The wheels fell off my blogging. It has been incredibly busy with startup of summer season of soccer, opening the beehives, installing nucs, planting a garden, and all that other good stuff the sunshine brings back.
With the summer also brings the additional burden of summertime gas prices. Gas has been steady at over a $1.20 per liter for the last several weeks. Will it cause some sort of contraction of economic progress or will $120 become the new normal? My personal belief is that it will become the new normal, as in Europe they have been driving with prices well over the $1.20 range for many years. I think we will just come to accept this as the price. I had a startling revelation a few weeks ago when we went on a trip to Toronto to pick up a possible gift for my son. Because it was rather bulky we decided to take the truck. I filled up before I left, drove home, picked up the family, and into Toronto we went. We drove to North York checked out the store turned around and came back home. When I filled up the next day it was a shocking $92 for that one trip. I used to think a trip to Toronto might costs 60 bucks! Wow has my perception changed.
The high cost of gas has put a real crimp on possible plans to drive to Thunder Bay Ontario from Campbellford. My wife and I calculated the cost of driving pulling a trailer in my pickup, and it turns out to be something well over $1500. This just is something we cannot afford at this point in time.
A friend of mine has a restaurant in Hastings Ontario. She stated that it's as busy as ever. I suggested that maybe it's because more people are staying closer to home. Hastings is a quiet little village on the banks of the Trent River. It has many boaters and cottages. She made a good point indicating that these boaters and cottagers can afford boats that suck massive amounts of fuel, or cottages with the extra taxes and work involved, can easily afford a meal out. The combination of these factors is what's in play here.it is not possible to keep going for long? A recent post, pointed out that the average driver now spends more on gas than on any other single household expense, barring a mortgage. The middle class is slipping away under these kinds of hidden expenses. Another post pointed out that this year's summer cookout might cost you an extra 29% due to the rising cost of beef, potatoes, bread and just about any other food products you might consume at a barbecue.
The strength of the American dollar is worrying me as well. I'm seriously questioning if at this point in time we are not going to see a major market correction. The United Nations has released a report stating that they were concerned about the strength of the American dollar. The American debt ceiling has been reached and many people are discussing whether the Americans should default on some of their obligations or increase the debt. Neither one is good for the American economy. And what's not good for the American economy is particularly bad for the Canadian economy.
In the face of this I have redoubled my efforts to work on my garden. We have had an abnormally high amount of rain in southern Ontario in the month of May and abnormally low amounts of sunshine. Everything is lush and beautiful but my bees aren't liking it too much.
I purchased a nuc from Dancing Bee Apiary and installed it 2 weeks ago. It is a nice, calm, docile hive, and is aggressively building comb in the hive. I'm pleased to see them doing so well. My wild hive, which I thought was queenless, has since surprised me by increasing numbers and I have seen new larva in the hive. It is difficult to see or find the Queen as some of the comb that I originally brought to the hive from the nest, is wedged up alongside one of the boxes. But looking very carefully last weekend, I was able to see new larva. An encouraging sight! I have also made a split from my original hive from David Vander Dusen. It seems to be doing well however the bees are not yet bringing in any pollen. I know they are still queenless. I do hope they've taken some of the eggs that I gave them and started to turn them into queen cells. I'm going to give them approximately 30 days and at that point I'm going to open it up again and look for new eggs to be laid letting me know that the queen was successfully hatched, mated, and returned to the hive.
As I was running my midsized tractor over the from field the other day, I looked at my children, one was chasing butterflies on the driveway, the other was sitting in a tree fort beside the field, and I thought how much more could a man ask for? My kids are healthy, happy, safe from harm, and well fed. This are much more that need?
I have food coming up in the garden, honey being produced in the field, trees bursting forth, can the world be in so much trouble? I'm not putting my head in the sand, but I am trying to enjoy the day that I have and not look at the clouds of tomorrow through the sunshine of today.
Bee Stoic
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