Steel White Table » photos

A Taste of Claw Hammer Honey

Phillip — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:18:42 +0000

I got an early taste of Claw Hammer Honey from my backyard this morning. All the details are posted at Mud Songs.

I scraped the honeycomb out of the hive and two minutes later popped it in my mouth like a stick of Juicy Fruit — and it was delicious.

Unfortunately, it’s likely to be the only taste of honey this year. Both hives are establishing themselves this year and will need all the honey to survive the winter. Next year, though, if they survive the winter, there should be plenty of honey to go around.

Moose Photo

Phillip — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:17:13 +0000

What do you think? Is it gruesome or oddly compelling? Or none of the above?

Messing with Some Honeybees

Phillip — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:26:06 +0000

I had to change up some feeders on my honeybee hives yesterday. This is what it looked like:

I’ve posted more photos and a video on Mud Songs since I got the bees last week. You get to see me walking around in my bee suit for real. Powerful stuff.

NOTE: Other miscellaneous beekeeping photos will gradually show up in this slide show.

The Sound of Honeybees

Phillip — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:20:51 +0000

I picked up 3 nuc boxes of honeybees last night. 2 for me, 1 for someone who should be picking up her bees today. Here’s a shot of the boxes and the bees close-up.

I’ll install the bees into my hives later today. I’ll document it all over at Mud Songs. In the meantime, this is what the bees sound like in their boxes.

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Me and Some Bees

Phillip — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:37:38 +0000

I got to poke my head inside a honeybee hive yesterday. I wrote a detailed post about it over at Mud Songs.

Something My Brother Taught Me

Phillip — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:08:29 +0000

Whenever I make rice, I dump the rice in the pot and add water until it’s just above my fingers. Then I know I have the right amount of water for whatever amount of rice I’ve used. Jody taught me that. Works every time.

R.I.P. Neighbourhood Dog

Phillip — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:36:47 +0000

A dog that’s roamed my neighbourhood for at least the past four years got hit by a truck yesterday. My neighbour, Edgar, just told me about it. Nobody knew the dog’s name but everyone around here knew the dog. It never barked or growled or begged for food, didn’t crap on my lawn and always took its time to get to where it was going. It was a filthy looking dog because its deadbeat owners left it outside all year round in all types of weather. But the little guy seemed pretty casual and Zen about his predicament.

Rest in peace little no-name dog.

Phillip the Bee Keeper

Phillip — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:16:52 +0000

My bee keeping suit arrived today along with most of the gear I need to start up my first honey bee hive. This is a photo of me in my suit:

I won’t know until the end of June if I can get some bees to start a colony, but I’m ready for them whenever they do arrive.

Further updates on my bee keeping adventures will appear at Mud Songs — starting sometime in June, I hope.

My Field On Fire

Phillip — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:00:10 +0000

The field behind my shed got lit up a couple days ago. I posted a series of photos at Mud Songs.

Newfoundland Nuke

Phillip — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:08:01 +0000

I took this photograph last November near the mouth of St. John’s Harbour.

I never did care much for Mount Pearl.

Unidentified Bird Terrorizes Chimney

Phillip — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:31:36 +0000

I noticed this bird on my neighbour’s chimney this morning. The photo was taken through binoculars. Can anyone identify the bird?

It has a slightly long thin beak, a thick red strip around the back of its head, what looks like a little black apron at the top of its breast, and black dots everywhere. It’s still there at the moment pecking away at the chimney. The rapid pecking sounds like a snare drum.

Click photo to enlargenate (view close-up on separate page).

UPDATE: It’s been identified as a Northern Flicker (photo). Wikipedia entry. Cool!

Potato Tower Didn’t Work

Phillip — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:02:17 +0000

The big potato tower experiment was not a success. The original article in the Seattle Times makes it seem easier than it is. I haven’t heard of too many success stories so far.

We planted our potatoes around May 17th. We did our first test harvest 3 months later on August 17th. It looked like this:

All the gory details are continued over at Mud Songs. My adventures in gardening will be posted over there for now on.

Guess what I had for breakfast

Phillip — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:34:47 +0000

Posting Photos with WordPress

Phillip — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:11:36 +0000

I wrote this 6-page guide to posting photos with WordPress (PDF) for a friend who wanted to know the basics of writing posts and uploading photos to his website with WordPress. I wrote it as I was learning it, but I think I got most of it right.

It’s written for Vista PCs using Firefox, but it would likely work with other sets up too. The WordPress version is 2.9.1.

My Son’s First Photo

Jody — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:51:23 +0000

My five year old son used a camera for the first time the other day.

It’s his own feet. Either he dropped the camera and it took the photo when it hit the floor, or he’s bending over taking the photo upside down.