A couple of days after I put out the swarm trap, a swarm arrived in a buzzing melee on our quiet neighborhood street. Our neighbor Mike called over to let Jenny know that a swarm had balled up high in a tree in front of his place. I got the news by text, and arrived home a few hours later to find my wife standing guard, with the hive trap placed nearby. The bees were up high indeed, but I got the majority of them into a bucket, into the hive box, and then watched as they c

Last spring I began keeping honey bees. I built a stout set of hive boxes, ordered a colony of italian honey bees, and waited anxiously for their arrival. Clad in a beekeeper's veil and gloves, I installed them into the waiting hive boxes, and watched excitedly throughout the spring and summer as the colony thrived and expanded. I added another hive box, then topped the stack off with two "supers" -- shallow boxes which the bees filled with honeycomb -- honeycomb filled wi

The Urban Dictionary defines "jive turkey" as: One who speaks as though they know what they are talking about...though they do not. Which is a pretty good definition for me, at least when it comes to turkey hunting. Late in the spring turkey season, which typically runs from mid-April to the end of May here in Washington State, I ventured out to the far northeastern corner of Washington, some 25 miles or so south of Kettle Falls. Wild turkeys are plentiful there, and two yea

This mother's day the family went for an outing to Anderson Island. One of the San Juans, you say? No. Uh...isn't it that one next to Whidbey, or Vashon or something? Nope. Anderson Island is the southern most Puget Sound island, which puts it in Pierce County. It is accessed via car/passenger ferries operated by Pierce County, which is why you won't find the schedule or terminal information listed among the otherwise ubiquitous Washington State Ferries routes. The isl

Fire morels are my favorite thing to find in the wild. At least until winning lottery tickets start turning up in the duff. Morel mushrooms, grouped under the genus Morchella, show up all over the world and are prized culinary artifacts. Their desirability is enhanced, no doubt, by the fact that they aren't cultivated commercially, which means that someone has to go pluck them from the forest floor. Or sometimes from their front yard. Morels will sprout occasionally from