Good morning everyone!!

Motheroffoursons~~~ There was absolutely nothing wrong with your posts. IMO, you were only trying to instill some common sense.  No sleep for me last night so I kept busy reading some of the interesting views. How exciting!

In HONOR of M of 4 sons

Welcome MOFS!  I suspect the weather might be a tad cooler in Chicago, but not by much.  It's predicted that southern Ontario (and I presume the upper midwest U.S.) is to have warmer than usual temps this summer!  However, today is another balmy, breezy one here in Niagara.  Ah, bliss!

About honey bees:  Many, many apiarists in this area have suffered great losses over the past few years.  My DH has had to take his little brush out to the tomato patch and do some pollinating.  I'm just not seeing honey bees, here but mostly bumblebees and the dreaded yellow jackets.

Lots of theories about the causes -- the environment is a one, but another which seems to carry more weight is some sort of disease (which may have been encouraged by the environment, pesticides or whathaveyou).  But as Blue says -- if the honeybee population goes bye-bye, so do we.  It's incredible how much we humans are dependent on those sweet little insects.

Wow CS,  I am honored at the website note.  Never had this happen before.

Sharon

By the way, is caerus a specific type of sunflower?

Welcome Mother of Four!  I have one son .. so you must have your hands full.  Feeding one teenage boy was incredible, can't imagine feeding four boys at one time!

I think Caerus was a dog.  I might be wrong though .. can't remember.

I have tons of bumble bees and wasps, but no honeybees.  Usually, I have a hive in one of my trees, but not this year.  I wonder if that's why my tomatoes didn't take off .. well that and the stupid deer and rabbits.

I don't mind the bumblebees and find them harmless.  I have already been stung once this year by a wasp and it HURT!

So far having a great day ... mowed a couple of fields and there was a light breeze and the humidity has dropped.  yay!  It felt good to be outside again.

hugs to all,

Bren

EDITED:  Just saw Sunflowers note .. geez I was way off on Caerus!

Way to go, C-S!  A fresh start with a new thread.  I've always wished the stuff on the Alt forum wasn't so exclusive.  These are not black-or-white, all-or-none choices we are making (in most cases), so there's no reason to vilify people who are undergoing conventional BC treatment and want to learn about complementary strategies. (I was going to say more, but I think I'll stop there.)

The honey bee problem is scary.  I keep telling myself that, maybe the native bees (of which there are lots) will take over and do what the honey bees have been doing.  After all, honey bees aren't native to the U.S. -- they were imported from Europe, and have replaced native bees.  I do agree that most people don't realize how much modern agriculture relies on honey bees.  I didn't know until a few years ago that farmers "rent" honey bees, bringing in fully-loaded hives by the truckload when their crops need pollinating.

Re:  What day is today?  LOL.  Being retired, I have that problem a lot.  For instance, all day yesterday I assumed it was Thursday; so today, of course, feels like Wednesday.  My trick is to launch "iCal", which marks the current day/date on the calendar in a contrasting color.  Better yet, I can click on the "Dashboard" icon at the bottom of my laptop screen, which instantly opens a bunch of useful stuff -- an analog clock displaying the current time up to the second; a weather calendar showing current local conditions and what's in store for the upcoming week (how do they do that?); a "pocket" calculator for simple arithmetic; and a monthly calendar with today's day & date prominently marked.  I have a MacBook Pro, so YMMV.  I don't know what Bill Gates provides along those lines.

Gotta go.  Phone calls to make; groceries to buy; haircut to schedule.

otter

Bee rentals used to be a huge business in our farming community.  If you have ever watched pollination, honey bees are much more efficient than the bumble bees which are very slow at their job.  However, the job got done in our orchard.  Too bad the hail and scab hit afterwards!  Farming is almost impossible these days.

If it hails, the ice pellets damage the apple (or other fruit) and the leaves that nourish the fruit.  As the fruit grows, the spot only gets bigger and can eventually split.

Scab occurs because of the moulds and fungus that grows when it rains.  It can ruin a crop within hours of the rain.  Again the spot on the apple continues to grow as the apple grows.

Because of the bizarre weather patterns in the last decade, we have not had a "bumper crop" for 12 years.  We used to have one every 3 or 4 years. 

Edited to add:  That is why we are selling our farm!! 

My apple trees aren't doing so great this year either.  I just let them fall for the deer.  My anjou pear tree is bursting with pears, but my asian pear tree is very light this year.  Which is a shame .. I really like the asian pears, they are so sweet and juicy.

This fall we're having the two big chestnut trees taken out.  Don't need the shade and I hate those trees, they are so dang messy!  We've got an 80 feet oak that makes great shade, so that's enough.  I'd also like to take out the black walnut trees, as they are a mess too.  Very pretty trees, but I don't like black walnuts and they're a hassle to get out of the pod and shell.  Plus they stain your clothes and hands.

I tried to plant a rose garden, but the deer ate them.  I was so disappointed, as I always had the most beautiful rose gardens in San Diego.

Bren

I am just going down to our barn to bag up some blueberries for the freezer.  Strawberries done.  Just waiting for the raspberries...next week.

I miss my days in Vermont, when those cool nights and warm days made for awesome fruit.  The berries and apples here just do not have that great flavor.

However, our peaches, corn and other vegetables rock, as do my herbs. I have a pretty good bee population that loves to drink from my hummingbird feeder, so I know that they are out there, but I do worry about their smaller population.  Also see very few snakes and frogs.  All part of the circle of life, and necessary for our planet.

I do not use any pesticides, so I know that I share my few plants with the occasional critter, but I don't want to hurt my birds!  Enjoy your berry picking, wish we had a Safeway as I am too lazy to go to one of the farms to pick.  May have to make a trip to Farmers Market before the usual weekend visit.

We are behind in our berries.  Just getting thimble berries (a patch invited itself into our front bushes and I made sure DH didn't chop them down), blueberries not yet ripe (anticipated to be late) blackberries just blooming.  Strawberries were also late and what I have had so far has not rocked my world. 

but cherries are another story---tons and tons of yummy cherries.  If there are good things that fight cancer in cherries, I am set for the next few weeks. . . .

We had a decline in bees but they are back this year pretty strong. My local beekeeper is selling raw honey once again and at bargain prices. I love to chew honey comb when I have a sore throat.