Coffee 3-29-2014

Funny you mention the peepers...

Spring peepers (wood frogs) are one of the first announcers of spring. The old folk used to say that if the spring peepers holler in March they will be looking through glass (ice) in April. They also said they had seen the frogs freeze in solid chunks of ice and thaw out when warm weather came. I remember once we lived in a log house sitting on the edge of a meadow surrounded on three sides by wooded hills, with our house sitting on a little slope on the fourth side. It was exciting to hear the first spring peepers.

Very important to honeybees and from the same paper as above...

The earliest spring flower, the coltsfoot, which gets its common name from its shape, appears along roadsides and banks in Appalachia. This tiny flower has a cheery yellow blossom that resembles a dandelion. It pops through the muddy soil and blooms long before any leaves appear on it. My Granny Brock and Grandma Saylor gathered the leaves when they matured later on in May, and used them for herbal medicine. Coltsfoot has been used for centuries as a respiratory remedy. Interestingly, the Latin name for this flower, "Tussilago Farfar" derives from their word for cough. The large mucilage content probably accounts for its medicinal properties. It is found in commercial cough preparations, but the leaves are also sometimes used to prepare teas and salves and sometimes even smoked.

theo, saw my 1st Robin here on the hill today. They're usually pretty spot on with Spring close by:)

Ground frozen about 18" deep, under 6" of mud. Had to rent mini excavator to dig in the new electric line, cable and phone line for friends house. He lost all the pines along his driveway in a wind storm, taking the phone line, cable and power lines. We had cleared the trees from the new "right of way" last fall and into the winter. I spent two days digging in the conduit and backfilling the ditch. I had fun doing that. Excavator went back this morning and the electric service will be restored Monday, when the ELCO pulls the new cable. The power is on temporary poles until Monday. The Phone line and cable will be installed Monday or Tuesday.
Used a Bobcat E60 rental to do the digging.
Now we have a rather large pile of pines to burn.
His little mini excavator (E26) would not dig the frost layer.
He has a back way in and out of the place. He ran on a backup genny for two days while he cleaned up the pines.
Dan.

LsFarm wrote:Yep, it's MUD SEASON.

Boy you got that right! My entire backyard is a pool of mud. That's the reason we have hardwood floors throughout the house. I hate to even think about what a mess carpet would be. Hopefully, things will start to dry up early in the week. Lisa

McGiever wrote: Surprisingly my hive winter survival to this point is 5 for 5... but it can still go bad if flying times are too little and food stored run short.

That's great! What an accomplishment. The first rule of bee keeping is you can do everything right and the bees will still die. Obviously, you did something right in the fall. I've been keeping a close eye on the food status in my hive and started providing pollen a couple of weeks ago when I saw the first girls bringing in pollen. I know you know McGiever but for everyone else, pollen coming in is a sign the queen has resumed laying eggs. Pollen is used to make "brood food" for the increasing number of larva. It shows the hive is growing. I can't wait for the rain to clear out and get into the hive and check things out. Take care, Lisa

More on Peepers...
Interesting read on Spring Peepers

Good read McGiever,,, Thanks for the post. It seems they are going to be a little late this year. FF you see the robins,,, good sign my friend. About a month ago I got to see a Eagle up in a tree not far from my place,,, really a beautiful sight!!! One powerfull looking bird!

Very nice & interesting read MG. Being that the area I live in is darn near an island surrounded by swamp & wetlands the peepers do peep, I was never so aware of it until I got my hearing aides & now consider it an advantage to tune them out at times. Before that everyone would ask "don't the peepers bother you" & my reply was always "what peepers", I guess the tones I lost in the service are the same as the peepers, microwave & oven beeper & most likely some others that if you never heard you never knew of.

Nice to be back for coffee this morning.

Farm:
We have been busy that is for sure as after 10 months of intense banking, Katie and I got approved for our small business loan and bought the remainder of my fathers farm. It may seem like a small thing to some, but next-generational transfers are hard to do because of economics, siblings, retirement costs and emotion. We finally threaded the needle and got the farm for a price we could handle, and then a retirement nest egg that is sizable for my parents. All in all it netted us a few acres, a sawmill, a house, more sheep and a barn so it means we are growing.

Personal:
Our newborn is not so new at 10 months old and growing like a weed, but we managed to get a new car yesterday for my flock of 4 young daughters. I hate debt so it was a used one, but in great shape and yet gets good gas mileage, which is important when you are running all over creation.

House:
We finally got the wide pine flooring down in the house. It took taking a voluntary lay off from the shipyard for 30 days, but I finally got it in place and in so doing, managed to get the entire house converted to 100% radiant heat instead of just 50%. It was a lengthy job because building materials here mean digging it out of the ground or cutting the tree off the stump. Anyway that culminated with me finding a used boiler that was affordable. Hopefully I can go down and pick it up today as I saw it last week and paid the guy for it, so now it just needs to be brought home and installed. It is the end of a 2 year old search.

Shipyard:
Busy, busy, busy...we got contracts now for at least 10 ships and another more waiting for the bidding process to go through for several more. At at least 1 billion apiece, and taking 4 years to build, it is crazy at the shipyard with them now on a hiring spree and hiring a ton of people...rumor is, another 250 more new hires this year. Wow.

So with all this, I had to laugh with quiet acceptance when our banker said to Katie and I, "You know, you are the two busiest people I know." I know everyone is busy these days, but with a farm, 4 young kids, church, building a home and working full time at a shipyard...he just might be right. Thankfully I got half a year to install my new-to-me boiler!

NoSmoke wrote:Anyway that culminated with me finding a used boiler that was affordable. Hopefully I can go down and pick it up today as I saw it last week and paid the guy for it, so now it just needs to be brought home and installed. It is the end of a 2 year old search.

Tell us more about the boiler.

Pictures of the floors?

I always try to listen for the peepers here and consider it a sign of Spring. The problem is I have tinnitus real bad and I hear a variation of the peeper sound all the time, indoors and out so I have to check with others if what I am hearing is real or just in my head. Sometimes the tinnitus version of the peepers is so loud I can't tune it out and get to sleep at night.

You & me both on that tinnitus T!!!!! What the hell sh, you lucked out on the tinnitus gift from SE Asia???

LsFarm wrote:
Yep, it's MUD SEASON.
So I guess the 50* weather forecast for next week will be needed to thaw the frost.

Only a week to get the frost out of the ground? It takes a month and a half here!


I have an appointment on Monday to take the main bearing shells to my local babbiting shop

"local babbiting shop"?. HA! Your local shop is also the closest one to me.

. the 'sap guys' are saying it will be a very short sap season.. it will go right from frozen to budding out, and the sap will be 'sour'.

The local news said that commercially we may have no syrup this year. There will be some small amounts, but the entire year is pretty much lost. There will be plenty from Canada....at a price.

titleist1 wrote: Sometimes the tinnitus version of the peepers is so loud I can't tune it out and get to sleep at night.

You too? Mine has been real bad the last couple of months. Pretty much my entire life. I'd like to say it comes & goes, but it never goes, but it does get worse & lighten up. I'll let a fan run all night sometimes. The fan masks the tinnitus & I can get to sleep.

NoSmoke wrote:Busy, busy, busy..

Good! It's that time of year. *smile* It's a wonderful thing to have the health & energy to stay super busy.

titleist1 wrote:I always try to listen for the peepers here and consider it a sign of Spring. The problem is I have tinnitus real bad and I hear a variation of the peeper sound all the time, indoors and out so I have to check with others if what I am hearing is real or just in my head. Sometimes the tinnitus version of the peepers is so loud I can't tune it out and get to sleep at night.

I described my tinnitus to the ear doctor as all of the sounds of a swamp in the heat of the summer (chirping bugs, singing frogs, and you name it all vying to be heard simultaneously) blaring in my head 24/7.

In the middle of winter I will say to my wife that the peepers are really going at it, yep,i am in that club too. Freddy, you are scaring me with that maple syrup forecast,we use only maple syrup for sweetening as it doesn't mess up my blood sugar,we use 2 gals/month which ain't cheap but it is our best choice.We might try growing stevia this year to ease the syrup crises,but it is hard to beat a sweetener that also adds such a good flavor to everything.