Fish, Bees, and News

I went out on the deck to feed the fish in my two holding ponds this morning and it looks like lightning didn't just fry my router... Ten of the twelve fish were floating belly up and they had been all fine with fresh food and water on Friday. One fish was barely moving a flipper, and one fish looked fine. I moved the two live ones to the other pond--which also had a water change and a feeding Friday and there were no dead fish in it. I suppose something else could have killed them, but since both ponds were treated exactly the same and I lost that many fish in one day, I'm thinking lighting. Now it's time to check on the bees.

Okay, hives look fine, details coming tomorrow in the Day 29 post. I got all hi-tech for my inspection today and recorded the whole thing in a voice memo so I could make sure to capture all the data, and put the salient points into the post (how many frames in each hive are being built out, what are they being used for--brood, nectar or pollen, etc.). Unfortunately I was out there for an hour and ten minutes, and even though I didn't talk the whole time--or necessarily say only important things while I was talking--I still have to listen to the whole thing again to record the important bits. I don't have the energy for it tonight--especially since I have to wait for my phone to finish updating before I can even begin.

Tonight I will post a great pic for the 365 project that I took in one of the hives. In order to take photos while in bee garb, I cut a slit in my right glove on the inside of the index finger just in front of the second knuckle (and covered it with duct tape so the bees couldn't get in). This way I can get my finger out through the slit to control my phone. Stupid iPhone needs to read the conductivity from your finger to make the touch screen work. I thought it needed a thermal reading, but Dave just reminded me that styluses work and it's because of the conductivity thing...  Oh damn. I could just have purchased a stylus and left my leather beekeeping gloves intact--and also never had to risk getting stung while getting a finger in or out of the glove. Ah well, live and learn. I can still get a stylus and just leave the tape on the glove.

Besides messing with fish and bees, I pretty much sat around and read the news. Bill asked me why I chose to get a subscription to Esquire and it turns out to have been a mistake--I meant to get one for the Atlantic. I wanted to pick two publications known for being slightly left and slightly right and very in-depth. I also added on Aljazeera for a final perspective. After a couple of hours I remembered why I stopped reading the news: Bleak, dark, grim, horrifying. Still, I can't have my child knowing more about what's going on in the world than I do. That would be Bad Parenting.