7/12/2024
I know this is a little, well a lot late, but I hope everyone had a great Independence Day celebration! Several things to discuss and to provide updates on what’s going on around here.
Independence Day and Covid-19
On the third anniversary of me being diagnosed with Covid-19, it happened again. To say the least, i was not happy. This brought back a bunch of memories that I wanted to stay as memories and not to go live again.
On Monday, July 1st, my granddaughter, Linda, and I went to a yoga class and then on to a doctor’s appointment for Linda that will be discussed in later. Anyway, we had a great day and thought nothing more about it. On Wednesday, the symptoms began and on Thursday, the 4th, Linda took me to the Emergency Room. We both thought, that if anything was going on it would be pneumonia. Not this time. Needless to say we had to cancel our annual party and stay home. Still not real pleased.
Skin cancer scare
Several months ago, Linda and I went to a skin cancer screening that was sponsored by Boone Hospital. They found a spot on me and a couple on Linda. I made an appointment with a Dermatologist at the VA who didn’t like what she saw and cut it out. It turned out to be a Basal Cell Carcinoma. I was relieved that that was all it was.
Linda, on the other hand, at her appointment at Central Missouri Dermatology, was found to have a different sort of Basal Cell Carcinoma. It was on the end of her nose and buried deep in the tissue instead of being a nodule on the surface, like mine was. She had to have a mohs surgery. The tumor was completely removed and the skin graft is healing well. Just can’t take pictures of her for a little while.
The bees
Composite video of the bee activity level today.
Now that the scary part of the last few weeks has been discussed, it time to talk about the bees. All five colonies are doing well. I’ve added a few frames to all of them, meaning the colonies are growing and hopefully making honey. I hope the mini-monsoon we just had will extend the pollen and nectar season a few more weeks. Not looking forward to dealing with the dearth.
The Quilt box is ready for it’s new inhabitants. If it doesn’t rain tonight, and probably if it does, we plan on picking up a swarm trap tonight. The bees have been in it for about a month, so it’s time to move them.
I noticed all of the colonies have small hive beetles which are being managed by the bees. I literally saw bees chasing the beetles away and trying to keep them confined to a small area. To help with control, I sprinkled diatomaceous earth around each of the hive boxes. The idea is that when the beetle pupae leaves the hive box it will land in the diatomaceous earth and die. I also found some ants and gave their trails a good dusting.
The Greenhouse
The greenhouse has been resided, with the exception of the sloped front. The material we picked out Solexx, it very easy to work with and I hope it will provide many years of service.
Here are a few pictures of the progress.
The lavender bed
The lavender bed is doing great. We lost a couple of plants for reasons unknown, but the rest are growing like they should.
A few pictures to share.
Soil monitoring
Several years ago, I purchased a Davis Pro2 to monitor the weather. it sends data to my weather site eds-weather.info as well as to my instance of Home Assistant. At the time I purchased the station, the soil monitoring module was on sale for a surprisingly low price. I purchased it and sort of had it setup monitoring soil temperatures at different depths.
Lavender doesn’t like a really wet environment, so I moved the soil module to the bed. It monitors temperature and moisture at 4″, 8″, 12″ and 16″. So far it is providing really good data to analyze.
I think that’s everything for today. Hope you enjoyed the content.
Last modified:
Leave a Reply