Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

20 Aug 2018

Greetings,
We've been getting rain and storms for the last several days and the rain I welcome but the storms is something that I can do without. We're supposed to get more rain and storms tomorrow but I usually take a wait and see about that since there are many times the fronts go around where we are and other times they come through with a force. With the temps not being in the 100+ degrees F lately has got me hungry for getting out in my shop to make a few things I have plans for. I'll also be doing some minor improvements in the shop, like venting my DC outside. The LOML and I continue to go through the Dave Ramsey course of Financial Peace and we will be paying off debt #3 next month. We're making good progress and we're working together to make this thing work. Too bad I'm learning this at 59 years old, but nobody taught me about money when I was growing up, except for you make it and you spend it type of mentality. I'm glad I'm learning this now so I can pass this on to my own kids who are now young adults with time to get it right early in their lives to really make an impact for them long term.

That's it for me, so what did YOU do this past week?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Paul Girouard]

Golfed , broke bread with some old squadron mates of mine from VAQ-141 Shadowhawks , in or near NAS Whidbey Island. We where the “stand up” group of officers and enlisted men that commissioned the squadron back in 1987 so we are “Plankowners”. Good seeing the ole squadron mates, I think about 50 guys and some wife’s came to the shindigs.
The aircraft we flew is now retired , the squadron has transitioned to the EA-18G Growler , we flew the EA-6B Prowler.
The squadron is still part of the fleet , but forwardly deployed to Japan, flying of the USS George Washington , we flew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71.
I think to a man we’d do it again, it was a outstanding squadron from the CO on down!

[John K Jordan]

Finally pulled the honey supers from the hives and processed the honey. Got 10 gallons of capped honey and probably another 10 that needs drying. This is amazing to me since my four hives were nucs in April.

The cushaws, corn, beans, and more are ready to harvest, a late planting of okra is starting to produce.

Attended the White Coat ceremony for my best lathe student, starting veterinary school. She certainly won't have much time for turning over the next four years!

Had a wonderful and inspiring visit by fellow creeker woodturner Bob Henrickson.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

Weather has been whacky here, too, Dennis.

John...nice haul! We processed about 5 gallons two weeks ago from 16 frames, but "the girls" are taking their time on capping the remaining frames of honey. We're just waiting for a bit at this point, but will take some more before summer end. Professor Dr. SWMBO has actually sold most of the initial take...her first year for that.

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In the past week, I completed the mailbox project, more or less, including installation and ran a few small CNC things for both personal pleasure and marketing purposes. One quickie project was to create a new drawer insert for our table ware. The plastic thingie we've been using for years was just not setup very well and was getting dingy. So I created a quick design to run the bottom of a new drawer insert on the CNC and used scrap 1/4" thick cherry material left-over from various tack trunk commissions for the remainder. This was a totally "non fancy", quick and dirty and "un finished" workpiece to do while I was "watching paint dry" on other projects. IE, just fun without complications.

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Tosca, our drawer-obsessed Senegal parrot, approved of the job...

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This week includes a visit with another 'Creeker to discuss some collaborative work, using my CNC to produce some components, as well as, perhaps, the start of a new furniture piece for the house that I've been thinking about for a long time.

[John K Jordan]

John...nice haul! We processed about 5 gallons two weeks ago from 16 frames, but "the girls" are taking their time on capping the remaining frames of honey. We're just waiting for a bit at this point, but will take some more before summer end. Professor Dr. SWMBO has actually sold most of the initial take...her first year for that.

Excellent, Jim (and Dr. Prof)! I find I have no trouble selling every drop I offer, it's hard to keep enough for our own use. My Lovely Bride just makes one post on Facebook and I start getting calls the same day. And many people who bought 1-lb squeeze bottles in the past now want gallons and 1/2-gallons.

Do you keep the moisture content to less than 18%? On the fully capped frames my refractometer read 17% but on others that were mostly but not completely capped the reading was about 19%. I'm running a dehumidifier now with two buckets (with about 2 gal each) and this morning it was down to under 18.5%. I have read varying recommendations, some say 18%, some say 20%. I see warnings of runny or fermenting honey at anything over 19%. Evidently the regulations for moisture in the UK are 20%. But I found just this:

According to US agriculture handbook number 335 Beekeeping In The United States
"Honey with less than 17.1 percent water will not ferment in a year, irrespective of the yeast count. Between 17.1 and 18 percent moisture, honey with 1000 yeast spores or less per gram will be safe for a year. When moisture is between 18.1 and 19 percent, not more than 10 yeast spores per gram can be present for safe storage. Above 19 percent water, honey can be expected to ferment even with only one spore per gram of honey, a level so low as to be very rare."

I've never thought of counting yeast spores. I wonder if I can even see and identify them with the microscope.

Some capping is slow here as well. I still have five supers on the hives with frames mostly full but not yet capped. I'm torn between leaving them on the hives another month or taking them off now and try to dry them. I usually dry in the bucket after extraction but I've read better advice to dry in the supers: run a dehumidifier in a closed space and use fans to circulate air through the supers.

If I take the supers off now I can get mite treatment on the hives.

Another option I'm considering is to remove the supers of uncapped honey and spread them out around the farm and let the bees reclaim the honey and stuff it into the brood chambers for the winter. I've done this before, putting the supers at least 1/4 mile from the hives. This is exciting to watch! It does attract a few other insects but mostly honeybees.

BTW, I always check around this area to see what others are selling honey for. Yikes, the prices have gone up! A one lb squeeze bottle went from $8.50 to about $10! I used to sell them for $5.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

John, I'd have to refer you to my better half regarding the moisture content questions, but it sounds about right. She had to do the dehumidification thing for a while last year on some of the product. She's also talked about feeding back some if it's not usable for humans. She's doing $8 a pound this year; local average seems to be about $9 in the farmer's markets, etc., but she only sells direct to friends, family and acquaintances. I'm the one that started the flood with a Facebook post here.

[Bill Berklich]

Well I can finally claim a couple of finished projects. I wrapped up an 8" steel table on my portable bandsaw.
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And finished up a Hall Table.
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[Mark Arnold]

Started working from home and I needed a desk. I've always wanted to try a live edge piece, but normally, when making furniture for family, no one has been interested. I've also wanted to try working with Walnut. Finally just decided to make what I wanted for myself. Just completed it - a 2" thick walnut slab for the top - started as 10/4 from a local south jersey mill and needed to be flattened out. Tried out a lot of new things: black pipe for the legs and black epoxy to fill the checks. Followed my brother-in-law for the advice on the finish, Danish oil and then polyurethane to protect it. Hated to put anything on it. But am thoroughly enjoying working on it. Now getting requests from friends and family for live edge pieces for themselves. If I didn't have to work for a living, I'd have plenty to keep me busy.
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[Bill Adamsen]

Milled up some replacement shelves to match cabinets built back in 2004. At that time I must have used a oil based urethane (see shelf on left which has yellowed considerably). Wish me luck replicating that. Planning on spraying General Finishes waterborne Enduro Var in a satin sheen ... or maybe satin mixed with semi-gloss (trying to hit 35 sheen). Amazing how much work a set of shelves can be. Eastern White Pine edging biscuit joined onto the 1/2" EWP plywood.

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