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Winter Composting

November 23, 2019

Bishop Composting, Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, Organic, Travel, Winter Chill , , , 1 Comment

I am visiting my daughter in Denver this week, totally different weather than my Houston clime! Her neighbor loves gardening but laments the fact that she doesn’t seem to be able to compost in the winter. I decided to to investigate cold weather composting tips….and yes, I can learn a little in the process.

I found a nice article from the Empress of Dirt. Granted, she is a little further north but the method should work as well. I think I would consider adding a microbe addition, similar to the type in the included link from Safer Brand. I have used some of their products in the past and really like them.

The winter composting also contains a link to composting basics, 101, that I thought would beneficial to folks new to composting! Because of my warmer climate I don’t utilize closed type bins, I utilize home built open enclosures. The 20 gallon galvanized can recommended in the article appears to be handy for holding scraps, especially in the grips of brrrrr type of cold, before adding to your pile.

Bottom line, COMPOST YOUR WASTES……. adapt to your climate, keep compostables out of the landfills! Landfills create methane….methane is 30 times stronger than CO2 as a green house!

Research from JPL NASA comes this piece of data;

“Emissions data like this can help facility operators identify and correct problems – and in turn, bring California closer to its emissions goals. For example, of the 270 surveyed landfills, only 30 were observed to emit large plumes of methane. However, those 30 were responsible for 40% of the total point-source emissions detected during the survey. This type of data could help these facilities to identify possible leaks or malfunctions in their gas-capture systems.”

https://empressofdirt.net/easy-winter-composting/

https://www.saferbrand.com/resources/ringer-compost-plus-compost-starter-3050-6/images/4

I ran across a nice compost image that could be used in most climes and can help deter common pests. My old bins are becoming pretty ragged. I built them with fencing materials that were blown down during Hurricane Ike in 2008.

From ; https://www.backyardboss.net/

Besides being good looking it looks hell for stout!

TTFN

Bishop

Central California Coast – Farmer’s Market

November 19, 2019

Bishop California, Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, Organic, Vegetables , 2 Comments

We are out of Houston and loving the weather, the scenery and the people on the Central California Coast. We, my bride and I have been sampling all kinds of beer over the past day and a half, and probably could have written a good post on my beer blog, https://bishopsbeerblog.com/ , but we had such a good experience at the Los Osos/Baywood Park Farmers Market, I just had to capture the visit.

The morning was spent wandering up the coast to the Sea Elephant rookery before heading back south. Lunch in Cayucos and then south to the Los Osos area. We drove through the area where my my mother lived For 20+ years before she passed away three years ago. It is a bit bittersweet as so many great memories came flooding back. By happenstance, we stumbled onto the Monday Farmer’s Market in Los Osos/Baywood Park…..I think I already mentioned that. It is a small but colorful market.

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My lovely bride striding off into the small but very colorful market.

Wow, love the colors and the shape of the fruits.
Healthy table of goodies.
Gotta love the color. I love beets and grown them back home.

The variety and freshness of the offerings are pretty amazing.

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I could have bought every loaf and with a lot of butter it would have been a meal. Kathy had a better, at least from a health perspective, choice for our evening meal. I did steer her to to a small brewery in Cambria Pines before arriving back to the motel. Dinner cost…$ 13.50!!!!!

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Number one… We should have bought more strawberries. We only bought one small basket of very sweet and wonderful strawberries…..Main course was a quart of Jack Fruit soup. Oh my, very flavorful and very satisfying. Appetizers were had at the 927 brewery in Cambria, I had a flight of their beers, Toyon Amber Ale – Slab Town Pale Ale – Summerdale IPA – Beer Inoculus IPA and for Kathy an Ollalberry beer with a nice tart finish.

TTFN

Bishop

Bee Rescue – Giving Back

November 13, 2019

Bishop Beekeeping, Healthy Lifestyle, honey, Top Bar Hive , , , , , , 3 Comments

I am in the midst of a trap out for a woman that can’t afford to pay the usual $400.00 to do a cut out. My wife made the connection with the woman and I was reluctant because I don’t want any part of the work and effort to do a cut out. I hemmed and hawed for a week, then asked for a photo…….good news, the location seemed to lend itself to a simple trap out. My biggest concern is Fall……once out I will need to baby the bees for them to make it through the winter.

The location- in the wall of an out of service cold box with wood clad external sides. Apparently a knot in the wood rotted out and left a very nice 1 inch diameter hole. The flat surface of the cold box simplifies the process. First build the escape cone.

Start with 1/8 inch(#8 hardware cloth), create a cone with an exit hole a little larger than than a pencil thickness. I drilled a 2 5/8 inch hole in a thin piece of plywood, sized so 6 or 7 inches of the cone protruded through. Trimmed the fat end to create wings, covered the wings with duct tape and secured with staples.

The bees were foraging and calm when I installed the cone.

The wire cone and small escape hole is not well seen by the bees complex eyes.after escaping to forage they return and are locked out. They mill around, they smell their hive and scramble trying to find a way back in. Sometimes there are other access holes and they will find a way back in. Fortunately, I got lucky….just a single entry hole.

Now I need to make them comfortable. I have a short topbar box needing bees and it has 4 bars of drawn comb, some old heavily propolized bars and a packet of queen scent. Today was day three and the escapees have found a home. I just hope that the weather holds long enough to starve out the queen. Workers are bringing pollen in and I will add a feeder shortly.

Love watching the girls work and drawing in more recruits. If the weather was warmer I would be tempted to bring this box a bar of eggs and brood. I really need to get the queen to recognize that no resources are coming in and choose to leave. I will give her a little time and may poke another hole to pump some smoke into the cavity to encourage her to leave.

Update….. 8 days later and the bees have found some rotted out wood at the base of the old cold box back around the backside. I have sealed up the area but will have to wait for flying weather after our cold snap to gauge my success. Looking for something north of 50-55 degrees F to check it out.

TTFN

Bishop

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