I Hate bots	Computer/Web pages
[28-Feb-2026] Every so often bot pound on the web site bringing it to it knees with oo many requests too quickly. the usual answer is to block the IP, or more often entire range but itd frustrating to trace it down and shut them off and they still just change ips. Installed apache mod_evasive which does some rate limiting if to many requests come in too quickly let see if it helps.

Cold	Main Page
[01-Feb-2026] The high I saw yesterday was 39, at noon. Wind was constant and gusts as high as 10mmph. Tried to cover the orange tree but failed, the wind just tore apart the structure within a few hours. Left some lights on under it. By 4:30 before the sun set it was already freezing again. Went down to 21 overnight. Pond is still ice covered at 10:30am and its only 28.

The Bright Swaord	Books
[27-Jan-2026] by Lev Grossman Fantasy: 673 pages A retelling of King Arthur but after Arthur is dead from the point of view a a new knight and the few who are left after the final battle. Rating: 6 (out of 8)

Twelve Months	Books
[26-Jan-2026] Twelve Months by Jim Butcher. Fantasy: Contemporary: 483 pages. Volume 18 in the series Dresden Files. Not much happens that is exciting till the end. Some dates, a new apprentice, dealing with Thomas does have some major players. Rating: 6 (out of 8)

African violet shelf	Plants
[18-Jan-2026] Too cold to work on bees today. Instead built a shelf so I could split some African violets, there wasnt enough room on the window sill. Took some pictures to identify them in the future. Violet photos

2025 Books	Books
[11-Jan-2026] Finished entering the books from last year. 76 which is pretty high. Got a lot read from November on when I was rereading good books, like all of the Chalion series and new stuff related to that like Penric. I fly thorough good books.

Im Afraid Youve Got Dragons	Books
[05-Jan-2026] by Peter S. Beagle Fantasy: 178 pages A cute book about a Prince, a Princess, a Dragon exterminator and their relationship. Rating: 6 (out of 8)

The New Roman Empire	Books
[23-Dec-2025] by Anthony Kaldellis History: 1133 pages A modern history of Byzantium. Referenced a lot on the history of Byzantium podcast. I find the number of times the author just calls out other scholars (in general not by name) for making assumptions that cant be proven. Rating: 6 (out of 8)

Voyages of the Beagle	Books
[17-Dec-2025] by Charles Darwin Science: 0 pages I dont usually read books online but read the whole thing. Its mostly about South America not the Galapagos, and a lot of geology and wandering. Its really interesting how much time Darwin spent off the ship with almost no mention of being on it. Rating: 5 (out of 8)