For So Work The Honey Bees
This is a bee swarm that took up residence in Jen’s front yard. The second one this week. But this new swarm was luckier than the first because this time the beekeepers were called in to capture them.
The beekeepers analyze the situation.
A crowd gathers.
The beekeeper dons his protective gear and teaches a little about how bees are shipped.
Then he gets down to bees knees.
The box is put into position. Once the queen falls into the box the other bees will follow to protect her.
Ow! Ow! Ouch! Run! Just kidding.
With the queen in the box the other bees gather along the top, slowly making their way inside.
But they’re really slow so they get combed in with a brush.
Here about half the bees are in the box and the other half are on the ground behind the box.
Then its a waiting game while the bees calm down and continue to climb in the box or gather on its edges.
While we wait, their buddies on the ground are scooped up and placed in the box.
Eventually they calm down and are mostly in the box. They don’t all have to be in the box. Some of them are content to hang on to the outside so long as they’re close to the queen. The box was then collected and placed into the back of the beekeepers’ Jeep which was previously prepared by rolling the windows down. Would you drive around with a box full of bees and have the windows rolled up? Of course not, that would be crazy.
Thanks to Jason and Gerard (think that’s right) for teaching us a bit about bees today and for safely taking the bees away to a new hive.
A couple of things I learned:
1. Observation hives sound very cool.
2. I can learn about bees at the Botanical Garden thanks to The Metro Atlanta Beekeepers
Old vs New
Happened upon an old lifted CJ in Cabbagetown while on a grocery run. The two look very different when side by side. CJ still looks better.
Cops And Rodders Car Show
Dropped by the Atlanta Police Dept’s Cops And Rodders car show today where Nick was working at buying, selling, and trading the boyhood dreams and teenage memories of old men with too much money. I kid, I kid! All for a good cause as proceeds to the event go to the Special Olympics. Lots of good cars on view.
My favorite was this 60′s Ford Econoline. The vans are pretty cool but this truck version is awesome! Similar looking to the Jeep Forward Control and the VW Transporter though the VW had the advantage of the fold-down sides.
Broncos were surprisingly well represented with mostly the classics but also this later model.
Really like this one apart from the over-the-top bumpers.
Nick’s bronco made an appearance as a contestant in the show.
Not a fan of the color on this one but its in great shape and uncut. I like it when they have the original wheels and caps. Looks even better when the tires are slightly oversized.
A large portion of the show floor was dedicated to Corvettes, mostly from the late 60s to more current models like this Grand Sport.
There was also this Corvette that had popped up on Jalopnik before. It comes complete with a Storvette trailer.
To have a Southern car show you have to have a General Lee. It must be in the car club’s constitution.
Even rebels rebel safely. Wear a helmet when driving, kids. Lot of people have gotten a concussion from those rebel flag fuzzy die.
Eventually Mexico is going to settle down. Fewer heads will roll and tourism will increase. When that time comes, this is the car to take on a US to Panama road trip, to include Baja. Its in the initial planning stages.
A Ford Torino. Some of these were assembled right here in Atlanta. Look at this car. Its two-door. Its “a muscle car”, maybe? You could get some versions of it with a 429. Now people complain about all the SUVs on the road. SUVs are “huge”. This car is about 3 inches longer than a Hummer H2. The Hummer does weigh twice as much though.
There were several nice cars from the 30s like this Cadillac. From a time when the trunk was literally a trunk.
I think this one was a Hupmobile. Notice the door handle is forward and the door opens to the back of the car. Who thought this was a good idea? Seems the door would be much harder to close once inside. Checking out the history of Hupmobiles, even at the time there was a mishmash of door handle configurations. Some had driver’s doorhandles towards the rear, others towards the front.
But the Dodge Brothers, they had some good ideas. They put the door handles in the right place for the driver and they put this big ram head on the front which really does a number on pesky pedestrians.
Really like this feature. I think we should bring back the side-mounted spare with the leather-strapped side mirror.
Another extinct feature. I guess we weeded all the people who didn’t know the brake lights meant you are slowing down/stopping.
It was a good show and the cost of admission was an optional donation to the Special Olympics so if you get a chance to go next time around, you should check it out.
Graveyard Shift
On the night of the Superbowl a few weeks ago the guy who sometimes rakes the leaves in my yard came by and asked for exactly $2.25 so that he could buy the beer for his “Superbowl party”. He had come up with this figure based on the cost of a 12-pack minus what he already had. He’s not homeless but he’s not far from it. He calls himself Graveyard for reasons I didn’t ask about and says he used to be in the navy. There’s a lady in one of the neighborhoods around here who lets him live in her basement so long as he walks her dog. He promised me he’d pay back the money. I gave it to him and thought nothing else of it. Today he came through on his promise leaving the $2.25 with a “tank you” note (above). I had written off the loan, and in so doing had written him off as well, assuming I’d never see the money again and not really caring about it. I shouldn’t have made the assumption. A man of his word is a man of his word no matter what his circumstance. I hope he enjoyed the beer.
They Don’t Get Any Cuter As They Grow Up
Jeep Tinkering
Recently made my first couple of modifications to the Jeep. First I removed the backseat.
Because nobody wants to sit there. Then I replaced all the factory mats with heavier duty plastic mats. Simple.
The Jeep has a big front bumper these days, wider than the basic metal strip that came on the YJ I used to have. I prefer the shorter bumper on the JK too because it looks better and allows for larger tires. I also prefer the d-rings to the old style tow hooks. So I put a new front bumper on.
To put on most of the aftermarket bumpers with recessed winch mount you have to remove a pump that is hidden behind the factory bumper on the inside of the driver-side frame rail. You can see the little silver canister just right of center here with the bumper removed.
Like magic, its gone. Well, magic and a little wrenching, little wiring, and a lot of dremeling to remove the bracket that held it to the frame.
The electrical lines to the pump have to be extended and routed. The kit comes with plain wire so I bought some conduit to protect the wires (not shown).
Here’s the bracket that was removed.
I used the OR-FAB relocation kit to move the pump under the hood. This is a better location anyway as its out of the elements and not so low to the ground where it can get dirty.
And here’s a close to the end result. It was raining yesterday afternoon and getting dark so I had to hold off on routing the battery cables to the winch until today. The bumper is a Rugged Ridge XHD. The kit came with a relocation bracket for the pump but it mounts it under the frame rail at the the sway bar bracket which I didn’t like.
I didn’t take too many pics during install because there’s not a lot to see. I made a little movie though. Unfortunately Flickr requires the Flash player to play it… so I’m not embedding it here. But you can watch it on Flickr if you want. Also the last minute or so was cut off by Flickr for some reason. Will probably have to move to YouTube.
Rerouted the battery wires today for the winch, hooked up all electrics. Everything works good.
And a couple of items to throw on Craigslist in case anybody wants them.
Erik Johansson: Impossible photography
Some of these awesome “photos” were making the rounds last year. This is how they were made.
Goodbye Clyde Jr.
Lots of turnover lately in the fleet. Clyde Jr.’s role as haul-about has been superseded by the arrival of my Universal Appliance/Italian convertible/Jeep. Therefore Clyde Jr. has moved on to a new role… in the movies. We wish him well. No doubt there will one day be a Clyde Jr. II and maybe the 460 project will then be resurrected. Until then the focus is on the remainder of the fleet.
Expert Reviews On “The Bark Side” Are Now Online.
This one looks like Riley’s twin!
Live From The Cooplex
The chicks have finally moved from their box out to the coop. Its a little cold today but they don’t seem to mind. They’ve enjoyed pecking around their new enclosed outdoor space and hanging out in their half of the cooplex.
