Primitive man sought to master the elemental forces of nature–none were fiercer than the bee. Has modern man progressed any further? You decide:

Yes, we got our bee stuff today! (Everything except the suits and the bees themselves.) What you see before you is a hive stand, bottom board and entrance reducer (barely visible, the little insignia and then the gap in the wood toward the left), 5 medium-depth “supers” containing 8 frames, ready for masses of bees to make delightfully tasty honey in them, a hidden inner cover, and then the telescoping top with metal roof. The yellow thing I am holding is the Italian Hive Tool (ooh la la).
Katie’s favorite device, however, is the smoker:

What a piece of art. Why buy the puny “hobbyist” smoker for $27 when you can buy this, the deluxe, “commercial”, industry-grade, pro-smoker (for only $9 more)? That’s exactly what I thought, too!

Not shown are the cool gloves, fume pad for stealing the bees’ honey, queen excluder (don’t ask), and pail feeder.

Katie and I are both totally pumped–getting this equipment is starting to make it real. Thanks Brushy Mountain Bee Farm.

Garden update:

Today Katie and I made furrows and mounds in the garden soil to prepare for planting the seeds, and then we planted them!

We fit five rows in our 8 feet of garden width, separating each mound by about 18 inches. Then we sowed five different seed types, one for each row:

1. Lettuce
2. Beets
3. Swiss Chard
4. Spinach
5. Basil

I wanted to plant all the seeds along the 9 feet long rows, but Katie wisely advised we only plant a third of the length of the row now to space out the harvest later, otherwise we would get a glut of each crop and then have a dearth shortly thereafter. I can’t argue with such logic!

Here is what our garden looks like now, but underneath the soil are the tiny seeds:

Today is a bonanza of chivalry and manliness after God the Father’s own heart:

St. Gabriel Possenti.

Which brings up the second incident in which St. Gabriel Possenti demonstrated the virtues of Catholic manhood. Again it involved a potential rape, but this time the victims were a couple of young virgins. The perpetrators were two soldiers-turned-brigands who were part of a larger gang pillaging the village.

Rather than hide in the monastery like the rest of the clergy, St. Gabriel Possenti approached the rapists and grabbed their revolvers. With a pistol in each hand, he ordered the brutes to unhand the crying maidens.

The Medal of Honor awarded to Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall.

Crandall and his wingman, Ed “Too Tall” Freeman, saved 70 wounded soldiers that day.

Bishop Finn’s pastoral letter to combat pornography in his diocese.

The pastoral letter also urges Catholics to tap into the power of prayer and the sacraments, particularly frequent confession and reception of the Eucharist, in order to break the cycle of pornography use and build the spiritual graces and strength to resist future temptation.

…how your garden grows,
’cause I just wanna fly…
(Who else but Oasis could come up with such brilliant lyrics?)

Katie and I have started our garden!

more…

This is exactly what Katie and I will be doing in a month when our bees arrive (except probably not as easily!):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek7dDtZ0lK8.

I just placed a large order of bee equipment from Brushy Mountain.

Like many hobbies, beekeeping has its own unique set of rules, customs, problems, costs, and confusions.  Beekeeping definitely falls on the more complex side of the bell curve as compared with other hobbies.

For example, I ordered “medium-sized, cut-comb, wax foundation” to insert into the “frames” that are put into the “super” which is then protected by an “inner cover” and finally a “telescoping top”.

more…

Including humor from Father Benedict Groeschel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

In the New York Sun.

Then he [Father Groeschel] laughed and continued: “The doctors said I wouldn’t live and I lived. They said I wouldn’t think, and I think. They said I wouldn’t speak, and I speak, They said I wouldn’t walk, and I walk. They said I wouldn’t dance, but I never could anyway, so that was all right.” His survival is truly a miracle.

Well, we started with: “Bless the Lord! 600 people signed up for an hour of adoration!”

Then as the weight hit me of trying to call each person and fill the 168-hour weekly schedule by March 5th, it became “Oh no! 600 people signed up for an hour of adoration. Lord, help us!”

more…

 

Devin Shawn Rose is an amazing man.  We had our first married tiff last night, and, boy, was it a doozie.  We followed all the rules–don’t go to bed angry, use “I” language, dialogue sitting down and facing each other.

Until we lost our tempers, and then we needed a little space to clear our heads, so we chose separate rooms in the house for a time.

But, we did it.  We weathered our first major disagreement as husband and wife with flying colors.  And, thanks to Jesus, who saves us with His holy cross between us, we have reached deeper unity and better mutual understanding.

All this is to say, of course, that I’m married to the best man I know.  Thank you, dear Devin, for your mercy and love and patience.  I’m glad to be your wife.  YKC!

I have been learning much on bees and even more about the people considered beekeeping legends, one of whom is George Imirie.  Some of his articles have been saved on this website.

Here is an excerpt from one of his writings:

People want to know “what are all these high salaried government scientists have been doing, and why haven’t they found a QUICK FIX that is CHEAP [to bee diseases]?” First there are precious few bee scientists in our country, because our legislators know almost nothing about a honey bee, other than HONEY and STING, so bees are deemed quite UNIMPORTANT except for the trial lawyer who sues a beekeeper for millions of dollars because his bees stung someone who was vandalizing an apiary.

more…