Let's Hear it for the Honey Bee

   

 Honey Bee on Zucchini Flower.  Photo by Steve Apps

 Honey bees.  Makers of honey.  Wonderful, sweet honey. Mostly ignored by most of the population. Despised by some—they sting you, don’t they?  But honey bees, along with all the other bees that flit around, are essential, not only for the honey they make but for their role as pollinators.  Some 75 percent of North American plant species require an insect, mostly bees, for pollination.  These include

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fruit crops such as apples and cranberries, as well as many vegetable crops.

 

For several years, my farm garden saw diminished yields of cucumbers, squash and pumpkins.  Two years ago, I harvested but a handful of squash and only one pumpkin.  Then last year, everything changed.  My vegetable yields were back to normal.  Why I wondered?  My neighbor had taken up beekeeping, and his honey bees were regularly visiting my vegetable garden.

 

Travel by an orchard and you’ll likely spot what looks like boxes piled on end. These are beehives used for pollination. Same if you ride by a cranberry bog, where honey bees are rented from a beekeeper to pollinate their crop.

 

Honey bees are not native to North America.  They came from Europe with the early settlers in the 1600s. Unfortunately, honey bees as well as many of the native bees, all essential pollinators, are in decline.  The use of insecticides to kill crop pests also kills bees.  Additionally, honey bees often face viruses and other diseases that can raise havoc with a beehive.

 

For me, I am more than pleased that my neighbor has beehives.  Having them nearby has surely helped my garden return to normal production.  And, on top of it all, my neighbor came over the other day with a jar of honey.

 

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Let’s applaud the honey bee for all the hard work it does.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase my books, go to your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

Kitchen Garden

             

    

    The kitchen garden in our backyard is small.  Only four feet by eight feet. Thirty-two square feet.  A whisper of a garden compared to the one we have at the farm, where the rows are 30 inches apart and each row is several times longer than the length of our kitchen garden.

            And yet, our little garden with no rows at all is outdoing itself.   Recently I wrote about how the rabbits have feasted on several vegetables at the farm garden.  As you will note from the photo, this little garden is three feet off the ground, plus a four-foot fence all around it.  It may happen, but it will take an Olympic-style rabbit to leap over this fence.

            What’s in this little garden?  Several pole bean plants, a half-dozen climbing cucumbers, a nice patch of lettuce, four tomato plants and a goodly bunch of zinnias.  My Dad always said each garden must have something pretty.

            As far as the yields so far—I’ve harvested five servings of leaf lettuce, and six servings of green beans.  The cherry tomatoes will be ready in a couple weeks, and within a week or so I will be picking my first cucumbers.  We cut zinnias to grace or kitchen table every other day or so.

The theory of our little kitchen garden is to make sure every square inch is producing something, and that horizontal is as important as vertical—meaning that vegetables such as pole beans and cucumbers can grow upward.  My pole beans have grown seven feet tall.  I have to reach well above my head to pick them.

If you have a sunny place, you can grow a kitchen garden—and have fresh vegetables handy throughout most of the summer.  A real treat to have fresh vegetables so close.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Vegetable gardens come in many sizes—so nearly everyone can grow one

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WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase my books, go to your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

APPS FAMILY AT THE LAKE

                                                                            Photo by Jerry Apps

 In 2002, Ruth and I started a tradition that we continue to this day.  When the tradition began, I was teaching a writing workshop at the School of the Arts in Rhinelander.  We invited our grown kids and their spouses to spend the week with us at a cottage on Lake George.

We’ve continued the tradition, now gathering at Long Lake in the Waupaca Chain O’ Lakes. This year some 20 of us have come to the lake from Boston, San Diego, Minneapolis, Avon, Co, Gunnison, Co, and Madison.

Each evening is a special event: birthday, graduation, and anniversary celebrations.  And a creativity evening.  This year the creativity evening featured everyone sharing their own “Old Timer” saying.

Here are some of them:

            “We all must become more comfortable with being uncomfortable”—Christian

            “In these turbulent times, five letters to remember: R-E-L-A-X”—Josh

            “I was addicted to the ‘Hokey-pokey,’ but then I turned myself around,”—Nick

            “Of all that I do best, doing nothing is at the top of the list,”—Blake

            “Happiness takes time so don’t rush looking for it,”—Libby and Grace

            “The sun sets no matter if no one is watching,”—Ben and Alyssa

            “Everything is better at the Lake,”—Tyler (8 years old)

            “Prior proper planning prevents poor performance,”—Annika

            “Life is tricky so make sure you plan for some time at the lake,”—Sue

            “Behind every great man is a woman—rolling her eyes,”—Jeff

            “A tree’s strength comes not from how far its branches reach, but from how deep its roots grow,”—Shanna and Pat.

            “Darn, why did I come into this room?”—Natasha and Steve

            “Never curse the rain, unless you live in a tent,”—Sandy

             “A trip is measured in miles, but captured in memories,”—Shanna and Pat

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: SO MANY THOUGHTS; IN SO FEW WORDS.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase my books, go to your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

 

Growing on the roots of the old

    The old maple tree had to come down. It was well over a hundred years old, and it had done well—providing a nesting site for birds over the years, shading our cabin, providing a cool spot for us to talk with friends who stopped by for a visit.

            It was really four trees in one, all growing from one trunk and one root system.  Each year the tree got a bit larger, and the largest trunk, maybe 80 feet tall, began leaning over our machine shed.  Reluctantly, I decided this old friend had to come down—the old maple had indeed become a family friend.  With the tree down, we had piles of firewood for our wood-burning cookstove.  We would be reminded of our old maple friend each time we carried firewood into the house.

            The removal of the tree left a big hole in the windbreak for the farmstead.  And no shade to protect the cabin on hot summer days.  But then this spring, I noticed something unusual on the massive maple stump that remained.  At first it looked like a leaf of some kind had landed on the stump.

But it was not a leaf.  It was a little maple tree.  What a surprise.  The little tree, now several inches tall was growing rapidly.  It reminded me of a family.  When the grandparents pass, the children and the grandchildren live on.  Growing on the roots that the grandparents provided.  This little maple has a massive root system to grow on.  I look forward to seeing it grow.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Many living creatures grow on the roots of their ancestors,

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase my books, go to your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

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Fourth of July Garden Report

 

As I have done for several years, I report on my vegetable garden about the Fourth of July.  Each vegetable gets a rating from 1-10, with 10 being outstanding.  I report on the good and the bad, including this year, a few zeros.

Every gardening year has its challenges and this year is no exception.  The two most challenging features of our Waushara County Garden each year are the weather and critters.  First the weather.  The season began rather normal but in May quickly turned to hot and dry.  Except for some timely watering, we would not have had a garden.  Then, in mid-June the rains began coming, some five inches in a couple weeks.  Vegetables that love hot and wet weather took off, cool weather crops struggled a bit.

            The critter story is a sad one.  Our two-wire electric fence keeps out the deer, turkeys, and raccoons.  But not the rabbits.  This year the rabbit population is greater than we’ve known for twenty or more years, and with dry, hot weather, their normal grasses dried up. They attacked some of the garden vegetables.  And they destroyed them.  These are the vegetables that received a zero in Natasha's rating.

             Natasha, my daughter-in-law, and our chief veggie gardener rated the vegetables as of the Fourth of July as follows.  No vegetable received a 10. Sweet corn and potatoes--9.  Cucumbers, radishes, zucchini,  and winter squash--8.  Pumpkins, tomatoes, gourds, and sunflowers--7.  No vegetables for 6.  Beans--5.  Carrots--4.  None for 3.   Lettuce--2.   Green cabbage--1.  red cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, and spinach (rabbit food)--0.  Zero for onions as well, as the onion sets didn’t grow.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Every garden year has its ups and downs.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase my books, go to your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.