Best Laid Plans....

 The bee guys showed up this morning, smoked the bees, cut into the tree only to find that most of the bees had abandoned the hive.

There was a lot of honeycomb, but it was already infested with maggots and unusable.

Bees 5

 

In what may be a serious case of counting our chickens, I went to Lowe's and got supplies for harvesting honey. 

The upper stacked bucket has a paint screen installed over the top and a bunch of holes drilled in the bottom. I know it is a terrible, out of focus picture, but you get the idea.

Of course, we have no idea how much honey is in the tree but we're hoping for (and prepared for) quite a bit. 

Bees IV

 

The bee tree is down.  

The tree guys felled it yesterday with only minor injuries.  The guy who made the final cut stood around watching for too long and got stung about a dozen times.  I was about fifty feet away from him and farther from the tree.  When he ran toward me, I ran away but I wasn't quick enough.  I got stung four times on my head and neck.

Bees III

 The bee tree is scheduled to come down today.  

All the wood from the trees previously cut down has been picked up by neighbors with fireplaces.  The wood was so good I almost wished we still had a fireplace.

Bees II

 Progress report on the Bee Tree.

We have located someone who will come collect the hive.  

He, and several others I talked to, suggested dropping the tree and letting it set for a few days, so the tree is coming down on Monday and he will be out to get the bees on Friday.

Bees in my trees

 We have had three large oak trees struck by lightning since the beginning of the year, and we had a crew out yesterday to cut them down.  

Two of the trees went like clockwork, but on the first one they tried they discovered a beehive about twenty feet up.  Since then, I've learned more about bees in trees than I ever needed to know.

For example, the beekeeper who will come relocate the bees for the hive is an urban myth.  The cheapest estimate I've heard was about $300, and that one came with a caveat.  

Everyone seems to agree that our best bet is to drop the tree then let it set for a while.  How long it should set is the question - I've been told everything from two days to two weeks.

The tree guys are coming back Monday to fell the tree.  Not sure what will happen after that.

If Sisyphus had a Blog

 

In my last post, I discussed inertia as a possible reason I haven't posted much lately.  I failed to mention other likely causes like old age, boredom and downright laziness.  

The truth is finding something worth posting every day is a Sisyphean task.

I am trying.  I haven't touched the rock yet - can barely see the hill - but I'm gathering myself for a running start.

Inertia vs Decay

 

Newton's first Law of Motion says that an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest - unless acted upon by an outside force.  

I think this inertia has attacked my blog.

For the first dozen years, I faithfully posted once a day.  Lately, it has been more like once or twice a month.

I can come up with lots of reasons - nothing worth talking about, or something too personal to share, etc.- but I think has more to do with inertia.  The longer I go without posting, the harder it gets to do.

The other possible cause is decay.  There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.  Whether from friction or gravity, everything eventually slows down.