This was a pile of gorse that my wife and I had PULLED OUT (that’s a different story). We had had lots of rain so it was soaking wet. I had fanned the little flame with a piece of cardboard but it kept dying back. Then I remembered my battery-powered leaf blower. Hahaha. It worked VERY well. I was almost done burning when I thought I should shoot some video.
Where did the gorse (Ulex europaeus) come from, you ask? The gorse, as well as the name of our town of Bandon, Oregon actually came from Bandon, IRELAND in the 1890’s.
I wasn’t surprised by the deer. We had been bribing the deer with little gifts of spent pea vines and leafed out fruit tree suckers. It was the ‘blur in the background’ that caught my attention. It wasn’t the first time we had seen the fox.
The first time we spotted Mr. Fox was back in April, when he was visiting the bird feeding area. The crows had been spilling the food onto the ground where they could get it easier. Mr. Fox could get it too…how often I wonder?
The fox was probably cleaning up the dropped plums. My wife wonders if foxes can eat cats. It looks big enough.
Speaking of deer…
August 8…A baby deer appeared for the first time this evening. My very observant wife says the mama deer trusted us enough to bring out her fawn. My wife had been observing the doe for a few days. When the doe came out yesterday, she kept looking back at something, staring at what, another deer? Possibly her fawn, making sure it stayed put.
The proud mama… I’m quite sure the deer can see us looking at them through the window. How do I know? There are times in the spring when there’s nothing out on the board. The deer will just STAND AND STARE.
April 29, 2017…Granddaughter Calliope helps to paint her Mom’s sign for the Climate Rally in Eugene, Oregon. (In solidarity with People’s Climate March in DC and nationally.)
This is her protest sign, the one she made herself. I’m so proud of her. At four years of age, this is already her third protest.
I don’t know if many people are aware of it, but when you burn a gallon of gas when driving, you are producing 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. If this bothers you as much as it does me, try having a car-free day each week. We started that about 10 years ago and actually got as high as 50% car-free days. That’s an average of 3 1/2 days each week using either a bicycle, walking, or staying at home. When I think about the planet that my generation will be giving to my kids and grandkids, I’m very ready to sacrifice a little to help their future out.
The following video was taken at the 350Eugene Climate Rally on the steps of The Federal Building in Eugene Oregon, April 29, 2017.
April 21…The turnips are blooming. Why is that important? Because the bees are getting the pollen. Pollen that is high in protein, with all the essential amino acids, and is highly digestible. Last October, we planted the turnips as a cover crop and intended the blossoms to mature early in spring, but we didn’t realize that the pollen was so nourishing. Apparently, the bees do well on it, so well it can lead to swarming. I just hope I can capture the swarm.
Pollen sacs full. (A lucky shot with an iPhone)
For several days (when it’s not raining) the bees have appeared on the front of the hive. I think they’re waiting for a sunny day. “Be patient, little critters, good weather is coming soon.”
While I was looking over all the wind damaged trees, a City of Bandon ‘bucket’ truck drove by, turned around, and stopped. “Looks like you could use some help.” Kevin took care of the leaning eucalyptus tree while Mark started cutting the big one.
Thank you Mark and Kevin and the City of Bandon utility crew.
That left the bare straight part and the stump. I figured we could wait for the weekend, but my wife let it be known that it had to be removed ASAP. “The fence is open and Bailey (our old and very deaf dog) could get hit by a car.”
A rented log splitter did most of the work with the two of us wrestling the sawn rounds onto the splitting plate.
I love it when the splitter pops the ’round’ all the way through, but it doesn’t happen often enough.
Load after load gets carried away with our DR Power Wagon. It will carry 800 pounds (362 kg) of anything, but it’s fossil fueled. We want to replace it with a battery-powered version. If anyone has a suggestion, please comment. Cool hat, Sue.
That stump was stubborn, but no match for the two of us, even though we’re in our 70’s.
Returning from our morning walk, my wife turns to me, “Pat, the field is looking seedy. Should we mow it?” “Yeah, let’s mow it,” I say, wondering if there’s enough gas. Hmmm, I think I’ll try the new EGO battery mower to see if it’ll work on the thicker grass. To my surprise it works well.
July 4th…Independence Day. Mowing thick grass with the EGO cordless electric mower. I’m not producing carbon emissions. I’M INDEPENDENT OF FOSSIL FUEL.
We usually mow the field with the big DR Brush cutter. It’s about 11 hp and uses quite a bit of gas, so I was very impressed that the EGO cordless mower could handle this thicker and taller grass.
Leave some “No Mow Zones” for the bees. Here’s some healsall plants and some yellow Bird’s Foot Trefoil.
I left some tall grass too, for the deer. I know, I know, you’re not supposed to feed the deer, but there are so many juicy temptations in the garden that they feasted on last year. In a way, I am thanking the deer for not jumping the new deer fence into the garden. Maybe it’s more of a distraction, but so far it works. We’ve been picking up the “June drop” apples along with the mountains of ripe plums and scattering them in an area where we can see them eat (outside the garden, of course.)
Time to recharge. I use solar power.
Solar power plug installed 1 January 2013 (into my press room) Before that, I used a long extension cord from the panels through the shop window. 🙂
My wife won’t let me trim the flowers around the solar panels, but if they start casting shadows, there’s gonna be trouble! 🙂
EGO’s 56 volt battery RULES!!!
We fill several wheelbarrow loads. What are we using the grass clippings for, you ask? For mulch in the garden. We are coming into the dry season. We’re on a shallow well, so we try to conserve on water usage. Mulch cuts down on the need for water. I scatter the lawn clippings out in the sun. I’ll turn them tomorrow morning. It only takes a couple of sunny days to dry them out enough. (I’ve learned my lesson. Years ago I used fresh lawn clippings over newly planted potatoes. I couldn’t figure out why no potatoes were growing. Pulling up the mulch, I realized the grass had burned off the sprouts.)
After letting grass clippings dry for a couple of hot days, it’s ready to go.
Mulch in squash, lettuce and bean bed.
Barrels benefit from using mulch.
Poles beans growing nicely with drip watering pvc and lots of mulch.
With the advances in battery technology, it’s exciting to be able to do more and more things without using fossil fuels. If it’s true what most scientists are saying, then our grandchildren are facing a future of mass starvation, cities underwater, and out of control wildfires. With that being a possibility, we are very willing to reduce our carbon emissions as much as possible.
It ain’t purty, but this 40 year-old Troy-bilt rototiller still starts on the second pull. I tilled up a couple of early rows for potatoes. You can see the 4×4’s of the new deer fence in the background.
4-6-16….Two rows of spuds go in.
My wife is very happy about the deer fence. It means she can plant some bee-loving flowers without the deer munching them. She’s planting some trachelium caeruleum in our baby bear bed. Once the fence is totally up, we will remove the cages around the fruit trees and Nine Barks.
4-4-16…..The buckwheat has been planted. Several years ago, it blossomed 3 weeks after I planted it. I’m hoping it’ll repeat, but the main reason I’m planting it is to enhance the soil
I hope I can buy one more year out of this raised bed. At the time, it was the only one we could use for the baby lettuce transplants which are growing well.
Those little hypericum seeds from last year have come up. These are almost a month old. I don’t know what I’m going to do with so many…
Amelia sent a photo of her hypericum. It looks like she might have to give some away too. 🙂
12-20-16….I took a hypericum cutting as an experiment and jammed it in the ground at the far corners.
Hypericum cutting at 3-13-16
4-7-16….Hypericum cutting is taking root.
The hypericum above started off as a cutting. In December, I sliced off the stem and jammed it into the corner of this planter. It looks like it took…but what am I going to do with all this hypericum???
Clary salvia planted in mid February
4-7-16….Clary Sage now.
4-7-16….Wild prettii echium now, was planted outside 11-27-16.
This is a different kind of echium. I’ve been nursing it along for a couple of years. It needs to be protected from freezing temperatures. I think I can see bud starts on it. See the next photo.
This is the same echium as above. The blossoms are a pretty blue color and we spotted bees on it today.
4-4-16….The deer fence has been started. I’m not a great fence fan, but if this keeps the pesky deer out, it will be worth it.”Happy wife, happy life.”
4-7-16….The wire ‘fabric’ is getting stretched and nailed on, starting in the far corner. Lots of gates for Pat, makes slow going for fence builders.
Are these bees going to move into Bee-atrice Log hive, or just tease us into thinking they will?
At about 12 minutes into the video, you can see that Sam Bond’s Brewing played a role by providing a gathering place for the kids fighting climate change.
That’s right, I bought a raffle ticket for a Tesla Model S or Model X.
The Tesla Model X as seen with the falcon wing doors open. This very safe SUV can go from zero to 60 in 3.2 seconds. I don’t think I would be tempted to try it, but I bet my son would. 🙂 Photo credit: The Car Connection
Anyone who has read my posts knows that I’m passionate about sustainable living and solar energy.
Visionary Tesla CEO Elon Musk knows we must reduce our carbon footprint or face a world that will be much hotter for our grand children. Transportation contributes a huge percentage of carbon emissions. He can imagine his future grand children asking…”Didn’t you have any warning that you should reduce carbon emissions before it was too late?” What did you do about it?” I can imagine that conversation too. That’s why I’m happy to learn Tesla’s mission is “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport.” Tesla is even giving away many of its patents to other car manufacturers to help facilitate the electric car revolution. Indeed if you look at the other big manufacturers, you can see they have at least one line of electric cars in production.
Since there will be a huge demand for batteries, Musk is building a giant battery factory in Nevada. Coined the gigafactory, it will boast ZERO EMISSIONS. Tesla made the decision to NOT run a natural gas pipeline to the plant. The gigafactory will be powered totally by renewable energy.
The building is covered with solar panels. Wind generation to be built also. Photo credit to benzworld.org
I respect what Musk is doing. I love the fact that he is building the factory in the US…not China. Tesla is already employing 13,000 workers and is building a supercharger network. They realize electric cars will have to be charged over long distances. The charging stations are going in at the rate of one every 24 hours, in the US, Europe, and Asia.
The supercharger network for 2015
The raffle ticket will give me a 1/2000 chance of winning my choice of a Model S or Model X and whatever options I choose. (I’d like the Model X with a 5000 pound tow package, autopilot, dual motors, and a range of 257 miles.)
One in 2000 are not bad odds, but there are 6 other prizes too. Most importantly, I’ll have bragging rights to say I contributed to the first bill in the nation to impose a fee on the use of fossil fuels… Climate XChange is sponsoring a bill in the Massachusetts Senate proposed by Senator Mike Barrett (S1747) which would impose a fee on the use of fossil fuels so they reflect their true cost to society, including any environmental damage and health costs. When enacted, it will help Massachusetts meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gasses 90% by the year 2050. After all we can’t all sit in a Model X until the air gets less polluted. Yes, the Tesla Model X has a bio-weapons defense mode button (at around 8 min.) that will make the air in the cabin as clean as a hospital operating room. If Massachusetts can get this bill passed, it’s possible my state of Oregon will follow the lead as well as Washington and California. GO CLIMATE XCHANGE!!!
Think about buying a raffle ticket or donating money to Climate XChange so we can tell our grand children that “we were warned about climate change and chose to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.”
Did Tesla start an electric transport revolution? You decide…
The press is on the truck. Shaun said he could do it in half a day…he was right.
I said goodbye to my German printing press today. My wife has been after me about it for years. “You only run it once or twice a year. You don’t want our kids to have to move it after we’re gone…we better do it while we still can.” I knew she was right but I still hated to see it go. We had gotten that press in 1989, because we wanted to run larger printing jobs. It was slow, but oh, so accurate. We ran yearbooks for 20 years, full color brochures, greeting cards, books, posters, postcards. This was before digital photography. I always liked taking photos. Back then you used transparency film, waited a week to have it processed, then assessed the results to see if they would work for a brochure or a postcard. I sold over 80,000 postcards. That was back when I worked 16 hour days. Owning a mom and pop print shop meant you work all your own hours…(all of them). My wife was the front part of the shop. Since we didn’t work in town, she went out to talk with clients, did all the artwork, home schooled the kids, cooked the meals (usually from our garden), cleaned the house and delivered the print jobs. In the evening she would read to the kids. I’d take a nap after dinner, then I could work until 2 am.
When I was running yearbooks, I’d work all day, all night, take a 3 hour nap and do the same thing again. My stay awake drug of choice was a half pound chocolate bar. I’d have 4 squares at 10 pm and be good until 2 am. Then a few more and I’d be watching the sun come up through my east window. But there came a time when eating chocolate bars gave me intense headaches the following day. I had to quit the all nighters.
Both kids learned how to run the ‘baby press.’ This was a 1250 Multi. My son started at five years old. Through the years he became a good pressman and I could let him work by himself, but when he went to college, I thought I might have to hire a pressman. My daughter says, “Dad, I can learn the press.” “Really? Do you want to learn the press? That would be great.” She did that very thing. She ran the press until she too went off to college. Now she’s an editor so you could say she’s still in ‘the trade.’ That 1250 Multi and an 1850 Multi are the presses I still run today. They are faster and easier that the big German press, but they can’t do the fine quality work for sure.
The moving crew of Joe, John, and Shaun pictured after they successfully loaded the 3.5 ton Heidelberg KORD 64 onto the truck.
Shaun Earle is the new owner of the press. He is my friendly competitor in the bigger city to the north. Sometimes I ask him to do things that I can’t do in my shop. I was impressed with the work he did. When he moved into a bigger shop, we joked that he might have enough room in it for the Heidelberg press. The last time I ran that press, I got into trouble with it and scrunched some parts. I called him up. “Shaun, you’re not going to want this press, I think I just killed it.” He says, “Pat, maybe it’s not as bad as you think. I’ll come down on Saturday and let’s see if we can sort it out.” On Saturday, we work on it 4 or 5 hours and get it working again. I finish my print job and that’s the last time I run it. My thinking is I have gotten my money out of it. This press, being 40+ years old has some issues, but there’s a lot of life left in it and it looks like Shaun is the person who can deal with it. I tell him, if he can move it, he can have it.
The Heidelberg KORD 64 press waiting to be moved. It has been a real workhorse for me for most of 26 years.
It took “a little persuasion” with pry bars and muscle just to get it to budge. The 1250 Multi can be seen on the left.
This truck is used to dealing with cars, I hope it can pull something without wheels.
This press ran some really nice print jobs. While I was cleaning up around the press, I came across some samples.
I ran most of these art gallery invitations about 20 years ago. I wondered if I should get permission to post them, so I emailed Lee Youngman. Her reply came back right away. “No problem, Pat… we did a lot of good business together! Hope all continues well with you. Lee Youngman
This brochure for Lee Youngman Gallery features “The Lure” by Frank Magsino, winner of the 1997 People’s Choice Award. What you see on the front is the cavalry hot on the heels of this small band of Indians. What you don’t see, until you unfold it, is the ambush.
When you open the brochure you see the rest of the painting showing the ambush awaiting the cavalry! Click to enlarge.
My photos of the Bandon Lighthouse make their way into brochures that I print on my own press. What a heady feeling.
My wife had her own line of watercolor greeting cards. “After the Storm,” is one of my favorites, depicting the Bandon Lighthouse.
I had my own line of postcards.
The press room has more space in it now, the kids have moved out long ago, and the Mom and Pop print shop has slowed down a bit. We don’t work 16 hour days anymore and ARE GLAD OF IT!!!
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
