Today I made/bought/learnt (for a post oil world) 5

[rangerone314]

Gads. My stevia doesn't cause me pain, LOL!

Could bees sting through a diving suit?

Wife is opposed to having bees, though. I have had mixed dealings with winged insects. My plan to rid mosquitos is to place another bat house on a work friends property (he has bats in a barn and a bat house) and bring them home. Then introducing red spotted newts (that eat aquatic mosquito larvae) from the aquarium store into the marshy woods, and expanding a habitat designed to encourage dragonflies.

Yellow jackets have been twice defeated; once near the house in my herb garden and once on the side of my experimental garden (discovered when I stumbled into their nesting site at dusk by accident, very painful about 20 stings). I got revenge the next day using insecticide, 7 foot metal pole, bleach and ammonia, kerosine and flaming paper towels and also beating them with a shovel. Didn't get stung once that day because I was like a ninja.

Mixed feelings about that though--they are aggressive but I'd prefer not to have to kill them as they can destroy harmful insects. Next time they are found, if they are in some place that is avoidable, I will erect 4 poles and police tape around them, so it will be like the Romulan Neutral Zone.

I would like bees someday though, there is a seller in Dundalk that carries Russian bees that should be collapse resistant.

[careinke]

I had a bee keeper tell me the other day that Russian Bees were just mean, but very productive and hardy. Then she went on to tell me she was attacked by Russian bees when she was pregnant. According to her, all she did was crack the hive open to take a peek. She was hoping that the hive would die off over the winter, but of course they survived, so she broke the hive up, and spread the bees around to numerous hives.

She suggested learning with Italian Bees.

[Cog]

I had to LOL about your battle with the infamous yellow jackets. They are some bad-ass little beasts that eat a lot of spiders so I don't try to destroy them unless I have to.

I too have resorted to an assorted types of weaponry to kill them. Usually with somewhat hilarious results.

[rangerone314]

One my favorite tactics was to take a long metal spear-shaped bar (pointed at one end, round at the other) and tie a long rope to the rounded end. I'd wait until they are calm and then toss the pointed end at where there nest is from about 10 feet away and then run. Then I'd reel it in with the long rope and then re-toss.

Eventually, I managed to get the pry bar under their nest and then levered out of the ground and exposed, then the fun begins with bleach and ammonia and lighter fluid.

Its fun watching them from a distance, because you can see their patrols circling around looking for what was provoking them, but they didn't find me. One almost found me, but I hit it with a ping-pong paddle and sent it sailing, then ran.

[PrestonSturges]

1% pine oil is sudden death to yellow jackets. With a sprayer it'll take them right out of the air. A bucket of 1% pine oil down their hole would do in most of them. Costco used to sell 10% pine, don't know where you'd find it now.

[careinke]

Went crazy today buying perennials for my new forest garden. Black current, Jostaberry, Gooseberry, two types of Figs, Two types of Kiwi, perennial Sunflowers, Sunchokes, Yarrow, Blueberry, Wintergreen, Bay, and Rhubarb. Plus crimson clover, white clover, and rye.

[PrestonSturges]

I put the Brown Turkey fig tree in the kitchen garden, figuring that the warm weather will bring bugs that would eat all our vegetables. It was doing pretty well as a container plant and after 3 years it was just about to get rootbound in a 20" pot.

[Loki]

Went crazy today buying perennials for my new forest garden. Black current, Jostaberry, Gooseberry, two types of Figs, Two types of Kiwi, perennial Sunflowers, Sunchokes, Yarrow, Blueberry, Wintergreen, Bay, and Rhubarb. Plus crimson clover, white clover, and rye.

Nice. I've become a fan of sunchokes, we grow a 1/4 acre or so of them on the farm, they're pretty trouble free. And they taste good!

I did nothing to prepare for a post-oil world today. Had a brutal week of farming, needed a rest, plus I'm under the weather. Spent all day yesterday wading through waist-deep water moving trays out of our greenhouses. Got hit by another god damn flood, almost as bad as the one in January. The 1200 bed feet of peas we just transplanted were underwater all day

[Shaved Monkey]

She suggested learning with Italian Bees.

Ligurian bees

The Ligurian bee came from northern Italy, from the province of Liguria. It was brought to Kangaroo Island because it was recognised as a quiet, gentle, industrious bee, and the climate is very similar to what - on Kangaroo Island, to that of northern Italy.
In the early 1880's Ligurian bees were imported by the South Australian Chamber of Manufacturers.
Kangaroo Island was declared a bee sanctuary in 1885. No other bees have since been imported to the Island.

http://www.users.on.net/~hogbay/hogbay2.htm

“The queen reflects the hive,so if the queen is aggressive so is the hive. The Ligurian bees are known for their docility.

http://www.users.on.net/~hogbay/hogbay12.htm

[rangerone314]

“The queen reflects the hive,so if the queen is aggressive so is the hive. The Ligurian bees are known for their docility.

http://www.users.on.net/~hogbay/hogbay12.htm

I wonder if that's true of humans; my wife certainly isn't docile.

[AgentR11]

This week, blew through my weight loss target, blood work came back flawless; and my 1 minute recovery from max effort is now 40 bpm. Took nine months, and surprisingly enough averaged what all the journals recommend, about a pound a week. Its kinda funny because weight loss wasn't the objective, but it's so easy to track compared with other, more functional metrics, that you end up paying attention to it anyway. Of course, shouldn't have let it go for so long to begin with; can't expect to meet some of the incoming challenges while alternating between office chair and recliner, but its all fixed now. 5'8" 210lb, ready for hell, or pea picking, as conditions dictate! lol

[rangerone314]

Tired now, as of Sunday. I have used about 200 gallons of mulch and pulled about 80 gallons of weeds & leaves from my southeastern hedge; I am almost finished that whole area. The worst was weeding under the blackberries & boysenberries; they are unforgiving and old dead branches with thorns are hard to see mixed in with brown tree leaves & grass. The St John's Wort growing next to the boysenberries was unharmed, and has expanded since last year.

[rangerone314]

Tired now.

Friday morning & mid-afternoon was dedicated to distinctly recreational and NON-peak oil activities, although tangentially related since it pertained to knocking things off of my "To-Do-List" of life, and I actually ended up learning a lot more things than I even originally had thought I would.

Friday afternoon, despite being worn out, I managed to deal with the arrival of my Liberty safe, a massive green 550-lb 6' tall fire & gun safe. (Made in the USA, also!) With the short jack, the deliverer managed to get the safe through the deck door and then into the basement doorway. After unbolting it off the skid, and sliding it off carefully, and with clever use of a green hand truck, I was able to get it in further so I could close the door, and after that, across the den to the other half of the den. Eventually I'll get it into its final place, and bolted down. I have two different types of dessicant/dehumidifiers for inside it.

Between Saturday and Sunday, I worked about 7 hours and purged about 132 gallons of weeds & tree leaves from my southeast hedge, and re-mulched with about 255 gallons of mulch, depleting nearly all my "reserve" piles of mulch. I am almost finished that whole area.

The worst was weeding under the blackberries & boysenberries; they are unforgiving and old dead branches with thorns are hard to see mixed in with brown tree leaves & grass. The St John's Wort growing (I didn't plant it) next to the boysenberries was unharmed, and has expanded since last year.

[Shaved Monkey]

Just sharing this free chicken food maker.
Throw what ever you want in the bucket and the black soldier flys will self harvest lots of protein for your chooks
Brilliant and simple.
http://gardenpool.org/beneficial-insect ... ken-feeder
and new trees in 6 weeks virtually for free
http://gardenpool.org/online-classes/air-layering

[PrestonSturges]

After 20 years of relentless pounding, the bottom bracket of my Schwinn AirDyne disintegrated from metal fatigue. Schwinnn is not sure their current model will fit my bike, but we'll try it. If not, I guess I'd weld in a new piece of frame.

[Loki]

I was going to cut some logs for the shiitake spawn I ordered yesterday, but my chainsaw died 5 minutes into the process. Can't get it restarted. So I guess instead of readying logs for inoculation this weekend I get to learn more about chainsaw troubleshooting

I started volunteering with the local watershed council, checking fish traps, which I did today for the second time. Been wanting to get back into volunteering, nice to have finally gotten off my duff and done it. I consider getting more involved with the local community to be an often overlooked form of prepping.

Firmed up my personal gardening plans for this season. I'll be growing a shit ton of sunflowers for veg oil (several thousand square feet), roughly 45 mushroom logs (mostly shiitake), and some containerized plants, probably just mint, chamomile, lemon balm, and horseradish. I'm also getting two pigs, which I'll be picking up on Wednesday! First time I've raised livestock of my own, though I helped take care of the farm pigs last year.

Today I also got a bunch of propane that I'm hoping will last me through the summer and maybe into the fall.

[PrestonSturges]

Well that's pretty exciting about the pigs!

I helped ny neighbor plant the Black mission and Celeste figs I gave him. The more figs that are in the general area, the less the critters will focus on mine.

[careinke]

Installed my first bees.

[PrestonSturges]

My holly trees have been blooming, and the little flowers have been attracting swarms of bees.

[PeakOiler]

Installed my first bees. <<snip>>

Very cool. Am I not seeing things, but where are your gloves?

mmmm, honey. A food I'm to avoid these days...

Today I repaired my emergency backup gasoline-powered electrical generator. I haven't used it in so long the old gas (damn ethanol) had clogged up the jets in the carburetor. The carb's bowl appeared to also have a lot of polymerized (?) material or resin built up on the interior. Cleaned that out real well. Put it all together and it runs fine again.

I know for sure now that I should always drain all the gas from the infernal machine when I'm not going to use it for a long time.