Monday, October 10, 2011

heady moonday

It's been getting pretty nippy at night lately. I'm extremely concerned about our honeybees being warm enough, nourished enough, healthy enough, etc. I can only describe all the information out there on how to winterize the beehive as a bee babel. Some wrap the hive in tar paper, some with children's sleeping bags or those survival space blankets; most think our hive doesn't have enough honey stored for the winter so we'll need to feed all winter long, but how, what and when is unclear; one person told me to take off the top deep, another said to put it back on. I've even learned that bees only like alpaca wool as an insulator and not regular wool.

Trying to decide on all this could give a person a real headache. Finally someone told me to do what feels right, that it's like raising children, they're your children and you get to decide. I like that because we did okay with our kids.

While I haven't totally figured out the bee thing, I do know how to warm up our living room -- with afghans crocheted by my mom. She actually didn't really like seeing them used while she was alive because she wanted them to stay nice and we had a houseful of kids. But she's gone now plus I'm sure she feels differently about it wherever she is.


Today is a waxing moonday in Aries and tomorrow we'll see the moon grow into total fullness. I'm still taking things further and purposely putting off tasks best done under a waning moon like sorting, pruning, and cleaning. Putting off that type of work makes me feel a little guilty until I remember that I'm living in accordance with the moon. There's a moontime and moonplace for everything.

An Aries day is one of action and movement, but projects started now could lack staying power if we're too impatient and quickly move from one thing to another. To me, it seems like a good day for brainstorming or stream-of-consciousness exercises because that's exactly the kind of energy you need -- where your mind doesn't get fixated on one particular thing and your imagination can soar.

The parts of the body influenced by fiery Aries are the head and upper face. It's thought that headaches are more common during Aries days because of the flurry of impatient thoughts about what we can or should be doing. Banging our heads against the wall might apply! Drinking plenty of water to balance the heat of Aries and avoiding migraine triggers are some good preventatives.

I need to go brainstorm with those honeybees now!

8 comments:

  1. love the stitches on your woven piece !
    Ha, at Alisa Burk's I saw she painted a real pumpkin with acrilyc paint and than started decorating : fun !

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  2. Oh I understand this! The first winter with the chickens when it got down below freezing and it was snowing. I worried about them so much... Probably will each year. Your moonplan is good.

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  3. We have had so few bees this year. One day we had a couple at the sunflowers for a long time, but really haven't seen too much of them. Mmmmm...does not feel right.

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  4. Thanks, Els -- I'll have to check her pumpkins out!

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  5. Deb, oh yes, your chickens! When it gets wicked cold here, I've heard that people hang a lightbulb in the coop. We've thought of putting one under the hive in case of extreme cold. We've just got this special circumstance of starting the hive so late in the season that they haven't stored enough honey to live on. At least that's what every tells me....

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  6. Nancy, oh I hope they have a resurgence! I guess the best way for us to continue is to plant the kinds of plants that attract and nourish them...

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  7. You could ask Teresa. Her bees survived cold winters with - 20 °C in Germany (I hope).
    Her farm blog: http://lavendercreek.wordpress.com/

    Here at the mountain in the North of Germany we already had some 3 cm of snow last weekend, it melted away, but the next weekend is going to be cold again, under zero.
    Thoma

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  8. Thank you, Thoma! I will go visit Teresa's blog. Oh my, winter is setting in already -- snow!!

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