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Way too Early for Bananas

February 2, 2016

Bishop bananas, Beekeeping, Gardening, Optimism, pollination , , 8 Comments

I stepped out into the garden this afternoon and discovered the surprise. My banana plant has opened up the female flowering portion of the plant, the inflorescence. This variety produced a very nice bunch of at least 40 big bananas last SUMMER! This is February FIRST! I am praying that we don’t have one of those February hard freezes that will wipe out the bananas.

On a side note, my bees have been hauling in pollen big way for over a month! The bees have found the banana nectar. Hope they are my bees.

DSC_9884 L

DSC_9882 L

TTFN

Bishop

My First Hive Rescue

November 10, 2015

Bishop Beekeeping, Healthy Lifestyle, honey, Optimism Leave a comment

Out of the blue…. Sorta – Troy, an acquaintance who is hosting one of my empty top bar hives called last night with a lead on some bees. This morning I made connection with Don at a large machine shop off of Highway 59 about 25 minutes from the house. Seems that over the weekend a large trunk sized branch broke off and fell to the ground. The piece in the ground was packed full of bees. The tree snapped at a knot that appears to have been the access hole to the hollow tree, an obvious weak spot. 

The piece on the ground housed the upper portion of the hive colony. The bees were calm and thickly packed into the cavity and comb in that half. The photo below is after three days on the ground and may have been cleaned up some during that time. 

  
While waiting for the chain saw Don fired up the man lift and we were able to get a better view of the top stub of the cavity…. not a real good look but not bad. On Thursday I will go back and we will hang a hive body with some drawn comb near the opening. We will have better access on Thursday so I can look into the cavity directly. Based on my limited knowledge it looks like the tree snapped off below the main portion of the cavity. My fingers are crossed that we have the queen and some brood. 

I made an uneducated guess and cut the trunk about 30 inches above the break….. looks like I guessed good. There was a small opening but the cut was above the cavity. I loaded the cut segment on my carry rack, wrapped it in plastic and headed off to Kingwood. The chainsaw cut end came unwrapped in the drive. At every stop I could see a few more bees escape. Oh well. 

I arrived at Troy’s house to unload and the bees were humming – a good sound, the sound of a buzzing hive…. makes me more confident that I have the queen and attendants. 

  
I stopped by my house to rewrap the log before heading off. 

  We created a necked down outlet pointing directly to an opening in my top bar hive. We sprinkled a dash of lemon grass oil at the entrance to entice the little buggers over. My top bar has three bars of drawn comb to help the transition. Fingers crossed! I will install a feeder as additional enticement. 
My wife commented that it looks like Christmas came early……. I was like the little kid that couldn’t wait……. Yes, I was excited! 

An interesting note, Don at the machine shop was anxious to find someone to rescue the bees, not kill them.  He is aware of the plight of bees and has noticed fewer and fewer on his 2 acres of land. One of the workers at the shop, Rick, has 7 acres up near Clevland, 25 minutes north of my home and had the same concerns. I was concerned when I pulled into the machine shop as a Pest Control truck pulled up when I did. My heart sank. Turns out he wasn’t  there for the bees but wanted my contact info for future opportunities to rescue bees. My faith in mankind is elevated. These good old boys deeply care about the environment. I love it. 
TTFN

Bishop

Something New in the Garden

July 7, 2015

Bishop Beekeeping, Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, Optimism, Potato Growing, Tomato Growing, Top Bar Hive , , 4 Comments

This find was unexpected up to a point. In the spring of 2014 I planted two varieties of banana tree in my garden. I was at the point of digging them out this year if they did not produce. The other drawback is the sheer size of the plants. They dominate their portion of the garden. 

This morning I went out to visit the garden after 10 days away. Daughter Lisa and son Ben kept things green while I was gone. I picked 4 nice cucumbers and have many more developing. The peppers are not doing well and the heat/humidity have done major harm to my tomatoes.  Looks like the potatoes in the cage will be good. There is always next year! 

  
My bees, two out of three hives look healthy. One of the top bar hives is in trouble. I will check it out later today. I have 4 gallons of honey to harvest this week! Yee Haw! 

Now, the surprise! I have bananas! Yessss! Now, I need to determine when to harvest. It is interesting to see how they develop and arrange themselves! I am looking forward to sampling the fruits soon! 

   
   
Now the wait!!!!!

TTFN

Bishop

When Life Gives You Lemons…….be Decadent!

February 22, 2014

Bishop Canning, Decadent, Optimism, Philosophical, Relationships , , , 8 Comments

I know, that’s not how the standard saying goes, but life is too short to be just ordinarily optimistic. I suggest that you amp up your response and make people wonder about your sly smile. Do something out of the ordinary when life gives you lemons….maybe, step out and do something decadent!
Life did give me lemons, some wonderful Meyer Lemons from my dwarf tree in the backyard. My wife left for Orlando yesterday with my daughter and on her way out the door she pointed to the bag of lemons and said, “Do something with those lemons!”
She wasn’t smiling and I wasn’t sure if the tone in her voice had any latitude or hint of humor!

I figured I just better give the standard Texas husband’s response and said, “ Yes dear,”
I had intended to deal with them on my own time and schedule but I never found one of those handy “ round to it’s” lying around …..Until her comment. That was a genuine “round to it” handed to me!
I had some errands to run and decided that if I am getting a “round to it”, I may as well be decadent and enjoy the thrill. I knew that if I was to be really, really decadent with the lemons I needed lots of eggs and lots of butter. Decadent Lemon Curd was going to my afternoon plan! The recipe to make one single pint of this luscious, sensual and decadent curd requires one stick of butter, six egg yolks, one cup of sugar and of course fresh squeezed lemon juice with zest.
I took a risk and made double batches, two to be precise. The yield was about 4.75 pints. I am licking my lips right now…..there was a trace of this Lemon curd from the toast I just consumed before starting the post! Oh my, yes a bit of a cliché, but, Oh My…..it is so good!

The recipe;
Ingredients
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 meyer lemons, juiced (you should get a generous 1/2 cup. Make sure to strain it, to ensure you get all the seeds out)
• 1 stick of butter, cut into chunks
• zest from the juiced lemons
Instructions
1. In a small, heavy bottom pot over medium heat, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Add the lemon juice and switch to stirring with a wooden spoon, so as not to aerate the curd. Stir continually for 10-15 minutes, adjusting the heat as you go to ensure that it does not boil. Your curd is done when it has thickened and coats the back of the spoon. (my research finds that about 170 deg F is good).Drop in the butter and stir until melted.
2. Position a fine mesh sieve over a glass or stainless steel bowl and pour the curd through it, to remove any bits of cooked egg. Whisk in the zest.
3. Pour the curd (a single batch will make one pint of curd) into your prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. If you want to process them for shelf stability, process them in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes (start the time when the water returns to a boil). According to So Easy to Preserve, it is best to process only in half-pint jars or smaller, as they allow better heat infiltration.
4. Eat on toast, stirred into plain yogurt or straight from the jar with a spoon.
Notes
Adapted from “The Martha Stewart Cookbook”
Step 4 is well stated – several years ago when I made my first batch of this decadent concoction, I made a comment about the uses for such a treat. One of my readers and author of the wonderful blog, “Promenade Plantings” suggested that the best way to use it is by the spoonful, straight out of the jar! She is spot on!
Give her blog a look….great stuff, stories and recipes. http://promenadeplantings.com/

I put three of the pints into pint jars....A bit much but once a jar is opened it doesn't last long!

I put three of the pints into pint jars….A bit much but once a jar is opened it doesn’t last long!

TTFN

Bishop

Butterflies in the Garden

September 16, 2013

Bishop Optimism, Philosophical, Photography, Travel , , , 2 Comments

Not my garden, from a garden in the central part of Texas. I took my 400 mm lens and my handy 18-200 mm zoom but did not expect t need my macro lens….Oh well. I did manage to capture a few decent butterfly shots with my big lens…. Beauty is all around us, we just sometimes need to slow down and really look!

JBD_0195

JBD_0186 JBD_0272 JBD_0271 JBD_0229 JBD_0206 JBD_0202

Enjoy

TTFN

Bishop

2012 In Reveiw

December 31, 2012

Bishop Gardening, Optimism, Philosophical, Strawberry, Vegetables , , , , 5 Comments

 

This blog got about 4,600 views in 2012. Target for 2013 is to exceed 15,000 views – Lofty goal but I am going to broaden my exposure both with my reader’s help and by linking to others of similar outlooks.

In 2012, there were 90 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 154 posts. There were 379 pictures uploaded. That’s about a picture per day.

The busiest day of the year was August 7th with 76 views. The most popular post that day was Hands in the Garden – And Fishing. I will spend a little more time digging into the climate change issues, educating myself and sharing with others. Editorial remark – climate change is real, that shouldn’t surprise anyone, but we should recognize that the climate has always been changing and always will. I will continue to look into the past to help predict the future.

Coaching I have received from my better half and personal commitments for my 2013 Backyard Farm;

  • Grow what we will consume – i.e., things that the family finds yummy.
  • Do a better job of sharing the excess production – I took several large bags of Poblano/Ancho peppers down to the local farmers market in exchange for a couple of nice tomatoes – I’ll do a little more of this.
  • Log and or journal what is planted where, plant type, days to maturity, seed and/or plant source, production notes, quality feedback, soil quality notes and additions and maybe more……..or maybe zero in a few important ones from the previous list. That sounds a bit ambitious!
  • Continue some of my experiments, i.e., strawberry towers, potato barrels, sweet potato growing, canning, cooking and eating!
  • Influence others to grow for themselves and consider buying from local sources!
  • Have lots of fun doing what I do in the garden and to help others smile a bit!
  • Gather more leaves and less moss!
  • Explore keeping a beehive…..
  • Think about a grand plan for 2014!!!!!!
Look close...an out of focus lemon blossom is forming as of New Years Eve 2012 - Northern Hemisphere.

Look close…an out of focus lemon blossom is forming as of New Years Eve 2012 – Northern Hemisphere.

That little purple dot in the center is the first true blossom forming. I saw quite a number of very small buds that will become blossoms….should I treat them like the strawberries and pinch them off or ???????? It is sure early for citrus blossoms!  I still have some lemons to pick. I made lemon curd yesterday and it is so good! Claire, when you read this I want you to know I was thinking about you with the partially filled jar. I heard your advice in my good ear….”just dip the spoon and enjoy!” So, I did and I did….great advice! Thanks

Happy New Year to All Y’all!

TTFN

Bishop

 

Gardening In Hot Water

October 13, 2012

Bishop Amends, Gardening, Humor, Optimism, Philosophical , , Leave a comment

If you read my last post,” A Letter to Home”, you probably realize that if I had indeed been serious, I would have been in serious hot water. Fortunately my wife somewhat tolerates my tongue in cheek adventures. I received some feedback on the post from my cousin Sandy how read the post and picked up on my intent pretty early on.

“By the coffee grounds I was LOL !  Yes, good thing you don’t have a dog house!

Sandy”

Now as for Ms. Gloanah Bruce, I am not so sure see immediately saw the humor that I had intended. She posted to my Facebook –

Gloanah wrote: “And this is my son, I didn””’t teach him that kind of behavior. His MOM”

Sorry Mom….I was only trying to have some fun – Uh oh, I can hear her words now, “It is only fun until somebody gets hurt!”

Let me try to redeem myself. I did not immediately rush out to the garden to check on it when I returned home from my trip. I waited a good 45 minutes, visited with my bride, confirmed that she had understood my last post as intended. She did, but she also reminded me that my Mom had made the comment about us maybe not making that 31st anniversary milestone on October 2nd 2013! I hope Mom was being tongue in cheek. There are risks to attempts at humor….should I put the disclaimer at the top of the post or is the bottom position OK???????

The garden looked very healthy upon my return. Kathy kept the moisture levels just right, appeared to have pulled a few weeds, Hun you really didn’t have too! I also decided to take a peek under the abundant asparagus foliage. The plants are doing very well. I also discovered another sweet potato hiding under the dense ferns. I suspect that I will discover a few more when I cut the ferns back.

I hope that I have stepped out of the hot water, at least for a bit…..I will probably find something to write about that will raise the temperature again….but it is always meant to be in jest, well maybe mostly in jest…..My Valentines Day post and poll hit a hot button amongst family and friends!!!! I still think the SS Sink was a great gift.

A view of the asparagus stems at ground level supporting the canopy of ferns above. I will cut it all back to ground level soon – and maybe discover a few more sweet potatoes lurking in the soil.

TTFN

Bishop

Global Warming? Yes it Is, But ……..

September 4, 2012

Bishop Gardening, Optimism, Philosophical , , 3 Comments

My position will probably ruffle the feathers of the “Greenpeace crowd, the Liberals and the politicians needing another lever to generate tax revenue. That said, I agree that the earth is warming. That is a fact but in the history of the earth this is not unique. What we need to do, to better understand the issue, is to step back and look back beyond this dot on the earth’s history timeline called the present. The earth is actually warming on a long-term cooling trend that will fluctuate over periods of time, periods that are much, much longer than a generation or two. Take a look at the graph below.

The trend is toward the cooler side…what is interesting is the increasing variability in the swings!

This figure shows the climate record of Lisiecki and Raymo (2005) [1] constructed by combining measurements from 57 globally distributed deep-sea sediment cores. The measured quantity is oxygen isotope fractionation ([[δ18O]]) in benthic foraminifera, which serves as a proxy for the total global mass of glacial ice sheets.

It is like the old adage….what goes up must come down. There is nothing in the scientific record that indicates that this period of warming will go on forever. It shows a historical pattern of warming and cooling with an overall trend to the cooler side. Has man added to the CO2 load, you bet we have.  Has the earth responded to those past swings, yes it has.  What’s next…..rising sea levels – most likely. Changes in weather patterns – yes again. Has it happened before, yes it has – only this time with far-reaching disruption to our way of life in the coastal regions.

I remember a geology field trip in California where we counted 7 wave cut terraces going many hundreds of feet up a mountain side. Those terraces are a product of both mountain building and changes in sea levels….it is complex, just as the current debate over the same set of climate facts.  Can our actions really stop and reverse this trend….. don’t kid yourself. What we can do and should be doing is conserving our natural resources…..conservation is the right thing to do but it will not reverse the trend. We should be preparing for the future and not playing Chicken Little – the sky is falling!

Here is a very likely scenario for the northern hemisphere ….. the melting of the northern ice cap will raise the sea level, how much – don’t know, probably many feet, a few meters. What may be of bigger concern is the impact on the Gulf Stream current bringing warm Atlantic water north and allowing the comfortable climate currently in place in the UK. Get your heavy coats out….it may be a number of generations out, but it will become much colder when that warm current is disrupted… then some thousands of years later it will warm up again….. then repeat….. and repeat……

Conservation of finite resources should always be a concern for the inhabitants of planet earth. Climate control by carbon tax is, to use a crude Texas term, like “pissing into the wind”. Our efforts would be better spent getting a head start on the outcome side of this current trend, key word – trend. I use the word trend because it will swing the other way…….way beyond my time on earth but my progeny will be dealing with the issues….either well thought out and planned for or smelling like urine soaked pants, pants worn by “chicken little”!

A little longer look at the historical record….yes the data is inferred, not directly measured,…..but there is agreement in general on the overall  trends.

This is a bit like a log graph….at the far right is a 10,000 year segment, to the left of it is a 500,000 year segment then a 5 million year segment and so on. The present trend is up…historically it is ALWAYS followed by a swing in the other direction.

Rob Rohde’s palaeotemperature graphs pasted together on one page, with Royer et al.s CO2-corrected Paleozoic – Mesozoic record substituted for Veizer et al.s uncorrected record.

The Vostok and Lisiecki/Zachos temperatures are polar, not global, so the range has been compressed to compensate – by about the usual one-half. The relativities are very approximate.

Oh by the way, could there be some benefits to warming???? The increase in temperature leads to more water vapor which adds to global warming – but clouds from the increase in water vapor reflect heat and then will cool the earth…. a feedback loop. The earth’s climate has always been in a state of flux. We can choose to respond in a planned and logical manner or we can scream in fear over something we have little, if any control over. This link should demonstrate that as CO2 goes up, my tomatoes should do better!

http://www.co2science.org/data/plant_growth/plantgrowth.php

The more I read the more I realize how complex the issue is. There is evidence that the phytoplankton are increasing – a photosynthetic organism that pulls CO2 out of the oceans – on the other hand, massive deforestation reduces terrestrial CO2 sequestering opportunities. I believe that the earth’s feedback loop will kick in and the swing in to other direction will happen. I worry about the ineffective efforts to stop climate change and how little is being done to prepare for the impacts of rising sea levels…

For more reading;

NASA website – great current data – what strikes me is the melting ice data and the sea level rise data –  we should be preparing to address these impacts!

http://climate.nasa.gov/keyIndicators/

I am a firm believer in conserving finite natural resources – I believe we should do more to develop wind and solar power – I believe in a balanced approach and an orderly plan for the future based on civil dialog and a realistic view of the future. Some of the green solutions are shot down by the concerned citizens with the “not in my backyard” approach. The government has hamstrung many potential green projects due the complex and costly permitting processes.  Lets all do our part, recognize that the future will look different from it does today – but just wait  – the trend will reverse. Deal with the real pending problems and prepare. The time horizons are probably long enough to deal with the low elevation coastal populations and infrastructure issues. We should always be looking for a return on our investments. Carbon trading benefits only those that know how to game the system. Invest in our future, plan and prepare.

Ok…it is off my chest. Let the debate rage…

TTFN

Bishop

Worm Castings Harvested & More Yard Chores

August 7, 2012

Bishop Composting, Gardening, Optimism, Philosophical, Rubbermaid , , 5 Comments

If you have read my past posts you know that I measure summer yard work by how many T-shirts I soak through! Yesterday was a 4 T-shirt day and the work is still not complete. It will be at least a two T-shirt day today….need to finish that last chore so Ben and I can take the kayaks down to Galveston and harvest a few Redfish, Speckled Trout or Flounder!!!

The worms had being toiling away in my Rubbermaid bin eating up the kitchen scraps and providing lots of good food for the garden. As I was harvesting I noticed something that the worms wouldn’t eat…..the skins off of my tomatoes. Six or eight weeks ago I made salsa, tomato sauce and gazpacho. I peeled the skin off of the tomatoes after dipping them in boiling water for 30 seconds or so and then dipping them in cold water. The skins just slide off. That old phrase, “waste not want not” is always part of my “green” credo so the skins, cores and bad spots cut out of the tomatoes went into the bin…..Everything was eaten save the skins. I learned something. I went with the fast harvest practice and a pretty good number passed through the 1/4 inch screen but they will do fine in the garden. Compost worms work near the surface and they should be happy living in the compost I recently spread. The process is outlined in the pictures below.

Soaking strips of newspaper to be added as bedding as I transfer those that toil in the dark into their new home.

The new home waiting for the transfer. Newspaper strips are wrung out so they are not too wet!

That great garden supplement – worm castings….screen box in the background

I pulled weeds, cut back the canes on the rest of the blackberries, cut some flowers for Kathy…..yes I do grow a few flowers. My son Joe had cut John’s lawn and brought back a couple of sacks of grass clippings for my compost pile that I dumped on top of the watermelon rinds and remnants of the fresh pineapple we cored the night before. I sweated some more….made up some organic fertilizer to help the veggies along and then we, Ben, Sierra and I jumped into the next project.

Station 5 on my sprinkler system has needed repair for a long time….I had some young blood to help with the digging so in we dove. First we had to find the valve boxes. I knew approximate locations so it was soon done. Then to decide which valve wa number 5…… Now that was done. We uncovered it and found that it was an inexpensive valve, the diaphragm was horribly mangled so off to Alspaugh’s Ace Hardware I went…. no luck on parts so off to the internet…. part located but with shipping I can replace the valve with a new one….with parts that are readily available.

I order to replace the valve we need to enlarge the hole in order to cut the pipe……no screwed fittings – all glued! Problem two. As the hole was enlarge the signal wires got in the way of the axe…..oh yes an axe – lots of roots and the shovel…… now we have to do some splicing…..got that done.

I installed the sprinkler system in our yard back in Bakersfield California. I worked in the oil patch and was a fan of having the valves arranged in a manifold, with union couplings so if one needed to be removed for replacement I didn’t have to cut pipe. The other benefit is that all if the wiring was run to one spot, location known and protected…. I ran it in a pvc sleeve. The drawback is more PVC to run but that is dirt cheap. My current yard – no map for the valve locations…they are scattered and the wires run willy-nilly!!!!

Ok – glue one side in and move the piping just a little and the pvc behind the valve breaks off – I am on shirt # 4 and I am not changing again. We probe a little and discover that where the next cuts will need to be made there is another PVC line snuggled up against it……Let’s drink a good pale ale Ben and plan to finish in the morning…..Good choice a thunderstorm rolls in, fills the hole with water knocks the power ou as my wife was doing ravioli on the electric stove…….No problem, I am an ex-camper. I brought out my single burner stove and finished the meal off outside…..Hope the power comes back on soon as I am beginning to soak another T-shirt  – need my AC!

This hole keeps getting bigger and more complicated! Ben, Sierra and me…the old sweaty guy.

Ben and his rescue dog, Sierra checking on the progess.

Today will be a better day!

TTFN

Bishop

 

 

 

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