Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Moths pollinating and of course another honey bee or two.


Click on the photo & look closely & you'll see she has less than half her wings left. I don't see how this old girl can still fly. This was probably her last flight. They literally fly their little wings off.

Lots of pollen. She's a beauty!

I'm waiting on an ID for these moths. They really liked the Aster flowers.

Update!   The Alfalfa Looper (Autographa californica) is a moth of the Noctuidae family. 
And that is what it is!


A lucky shot! In flight!




Monday, September 28, 2015

The blood moon total eclipse last night

I wasn't sure I was going top be able to see the eclipse because of the hill to the east, but it rose up at about when the eclipse went total. Not knowing what I was doing camera wise didn't help for the first 40 or so pretty blurry exposures. At the last minute, I realized I needed a shorter exposure speed, and needed to lock the mirror up & use a remote trigger.  I figure I'll have the technique down in time for the next one in 2033.
They look better when you click on them. You can see the stars too.




Later on...

Still later......

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Getting the honey house in shape

 I may have posted this photo before, I'm not sure, but I'm partial to it & this post needed a bee so here it is!.
                                 

Everything is wired at last. Lots of outlets and three sets of switched lights, center section and each end. That way I save a little power using only what I need.  The 3'x8' work table at the east end is in, and the little compressor plugged in under it. It is nice to be getting all the bee stuff in one place. There are lots of jigs, tools, and wood ware still in the basement. I still need a rack to hang frames and a couple of shelves, but it's almost done. I salvaged a couple of old tool box drawers from the  wreck we had moving here & used a set of slides I scored at the dump. Someone tossed a dozen nice drawer slides, so I quietly picked them up. The landfill doesn't approve of those things. They would rather see them buried. One day I picked up a dozen tee posts.



Plenty of storage room on top at either end.
Excuse the tippy camera phone photo.


Sunday, September 13, 2015

From the country known universally for it's sanitation and cleanliness...

And I guess  if it's out there, you can buy it on the internet! 

But not any old cow urine will do, according to the followers of the hardline Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sect — only the urine collected from a female virgin cow will suffice, and it's best when collected before dawn.
"Cow urine offers a cure for around 70 to 80 incurable diseases like diabetes," Om Prakash, of the RSS Cow Protection Department, told Reuters. "All are curable by cow urine." "We refer to gau ark (cow urine) as gau jal (cow water), as it has immense potential to cure various diseases," Prakash told The Telegraph. "We have developed a soft-drink formula with gau jal as the base."
                                                                 Distilled cow urine?

For people who would rather not drink their cow urine straight, the RSS has developed a cow-urine-based soft drink called Gomutra Ark. The drink is promoted as a "healthy" alternative to Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other soft drinks, which are seen as part of a wider problem resulting from corrupt Western influences.
I bet it needs double the sugar content of Coke.

Coming soon to your neighborhood convienience store.

Hey! If the urine is good for you, why not ........
                                                                   Cow dung cake?


Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Australian Government To Re-Classify Firearms!


The old proverb about the camel's nose in the tent proves true once again. It was only a matter of time. Now they are finishing what they started in 1996 with the firearm buyback (confiscation).


Monday, September 7, 2015

Game cam elk & the obligatory honey bee


Taking her thyme!


Up in the woods above the house. They look pretty healthy. It must be all the veggies and apples they ate from our garden the last couple of weeks. I see the camera still reads a month off. I thought I reset it.









Tuesday, September 1, 2015

More bees on the asters and a hover fly

Please click on one for best effect






Fly pretending to be a bee

A couple of today's bees

These look better enlarged with a click.
This little bee is a male Agapostemon. Looks kind of like a wasp.

One of the girls being symmetrical..