To All,
Kitchen Scale
Cash Register Receipts
A tool that flies under the radar is my cash register receipts, which I have been saving ever since jack fruit. They tell me what I bought, when and where I bought it, how much I paid, and often how much it weighed. These little treasures have been a godsend when writing my e-mails. Below is the receipt from my trip to H Mart when I purchased my jack fruit on 17 Jul 2014.
The bumblebee life cycle above can be compared to a typical honeybee life cycle.
Kitchen Scale
Just as a Texan of the 1870s kept his trusty six-gun by his side, I keep my trusty kitchen scale by my side. My kitchen scale (pictured below) is an Ozeri Pro II. I bought it in the summer of 2013 and used it to weigh almost everything that I ate for two months. This was during a period when I was learning about nutrition and wanted to know exactly what I was eating. (If any of my readers want to keep track of what they eat, I can provide my spreadsheet, which automates the calculations and makes it possible at the cost of about three minutes per day to keep track of daily, weekly, and monthly consumption of calories, fats (of various kinds), carbohydrates (of various kinds), proteins, salt, and other intakes.) For the last year I have been using my scale to weigh my fruit for various purposes; except for a the weights taken from cash register receipts, all of the weight measurements reported in this series of e-mails have been made with this scale.This scale has served me well, is very easy to use, and is cheap; though the list price is $49.99, you can buy it on Amazon for $18,75.
Cash Register Receipts
A tool that flies under the radar is my cash register receipts, which I have been saving ever since jack fruit. They tell me what I bought, when and where I bought it, how much I paid, and often how much it weighed. These little treasures have been a godsend when writing my e-mails. Below is the receipt from my trip to H Mart when I purchased my jack fruit on 17 Jul 2014.
Pen
I have used T-Ball Jotters ever since I got my first in the sixth grade (1959-1960) as an award for a year of perfect attendance at Sunday school. (This fact constitutes conflicting evidence as to whether the child is father to the man.) The T-Ball Jotter was introduced in 1954, so it was only five or six years old when I got my first. The "T" stands for tungsten. To celebrate my T-ball Jotter (pictured above), here are a dozen ads from the early days of this pen.
I have used T-Ball Jotters ever since I got my first in the sixth grade (1959-1960) as an award for a year of perfect attendance at Sunday school. (This fact constitutes conflicting evidence as to whether the child is father to the man.) The T-Ball Jotter was introduced in 1954, so it was only five or six years old when I got my first. The "T" stands for tungsten. To celebrate my T-ball Jotter (pictured above), here are a dozen ads from the early days of this pen.
- 1954: This ad, which appeared in Life magazine, 26 Apr 1954. introduced the T-ball Jotter to the world.
- 1954
- 1957
- 1958
- 1959
- 1961
- 1961
- 1962
- 1962
- 1963
- 1964
- 1964
Camera
I bought my camera at the end of 2012 at about the time I retired. I had never owned a camera in my life (except for the low-grade camera in my bottom-of-the-line phone), but I figured that taking pictures should be part of retirement. In fact, I had no urge to take pictures until, when Mike took pictures of the jack fruit, I realized that taking pictures could play a role in fruit exploring. I took my first pictures for the e-mail of 10 Aug 2014 on jack fruit seeds. I have not studied photography and am ignorant of its principles, and taking pictures of fruit sitting still on my kitchen table is about the extent of the situations I am able to handle. In particular, I have not yet figured out how to take good pictures of flowers.
I bought my camera at the end of 2012 at about the time I retired. I had never owned a camera in my life (except for the low-grade camera in my bottom-of-the-line phone), but I figured that taking pictures should be part of retirement. In fact, I had no urge to take pictures until, when Mike took pictures of the jack fruit, I realized that taking pictures could play a role in fruit exploring. I took my first pictures for the e-mail of 10 Aug 2014 on jack fruit seeds. I have not studied photography and am ignorant of its principles, and taking pictures of fruit sitting still on my kitchen table is about the extent of the situations I am able to handle. In particular, I have not yet figured out how to take good pictures of flowers.
Cutting Board
I have been using my cutting board (pictured above) for about a quarter of a century. I am very happy with it since my previous cutting board warped after about 15 years and then broke into pieces. Buying a cheap cutting board is false economy.
I have been using my cutting board (pictured above) for about a quarter of a century. I am very happy with it since my previous cutting board warped after about 15 years and then broke into pieces. Buying a cheap cutting board is false economy.
Rick
P.S. My personal criterion for the first day of spring is when I see my first queen bumblebee of the season. This year it happened on 30 Apr 2015 while I was standing in the Trader Joe's parking lot while waiting for Mike. This year it occurred 7-10 days later than average, so this is a judgement on the harshness of the winter made by the animal kingdom. The plant kingdom's judgement is that we are running about three weeks late. This is based on my sightings of the blooming of whitlow grass, chickweed, violets, and dandelion.
P.P.S. In case you are ignorant of the bumblebee life cycle, here are the essentials.
- In the spring the queen bumblebee comes out of hibernation, searches extensively for a nesting site (this is when you often see them), starts a nest, lays eggs using stored sperm, forages on flowers, and raises the first generation of worker bumblebees all by herself.
- The worker bees then take over the bulk of the work of foraging and raising of the young, and the queen's main job is to lay eggs. Only workers, which are all female, are raised during the summer. These workers accumulate pollen (which provides protein) and honey made from nectar (which provides energy).
- In the early fall the hive uses all the honey and pollen it has accumulated during the summer to produce as many queens and drones (males) as possible. The workers all die.
- The queens and drones mate, the queen stores the sperm, and the drones die.
- The queen, who is the only member of the hive to survive, passes the winter in hibernation by, e.g., hiding under a pile of leaves.
- In the spring, back to step 1, and the cycle of life continues.
A worker is often about two-thirds of an inch long; a queen is about an inch long and is much more massive, so it is easy to spot the queens when they come out. Here are some bumblebee pictures from the Internet.
- Side view.
- Top view.
- Side view on a finger for scale.
- Foraging on a thistle.
- Approaching a flower, with the proboscis, with which the bumblebee extracts the nectar, sticking out.
- An example of how bumblebees have entered out culture.
If you would like to spend 23 minutes learning about bumblebees, here is an outstanding video.
- In the spring, the worker honeybees forage on the spring flowers and build up the hive's population. A honeybee worker, which is the only kind of honeybee you ever see, is close to half an inch long.
- The hive swarms, i.e., splits into two groups. One group, which includes the queen, leaves the hive and starts a new hive. Another group stays in the hive and raises a new queen. As time passes the hive might swarm additional times.
- Whenever a hive raises a new queen, either because the old one left in a swarm or because the queen dies, the queen takes a nuptial flight, mates numerous times with drones, stores the sperm, and returns to the hive, never to leave again unless there is a swarm. The queen's only job in the hive is to lay eggs.
- The hive produces a stream of drones, so they are always standing by whenever a queen might take a nuptial flight.
- The workers forage all summer and into the fall to build up the hive's stores.
- When winter comes, the hive hunkers down, and the bees survive by eating the nectar and pollen that have been stored up.
- In the spring, back to step 1, and the cycle of life continues.
Here are some honeybee pictures.
- Side view. On the hind leg you can see the yellow packet of pollen that this bee has collected.
- Top view.
- Rear view that shows a bee with two big loads of pollen in its saddlebags.
- About to land on a thistle. You can see that the protruding proboscis is shorter than that of the bumblebee. This explains why honeybees typically do not forage on red clover while bumblebees do.
- On the hive. The capped cells contain honey that is being stored, pollen that is being stored, or young that are being brooded. If this picture were animated, the bees would be rushing around like crazy, as in this one-minute video.
Bees are one of my favorite topics, but I will show great restraint and stop here since I am not the bee explorer.
