"Feeding" stocks of honey - which needs to be watered down before feeding to very young bees - are being moved / stored in the corners of the brood frames for easy access by the worker bees to feed the young.

Both queens appear to be very actively laying as there are many - many - larvae visible, often next to capped pollen stores / comb.

Seems like we're on the right track with this year's crop of newbies :)

58 year old parrot flies back into original owner's care decades later

I saw a video on this on TV yesterday, thought you might find it interesting:

Parrot Story

Potato zombie?

Well, it turns out that rocket scientist Alan read my post about the zombie hand reaching out of our potato patch and suggested guy below might meet my needs....

Garden update

Seems we're moving in the right direction in the garden...

We've put in 10 heads of lettuce - the shot above I call, Lettuce Alone :)


Quince blossoms are coming in nicely this year -we'll see if any survive to mature fruit.

The potato patch: I half expect to have a zombie hand come reaching up through the soil as I pass by.



Apple blossoms on our Gala apple tree. They smell absolutely wonderful and appear to be the pollen harvesting grounds for many of our bees - the tree is fairly buzzing with activity during the hours of light each day. Speaking of blossoms and buzzing - you should see / smell / hear the citrus grove out front / side of the house: UH-mazing.

UH-mazing smells... the grapefruit, oranges, lemons and tangerines are all in heavy blossom and, combined with the lilac, jasmine and wisteria out there... it smells absolutely incredible.

And the bees that are working the blossoms... at times it sounds like an actual swarm out there... very, very loud buzzing as they work through the blossoms.

We've also installed 4 tomato plants in Earthboxes - they all seem to be doing well, too. The new peach tree is ready for installation - we're waiting for the 90+ hot weather to pass before planting it.

And, finally, we just picked up a couple of squash, cucumber and bean plants that will go in the ground soon.

Yee Haw.

thx for stopping by and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

You the guy who ordered...

Pizza with extra cat?

Well, here ya go, pal.



We brought in Pizza from Jacky Boys the other night - medium combo, lite cheese, thx for asking - and you-know-who has claimed the box as hers ever since.

May we have a profile shot, Miss Molly?

Sure, boys - anything you say... how's this?


I was out in the backyard yesterday getting ready to wrangle the bees when (as usual) Molly flew to her perch on the birch tree and announced in song that she was on the job, covering my back... or so I imagined she said, anyway.

Since I had my camera with me, I took a series of photos and voila, got this (for me, anyway) unique shot of her. (Don't forget to click the pic for the up-close version.)

So the other day, Joanne says to me...

"Hey, how 'bout we get hot'n'sticky tonight?

Grrrr, Yowza and oh yeah, baaayyyybee.

And the next thing I know, this shows up in my email:

(scroll down)





(keep scrolling)







(almost there)
















Yup, just what I was thinking, too ;)

Update: Dear Comcast...

Yesterday when I called Comcast to cancel service to our bedroom converter, I was informed that would reduce our bill by a whopping $7 a month.

Woo Hoo!

But if I cancel Comcast, in just one months I'll have saved enough to buy the 2nd Roku that will replace the remaining Comcast converter that's in our living room now. (and since my netflix / roku subscription is split between the two devices, I'll pay $4.50 a month to watch "entertainment".)

When I told the Comcast rep (essentially) that, she was moved to tears (ok, not really, but just imagine if she was ;) and reduced our monthly bill by $20 (or was it $25?) a month. Closer, but not quite what I was thinking as a long term solution to keep us as a customer.

I'll take it for now and when the missus gives me permission, Comcast is gone, as in,
Buh Bye Now.

Dear Comcast: Stay out of our bedroom!

Short version:
I'm tired of paying for TV / "entertainment" content I'm not using and had heard about unlimited content viewing with Roku+Netflix for only $8.99 a month. Yup, for less than a burger / fries and coke in Oslo, I can watch 12,000+ TV / movie / entertainment titles on demand. So, as of today, the Comcast digital converter in our bedroom has been replaced by a Roku appliance (tiny little bugger, that) and downgraded to "boat anchor" status.

Hal version:
I'm tired of paying for TV / "entertainment" content I'm not using and had heard about unlimited content viewing with Roku+Netflix for only $8.99 a month. Yup, for less than a burger / fries and coke in Oslo, I can watch 12,000+ TV / movie / entertainment titles on demand.

So, as of today, the Comcast digital converter in our bedroom has been replaced by a Roku appliance (tiny little bugger, that) and downgraded to "boat anchor" status.

From now on, Comcast, you're not leaving our living room... and if you keep jacking up the bill, I'll put a bullet through you and have 100% of our content delivered free via Hulu, YouTube, the major networks and (oh yeah) my $8.99 Netflix subscription.

The world's changing and you better get with the program or you're gonna be roadkill.

Just how bad is the economy getting?

It is definitely getting very bad!

Cats are sooooooo dramatic!

(this sent by rocket scientist Alan... thanks, Alan!)

Bee (n) busy...

Today was the day to pop open hive #2 and check on the Queen to see if she was laying. So a bit after 4PM I suited up and headed out, smoker & tools in one hand, giant plastic bag w/remaining honey-filled frames in the other.

When I smoked the hive and popped the lid, I saw that when I placed the Queen in last time I was in a bit of an, ahem, "hurry" (I'm sorry, did you say, Panic? Yeah, I didn't think you did.) I'd left a 1" gap between the center frames... apparently in my, er, hurry to drop the Queen down inside and fear of crushing her I left the frames apart, creating a natural gap for the bees to do what they do - build more comb. Since they didn't have a form to work from, they simply drew comb from the Queen excluder (metal rack like what used to be inside Fridge's... now they're all plastic / glass).

Realizing "Hey, that's not right" I used the frame tool to scrape it from the excluder and, voila, present you with a neat picture of it. (Remember to click the pic to see the real details - very cool.)

Note: This comb hung from (what appears here on) the right side.




And since several people have asked me how the Queen is transported, I took a pic of the Queen's cage. See that round tube on the right side? That's where the sugar plug is - in fact, if you look between that tube and the main cage, you'll see the remaining white sugar plug.


So I bet you beekeepers (or wannabe) beekeepers are wondering if I checked for eggs / larvae when I was in hive #2. Um, no. It was so cold and windy, I was concerned about chilling them too far, so will do that tomorrow when it warms up and the wind dies down.

This is why I taught myself to play guitar...

Looks like I may need more practice on how to hold it....

Playing For Change

So that video post that Keith sent me and I posted yesterday? Incline Mike emailed me to say that it's part of a project called, "Playing For Change", and they're releasing both a CD and DVD soon.

When I googled PFC, I found their link and am ordering their DVD today... perhaps you'll like them enough to do the same :)

http://www.playingforchange.com/pop2.html

As always... well, you know the drill :)

btw, Thanks to South SF Keith and Incline Mike

Worth watching... Stand By Me

This video was sent to me by long-time friend, South SF Keith.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

Enjoy the ride.

And, as always, thanks for visiting and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Birds, Bees and garden update...

Ah, Monday evening... nice to make it through the day in one piece, eh? There's been a lot of activity around here over the past few days, so I thought I'd bring you up to speed on what's what.

As you may recall (or re-read, if you like at http://twobigcats.blogspot.com/2009/04/bees-are-back-in-town.html, ten days ago I brought home two 4lb packages of bees and installed them in the late / warm afternoon. Normally, you'd check the hive out @ day 4 to make sure the Queen had been freed from her transport cage (I'll get a pic of that and post it up here, soon) and was working around the hive. But with last week's cold, rainy and windy weather, I opted to wait until it warmed up and settled down before taking a peek. The perfect day came yesterday.

I suited up in my bee-wrangler's outfit, fired up the smoker and grabbed my frame tool (to lift the frame out of the hive) and headed out to hive #1 (the one on the left). I gave them a few good whiff's of smoke through the entrance, then cracked the top and gave 'em a few puffs down the chute (as it were). Ah, that got them buzzing - an intruder with fire and smoke, what next?

Looking inside I could see a very large amount of freshly drawn comb - very, very pretty milky white comb laid out in a wonderful pattern... like honeycomb ;) Next, using the frame tool, I separated the two (center) frames where I'd embedded the Queen's cage and withdrew the cage for inspection. Great - sugar plug had been eaten through, the Queen was free and (having just taken Mr. C's class) I could see the fresh laid larvae filling some of the chambers... there were also a number of cells with freshly-delivered pollen, too. Ok, nothing more to see here - move along... so I placed the frames as they should be and I closed the hive. Groovy, I'm back in beesnuss. Next to hive #2.

Same routine - stand back, it's gonna get smokey here.

This time, though, when I checked the Queen's cage she was still inside. They'd eaten almost all of the plug but not quite enough to free her. Damn - what to do? Hive open. Fire and Smoke in my hands. Queen trapped. Bees cranky and flying around me like, well... like an ex-wife.

Help Mr. Wizard - what now?!

I removed the Queen's cage, closed the hive and took the cage to the patio table to see if I could free her and then place her back in her hive. I cracked open the cage and guess what happened next?

Yup. She flew away. WTF was I thinking?

Luckily for me, she only flew about 6" and placed herself on the umbrella... where (using the Mr. C technique I learned) I scooped her in my hands, covered her (buzzing all the while, I think) and made my way back to the hive. I managed to open the hive and drop her back down in the center of the hive, closing it up as I made my retreat.

Alrighty-then, Whodaman? Yeah, I'm the man... and I was feeling pretty good about it, too, until I was almost back to the patio when I thought, "Well, shoot - I wonder what a real beekeeper would do???"

So I called Tom @ http://www.honeybeegenetics.com/aboutus.html (he's the guy on the right in in the pic) and darned if he didn't answer the phone... on Easter Sunday. I relayed what had happened, he told me what he would have done but assured me that my approach was do-able, too... just check on the Queen in 4 days to make sure she's laying and I'm good-to-go. (If she's not laying by then, I'm roadkill. Just kidding, I'll order a replacement Queen and give it another shot.)

Now here's an interesting point (if you care about these kinds of things): since their Queen wasn't yet freed and laying, many of hive #2's worker's headed over to hive #1 to take care of a real Queen who was laying - the only thing they live for. So hive #2 is somewhat under-populated at the moment. Tom suggested that once hive #2's Queen is laying / productive, to switch the hives during mid-day and when the returning hive #1 bees return, they'll actually return to the hive formerly known as #2 and vice versa... so they should build their population's up in a short time. I like Tom's thinking and hope things work out just as he says (it's all in the execution though, isn't it?).

So that's the latest on the bees.

As for the birds, well the Junior Bob's are living in the citrus grove and adapting to my traipsing through a couple of times a day to move the garbage cans out for pickup tomorrow. Good looking birds, though noticeably smaller than mature doves... they seem to acclimate to my voice pretty well, as they did to Joanne while she was working around them yesterday.

The garden's first crops are ready as we speak: we've got lettuce coming out of our kazoo's! The tomatoes seem to be doing well in their earthboxes and the potatoes look to be doing nicely, too. Our latest trees, peach and pomegranate are having mixed success - the peach is doing great, the pom appears to be DOA... time to return to summerwinds.

And finally, Joanne processed and cooked several batches of tangerine marmalade yesterday... it's "steeping" in the fridge, likely to be cooked / jarred tomorrow night; orange marmalade on deck after that, as is another gallon or two of limoncelli.

As always, thx for stopping by, be well and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Ok, Rupert - You're back on the team :)

As some of you may remember, at the end of January, I fired Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal by canceling my decades-old subscription. Dear Rupert: You're Fired

At the time I felt the content wasn't unique enough (to the Journal) and the rates were too high for the content being delivered. But late last week when I realized the NY Times was charging me much more than I thought it had been, I called the Times to cancel and they ended up giving me a pretty significant discount to keep me as a subscriber. Huh. Since I'd already come to the conclusion that as much as I enjoy reading the NY Times, I was really missing the Journal's perspective on global / business issues, I checked out the Journal's web pages and found they were offering a significant discount, too... so I called them and am now receiving the Journal every morning, as nature intended.

What really causes me to write this post, though, is the customer service I received from a Dow Jones employee in making sure my paper delivery was re-started.

I placed my order online last Friday. No Saturday paper was delivered. Then no Monday paper was delivered. On Tuesday I called and said (basically), wtf - don't you people want my money? They assured me that wasn't the case and would have a paper delivered and adjust my account for the missed days.

Super.

While the re-start didn't happen exactly as Jason (the DJ employee) and I were hoping, it eventually got back on track - after a number of proactive emails from Jason to me making sure I was taken care of and satisfied.

I am, Jason - thanks very much for looking after me.

Rupert - you should keep Jason on the team, he's one of the good guys :)

Update on Bob / Bobette...

Mid-day today, Joanne came to me and said that Bob really must be struggling with missing Bobette because he keeps flying up and hitting her office window. Jeez, is it the rain or something?
(Joanne and I have noticed that Bob continues to remain around the house as he always has, in his usual haunts, and spends much of the day cooing / calling for his mate.)

About a half hour ago I took out the garbage, walking toward the can area via the middle of the yard because I needed to look to the top / center of our roofline to see if Bob was still there. (He wasn't.) As I was walking back to the front door, just past Joanne's office window, suddenly a bird exploded out from under the deck area and very wobbly flew to the fence over the garbage cans. Simultaneously, another bird flew from the same area and roosted on the eaves under our front porch.

Turns out we've got two young, fledgling doves to remember Bobette by :)

And the beat goes on....

The bees are back in town...

Last Saturday I headed off to Vacaville to pick up my two 4-lb packages of Carniolan bees. Since it's a 200 mile round trip drive, I believe next year I'll let them mail the little buggers to me :)

Anyway, here's their home-to-bee before I began installing them. Note to the left of the hives are the pond and a wonderful lavender patch - both are great for the bees well-being and honey production.



The photo below is of the partially harvested frames from last season that I'd tucked in the freezer to jump-start this year's colonies. If you click on this pic, you can peer down inside the frame to see the comb and honey waiting for the bees. Note: directly opposite the visible comb / honey is another frame that looks about the same - lots of comb / honey.

To install the Queen in this hive, I will place her "cage" (it's a plastic holding cell with a sugar plug in the bottom end of it) in between the two frames, holding her cage in place with the comb / honey. (Can't be too much honey / too tightly or she will drown in the honey.) When I install the bees and the Queen, they worker bees will eat the sugar plug and free the Queen, who will immediately begin laying eggs in the surrounding comb.



The pic below shows the two "packages of bees. If estimates are correct, there should be 40k+ bees in each box, though I stopped counting at "10" :) See that can on the top? That's a container of medication that will be mixed with water and placed in the solution feeder that gets placed at their hive entrance.

Beginning an hour before installation, I lightly spray the bees with a very weak sugar / water solution... several times, in fact. This keeps them hydrated and enables them to eat the sugar water (for calories); pretty soon thereafter, when they're in the new hive, the sugar water / food will cause them begin making wax and building out the hive.

The way installation works is, holding the box at a slight angle, I bang it on the ground to loosen the can. Then I remove the can and then, holding the package / hole over their hive, I bang the snot out of the package against the top of the hive, dropping the bees down in to the hive. Because they're full, not engaged in protecting their own hive so are non-aggressive, we can be fairly rough with them.

Once I've installed them in their new hive, I place the medication / water solution in front of their hive and leave their package homes outside the hive... the ones who didn't drop out will eventually find their way in to their new homes by nightfall. (Too cold for them outside @ night - everybody's gotta be home by dark.)

Here they are around / inside and waiting to go inside their new homes.


Close up of the action. There's an incredible amount of bee poop flying @ this point, btw!
(edit: An important note is that after leaving the bees as you see them in the picture below, not only will they head in to the hive before dark, but by early morning the next day, they'll also haul away any dead bee bodies so they attract as little attention from bad guys (yellow jackets, birds, etc) as possible.


And here's the very noisy Queen bee that got away... I could never get it installed in the hive but did get this picture!

While I really enjoy many aspects of having bees - they're wonderful for the neighborhood, our own trees / gardens, and the wonderful honey they provide - I find installing the bees to be fairly stressful... I suppose it could be the 200 mile drive immediately before installing them that takes a bit of wear on me.

I hope you like the pics - I'll provide updates in a week when I check the Queen / hive for egg production.

hal

We've lost Bobette...

Short version:

I'm sad to say that one of "our" doves died this morning as a result of flying in to our dining room window while it was apparently attempting to nest above the rear deck. :( Working in my office, I heard a very loud "thump" outside and when I went out, discovered it on the deck... apparently broke its neck.

Hal version:

As anybody who visits our house knows, I've come to refer to the doves who visit / live on our property as "Bob" or "Bobette". For the past 4 or 5 years, we've had one particular couple who have raised their brood in various spots around the house. Beginning a month or so ago, they began to perching (again) on the fence outside my office window and doing their "hey baby" dance. (Sometimes I'll gently open my office window and suggest to them they get a room... it never works.)

Just yesterday late-morning I was out by the patio table and looked up to find them in their resting place on our roof, somewhat camouflaged by the (now) fully leaved birch tree. As I usually do when I see them outside, I wished them a good morning and told them to keep an eye out for "that old hawk" we see cruising over / through our backyard on occasion. They were back again late yesterday afternoon, this time to shower in the large sprinkler of water I had running on "their" corner by the pond.

As I type this, I can hear its mate cooing / calling for it out back. Something I didn't know until just now is that Mourning Doves mate for life.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/395041/mourning-dove

Now, I get that it's just a wild dove and that what's just happened is Darwin @ work... but I'll miss seeing and hearing this pair of birds around our house.

hal

That's cold, honey.

Tomorrow's the big day (again!): I'll cruise up the road a ways and bring back 2 boxes of somewhere between 80 - 100k European honeybees.

To prepare for their arrival and well being, over the past couple of weeks we've been making things more to their liking: clearing out / prepping a place for the new (second) hive to be installed. After doing all that work (Joanne did that part as bending / stooping is still painful for me post-op) and getting their landing pad ready (over by Francesca and Bill's), we've decided to NOT place it there due to proximity to their backyard entertainment area. After having watched two swarms in action last weekend at Mr. C's, I question how non-beekeeping folks would feel were ours to swarm during their party :(

Anyway, to give both colonies a head-start (and make use of last year's worker-efforts), when I harvested honey a couple of months back, I saved about half of the comb / honey on their frames, bagged and placed them in the freezer for safekeeping. Yesterday, I took them out of the freezer and when they're thawed properly (late today, early tomorrow morning), I'll place them in the hives so when the bees show up tomorrow, they'll have both nourishment and a head start on building out the comb / nursery.

I'll post something early next week and let you know how it all turns out.
hal

Box 'o Bees

(Click the pic to see the bees up close.)

Seeing how I'm planning on picking up 2 packages (that would be "colonies" to you, ahem, non apiarists ;) of bees this coming Saturday, I thought it'd be a good thing to take Mr. Carrier's "Beekeeping for Beginners" class that was being held last Saturday. (Btw, of course you remember that his website - http://www.carriersbees - is the cat's meow for Silicon Valley Beekeepers, right?)

Anyway, I showed up at his place at the crack of 10AM and joined another 8 or so folks in his living room to talk about the lives and caretaking of the little buggers. Not long in to our discussion, it was time to watch a PBS-produced video on bees. Not too long in to the video, there appeared to be a swarm of bees forming in Mr. C's front yard... so we put the video on hold and watched him head out front to check things out.



Sure enough, there were a bajillion bees flying in the yard... and a HUGE ball of them formed around several branches of his almond tree. So what's Mr. C do? He places a "bee box" (cardboard box with the bottom duct-taped to prevent bees from escaping) under the huge ball of bees on the branch, then grabs a 3-pronged hoe and violently yanks the bee-branch down hard several times. This causes many of the bees to fall - WHUMP! - to the ground, in and around the box.

Bees - by the tens of thousands (!!!) - crawling and flying around so thick if you opened your mouth you'd probably swallow a handful in a second.

As if that wasn't enough, Mr. C repeats the process 3 or 4 times in rapid succession... pretty soon, he's got a pretty good box 'o bees going.

By now, most of us brave souls have put on our bee-jammies and gone outside to watch the action up close. Now, to be clear, when honeybees swarm, they're actually migrating to a new location. To survive such an excursion, nature has told them to gorge on honey before leaving their hive / home... so by the time they form up on the tree (which is their way of protecting their Queen and the only reason they exist), they're just stuffed and want to rest... in other words, they're extremely passive to humans and other living things.

Anyway, after watching the swarm begin to settle in to the box, we head back in to watch a bit more video; eventually we suit up and head out to his hives to have him walk us through basic hive / brood / colony maintenance. As we're wrapping up that session, what should happen but yet another swarm began to form in his front yard. (Man, what'saguygottadotogetabreak aroundhere,anyway?) So we got another box while he yanked them down from the tree / branch (same tree, same branch, btw). In 10 minutes they'd all settled into the box, so Mr. C removed the (now empty) observation hive from his "showroom" and repopulated it with the new, "wild" swarm bees.


With 2 swarms in-hand and the class winding down, we called it a day and left Mr. C to populate a new hive with the 1st swarm of the day... the pics you see here are of that swarm. It's just a guess on my part, but I'm betting there are somewhere between 80-100k bees in that box - notice how their weight is causing the side / top to collapse.

Everyone loved the class and especially enjoyed the multiple swarm activities.

CatGirl - Queen Pandora

A couple of quick snapshots I took over the weekend.

Note how adaptable Pan is to working in the office or supervising out in the yard / garden - yes indeed, she's a multi-faceted Maine.



As I make this post, she's asleep, er, checking for light leaks while supervising me from "her" chair in my office that she shares with Alf.

What a luv she is.

Wow, you're bright!

Some nice Fall colors Joanne shot last year... we were out on a morning bike ride through Vasona and she shot some nice pics... make sure to click on this, it's a nice one up-close.

One gal's weed is another gal's, um... flower?

A couple of weeks ago we decided it was time to pull a few weeds and this one took the prize for the day.

Some would say it's one big weed, others might say, "dinner in 5 minutes".

So my wife went away with a bunch of men for the weekend...

I mean, what's up with that?


Well, it turns out that she was attending a three day "green man" carving class over in Livermore. This class photo shows the "rough" final of their project and the following pics show the work in various stages / lighting, etc. These are really worth clicking on to see the full details....

Here's a nice close-up of the facial details.

En route to becoming the man he was destined to be...

As they say in the U.K., "Early Days".

Here's the green-dude very early on in the process... some basic roughing out done and the chips were about to start flying.

Lucky me...

About six weeks ago Joanne and I were in downtown Campbell on a Saturday morning... having a cup of coffee and relaxing a bit. As we were leaving Orchard Valley Roasting, who should we come across but this fine Grey African Parrot (and its caretaker).

Being something of a large-bird fan, I asked the caretaker if I might visit with her Parrot - whose name is French and means "to kiss". (I've run that through Google translator and came up with enough variations that I'll not attempt to recall its actual name.) The bird immediately came to me and crawled up / down my arms / shoulders and as they often do, began preening me just a bit - apparently I never look quite right to Parrots because they always try to clean me up a bit.

We visited for about 10 minutes - lots of feather stroking, soft-voice talking and human-preening going on - and eventually coaxed the Parrot to return to its caretaker and went our separate ways.

On a personal note, it's always such a pleasure to visit with even somewhat rancorous Parrots / birds as they usually settle down pretty quickly with me; parting ways with them is often a down-moment for you-know-who.

Dude, we were totally shredding...

Yah, like the other day we were thinkin', yah, man... dude, let's shred. So, like, we totally went in to the garage and like, uh, climbed a ladder and took down some stuff. Man, it was wicked-dusty up there with spider-sticky stuff and dirt and.

Uh, whatever.

So then, like, uh... we brought some stuff down - ya know, boxes of stuff - old trophies Joanne won for her dogs "placing" (like what's that mean, anyway? - they went places? Like I know. Dude.) and we got some other boxes of stuff... like papers and stuff... Some bank stuff from someplace called "Barclays Bank" and another one called "Bank of America" (like they'd use an UnAmerican Bank... shuh!) and a company called I.R.S. (I think they wanted to use the name Google but it was already, like, taken by some math geeks or something).

Anyway, so then we, uh, like, brought all these boxes down and then brought 'em in the house and man, like it was totally like... uh, where was I? Oh, whutever.

So then we put our special clothes on and shredded... like for hours. Or was it four hours... I forget. Uh, whatever. So our gear was getting hot and had to cool down, so we like, uh, kicked back and stuff and then went back and like, uh, totally shredded.

Man, at the end of the day we were like totally bagged. No, dude, I'm serious, I mean we were righteously ripped. Here we are, like, stacked against the wall waiting to go outside for some fresh air.


Translation: We needed to move the wonderful (donated) carvings from the dining room and so decided to put them up in the garage storage area. Since that area was full, we had to decide what to eliminate and what to keep to make room.

"I know - let's shred papers we no longer need from the '70's, '80's and '90's. Let's get rid of the stuff we haven't used in 10 years and maybe we'll have room for the carvings to be stored."

So we did and ended up with 12 full bags of shredded materials. Also made some $$'s because while I was up there, I discovered the original saddle & windshield to my '93 Honda ST1100 "red rocket" that I sold back in '99 ish. Listed those on craigslist and sold them in 2 days for asking price. (Pricing was modest and the buyer was kind :)

Dood, shred on!

A different kind of senior moment...

Longtime / childhood friend, Rocket Scientist Alan (you know, I've never heard anybody call him "Al"!) sent this photo today and thought it was worth posting. Reminds me a bit of the slogan from "back in the day": If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
(CLICK THE PIC TO SEE THE FULL DETAILS, just in case you've got Senior Eyes)

Rock(et) on, Alan :)

Busy as a, well, bee...

These are not my bees, but are local bumble bees cruising through our wisteria off the back deck. I discovered them yesterday when I ambled out back to water the quince tree, lettuce and potatoes plants in the garden, then freshen up the lavender and roses out by the pond... it's been warming up the past few days so things are drying out a bit quicker.

Anyway, as I exited the sunroom I heard a fair amount of rumbling sound coming from the other end of the deck. When I went to check it out, I found the wisteria was, um, buzzing with activity. Here are a few shots I snapped while Pan supervised from her chair in the shade, just outside the sunroom. (Remember to click the pic for the large, full detail image.)

A little bit of flying going on here...

Hey, get a hive you two!

Boomshakala - this stuff is good!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to write when you get work :)
hal

Dee's favorite: First days of Spring...

This morning as Pan and I were reading the paper on the front room couch @ 5:30, the smell of the bouquet of fresh flowers drifted in from the foyer. Every time I smell fresh flowers in the house, I think of Delilah.

Dee was the kind of cat who absolutely had to brush up against, crawl over or through any fresh bouquet of flowers that came in the house. Naturally, this led to more than a couple of vase-spills over the years, but it's just how things were: I brought the flowers in, Joanne put them in a vase and they went to the dining room table, the sideboard in the foyer, on our dresser or on my desk... no matter where they went, that's where Dee was within minutes.

So these past few days as I walk through the citrus grove, seeing and smelling the just-blooming Lilacs, or look out my office window to see the just-blooming Jasmine, or out of our bedroom to see the Wisteria coming to life again, I can't help but think of Dee and her love of fresh flowers. (And when I look out our bedroom window, I see the Cherry tree in full bloom and beautiful Daphne beside it. sigh.)

Spring is here and we still miss Dee - in all of her catitude - as if she'd just left us yesterday.

But I do have some good news to share: I am beginning to near the production release of my professionally-focused book / materials / software and when that's out the door, I can begin turning my attention to The Legend of The Two Big Cats on Walnut Drive. (And if you pay attention to the video's for my products, I bet you'll recognize some characters you've heard me talk about over the years.)

Wherever you are, be safe.
hal

A wee bit of blarney...

I just realized that I forgot to mention the other night that the Brady's joined us for a St. Patrick's Day dinner of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes dinner, followed by cupcakes with green frosting.

What a great surprise it was to see and hear - within minutes of their arrival - Claire at the Hammond, beautifully playing a song all by herself! How cool was that?! After she played a bit more by herself, Joanne and she sat down for a rousing duet of Chopsticks - woo hoo, rock on' babettes!

Dave and I consoled ourselves with a nip of aged Scotch - hey, not everybody is good at playing the organ!

We laughed and told stories all through dinner - Dave about his family's gold-mining history, Claire talking a bit about Woo and us just adding what we could as we went along. After we'd gotten our hugs from Claire and they were heading home, Joanne and I commented to one another about what a fine young lady Claire is becoming - easy to converse with, mature and thoughtful for her age.

We're glad they're our neighbors.

Wherever you are as you read this, take care of yourself.
hal

Harvesting one neighborhood at a time...

Yup, it happened again today as it has for the past 8+ years... a crew from Second Harvest (http://feedingamerica.org) came by and harvested our citrus trees to feed the needy in our area.


When we moved into our home 10.5 years ago, we'd never had fruit trees so we really viewed them as a bit of a novelty and a means of having a bit of fresh fruit throughout the year.

But in the late winter / early spring of '99 we realized the citrus trees (2 lemon, 2 orange, 1 tangerine, 1 grapefruit) put out far more fruit than we (or our friends) would ever consume, so we harvested them and took the harvest to Second Harvest food bank. (Harvesting 6 heavy-producing fruit trees by one person is no easy matter, btw)

After the citrus harvest came the rest of the trees - another 13 - each of which produced a prodigious amount of goodies we had to deal with. (except the almond... the squirrels got those and left the rest of our fruit alone :) You guessed it: We made pies, started a bit of canning jams / jellies and harvested and donated several thousand pounds of fruit to Second Harvest.

Then one day we got a call from Second Harvest saying they'd started a program to harvest entire neighborhoods, would we like to participate? You bet, sign us up for that program!

So since then, Second Harvest has harvested all of our trees - leaving on the tree or giving us whatever we want of the harvest - and fed the needy with the rest. In turn, we get (1) a feeling that we're helping those less fortunate that we are and (2) a tax break for our donation of the fruit at the then-current value of the harvested materials (3) nicely harvested, no rotting-fruit orchards to clean up - talk about win-win!!!! (Over the years we've become something of the neighborhood coordinators of the harvest and are pleased to lend additional support in that manner, too.)

Every year in the past, we'd give a jar of jam / jelly to the lead coordinator of the harvest. But today I decided to thank the young people / harvesters by having them nominate their hardest working volunteer to receive a jar of TBC Vamoose Juice Honey. Turns out they couldn't settle on just ONE so nominated two and, well... I'm a wuss and folded like a cheap card table - I handed out two jars. BUT THAT'S ALL YOU FOLKS GET!!! :)

Our entire neighborhood thanks Second Harvest for the good work they do on behalf of the less fortunate. See you at apple harvest time. (Oh, and we've bought two new fruit trees so in another year or two, you better bring a lunch and back-up cause it's going to be an all-day project.)

hal

Ouch!

I received this email from a friend this morning and thought you might enjoy. (NSFK - Not Safe For Kids)

"She was standing in the kitchen preparing to soft boil eggs for breakfast,
wearing only the 'T' shirt that she normally slept in.

As I walked in almost awake, she turned and said softly, 'You've got to
make love to me this very moment.'

My eyes lit up and I thought, 'I am either still dreaming or this is going to
be my lucky day.'

Not wanting to lose the moment, I embraced her and then gave it my all -
right there on the kitchen table.

Afterwards she said, 'Thanks' and returned to the stove, her 'T' shirt still
around her neck.


A little puzzled, I asked, 'What was that all about?'

She explained, 'The egg timer's broken.' "

Congrats to Gilly for her Apollo Club performance!

A couple of days ago we received an email from Suzanne with a link to a youtube video. When we clicked on it, we were absolutely delighted to find it was of Suzanne's niece, Gillian, being selected as the amateur night winner at the Apollo Club in NYC. Watching the clip over and over (ok, no more than 5 times :), we thought Gilly was wonderful. So, here's the clip for you to view and you can decide for yourself:



A private note: When Joanne's father passed away 13 years ago, in his estate was a collection of hundreds of jazz and blues albums that went back to the early 20's... he was a real collector who had a very broad and deep collection. (This is not a polite way of saying he was a packrat, his collection was extensive.) Joanne had them shipped to us and we stored them, hoping that someday we'd find a good home for them. About 7 or 8 years ago, it came to our attention that Gilly was a jazz & blues fan and also sang so we asked if she'd be interested in having Joanne's father's collection. She was thrilled to have them and we were thrilled to see something so personal to Dad go to someone who would appreciate them as he did.

Gilly, if you happen to read this post, congratulations(!) and keep up the hard - and rewarding - work.

Joanne and Hal

The boys, er, BEEs are back in town...

Well, not just yet, but they will be soon.

I just ordered two four-pound packages of Carnolian Bees from HoneyBeeGenetics. They're the same folks I ordered from in early April of last year... nice folks. Looks like I should get them by mid-April... not sure if they'll ship or I'll take another morning drive up their way... they're nice folks to watch and hang out with - very laid back. (Note: My casual observation of beekeepers is they're all pretty laid back - nobody, BUT NOBODY - wants to attract extra attention by moving too fast around the hive. At least, not after the first time ;)

Thx for stopping by and write when you get work.
hal
btw, Best I can figure out, a four-pound package of bees is ~ 30,000 little buzzers. That's a lot of buzzers.

Here are some quick pics I shot in the backyard over the weekend. It's pretty clear to see Spring is just around the corner. (ALWAYS REMEMBER TO CLICK THE PIC FOR FULL DETAILS.)

Looking straight out back.

Click the pic to see Molly at the top branch of the birch tree. Molly always flies to me / that place on the tree when I come in to the back yard.


Ah, the "Sun Man" next to the Ghiardelli Chocolate pot... that's Daphne in the background.

Daphne from behind...

Daphne silhouetted by the, um, purple bush-thing.

Pear tree in blossom next to the other purple bush-thing.

Apparently the bees are away and resting while I air out the house. New bees get ordered today.

Artichoke plant we just can't seem to kill.

First cherry blossom of the year. (Click for close-up)

2nd Plum tree, halfway through blossom, now with leaves showing.

I'll add more later, just wanted to get these up.
hal

Molly, is that you in LA?

A few month's ago I visited Owe, Liv and Chrissy in LA while I was attending a music industry convention. We had a nice time visiting, going out to dinner, etc... but we also had a nice time watching their Hummingbirds. (Their birds appear to be Anna's, also, but I can't confirm that as fact.)

It seems I mentioned to Chrissy that I was a bit envious of their Molly-traffic and wished we had more Molly's around our place. I guess Owe learned of the conversation and sent me the following pictures with a suggestion to buy the same type of feeder as the birds were really active with it. (Coincidentally, Bill & Francesca and Los Gatos Steve have the same feeder and theirs are always busy, too.) Us? We've got a very nice, artsy-fartsy handblown glass feeder. Boy is it pretty to humans... but it appears to be butt-ugly to our Molly's. Guess it's time for me to buy a handful of the type Owe, Bill and Steve use and get on with things, eh?

Enjoy the pics Owe sent, I can practically hear the little one's singing:
(REMEMBER TO CLICK THE PIC FOR THE DETAILS - THEY'RE GREAT!)

As territorial as Hummingbirds can be, it's interesting to see them feeding two at a time.


Nice solo silhouette shot.

Last call for chow hall!

Thanks to Owe for the pics, Thanks to you for visiting and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

My friend, Xavier Ducasse (and his family)

Back in '03 when I went to work for Trolltech as a contract Director of Sales and General Manager for the U.S. operations, I began traveling to Oslo (TT HQ) on a fairly regular basis. Among the staff members I met on my first trip to Oslo was a French guy by the name of Xavier Ducasse. Xavier was part of our inside sales team and mainly, I think, because of his interest & curiosity about succeeding in software sales, we seemed to hit it off fairly early on.

Now that I reflect on our relationship, in addition to appreciating his desire to succeed, I also liked that he was interested in what we were doing in the States and how it might apply to his efforts and goals; in turn, I was interested in learning what he was doing to perform at his then-current level (that we might employ in the States) and what he thought he needed from the organization to perform to his true potential.

As fate would have it, Xavier ended up reporting to me later that year and in my numerous trips to Oslo, we got to know one another better. Initially, our relationship was of the traditional manager-employee type... but in a very short time, we morphed to employee / manager / mentor & friend. Given the changes I was introducing to the sales organization, the transition was a good thing - for both Xavier and me.

After leaving Trolltech, Xavier and I kept in touch by email and when I visited Oslo, we got together to catch up on one another's lives. Naturally, we talked of work, career goals and life aspirations... but mainly we just kept in touch... something that's easily lost in today's warp-9 world.

Xavier eventually left Trolltech, got married, had a baby and - no surprise to anyone who knows him - has succeeded in business and gained progressively more responsible roles at work. (I won't mention his employer or his role, but he's gone far beyond Inside Sales guy - congrats, Xavier! - and I expect that trajectory to continue.)

So now you know about Xavier and me, how about seeing his bride and young family? :) Enjoy!


Xavier's wife, Severine, and their daughter, Maxine. What a cute mother and daughter! They sure look like they're having a good time together, don't they? :)


That's Xavier on the right, behind Maxine.

Looks like Maxine is playing one of those games at the carnival where you throw the ring in the clown's mouth and the clown's eyes light up.

What is it about babies - human or animals - that causes so many adults to have their pictures taken in such a... ah... (what's the charitable word I'm looking for here?) candid - yeah, that's it - candid(!) state? Whatever it is, I'm pleased that it exists... there's rarely anything so enjoyable as watching a parent in play with their child. Of course, that often changes when the child hits their teen years, but until then....

Xavier, if / when you read this, thanks for allowing me to share the pics!

Thx for stopping by and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

I'm a voyeur of Falcons

And you can be one, too. Here's the link to the San Jose Falcon nest that's all over the internet.

Enjoy.

Do you Wordle?

Dood, I do. Check it out. (view, then scroll to the bottom of this post for details.)




I was cruising around the net a few minutes ago and ran across this site - Wordle.net - that allows you to copy / paste text into and it will whip, spindle and mash in to waaaaay too many formats. Very cool. It even lets you cut / paste a blog / page URL and it will munge everything together and, voila (or is it, "viola"? I always get confused.) you get what I got above from the TwoBigCats blog.

Very cool.

Molly, is that you?

As some of you know, we have a number of Anna's Hummingbirds around our property. In fact, they're all over Campbell. Over the years, I've found the Hummers to be reasonably friendly... or at least, they appear to be friendly in that they'll come right down to me and buzz around my head, sometimes close enough to feel the wind from their wings. Heck, anybody that gets that close I need to know by name, so all of "our" Hummingbirds are known (to me, anyway) as Molly.

I have more to say about "Molly's" but am pressed for time right now, so I'll just leave you with this link to a Hummingbird nest with two babies in it.

The babies have fledged and you can see a photographic history of them and their mom right here

Ladies and Gentlemen, Springfield Al!

(Sorry about the lack of production quality, the shaking camera and the lack of professionalism... I was trying to shoot some quick video before Al said "No" to me. FWIW, Al continued playing for quite some time after this initial stint and it was wonderful hearing him play. Who Knew?!)

UPDATE: Welcoming a new member of the family...

(Please scroll to the bottom to read the update - it's worth it! :)

On Friday morning after Springfield Al and I split to head our separate directions, I headed off in a familiar - but not often visited - neighborhood street as part of my route home. As I followed the bend in the road, in the corner of my left eye I caught what appeared to be a garage sale.

Now, I'm not much for garage sales, but when we're out and about on the tandem, Joanne often says (from the stoker position, sotto voce), "garage sale". Not, "garage sale, let's go check it out" or "garage sale, keep going" but "garage sale". And I'm supposed to know exactly what that means.

Turns out after many years of hearing "garage sale" and not going to see what they've got for sale, I do know what "garage sale" means. It means, "You, the one with steering control of the vehicle we're using, had better point the vehicle and us toward the garage sale. When we get there, you may remain with the vehicle if you want, but I'm going in. And I'm going to need your wallet."

Huh. Who knew?

So when I'm out on my own these days, typically on my bike, when I see a garage sale I hear the voice that must be obeyed and head toward it. Yesterday that turned out to be a good thing. When I rode up on my bike, it was clear the owners of the early 60's home were the older couple who was busy tidying up after lookey-lous.

With my bike rolling next to me, I cruised through the tables of stuff (man, do I really need more stuff? Nah. But I'm well-trained so I kept on going in... and I had my wallet, just in case. And that's when I saw it at the back of the garage.

Apparently solid maple construction. Apparently tube vs solid state. And just as apparent, it had been in the family for 40+ years. Nice bench seat with hand-embroidered stitching.

And did I mention it had "FREE" on it? Well, it did.

So I asked the owners if it worked well. "Sure, why don't you turn it on and play it?"

"I can turn it on but I don't know how to play."

"Hey, you're in luck because all 6 of our kids learned to play on it and their instruction books are in the bench seat. Here they are."

And so they were: Instruction books for all types of organ music. And the original registration paperwork. And the original customer survey (sample question: Is your family income less than $2,000? Is your family income $20,000+? 2k was the bottom bracket, 20k was the top bracket. My how times have changed.)

We chatted for a bit while I tried to think of someone we might know who would want this original, mint condition Hammond M103 organ. Ellen? Maybe, but she already has a piano she doesn't play. Ummm. Ummm. Dang. I couldn't think of anyone else.

So naturally I said I'd take it. We like strays, especially when they're well-behaved.

Joanne and I went over this morning and loaded it in the truck. Tomorrow we'll bring it in the sunroom and let it settle down a bit. Then we'll dink around on it (it has the "pointer" method of instruction books with it... right up my alley, I think.) and begin in earnest to find a home for it.

UPDATE:
Well, who knew?!

Who knew that within 3 minutes of bringing it in the house, Joanne and Al would be playing a chopsticks duet? And that 3 minutes later (if that!) Al would be playing the darn thing as if it hadn't been 45 years since he'd last sat at a keyboard (@ San Jose State Music class, the same class attended by the Smothers Brothers). No kidding, in the first couple of minutes Al and Joanne were plinking away @ chopsticks and when Joanne left the bench, Al broke into "Maria" from West Side Story and a host of other songs. (I recorded a few minutes of Al playing with the flip video that I'll try to get posted over the next few days.)

Uh-mazing! It was wonderful - absolutely wonderful - to have Al in our house playing (what I've come to call) Fresh Music... live music. It could very well be that with this new discovery (Al the pianist / organist), the Hammond may well have found its new permanent home.

If you're in the neighborhood, stop by to see and play it if you like... it's great and sounds wonderful in the hands of someone who knows how to make it sing :)

Henrietta and Gracie

Not a new Jeopardy category (though they could be, I suppose), they're a couple of gals we'd seen around town before but got to meet this morning. (DON'T FORGET TO CLICK THE PICTURES TO SEE THE ENTIRE PICTURE)

Back in November I made a post that said Campbell Chicks are the best. Today Springfield Al and I were introduced to them both. The one in the foreground is Gracie and the other one is Henrietta. Or is it the other way around? Dang.

Anyway, Al and I stopped by to introduce ourselves to the "chicken lady" (yes, I know - we're very original in our naming conventions ;) and to ask her if she'd like to participate in the Campbell Farmer approach to garden-sharing. Turns out she'd be thrilled to participate so we've added another contributing / exchanging person and their gardens. (She's already got a nice garden going and is converting another unused area to garden as we speak.)

Thus far we've got "the usual" goodies: lettuces, onions, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, peas, beans, potatoes, herbs, watermelons, cantaloupes, fresh chicken eggs, jams, jellies and honey.

Seems like with very little effort, we're picking up momentum. Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to write when you get work.

NEW: Campbell Cats... Work, Work, Work

Al and I came across this cat for the first time the other morning, the first sunny day after the big storms we've had come through. When I first saw him in the window I thought, "Silicon Valley is a demanding and high-stress place to live, but I can't help but wonder, if guarding this bookstore is this guy's job, what he does he do to unwind?" (DON'T FORGET TO CLICK THE PICTURES TO SEE THE ENTIRE PICTURE)



And if this is actually him on the job, then howza guy get that job, anyway?!

CampbellFarmer.com home page photo / logo

Springfield Al and I were out yesterday and I shot this pic to crop and use as part of the homepage of CampbellFarmer.com.

Downtown Ted tells me the beginning of his winter vegetables will be ready soon to give me in exchange for the jar 'o honey I gave him last week.

So far, I've got local sources for fresh laid eggs and winter veggies (beans, lettuces, etc). Our citrus is ready for harvesting now, so we've got fresh orange juice and citrus needed for the marmalades everyone likes so much. Oh, I know: I'll check with that certain neighbor who loves to bake bread to see if she'll swap some of our goodies for her bread. Mr. C has smooth-skinned avocados I need to pick for him today... he always offers some, so I'll swap some pomegranate jelly for those, too.

Darn... if only there was a milk cow in the neighborhood, we'd be closing in on a pretty good local-food exchange.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to write when you have work.

Ninja Cat comes closer while not moving...

Wait for it...

"She (still) misses her cat"...

(This is a follow-up to my earlier post this month about Pepper's obvious grieving & loneliness after the passing of Delilah. For that post, visit http://twobigcats.blogspot.com/2009/02/she-misses-her-cat.html)

Today about noon as I was heading out the door to have lunch with Los Gatos Steve, Joanne popped out of her office, put her conference call phone on mute and said, "I found Pepper in the guest room closet. She'd found the large bag with Delilah and Pan's (saved for prep for knitting) fur and had begun to tear the bag open to "get to" Delilah."

As much as we tried not to, in seconds we were both in free-flowing tears. Sad for Pepper and sad for ourselves, at the loss of Little One and her much-larger-than-life role in our household and lives.

It's ironic this happened today because just last night, for the first time since her passing, we were laughing outloud at Delilah's in my face approach to dealing with me when it came to food: as long as we both drew breath, Dee knew my sole purpose in life was to ensure she was fed and watered to the gills, 24 x 7 x 365.

If I am to take anything positive out of Pep's actions today, I suppose they just confirm what we felt we witnessed over the years: That Pepper and Dee were great companions and Dee's passing hasn't diminished that feeling of friendship and loyalty in Pepper one iota.

The Mom Song

And who hasn't heard - or uttered - these very same words in their child-parent lives?

Hello Gorgeous!

Here's a pic I took of Pan last weekend in the Zoo Room as she cruised around checking out the wonderful carvings Joanne had brought home. (CLICK THE PIC FOR CLOSE UP DETAILS OF HER GORGEOUS EYES AND FUR :)

Quite a looker, isn't she?!

Campbell Cats and a fresh flower for you

Cruising around Campbell over the past few months, I've noticed many family pets asleep in windows, under window sills, back behind fence boards, on porches, etc. As you've probably figured out by now, somehow - ok, through having Pandora and Delilah as part of our lives for the past 12 years - I've become something of a cat person and, I'll admit, when I'm out and about on my rides, I seem to pay more attention to cats than dogs. (And while I look up for raptors and other types of birds in our neighborhoods and trails, there aren't nearly as many raptors as there are neighborhood cats to watch.)

The other day I decided it was as good time as any to take a few pics of Campbell Cats, so here's the first in whatever "series" I put together over time. (remember to CLICK THE PIC to see the close-up of this cat sleeping.)


A couple of weeks ago this was our first bulb flower of the year and the brightness of it against the green stalks caught my eye, so here you go.


Thx for stopping by and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Queen Honey

As some of you know, I am a long time fan of the rock group, Queen.

Knowing this, a member of an online forum that I belong to got creative and created a Queen-focused avatar for me to use in that forum.

Ladies and Germs, er, Gentlemen, I give you, Queen Honey (hey, wasn't that Freddie Mercury?!)

Update: Cooper's Hawk

Al and I were in the same neighborhood this morning and came across a pair of Cooper's Hawks swooping and diving through backyards, then to the tops of the higher trees and phone poles... watching for mid-morning snacks, we assumed.

AbbeyLane Anna, Peregrine Falcons and Hawks

Al and I were Springfield Al and I were amblin' our way home this morning when we spotted a bullet-fast bird diving in to a backyard, then sharply swooping up and flying to a tree just across the street from us. I grabbed my camera and took a few pics of that bird and another - both of which I've posted here.

The photo above is a Coopers Hawk. We initially thought it might be a Peregrine Falcon - didn't look like any of usual hawk-suspects and it was very chatty. If you're curious to see more and much better photos of a Coopers Hawk, just click the link. Also note at that link is a great audio file of a Cooper's vocalizing... lotsa chattering going on there.

Coopers Hawk

Directly across the street from the hawk was an Anna's Hummingbird, sitting on top of a fir tree... chattering away. Not long after I grabbed this pic of it, the hummingbird went after the hawk - diving on it and trying to shake it loose and out of the hummingbird's territory.

The hawk never moved. Go figure.


Here's the Anna's and below is a link to it... listen to its song... very cool.
Anna's Hummingbird

Hey, Bud!

Well, it's happened a whole lot earlier than usual - the first blossom of the year on one of our fruit trees.

I saw the buds forming up late last week and thought they'd open in a week or so... they opened yesterday, so here for your viewing pleasure is the first blossom of our Apricot tree for 2009 :) (Click the pic - it's massively beautiful!)

Almond blossom.

Fig bud (several weeks before they'll open, I'm betting.)

Almond blossoms.

Cherry buds (weeks before opening), with beautiful Dapnne in the background.

I realize that a number of people who visit TBC are pretty well wrapped around the axle, chasing the ever-important sale and other business goals and/or family / life issues they're dealing with. With the reporting tools Google provides me, I can see that visitors are coming from around the world, including snow-bound places like London, Munich, Berlin, Wales, Oslo, Chicago, Ft. Wayne, Beijing, Boston and the like. Thinking of them, I stepped outside last week to shoot these photos and then, naturally, took the a few minutes - just for me - to stop and smell the flowers.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

Harvesting honey - our first year

After having installed, fed and kept an eye (or two) on our first honeybee hive in 2008, a couple of weeks ago I cruised out to the hive to see how the colony was doing. I popped the lid on the hive and, sure enough, there was a bunch of buzzing as the girls came up from below to fight off their "attacker", me. (Without any regard for the fact that I was the guy who fed and watered them when they moved in last year. Boy, some people's insects.) Anyway, it seemed like things were looking good, so the top went back on the box and I got the heck outta there.

About a week ago I went back out to check on them and the hive was empty. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada, as in "Nada damn bee to be found."

Who knows why or when (I figured out the "how" part, thank you very much) they left the hive and never returned. So there I was: No bees in the hive and more than a bit 'o honey. But what to do with the honey? Should I remove the (honeycomb) frames and harvest the honey? Should I freeze the frames as-is so when I installed a new package (colony) of bees next month they'd already have plenty of comb for their brooding chambers and honey to feed themselves? I called Mr. C. for his opinion, then checked with Beemaster.com forums and read many opinions on the subject, then finally said, "So, what's it gonna bee - they get the fully furnished pad and I wait another year for payoff?

Nah.

I decided to harvest the honey. To do that, I'd need an extractor (to spin the frames, removing the honey by centrifugal force) and an electrically heated capping knife (to remove the wax caps from the honeycomb cells.)

Following Mr. C.'s advice, Al and I moved the hive in to the garage and rigged a 75w light in the bottom to warm the hive / honey so it would flow out of the extractor as required. Then, last Saturday I rented the extractor and knife from Mr. C., easy peasy. (Here's Al threatening the long-gone bees with a hammer. Tough guy, Al ;)

Here's a shot looking down in to the hive just before I remove a frame to check on honey content.


Here's a partially combed frame with a bit of honey. Ok, I admit it: That big gash in the honeycomb and honey - yup, Al and I ran our fingers through it to see what it tasted like. Big Surprise, it tasted like fresh honey and beeswax :)


Here's a frame that's pretty well packed with comb and honey, ready for harvesting.


Partially filled frame, but the comb on this frame was really puckered out with honey... it was like hitting the MotherLode.

On Sunday mid-day (55F degrees), I began removing the caps from the comb and placed two frames in the extractor. Closed the lid of the extractor and began cranking that bad boy like I was a monkey playing an organ for the old guy on the corner. Did it work?

Nope, not a bit... despite my warming efforts, the honey wasn't flowing. So I got on the phone with Incline Mike (Sunday is Mr. C's day off so I didn't want to call him) and said, "Now what?" Well, I could freeze them or put them back in the hive and let it sit until the new bees arrived... or, I supposed I could use the heated capping knife, take the comb down to the frame foundation then put the honey/comb "mash" in a couple of old fruit strainers we've got around the house and "rough filter" them, then run them through fine cheesecloth to get rid of any wax, bee poop, etc.

Got it: Do nothing or get my honey. Easy peasy - I took the knife to the frames of honey, and in draining the comb / honey in to a couple of big pots. In an hour, I had 2 big pots full of honey / mash and here's what I left behind in the garage. (Yeah, it doesn't look like a commercial operation... it's not. Things get dirty, they get sticky and - to tell the truth - they get left in a messy state until the kitchen work gets cleaned up and it warms up past 50Fdegrees.)

So here's what I left behind (Please do CLICK THE PICS cause the honey looks gorgeous up close.)



The pics above are the partially harvested frames... I left a bit of comb and honey to give the bees a headstart next month.

Here's a stack of some of the frames that had no honey on them.

Ah, the work bench.

Next, we took the large pots of mash in to the kitchen and began glopping them in to the fruit strainers. With the house warmer than outside temp, the honey began to loosen up and flowed fairly nicely... not fast, but at least it was flowing. The pic below is of the mash in the strainer.


The pic below shows the mash / strainer / collection bowls we were using. By the time we were done with the mash, we had ~4 gallons of raw honey.

After going through the rough fruit strainer, we filtered through the fine cheesecloth and the jars below are the first of our first year's filtered harvest. We estimate the jars below represent ~25% of our first (partial) harvest.


And here's Joanne's first version of the Vamoose Juice label.
And there you have it. Our honey has a very deep color and flavor... it's very good :) (Oh, and since the bees deserted the hive, we've named this first batch, "Vamoose Juice" honey.)

Next month I'll pick begin a 2nd hive and install a package (colony) of bees in each hive.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed the journey. Don't forget to write when you get work.

Happy Birthday Springfield Al!

A quick note to say "Happy Birthday, Albert!" to our very good friend, Springfield Al.

Looking at the calendar, I can see it's been about 25 years since we first met Al as a neighbor at our former residence. And though he / we waved to one another from across the street, we didn't really get to know one another until '91 or '92, when we started bicycling a fair amount and a year or two later, learning to rollerblade.

Through some set of discussions & negotiations, Al and I each got a set of blades and took to the sidewalks to enjoy what was then the latest physical fitness craze. Turns out that sidewalks are uneven, cracked and have lots of tree-crap that has fallen on them so, basically what we're talking about is as close to death-trap as a 40+ beginning blader wants to get.

Ah, I know, we'll each carry a house broom in front of us for balance... like a hockey stick. Yeah, that's the ticket... and that kinda worked, but not really. Oh, how about going to a local school basketball court where there's smooth asphalt and wide open spaces? Yep, that did it. Before long, we were rolling and scootching all around the courts and, heck, we even got rid of the broom (after we'd swept the pebbles off the courts, that is.) From there we, ahem, (pardon the pun) graduated to racing around the school corridors on the shoe-slicked concrete - woo hoo!

Until that one corner that was snot-slick, that is. Ok, maybe we'll avoid that corner in the future.

And from there we moved to the Los Gatos Creek Trail / Parcourse and cruised in to Los Gatos... a 16 mile lap. Seems we did that 2 or 3 times a week, then adding bicycling for variety and, voila... we were having lots of fun.

And we've had hundreds... no, thousands, of hours of fun since then. And like only long-time friends can do, we've helped each other get through our share of sadness as we've lost members of our families, friends, jobs and relationships. Life, huh?

These days we make it point to get our daily bike ride in as part of our morning-coffee ritual. Rain or shine, hot or freezing (as it is this morning), Springfield Al and I are out and about... Al calls it the "Amble through Campbell".

So, Happy Birthday, Albert(!), I'm about to amble down for your birthday breakfast at Stacks :)

hal, joanne, The TwoBigCats, penny & pepper-do-you-want-her

Hello Tommy (!) and lots to report :)

Joanne and I heard from one of our former neighbors, Tommy, a kid that Owen grew up with and pal-ed around with for all of our time over on Springfield. It'd been, what... 4 years since we last talked with Tom... it was when Tom and his bride were married, I think.

Turns out that Tommy and his wife (Renell - spelling?) have gotten their AA's in a legal-related field and their both focused on finishing their BA's, then hope to earn their JD's. In the meantime, they're in the music-production business down in Hollywood, doing their best - and succeeding, it seems - in placing music in TV shows and films.

Tom and Owen were very close in their middle-school / early high school years (before Owen moved back to LA) - there are darn few photos of Owen around our house that don't have Tommy in the frame... darn few.

We love Tom like a son and are very pleased to hear life is treating him (and his bride) well and they're loving life.

On to other news... my calendar's been a little pinched with paid-activities lately, but we did manage to extract ~4 gallons of honey over the weekend. We're in the final stages of jarring that (tonight, I think) and so I hope to have a write up and photos for you over the next few days. (Oh, and, it looks like I'll be adding a 2nd hive next month... and neighbors have already begun signing up for their own "co-op" share of the hive / honey. You go, modern CampbellFarmer-guy ;)

That's about it for now, I think. Thx for visiting and don't forget to write when you get work :)
hal

UPDATE: Denny's

So, last week I posted that I was firing Denny's as my go-to breakfast restaurant.

Then Denny's ran an ad during Superbowl that today, 6AM - 2PM they'd be giving away free GrandSlam (trademark symbol should be here) breakfasts.

Fired, then giving it away for free.

Coincidence or ???

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear...

This was Pan mid-week, last week. We hadn't shaved her fur down (she has allergy issues and so "over grooms", causing hairballs in her gut the size of big mice... 3 surgeries later, we regretfully shave her coat down to minimize her risk.) for a month or so and here's what she looks like with 1 month of fur growth.

Reminds me of Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy... since taking this pic, we've shaved her down and had xray's taken of her gut - no mouse-hairballs.

And here's a pic of Pan cruising through some of the carvings in the dining room last week. I can see the headlines now, "Pandora Carroll, A Giant Among Men".

Thx for stopping by and don't forget to write when you get work.
hal

"She misses her cat..."

After a full day of working the gardens and around the house, we were beginning to prepare for a late-afternoon bbq with Al, Ellen and the Brady's out on the patio when I came across Pandora and Pepper laying on the rug in front of our bedroom French doors... both enjoying the fresh air and warmth of the sunshine streaming through the doors.

I said to Joanne, "Check out cat-girl and Pep by the doors...". Joanne peeked around the corner and said, "She misses her cat.", meaning Pepper misses "her cat", Delilah. I'm not an animal behaviorist, but I do think Joanne's right.

Over the years, Pepper and Delilah developed a very close relationship. In her puppy years, Pepper bounded through the house with what seemed to be endless reserves of energy, ending up nose-to-nose with Dee as if to say, "Hey, let's tear this place up!"

Dee would sit up on her hind legs (she always looked like a furry booze-bottle carrying bag to me when she was in that position), stand up just a bit, feint a left jab to Pep's head and when Pep leaned to the left to escape the jab, Dee would reach out ever-so-gently and touch the left side of Pep's face with a quick "pop". Pep would always act surprised and when she pulled her head back away from Dee, Dee would lean forward and gently "box" her ears with both paws... no claws, just paws... but enough to remind Pep who really owned the house. I think I've mentioned here before that early-on when I saw these reactions, I'd tell Pepper to leave Dee alone and Joanne would tell me to stay out of it, that Pepper liked Dee and they had a good relationship.

And so I did... stay out of their relationship, that is. But I watched it develop over time and was always grateful that the two of them had someone to hang out with. Penny is kind of a loner and Pan has always been a human-oriented cat, so spent more time with us than with Delilah. So, over time, Dee and Pepper became quite close... often tucked away on a shared blankie, sleeping together during the day or evening before we closed the place down and went to bed.



When Dee had surgery for cancer and spent even more time sleeping, whenever possible, Pepper spent much of her time by Delilah's side, often leaning in to sniff and make sure that Dee was doing ok. As Dee began her recovery and moved around the house under her own power, Pep would often "shadow" her.

Watching Pepper's devotion to Dee was very touching.

In the time since Dee's passing, Pepper has adapted to her absence but, like a lot of us, has discovered that she really likes those cat-things... they're kinda warm and snuggly and when they slip in to the purr-mode, very relaxing to be around.

So it looks like Pan's been chosen as Pepper's new best friend... which has been a funny process to watch unfold. In Pep's initial efforts, she'd walk up and stick her nose in Pan's face as if to say, "Ok, now you fake a jab with your left, then when I lean left, you pop me on the side of the head and then we'll go take a nap on the couch-blankie."

And until yesterday afternoon, it looked to me as though Pan had the "Jab-the-dog" moves down pat but wasn't much in to having "man's best friend" become her best friend.

But - if this picture is an indicator - there appears to be a crack in her "don't need no stinkin' dog" thinking.

I'm sure Joanne's right, that Pepper "she misses her cat", but hopefully she and Pan can develop their relationship to where they'll both miss their cat a little less.

Thx for stopping by, write when you get work.

Razzberry from Pan

I was puttering around out in the backyard two weeks ago when I heard Pan call to me from our bedroom - she wanted to come outside, too! I told her to hold her horses and this is how she responded! (You'll want to click the pic to see her expression ;)

Needless to say, I put on her necklace and brought her outside to supervise my work efforts.

Some people's kids (and cats)!

COMPLETED: Waiter, there's a zoo in my dining room!

As some of you know, Joanne is the head judge for the California Carvers Guild (CCG). A few weeks ago she received a phone call from a gentleman whose wood-carving father-in-law had passed away some time ago. His family had just located his will and discovered that it included instructions to donate his carvings to the CCG for display in their museums or local clubs or to sell as they saw fit and donate the proceeds to CCG.

Joanne and the son-in-law arranged a drop-off time at our house and as of today they're bunched up in our dining room :) (As usual, mine are record-keeping pics rather than art, so... sorry for the "drive-by shooting" of such fine work. I'll upload all over the next few days and mark the subject line "Complete" so you'll know when they're ready.)

Enjoy! (Remember to click the pic to see the BIG PICTURE!)

The complete menagerie.

Nice horse carving.

I believe this is an Ibis.

The entire flock is here.

Very nice rams head bookends.

Back side of the bookends.

A few more rams heads...


Komodo Dragon
Komodo Dragon II

(I suggest you click on the Komodo pics to see and appreciate the great detail the artist used in this piece - very, very cool!)

Pandora and Alf helping me work :)

Apparently Pan didn't like the italics typestyle I was using and was trying to straighten out my typing ;)

Seriously - who knew cats could be such Luvs? What a character and Luv Queen Pandora is.

Dear Rupert: You're Fired

Yep.

Last week I put a bullet through my lifelong relationship with Denny's and this morning when I fetched my wafer-thin copy of today's Wall Street Journal, I figured it was time to put an end to my 23 year relationship with the Journal, too.

Being a professional sales-type, I must say I was impressed with your staff's effort to "keep me on board", asking why I wanted to cancel, asking me what - specifically - I was unhappy with to the point that I'd ask to have the balance of my subscription fee returned to me.

"Content.

There's not enough of it and of what there is, the information / viewpoint is not unique enough from the other sources of news that I consume (say, NY Times, MSNBC, The Economist, etc).And, oh btw, I hate seeing the left half of the front page content replaced by bullet-summaries of the content of that issue - I read the complete issue without reading the bullets, that's why I subscribe. Also, I don't care much for how the Journal is being loaded up with USA Today-style color graphics, pics and art work - I really DO want thoughtful business / financial analysis / content.

Seriously, if I wanted the fluff you're putting up these days, AOL or Yahoo would be my home page."

As much as I enjoy the physical relationship I have with my early morning coffee and newspapers, after all these years of reading and subscribing to the Journal, I say good luck to you and the WSJ in figuring out your new business model / paradigm, Rupert... I'm outta here and will be watching your progress via WSJ.com.

My Bridgestone RB-T gets upgraded...

Back in '92 (a year before I turned 40), I thought it would be neat to buy a nice bike and do a bit of recreational riding to keep my body parts working as they should.

So I made a list of local bike stores and visited a number of them over the course of a few weekends. It turned out that Palo Alto Bicycles had a pretty good selection of better-than-beater bicycles, from racing to touring (and tandeming)... and their salespeople were bike-techies, too, so they would be able to educate me on the things I needed to know about.

They put me on a racing-style bike and sent me off for a test ride. Nope, not for me - the wheelbase was too short so the damn thing was too skittish for me to handle.

They put me on a cruiser-style (think: Schwinn of the late 60's - mid-70's) but the balloon tires and laid back posture I couldn't see working for me in my desire to commute 22 miles (roundtrip) to work.

Ah, how 'bout a nice touring bike from Bridgestone?

Wheelbase was a little longer, so road bumps and thumps were flattened out; the shifters were at the end of the drop-bars so I didn't have to bend completely over to reach them and at 26 pounds, it was relatively light.

Oh yeah, bay-beee, that's just right - a Clydesdale-type rider like me could handle it just fine: I'll take it.


$700 lighter, me and my Bridgestone RB-T headed home.

Over the years I put 12,000+ miles on that bike. Rode it to work many, many times. Rode it up the Santa Cruz mountains many times. Rode it on the Los Gatos Creek Trail hundreds - if not thousands - of times. Pre-dawn, early morning, near-freezing rain to 100+ degree summer weather, my RBT and I were all over the place.

That is, until one morning about 5 years ago when I was cruising down the Trail at a fairly good clip when an old lady - skinny as a twig with a full head of blue hair - did a U-turn in front of me without looking back to see if somebody might be coming up behind her. Uh-Oh.

I ran through my options in about 1/2 second:

* Hit the old lady and probably kill her. Seriously, I don't think she would have survived the impact.

* Head off the trail to the left at a 45 degree angle. The problem with that was due to the very long and steep decline, vegetation and tree trunks, and - finally - the deep creek at the bottom, I wasn't sure **I** would survive. (seriously)

* Head off the trail to the right and - if I missed the trunks and boulders - end up in the pond and maybe drown.

No option looked appealing so I cranked on the front and rear brakes as hard as I could.

And this is where physics comes in.

Since I had the front wheel turned ever so slightly to the left, when I cranked on the front brakes, it accelerated and deepened the turn to the left until the front wheel was perpendicular to the road (and me). Oh man, this isn't looking good.

The combination of my speed, weight and the wheel angle actually caused me AND THE BIKE to do 1/2 somersault IN THE AIR and land on the pavement on my side. Still strapped in to my bike pedals... basically welded to the bike.

Ouch.

I lay there for a minute or two while a small group of people asked if I was ok... and the old lady chewed me out for not yelling "On Your Left" as I approached her. (No mention about using the eyes God gave her to look to see if anyone was coming, naturally.)

I limped home and over the next few days checked out the bike for damage. It looked pretty good except it was slightly dimpled / bent in one spot. Dang... that ain't gonna buff out. After I'd recovered from the thumping the pavement gave me (coupla weeks), I took the bike to a bike shop I trusted to have it rebuilt... rear gears, front chain rings, etc.

When I stopped by a few days later, a mechanic younger than Owen says, "Man, this thing's bent, I don't think it's safe to ride." I asked him a few questions and each time the answer was basically, "I don't think it's safe to ride" (why don't you just buy a new bike?)

So I took the RB-T home and eventually bought a recumbent bike. But the truth is, the recumbent and I never really settled in. It could be that my ass-to-power ratio is out of whack and a recumbent hurts your knees in that situation... or it could be that it never really fit what I was looking for in a bike.

About this time last year, I started thinking about getting another road bike... whatever today's generation of RB-T kinda bike was. So I googled RB-T and darned if I didn't learn that RB-T's are thought to be some of the best mass-produced touring bikes ever made. In fact, it's not unusual to find them going for 50% more NOW than when they were originally sold - 15 years later.

Dayaaaam, suddenly that almost-rusting frame with the original junk back in my whitetrash storage area was looking a bit prettier - a LOT prettier.

So I put google to work and discovered a couple of things:

* There was an internet forum dedicated to Bridgestone Bicycles. It's called "BOB" for "Bridgestone Owners Bunch" (you can learn more about it at http://www.sheldonbrown.com/bridgestone/whatthehellisabob.html)

and

* The guy (Grant Petersen) that headed marketing for Bridgestone in the US (and wrote the brochures that resonated so strongly with me) had started his own custom-frame bicycle company over in Walnut Creek called Rivendell Bikes (www.rivbike.com).

Visiting riv's website and reading what Grant had written (this time around), I got sucked into thinking about bicycling just like I did back in '92 - a low-key, environmentally sound and healthy means of getting exercise and taking the time to breath in my day-to-day life. Except this time, there was a slight change in his tone - or maybe it was just my perception of what he was saying - this time, he emphasized a "back to cycling basics" approach.

Wearing "regular" clothes - pants / trousers / shorts, sandals / regular shoes, standard t-shirt, etc - just get on your bike and go for a ride. Forget lycra. Forget polyester. Forget $400 worth of special shoes and pedals - just get a "regular" / non-racing bike and go for a ride.

What a concept: Get on a bike a just go for a ride... don't need to race. don't need to sweat buckets. don't need to ride in a tight peloton with 1/2" between the bike in front of you and your bike.

Just get on a bike and go for a ride. Maybe take some pictures. Maybe chat with other people. Heck, maybe ride alongside your wife and chat with her on her bike instead of a mile ahead waiting for her to catch up.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll try that.

Now, I don't know about you, but over the last few years I'd reached the point where I began to think, "Hey, I've got enough STUFF cluttering up my life, maybe I should stop buying NEW STUFF and just use some of what I've got a bit more." so when I began thinking about buying a new bright'n'shiny bicycle, I thought to myself, "Apparently I've got a pretty good bike in the RB-T, maybe I'll just refurbish and upgrade that bike and ride it 'til I drop."

My old-guy bike. Yeah, that's the ticket. No carbon-fiber, 27-speed electric shift, twitchy thing... just me and my RB-T - back together again.

So I began reading up on what I'd need to do to bring it back to life and usable for my purposes. Turns out the project would be non-trivial, but when I was done, I'd have a classic bike in brand new condition and ready to take me wherever my Clydesdale body could pedal - and since I'd done all the work myself, I'd know the bike top-to-bottom, front-to-back, bolt-by-bolt.

I'm on it.

So last Spring I began thinking through what I'd want the bike to serve me for the years ahead and came up with this short list:

* Use original parts whenever possible.

* Add only parts that made the bike more comfortable for my type of riding - around-town "ambling" or long-distance touring - comfort was a key issue for me.

Because I have a slight issue in my upper spine vertebrae, the more upright I was positioned, the more comfortable I was likely to be as I rode.

I wanted to be able to ride wherever I wanted to ride in my standard "uniform of the day": shorts, t-shirt and sandals / regular shoes.

Following Grant's line of thinking, I went from 28MM tires (basically, racing and rock-hard to minimize rolling-resistance) to 35MM tires (mid-pressure / softer and broader tires) which gave me a much more comfortable ride. (I skipped the balloon tires with white walls ;)

* All-weather enabled: Fenders to minimize water / dirt splashing on both the bike and me.

* Pleasing appearance.

Not such a big list, eh?

Then I visited local bike shops to see what they had to make my dream a reality. Big disappointment: They had "off-the-shelf" stuff that you'd see on either big-company bikes or racing bikes. Very little - if any -for my purposes. I bought what I could from local suppliers (Cupertino Bicycles / Vance) for the new headset (steering bearing) / bottom bracket (pedal / crank bearing), rear gear cassettes and from a shop in Sunnyvale, an extendable / variable pitch handlebar stem to accomodate my upper-vertabrae issue.

Next, I located a good powder-coating shop over in Livermore to re-paint the RB-T and then I returned to Riv and began ordering what I needed:

Moustache handlebars.
Brooks leather saddle.
Nitto steel rear rack.
King pedals.
Brass bell.

And because I wanted a certain look and feel, I also ordered leather bar wrap from Velo Orange on the East Coast. (Their web site is at http://www.velo-orange.com) I also ordered Honjo hammered fenders and Plesher double kickstand from Velo.

And finally, I ordered an Air Zound airhorn from http://www.deltacycle.com/product.php?g=1 to clear the lactating herds off the trail in the mornings and an iHome iPod http://www.ihomeaudio.com/products.asp?product_id=10186&dept_id=1007 for music.

And just about the time I got my newly-painted frame back from Maas Brothers in Livermore, I became ill enough that I couldn't ride and couldn't even work on the bike.

Sigh.

About a month after my surgery, I was feeling well enough, so I began re-assembling my new-bike-to-be.

And then Dee became ill and we lost her quickly. I couldn't breathe for weeks after her death. Staying focused and working on something as intricate as the bike... well, I wasn't up to it for awhile. But with everyone's gentle (and not-so-gentle) nudges to get on with my life, combined with Pan's shop assistant support, I got on with my life and began re-assembling in earnest.

I disassembled, cleaned, lubricated, polished and re-installed the original parts that I'd ridden on for years. I followed directions written in a wonderful book on the how-to for the things I didn't already know (and there were many). I called Incline Mike, Springfield Al, Velo Orange, Rivendell and Vance of Cupertino Bikes when I hit a wall... and each time, they acted as if no call was trivial or gave me an "how come you don't know that already?" attitude.

Nope, to a person, every one was very supportive and eventually, the bike came to life and now we're both back on the road every day... not really counting the miles or the time, but really enjoying the sights and sounds.

So below are a few photos I took about 10 days ago... some of them are slightly fuzzy - sorry about that, I had the setting on "macro" and didn't realize it, so I'll need to re-shoot when the weather clears.

As you can see, it's a pretty good looking bike and, I am pleased to say it rides like a dream... it's wonderful! (As you can imagine, I could have gotten a new bike for much less but I would have missed the journey this wonderful project has taken me on.)

Enjoy the photos and don't forget to get out and ride - it's a great way to see your area and get some exercise. (WARNING: YOU REALLY DO WANT TO CLICK THE PICS TO SEE THE FULL IMAGES - some of the work is really exquisite.)


My dedicated shop-assistant, Queen Pan.

Brooks saddle. Still made in the UK on the same machines they were made > 100 years ago.

Ah, French-style Honjo hammered fenders, Plescher double kickstand (no wobbling), King pedals (they're like riding on waffles, they're so big can comfy)

My RB-T in nearly-full Bike-Geek complement.

Leather-wrapped, Moustache bars with Brass bell... Now who wouldn't want these?

Little bit 'o Artsy-Fartsy shadowing going on here.



Only thing missing is multi-colored streamers coming out of the handlebars and a card clothes-pinned to the spokes and I'd be a kid again, eh? ;)

Thanks to Incline Mike, Springfield Al, Velo Orange, Grant Petersen of Rivendell and Vance of Cupertino Bikes for their patience and guidance.

Special thanks to Joanne for her special support in bringing the Bridgestone back to such a beautiful state :)

Ride on, House-dude.

(Oh, and... wait 'til you see what I'm doing with our '93 Ibis Cousin It (upright) Tandem!

No, I haven't forgotten to post the rest of Delilah's pictures

Yesterday marked the three month anniversary since Dee passed away. I expected to have all of her photos and videos posted by this point in time but, to tell you the truth, while it's sooooooo wonderful to see and hear her while I'm doing it, going through all the pics and videos is still just too emotionally draining for me.

On one hand, I wish it weren't so.

On the other, Delilah was such a wonderful and close companion, friend and family member that "letting her go" shouldn't be easy - and it's not - so we'll just have to let time and nature have their way.

Thx for understanding :)

Cotton Candy Clouds

While on her way to work one morning about ten days ago, Joanne called me and said, "You've gotta go outside and take some pictures of the sky and the clouds - they're great!".

So like an obedient house-dude, I grabbed my handy-dandy Canon, headed outside and shot these just for you (and her ;)

Enjoy. (Remember to click the pic to see the BIG PICTURE)

Dear Denny's: You're Fired

Dear Denny's,

I'm an old-school guy. I buy, maintain and drive my cars / motorcycles / boats until the wheels / go-fast parts fall off. I'm brand-loyal to a fault in that once I find a brand that works well for me (say, GMC trucks, Honda motorcycles and cars, Boston Whaler boats, Shell Oil gas, Bridgestone & IBIS bicycles, Denny's breakfasts, etc) I stay with them until it's clear we're no longer meant to be together.

Which brings me to this "Farewell to Denny's" note.

Last week I had the good fortune to attend the NAMM Conference in Los Angeles... had a great time, met and saw lots of extraordinary musicians - heck, I even had a chance to visit our son and his family for a few days. Then with a busy week behind me, on Saturday morning at 4:55AM I began driving from LA back home to the Silicon Valley. (Remember: Old school here, so I like to hit the road early before traffic gums things up).

A couple hours out of LA I decided to stop for a quick Slam breakfast at a Denny's I'm familiar with at a small coastal town. (Town begins with the letter "P"). When I travel, I usually pack my camera case filled with (not inexpensive) cameras and lenses so I like to park where I can watch my car from inside the restaurant; to do this, I need to have line-of-sight to my car from inside the restaurant. Since this particular restaurant's parking is on the side-only, when I entered the restaurant I asked to be seated in the (empty) section nearest my car since the open section where he started to seat me had no line-of-sight to my car.

As he was seating me, another waiter came to me and said loudly, "I'd like people to be seated in the open area, out front."

Before the person who was seating me could respond, I said to the speaker, "I asked him to seat me here so I could keep an eye on my car - I don't want it to get broken in to and I'd like to keep an eye on it while I eat."

New waiter-guy says to me, "It won't get broken in to, what would you like to drink?"

Me: "Nothing, thanks, I'll take my business elsewhere. Thank you."

New waiter-guy, "Have a nice day." (Well, I guess he really showed me!)

I don't remember seeing "Lip Service" on the menu and it certainly wasn't what I was planning on ordering but it's obviously what was being dished out.

Being a salesguy and mildly successful manager of growing businesses in my past life, and since I'm never going to eat at a Denny's again - in my lifetime - I can't help but do the math on what that guy's "Won't get broken in to" (he forgot to include, "and if it does, our signs say we're not responsible for it", "Have a nice day" Lip Service cost Denny's.

My meal: $7.99.
Probably not a lot of profit in a 5.99 Slam meal and a cup of coffee, so the one-off is not so bad.
Loss of $1.50 tip... just $1.50, not so bad, I guess.

But what if this happens only 1x per day at each Denny's location on the planet. Heck, let's do the math together:

1,541 franchise and company-owned stores.
x
$7.99
-------
$12,312 fewer sales each day
$ 2,311 fewer tips to Denny's employees each day
Some would say, "not so bad".

But what happens when we run those numbers over a year's period of time:

$12,312 fewer sales each day
x
365 days of the year
-------
$4,493,880 fewer sales per year. Some would say this is REAL MONEY.Judging by the financials Denny's reported to Wall Street, I bet even Denny's would think this is Real Money.

AND let's not forget the direct, in-the-pocket hit the employees take

$ 2,311 fewer tips to Denny's employees each day
x
365 days of the year
-------
$843,697 fewer tips to Denny's employees each day. I've never met a group of employees who would say they'd take $850K less in pay each year. Never-ever, Not Once, Not no-how.

You might want to do yourselves a favor and pass on to your employee's your company values regarding dealing with customers in these types of situations.

(By the way, I drove to Paso Robles and had breakfast at Margies Cafe. It cost more, had waaaay too much food on the plate, but I could keep an eye on my car and they were polite to me. What a concept.)

Have a Nice Day!

Continued improvement for Incline Milo

A quick note to send e-hugs and e-Cheerios to our ailing feline friend, Incline Milo.

We join Incline Mike and Mimi in their relief that Milo is recovering from his recent bout of "Dang, I'm not feeling so good - get me to a Vet" :)

Milo's a great guy and we look forward to watching episodes of "Bite The Kitty" starring Milo & Claire in the near future.

Sad news...

Joanne and I were saddened to learn that two of our longtime friends had recently passed away.

We met Dr. Harry Smith (Ear, Nose & Throat guy) back in '88 when I needed surgery for my allergies. It was obvious from Harry's office photos that he loved Scuba diving and over time, Harry and I became friends and dove together in Monterey (for Halibut) and the Half Moon Bay area (for Abalone). In addition to being an excellent physician - his "bedside manner" was a real reflection of his "regular guy" personality - Harry was a helluva good guy. Period. Overnout.

Harry and I last saw one another about a year ago in the local Safeway. It'd been a few years since we'd seen each other (he retired back in '01) so we spent a half hour yakking over a cup of coffee... just catching up. In spite of his formal retirement, he remained involved in clinical work and told me what a wonderful time he and his wife, Peg, were having with their family and "life in general".

You can read Harry's obituary at http://www.legacy.com/mercurynews/obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=121628445. While the words may seem a bit "bright and shiny", they reflect the Harry Smith I know to a "T".

And last Friday, we learned that my former co-worker, racquetball adversary and longtime friend, Gary Neill had passed away in Austin, Tx.

Gary and I met at Unison Software back in '89 / '90 when he became our CFO. Obviously bright, hard-charging and pretty hair on fire for a Finance guy, Gary was a couple of years younger than me and had already created, ramped and sold a couple successful companies. We worked together for the next 4+ years and spent a fair amount of time playing racquetball (while it didn't happen often enough for my liking, Gary was an unpleasant loser ;)

After leaving Unison, Gary ended up being part of / leading several successful young companies and it was always a pleasure / bit of wonder at how he "made things happen" wherever he went.

The last time Gary and I spoke was about a year ago when I called him to ask for feedback on something I was working on for "the book" (you know, "The Book" ;). As always, he answered the phone with "Hey Ace, how's it going?" and finishing our call with "Sure, send it over and I'll be glad to take a look at it for you."

While I'm saddened by my personal loss of both of these people, I know my sadness is nothing compared to the sadness their families are feeling and to them I send my heartfelt condolences at the loss of their loved ones.