Full Cold Moon

The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon

During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.

Thanksgiving

Freedom From Want

This painting is also known as Thanksgiving Dinner. This was the third installment of Rockwell's famous Four Freedoms series.
The Four Freedoms paintings were inspired by a speech given before the United States Congress on January 6, 1941, by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt enumerated four basic freedoms to which every person was entitled.
The first was freedom of speech. Second was freedom to worship. Third was freedom from want. Fourth was freedom from fear.

Raft Swamp Farms

http://www.raftswampfarms.org/

These great folks came to our bee meeting last month and talked about their farm and their bees. They have (if I remember correctly) about 8 hives around the farm.

Raft Swamp Farms is a 150-acre tract of land in the Antioch District of Hoke County, North Carolina, bordered on the west by Raft Swamp Creek.

A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, Raft Swamp Farms hosts an organic farm incubator program where individuals can learn the art and craft of sustainable organic farming.
Interested individuals may apply to be incubator farmers at Raft Swamp Farms. Leases are available for small tracts of land. Incubator farmers receive hands-on training in organic methods and farm business management, have access to a community barn and shared farm equipment, and market their produce to residents of Hoke and other nearby counties.

This doesn't sound like such a bad deal if you want to learn about farming in the Old North State and to have equipment - well, sounds good to me.

Nice folks and if you're out their way, stop in to see them.

Orange Juice

Did you know . . . . . . .

There is more vitamin C in a single orange than in a full glass of industrial orange juice.

Truly fresh orange juice only lasts a few days. It if last for weeks (or months), it's an industrial product.

Until the Florida orange growers launched a campaign in the early 20th century to deal with their surplus crop, the only people who drank orange juice were Floridians who had a tree in their backyard.

Eating an orange (the inside not just the juice of an orange) lowers your cholesterol.

Brazil produces more oranges than the United States.

Orange trees are a symbol of love and marriage in many cultures.

To Be A Bee

Q: Do honeybees sleep?

A: Honeybees sometimes exhibit sleep behavior, although not exactly as humans experience it. Research has shown, however, that their muscles relax, body temperature decreases, movement is at a minimum, and reaction to stimuli is slowed.

Ida and the Bees

We've had a lot of rain - 3" yesterday mid afternoon. I'll check this morning and I feel sure the rain gauge is full. Lots of rain and crazy animals in the house.

The bees are fine but definitely not flying in this weather. Thank goodness they have plenty of food.








The swarm hive box was not painted and it looks a mess - it's okay but just won't last as long as the others.










Hive #4 - all the girls are inside their house which is where I headed after taking these photos.

Veteran's Day 2009

Let us never forget the sacrifices made for our freedom . . . .

Sesame Street 40th Anniversary

Sesame Street is forty years old today. Amazing! My girls and I watched this and I enjoyed it as much as they did. Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster - I love them all.

Joan Ganz Cooney had the idea for "Sesame Street". She and other concerned people formed the Children's Television Workshop to develop this brand-new idea.

The first show was on November 10, 1969 and now it's the most popular children's TV show in the world. Sesame Street has layers of meanings in each show. There are some jokes for younger children (physical comedy) and some jokes for older kids and adults.

C is for Celebrity - there is a long waiting list of famous people who want to appear on the program.

N is for Neighborhood - the show is filled with girls and boys, young and old, and people of all races and backgrounds.

Greenhouse - DONE!

I've been busy working on my greenhouse. I've had some great help (my sister and brother-in-law) - they have a greenhouse about three times the size of mine, so they're very knowledgeable in the how and how-to department.

About 90% of this greenhouse is from recycled materials - I really tried to reuse materials and save money.

This is the finished product - isn't it great! Not very large but it will give me plenty of space to play around. I've already put some stuff inside.

My neighbor gave me these work tables - they are cement type roof pieces - two by two - they sit on metal pipes that fit in a long piece of concrete that sits on a cinderblock. The two pieces do not join up in the middle but an open space is left for the water to run off. These came from Fallon's Nursery and Greenhouse many years ago and my neighbor has used them for twenty years or so. Now my turn. Lots of good workspace.

I'm so excited to get this done - yipee!!!!!

Moles

MOLES - those little critters that should be outside in the garden or yard. Several have shown up lately in the kitchen under the stove - and how might I know that - well, I start smelling something a little stinky and sure enough, when I pull out the stove, there's a dead one!

Somebody keeps bringing them in the house and I guess they run under the stove thinking they'll be safe but they're toast either way! I'm thinking there's one under the refrigerator . . . .

Full Beaver Moon

This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter.

It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon and as this is also the next full moon after the Harvest Moon, it can also be referred to as the Hunters' Moon. With the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can ride over the stubble, and can more easily see the fox, also other animals, which have come out to glean and can be caught for a thanksgiving banquet after the harvest.

DID YOU CHANGE YOUR CLOCKS?

Contrary to popular belief, no federal rule mandates that U.S. states or territories observe daylight saving time.

So why is a transportation authority (Interstate Commerce Commission) in charge of time laws? It all dates back to the heyday of railroads.
"In the early 19th century … localities set their own time," said Bill Mosley, a public affairs officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
"It was kind of a crazy quilt of time, time zones, and time usage. When the railroads came in, that necessitated more standardization of time so that railroad schedules could be published."
In 1883 the U.S. railroad industry established official time zones with a set standard time within each zone. Congress eventually came on board, signing the railroad time zone system into law in 1918.
The only federal regulatory agency in existence at that time happened to be the Interstate Commerce Commission, so Congress granted the agency authority over time zones and any future modifications that might be necessary.
Part of the 1918 law also legislated for the observance of daylight saving time nationwide. That section of the act was repealed the following year, and daylight saving time thereafter became a matter left up to local jurisdictions.
Daylight saving time was observed nationally again during World War II but was not uniformly practiced after the war's end.
Finally, in 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized the start and end dates for daylight saving time but allowed individual states to remain on standard time if their legislatures allowed it.
There's lots more information about Daylight Savings Time but enough is enough. It's always hard to get used to the time change whether it's spring or fall.