the bees

The bees.  Ever since, as a city inspector, I was hearing reports of weird bee infestations in new developments, it has been in the back of my mind that something is wrong in bee world.

Turns out, our bees are in trouble, which means we are in trouble.   One third of the human diet depends on plants pollinated by insects, predominately honeybees.  They are dying, from inbreeding, captivity, and lack of natural diversity.  The bee business consists of boxing and shipping them to the almond groves of California, a month later to the apple orchards in Washington, a month later the cherry groves of Montana.  Then the grossest thing of all happens . . . Arlee Apiary bees are sent to a sandy lot near San Francisco, where they spend the winter living on corn syrup.  5000 hives are fed from a 300-gallon tank of corn syrup.  Their lids are sealed until the warmer weather arrives and back to work they go to the same monoculture crops that make the bees nutritionally stressed.  Heather Mattlila of Wellesley College, who studies honeybee behavior and genetics says, “one of the most devastating pressures on bees is the limit on what they can eat.  Vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins - all the same things we need to survive, come from pollen,” which come from different types of plants.

 “Bees have been around for 80 million years,” says Sam Comfort.  Commercial bee colonies, faced with massive mortality rates are not faring so well according an article written by Morgen E. Peck.  The national great bee die-off asks, “what has caused a third of all commercial honeybee colonies to perish each year since 2006?”

The answer is colony collapse disorder (CDC), meaning the bees are not strong enough to fight viral and bacterial infections, pesticide poisonings, and mite infestations.  “We need to have a diverse set of genetic raw material so we can find bees resistant to disease,” says Steve Sheppard, an entomologist at Washington State University.  “Genetic diversity is an important part of the solution.”

I care about the bees.  Not just because our food is dependent on them, but because I believe it is morally wrong to destroy the natural environment and carelessly eliminate other species.  If anyone wants to talk bees with me, please come on by!

Material for this blog post was taken directly and indirectly without permission from Discover Magazine.

Lisa, co-owner Olive Branch

Oh the sacrifices!

Yesterday I agreed to man the store while Lisa took a few hours off, presumably to get some chores done prior to her upcoming trip to see her mom in Mississippi.  When she arrives late, she asks for another 30 minutes, because it turns out she has to make a few finishing touches on the Chilipepper recirculating pump she has installed in our bathroom.  My first reaction was not one of support, I'm sorry to say.  (For one thing, I thought she was putting a second coat of paint on the living room and going to the grocery store.)  We are just testing it at this point, and so she installed it in our bathroom, which is a tiny 1927 craftsman bathroom with a pedestal sink, so now there is a small but ugly thing sitting on the floor with wires and extra supply line jutting out in my previously soothing and comforting bathroom.  Not only that, it is LOUD.

Okay, now the cool part.  What does this thing do?  Well, this is a pump with a computer chip, and when you press the button, it starts pushing the water that is sitting there in the line into the hot water heater and continues in a big loop until the water reaches a certain temperature at which point (25-30 sec) it turns off and your hot water is sitting there ready to come out of the faucets.  From my end what I see is that you press a button and then the machine comes on for 30 seconds, turns off on it's own, and then you turn the valve for the hot water, and OMG voila, hot water.  No wasted cold water running down the drain.  No expensive tankless water heater.  Just hot water.  

Lisa tells me we can put this under the house to hide the ugliness and muffle the noise (which is only for a few seconds anyway), and run the little button up through the floor so that we can just turn it on prior to using the hot water (anywhere in the house).  So once we finish this phase of the test, we will try the more permanent test.  If this works as good as it appears it might, then what a great product.  We have so many water-conscious customers that are diligently saving their cold water in buckets while the hot water heats up.  This could put an easy and efficient stop to all that it seems.  Status updates to follow.

Lynn, co-owner Olive Branch