A Small Tourist

A week ago, Annie Hammond told me her son Jacob was obsessed with growing things. He is only about 4 or 5, very small, but very energetic. I gave her some general advice about how to start a real garden. Today, Jonathan (Hammond) called and asked to come and see my raised beds. It served as a wake up call.

Before they came, I started dismantling some of the broken cold frame ribs. It needed to be done, but I figured this was the prompt I needed to get going. So, I took wood off of two of the beds and broke it up into small pieces before Jonathan and Jacob arrived.

The tour was brief, just sufficient to explain how to build a bed, get soil to put in it, the need for compost. Jacob truly was interested. He saw some onions that made it through the winter and wondered what they were. He noticed the spinach. I pointed out the turnips.

Even though it was brief, it got me going. I went to the Feed and Seed and bought 3 lbs of yellow and 3 lbs of red onion sets, and 5 lbs of Yukon Gold and 6 lbs of Pontiac Red potato seeds. I think I may have bought more onion sets than last year, but I didn't fill up my space last year and I will be giving some to Jonathan and Jacob.

I went ahead and prepared the bed for the onions, turned the soil and put some 10-10-10 fertilizer in. I didn't add any compost. When I was showing the Hammonds, I went by the compost piles. They seemed pretty much frozen.

I took the opportunity to put new batteries in the indoor/outdoor thermometers. I figured once I had it off its post, I might as well put the outdoor unit in the greenhouse to see how warm it will get in the day and how warm it will stay at night. It is 45F outside right now, but it got up to 90 in the greenhouse. I think the real test will be to see how it works over night.

Getting a Few Things Done

One of the roof panels on the greenhouse blew out during the wintry blast we had a few weeks ago. The wind must have really kicked up because I couldn't find the panel anywhere. When I've lost one in the past, they were usually just a few feet away, but there was just no sign of this one.

I called and ordered a replacement. Actually, I ordered two. If I have to do this again, I only want to have to pay for shipping once. The replacement panel cost $8 each. The shipping was $16.

They came in the other day, but it has been cold and wet again, so I postponed doing the repair. Yesterday was actually a gorgeous day, but I fell asleep after church with a very nice nap. I got up this morning, knowing that rain was in the forecast, but feeling a bit of pressure to get this done. It only took about five minutes. The job isn't quite complete. I have difficulty getting the strips that snap the panels into place to seat correctly. I got the one on the left in just fine. The one on the right is partly in. As soon as I was finished, it started raining and it looks like it will hold until I can get out there with some additional help.

The past few weeks, I have been a bit worried about the bees in the hive in our yard. I was able to feed the bees in Clarence Brown's yard about a month ago. They are in full sun with the woods the hive backs up to on the north and the hive itself facing south. So I get regular reports from Clarence that the bees are out and about. There aren't any leaves sprouting from trees yet, so they are just orienting, I am pretty sure.

The hive in my yard, on the other hand, faces north and the pines that it backs up to are thick enough that the snow hasn't melted. I'm pretty sure the snow keeps the temperature inside the hive a bit lower. Without direct sun, they are in a poor situation during the winter. James Bennett advised me to just let them stay there, so I've complied. I went out Saturday and again on Sunday and didn't sense any life whatsoever. Kathy went out today and got the same impression. Because it never warmed up enough, I didn't feed them.

Doug Shaw lost his last hive earlier. He's been a bit more protective than me and I think he said he had fed his, although his description seemed to indicate they didn't get to the food and starved.

This evening, just about dusk, I decided I better go answer my question. The thermometer said it was 50f -- about as low as I want it to go. But, then, if the hive was dead, it wouldn't matter. Much to my pleasant surprise, there were still live bees. I didn't pop the inner cover, but I could see them moving around. So I went and took a top feeder and mashed up some old sugar (mixing in just a little water -- I hope not too much). I popped the inner cover and could see that they were still nicely clustered. My goal was to work quickly and it was getting dark, so the top feeder went on and I closed it up. I hope it doesn't get too cold and that they actually find the food quickly.

I haven't done much through the winter. These tasks are just the beginning. I have a lot to do in the coming weeks.

Moths Aplenty

I've tried swatting at them and putting all our food in sealed containers, but the moths persist. However, I noticed the other day that there was a bug trap in the top of the pantry. It was very old, but it looked like it had done a decent job at catching things, so I ordered some new ones through Amazon.com. The traps (Xlure R.T.U.) come in six packs and aren't necessarily cheap.

The lures come in a resealable package, a necessity because it they operate by releasing pheromones that attract moths who think they are going to get free sex. I thought I would have just a few moths that would immediately swarm to the lure, and that would be that. What happened instead was that I had about 20 moths immediately start swarming, but none went to the lure; they just came out in the open. So, the first thing I learned here was that I had a lot bigger moth problem than I imagined and that I would probably need to let the lure just sit there for a while. My presumption was that the pheromones were so strong that they actually disoriented the moths and that they couldn't follow the scent. I figured that was still OK because being disoriented may have meant that they weren't going to jump at each other and reproduce.

So, I waited a few days before I looked inside the trap again. (The trap is a box that has four interior sides that are coated with sticky areas to hold the moths who venture inside.) There were moths stuck to the bottom interior surface; maybe 20. So I rotated the lure so that what had been the ceiling now became the floor and waited a few more days. Again, about 20 moths were stuck to the bottom surface. Next, I put one of the sides on the bottom and after a few days rotated it one more time.

Each lure is supposed to work for about eight weeks. After looking at it, however, I decided to just get rid of this one and start a new one. So, as you can see in the photo, I caught between 60 and 80 moths. (Each little blip on the surface is a moth.) I hope this is getting rid of them faster than they can reproduce. It is certainly getting rid of them faster than my swatting.