What Did You Do Today?

[Poggins]

The bees have a thing for osage saw dust also , noticed it last year when cutting a big osage down , I stopped to take a break and noticed several bees gathering the dust and lately when I cut osage staves on my bandsaw outside my bees join me .

[Eric Krewson]

Tractor supply has a really interesting farm/home magazine that is free on line. One guy has a theory of why bees are disappearing and taken steps to solve the problem in his hives, makes a lot of sense. We kept bees when I was growing up, I always thought they were pretty neat creatures even after they found a hole in my bee suit in the crotch area and delivered 13 stings to a very sensitive part of my anatomy. I was in the process of completing my bee keeping merit badge requirements when this happened.

Here is the issue about bees, hope posting a link isn't against the rules, If it is deleted PM me and I will give you the same, reading it may save your hives.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/out-here_2012-summer_summer-2012.html

[JW_Halverson]

I woke to 4 inches of fresh snow this morning, immediately threw a tantrum, poured another cup of coffee, and went online to complain to all you southerners with nice weather!  Especially mullet, who has already downed a turkey!  You are all off my Christmas card list!

[mullet]

Well, if it makes you feel better, we had a Cold Front move through yesterday and today it's 74dgs.

[bowtarist]

Eric, I read the article, it was a feel good article, and had some good points. It did not have any real cures though. It takes more than just planting trees and flowers for the bees to have healthy hives.  I've always been a fan of do-as-little-to-disturb the bees as possible bee keeping, but there is no safe place to get away from tracheal or varroa mites.  Strong hives help, but more needs to be done to keep those hives strong. I agree w/ the author that bees have been over worked, over stressed and under valued for years, but back in the old "skep" days, they caught swarms in the spring and killed them w/ brimstone in the fall to collect the honey. That went on for far longer than 100 years.  I;m not trying to argue and totally have bees best interest in mind,  but giving a healthy swarm to a "trusted local beekeeper" is not enough to keep healthy bees. Most commercial keepers I have talked to try their best to keep their bees healthy, sometimes w/ means I don't agree with, it's their livelihood and the way they support their families. Know what I'm sayin? So however the cards are laid, now a days one really needs to be a bee "Keeper" rather than the old school bee haver to keep healthy bees. Learn as much as you can about bees and try to catch the next curve nature sends your way rather its small hive beetle or Africanized honey bees. Thanks for the read, been a long time since I've read about bees.  dpg   

[bowtarist]

One thing to remember about bees is they are non-native to North America, honey bees anyway. So most of the plants they forage are non-natives too. That has been a conundrum for me through the years. Sweet clover is a very invasive plant, but bees love it.  Red clover is too big for the bees to get their tongues into unless something like an ant has chewed a hole in the lower end of the flower. 

Got my first call of the year for bee removal yesterday too. It was to take bees out of a tree though which is time consuming and tough to do. I'm gonna go look at it this weekend all the same.

Have a gooder, dpgratz 

[Poggins]

Arrived at OJAM X , helped set up a little even though I got here a little later than planned ( looked like it we might get a shower last night so waited until this morning to load every thing ), cought up with friends and enjoyed the potluck dinner .
We have a few vendors here with bow wood ( one has seasoned black locust and a lot of green osage ) and I'm sure when we start tommorrow there will be a line out the gate and the wood will go fast .
I'll try and find the time to take pics and post them .

[Poggins]

Having a great time here at OJAM , meeting people from all over the US and teaching others how to build bows .
We ran into a few issues with some of the wood but I won't go into detailes .
Only got to shoot the 3D corse once and didn't fair so well .
We have the clout shoot tommorrow and I guess I'll donate some money ( and maybe a couple arrows).
Met a few of the guys that visit here also and the trade bow I made was here so I had a chance to show it off , even brought a peace of the spoonbill skin with me and had several people bend twist and pull on it and after several tries it finally got a small tare on one edge .

[bubby]

tomorrow I have to take the NIMS/SIMS test at work, 9 hrs of study and 3 20 min tests, all Gov b.s. to boot, not looking forward to it at all

[Poggins]

Ok, back home and unpacked from a great weekend at OJAM X .
I have a few photos on my phone but the rest are on my camera and I need to go through them ( 452 in all) so here they are first is the group we had at our camp , the yellow hats are the ones teaching and the red hats are helping them until they are confident they can teach or a group leader determines they are ready .
One of the photos is me helping a young lady with her stave , had a knot and I was showing her and her soon to be how to work around a knot on a stave without cutting through it .



Next is the flint knappers and the blacksmith that showed up , usually we get more knappers there but not this year .



And finally the kids rattan bows , we gave out 150 bows to the kids that were there , not all of them waited around for the big photo though , you can see all the red and yellow hats on the trailer ( most of them anyway ) , and me and a couple others waiting to put arrow rests and handle wraps on .

Estimated number of people that showed up was 900 plus , we do not have an accurate way of keeping track of them all and we go by the ones that sign in .

[osage outlaw]

I went for a walk in the woods with my Dad today.  My niece tagged along.  We didn't find any shed antlers but we did find some nice trees.  We stopped in this spot and took a water break.  The roots of the osage trees make a nice spot to sit and rest.  She wanted to act like she pushed them over.

[JW_Halverson]

Call that girl "Tree Killer".

[Zuma]

Eric Morris told me to look under a tree that fell down on the Ohio River bank.
I did and there was this rock.
Eric found some Adena points.
We found some Pine Tree points on another bank.
The carp tried to jump in the boat. Don't know if it was the motor or thr beavers that scared them.
Zuma

[osage outlaw]

Nice find! 

I made some koolaid feathers for a current project, orange and mixed berry.

[Zuma]

Nice feathers Outlaw,
Here are some of the points we found.
Eric also found a partially drilled pendant.