The Sammamish Review - News, Sports, Classifieds in Sammamish, WA » Business

Busy bees abound around Sammamish

Christopher Huber — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:47:07 +0000

If you’ve started to notice healthy quantities of bees buzzing around your garden or back patio, don’t be so quick to get out the fly swatter. There’s a chance those bees belong to a neighbor, like Sammamish resident Linda Hines, or Lisa Novich, owner of Knox Cellars Native Bees.

Lisa Novich, Sammamish resident and owner of Knox Cellars Native Bees, shows the set up for raising mason bees. Photo by Christopher Huber

Among other ways Hines makes her property a wildlife habitat, she raises orchard mason bees. And this is the time of year when they’re waking up and start spreading the pollen, she said. And some, who keep honeybees, will begin filling their honey jars in late spring.

“They just thrive in the environment here,” Hines said.

Raising honey or mason bees is a growing trend around the Seattle area, according to Novich and John deGroot, caretaker of the Pacific Science Center’s observational beehive. And the cool, wet climate is ideal for people who raise mason bees, said Novich, whose Knox Cellars distributes up to 150,000 mason bees per year, as well as various bee-raising equipment. Her father literally wrote the book on raising orchard mason bees.

Mason bees differ from honeybees, which are also taking off in popularity.

“Old hands both locally and nationally have noticed that (honey) beekeeping has increased in popularity recently,” deGroot said in an e-mail. “This is attributed to, one, media reports about Colony Collapse Disorder (first reported in 2006) have focused more attention on beekeeping, and two, gardening and backyard animal husbandry usually become more popular during economically difficult times.”

DeGroot said to learn enough to raise and cultivate honeybees, one would have to take a short class on the craft, which he teaches. But it’s worth the time investment, he said.

“Ten years ago the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association had about 75 members and about 40 attended our monthly meetings,” deGroot said. “In the last two years our membership is well above 100 and we regularly have more than 70 people attend some meetings.”

The benefits

DeGroot said due to plummeting honeybee populations over the past few years, beekeepers are “being extra careful of all their procedures and extra watchful.”

Keeping honeybees takes a fair amount of time and equipment, but the hobby is rewarding, especially if you like honey, he said.

“A lot of people who keep bees love the natural environment and nature,” deGroot said. It’s not like keeping sheep, goats or horses. Bees fly free and play an active part in the natural process. “This is a little bit more closer to nature.”

For those interested in simply promoting a healthy amount of pollination in their garden, orchard mason bees are an easier alternative.

“Two hundred fifty female mason bees can pollinate as much fruit trees as 50,000 honey bees,” said Novich. “Their very lack of sophistication makes them better pollinators.”

They’re also native to Washington, Hines and Novich said.

“They don’t sting. They’re not aggressive bees,” she said. “They’re very gentle bees. They’re very easy to raise.”

Novich made sure to clear up the idea that they don’t sting. The females — males don’t have stingers — do if they have to, she said, but in her 20 years handling mason bees, she’s only been stung about three times.

“In any urban area mason bees are great,” Novich said.

How to start

Raising mason bees is simpler and less expensive than keeping honeybees, Novich and Hines said. A couple hundred bees and the basic equipment needed to house them costs only about $50-60. Whereas setting up a honeybee hive may cost a couple hundred dollars and entail more consistent equipment maintenance, deGroot said.

Mason bees are active for just a couple of months in spring and then hunker down until the next February, Novich said. Once they lay their eggs and seal off their straw-like tubes, you just put them in the refrigerator for the winter.

Honeybees work year-round in the hive and have a much more social system. They’ll produce honey in early- to mid-summer, deGroot said, so while they are higher maintenance, they do come with the sweet benefit of homemade honey.

If you’re trying to get your orchard or garden to grow better, though, mason bees will certainly help your cause.

Learn more about raising mason bees at www.knoxcellars.com. Visit www.psbees.org to plug in with the local honeybee keeping clubs and suppliers.

Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com.

Business to donate profits to food bank

Ari Cetron — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:26:43 +0000

Adam Gentry and Charley Lindsley were having a tough time finding work in this economy. So in August, they started a new business, Easy Oil.

“We invented jobs for ourselves,” Gentry said.

One of the pair will go to you, change your car’s oil and top off other fluids on-site, be it at your home or work.

The pair have been interested in helping the community and donated a portion of their profits to the Issaquah Food Bank, Gentry said.

But this month, they want to step up their efforts.

“We really wanted to get involved,” Gentry said.

So, through Jan. 10, they will be donating all of their profits to the Issaquah Food Bank.

“We wanted to take it to a different level,” Gentry said.

For more information about Easy Oil, visit www.easyoil.org.

Adam Gentry and Charley Lindsley were having a tough time finding work in this economy. So in August, they started a new business, Easy Oil.

“We invented jobs for ourselves,” Gentry said.

One of the pair will go to you, change your car’s oil and top off other fluids on-site, be it at your home or work.

The pair have been interested in helping the community and donated a portion of their profits to the Issaquah Food Bank, Gentry said.

But this month, they want to step up their efforts.

“We really wanted to get involved,” Gentry said.

So, through Jan. 10, they will be donating all of their profits to the Issaquah Food Bank.

“We wanted to take it to a different level,” Gentry said.

For more information about Easy Oil, visit www.easyoil.org.

New business owners brave current market

J.B. Wogan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:43:09 +0000

Jason Schaefer, owner of Golf USA, takes a swing in his business’ indoor driving range. Photo by J.B. Wogan

Recession or no, Ray McCorkle decided to open A-Game Sports in Inglewood Plaza in August. He said he believed the presence of three high schools in Sammamish would create a steady demand for sports apparel.

So far, it’s been a struggle.

“We’re breathing. It’s short breaths, but we’re breathing. We need more business,” McCorkle said.

It might seem crazy to open a new business in today’s retail market. People aren’t buying like they did a couple of years ago. The state Department of Revenue released figures in July that said taxable retail sales in King County were down 14.4 percent from last year — about $3.5 billion.

But at least three local entrepreneurs are braving the market anyway and opening new businesses in Sammamish.

McCorkle, who calls himself a “gym rat,” said he has bought advertising in local newspapers and in high school football booster programs, but he still needs to find ways to get the word out that his store exists.

Deb Sogge, executive director of the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce, said McCorkle’s problem wasn’t unusual.

“I think the number one challenge is getting the word out that they’ve opened,” Sogge said. Sogge said new business owners often approach her about marketing strategies.“They want to know, specifically, this is my demographic that I’m attracting. How do I attract that?” she said

McCorkle’s 2,000-square-foot store, run by a three-person staff, provides general sports equipment and clothing, he said. He said he hopes to position his business to provide the team apparel for local recreational sports teams, as well as the school-sponsored programs.

While McCorkle’s store is the only new general sports store in Sammamish, all three of the plateau’s new businesses this year have fitness in common.

Amy Frank-Lewallen opened Fitness Together in February in the Pine Lake Shopping Center, in a 966-square-foot space that used to be a Blockbuster Video.

In Frank-Lewallen’s case, she said she had been waiting to open the business for two years but for permitting reasons, had to open now.

“I would never have opened at this time otherwise,” she said.

Fitness Together provides one-on-one personal training with two exercise rooms. The front lobby has three machines for a cardio-vascular workout, though the back rooms also have two functional trainer machines, dumbbells, exercise balls and latex bands. Frank-Lewallen has owned two Fitness Together businesses in the past, one in Woodinville and one in Issaquah. (She still owns half of the Woodinville business.)

“I was just worried that people were cutting back on expenses and wouldn’t see the value in fitness,” Frank-Lewallen said.

But business has been good to her; surprisingly so, she said. The Sammamish Fitness Together receives has about 50 clients a month, she said.

Jason Schaefer, manager of Golf USA, opened up his 4,000-square-foot storefront May 15. The golf-specific sports store replaced Sleep 101.

Golf USA, run by a three-person staff, has a synthetic putting green and an indoor driving range, plus golf equipment and apparel.

Schaefer said the current economy didn’t worry him.

“With good quality and good service, people will still spend money on golf equipment,” he said.

Schaefer, a Sammamish resident who lives behind Skyline High School, said he thought there was a latent demand for a golf store on the plateau. There are two golf courses in Sammamish and all three high schools field both girls and boys golf teams.

Schaefer also pointed out that the Men’s Senior U.S. Open is scheduled to take place at the Sahalee Country Club in 2010. That, too, should drum up interest in his store, he said.

Before summer ends, one more new business could grace the plateau: Galliano’s Cucina.

The Italian restaurant is scheduled to open in September according to Sogge. It would replace DC’s Grill in the Saffron shopping center, which closed this summer.

Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.

Portal designed to keep an online eye on children

Lauren McLaughlin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:05:35 +0000

By Lauren McLaughlin

Not long ago, Christine Mason decided she was going to do something to make the Internet safe for children.

“My children were starting to spend more time online and my daughter wanted to get an e-mail address, so she could write to her grandparents in Arizona,” Mason said. “I did a little research and I just didn’t find anything that made sense for kids.”

So Mason,of Sammamish, created ZillaDog and ZillaMail, an Internet portal intended to provide a safe Web site and e-mail server for children. The site links to Web sites that Mason said are favored by children. There are trailers for movies rated G and PG, games, and links to other child-friendly Web sites.

“My kids are on it everyday,” Mason said. “The site’s links keep them clear of YouTube and other questionable Web sites.”

“We aren’t a net nanny or a lock down site,” Mason said. “But there’s no search engine, so it’s difficult for kids to stray from the Web site.”

Online safety expert Linda Criddle noted that, just because the Web site does not have a search engine, doesn’t mean children will not be able to connect to a site that does. Still, she said the site has value for younger children.

“It’s good for kids 10 and under,” Criddle said. “Kids those ages don’t feel particularly adventurous and are happy staying on sites they know.”

For younger children, the Web site is a safe environment, Criddle said.

“(Mason) has a nice site with great, fun content,” Criddle said. “It’s a nice playground for kids.”

According to Mason, the Web site attracts a monthly average of more than 30,000 visitors.

But parents do not choose ZillaDog just for Web browsing. ZillaMail, the Web mail service, is a big attraction.

ZillaMail is designed so parents can control the people their children connect with via e-mail. Parents can set up their child’s e-mail so they receive a blind carbon copy of each correspondence, message filtering and set preferences for the account.

ZillaMail removes profanity from the child’s e-mail. There is also a filter where the parents can customize additional words that they deem inappropriate for their children.

Criddle said ZillaMail doesn’t employ all the techniques it could to make the e-mail accounts safer for children to be on the Internet. For example, Criddle said ZillaMail should guide children to choose an alias that does not allude to their age, name or location when they create an e-mail account. Also, she thinks ZillaMail should help children select passwords that can’t easily be guessed.

The Web site and mail server are designed for children ages 6-13, Mason said.

“If they want to use it after they’re 13, we’re not going to boot them out,” Mason said. “But e-mail is something kids outgrow like everything else — they get cell phones and start texting.”

Criddle agreed that children 13 and older would not be inclined to continue their e-mail accounts with ZillaMail. The older they get, the less likely they are to be OK with their parents reading all their e-mails, Criddle said; they will go and find other e-mail address.

According to Mason, ZillaMail is close to reaching 7,000 subscribers, even though Mason has not marketed the site.

“Most of it’s word of mouth, but we have been mentioned on a few blogs,” she said. “A lot of Fort Smith schools in Arkansas are using the Web site. Even some international schools in Thailand and Australia are using the e-mail for pen-pals.”

While local schools may not use the Web site, many local children and their parents are. Justin Park, of Issaquah, has used it for about two years.

“I think it’s great. It makes me feel much more secure. I know who my daughters are e-mailing and what they’re saying, and they know I know,” Park said.

“I had an 11-year-old who wanted an e-mail address. ZillaDog was something she liked and I could control, so it worked for us.”

For more information, visit www.zilladog.com

Intern Lauren McLaughlin can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 244 or samrev@isspress.com. To comment on this story visit www.sammamishreview.com

Not long ago, Christine Mason decided she was going to do something to make the Internet safe for children.

Billy and Carle Mason play online games at Zilladog.com.