My loving bed buddy Yowie The Yoga Cat passed away several months ago, and I miss him terrible.
The Collectibles Sorting Room
Light box
Recently the junk got to me. My house is a huge Yard Sale and Collectible zone. So to make it easier to prepare things to sell, like on Ebay I made a special room for it.
There was no more room downstairs to set up a light box for taking pictures, the couch was out, so I set one up in my special room. The room would also hold a table for sorting and packing, shelves for things that needed to be sorted, and other shelves for already sorted things. So, I cleaned out what I could, and started setting up shelves.
Adding shelves
Two up and filled
All the shelves up
I wasn’t finished yet, but getting the boxes off the floor and onto the shelves was cathartic. Then I added the tables
The sorting packing examining cleaning table
This table was opposite the wall that had the light box table.
The light box table, and of course an easy chair
I need more shelves. There’s a lot of stuff in my house. My family inheritance is all kinds of other peoples stuff. You can see because the sorting table quickly became filled with things to sort.
Full sorting table, this is just the toys
And I later dragged six full grass bags full of STUFFED TOYS
stuffed toys, only a very few from the six bags
Now I’m recleaning the same room and putting up some of it so I can walk. But it works GOOD for an Ebay prep room. Wish me luck!
Intellectual Rights
Maneki Neko Cat courtesy of Andrew Zhebrakov of http://www.icojam.com
While I’m on the considerable subject of Copy Rights, Intellectual Rights, Piracy, and such, I wanted to reee-iter-ate something I posted some time ago, Namely the source of my header art, avatar, gravatar and all that. I did not draw this cat. The guy that DID draw this cat is Andrew Zhebrakov of http://www.icojam.com
Several years ago while looking for those cutie Japanese Maneki Neko cats, I came across his cats in icon form at http://www.icojam, and emailed him asking permission to use his cat icons on the web for my sites. He graciously agreed to let me do that. And for years his art has graced whatever thing I did to represent myself on the net.
He designed the cat, and I just incorporated it into my design. He is really very good at what he does. And I really like Maneki Neko cats. I will do an article on their history later. But the point of all this is that it is a good example of what you should do if you want permission to use someone’s artwork on the internet. Sometimes they might refuse, which is within their rights, sometime they might ask for a fee (small or large), and sometimes, like Andrew, they just say go ahead they don’t mind. I was flattered and real happy, because he’s a great artist, and his cat is real happy too.
Now I’m an artist, and could have done my own art for the web, but wasn’t ready to publish on the web, so he did me a great favor.
Be Real, Don’t Steal.
COPYRIGHT, what’s the biggy deal?
YEAH, WHAT’S THE BIGGY DEAL?
Up front, I wouldn’t be writing this article in the first place if there was a complete understanding of this subject. And it’s long, and full of redundancies. I didn’t have time to edit it very strenuously because I was busy putting my copyright notice on all my pictures this week. I only write it because it affects each and every person that creates something of worth in this world. I feel sorry and let down about myself in a way, because I wanted my blog to be light-hearted, enjoyable, and totally nice. Look here, this ain’t one of those things. Just beat me, slap me, get it over with. I’ll be back to my usual self soon.
THE QUESTION: Should I copy that article, graphic, Art, photograph, cartoon, video, or whatever I find on the internet? Should I re-post it on another website, or Facebook, or Twitter? Lots of people think if it’s on the internet in the first place, then it’s free for the taking. They “share” photos and artwork that they see there and generally don’t stop to ask to see if it belongs to someone. (It’s true, someone creates what you see on the internet)
Some take the creators stuff because they do not understand what copyright means. They don’t know that what they are doing is stealing. Some do it because they want something for free, or don’t have the money to pay for it, and some because they want to make money from whatever they find on the internet. Some rationalize it by reasoning that everyone else is doing it. Or they’ll be more popular if they re-post it somewhere.
Some accidentally copy things that some other person has posted without its original copyright notice, and so don’t know whether it public domain or not. Public Domain means there is no one that holds a copyright on the creation. Anyone can use it.
The word COPYRIGHT in the United States, is a right that automatically belongs to you from the moment you create whatever thing you create. It specifically relates to works of art, photography, digital creations, websites, videos, movie, written articles and books, and several other things that can be created.
The standard procedure is to attach a copyright notice to whatever you have created to notify people you are the owner. You paint, or print, or watermark copyright, year, your name, or your handle, or your url. It’s basically a label that explains and dates your ownership. You can also digitally sign a creation too. I do. Here are some examples:
© 2017 creator name
© creator name 2017
2017 © creator name
copyright 2017 creator name
(c) 2017 creator name
2017 creator name
creator name
© http://www.creator url.com
copyright http://www.creator url.com
My copyright notice in the lower left corner
I hand paint or draw my notice on each piece of art right after or during the finishing of it in an artful way that looks good but is minimally obvious. My early ones were simply © and my first name. On Photos it’s typed. My registered copyright certificates state several forms so any deviation is permitted that is listed.
The important part is that you have a notice, BUT . . .
Even if you don’t put a copyright notice on the art you STILL own the copyright which includes, the rights to copy, print, duplicate, display, any of your creations. In other words, just because there is no copyright notice on something doesn’t mean it isn’t copyrighted. My copyrights are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, and also The Library of Congress, but even that is not necessary except that is helps if you must prove that you are the creator in court if you must. It’s the offical document. The point is, other people do not have this right because they do not own the copyright to your created works.
Applying for a copyright is not complicated, but can be very involved if you copyright a group of things at one time. One fee for a group, one fee for one creation, same same. It’s cheaper to do a group of things at one time.
You must send two copies of each creation, along with title, dimensions, date copyrighted and finished, any derivative works, and many other things, along with the application, any aliases. Along with your application fee. Then you wait several weeks for it to be processed, and recieve your copyright certificate. Which is good for your life plus I think 75 years or maybe I got that wrong and can’t remember exact. Whatever, it’s a long time. But it can take you a week to do the work to register, the price used to be ten dollars, and now it’s almost 50, so group is the way to go. That can get expensive. But it makes a complete record of your copyright ownership which is great if someone steals things from you. My first one in the 1980’s was done by taking a picture of each piece of art, then making two copys of each to enclose with the application. Nowdays you can scan your art in high definition. It’s much cheaper and easier.
You can give or sell away all your copyright (in writing). You can give or sell parts or different types of rights away, such as the right to let someone print a picture in a magazine, or use it in a book, or advertisement, or movie. You can sell one kind of right and keep all the others for yourself. You can sell one kind of right for a limited time period. But the whole point is that the creator is the only one that has the right ot do any of that, including printing and selling copies of your creation.
Transferring any part or type of your copy rights to a creation is something done with your permission, in writing, so on a so forth. When someone takes your creation and does what they wish with it, that is called a copyright VIOLATION.
If it is proven that the creation belongs to a certain creator, and it is proven that you have stolen (yes, it is stealing) part or all of a creation and used it for whatever you want, then there are certain penalties that can be required from you. You can be fined for taking something that doesn’t belong to you. It’s especially a problem if it is found that you have prevented the creator from making money from their own creation by your actions, or have made money yourself from a creation that belongs to someone else. It can cost you real money.
Except under some very stringent conditions such as so called “fair use”, your copyright belongs EXCLUSIVELY to the creator. Nobody else has the right to copy, reproduce, print, sell, or benefit from your creations. This has been law for many years. And it has not changed.
The whole point of a copyright is that it is a creation just like building a house, and can be stolen. It is considered property under the law. It is property. When you own a copyright you have certain rights under U.S. law. And putting a copyright notice on a creation is a notification to anyone that you are the person that owns those rights. Kind of like posting a no tresspassing sign.
A copyright violator can be fined at least $10,000.00 for certain types of violations. Especially those people who use your art to make money or benefit from using it. Such as printing on T-shirts. Bad news for them
If someone copies the picture, such as with a screen shot, or copy it and remove everything THEY don’t want, then that’s a violation of the creators copyright. When someone who “shares” removes the copyright, or doesn’t ask if it’s okay, or doesn’t attach a click-able link to something they are TAKING, then that is a clear violation in my mind. This leads eventually to the blatant copyright violations such as a web page where someone is showing your art or photography with someone else’s name on it, and making money and “Likes” based on how likeable my art is.
I know people will tell you it’s no big deal. And some of them really believe that.
If I just borrowed your car, or your cell phone and sold it, that’s not a big deal is it?
Or, you left the lawn mower out in your yard and I really need one. (No problem.)
Well, you left it in the bathroom, so you must not want that ring. (Right, I didn’t want it.)
Oops, you left the keys in your car, so now it’s mine. (Yeah, I’ll make the payments for you while you drive it.)
You didn’t get that UPS package I saw on your front porch . . . (Sure I ordered that just for you)
Gee I opened your mailbox and it was full of mail, I’m just curious . . (no comment)
You didn’t have a no trespassing sign on your gate, so I just climbed over the fence (good luck with that)
Darn it, I really like that, and it doesn’t have a copyright notice on it, so it must be a Public Domain picture, right?
I’m not making money from it, so I’m not violating any laws? (don’t think so)
See, people nowdays are learning a special kind of morality. “If everyone else is doing it, then it’s okay”
But it’s not okay, even if they do it. It is the real definition of unscrupulous and thievery, and it upsets and enrages every artist, writer and creator that I’ve ever talked to. Like some say: “din’t yor Momma teach you nuthin’?”
I’m not mad at them, I’m not mad at someone that just doesn’t know everything. Just because you don’t know doesn’t mean I owe you the fruits of my creations and work. It took me my whole life to learn how to create what I can create.
I don’t mean to put off the very people who would never think of stealing a copyrighted piece of art or photography or writing. There are hundreds of you all over the world. I’m writing this article so that people who don’t understand a copyright might get a better idea of how copyright laws work. And for those that DO understand it very well, but continue to violate the law anyway.
Although what prompted this article was the fact that I have had things stolen not once, but many times. I wanted to post my artwork on Deviant Art, and my blog, but started with just photographs to see what got stolen the quickest and where it went when it was stolen. I didn’t have to wait long. Now I’m settin’ back and wondering at the wisdom of ever selling art online. No, ever displaying art online.
THE PHOTO THAT RECENTLY WAS STOLEN OFF MY BLOG
The place that took a photograph from my blog did not “share”, and did not ask permission. Even though I have had a well explained copyright notice on every one of my blog pages. But I think this place was in and out and didn’t even read it. “Oh, there’s a picture that will get my site some traffic!” I found my graphic posted on their website with “jewelant” under it, only because it was part of the file name, but no click-able link whatsover. I did not at that time have a copyright notice on all my blog photographs.
What is so angering is that the person didn’t even ask if it was okay. And then proceeded to state that ALL the photos on their website were “PUBLIC DOMAIN” They most emphatically do not have all “PUBLIC DOMAIN” pictures on their websites. When you own the copyright to a creation, that’s tantamount to having someone pick your pocket and lie afterward saying they didn’t do that at all. So, after creating, spending time creating, now what do I get out of this unwilling arrangement?
I’m finding it necessary to post a copyright notice on every picture on the blog. It’s a process that has taken me all of a week to accomplish. It makes the photos look somewhat worse, depending on how you look at it. But necessary so that nobody can say they didn’t see my notice on each and every page. Now it has to be on each and every picture. Okay, I’m at it, I’m doing it. Like I didn’t have a million other things to do this week, but I’m on it.
See, that’s the whole point of a copyright. That the creator be the one to decide who benefits from their work. Well, I’m working alright (grin)
When you re-blog, or share things on the internet, understand, a lot of artists and creators allow that even though strictly speaking it is a violation. But it’s a trade off because it many times equals free advertising or traffic to their blog, website, or online store. This is my thinking, but in order for that to happen there needs to be a click-able link back to the artists blog, website, or store. If not, then I call it what it is, a one-sided bit of stealing.
And then the artist has no no good reason to want to post the art, the article, the video, the photo. There’s no reason to be nice or giving or creative when a bunch of strangers simply think your creative output is for free. When there is no link back then guess what? That’s stepping way too far on someones creative toes. And I’m not speaking just for myself. Thousands, literally thousands of artists feel just the same way.
Artists try to get around it by making sure there is a copyright notice, but people ignore that or worse yet illegally remove the notice.
Artists try to get around it by making all the art so small that it looks bad printed larger. But it’s still useful for someone to grab internet traffic with.
Artists try to get around it by putting lots of non-seeable “exif” information, but that can be removed.
Artists try to get around it by using a service like Digimarc, to make a non-removable mark, but that lowers the quality of the art.
Artists do all kinds of things to try to protect something that is ALREADY protected by copyright laws, but people copy anyway and say it’s not illegal. Calling it something it’s not for convenience.
But even well known and extremely talented artists on the internet have complained their artwork has been pirated, stolen, used, many times online, and they have had to resort to not giving anyone samples or defacing with watermarks, or even simply leaving the internet and deleting what they’ve posted in frustration. They are saddened by how greedy people seem to be, and how all the talent and work they put into what they know is seemingly a useless endeavor. They are not stupid people, or naive. They just know that criminals should not be benefitting for criminal behavior.
SOOOOOOOO . . . If you want to be an up front kind of person, then try this:
Learn how to make a clickable link. It’s not hard, just put the http://www. or https://www. blankety blank blank the name when you comment or post somewhere. Even facebook automatically will make it clickable for you when it’s worded like that. Cut and paste the link from the actual website or blog. Cut and past MINE. Now there’s no excuse any more. Anyone can do it.
http://www.jewelant.wordpress.com is my blog here at WordPress
https://www.jewelant.deviantart.com is my Deviant Art page
https://www.jewelant.deviantart.com/gallery/ is my Deviant Art Gallery
https://www.jewelant.deviantart.com/prints/ is my Deviant Art Prints and gifts shop
(I just typed all that in and WordPress and the WordPress Editor made it so I could make it clickable for whoever clicks it.)
Learn to ask permission or if a certain thing is alright. I don’t even re-blog something without asking if the blogger likes that. I share a picture on Pinterest, but make sure I pin it from the website that has the link to the person that created it. If you think that’s a lot of trouble, think how much trouble it is for me to spend a whole afternoon writing this article. Or a whole week re-doing all the photos you’ve ever posted to an over 80 page blog
My copyright notice means please, do not copy and use my art and photography without my permission or agreement. It is not negotiable. Sure, you can do it, but that means that others can do the same to you with something YOU find valuable that you do not wish to just give away. Look at it like that and possibly you’ll see. How mad would you be if someone suddenly wanted to “share the contents of your phone with the entire world?
It’s wrong to steal peoples stuff, no matter what kind of stuff it is. Well, you can steal from a garbage can, but that doesn’t belong to them any more. (but it would be tacky, as in dumpster diver tacky) Don’t be a thief even if everyone says it’s okay. Don’t steal even if everyone else is doing it and calling it free. And don’t steal just because you want something really bad. That’s called being a greedy thief. And although it might get you “Likes” and followers on your social network, it won’t ever be real, or because you were personally so special.
It’s good to think good about yourself. The way to do that is to do good things, and be the person that you admire.
COPYRIGHT LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_notice
https://www.copyrightwitness.com/copyright/p03_copyright_notices
http://reddotblog.com/debate-should-you-watermark-images-you-are-posting-online/
http://www.photoattorney.com/2007/07/watermarks-can-be-music-to-your-ears.html
http://reddotblog.com/debate-should-you-watermark-images-you-are-posting-online/
ANOTHER WAY TO STEAL A WEBSITE THAT COST THE CREATOR REAL MONEY
WHAT IS HOTLINKING? HERE’S SOME LINKS:
http://altlab.com/hotlinking.html
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hotlink
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotlinking
What is Hotlinking and Why is it Bad When You Do It Without Permission?
New things to enjoy
YOU WILL LIKE THIS
I recently decided to start posting some of my photography on DeviantArt website. The reason being they were just sitting on a hard drive not making themselves useful at all. Here’s what I’ve posted there so far at DeviantArt at https://jewelant.deviantart.com/prints/ Also on DeviantArt you can have them printed as all kinds of things such as:
Fine Art Prints – Fine Art Canvas Prints – Framed Fine Art Paper Prints – Framed Canvas Prints – Wrapped Canvas Prints – Photographic Prints – Greeting Cards – Mouse Pads – Ceramic Coffee Mugs – Coasters – Fridge Magnets – Postcards – Calendars
Yowie Yoga Cat HiYa!Gee golly that sounded great. I knew my little printer wouldn’t keep up with all that, not to mention the time involved doing it myself. And I’m sure not set up to print on cups, magnets, coasters, and such. I’ll have to explore a different place for T-Shirts. They don’t do that there. NOTE: I have only just started posting my photography, but next month will start posting my ART there too. (possibly, see my post here on maybe why not)
So if you just want to see what all else I post on there, go on over to DeviantArt to MY page, and you can look through all of them https://jewelant.deviantart.com/prints/
Ant Heap STUFF!
There’s been a bit of activity over at Antique Heap Blog, and also on Flickr. I think she’s gone crazy with all the paperback books she’s strewing all over the web. After all she is my alter ego, and one and the same as yours truly.
Wow Anty Heap has a lot of passion!
Anyway, here are the links to the ROMANCE novels, along with all other categories of books and antiques.
ANTIQUE HEAP BLOG ROMANCE NOVELS
Jewelant Website Message
ATTENTION! IMPORTANT NEWS!
The Jewelant.com and Antiqueheap.com websites are going to be going to be gone Mid February 2016, as a necessary budget cut. BUT DON’T WORRY! Jewelant and all the stuff that was here will be online at many other places, so Jewelant will not be gone after all. I will be posting all that was there, plus more things at these links later this month and throughout the year. Here are most of my links. And I’ll be posting, as always here on the blogs.
JEWELANT WORDPRESS
ANTIQUE HEAP WORDPRESS
JEWELANT DEVIANT ART GALLERY AND STORE
JEWELANT YOUTUBE CHANNEL
FLICKR PHOTOS
JEWELANT PINTEREST PINS
GOOGLE WEB SEARCH JEWELANT
GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH JEWELANT
And don’t forget you can contact me by email at any of those links. In the meantime, here’s some more stuff I’ll be posting:
But that’s just a few of the things and categories. I just have a lot of great junk!
North American B25 Bomber
I had this postcard and decided to find more information about it.
North American B25 Bomber antique postcard at http://www.jewelant.com
From Wikipedia article North American B-25 Mitchell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_B-25_Mitchell
The B-25 was named in honor of General Billy Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation.
The B-25 was a descendant of the earlier XB-21 (North American-39) project of the mid-1930s. Experience gained in developing that aircraft was eventually used by North American in designing the B-25 (called the NA-40 by the company).
The majority of B-25s in American service were used in the Pacific. They fought on Papua New Guinea, in Burma and in the island hopping campaign in the central Pacific.
In Burma, the B-25 was often used to attack Japanese communication links, especially bridges in central Burma. It also helped supply the besieged troops at Imphal in 1944.
In the Pacific, the B-25 proved itself to be a very capable anti-shipping weapon, sinking many ships.
The first B-25s arrived in Egypt just in time to take part in the Battle of El Alamein. From there the aircraft took part in the rest of the campaign in North Africa, the invasion of Sicily and the advance up Italy.
The U.S. Eighth Air Force, based in Britain, concentrated on long-range raids over Germany and occupied Europe. During World War Two the British RAF received nearly 900 Mitchells, using them to replace Douglas Bostons, Lockheed Venturas and Vickers Wellington bombers.
Although the B-25 was originally designed to bomb from medium altitudes in level flight, it was used frequently in the Southwest Pacific theatre on treetop-level strafing and missions with parachute-retarded fragmentation bombs against Japanese airfields in New Guinea and the Philippines
The B-25 first gained fame as the bomber used in the 18 April 1942 Doolittle Raid, in which 16 B-25Bs led by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle attacked mainland Japan, four months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) was an early customer for the B-25 via Lend-Lease. The RAF was the only force to use the B-25 on raids against Europe from bases in the United Kingdom, as the USAAF used the Martin B-26 Marauder and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress for this purpose instead.
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was an important user of the B-25 Mitchell,
The Australians got Mitchells by the spring of 1944.
During World War II, the Mitchell served in fairly large numbers with the Air Force of the Dutch government-in-exile
The U.S. supplied 862 B-25 (of B, D, G, and J types) aircraft to the Soviet Union under lend-lease during the Second World War via the Alaska–Siberia ALSIB ferry route.
Well over 100 B-25Cs and Ds were supplied to the Nationalist Chinese during the Second World War. In addition, a total of 131 B-25Js were supplied to China under Lend-Lease.
During the war, the Força Aérea Brasileira (FAB) received a few B-25s under Lend-Lease.
At least 21 Mitchell IIIs were issued by the Royal Air Force to No 342 Squadron, which was made up primarily of Free French aircrews.
At 9:40 on Saturday, 28 July 1945, a USAAF B-25D crashed in thick fog into the north side of the Empire State Building between the 79th and 80th floors.
There are more than one hundred surviving North American B-25 Mitchells scattered over the world, mainly in the United States. Most of them are on static display in museums, but about 45 are still airworthy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_North_American_B-25_Mitchells
==============
SPECIFICATIONS
Crew: 6 (one pilot, one co-pilot, navigator/bombardier, turret gunner/engineer, radio operator/waist gunner, tail gunner)
Length: 52 ft 11 in (16.13 m)
Wingspan: 67 ft 7 in (20.60 m)
Height: 16 ft 4 in (4.98 m)
Wing area: 610 sq ft (56.7 m²)
Empty weight: 19,480 lb (8,855 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 35,000 lb (15,910 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Wright R-2600-92 Twin Cyclone 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 1,700 hp (1,267 kW) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 272 mph (237 kn, 438 km/h) at 13,000 ft (3,960 m)
Cruise speed: 230 mph (200 knots, 370 km/h)
Range: 1,350 mi (1,174 nmi, 2,174 km)
Service ceiling: 24,200 ft (7,378 m)
Armament
Guns: 12–18 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns and 75 mm (2.95 in) T13E1 cannon
Hardpoints: 2,000 lb (900 kg) ventral shackles to hold one external Mark 13 torpedo[35]
Rockets: racks for eight 5 in (127 mm) high velocity aircraft rockets (HVAR)
Bombs: 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) bombs
==========================
List of aircraft of World War II
The List of aircraft of World War II includes all the aircraft used by those countries which were at war during World War II from the period between their joining the conflict and the conflict ending for them. See this article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_of_World_War_II
=========
Note: jewelant.com has this postcard, and if you like it, it is possible to order a print of it to hang on your wall. The original was scanned in high resolution, and would make a fine addition to any military collection. Just email jewelant and inquire.
One renegade chicken
Renegade chicken. She’s SO idependent
I had recently started letting my chickens out of their pen to roam the yard. I have a privacy fence, and after blocking the undersides of all the gates, not including hawks, it was a pretty safe place for them to roam if I didn’t let the dog out of his pen.
So I let them out and watched to see where they hung out. For the most part they stayed at the back of the property which is where thiere pen and nests are at. They scratched everywhere, the compost pile was a favorite, as was under the flatbed and trailers in the backyard. I introduced them to the winter garden which had nothing in it they could destroy.
They had a whole lotta chicken fun. And I cut down on the feed bill quite a lot. They got bugs, and grass, and seeds to eat all day long. They got to roll in the dirt, flap their wings, run a good distance too. But when I’d come out to take a head count, (I’ve got six hens), there was always one not with the flock that I would have to search for.
Today I went out to check on them and that renegade chicken was at it again, only this time I couldn’t seem to get her to come when I called, even though five of the hens were eating chopped apples and leftover spaghetti as a treat. I came back out later, I heard what I thought was something from under one of the junk cars in the yard. Worried that maybe a racoon or possum had started living in a trunk, I checked.
Nope . . . no chicken. And I’m worried about her because she isn’t staying where I can find her.
I went around and looked under all the vehicles, the trailers, anywhere one might find a chicken hiding. And low and behold, under the BACK side of a trailer, was this very silent chicken. She wasn’t unhappy, or hurt. She wasn’t laying an egg. What she had done was to scratch out a hole in the dirt under the trailer and hunker her body into it. She didn’t seem to be nesting.
What she was doing was to just plain take a spa dirt bath. She was happily contented to just wiggle around in the cold dirt and bathe in it. I mean she was in total chicken heaven too. Her eyes were glazed with this enjoyment I’ve not seen anywhere so intense.
And she seems to just be that type of personality, a chicken that is a renegade, independent “doesn’t need the flock” kind of gal. But I think I need to mark her with a scarlet “R”.
The Scaredy Cat beekeeper?
DO I HAVE BEEKEEPER PTSD?
After I recently got stung to pieces trying to capture a swarm in the wrong manner, all kinds of things went through my pea brain. Kind of like a person that falls off or gets bucked off a horse, I was reluctant to do my normal bee routine. I was having trouble wanting to get back out there and tend to the remaining bees that I did have. Although I know that with my suit and gloves on, the chances of getting stung again were not really very likely. And I always take great pains not to crush anyone.
But I had never in 5 years of owning bees gotten to really enjoying them. I did not enjoy the fact that they really didn’t like my presence, and could act really hateful at the wrong moves. Adding to the fact was that I had changed my bees from Russians, to two different other breeds. One of these breeds was Italians, which did not seem to be very touchy. The other breed was a mutt breed called “survivor bees” who seemed calm, but with no warning would explode into a rage. I had never had any bees that temperamental.
My Russians would always head butt me before actually stinging, so I had some kind of warning. But they were very swarmy, so I changed types last year.
Anyway, after the attack I was leery of bees, not terrified, but reluctant. I knew I needed to tend to them, but I found all and any kind of excuse to put it off. However, I did consider the idea at the last that aside from that reluctance, those survivor bees did seem to be a tad screwy. And since I didn’t actually see them leave the hive in a swarm, I entertained the idea that possibly these were not my bees, but a feral bunch from somewhere else. OR “Africanized bees”?????
The culprits. Bee guarding entrance to hive.
But none of that explained that one hive in the back that was super touchy.
I thought possibly if I requeened all the screwy hives . . . And I also thought about selling all the darned bees, because what good is it having them if you don’t maintain them? I didn’t mind having a few hives (2 or three), but six was a maintenance thing if you didn’t really love it.
Hey, here I am posting umpteen articles on how to take care of bees, and I didn’t even feel comfortable around them enough to want to keep them any more. I opologize profusely. But it is the trooooooooth. I can stand sitting in a chair in front of the hive without fear at all. But I put on that bee suit, and I know the bees will like me up until the point that I remove some frames. Then they just lose it. I keep going, but they are pissed and I do not enjoy them being pissed at me. I guess I just want my animals to like me because I take so much care taking care of them.
Finger sting
It’s not as if I’m terrified, or in fear of my life or anything. I know that it isn’t personal. I know the bees don’t hate me personally, or even all people personally.
My eye . . . swollen up
I think I need a beekeeper shrink . . . But now for my other reaction
I got up the morning after writing the above article. I was not even awake, with bleary eyes, cricked neck, and another thought coming into my not yet awake mind. Here I am spending my hard earned money on beehives, frames, beetle traps, time out of my life, etc. So I resolved to look at this in the opposite way for once.
-
- They cost me over $100 each. x6 = $600
- Their hives cost about $150 each. x6 = $900
- The beetle traps cost at least half that each. x6 = $300
- The extra supers cost a certain amount.
- Extra excluders cost a certain amount.
- Powdered sugar for shaking, and miscellaneous equipment probably cost at least $100
- A SMALL spinner for spinning frames of honey cost $120.
- Maintenance averages 2 weeks a year. That equals 5-6 months out of my life. Which is equal to a large vacation.
- I worry over the parasites that attack them.
- I have to go out in the cold and make sure they don’t freeze to death or starve.
- I have to go out in a hot bee suit and sweat over them while they try to kill me.
- Bee stings make me itch and dig my skin off for at least a week.
And the bad possiblities . . .
-
- They are in MY backyard.
- They are bought and paid for by me.
- They are taken care of with time out of my valuable life.
- I only ask for PART of their food, which is extra they won’t use.
- They live at my discretion.
- The beetles would get them if I didn’t do something about it each year.
- They could have gone to someone that bangs on their hive.
- They could have gone to someone that likes to smash bees.
- They could have gone to someone that puts poison in their hives.
- They would just act like bees and die a like a bee if I didn’t take care of them.
So, who cares if the bees actually LIKE me?
The perks used to be getting to watch bees and observe their many ups and downs. And HONEY, the main thing that is not replaceable by getting it at the grocery store in the same manner. The honey is storable for very long periods of time, tastes great, make great gifts and can be sold. You can actually stockpile it, put it in your coffee, tea, cook with it, etc.
Well, they are insects. And in their little pea brains I probably should not expect any more than that. And I’m sure I wouldn’t get a heck of a lot of money if I sold them. And that would also mean having some inspector running around my yard telling me what I already knew in the first place, which is that I have a few small hive beetles. Yeek.
So, I’m back to square one. I need to get out there today and fix those hives so they’ll survive some more and see if they have any extra honey after swarming all over the place. Anyone have one of these epiphanies?
Hiding under the blanket
Do you ever feel this way?
I ain’t coming out
This was taken this winter when the pipes froze up in the house. I had to get under there and fix them, and this is how I felt. Anyone else have a day (week) like that?
BEE ATTACK! Holy Moley, aaaaarrgh!
Darn it, I neglected to get to the hives early enough this spring, and had two of them swarm in the last week (which I did capture because they stopped low enough on branches I could reach) Those two safely put in boxes, I had intended on doing all the hives today. Today did not wait for me.
The box, the tree, the bees
I have 6 stings, two on my head (the worst ones), and various other parts, and a big headache. I knew when I got up this morning that I really just needed to drink coffee and fool with the blog. Now I’m fooling with the blog after the fact. Two Benadryl tablets and Denvers Sting Stopper are helping a little. (update 1 hour later a lot)
I went out with my coffee to look at the hives, just look. Oops, another one was in the process of making a swarm tornado around their hive. This, I must note, was one of my peaceful hives of bees, very mild natured.
Onward with the story . . .
I thought, to myself, “Dangit, I can’t do anything about it now, I’ll just have to wait for them to light somewhere and then I’ll get them if they’re low enough.” I then went back into the house. I hate worrying about something that I can’t control anyway, and I wanted my coffee. I wasn’t even awake quite yet.
My hub, who is vigilant about these things kept going outside and checking. He finally came back inside and informed me that they had lit in a tree, OVER THE SHED. THE TALL SHED. THE SLIPPERY METAL ROOFED SHED. I went to look and sure enough they were on a tree branch above the roof. I estimated if I stood on the peak of the roof and reached up they would still be two feet over my hand.
NOW the theme song to JAWS starts to play in my head.
This is how high it was
My husband, always good with ideas, starts telling me how to do it. And I’m-a-thinkin’ that I don’t want to do it. But I get ready to do it anyway. I prepare a hive bottom, with all the fixin’s but get a cardboard box to take up to the roof at his suggestion. I am not strong enough to carry a wood box up there. He holds the ladder and I go up with the box and no suit. I repeat, I did this with no suit (stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid)I needed something to pull the branch down so I could shake the bees into the box, so he got me a hoe to do it with. Little by little, step by step I slid myself on my hip to the peak of the roof. Now the JAWS music is getting louder. It is really slippery, but I am trying to position the box and I can’t get a bead on whether it’s right under the bees.
I shakily stand up and put the hoe over the end of the branch. I look at the box. I give it a big, sharp, SHAKE!
All of a sudden the bees fell into part of the box. Only 1/16th of them fell into the box, the rest fell beside the box. Dang, the box was out of position.
And suddenly I was in a tornado of really angry bees and they were attacking all of my UN-suited body! Boom! Just like that I was trying to get off that roof, the slippery roof. I tumbled over and slid almost off the edge, grabbing the top of the ladder, which was not close to me, and tipping it out of alignment with the roof. My husband, who was at the bottom quickly grabbed the ladder and dragged both it and me back into position as I scrambled down it unceremoniously (did I spell that right?) Oh, who cares about spelling, I’m traumatized.
I almost fell down that ladder while being stung multiple times by a tornado of really pissed bees. I mean REALLY.
But I made it down the ladder. He also got stung because they followed me down that ladder and all the way to the house. My forehead, wrist, cheek, legs, ankles, I dunno where all else. The JAWS music has stopped. I done been TACKKED!
Attacked by swarming bees which most people will tell you are not stingy. On the other hand, it’s a toss up who attacked who first. I’m sure my approach was the first blow. So maybe the reality is that I attacked them and they just defended themselves.
So, after my HUB, told me that I should have done it a different way. I should have, and that’s for sure. He did try to tell me when I was climbing up the ladder another way, but I was shaky and not about to stop. The bees are back on the branch, and he is right now trying to tell me how I can do it.
Mah Stunged Eye
Personally, I’m having second thoughts about bees, but that’s in the heat of the moment because I wrote this just 30 minutes after the incident. He’s talking about finishing the job, and I’m telling him I would rather talk about it after breakfast. He’s so positive and up about things. And very brave for staying and grabbing the ladder instead of running off to keep from being himself stung.
(He does love me . . . I THINK) Just hit me, just slap me for goodness sake. I’m way too old for this shit. My head hurts.
Beehives in cold winter winds
Although I live in one of the not so arctic areas of the US, but THIS winter had a few extreme cold snaps, and I improvised a wind break for the beehives. I was mostly worried about the wind, as these are first year hives.
Beehive wind and rain protection. The hive setup
The winds were deeply chilling, and I got out my old sheets, couch covers, and bundled up to go and cover them before night came. It was vurrrry windy (30 MPH), and I took sheets of solid foam insulation to cover the sides on the bottoms because I have ventilated bottom boards.
Beehive number ONE (the Italians) with wind and rain protection
Then I covered the entire hive, including the front entrance clear to the ground floor with couch covers and sheets. My aim was not to completely seal the hive, but to break the wind.
Beehive number 3 with winter protection from wind and rain
When days come that it isn’t really badly cold, I just lift the front to expose the entrance so the bees can get out and do their “business”, whatever that might be.
NOTE: the things on the top of the hives are scavenged from an old hot tub cover, and are foam covered with Naugahide upolstery material. They are waterproof, and can be used for shade if needed, or rain and snow. I’ve had them for several years and they also come in handy to set things on top of when I’m tending hives any time of the year. You just don’t put your smoker up there.
Small Hive Beetle Sweeper
Last year when we had our huge beetle infestation my husband, overwhelmed at the mess, said he was “tired of squishing beetles” and invented me a BEETLE SWEEPER! This year with my new bees, I have been using it every few weeks in my beehives, clear up to when the bees are left alone in the fall for the winter. It works really good.
Brand and power of sweeper
He took a small, low powered sweeper, and cut the end off of a transmission fluid funnel like this one:
Transmission fluid funnel used to make nozzle
He then inserted it into the tip of the hose and secured it with electrical tape wound really tightly.
Nozzle with cut off end taped inside of it
And this is the result:
Finished small hive beetle sweeper
I just lift the top lid of the bee hive and lay it down quickly so that the beetles that might be in the lid do not scatter or fly off. And you have to be VERY careful to avoid the bees because it will suck them up too. And you can’t release the bees without releasing the beetles, so they are gone. But you’ll get the hang of it after sucking up a few bees. You will learn to gauge just how close you can come without commiting a bad thing.
Me using the hive beetle sweeper on my own hives
I have found that if I do this on a regular basis, after a while lifting the lid and examining shows only a few beetles. I think it’s having a good effect on the population. Keep in mind, I also have bottom oil traps too.
QUEEN BEE ESCAPES !!
I finally got the third hive installed yesterday, but not without a wierd problem. I had everything in place to put the last bee package into the last hive, and brushed the bees off of the queen cage. Normally, you pull out the cork in the candy end, and there is still the candy plugging the end of the queen cage. Then you insert this cage between a couple of frames and during the course of a few days the queen eats herself out and goes into the hive.
Problem is, I took the cork out, and there WAS no candy in it. The queen crawled out, and FLEW!! My-O-My was I upset. I partially covered the top of the hive in case she wasn’t in there and wanted to come back, and made a frantic phone call to the people I ordered the bees from. Worry, worry, worry.
My bee hive setup.
They told me that they had run out of regular queen cages, and this one was called a “California cage”. No candy in this one. The way I was supposed to put the queen in was to take the cork out and immediately put my thumb over the opening to prevent her from escaping. Then I was to push the cage into the front of the hive and let her crawl into the hive. Gee, I would have never figured that one out.
Anyways . . . he said that I should observe for three days, and listen to see if they were keeping a low hum instead of an upset hum. If not he’s see about getting me another queen. Okay, now I know what to do here. That did help, and I calmed down.
Now you know how that one goes . . .
YOGA CAT IN VACATION RETREAT
Yowie is resting from his exhausting yoga career. He is sure he cannot be found by his many fans.
Hive Beetle fresh opinions. New spring hives. WolfCreek and Georgia Bees 2013
First new hive, Italian bees, all stragglers vacating the box after dumping.
WHY I PICKED THE BEE BREEDS I DID
I said previously that all my bees didn’t make it because of the beetles, and that I’d be ordering bees to start fresh with this winter, and I did, but in a totally unexpected way. THIS time I decided I was going to try some new kinds of bees instead of my normal Russians. I always loved Russians, but then I’d never had any other kind. And although I didn’t worry about Varroa Mites, they were not immune to beetles, and they were very, very SWARMY. Sometimes even though I did the early checks, giving more room, checkerboarding techniques, etc, they might even swarm several times per hive. Sometimes they would swarm late in the season. And when they got too many beetles they were out of there!
So I explored some of the others, researching and running all over the internet getting opinions. I thought hmmmm. . . CARNIOLANS. But couldn’t find anyone close to get pure forms of. Then I thought VSH resistant types. But ultimately, I ordered some Italians from Georgia Bee, because I was just plain curious.
Georgia Bees (Italians) on the front porch of their castle!
Then I found another breed that wasn’t even a breed. They were from Wolf Creek Apiary, and were called survivor bees, a combination of feral, Russian, Carniolan, Italian. In other words tough like a mutt dog! In addition, they were purported to never have been raised with pesticides, and also were raised on small cell foundation. They said they were gentle, productive, bug resistant, etc. I was really attracted to that. And here is the reason why:
I do not have an isolated bee yard, and in fact my Russians weren’t originally pure bred. And I have not requeened by ordering a queen yet, so they basically breed with whatever is running around out there anyway. I just end up with mutt bees in the end, because my queens breed wherever they want. I may do the requeening, but without killing any of the original queens, as for instance if I just do a split. But I figured I’d just get some tried and tested mutts from somewhere that at least knew the traits their bees had.
GEORGIA BEES
April 14th I when to the post office, got my bees, and went home to install the Italians from Georgia Bees. Golden in color, and very gentle. Not so much after they took posession of the hive, but that is normal for any bee I think. But definitely not stingy. NOTE: For some reason the queen didn’t have any “attendants” in her cage with her. Possibly an oversight, but she didn’t have any girlfriends inside with her to take care of her. Just all the strange bees in the whole cage outside HER cage.
From Wolf Creek. So gentle I installed without gloves or suit or smoke.
WOLF CREEK APIARY
April 20th we went to meet Ruth Seaborn and her husband of Wolf Creek Apiary from up around Nashville, and met her in the parking lot in Memphis. They were delivering a large batch of bees to some beekeepers around Arkansas, and she said I could save shipping if I just met her and she’d bring my one little package of their bees. We called it an outing, and took off for a day of getting bees!
They had brought many many cages of bees for a bee club also, and one woman came just to pick up some queens she had ordered. I asked a lot of questions, and Ruth is the greatest. You can tell they care a lot for the bees they raise. Her husband calls them “his girls”. (so do I) She also brought some of the essential oils I ordered which were Peppermint, and Lemongrass oils, which can make the bees attracted to the food, and I guess much else. I figured I could use them for anything, not just bees.
I was so impressed with how healthy the bees looked that I remembered that I wished I had ordered two boxes instead of one, and she said I could order another one right then and THERE. Very nice, I sure did so, because I didn’t want to wait until next year. Now that is handy. Normally by this time of year (April), nobody HAS any bees to order.
SPRING HIVE BEETLE OBSERVATION
Hey, I had my FREEMAN BEETLE TRAP, the oil pan one under the first hive I installed in April. We had, last year, sprayed nematodes, sterilized all equipment, and I was hoping that they all died from not having a hive to overwinter in. Well, I think they lived somewhere around that I missed, because I find it hard to believe that 15 beetles came with a box of bees. But my Freeman Beetle trap caught that many and I killed just two. One in the hive lid, and the other scampering on the deck by the bee hive. I BELIEVE THESE BEETLES HATCHED AND CAME OUT OF THE SOIL OF MY YARD, not the bees I ordered, but I can’t proove it. If that’s true, then the nematodes either didn’t kill them all last year, or they overwintered somewhere else. I couldn’t afford to nematode my whole yard.
THE FREEMAN BEETLE TRAP FROM LAST YEAR
I can say that this a really GREAT beetle catcher/killer. It differs from the regular under the hive oil pan trap, in that the screened bottom goes all the way to the edge, and there are no ledges for the beetles to hang out on. The bees can then just herd and push them off through the screen as they enter the trap. But I advise continuing to check the lid of the hive and crushing or vacuuming those so that they don’t reproduce.
I’ll keep you all posted on what happens with them.
Yoga Cat asks for his bath
Yoga Cat is Stolen and possibly Hotlinked
Yowie hangs out here in the bathtub. If he can’t get me to give him a bath,then he diddles in the water while I take one myself.
UPDATE: Yoga Cat Yowie has found his picture stolen and posted on another website that did not ask him if it was okay to do without any link back to him and his stories. Therefore Yoga Cat Yowie found it necessary to have his photographer make sure his photos were labeled with the copyright notice that tells people it actually is. Those would be the people that don’t read the notice on the actual page.
In addition, Yoga Cat Yowie believes this picture to be hotlinked to. Which is considered to be tacky and not permissible unless permission is obtained. AND in addition to all that Yoga Cat Yowie only found this out by sheer accident searching on the wide wide web. He is sad and totally can’t believe people are that greedy. Personally, his photographer isn’t too surprised.
WHAT IS HOTLINKING? HERE’S SOME LINKS:
http://altlab.com/hotlinking.html
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hotlink
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotlinking
What is Hotlinking and Why is it Bad When You Do It Without Permission?
COPYRIGHT LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_notice
https://www.copyrightwitness.com/copyright/p03_copyright_notices
http://reddotblog.com/debate-should-you-watermark-images-you-are-posting-online/
http://www.photoattorney.com/2007/07/watermarks-can-be-music-to-your-ears.html
http://reddotblog.com/debate-should-you-watermark-images-you-are-posting-online/
I’ll post more on this subject, but right now that’s just the bare minimum. Just to let you know, the website that did this was one I came upon quite accidentally, and I have sent them a take down notice. They make a huge deal about all their photos being “public domain”, and I know mine are NOT public domain. I own the copyright to each and every one of them.
This website is one of those duplicates that have no real subject matter, are full of pictures of furniture, and decorating, and everyone else’s photos so that they can generate loads of traffic on the backs of other peoples work. If this keeps on I’ll probably out them on my blog, but right now I’m just waiting for them to fess up and take my picture of Yowie off their web page of “CATS IN BATHTUBS” And they have several other websites and each one has the same page as this one.
Right now, I’ll see if they’re hotlinked since I changed the picture, it should show up on their website as the new one.
Small hive beetle update September
Waaaalllll . . . I’ve been out of contact for a bit. Still have my last hive but it’s got very few bees. I got my Freeman Beetle trap, and in these few months have changed it out several times, recycling the oil after straining out the bits. The hive collected hundreds of beetles that flew back to lay eggs.
Small hive beetles initially trapped by the Freeman trap
This is what it looked like once a week for several times. These were NOT beetles that were in the hive, but those that entered after I sanitized it and reduced its size.
Small hive beetles strained from oil for a head count
I now open the hive periodically and dust with powdered sugar to roust the bees into chasing beetles, which consequently drop off into the oil trying to get away from them.
And, after feeding the bees on the front of the hive, which instigated robbing from (I don’t know where they came from, since I only have one hive), I put a spacer on the top, and fed them from zip lock bags with holes in them. This, and reducing the front entrance down to two bees width, solved the robbing, and, I suspect being able to defend against more beetles!
BIG NOTE HERE, and the main reason I am reposting is that I found out, through feeding squeezed out wax remains, and from examining the oil dead beetles something very interesting. LOOK HERE
The SMALLER of the three dead beetles is a BABY
When I compared what was in the oil, I found that many of the beetles were smaller, lighter, and would be impossible to even see if you were looking for a regular sized hive beetle. The same goes for the larvae. The larvae vary in size just as much, and can hide in cracks you could stick a razor blade into. So y’all keep an eye out and bring your magnifier to the hives, because you wouldn’t even see these babies! I know I didn’t, and it made me regret that I left two of the original frames in the last hive.
ON A GOOD NOTE I think my remaining bees have made about three queen cells. But the remaining bees would only fill one honey super, period. I don’t think they will survive the winter if not fed religiously. I definitely am going to have to order a couple of packages of bees in a month or so for next years starting over . . . Just call my last hive an experiment, because that’s what it’s been.
ANOTHER NOTE They say that small hive beetle can’t survive a cold winter without the bees to keep them warm, as they live within the bee cluster. So if my last hive dies, maybe the beetles will die too?
AN ORPHAN IN THE BUSHES
My job was to trim shrubs behind a commercial building that day. I arrived at daybreak, the sun was barely up and the night lights were still lit. I took my first pictures of the day to record what the foliage looked like before I began to trim.
I got all my tools, the wheelbarrow, the bags, and started up the walk. Soon I saw there was somebody keeping me company . . .
I soon saw there was somebody keeping me company
The streak of white color dissapeared behind one of the rose bushes up against the building and I realized that it was a kitten. I got down on my knees to peer under the bush he was hiding in and stretched out my hand and called him.
He was a wild baby kitty, but not totally. (Somebody had been feeding him at lunchtime.) I ran back to the car and got part of my sandwich (the meat part), and ran back to feed him. He ate it all, even a french fry.
He watched with suspicious curiosity
I started walking around to see what needed to be done to the flower beds. The kitten watched all this with suspicious curiosity. Getting food every few minutes had him soon following me around asking for more.
He soon started following me around
I wasn’t surprised. He had no Mommy anywhere that I could see. I found out later a mother cat had been seen carrying him across the parking lot and dropped him off there never to return. He was an ORPHAN BABY KITTYKAT.
He was starving …
He was starving, and looked better than he was because he was a long haired kitten, and the fur disguised the ribbyness of his tiny little body.
I could tell he was a Purrson of importance
But his personality told me he was a purrson of importance, sooo. . . He came home in a cardboard box when I left the job two days later.
My other cat was not so sure about this newcomer
My other cat was not so sure about this newcomer. He hissed a lot, and spit a lot, and cussed a lot. Then he just left the room disgusted.
I put him in a cage for his own safety
I put him in another room in a cage so that the big guy wouldn’t eat him. A time out was needed before it was discovered that he was really a friend and not an intruder.
At first, curiosity at a distance
He was allowed out only under supervision and then recaged at night. More and more freedom as he was accepted. At first it was just curiosity from a safe distance. But in the end, after a few weeks, they became more and more friends . . .
In the end they became friends
After a week of the big cat being pounced on, and the little cat getting smashed on, and a bunch of spats, there was a truce. But in the end they got their act together and became companionable friends.
Things we live around
JewelAnt Blog 
Get a load of this HAIR!
Can you believe this hair?
Is this not phenomenal,
unusual,
gorgeous,
and really cool?
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on 2018/01/05 at 11:54 PM Leave a CommentTags: Beauty, blogging, blond hair, commentary, hair, jewelant, long hair, photography, photos, very long hair, wavy hair