I am a belt and suspenders type person. I don’t like being caught out without something we vitally need that makes life so much less comfortable for missing it. I only hope that this isn’t as outdated as the Office in a Bag.
So we’ve created a basket of things we leave where guests can see it in the bathroom, and take with us nearly everywhere it could be used. So, working the election, camping, the Fair, art festivals that aren’t 100% walking around with no car, etc.
It’s really handy and worth taking. So here it is.
The basket itself is a black basket because it was the beginning of November and it was on sale for 50¢. It’s not Halloweeny except for being black, and that’s fine with us. Any easily portable container would work.
Inside is a smaller container that’s a plastic ware that is missing its top. In that smaller container are bandages, a lens cleaner pad from the eye doctor, a small tube of cortisone (great for allergic reactions) a small tube of anti bacterial cream, for cuts, a tube of Benadryl (can you tell we have allergies?), and a mini eyeglass repair kit.
Larger things are a lint brush (I said this is left out for guests! ), sun block, a reseal able back of wet naps (they kinds you get when you order ribs at a restaurant), Cutter Deet Free insect repellant, nail file and buffer, hand sanitizer (yes, this predates 2020- porto potties can be ick), Tylenol, Ammens Powder in a reused spice jar, tissues, dental floss, Nail polish remover wipes, a small bag with tampons and pads in it, and a small portable tube of bubbles.
Depending on where we are going, a deck of cards and/or a roll of toilet paper can get thrown in there.
My purse normally has a multitool, lifesavers, gum, a handkerchief, and a dice game called Cosmic Wimpout. If those weren’t carried separately, I may throw them in the basket.
Do we take this everywhere? No. Do we always bring it all? No. The lint brush is often left on the floor by the door when we leave. Do we carry this around all day? No. This is mainly for leaving in the car or at our site. And we don’t take it to the Beach because we have a separate bag for items that go there attached to our mini cooler.
But it’s a useful thing to have, in the bathroom for guests for find themselves in need, or watching Shakespeare in the Park and offering bug spray to the people next to us…
May 21st is National Bee Day, and we’re more interested in celebrating this year, as we now have our own hive. Buffalo has so much greenery, so many parks, and so many gardens and fruit trees that there’s little worry that our bees wouldn’t have enough to eat and store honey to get to next year.
A honeybee taking a drink from our skep fountain.
We got a nucleus hive (a nuc) from Masterson’s Garden Center in East Aurora, and this year we made sure to order it in December, before they sold out. A nuc contains five deep (or brood or super) Langstoth hive frames with a queen. We had to go out and get the nuc early on a Saturday morning before it got too warm and they needed to let the bees out so they wouldn’t overheat.
In preparing for the bees, I built a Langstoth hive. There are 8 and 10 frame hives as standard sizes, and in a spirit of optimism I decided to settle on a 10 frame size. I built two deep boxes, and made sure to have five frames ready to fill out the box, but made ten initially because I had the materials.
The hive base with one of the supers on it, with some frames.
I made these out of pine, dovetailed the joints (and put in some screws for extra strength), and then hit the exterior with shellac for some basic protection. I also made a ventilated base with a screen floor, a divider to go between the two supers, and an escape/ventilation top and roof to top it all off.
We were ready for bees.
We went to pick up the bees, and on the advice of a friend took a tote that should fit a nuc, with a lid. We got there around 7:30 and the bees were still pretty sedate, so not all the workers/volunteers were totally suited up. They popped the nuc in the tote and happily clipped the lid on to make sure we didn’t have any ‘wanderers’ in the car with us.
Being that it was a nice sunny morning, I was ready to use the a/c to cool the car if need be, but the temperature where we picked them up was in the 50s, and it was only in the low 60s when we got home.
One thing that I really wasn’t prepared for was how heavy the nuc was. It made me a little trepidatious about having those two 10 frame supers if 5 frames weighed that much! But I was able to get the nuc-laden tote up to the loft entrance to the carriage house, to give the bees a southern facing entrance that was clear of any obstructions for more than 20 feet. This would mean that we could be on the ground, and the bees wouldn’t see us as a threat as the came and went from the hive. It’s the basic location I wanted to have the hive permanently, so all was good.
Once the nuc was placed, I removed the little plug, and opened the half inch square opening, and the bees started to come out and explore their immediate area.
The little opening of the nuc.
I was a bit surprised that the bees weren’t traveling farther than about 10-15 feet from the nuc. They certainly were going in and out of the entry, and there guard bees were hanging out there doing their job, but they weren’t looking for blossoms (one of our apple trees was in bloom only 40 feet away), only flying about in front of the nuc.
I had been advised to leave the bees in the nuc for 3 to 7 days, and they were so active by the 3rd day that I decided to move them to the new hive. Part of this decision was based on the trouble the bees were having in getting into and out of the nuc through that little opening. There was just too much traffic.
And it was a good thing I did, as the bees were trying to build new combs in places that they shouldn’t in the nuc! The bees had come with their own solid food source, and they were just going about trying to expand their little hive. But I wouldn’t really understand that until I opened up the nuc.
After getting the new hive base and first super in place in the loft entrance, I got my hood on, some wrist gaters, and leather gloves, started up my smoker, and popped the lid with one of my hive tools. I knew there would be a bunch of bees, but I didn’t expect so many!
The interior of the nuc with so many bees!
Using a bit of smoke in the entrance of the nuc, and a little under the screen area at the bottom, I went to try and slowly and carefully remove one of the tightly packed frames and move it to the new hive. This took more time than I thought, and I wasn’t confident about not hurting the bees, so I didn’t look as closely as I had planned, and didn’t search for the queen.
At first, the bees were pretty docile, for the first couple of frames, but one of the frames next to the food bin stuck, as the bees were building comb onto the food bin and the frame because they were so close together. In moving the frame I apparently jostled some bees and broke a bit of comb that had a larva in it, and a couple of guard bees came to attack my gloves.
After that, I tried a little more smoke, but the bees were still a bit agitated, so I just focused on getting the frames into the new hive. My big issue overall was just getting the empty frames to fit, do the super was full. There were just so many bees on the frames I moved that I was worried that there would be squished bees in-between as I closed the open space, or that one would move suddenly, and the bees would become more agitated.
Eight frames in place, and two more need to fit without squishing bees.
So, working carefully, moving slowly, and still trying to get things done so that the bees could feel more calm in their new home, I finally got the frames in place. While I had planned to just put the top on and let the bees fill up the new frames, instead I put in the divider and the second super, and put the food bin inside it.
The new hive, loaded with frames, and with the bees figuring out where the entrance is.
I had already set up a water source for the bees, but they hadn’t really touched it over the couple of days in the nuc. Once they were in the new hive though, the really started going after the water. It’s a simple thing, just holes drilled into the lid of a mayonnaise jar turned upside down over some stones in a shallow container. It’s like one of the pet water feeders that will let you more water when the level drops low enough to let air into the jar. Before the move, I had observed a maximum on a single bee at a time getting water, but after the move, six or seven bees at a time was pretty usual.
Bees at the conveniently located watering hole.
So, for the last few days, the bees have been coming and going from the hive, drinking water, and having some loud buzzing activity times, but still hadn’t gone far from the hive. But after yesterday’s rain, where the hive was pretty quiet and I didn’t see much of any bee activity, today they were ranging out to the front of the house, going after little flowers in the lawn, and (I think) our lilacs. I was able to see them coming back in with yellow, white (very light lilac blue?), and dark red (deep lilac purple?) pollen on their legs.
Today the bees were bringing back pollen!
This is a great sign, as one of the main uses of pollen in hives is for feeding larva to get them ready to be functional bees. So even though I didn’t see her, it seems like the queen is doing her job, and the bees are settling in and ready for more workers.
Next year we will hopefully celebrate with our own honey!
“She was a Holy Terror: Her Pen was as Venomous as a Rattlesnake’s Fangs; Former Washington Editress: How Ann Royall Made Life a Burden to the Public Men of Her Day.”- Washington Post headline from 1891
The newspaper called Paul Pry aggravated many readers, as it was dedicated to exposing political corruption and religious fraud. This was pre internet, so when postmasters refused to deliver the paper to its subscribers, the readers couldn’t read it. Undaunted, the editor and owner changed the paper’s name to The Huntress, and attacked nepotism and graft in the government, as well as political corruption and religious fraud. She also published the names of all the people standing in the way of her paper and her readers. She also made sure every article about financial waste ended with how that money could have been put to good use supporting the members of our society who needed it.
Before running the papers, Anne Newport Royall had traveled extensively in the young United States, as a solo woman. Her travel books also got her into hot water, because she named each inn that overcharged and took advantage of travelers. But it was the time between her travel books and the founding of her paper that got her into the most trouble. She took aim at a popular Reverend, exposing his religious fervor as a cover for his political ambition.
She wrote: “Their object and their interest is to plunge mankind into ignorance, to make him a bigot, a fanatic, a hypocrite, a heathen, to hate every sect but his own, to shut his eyes against the truth, harden his heart against the distress of his fellowman and purchase heaven with money.”
People hated her for this so much, they threw rocks at her windows, pushed her down the stairs, whipped her with horsewhips and of course, bought her books and burned them. She was 60 years old at this time. But when people prayed under her windows and tried to convert her, she told them off.
And that’s what led to Anne becoming the first person in America to be found guilty of being ‘a common scold’ at her trial in 1829. Punishment for this was supposed to be a dunking in water, and the chair was actually built just for her, but instead she was fined $10 and allowed to go on her way. Shortly after she started Paul Pry, with the aid of orphans of the city to set the donated type and deliver the papers. It was one of her young workers who named the publication.
Over the course of the 23 years she ran her papers, she wrote about land fraud targeting Native Americans, slammed abolitionists for their infighting, criticized the temperance movement, and argued against the interference of the government interfering in peoples lives. She was also a widow of a Revolutionary War veteran, at a time when each widow had to travel to DC to petition for their husband’s pension. She argued over decades that women should not have to be individually granted pensions, and in 1848, a new pension law was passed that reflected this. Her inlaws fought her in court, and gained her husband’s pension for themselves. They had previously won a case denying her anything from her husband’s property when he died 15 years after they were married, in 1812. After a seven year court battle, the courts annulled the will.
At her death in 1854 when she was 85 years old, her papers closed. But her writings shaped our country and kept people in all states informed. And though you may not have heard of her, you know one word she coined for her travel books: redneck.
