While I’ve been gone in Mexico, there have been some big changes back in Sonoma at Two Terrier Vineyards. It’s taken me a week to get the full measure of those changes, perhaps because my man John the Baptist has been feeding them to me slowly — perhaps to ease the shock. One of the greatest changes illustrates why I needed to go to Oaxaca to learn Spanish. I had a conversation with Hector Alvarez, a famous local beekeeper who has limited English. We were trying to negotiate our way through the wonderful symbiotic agreement that occurs in much of this county. People with land (especially those farming organically) allow beekeepers to place their hives on their property in exchange for a “rent” of organic honey. Hector Alvarez of Hector’s Bees is one of Sonoma’s most famous beekeepers — you’ll find his honey and beeswax products in all the better farmer’s markets in the county. I was excited to offer him a temporary home for some of his hives, but was not too proficient with Spanish when I negotiated the deal. I suggested a few hives along an out of the way plot of land. What I got was nearly one hundred hives with what must be a million bees right smack along the main vineyard road. While honeybees are generally very calm and non-aggressive, several of the crew members and a certain terrier have recently been stung. So for now, the bees are in control of the main vineyard road. You drive through the area their way or pay the consequences.
Apparently, bees will remain calm if you drive very, very slowly past their homes. And Oscar, don't stick your nose in the hive!
But it’s not just the vineyard road. Bees have a territory of about two square miles, so they are claiming every bit of Two Terrier Vineyards as their own.
They are on every one of the native flowers we've planted.
They are loving Lake Charles where artfully placed pebbles create safe platforms for drinking.
And speaking of Lake Charles, our man-made aquatic habitat named after our late lamented Founding Terrier… There are some new residents to speak of. John the Baptist, through one of of his naturalist connections, has offered Lake Charles as a habitat for some rescued Western Pond Turtles. This is the only freshwater turtle native to the Pacific Coast West of the Cascade-Sierra Divide and is horribly endangered due to habitat destruction and that nasty interloper, the Bullfrog. John, having shot the last four bullfrogs in Lake Charles last week, offered the pond as a refuge for three rescued turtles — two females and a male. I’m currently looking for names and thinking maybe the names of Native American tribes would be appropriate. Pomo, Modoc, Miwok, Ohlone…
Here is one of our new residents, shortly after release.
This may be the best shot I ever get of these guys. They are extremely shy and, even when I try to sneak up to the pond, I usually only hear the plunk and see the ripples where they’ve jumped off their sunning rocks to the mud bottom to hide.
Which brings me to the new directive. In addition to being careful and avoiding the vineyard road so as not to disturb the bees, John tells me I’m also supposed to keep Oscar away from Lake Charles while our turtles settle in. If you’ve been on this site with any frequency, you’ve seen shots like this:
Just imagine the high pitched barking.
And this:
So you know hog-tying and muzzling is the only way to keep him out of water.
In addition, the pond has been stocked with small fish and crayfish, which look a lot like the crayfish you see in Louisiana. When I mused that I could make a native Sonoma Crawfish Etouffe, I was told that the crayfish were there for the turtles.
So the bees control the heights and the turtles rule the lower slopes.
So here’s the new World Order at Two Terrier Vineyards. The place is being run by bees, turtles and John the Baptist. Owners and Terriers are invasive species.
Which is probably as it should be.
Well, as one of your conservative Big Bidness readers, maybe I can negotiate a limited etouffe harvest with JtB. You know, just taking what the turtles can’t eat. Thing is, I can’t even think of something to negotiate with!
On behalf of the bees…I believe honey bees die when they sting. My mother told me that when I was 5, sitting on the washer while she pulled a stinger out of my foot. I might have been sobbing…
Judging from the size of the crawfish and the size of the turtles, there is more than enough to go around. John is probably bribable with good whiskey or Mezcal. Or ammunition suitable for bullfrog safaris.
Fabulous blogpost. (hope the bees calm down a bit…pethaps a good cigar??) And the rooster?
Sadly, Phantom Chicken seems to have disappeared. Either he was finally caught by coyotes or by someone human. I’m hoping one of the local farmers who were asking John the Baptist to catch him for them to put in their hen houses succeeded where John could not and PC is living the life of riley with a harem.
Love the turtles. Definitely a bee invasion. But, next year the hives can be more vineyard friendly strategically placed perhaps. I don’t know though, primo honey is a good thing.
Funny how everybody and everything don’t go into suspended animation while one is away from home, huh.
Great post.
Crawfish? Oooh. Yeah, surely three turtles can’t eat THAT much… 😉
that’ll teach you to spend so much time away 😀
I love this post. I realize that bees can be nasty/painful pests and not being able to eat the crawfish just seems cruel but you are doing a great deal of good! Thanks to you and John (and the rest of the crew).
Let the crawfish settle in and breed and then have a feast. How did Oscar react to being stung?
I’m interested to know JtB’s thoughts on the introduction of imported insects to the Sacramento Delta in an effort to control they water hyacinth.
Maybelline, I’ll ask JtB, but I’m pretty sure he’s against importation of non-native species in all instances. It’s interesting to note that the Chinese, who are also finding many of their native waterways choked out by invasive hyacinth, are mobilizing whole villages into the eradication effort. Perhaps one of the first jobs for our revived CCC?
No Maybelline, I am totally against introducing one non native to manage another, seems there are so many ways for it to go bad. I remember this scene from a movie, The Mighty Quinn with Denzell Washington, it is set in Jamaica. A father is explaining to his son how the British, when Jamaica was a colony, to keep the slaves from running away introduced the black mamba snake. Well the snake could not tell the difference between slave and plantation owner. Then they introduced the mongoose to kill the snakes only to discover one hunts at night the other in the day. So now Jamaica’s environment is totally altered from what it was and what it should be.