Oh what a lie! Well maybe I am a little enthusiastic with the punctuation...

I'm supposed to tell you all about the mead

And it is going to be tasty. Despite what the picture looks like, I am not drunk. Just tired after a long day. The carboy next to me holds 3-gallons, and right now it is in its second fermentation stage. During the first stage, all that liquid was in a bucket with some raisins and yeast. We stirred the bucket a couple of times every day for two days (to give the yeast plenty of oxygen), then after two days racked the lot. There is one smaller container on our kitchen counter that holds what we could not fit into this carboy. The thing at the top is an air-lock. The purpose of the air-lock is to allow carbon dioxide to escape without letting any contamination back into the carboy. Initially, there was little bubbling action, but as of this morning it is starting to really go. We will let it continue until the bubbling stops, which means that the fermentation stops. Then we let it age for a while (from what I have read, it takes about a year to get a really good batch of mead).

To update anyone interested in my health, I am continuing to recover from my MS attack from a couple weeks ago. I still have some numbness in the left side, but it gets better every day. I am very glad I decided to go on the course of steroids. While the steroid treatment will not affect the ultimate outcome of the attack, it really speeds up the healing process. Last time, I didn't get then steroids for a month after the attack, and I still have some lingering numbness in my right side, although not much of that.

I noticed that Jami has ended almost all of her blog entries with an exclamation point, so I suppose I should do the same, for consistency. !

Yesterday, we started our first batch of mead. Most of the honey in the batch was collected from the uncapping tank. When you extract honey, you cut the thin layer of wax that the bees cover the honey with from the honey comb. This layer is called the “capping” and can contain a lot of honey. We added the remainder of last year’s crop (about a pound) and a pound from this year’s crop to start the three gallon batch of mead (also called a must). The must bucket smelled yummy as we stirred in the hot water to dissolve the honey. We added the yeast this afternoon after we were sure that the wild yeasts had been killed and used a dry wine yeast. The mead must will sit in a 5-gallon bucket for the next couple of days to give the yeast time to grow a large population. We’ll stir it a few times a day to provide the yeast with a lot of oxygen. When it looks pretty fizzy and frothy, we’ll rack it to the 3-gallon carboy and stick an air lock on it.
In preparation for racking the must to the glass carboy, we bottled the watermelon wine that we’ve been aging since February. The wine was begun as a single must, but I separated it into three different 1-gallon carboys and added a few tablespoons of additional sugar to two of the jugs. It was amazing how different the three wines tasted. One was very dry, one was sweet, and one was right in the middle. The wine is a really pretty amber color and does have a watermelon flavor.

We also got the wax rendered yesterday. To clean the beeswax, we heated a pot of water that’s about half full. We added the wax to the water and let it melt. Since beeswax is an oil, it floats after it melts, allowing the heavier impurities to fall to the bottom of the pot. After the mixture was boiling, we ladled it into a jelly strainer to separate out the lighter impurities. The cleaned wax was captured in a silicone bread pan and allowed to cool. From the cappings and burr comb removal, we ended up with about a pound of gorgeous yellow wax.

We made the most of a Friday night by playing a game of Trivial Pursuit followed by a game of Monopoly. I actually beat Eric at Trivial Pursuit (!!) but then he creamed me in Monopoly. Be careful y’all, that guy is heartless when it comes to collecting his rents.

Tesla's surgery yesterday went well. When we got to the veterinary clinic to pick up the dogs, the vet told us that the lump did not have deep roots and was confined to the skin layers. Her teeth cleaning went well (no extractions necessary) and she had her nails trimmed. She has some stitches that will need to come out in a couple of weeks, but otherwise is in good shape the vet techs told us that she cried all day after she woke up.

Sam did not get his teeth cleaned. The vet takes blood work prior to putting a dog under general anesthesia, and Sam's blood work indicated that something is up with his kidneys and liver. They took a urine sample and we'll know more in three days. The vet agreed that there doesn't appear to anything overtly wrong with him so she's fairly confident that its nothing serious.

Poor Sam. He sat all day with nothing to eat because we had to fast him for the anticipated anaesthesia. And, because Tesla was so upset after she woke up, they put Sam in the kennel with her and he had to put up with her crying all day. When the vet brought the dogs out to us, Tesla calmed down and stopped crying and Sam started wiggling and couldn't stop crying. The vets had a laugh at the behavior swap.

Painting, cleaning, and more painting! On Sunday, Eric went back to Issaquah and did a BUNCH of work. He cleaned off the roof (which took the entire Seahawk’s game!), scraped off several more layers of Justin-related grime, cleaned floors, cleaned out the fireplace, and trimmed back all of the vegetation touching the house. He also spackled some holes in the bathroom.

Last night, we went back to the house after work. I finished painting the bathroom and repaired some molding while Eric re-hung the bathroom door in the master bedroom, cleaned out cabinets, polished the glass stove top, and bleached the toilets. We didn’t leave until a little after 9:30 pm, so it was another late night for us. I think there will be one more marathon day of reattaching hardware, wiping everything down, putting another coat of polish on the floors, and running the vacuum, and then the house will be ready to list.

We didn’t get the expected rain yesterday, so our place has had a little extra time to dry out and the roads to work are all open again.

Thesis news: I'm almost 60% of the way with the first draft for my thesis. I've had a pretty good response from the state-level agencies I've contacted, but need to start chasing the federal agency contacts. As part of my literature review, I'm reading a book called "Wildlife and Recreationists: Coexistence Through Management And Research", edited by Richard Knight and Kevin Gutzwiller. While its a compilation of journal articles discussing the impacts of recreation on wildlife and wildlife recreation ecology, I'm ridiculously enthralled by it and actually find it hard to put down. I guess that's when you've discovered what you're meant to do- when you can read a book on a work-related topic and you can't get enough LOL!

My turn to say something...

So far Jami has been the sole poster to our blog, but no more! For those of you who have been following this thing, you know about our leg issue. Seems everyone is having a leg problem at our place lately, including me. For the record, I wasn't all that disappointed that my bruise (or lack thereof) was all that colorful, it was more like I was surprised. Wally did pop me a good one that day, and all I could do was gimp around a bit, although I wanted to give as good as I got. By then, Wally was all the way across to our arena (or the spot where an arena will go, when we finally get one built), and, since he didn't intentionally kick me (I hope), I had no right to get mad it him. He was just being a horse, and as far as I know, that is what he does best.

So I have meandered away from my current leg issue (although it is fading rapidly). As most of you probably already know, I was diagnosed with MS almost 10 years ago (has it been that long?). Well, last Friday my immune system worked with my central nervous system to help remind me that I still have the stupid disease, because I tend to forget.

About 4ish Friday, I noticed an all too familiar numb feeling creep into my left hand and foot (and eventually my left leg). This is something that I have expected to happen eventually, so I was not too surprised. This is what happened back in March 1999, but then I didn't know what was happening, so I did nothing for about a month. By then, the entire right side of my body was wither partially or fully "numb", and starting to get very weak. I was weak enough that I limped when I walked, as well as staggered about like a drunken sailor on the slippery deck of a ship in a nasty storm. Ok, maybe not that bad, but it was not good. By the time I finally saw someone, my first MS attack was started, finished and crawling back into its hole (which, apparently, is located on my brain, I got pictures to prove it). If it was not for a sharp nurse in a clinic on the CWU campus, who by just asking me to walk about 10 feet knew something bad was going on, I would not have been sent to the hospital in Ellensburg, carted to the hospital at UW, and finally (3 months later) diagnosed with MS. Keep in mind that everything that had happened to me that was MS related had happened on my right side, but, like I said, I was expecting that something would eventually happen on the other side, although I was prepared to wait as long as it did.

To make a long story short (too late), I had the worst MS attack I have had since it all started last century. However, this was not even half as bad as the first time. I have had no problems at all with my vision or speech, which some of you might remember were both very affected by that first attack. Also, the only weakness I have experienced has been due to the steroids that I have been on the for last couple days. That was the big mistake I made that first time, not getting help for a month. I waited just through the weekend to be sure I knew exactly what was going on before I called someone, but I know exactly who to call, what to say and ask, and , most importantly, what was happening. I started a three day course of Methylprednisolone Monday about 2 hours after I called the MS clinic (which, luckily, is only about a 10-15 minute drive from where I work). I expected to start the steroid treatment on Tuesday, so it was a nice surprise to find out that I could get started to fast. The steroids are not meant to stop an attack, I don't think much can stop it. What the steroids do is accelerate the healing process, which is exactly what they have done.

I have had two of three treatments (third one is this afternoon), and my "numbness" is down by, I would guess, 80% or more. I use quotes for numb and numbness, because it is only partial. I lost most of the feeling in my left side extremities. I could not at all sense hot and cold, but I would feel pressure. That allowed me to be able to walk and use my hand to utilize tools and pick up things, but if they were hot or cold, I would not have been able to tell. I could tell if something was extremely hot or cold. It wasn't much, but I could sense a strange tingle that told me to stop touching the hot/cold thing. As an example, I canned some beets this weekend. Normally, right after you take the jar out of the pressure cooker, it is too hot to pick up. I was able to pick up a hot jar and hold it for a couple seconds before getting that tingle, but as soon as I realized that the tingle meant (skin damage about to occur) I put down the jar. So I knew I had to be very careful for a while when using sharp things or when cooking. All I have is one small nick from a knife I was using to cut up an apple for lunch on Monday. No other damage has occurred. Jami wanted me to include a picture of the nifty IV thing in my hand, which will be gone after today. Not sure why she wanted me to include it, but here it is:






I wrote all this to explain to you, the avid reader, that you should not worry too much about what has happened. It is what happens when someone has this disease. I an extremely lucky that I did not get saddled with the nasty form of the disease, primary-progressive MS. I will soon be back to my ?normal? self, and by the time I see some of you next Thursday, it will be impossible to tell that anything happened.

On a final note, the pictures you see of me below messing with my bees were taken after the attack, but before any treatment. As you can see, I never lost the ability to function normally, I just had to put up with the hassle of an odd feeling one half of my body.

Eric decided to feed the bees this morning while we have some clear weather. I ran outside in my pajamas to take a couple of photos and managed to get a few before the bees chased me inside. One barely stung me on my knee and another was trying really hard to entangle herself in my hair. Next time I'll wear my suit and try to get some better shots.

This first shot shows Eric trying to figure out how to best get into the weaker of the two hives. Because Autumn bees are desperate to find the last bits of food, bees can become robbers, taking food from weaker hives. Disturbing a hive will make a lot of bees fly, and you don't want bees from your stronger hive flying when you feed the weaker hive. In this photo, you can see that the bees are crawling out of the front entrance at the bottom of the two boxes.

The frame feeders we use are in the bottom of the two green boxes. In the spring, it is usually pretty easy to pull the top box off and pour in the sugar solution, but after a full season in their hive, the bees have glued the boxes and frames shut with a combination of beeswax and propolis.

In the fall, we feed the bees a sugar solution that is two parts sugar to one part water (by volume). This solution is a light yellow color naturally, and has properties close to honey. You can see the jug of sugar solution sitting in the foreground of the photo.

In the last photo, Eric has realized that he can't lift up the top box because the frames in the top box are glued to the frames in the bottom box. Instead, he cracks the propolis seals at all four corners and twists the top box to one side, exposing the frame feeder. Once he can see the feeder, it only takes a few minutes to pour in the sugar solution.

Because we're not sure if the weather will allow us to feed the bees again this winter, we set the remainder of the sugar solution out in a shallow dish for the foraging bees to find. They will bring it home to their respective hives and store it just as they would a flower nectar.

The high energy food will allow the bees to maintain a hive temperature of around 70 degrees through the winter. In spring when the queen starts to lay, the hive temperature will be raised to between 91 and 97 degrees to ensure that the brood develop correctly!

On Friday night, we met our friend Liz for dinner after work. Liz just got back from a 20 day trip to Nepal. Twelve of those days were spent trekking through the Himalayas. She said that they started at around 8,000 feet in elevation and got as high as 17,500 feet. She brought us back a beautiful copper hand-beaten Nepalese singing bowl. She's still sorting through the trip photos, so we'll see those another time.

Yesterday, Eric spent the morning at the dentist while I worked on my thesis. When he got back, I took a short break and we headed over to the Beez Neez in Snohomish- the local apiarist shop. Because the shop closes around 6 pm each week night and is not open on Sundays, it can be hard for us to get there. We chatted with Rachel (part owner) about when they're expecting to get their shipment of queens for 2009, and picked up a few small things. We also checked on prices and availability for the wood ware we'll need in the spring.

When we got home, it was warm enough that the bees were flying. I briefly popped the cover off of the hive that I had shaken in the spring and was surprised to see the quantity of bees crawling over the top of the frames. I had assumed that the bees had already reduced population to get ready for the winter, but apparently not. While we were up there looking at the hives, we saw a tiny worker bee pulling a struggling drone out of the hive. Prior to each winter, the girls (the workers) kick all of the boys (drones) out of the hives. Drones literally do nothing for a hive- their sole purpose is to mate with a virgin queen. The drones don't collect pollen or nectar, they don't make wax to store food in, and they don't help feed the baby bees (larvae). As a result, the workers kick all the drones out at the beginning of winter so that the boys don't sit around eating all of the stores. Because the bees can't fly and find food in the winter, what they put away in the spring, summer, and fall has to last until its warm enough for the beekeeper or the flowers to feed them. One way of doing that is to reduce the number of bellys that you have to fill. I still felt bad for the big boy. Although he was more than double the size of the worker hustling him out, she was successful and he buzzed around the entrance of the hive hoping to be let back in.

Eric finished canning up the last of the beets last night. We ended up with a total of 6.5 pints of chopped beets, 6 pints of chopped beet stems, and 2 pints of beet greens. This is in addition to all of the beet stems and greens we've been eating all summer. Other than the green onions, the garden is pretty much done. We'll pull the onions for dinner tonight (Chinese green onion pancake) and then the garden will be ready to be put to bed.

The vet found that the growth on Tesla’s leg had abnormal cells, so we’ve scheduled a surgery for her next Thursday. The vet’s highly optimistic since we caught the growth so early. So, other than a hefty surgery fee, it looks like things will be fine. We also scheduled a dental appointment for her and Sam on the same day. The vet told us that after getting their teeth cleaned, we should start brushing their teeth daily (optimal) or weekly. Then she told us that she uses one of the battery-powered brushes on her dogs. Can you imagine? Our dogs are pretty good about letting us do things to them, but a whirling toothbrush may take some work!

Last night, we went to the Issaquah house after work for another hefty round of labor. We replaced the molding in the bathroom, replaced a broken light fixture, and cleaned the floors in the laundry room, family room, and toy room. We found more Justin-related damage including a large gouge in the sheet flooring in the toy room and the above-mentioned hallway light fixture.
I also got the first coat of paint on the bathroom, but will need to give it several more coats. The walls in that small room sucked down a half can of paint already- it really makes a difference when you’re painting bare sheetrock! We left around 10:30 last night and didn’t get home until 11:30, so we’re both dragging today.

We made it almost to Duvall before running into a road closure sign on Highway 203 this morning. The detour we ended up taking took a little over an hour, so our 40 minute commute expanded to more than an hour and a half today. Still, as Eric pointed out, road closures from rain are a lot less time consuming than road closures from snow! According to a coworker, they ended up opening the road to traffic about 25 minutes after we got turned away this morning. He said that there was a lot of water over the road, but they were consistently letting traffic through. Too bad we didn't leave late this morning!

Although I run three blogs, everyone is always telling me that they don't know what we're up to! I decided that I'd put together a single spot for people to come and see what we're doing, and then link to the other blogs when something gets updated.

Because I'm working on finishing my thesis right now, these posts may be few and far between until after the first of the year. That said, it's faster for me to type this all once, than to answer a bunch of emails asking the same questions- "What the heck happened to you guys?" "Are you still around?" and "When are you finally done with school?!".

The short answer- school is a little hectic, work is a lot hectic, and my thesis is about half done. Oh yeah, we're also getting mom's house ready to be rented. This has been a tough quarter, but we have less than 20 school days left. I'm considering taking the week of Thanksgiving off...no, I HAVE to take the week of Thanksgiving off to finish the first draft of my thesis. We haven't attended any of our club meetings since August (one actually called and asked where we've been!), and we actually pulled the shoes off of Griffin and Tate because I knew we'd have no time to ride.

We did take a night off and check out a bar Monday night. We watched the Arizona/San Francisco football game (SF should have won!), drank beer and ate greasy bar food. We really liked the bar; the "regulars" were all really friendly, the prices were good, and the bathroom was clean. Heaven.

We're having a weird leg epidemic going on right now. A few weeks ago, Eric got popped good in the upper thigh by Wally who kicked like a bucking bronc when Eric let him out. Eric got a pretty good hoof-shaped bruise out of it, and was a little disappointed that it didn't really turn very many colors.

A few days ago, we noticed that one of Wally's back legs was swollen. By swollen, I mean SWOLLEN. The leg looked like that of a stuffed pony- no kidding. There wasn't a lot of heat, and he wasn't limping or favoring the leg, so we decided to take the "wait and see" approach. The swelling is going down- there is much more definition in the leg now. The heat is just about gone and he's still sound. I'm guessing he banged his shin pretty hard on something- Tate's hind foot is a likely candidate!

Last night, while Tesla lounged on my lap, I noticed that she had a lump on one of her hind legs. Eric is taking her to the vet this afternoon to get it checked out! If trouble comes in threes, we should be done with leg problems for the time being.

The rain we've been dealing with has been amazing. Everything is wet- well ok, everything gets wet every winter, but everything is REALLY wet right now. The roads are all starting to have a lot of standing water and the county is handing out sandbags to residents along the Skykomish, Snohomish, and Stillaguamish rivers.

I think that's about it for now. As appropriate, I'll link to the other blogs. Let me know what y'all think!