81 pounds

We work a pretty big garden at Emily’s grandparents’ place. It’s somewhere around the size of Delaware I think. Planting is always a ton of fun and it looks so pretty when all of the plants are just starting to come up. Sometime in June though, craziness happens there. The tomatoes pop overnight and develop hundreds of little green wonders.  Without any warning at all, they go from green to red (and on to nasty if we’re not careful) overnight!  This year we have somewhere around 55 tomato plants and they each make 1 ton of tomatoes. So, yesterday, in the heat of the day, we crawled out into the garden to weed and pick and work on our tans…and pick tomatoes (and other stuff too…but more on that later)  We picked a good number of tomatoes last week…probably 35-40 pounds. I was pretty proud of that…until this week. We kept picking and picking and picking. We weighed in when we got home (for this week…there’s always next week too!!) and found we had collected 81 pounds of tomatoes.

(this is about 2/3 of them…in my family room…)

Now I like tomato stuff. We love to make salsa and pizza sauce and just plain old tomato sauce, but 81 pounds all at once is  a bit of a chore.  We are fortunate to have a tomato press but it is still a ton of work processing the little squirting devils!  I really need to get the child labor bit working better…

8 Comments

warren, July 26th 2010 | Posted in Awesome, Canning, Garden

16 to life

Sixteen years ago Emily and I were married.  I joke and say that it seems like much longer than that.  I know that sounds bad and that’s the joke part of it, but in another way, it’s a good thing too.  We were married right out of college (only weeks after graduation).  We actually met the first day of classes in our freshman year and started dating 6 months later so we’ve been together for a long time…in fact, we’ve been together longer than we haven’t.

Anyhow, the other part of it seeming like we have been together for a long time is that we grew up together in a way.  We were still kids and had no idea about anything.  We shared so many of the really cool things about transitioning into adulthood (we shared the crappy things too of course).  I guess sharing all that makes us just feel timeless…like we’ve always been together.  That’s just super comforting (now that we’re all growed up and such).

I have done my share of really stupid stuff (that also seems timeless…it just never stops) but Emily seems to ride through the storms without too many frying-pan-against-Warren’s-head moments.  I wasn’t sure at first, but I am sure now that I want the maximum…16 years to life!

14 Comments

warren, July 23rd 2010 | Tags:
Posted in Awesome, Family

Mushrooms too!

I mentioned that we found a new spot for picking blackberries.  The new spot is into the woods a bit so we have to take a little time to walk to the best berries.  Along the way, we found some great mushrooms…these are chanterelles but there were all different sorts.  We’ve harvested them before but these ones looked especially cool to me.  There were tons of this variety and they were in all conditions and sizes.

There really is a lot of good about walking into the woods.  It seems like most people don’t venture in too far so there is a lot of beautiful stuff that just goes unnoticed.  I know that but I think I had forgotten too.  Sometimes I wonder how much other stuff like this I have forgotten.  It’s funny how day-to-day life buzzes right on by as the really cool stuff of life gets forgotten…

5 Comments

warren, July 8th 2010 | Tags:
Posted in Awesome, Thoughts, WV

I am part mermaid

I think I was born to live on the beach.  I have been to the mountains and the cities and foreign lands (like New Jersey), but I think I relax and enjoy my time at the beach more than anywhere else.  If I could live at (or near) the beach, I wouldn’t hesitate.

I keep trying to do my best Percy Jackson routine under water…you know, where he holds his breath for 8 minutes because he is a demi-god- son-of-Poseidon (if you have no clue what I am talking about, check out the movie and books!)  I never seem to make it much past 45 seconds or so which must mean I am not a demi-god.

I guess that must mean I am part mermaid.  In fact, I tried on a seashell bikini top and it looked magnificent…they did throw me out of Red Lobster though.

Anyhow, we went to the beach last week so I felt like I had returned to my homelands.  We had tons of fun boogie boarding and body surfing and skim boarding and falling asleep under the tent and chasing crabs and watching for sting rays and reading mindless books.  Abigail finally discovered that she can ride the waves so the beach turned into a lot of adventure for everyone!

We usually sit around and read all evening but this year we added bocce to our evening fun list.  We all had a bunch of fun playing although Isaac was a little overzealous in his throwing of the bocce balls.  He and I did our victory dance several times which pretty well cleared the beach…so it was perfect!

The local wildlife was interesting though we found one that had stayed out in the sun a bit too long (which we didn’t realize at first…talk about funny as we tried to sneak up on him to get a picture!)  Anyhow, we saw sting rays and little fish and “diggers” and pelicans.  The shrimp boats were always nearby too…and we enjoyed the fresh shrimp indeed!

By the end of the week, things had started to get a bit silly…which meant it was the funnest time!  I don’t know who taught these kids to act this way…probably their mother…

6 Comments

warren, July 1st 2010 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Family, Fun

Tap…Tap…Is this thing on?

I have been pretty out of touch lately…but I have an excuse, honestly!  We went to the beach at Topsail Island, NC!  We typically go to a beach somewhere in NC but this was our first year at Topsail (pronounced Top-sul).  Anyhow, I’ll get to the pics of me in a bikini later but first, let me tell you about the trip there.  From Charleston, we have to travel south on the WV turnpike which is a toll-road.  Typically we pay our 6 bucks each way and forget about it, but this year, we discovered something new…E-Z Pass!  I always figured those lanes that nobody used were for decoration only…or maybe WV got extra booths because they were on sale.  My sister-in-law educated us about the E-Z Pass system which is what those always-empty lanes are really for!

Emily went on down to the West Virginia Parkways Authority and bought our transponder.  Basically we just had to load a $20 credit on our device (which required a $5 refundable deposit).  The device hangs on the windshield behind the mirror and is out of sight.  Now get this, it took Emily mere minutes to fill out the paperwork (at a government agency) and walk out of the building with our very own you-can-use-the-empty-lane-on-the-toll-roads transponder.  Instead of the typical $2 per stop, with the E-Z Pass system, the toll is only $1.30…so on our trip, we saved$4.20 which almost covered my recommended daily allowance of Mountain Dew for the trip down.

Do you ever feel that special happy feeling down in your belly when you get to do something cool that puts you in front of other cars, saves you some money and speeds you on to the beach faster than normal?  Yeah, me too.  We took pictures of cars around us and the empty lanes each time we came upon a toll booth…I was like a kid in a toll booth shop!

8 Comments

warren, June 29th 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Technology, WV

We got the cable

When I was growing up, our town didn’t have cable as an option…it just hadn’t come yet. We survived (somehow) on only three channels that came in during the winter when the leaves were down. Sometime in high school (maybe 10th grade?) the cable finally made it to my town and we got it at our house. I was able to watch tv for those 2 years until college. During college I don’t think we had cable in our rooms. If we did, it was pitiful and we never watched it.

Re-runs...we gotta get the cable

Emily and I got married right out of college and headed to graduate school. We were beyond broke for the first 5 years we were married so we couldn’t afford to have cable (except for that one year we lived in a funeral home…but that’s another story). Once we got out of all of our schooling, we just didn’t bother to get cable. We were able to get the major broadcast stations on rabbit ears both in TN and here in WV.

Fast forward to a year or so ago…without cable we tend to read a lot. We read the Sookie Stackhouse novels (upon recommendation of Lacy) and really enjoyed them. A co-worker mentioned that there was an HBO series called TrueBlood which was loosely based on the novels and he had a copy of the first season.

My inspiration for the cable!

TrueBlood is very loosely based on the books but good in its own right. Make no mistake though, this is an HBO production so it is definitely not for the faint of heart…there is all sorts of NC-17 stuff in it (which is totally unlike the books…they are “clean”). Anyhow, it took a year for season 2 to be released on DVD and I was having no part of waiting another year to see what happened this season so I ordered “the cable” and it was installed this weekend. We call it “the cable” because the kids were asked a year or two ago what they wanted for Christmas…they replied, “the cable” like their aunt and uncle have.

Now honestly, the only reason we got cable was so we could watch TrueBlood. It premiered last night so I know we were cutting it close having it installed on Saturday. The cable guy was right on time and did a great job re-wiring the house. Apparently the previous time cable was installed in the house, the wiring rules were different…but whatever. So he gets everything hooked up and turns on the digital box which holds my beloved HBO…and it started rebooting over and over. I asked him to go get another one and he said he didn’t have a spare…but he could have one for us on Monday.

A little dark maybe?

Remember I mentioned I only got cable so I could watch the TrueBlood premier? Yeah, I was not exactly happy…we hauled butt down to the Cable store (they have on in our mall) to get a new box. Huh…Saturday…yeah, no one there at 5:06 pm. I was about to call the cable guy to come get all of his evil cable out of my house (see, I knew we were right all those years) when I decided to try the cable box one more time. For some reason, it worked fine after I re-connected it. It might have overheated or had a loose connection where it was previously installed. I don’t know…but I was able to watch TrueBlood so crisis was averted!

In side news, we also cancelled our (allegedly) 3 mb dsl service (which never clocked higher than 600kb) to get 10 mb service which actually tests at 10+ mb! And it keeps getting better! We also have our phone through the cable so we have caller id and all that stuff as well as unlimited long distance! Oh, I think I love the cable after all…

9 Comments

warren, June 14th 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Awesome

Moving bees

Last week I caught a couple of swarms of bees.  After I hived them, I sort of basically left them where they were so they could settle in (and because I was too lazy to do anything about it.)  After a weekend of talking myself into it, I finally mustered up the will to move them to a permanent location yesterday evening.

Weather radar on Sunday - I live at the blue star...

I happened to take a look at the weather radar and figured I needed to do something and soon as their temporary location was not great, rain-wise.  As always, I wait until just short of the last minute to do stuff, so I scrambled around the house and found some duct tape and a roll of baling twine (as well as a toilet plunger and a box of plastic spoons) and loaded up the man-van to move some bees before the coming storms hit (and I almost made it).

Before I go any farther, let me warn you…what I am about to tell you should not be attempted under any circumstances and is merely a figment of your imagination…I would never really do this ; -)

To move bees, I wad up some paper and stuff it into the entrance which I tape in place.  I do the same with the top entrance (basically a “breather hole”).  Then I wrap a ratcheting strap around the hive and beat feet with it to the back of the van.  There are always bees that hang on the outside and underneath.  Most times a couple of dozen bees seem to outsmart  my tape job too.  Still, I slam the door down and go for it.  You see, if I ever really did this I would not be fearful because, as it turns out, the bees that do escape have absolutely no interest in messing with me.  They see the light through the windows and buzz around as bugs do when caught behind glass.

If I ever really did do this a bunch of times, I would probably be able to tell you that I have never once been bothered by bees with this method and the bees have always been transported successfully and with no damage to me or them.  But, of course, I have never done any of this, right?

Beekeeping is always an adventure.  As always, there are risks when messing with thousands of stinging insects with no moral compulsion towards fair play…but the nature of bees is incredibly fascinating and mostly understandable…or so I have heard…I never do these sorts of things though…

6 Comments

warren, May 3rd 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Awesome, Bees, Nature

No sax but plenty of violins

Last night was the All County Strings Festival for Kanawha county. Many of the schools from the county sent their best string players to the Clay Center for a wonderful evening of music. Isaac was one of the students selected from his school…and he was so excited!

The funny thing is all of the lead up to the performance. We found out that he had “made the team” a few months ago so he has been practicing his pieces. The last few weeks or so, he has attended group practices where all of the kids get together and do their thing. Still, none of it really seemed to click with him that the performance was near.

We aren’t a dress-up sort of family so Isaac was pretty excited when he found out he had to have dress shoes, nice shirt and pants and a tie. We had all sorts of fun (and a small fight) about learning how to tie a necktie. I think he was unimpressed. Anyhow, with the purchase of clothes and hours (it seemed) of looking at himself in the mirror, it finally clicked that the performance was near. He has been super excited…so much so that last night, before the show, he walked around the yard playing his pieces for the neighbors to hear. It was wonderful!

So we all headed to the Clay center where the kids performed on the same stage as the WV symphony. I didn’t know what to expect but the kids (Isaac thinks there were 112 4th graders) all settled down when the conductor walked on the stage. As they started, I couldn’t believe the sound that came from those kids! They did an absolutely wonderful job!

Click for video

(or click here if the other link does not work on your computer)

Fifth graders played, then junior high students and finally high school students. The talent we saw last night was pretty amazing and all because the WV symphony sponsors a strings in the schools program in Charleston area schools. Bravo for music in WV and bravo to my budding musician!

Click for video

(or click here if the other link does not work on your computer)

3 Comments

warren, April 28th 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Audio, Awesome, Family, WV

The first swarm of bees in 2010

There are all sorts of jobs related to keeping bees.  I need to check for a robust queen, I need to check to make sure they have enough open comb, I need to treat them for mites and the honey flow needs managed.  Some of these jobs are pretty fun but many of them are extremely hot and tiring…and sticky.

Every spring, though, I seem to get a chance to do my absolute favorite beekeeping job of all…I get to catch swarms of bees.  Most years I do splits and other manipulations so my bees don’t swarm.  Usually the 911 center calls me to report a swarm of bees in someone’s tree or by their house.  I love going to get swarms of bees, especially when the swarm is from someone else’s hive.

Swarming, you see, is the bees’ way of growing.  When a colony gets too packed into its existing digs, it forces another queen to be created and, when the new queen is nearly ready, the old queen and half (or so) of the overcrowded bees head for the hills…or the nearest tree branch.  Once they make it to the branch, the queen hides in the middle of the swarm and scout bees go out looking for a new place to live.  Back before the days of varroa mites, these bees usually ended up in a tree out in the woods.  That still happens today, but they don’t live for more than a year or two.  So, back to why I like to catch other people’s swarms – when the bees came from my hives, I end up with two half-strength colonies instead of one really strong one.  In one way, it is cool because I get two hives that will grow into good colonies and may make some honey this year.  The bad thing is, if I had one strong colony, it would make honey this year.  Oh well, it can’t be helped!

Anyhow, when the bees are in waiting for scouts to find a new home, they are pretty vulnerable.  Each bee filled up on honey before it left, but that’s all the food they have to go on until they get to a new location.  They are completely exposed to animals and humans and weather and cold.  Being in a swarm is a dangerous proposition for a bee.

So, next door to one of the locations where I keep bees, the homeowners saw the swarm take off out of the hive and end up in one of their trees.  They knew it was mine so they called and I rushed to see if I could catch them.  There is no real trick to catching a swarm of bees (but please don’t try unless you know what you are doing).  All one has to do is get the swarm into a container along with the queen.  If the queen makes it into the container, the swarm will stay and claim the new location as their home.

Click for video

(try this link if the one above doesn’t work on your computer)

So, I got to the swarm location and saw the largest swarm I had ever caught hanging about shoulder-high in a tree…in the middle of a bunch of poison ivy…which I now have on my leg.  I carried my empty hive box to the location and cut the branch with the bees.  I shook them into the box…mostly.  A bunch of bees (since it was such a huge group) fell onto the ground in front of the colony.  Typically the bees will “sense” that a good hive is near and they will march into it.  I have no idea whether the queen walked in herself or if I got her into the box on the initial shake.  Either way, she ended up in the colony and all of the remaining bees followed her inside!

Click for video

(try this link if the one above doesn’t work on your computer)

Bees in a swarm are pretty docile (but don’t mess with them unless you know what you are doing…they still have stingers) and fun to be around.  It’s like pure energy…it’s just amazing to me.  The buzz that they  generate is incredible and it’s just a sight to behold.  I cannot begin to really explain how cool and exciting it is to see and catch a swarm of bees.  It is my absolute favorite part of beekeeping though!  I love this time of year!

More swarms…

11 Comments

warren, April 22nd 2010 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Bees, Fun, Nature

The kung fu is strong with this one

Not long ago, Isaac earned his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do. He has been going 3 nights a week to prepare for his next belt and this weekend, he tested for his green belt.  Like I mentioned before, it takes a certain kind of crazy to want your kid to learn how to fight, but I look at it as a confidence builder and a practical skill for defense (and that’s how his instructors view it as well).

Preparing for forms

There are several components of testing for the belts including forms (patterns of movements), terminology, board breaking and fighting.  Isaac broke his boards easily and knew all the forms and terminology he needed.  The fighting was a bit of a worry though as he has been a little more reserved and didn’t make contact like he should.

(click here for a different version if the above doesn’t work on your machine)

I was certainly surprised at his testing this weekend though.  His fighting has come a long way.  He had great confidence and speed and made good contact.  The boy will be fierce as he gets more training and more strength.

(click here for a different version if the above doesn’t work on your machine)

I am super proud and more than a little weirded out by it all, but I love the pride he takes in his art and himself!

3 Comments

warren, April 15th 2010 | Tags:
Posted in Awesome, Family, Fun
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