Archive for April, 2007
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Bees Love This Flower
And I just figured out tonight that it is called Blue Curls or Phacelia Congesta:
I see it on the side of the road by some railroad tracks on my walk home, and bees are always on it, so I want to plant it in our yard.Â
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Sunday, April 29th, 2007
Texas Alliance for Life
My beloved wife is very involved with the pro-life movement, an grassroots effort that brings together people from all walks of life to support the sanctity of human life in Texas.
I have learned so much about the workings of our Texas state government through Katie, who tells me about the successes and failures that she [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War, Theology of the Body by Devman
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Archbishop Burke: Stand And Deliver
Thanks be to God for holy archbishops like Archbishop Burke in St. Louis!
Sadly, Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital invited Sheryl Crow to perform a concert for the benefit of the hospital. Ms. Crow believes that cloning human beings and then destroying them is good to do and actively lobbied in the recent Missouri elections that [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
Bees Drinking Sugar Water Syrup
I filled up the 2 gallon feeder pail with sugar water after me and Katie’s bee inspection, but some of it spilled on their front entrance.
The bees all lined up and started drinking it together:
WPvideo 1.10
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
My Best Man, Robert, Now in New York!
Robert has now moved to Long Island, New York! We miss him already, though fortunately he will be coming back to Texas for a few weeks in June for Gerardo and Roxanna’s wedding.
Roxanna, Gerardo’s fiancee, took a picture of me and Robert and Gerardo (aka “the G”) when we went out to dinner together [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
My Husband is Amazing
Devin is trying to make me fall more in love with him this week. And, my goodness, it’s working!
First, I arrived home on Saturday afternoon, after a long and luxurious day of relaxing at my Theology conference, to find that Devin had:
*Installed a new shower pipe and head in our guest restroom
*Installed a new [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life, Love and War, Saints and Angels by Katie
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
2nd Bee Inspection Success!
Katie and I geared up in our bee suits and inspected our bees today–it was really cool.
Here are the notes from my bee journal (every beekeeper has to have one, you know):
Bees drank 2 gallons of sugar syrup in the last week!
Bees quit building burr comb all over the place like last time and have [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
The New Sink Is In!
I tackled the hot water valve on the master bathroom sink today–now that I understand how the compression pipe works it only took a few minutes–and then I installed the connector conduit pipe and the new faucet.
The old sink:
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Bees Bringing in the Pollen
Here is a video where you can see some of Ambrose’s bees bringing in sacs of pollen on their legs. The neighborhood dogs provide the background music.
WPvideo 1.10
2 Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Compression Valves and Other Lessons in Home Maintenance
Since Katie was at her theology seminar all day, I thought I would surprise her by fixing things around the house that have been on my “Big Fix-It Man” list for months.
What I naively thought would be a simple venture in home repair, as usual, grew to be a near-emergency and took the entire day.
1 Comment » - Posted in Technical by Devman
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Rush Hour at Ambrose
I especially enjoy watching Ambrose (the hive) around 5p, when the little ladies are returning en masse, loaded with pollen and nectar. They buzz around busily, then demurely land and mince into the hive. They are delicate and quite Martha-esque and make me giggle.
Rush hour, also, sees the return of the drones to [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Katie
Friday, April 20th, 2007
Yikes: Bees!
Check out this massive feral beehive in California (left-click on the image to make it smaller)!
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Friday, April 20th, 2007
Begone, Estrogen-Tainted Water!
I bought a water filter for our kitchen tap water, which we have used most frequently for drinking and cooking, and now our water tastes great!
Even better, and one of the main reasons we got the filter, it purifies the water from the hormone estrogen and other estrogenic compounds.
Katie and I became concerned about estrogen [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
Step On Up To the Waterfront
Katie and I watched I Confess and On the Waterfront in the past two weeks, and we highly recommend them.
Both movies portray priests as real, heroic, manly men who fight valiantly against evil and in the end triumph through God’s grace.
For their portrayal of priests alone, these movies are worth watching. What an inspiration [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War, Saints and Angels by Devman
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
May God Be With Them
…and all the families of students who were murdered at Virginia Tech yesterday; our prayers are with you.
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Confessions of a Young Mistress of Flora and Fauna
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Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness. In the greatness of your mercy, blot out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my sins, including:
1. Inordinate attachment to Ambrose, our beehive
2. Glee at the deaths of innumberable grub worms. Karl Marx (I think) said, “When one man dies, it’s a tragedy. Whan a thousand die, [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Catholic Life, Grapevines and Nature by Katie
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Ambrose’s Bees…
…now featuring Super Strength!
Yesterday we stuffed grass in the two entrances of our hive to stop any robbing by other (bad) bees that might have been going on.
I stuffed a lot of grass in each hole, and made sure it was crammed in good. Katie checked out the hive this morning and sure enough, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Habemus Papel–We Have a Paper
Okay, I don’t speak Latin and know only a little Spanish, but those two words combined mean we have received our first copy of the National Catholic Register!
I got to read it a lot when Gerardo and I shared a subscription, but I have been without it for a while now. It is a [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Worst Beekeeper of the Year Award…
…would go to me, hands down.
Katie and I did another inspection of Ambrose, our bee hive, today.
It was good that we did an inspection, but our bees had started doing some wacky stuff, and in trying to fix it, I caused some problems.
We needed to inspect the hive to make sure that the queen was [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Friday, April 13th, 2007
Gentle Bees
When we first got our bees in the hive, I would cautiously watch them from 6 or 7 feet away because I was unsure of whether they would identify me as a threat and sting me.
But as I haven’t been stung yet, even getting really close to the hive entrance and watching the bees–who are [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
Ambrose’s Queen Bee…
…Alive and kicking!
Katie and I did our first hive inspection today, and we found the queen bee!
I fired up the smoker and Katie suited up, then we approached our hive, Ambrose, and took off the top supers and feeder pail. The bees were all over the inner cover, which acts as their ceiling.
Then I slowly [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Monday, April 9th, 2007
Bees Flying!
Katie and I couldn’t wait to get home today to check out the bees and see if they were flying.
Sure enough, they were! I got worried that they were being robbed by other bees, but Katie allayed my fears.Â
Here is the short video we took of them flying around:
WPvideo 1.10
3 Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Sunday, April 8th, 2007
Happy Easter: Urbi et Orbi!
The City and the World!
Pope Benedict addressed the world with the message of Christ, crucified for our sins and now risen in the triumph of love:
We may all be tempted by the disbelief of Thomas. Suffering, evil, injustice, death, especially when it strikes the innocent such as children who are victims of war and terrorism, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Saints and Angels by Devman
Saturday, April 7th, 2007
Installing Our Bees
Here is the video of Katie and me installing our bees.
WPvideo 1.10
We used some double-sided wall tape to try to tape the queen cage into the hive, but the cold weather and dampness made the sticky stuff not work well, so we had to jerry-rig it with a rubber band.
There were about 50 bees [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in Best Of, Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Saturday, April 7th, 2007
We Got the Bees!
Blessed Holy Saturday to you, as Jesus lays in the tomb and visits the souls in Hades.
Katie and I drove 2 hours to Navasota today and got our bees from B. Weaver:
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Saturday, April 7th, 2007
Holy Saturday: The Bee’s Are Here
Â
Oh, yes, they’ve arrived. All 10,000 of them, give or take 100. The installation this afternoon was remarkably easy, what with the bees feeling extremely docile, what with the temperature hovering around freezing in Austin today. Poor little bees.
It’s amazing how very maternal I feel with the bees. Goodness, if Our Lord is not choosing [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Katie
Saturday, April 7th, 2007
Holy Saturday and Bees!
Blessed Holy Saturday to you!
Katie and I went to St. William’s for Holy Thursday Mass, which was beautiful, and then to the Maronite parish yesterday for the “Signing of the Chalice”, which includes a Communion service.
Today, we drive 2 hours to Navasota, Texas, to get our bees!
But the weather is horrible! It is about 40 [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature, Saints and Angels by Devman
Saturday, April 7th, 2007
Wordpress Won’t Let Me Log out
This post is for my own benefit and others who run into a problem where the Wordpress blog doesn’t not allow you to sign out (logout).
I fixed this by going to the place in Firefore where cookies are stored (Tools >> Options, Privacy, Show Cookies) then deleting all of the cookies for my blog. Doing [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Technical by Devman
Friday, April 6th, 2007
Thou Shalt Not Covet
Devin and I coveted today. We coveted the particular ethnicity of the Lebanese people.
See, we participated today in the Good Friday liturgy at Our Lady’s Maronite Church, and we decided that we’d like to be Maronite Catholics. But, we know it’s for all the wrong reasons. We can’t change rites because we [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Catholic Life by Katie
Friday, April 6th, 2007
Good Friday, Novena Day I
Wow, I have blogged a lot today! I should stay home from work more often.
Okay, so would you like to pray the mother of all novenas, during which you will immerse EVERY SINGLE human soul in the ocean of blood and water which flow from the pierced side of Our Lord this day? [...]