Hookton Slough Canoeing - And Bonus Canoe Trips

Thorne arranged a short-notice canoeing trip for Saturday (yesterday) morning. We were joined on Hookton Slough by John and Pia, Holly, and Michael and his two boys Joe & Jamie. The weather was wonderful: clear and not too cold. The air off Humboldt Bay was only a bit chilly as we neared it.

We saw multitudes of birds, including great and common egrets, great herons, willets, marbled godwits, American avocets, lesser yellowlegs, common and pied-billed grebes, Canada and Aleutian cackling geese, tundra swans, great scaups, buffleheads, green-winged teals, ruddy ducks, northern shovelers, (common?) mergansers, a brown pelican, western and Bonaparte's gulls, common ravens, a peregrine falcon, a northern harrier, turkey vultures and song sparrows.

Out near the mouth of the slough, we disrupted a dozen or so harbor seal sunbathing. Some moved to another locale, and a number watched us from nearby in the water. The seals slid smoothly over the mud after picking up a bit of steam.

This weekend was the Aleutian Goose Fly-off at the Humboldt Bay Wildlife Preserve, which the slough meanders through. We had plans to get up at O-dark thirty on Sunday to see the geese take off, but some of us wimped out after a late movie night. Holly gets a gold star for going out anyway.



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On New Years Day, Thorne and I went canoeing from Woodley Island to Indian Island. The tide was rather low, but we were still able to paddle up a large inlet. Of note was a pied-billed greebe that swam past us underwater, after we disturbed his contemplations.





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We paddled up the Mad River on February 19. There wasn't as much wildlife as yesterday, but we did see a couple of large non-salmonid fish in a backwater pool. We had a few opportunities to paddle like hell in order to make headway against the river flow. On the way back down the river, we interrupted a batch of gun enthusiasts firing across the river. Thank goodness they stopped firing when they noticed us, rather than choosing us as a moving target.

Busy, Busy

Oh my, it was a busy summer and autumn! After our first successful "date" on the Kinetic Sculpture Race weekend (last blog post), Thorne and I decided to keep seeing each other. I don't think I've ever been so busy. We were going to one event or another every week or two, and I had just enough free time to put things away and post photos before the next event came up. So below are slide shows of some events from the last five months. You can follow back to my Picasa site if you really want to see more.

I also got back into haunting cemeteries, stopping at some on my drives home from the Bay Area, or where ever I happened to be. I took piles of photos, and posted them. Not all are especially artsy or significant, but there's some element of interest to me in each one. I love the different marker shapes, symbols and scripts, poems, information - all of it.

While looking up some information on a fraternal order mentioned on one gravestone, I discovered The Association of Graveyard Rabbits. It inspired me to start a blog devoted to my cemetery photos. I'd been thinking about doing that anyway, and the opportunity to become a graveyard rabbit encouraged me to do it. The Samhain season helped. Hopefully I'll keep posting something of interest every now and then. Anyway, there's a link to that blog in my side bar. Enjoy.

Loch Morgan. Please don't offer me any St. Germain for a while, please.


The Art Deco Society of California's Boating Picnic on Lafayette Reservoir. The best bunch of people I've met while crashing a party. I wish I had time to add another century to my playing.


Petaluma Rivertown Revival. Another good time at an event where I knew no one. An impromptu entry into a heat of the Art Boat Races allowed Thorne to show off his rowing prowess. I excelled at cox'ning.


Hiking on the Dollason Prairie Trail. Proving that we can have fun in the 21st Century, too.


Canoeing up Eureka and Freshwater Sloughs. Look ma, no costumes!


TSCA's Marshall Beach campout. Lots of great people I barely got to meet; we were out plating in the boat so much.


Excalibur Medieval Faire. I had fun pouring ale in the tavern, while Thorne stood out front hawking for us.


Hakone Daichakai. OMG, what happened to Thorne??

2011 Kinetic Sculpture Race

Kinetic Kraziness and a lot of fun.

There are lots of videos in the album. Beware of motion sickness with some of those taken on the water.

2011 Big Lagoon MessAbout

Camping and Sailing. What's not to like?

It's Swarming Season Again

I had a "preswarm" yesterday - the bees were bearding & masses were flying in front of the hive. I took a couple of pictures, and then waited. After 10 or 15 minutes they went back in. So I figured I'd better make a split. This hive lost its queen a couple of weeks ago (I'm not sure what happened), and I left a couple of queen cells. So I was pulling frames for the nuc, and checked on the Q cells. One queen was hatching, but was having trouble - the end of her cell was constricted, and she couldn't get through. So I pulled a bit of the cell away, and she emerged very lively, and went down into the nuc. I returned the frame with her sister's cell to the main hive.



While I was doing all that, another hive swarmed. The bees came boiling out of the hive. I wish I'd caught that on video, but was busy with the first hive. As usual, they landed in the apple tree. I did get some photos and video of them flying and alighting - pretty nifty. I set up another nuc and collected them. It was the first time I didn't suit-up, and was bare-handed (I did have my veil on). It was a bit unnerving when I shook the branch, and had a mass of bees fall on my arm, but they were mellow. I did get stung once - maybe one got between my arm and the tree?





I reported on this on FB, and a beek friend who's keeping a split of her own over here said she'd seen bearding on one of my hives the day before. -But it was a different hive. >sigh< I suppose I need to make a split of that one today. Actually, I'm going to Demaree that one. I just hope the queen doesn't decide to swarm anyway. But I have a lure hive up in the apple tree, just in case.

I love my bees, but am starting to wonder about the time I need to spend on them. Another >sigh<.

2011 Actions of the Lowe Countries

This was an Eighty Years War period weekend, full of pike and musket drills. This may have been our last time at Camp Tamorancho, in the hills above San Anselmo. The camp has become more restrictive about black powder use, and may completely ban them by next year. Even though they were not allowed to fire them, John and Tony brought their artillery to show off. Mabel and Mary Ann, the twin cannon, helped create a very nice entry into camp.


The Morgan's Company presence grew to five, as Tony and Harvey joined John, Pia and me. We gained points after a catastrophic break in the tavern tent's ridge pole. Harvey was summoned, and used his sailorly know-how to lash a splint onto the pole, thus saving the day - and night of drinking and gambling. That night we used up our good karma (and possibly the camp's good will) by winning seven of the ten raffle prizes.



This year's new fun was having Spanish spies marauding on Saturday night. The Romero brothers spiced up the night watch by sneaking around and "killing" the unwary with a cry of "Attaque!". On their watch, Tony and John successfully thwarted those Spanish dogs, but great damage had already been done. During earlier watches, the brothers killed many a guard, Colonel Gaul and Captain Siler. They also spiked the artillery and captured our flag.



The wildflowers were gorgeous, and I took a little time from my water-bearing duties to explore and take photos.

Ohanami and Chanoyu Demonstration

For our April Chanoyu demo, we "flash mobbed" the gazebo in Eureka to enjoy tea under the sakura. We had about 15 guests enjoy a chaboko-style (picnic box) Tea with us. We also got into our kimono (not in public) in record time with minimal frustration.

Ohanami 2011

The wind drove us inside this year, but we managed to have a lovely Hanami Tea and picnic in the living room.

2011 Aleutian Cackling Goose Fly-off

This year, Holly and I represented Team Vogel-Da and the Sirens. We got sprinkled on a bit, but the temperature was comfortable. There were more families with small children in attendance, and the little ones seemed to have a great time splashing in puddles.


Blurry image of the cackler flock

Although the big cackler fly-off wasn't as massive as the last two years, it was still impressive. And even a bad day birding is better than a good day working - unless your job is birding. As we strolled along the levees, we also saw northern shovelers, greater scaups, green-winged teals, buffleheads, pied-billed grebes, tundra swans, Canada geese, snow geese (?), Ross' geese, great egrets, marbled godwits, a northern harrier, song sparrows and violet-green swallows. Marsh wrens scolded from under cover.

Holly has a nifty video of some of the geese flying over.

Twelfth Night Party

Another smashing end to the Yuletide at the freshly expanded Prancing Pissmire.

Dickens Christmas Fair

Another Yultide romp in Charles Dickens' London. Never enough time to see and do everything, but had lots of fun anyway.

Taking a Little Break

There are more wee birdies in the garden, as the weather gets cooler in the hills and up north. The fox sparrows have been back for a couple of weeks, and this time I have three visiting instead of just one. Because there are more, I get to hear their squeaky chatter, that kind of sounds like the "chirp" I can make. Last week, one of them was startled, and flew into the breakfast room window. I dashed out to pick it up before the cats did. It just had the air knocked out of it, and I set it in a rhody while it reinflated. They look so big when I look at them among the white-crowns, but it was so tiny in my hand. I love their dark brown plumage and streaky breasts. Of course I didn't think to get a photo until it had flown off.



But this morning, an Anna's hummingbird hit the same window. I had the camera at hand, and charged to the rescue. Although there was no blood or obvious injuries, Mr. Anna didn't look so good, and I worried he wouldn't make it. I took a few pictures, and then set him in the dish of the thistle feeder. He wasn't grasping with his claws, so I figured this was a safe enough spot for him. When I checked back in a few minutes, he was gone, hopefully to defend his flowers from the honeybees. Yes, I've seen them chase off a bee.

I've been working on my third and last indexing exam, and I've been mostly a mole person for about a week and a half. This afternoon, before having some lunch, I went out to blink at the weak sunlight, water the veggie garden and pick some produce. The beans are still producing, and I'm sure the lettuce will continue until the rains really come on.



There are still some beets and carrots left. Sadly my August plantings didn't do anything, so I'll have no winter and spring roots. The broccoli and kale are coming into their own, and I am pleased to finally have success with the broc. Marathon is great, because it keeps putting out flowerets after the main bunch is cut.



I'm not sure where the seed came from, but I have a volunteer tomatillo. I doubt it'll give me any fruit - it's way too late in the season. But it's blooming prettily.



And now it's back to the exam.

5FEE92B3-FCC5-5F41-17B5-7F94BD8AAD57

1.02.28

Wild Hive in Petrolia

Today I took my friend Ananda out to collect a wild hive. She's been wanting to start beekeeping, and this seemed to be a perfect opportunity.




Petrolia is on the Mattole River out on the Lost Coast of Humboldt County, reached by a narrow, windy, potholed road. The scenery is lovely, but sometimes must be missed if one is not to plunge off the road or get hit by an oncoming vehicle. The town is in a lovely broad valley that is home to many back-to-the-landers. The cabin with the wild hive was a bit out of town, just a poison oak-laden stone's throw from the river. I was expecting the weather to be horribly hot, but it was a most comfortable mid-70ish day.

This particular wild hive was in a solar power battery box, and was small but thriving. The bees were very mellow, and tolerated us removing and trimming comb remarkably well. This was an intermediate to advanced level beekeeping exercise, but Ananda bravely stood her ground amid a cloud of confused bees. I believe her only other beeking experience was helping me with a hive inspection last year. Our only problem was that a large number of them kept leaving the hive box, and settling on the cabin wall in a large cluster. We would brush them into the box, and more would gather. Thinking that perhaps they just needed some time, we drove back into town for a lunch break.

Oh my goodness, if you find yourselves at the Petrolia Market, and there's freshly barbecued tri tip and pork ribs (and you're a meat-eater), buy some and devour it on the spot! We quickly polished off a pound of sliced tri tip, and had apples for dessert.

On our return to the cabin, we found the main cluster still on the wall, and several small clusters of bees in fights to the death. It appeared that a nearby hive had scented the honey, and had come to rob our hive. We swept up as many bees as we could, dumped them into the hive box and closed it all up. A small but lively cloud of bees followed us to the car, and joined us inside. They behaved themselves quite well on the drive back.

Ananda also keeps chickens, a turkey and rabbits. The turkey closely supervised the hive set-up. I think she was watching me, but she could have been thinking about a little bee snack once our backs were turned.

Two Hive Cut Outs

On August 23, the FBBBs* united with Bob MacMullin to remove two wild hives from the wall of the abandoned Bomac lumber mill in Arcata. Much stickiness ensued. The bees were amazingly mellow, though it took Julia & Bob a few days to get all of the bees to go to their new homes.



I processed the honeycomb, and extracted close to 3 gallons of honey. There are plans to make mead with some, with plenty left over for each of us to take some honey home.

*Fabulous Babes of the Bee Brigade

Loch Morgan July 14-18, 2010

In the 11th year of this Morgan's Compaignie tradition, XX chromosomes were allowed to play. Of course they couldn't be wimpy, froofy chromosomes, but strong and "manly". Belching and crotch-scratching were optional.



The camp lies across the Loch, on Ryan's Cove. This year the water was high, which presented some boat-mooring challenges. In typical Siren fashion, these challenges were creatively & effectively met.

The mornings were lazy, with waking and breaking fast lasting until about 10:00, when our first rum ration was poured and the colours were raised.



Then it was out on the water for a sail to the sand spit. Because of the westerly ocean breeze, tacking to the spit took a goodly portion of the midday. I got more experience working the jib and being ballast.



On Friday, Pierre (Pia) met us on the spit, after hiking in from Dry Lagoon. As most of us lunched on the spit, Pierre transformed into a siren, and helped the Otter ashore in a calm spell. Upon our return to camp, Harvey-sensei made picnic-style Tea for all takers. A sake party followed, complete with camp sushi by Michael. In the evening there was gambling in the tavern tent and a campfire outside.



Saturday saw the annual treasure hunt. Boats darted across the water as swiftly as the wind would allow. Michael piloted the gin boat, delivering G&Ts to thirsty sailors. One clue was missing, but fortunately the architects of the hunt recalled the words to it, and we moved on. Later, the missing clue was found in a geocache by the boat dock, apparently moved by someone who didn't appreciate treasure hunts. At least they didn't follow the clues and find the treasure.



On the spit, we unearthed a "teaser" treasure that contained yet another clue. We played a game of bocce on our way back to the boats, stopping to visit an attractive wee wooden boat and its crew. Nearby, sunbathing lasses waved and flexed lithe gams at the sailors.

The final treasure was hidden back at camp, and was properly distributed into rum cups upon discovery. The chest also contained "educational materials" which no doubt were useful to many of this lot.



A few stinky sailors took an afternoon dip in the cove, and played sea lions on the floating dock. The Lord Chamberlain suffered the indignity of becoming a diving board for some. John learned to be cautious about accepting drinks from disreputable sorts like Michael.

The evening saw more drinking, gambling, smoking and singing (if you call what we do singing).



On Sunday morning, all but Bruce & Rauri broke camp, and began loading boats for the return to the mundane world.

Swarms

On a sleepy Independence Day Monday evening, I responded to a swarm alert at the home of two local artists, Becky Evans and Bob Benson. The cluster was nice & big, perhaps 4 pounds, and relatively easy to gather. Becky took some photos of the process, and kindly sent me copies. In a quick check of the hive two days later, I found some eggs. Here's hoping the queen continues to be a winner.



A few days before, I'd joined my beek friend Joy in gathering a swarm near my house. Joy didn't want the swarm, so I got it. Getting bees off the base of a rose bush is not easy. We may have injured the queen, because when I saw her, I found a dent in her abdomen, and a tag of "skin" hanging off it. She seemed lively enough, but there were no eggs after a few days. I trimmed the "skin", in case it prevented her from sticking her abdomen into cells and laying eggs. Here's hoping she is also a winner.

Joy also let me have a swarm from one of her hives, but she has right of first refusal if I find a marked (recently purchased) queen in there.

Overall, the queen situation is improving. Some of this spring's young queens are doing well, and I'm waiting on a couple more. I think I have nine hives right now, though three of these are nucs. After all the queen trouble this spring, I want to hoard as many queens as I can until after harvest.

The hives are filling nicely with nectar, and mature honey is getting capped. I'm hoping for at least a couple of boxes of honey to harvest in August.

12 July Update:
The Evans/Benson swarm is doing very well. They have four frames well filled with eggs and larvae. The queen is very long and a beautiful espresso color. Now that she's proven herself, I have named her Rebecca, after Ms. Evans.

Sadly, the rosebush queen is no more. I fear my intervention did more harm than good. I found a small patch of brood right after trimming her (of course), but now there is no new brood. Her followers will be combined with another hive today.

The queen from Joy's swarm does not appear to be her recently bought one. This one is unmarked, and hasn't started laying yet. She's a blond Italian beauty. I hope she has mated well, and will be laying soon so she can earn a name.

Lots of Princesses. Who Wants to Be a Real Queen?

As I recently mentioned, this has been a difficult year for queens. I'm not the only one in the area. We had a long cold winter that only now seems to be abating - and here it is nearly Midsummer!

In the last few weeks, I've had a number of young queens hatch out. I prefer to call them princesses, until they prove themselves in the brood nest. Last week, two were laying; this week I'll see if their volume and quality are up to snuff.

I decided to buy another queen, just in case. She arrived last Thursday, and I installed her in a hive that I thought was queenless and queen cell-less. The next day, the workers exhibited pre-swarm behavior, e.g. loitering on the landing board in large numbers. This told me that there might be another queen in there. I took the hive apart, and began shaking off frames. Soon I found a rather plump princess and many queen cells. I'm not sure how I could have missed all those the week before, unless there was an older queen who was laying only a few eggs that the workers turned into baby queens. So that hive got split, with the plump princess in one and the bought queen in the other. That's eight hives right now. Yikes!

Of course, I forgot to mark the plump surprise princess when I had her within my grasp. Hopefully she'll be easy to find next time. But yesterday I found and marked two more: one was December's wild queen Grainne (who currently has two daughters in finishing school), and the other is another princess who just started laying. This princess needs some experience - she's often laying two and three eggs in one cell. If she keeps that up, or winds up making mostly drones, she'll go the way of Anne Boleyn and Mary Stewart. But considering she's only just started her career, I'll cut her some slack for a week or so. I hope she makes it - she's a third generation Myrtletown queen, and the last of her line. I'd love to have all local queens that are better adapted to our coastal climate.

16 June P.S. The queen in the hive over at the Harveys' looks to be a keeper! She's a second generation California Street queen, daughter of Athena, granddaughter of Sofia. In honor of her location, I have named her Califa.

Bee Industriousness

A week ago last Sunday, I collected a swarm. I gave them some sugar syrup to keep them happy and to encourage comb-building. If I don't use a feeder board that restricts their entry into the feeder box, I fill the remaining space with frames. Not only had they been industriously building comb on the adjacent frames, but they filled the space around the jar with comb. In the photo (not that you can tell) the jar is being held by the surrounding comb. The comb was full of eggs and larvae. I salvaged some of the comb by holding it onto empty frames with rubber bands. Some comb was too wavy, so I abandoned it. It was full of drone larvae, so it wasn't as great a loss as if it had been full of workers.

While preparing to remove and reattach all this comb, I heard queen piping. I saw a clot of bees and separated it, finding a small black queen in the center. After dislodging most of the bees that were clinging to her, I put her in a queen cage. Then I saw another clot, and found a large golden queen at the center. I caged her, too, and then proceeded to check the rest of the hive. I suspect that the small black one is the bought queen (Lolita) that I thought had died. Having thought this, I had combined the swarm on top of Lolita's hive. Big and Golden must be the swarm queen.

Anyway, I decided to keep both queens for now, to see how they'll do when they're not bitch-fighting. I made a double-decker hive, separating the two queens with a double screen. Next week I'll decide whether Lolita is any good (I doubt it). I've got to stop naming these girls until they've proved themselves.

I set up another double-decker hive today. This time, the queen has been making swarm cells, and I don't want her to leave. So I tracked her down and set her up in the penthouse, and will see what happens below with what are now several queen cells. I've been having some queen melodramas this spring, so want to see if I can get some decent queens. Not only was Lolita a disappointment, but a second queen I bought at the same time (6 weeks ago) wasn't much good, and then died. Considering I have just about as good luck with homemade queens, I figure I'll try and save some money.

I've not reported on the bees for a while, mostly because so much of it becomes too routine to tell. But I hope this satisfies those who hunger for news of the bees.

Big Lagoon Messabout, May 14-16, 2010

As Ratty told Mole in The Wind in the Willows:

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolute nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing... about in boats — or with boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not.

About a week before Messabout, the lagoon was so full that the campground was flooded. But all that water wound up breaching the sand bar, and the lagoon had drained quite a bit before the weekend. We had to walk carefully down the slick clay beach to our boats. Because of the new connection with the ocean, there were jellies and seals coming into the lagoon.



We sailed down to the breach both Friday and Saturday. Depending on the tide, we had to beware of getting sucked out to sea or being pushed back into the lagoon. For me, it was all good for experience, especially when Thorne let me man the helm of the Lord Chamberlain.



Along with the usual cast of ne'er-do-wells, we acquired new friends. Jeff, Dean and Eric came out to play. It turned out that Jeff is the son of one of my beek friends, and it was great to finally meet him.



In camp, we were visited by a very friendly cat. According to the campground host, someone abandoned him when they broke camp. The host has been feeding him, but hopes a kind soul will give him a good home. Some of us were sorely tempted, but already had cats at home to consider.



On the spit, the agates were ripe. During our Sunday morning inspection of the ocean, many of us settled down for some treasure hunting. Some of us got to coach others on the art of agate spotting, and many fine specimens were collected.

Anderson Ren Faire (aka Shasta Dragonwood Celtic blah blah blah Faire) May 1-2, 2010

This is a favored event for the Sirens, mostly because it's relatively close to home. They also let us fire cannons and muskets, which makes it even more attractive. The weather was great, which has been a rarity so far this year.



The fair itself is rather small, but who cares when you get to go costume camping by a gorgeous river?



Our camp was out of the way, which was lousy for getting visitors during fair hours, but wonderful for having privacy and relative quiet. We encamped with the Earl of Stampford's Regiment of Foot (Thorne's roundheaded bunch) and Montrose's Free Artillerie Company (Dale Shinn's royalist bunch). Despite having opposing sides in the English Civil War at such close quarters, peace and harmony were maintained throughout the event.


Photo from Stacy Dunbar

Dale Shinn brought his hurdygurdy, and serenaded us now and again with old timey tunes. If only he had been playing when we sang Friday night; we might have stayed more in tune. Dale also had a reproduction of an old water-filled clay bird call that got me running about looking for that strange bird. Saturday was gambling night, with a good game of three pot brag. Some fellows from another camp came by, hoping we'd be singing again. This surprised us, considering our singing is strong on enthusiasm and short on tunefulness. But I guess they were desperate for entertainment.