Hello and welcome to my space. If you'd like to add me, feel free. I don't friend back right away, but I generally friend back anyone who friends me unless there is an extreme conflict of interest. You might want to go read my info page first, so you get an idea of what I'm like. In particular, there is this little caveat that I'll also post here:

I have no problem with anyone speaking their mind here. That is just fine by me. But please, be polite and respectful. No name calling please. If you feel a flame war coming on, take your comments to e-mail and finish the conversation elsewhere. I have no problem with opinions and commentary that opposes mine as long as it is presented in an appropriate fashion. If you can't play nice, please don't play here. Thank you

I try my very best to respect boundaries. If you are willing to respect mine, feel free to add me.

With that said, welcome to my world.

Well, I got into a way too long discussion/argument over slut-shaming Melania Trump yesterday. At the end of the whole thing I wasted an hour I couldn't get back and felt like I'd been trying to get a pig to sing. Bleh.

For the most part Facebook has been okay, especially since I've been able to connect with some of my former students. I just need to step away from the keyboard when I realize my point won't even be heard. I guess I am used to civil opposing discussions with reasonable people.

Deactivated my facebook. Nothing to see here, move along.

I am Helen Colhoun over at Facebook now.

As of this morning I quintupled my monthly donation to Planned Parenthood, became a lifetime member of the NAACP and joined the ACLU (thanks for the links in yuour twitter feed mactavish!).

It may be time to get a smartphone and a Facebook so I can start recording people and making them accountable. My stepdaughter's boyfriend was helping a customer and speaking in Spanish and was essentially told Trump is going to get rid of him. Both Bree and my stepdaughter are in relationships with people of color. I have transgender friends and Muslim friends and gay friends and even if I didn't, it would be irresponsible to sit on my hands and do nothing.

Two things:

1) Please tell me what you are doing to stop the hate.

2) If you voted for Trump, there's the door. Don't let it hit you where the Good Lord split you.

Howard and I just got home from this year's NYC HOG midight motorcycle run down to the World Trade Center. It looks like we had a little over 1500 bikes.

Later this morning, my daughter and I are going to breakfast together. Then she will spend the day with her boyfriend and Howard and I will participate in Governor Cuomo's motorcycle ride back down to the site, but this time we will have access to the memorial itself, which we do not have at the midnight ride.

The rest of the day will be spent circling the wagons with my family. It's been a very hard year for me personally and this 15th anniversary is really resonating with me.


Thank you for keeping the Colhouns in your thoughts and prayers.

Yesterday, I spent 3 glorious hours at Hershey Gardens. The information I had read said most people spend about an hour there. It is 23 acres and since where I work is 37 acres, I thought the timing was probably accurate. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised because all the space is lovingly curated into different sections like the Japanese garden, the rose garden, the herb garden and the rock garden and that's just naming a few. There are benches tucked into places slightly off the main paths and also under large, magestic trees. I was able to happily commune with giant sequioas in the small grove they had and meandered all around for hours. I paid for a combo ticket to go there and to the Hershey Story Museum but I may skip the latter tomorrow and head back to Hershey Gardens tomorrow before I drive home. I highly recommend it.

In all my 50 years I have never taken a trip alone. Today, I am changing that. This morning I am leaving for Hershey, Pennsylvania. I am going to spend today at the Hershey Museum and Hershey Gardens. Tomorrow I am spending all day at Hershey Park, partly because my favorite ride, the Flying Falcon, is being retired this year to make way for a new ride. Then Friday, I head home. I need to get away. I need to be there. I need to do this. So, instead of putting other people first, like I usually do, I am giving myself permission to be kind to myself. Hershey Park, here I come!

So, yesterday Urte, the beekeeper from my workplace, and I did the second honey harvest at the Voelker Orth Museum where she also works. Harvest one had been 3 weeks earlier and, prior to that, we put in an exit board. The purpose of this board is that bees can go down into it but not easily walk back up because it's a screened maze on the other side. You put this board below the super you want to harvest and wait a couple of days. When harvest day comes, there are very few bees on those frames because they climb down at night through the board and can't climb back up. The process of putting that board in was an arduous one because the hive is very large with two large brood supers, 3 medium honey supers and one large brood super being used as a honey super. We did manage to get it in, although Urte was stung a couple of times because she hadn't secured her pants legs and the bees flew into her clothing. For the second harvest, she decided not to put in the escape board again, feeling that it was too heavy and that we would just brush the bees off the frames, even though bees can become angry with the brushing. Well, the hive probably has about 60,000 bees in it, they have no room to move and they could not walk down when we smoked them for that reason. I was stung 11 times yesterday and Urte was stung 3 times. All of my stings were on my ankles and she got two in her thighs and one on her hands. I ended up having a moderate reaction to those stings and my right foot is still pretty swollen. I had gotten 6 stings right on the outside ankle bone on that foot so I expected swelling. Last night I could barely walk on it but today I have benedryl and ibuprofen on board and I iced it a lot.

I like to learn from my mistakes so here is what I've learned so far:

1) Honeybees do not like black socks. Urte says they think it is an attacking animal and they go for them. White socks from here on in.

2) Wear better shoes. I had mesh sneakers on but from now on, it will be boots that protect my ankles.

3)Pheromones make the bees attack you, again. I got stung on the other ankle again when I went back out to close up the hive with Urte and it was instantaneous. Urte thinks they smelled the attack pheromone and that's why it happened so fast. Next time I will wash up more carefully after being stung.

4) Use exit boards where possible. Your mileage may vary but this is less traumatic for the bees and would have been for me too.


5)Inspect your hive. If we had done a brood check and an egg count earlier in the season we could have anticipated a population explosion and prepared for it.

6)Manage your hive. I think this hive could have been split or harvested earlier to avoid the crowding situation.

7) Have the right tools on hand. Using a brood box for honey makes lifting that super a very heavy and difficult proposition. It would have been better if Urte had had an extra medium super. She agreed with this assessment and will bring another one from her stash at home for the future.

8) Be prepared. There will be Benedryl in my bee bag from now on.

9) Start treatment immediately if you have multiple stings. I resisted icing it at first and this was a big mistake. I also should have had the ibuprofen and Benedryl on board earlier.

10) Check local weather conditions. Besides being overcrowded, were the bees angry because it was too sunny and nectar was in short supply? We didn't check so we don't know.

11) Quit while you're ahead. We didn't get stung until we had gotten to the second honey super but they were getting agitated. If we had taken a breather and let them calm down, this might have ended better.

And finally, get back on the horse, which I did immediately. Getting stung is part of being a beekeeper. It was quite the day but I learned a lot and I'm ready to go out again.