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Author Topic: 2004 Catching up to date!  (Read 4907 times)

Offline beemaster

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2004 Catching up to date!
« on: March 29, 2004, 06:41:54 pm »
Welcome Everyone to Beemaster's 2004 Logbook.

The first entry will be the MARCH 2004: week 1 and 2 Section to follow.

A whole new season, a whole new look and an updated Beekeeping Forum. Lots to cover and lots to talk about. Lets start by catching everyone up on what's been going on since the last logbook.[/b]

But before that happens, I must let the NEW Visitors know that my logbook goes way beyond beekeeping, it is a life journal, explaining how we fit beekeeping into our every day life, deal with more important issues and still find time to raise honeybees. It's a study of my "somewhat average life and the world that revolves around me. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but to many hundreds of regular visitors, it's an Internet Reality Show.

By now you have been to the Beekeeping Course and NOW to the Beekeeping Forum - I hope you can appriciate the unique opertunity that you have to be able to interact with beekeepers from around the world while here. I've even added a new forum where EMAILS sent to me are annonomously posted in a special forum Called EMAIL BRAINSTORMING FORUM where all the members can contribute answers to the emailed question - I then send a link back to the person who emailed me the question and they simply CLICK on the link to visit the EXACT PAGE relative to their question here in the forum.

This unique ability ALLOWS people who randomly find Beemaster a chance to meet the members of the forum, get prospectives OTHER THAN JUST MINE and also enables them the chance to further their wealth of available knowledge in a fun and interactive way.
[/b]

That said, "it's show time". Let's cover the updated stuff that everyone "who has followed my beekeeping logbook in the past" should be wondering.

First and foremost, both My wife Tracey and I are doing well. We bought a neat toy this past July a 37ft luxury motorcoach. I'll paste the link here so that you can read about all the neat features it has and also the two trips we've taken so far. I will say though that it is an awesome machine. It was a bit intimidating at first to drive such a huge beast, especially towing a tow dolly and car - which brought me somewhere new 55ft long.



But now it's breeze, zipping in and out of parking lots, maneuvering around gas tanks and getting into some tight camping sites that were designed many years before these SUPER SIZED motorhomes hit the market. You can read all about the neat features by clicking here www.beemaster.com/bus.html

Next in the important list is my young buddy Fred. I know Fred touched the heart of many of you as he and I traveled together and I got the opportunity of mentoring him through some very tough times. Fred is now 18, driving of course and working part time when not in school. He is truly an amazing kid who is a very special part of our lives and always a part of the Beekeeping Logbook.

Recently Fred's sister Jeannine stayed with us for a weekend and we had a wonderful time. I hope that Jeannine will visit more often this Summer. We drove the bus that wonderfully warm day and Tracey and Jeannine had a wonderful time clothes shopping at a huge factory outlet strip mall near Great Adventure Theme Park in Jackson, NJ. As is my style, while they shopped, I gave tours of our motorhome to passer-bys in the parking lot. A total of 5 couples and a family of 4 got the grand tour, and I let the kids operate the buttons that operated the slides which increase the width of the bus BOTH in living area and the bedroom.

Then there is my Bee yard, know to every continent as C1, C2 and C3. These were the hives that I raised from package bees in the first on-line logbook. The bees were on their own for two seasons with only a few inspections and proper treatment for Varroa. In the Summer of 2003, with only C1 and C2 active ( I lost C3 the previous Winter) the two surviving colonies abandoned the hives for greener pastures. It sounds strange for (not only one but both) colonies to leave perfectly good supers to head out for a tree or attic or where ever, but it happens.

They returned often to steal their own honey, but I put a stop to that - knowing that I would need those stores for starting up again THIS Spring. So I sealed the boxes and I have roughly 30 frames packed with honey, ready for AT LEAST two new colonies in the Spring!

Readers also know that I work for the US Navy, Lakehurst where I am a Boiler Plant Operator and always working rotating shifts - at least until Summer, when I go on steady days to do boiler maintenance until Fall. Times are NOT good for the Federal Employee - our jobs have been realigned with Norfolk, VA making about 100 men CONTRACTORS on our own base - ugh. The scary part about that is that it is hard to eliminate employees, but easy to get rid of contractors. Our jobs could disappear and hardy anyone outside of our small loop of 100 would hardly even notice our going if other contractors fill our spots.

So that's it, the good the bad and the ugly of it! All in all, I'm grateful to be alive and 90% my old self. I'm hoping this logbook will help all of us, I'm sure many readers will enjoy my rather light-hearted look at the world. I do my best to entertain and educate here, hopefully we'll get through this year without too many hitches.

The most important part of this new logbook is that it is NOW fully Interactive - you are totally capable of communicating live with me and the members of the Beekeeping forum, or post messages and share images and as I've mentioned before, you can use the Beekeeping forum without registering by coming in as a guest - as you are right now if you are NOT a member. But the benefits of registration (which of course is free) is to gain access to additional forums that members only can access, use our internal emailing and private messaging system and lots of other powerful and interactive features.

The Beekeeping course and the forum are intertwined and seemless - you have a very unique operunity NOT FOUND anywhere else on the Internet to become part of something EXTREMELY special - I hope you participate often and get to know our members and moderators, they are helpful, friendly and very knowledged in beekeeping and other related topics.
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