Elliott Crawling and Standing

Videos of Elliott. He is doing great. I think he is resting this week after hitting a bunch of milestones. His language skills seem to have taken a jump. He waves at people now, and there is the crawling and standing. Videos below. 

Bee Confusion

I went out to check the hives this weekend and it seems like the queen of the purple hive has split. I deduced this because there were at lest six queen cells in the hive and no new baby bee larva. There was also no new babies in the hive splits, however it has been raining for a week, so if a queen did hatch she would not have been able to do her mating flight. To be fair I did not do thorough hive inspections (and am feeling like I really should have now) but this is how things seem to be.

• Brown hive (Ponyo) Looks good. This is the most active colony and appears to be fine.
• Grey hive (Mercury) was a hive split from the purple hive two weeks ago. It seemed to be doing well, but now I am not so sure. I thought a new queen would be laying by now... but it has been raining.
• Purple Hive (Sally) was created from a captured swarm from the green hive last year. Now there is no queen, but there are queen cells. Things should work out in this hive if a new queen survives her mating flight.
• Green hive (Soskai) I kept waiting for the last few bees of this queenless colony to die off. It has been about two months now and still some workers are lingering. So I took one frame with two queen cells  (from purple hive) and put it in the hive.  After doing this Ilana told me she was doing some reading and it was a mistake... I'll check next week and see.
• Yellow hive (no name) I made a hive split from the brown hive last week with two frames of brood. I did not see queen cells this week so I am a little worried.

Printmaking

Alden and I did some printmaking this weekend. 

On Saturday Karen offered to open the press and teach us some techniques.

Alden and I went to the store and got a doughnut and then met up with Karen at 8am. I figure it is important to have ritual with this and the doughnut will be a key part.

Alden worked for about 45 minutes and then became distracted. I worked until 10, when Karen had a meeting. It was a nice morning. I hope we can do it again soon.

Close to Crawling

Elliott is about a week away from crawling, tops. He can sit up from a laying down position and get to all fours. He has not quite figured out the fine mechanics of motion from there, but he works on it with enthusiasm. 

Milestones seem to be accumulating rapidly. It looks like he is getting a second tooth (next to the first). he can grab food and put it in his mouth. He is eating just about any food of breakfast cereal consistency or softer. We celebrated his inside-out party the other day (9 months in the world celebration) and found out he is as tall as Alden was at 1 year. He is also very conversational and can identify Dada and Mama an Ahda (Alden). 

Splitsville for the Bees

Upon another inspection this week I noticed the green hive was missing the queen and it seemed like over half the bees that overwintered were missing. I am not sure what happened, perhaps colony collapse or maybe something just happened to the queen. It also seems like the queen had not started laying eggs yet, so the poor workers could not make a new queen.

This means that we are two colonies short from our desired number of four and this has helped me decide to do a hive split. A hive split is where you taks some frames (say 3) from a healthy hive and put them in am empty hive. You make sure the frames have eggs or young larva on them. The workers on the moved frames will realize that the new hive has no queen and will raise some of the larva to be the queen. Then we have a new hive. I will know in two weeks if it is a success.

New Tooth

We discovered Elliott's first tooth at the Friday Gardiner Artwalk. It is just a bump on his bottom gum, but it should break through any day.

The tooth comes just in time because we just started feeding him puffed fruit and cereal. We've been trying to get him to feed himself. No luck yet. The best he can do is hold the food in his left hand and suck his thumb while the food slowly melts in his fist.

If you look closely in the  pictures you may be able to see the tooth-bump. 

Outdoor Chores and Kids

We have been doing outdoor chores lately, with the weather turning nice and all. Alden seems to appreciate the outdoor more than ever and Elliott is just as happy outside as he is inside. He has a little tent we put him in. Here are some pictures, note Elliott is eating grass. 

Bee Check 2

So the start of spring hive check happened over the weekend. I opened the hives and checked the frames and got to see how many bees survived the winter. Part of the inspection is also to flip the hive boxes, and put the top on the bottom and bottom on the top.

Of the three colonies that survived, two looked in good shape, but one (the green hive) looked a little sketchy. Not very many bees.

There were a bunch of bees on the floor of the green hive, which does not bode well. There were also a bunch of dead bees on the beige hive too, but that hive is really active, so I'm not sure what to think.

There were also some beetles on the bottom, we looked them up and it turned out to be not an issue.

So it looks like we will do at least one hive split in the next month... maybe two depending on how the green hive does. 

Alden loses another tooth

Alden fell and hit his mouth a few weeks back. His gum started to discolor last week and we had him checked out by the dentist, who noticed the tooth was loose and told us to keep an eye out for any signs of infection. Sure enough, he developed an abscess in his gum on Tuesday and the dentist had to remove the tooth. This brought the swelling down a lot, but it left Alden's mouth full of holes. He probably won't get his adult teeth for a few more years, so I guess we'll need to get used to this new smile. The tooth fairy brought him a little Lego set this time, which he's been enjoying during this vacation week.

Jury

I served on a couple juries this week, one on Tuesday for assault and one on Thursday for drunk driving. I was selected from a pool at the end of last month for cases that also included (allegedly) a guy repeatedly selling drugs on school buses, domestic violence, hit and run, phone harassment and a civic case that I did not get to hear because I was lucky enough to pull the two trials I was assigned.

The eight hour process of selection was ridiculously long and could have been streamlined to four hours with very minor tweaks and possibly two without losing integrity. I don't mind doing my civic duty, but they are the ones who asked me to serve and a more professional process would have been appreciated. 

The first case was dismissed halfway through because the prosecution's key witness did not show up. It was for assault. Basically the case was about a guy who borrowed a car from his friend, and returned it to her a day late. When they met up at McDonalds she was pissed off and started getting in his face. From the video (and testimony) it looked like she pushed or slapped him and then he punched her and ran away. I was astonished that this made it to court. I think I would have found the defendant not guilty on the evidence I saw, but the case was dismissed and I did not have to make a decision.

The second case was an OUI charge, with the only real information being that a guy was "acting suspicious"  outside a Wilton market. The police arrived and noticed he was drunk, the passenger side of his truck was recently damaged from running into something and the vehicle was parked at the market for about 10 minutes prior to their arrival.

Defendant story: He woke up (in Searsport) and decided to go to the Skowhegan Fair. He was having family trouble and thought the fair would help. He is a recovering alcoholic. He arrived at the fair around noon. While at the fair he visited the beer tent and had one or two beers. He then waited a few hours and decided to drive (say 3pm). While crossing a narrow bridge he scraped the side of his truck and damaged the mirror, he was also lost. The next town he happened upon was Wilton where he stopped at a market (approximately 6:00), bought a 375ml bottle of 100 proof vodka and began to drink. He then called a friend to pick him up and approached some strangers to see if they could direct his friend to where he was (since he was lost). His behavior was strange enough that someone called the police and they arrived around 6:10. At 6:30 back up was called to give an OUI field test. He claims he did not remember/say the incriminating things in the police report because he was drunk. At 7:15 he was taken to the station for a breathalyzer test which read 0.21. The large amount alcohol in his system was from the vodka he drank after he was parked.

Prosecution story:  The first officer on the scene approached the suspect investigating a 'suspicious person' call. The officer identified the suspicious person as the defendant and upon questioning the defendant appeared nervous and illusive with his answers. The officer noticed an alcohol smell on the defendant and called for backup to give a field OUI. A second officer arrived and asked the defendant several times if he had anything to drink after he had parked his truck. The defendant said 'no'. The defendant stated he was in no condition to drive and was trying to get a ride home. The officers noted that the truck was damaged and that it was still cooling off from being driven. The officers found an empty vodka bottle in the backseat of the truck. The defendant failed the field OUI and was brought to the police station for further tests which he also failed and was charged with OUI.

What obviously happened: The guy woke up (in Searsport) and decided to go to the Skowhegan Fair. He was having family trouble and thought the fair would help. He arrived at the fair around noon. While at the fair he visited the beer tent and had a bunch of beers. He is a recovering alcoholic and fell off the wagon. He was so drunk that he could not find his way home back to Searsport when he left at 3pm. There is a good likelihood he bought the vodka at the Hannaford store across from the Skowhegan fair. While driving in his drunken haze he hit something. He realized he could get in trouble for hitting whatever he hit (and hopefully realized he was endangering his life and others) so he stopped at the next town (Wilton) where he parked at a market (approximately 6:00). He may or may not have bought the 375ml bottle of 100 proof vodka at that time, but in saying he did created doubt that he was DRIVING drunk (perhaps in 20 minutes he was able to pull over, assess his damaged vehicle, ask people for help, buy a bottle of vodka, and drink it). The police arrived and questioned him and he gave answers that he thought would keep him out of trouble, but in reality proved his guilt. After talking to a lawyer he changed his story so he would not have to go to jail.

The defendant story did not hold water for me because if he went into the store to buy vodka, why didn't he ask for directions from the clerk? Why was he calling his friend to pick him up before he started drinking? The damage to his truck that day seems like a very unlikely random coincidence. Why did he tell the officer he had nothing to drink after he had parked and then change his story after talking with his lawyer? Why didn't he inform the officer he had just downed a bottle of vodka in the parking lot when asked? Why did he wait four hours between his first drink at the fair and going on a bender in the parking lot as an alcoholic who just fell off the wagon? What sober person (while lost and smashing their truck) decides drinking vodka in a parking lot is a better choice than going home to get drunk?

Surprisingly, I was the only juror who thought he was guilty. After some deliberation I realized that proof could not be achieved because the prosecution did not address the vodka bottle appropriately... It was plausible. I caved.

The case makes me feel that bad that 11 out of 12 people lacked critical thinking skills and will believe a flimsy story by an individual over that of the local police. The kicker was that I was the foreman and had to deliver the verdict.