Music To My Ears

Erin had a great idea this week to help the kids with playing the piano!  She took scotch tape and put it over the piano keys.  Then she took a sharpie marker and printed the note on each of the keys.  After that, she marked a couple of pieces of music with the notes to play a song.  I came home on Friday to the sound of Ginny playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".  Awesome!

The kids are getting much more interested in music.  Gramma and Grandpa gave Emma a guitar and she has been writing songs and playing them for us.  I got to accompany one of her songs playing my roll patterns on the banjo (about the only thing I can do).  It was a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to more banjo lessons from my dad!

Here's a couple pictures of Erin's great idea:

Butt Warmers

On our way to the last UW basketball game, which my parents graciously drive my brother and I to in their Toyota Prius, we noticed their gas mileage had dropped substantially over the winter.  In the summer months, they were easily clearing 50 mpg.  But now in the dead of winter, its down to about 40 mpg (still not too shabby).  We were trying to figure out how the mileage could have changed so much?  Was it the seat warmers?  Is a warm butt worth 10 mpg?!

I did some research tonight and found this website.  Besides the heater running more (which saps power), cold tires and a different formulation of gasoline reduce gas mileage.  It happens in every car!  If I was paying attention, I would have noticed my Pathfinder's 17mpg was dropping to about 14 mpg in the winter.  Wow, 20% looks a lot better on those lower mpg cars.

The moral of the story is:  It's better to keep your butt warm in a low mpg vehicle than a higher mpg one.  Right?

Traffic

I recently finished a book about traffic.  I know, I know, who would want to read a book about traffic?  We sit in it long enough and its a source of constant complaint.  It was actually a really interesting book.  It had a couple of fun statistics, like a majority of people rate themselves as above average drivers.  Or people all over the world alot themselves 1 hour of commuting time, whether its by car, bicycle or foot.  Tokyo, Japan - one hour.  Wild Rose, Wisconsin - 1 hour.  It explains why the other lane is always moving faster (human perception is flawed).  It spends a whole chapter on risk, and concludes that driving is the most dangerous thing most of us will ever do.   Drive safe!

I'm Screwed

Last week, I contacted the craftsman who makes the garden hive that I'm constructing for my bees to see if he could send me some more connector screws.  He replied and mailed me the screws I needed to complete the construction. They arrived on Wednesday!  I've never been so excited about receiving screws in the mail!

After putting them in the pre-drilled holes, I could complete construction of the hive!  It took about 10 minutes when I had all the equipment.  The only issue is I broke the observation window when I was tightening the screws.  The pressure of the wood holding together spider-webbed the glass.  Right now I'm holding it together with duct tape (the magical fix-it), but I think I'll replace the window before spring.  Anyway, I think the hive came together pretty well and it looks great!  Here's a couple of pictures of the (almost) completed project!

She's got it write

We were excited that Ginny began writing her name unprompted this week!  She must have been watching her big sister.  She wrote both her name and Emma's!  Its really amazing to me how kids pick up new skills.  It almost seems like magic.  I'm really glad there are so many magicians (teachers) in their life!  I really like the E with all the lines in it.  The picture on the bottom is another Ginny drew this week.

Black Comet Defender

Emma played her second basketball game this week.  She plays in the Verona rec league on Wednesday nights.  She is on the Black Comets team!  The season starts out with 3 practices and then there are 4 games. Its really fun to watch the kids learn how to play as the weeks go by.  In the first game, Emma was a fantastic on the ball defender, following the ball handler around the court and waving her arms furiously over her head to make sure they didnt get a good shot or pass.  This week, in the second game, she was a great all around defender, staying with her girl and keeping herself between them and the basket.  She kept her arms above her head waving furiously the whole time on defense!  She even followed her girl on offense!  Bo Ryan would be so proud.  Its really fun to watch!  Here's a shot of our great Black Comet Defender!

I wish I was a Farmer

Back in October, my wife Erin and I went to Farm Aid in Milwaukee.  It was a great show, with lots of great music and information about sustainable food.  One of my favorite songs from the concert was Jason Mraz's Frank D. Fixer (seen here).  It got me thinking about what I could do to produce some of my own food.  My family has a 5th generation family farm, so I have a lot of farming heritage.  Without giving up my day job, I wanted to do something.  I'll make that guy be me (listen to song for the reference).  After talking to one of the people I work with at the DOT, I decided I would try beekeeping.  We have a wonderful location next to badger prairie park, which is a 2000 acre prairie restoration.  I think they will also help Erin's garden, the 4 fruit trees we planted last year and the wild plums in our yard.

I did a lot of research on how to get started.  My first decision was what kind of hive I wanted to use.  I decided to use what is called a top bar hive, which is different from the white boxes most of you think of when you think of bee hives.  This hive is like a trough with "slats" that the bees build honeycomb on.  They are smaller than Langstroth (white box) hives and are more interactive with the bees.  I thought I would learn the most starting with a top bar hive.

I received a garden hive for christmas from my parents.  It looks really well done.  I began assembling it yesterday, only to discover I am missing some of the connector bolts to attach the bottom to the sides.  I went to a couple hardware stores yesterday and couldnt find the bolt I needed, so I am going to try some furniture stores tomorrow.  If all else fails, I use a longer screw and just screw the bottom to the sides.  But, since I have some time, I'll try to do it the way it was intended to be built.  I'll put some pictures here when I get further along.

I also signed up for a beginning beekeeping class thats put on by the Dane County Beekeepers club.  Its on February 5th, so I've got plenty of time to think of questions, like "how do I get bees?!"