Pictures delayed:

Logan and I got home and took a 3 hour nap, John got off early and took a 2 hour nap, he and I are both sick, although with two different things. Logan, although sniffily, is her usual energetic self, planning to go to school tomorrow even if I stay home (how?) tomorrow, because "Waldorf needs me."

Honey Harvest!

Finally after three years of keeping bees, I've actually managed to collect honey at the end of the season! From five hives, with help from John, Joana and Steve, I have 40 lbs of honey. Which sounds much more impressive than 3 gallons plus a bit. There is also a fair bit of honey still in the honey comb, which the bees politely built where ever I had a space open, whether I actually wanted it there or not.

John and Steve extracted the honey, after some false starts due to a lack of information from me, while Joana and I opened the hives and figured out which frames of honey to remove and which to leave. Joana provided most of the muscle, and a good deal of common sense, since I am still likely to forget my head if it's not properly attached, and was an extremely able second pair of hands.

Three of the hives had little to no honey we could remove, although two of them were new this year, and the third is one of my first, which has determinedly done less well than I'd like. One hive, which was new last year, is filled with overachievers, and produced a whopping amount of honey all on their own. And the other provided a good bit. Next year those two will have an easier start of things because they'll have the honey frames back that they have already drawn out wax on. Although unless I figure out a method to keep track of which frames went with which hive, or leave the supers on the hives for the bees to care for over winter, I'll be hard pressed to know which hive gets which box of frames.

We also medicated the bees for the autumn, put in mite stuff which should kill or drive away mites, and rearranged things where we could to have as many frames as possible in each hive, except for one which had two or more frames worth of free standing honey comb, which was supported by frames on either side. I concluded it was best to let the bees keep that for the time being, since it had a lot of their winter food supply stored in it.

Joy of joys we got through the entire process with only one sting, total, on Joana's knee, five minutes before we finished for the day. Steve came very close to take pictures, while the bees were calm, and almost as close later when we had an impressive amount of freestanding comb in one deep. I'll put pictures up this evening, either here, in their own post, or as a link so you can just load them some time when you have time.

Joana and I were stiff and tired by the end of the day. John and Steve reported that they were sore from the interesting positions they got in to with Bethroot's old honey extractor, although no one was able to take pictures of those. Everyone was covered in honey to some extent. We left out the equipment with honey on it for the bees to scavenge honey from, and then we'll clean it up another day after they've finished their job.

Those of you interested in and healthy enough to have raw honey, may get some in the mail in due course. I don't have a lot to share, but I greatly hope to have more next year. When I get home this afternoon I'll walk past the bees, from a safe distance, and see how they've settled in. I've got two more weeks of medicating them, and then I'll start allergy shots to, in time, diminish my reaction to stings.

As with the last longer post, once I'm home I'll get this spell checked, but for now you get it filled with authentic "penny spelling's" and typos. Enjoy

dognaping

Logan put herself to bed last night.

School Days:

Ok, Logan is IN SCHOOL! Who'd have ever thought that would happen? Not me before adding skin cancer and hypertension to my life. As it is, John and I will have to debate whether she continues there after this year. For the moment, she loves it. And was especially pleased that her teachers (Ms. Marie Christine and Ms. Kathy) told her she did not have to come to school on Saturday or Sunday, and that none of the other children would come, so she wouldn't miss out on playing with them. And amazingly enough those were the same two days that John had off from work, so we were all able to stay home together! :-)

Logan is in the Rose Kindergarten at the Eugene Waldorf School. This is in the same room as the summer arts program was in, but with a different set of teachers. At least two of the other children from the summer program are in her class, and we see others from the other kindergartens at gatherings. We have to be there by 8:30 in the morning, which puts Logan and me both on a much earlier out of the house schedule than we'd been on before. In theory Logan will nap in the afternoons, and go to bed earlier than 9 or 9:30. So far it hasn't actually worked out that way many days yet.

School finishes for the day at 12:30 for kindergarteners, when I collect Logan
Genevieve (there is also a Logan David in her class, and of all things, a Penelope! I don't think I've run in to a miniature Penelope before this.) On the days we've planned ahead well enough, Logan and I bring our lunch and can eat at the school, in the car or at a park. On other days we get lunch out.

The plan, at the moment, is that I will find work in Eugene to help to fund the cost of gas and occasional lunches. So far, perusing the advertisements, there hasn't been anything appropriate or with a schedule that matches my three available hours a day. Most days before today, I've been kept busy with errands (rain pants for Logan for school, since the pair she already owns is lost! Grocery store stops, bee store stops. . . the list is endless!) Today I'm in a café a few blocks from the school with internet access drinking tea. (no help wanted signs on the door of the health food store associated with the café, but it does seem to be a good place to be! And one that's harder to get caught up in unplanned spending of money.) If I can avoid spending money we don't need to spend, and can figure out how to plan brown bag lunches that work for both me and Logan, that will help keep costs down significantly. In the past several years (pre Logan) I've walked in to jobs rather than hunting for them, so I'm inclined to wait and see what opportunities present themselves, as I enjoy the realty peace and quiet of mornings without Logan.
I'm also hoping to fit in some volunteer work at the Waldorf school. There are numerous opportunities there for people to do things, but I'm not rushing to be put to work with them either, as I acclimatize to the early day schedule.

I took a First Day Of School picture of Logan. Which is, of course, at home. I'll add it to this post, or to a new one once I'm home.


Logan about to leave for school on 9 September 2005

School has a dress code, although it seems to be followed to the letter but not perhaps the intent, since older girls wear rubber bracelets similar to mine with letters and words on them. However clothing is not to have letters or numbers on it, nor licensed or cartoon-type characters. The goal is to dress modestly and not wear clothing designed to draw attention to the clothing rather than the person as a whole. (There are many specifics, trust me.) Dresses and shorts must come at least to almost the knee. Shirts must have shoulders (sleeveless tops yes, string tank tops no), and overlap the waist so that a gap is not shown. Shoes must be a sort that will stay on for play, which stops Logan from wearing her annoying as hell click clack shoes (wood bottomed clogs), at least for school. Over all none of this effects Logan all that much, although I find I have to think about what I'm likely to wear if I'm going to be at the school very much.

I'm going to post this as it is, typos and all (I've got to get the MS Word dictionary on to the lap top!) and then I'll spell check it and add the picture once Logan and I are home again later today. (done now!)

John is 37!

Logan's eye view of Papa on his birthday


John in and amid birthday presents.

Hey You:

Sorry, this isn't a post about life in Oregon at the moment. I just saw someone post elsewhere on the web about donating money for hurricane Katrina help to a UU based group and a Quaker based group, and said, effectively "duh" to myself. I've been wanting to do something to help, and trying to figure out what to do beyond packing up a box of clothes and toys to send. These are groups that I'm willing to trust more with some of my money.

UUSC, UUA establish joint Gulf Coast hurricane relief effort

American Friends Service Committee

The person whose post I read also mentioned giving money to a couple other groups, which I am not familiar with. I do believe the woman posting checks her information pretty carefully, so in case anyone is interested, here they are:

Map International getting medicines to folks in need in New Orleans (etc, I hope)

America's Second Harvest Getting food to the folks in need in New Orleans.

I've listed our space here in multiple places as able to host at least a couple displaced people. I'm doubtful that anyone is going to get so far as Oregon without having family or good friends in the area, but it's something I can do.

Those of you closer, are you doing all you can? Can you donate money, or blood, or space? Can you write about what you've done somewhere that other people will see it and encourage them to do what they can? I'm considering donating blood, although I'm not sure it's wise given my reaction to extra stress on my body of getting sick. The only place I've donated money so far is The Humane Society, because I wasn't sure where else before today.

Think about the hurricanes you remember. This one is worse I'm betting. Do what you can. (And yes, those of you who don't donate on line, I'm sure you can mail checks to these places! If you don't see an address and can't track it down I'll do it for you, let me know.)