September and October Recap

I had intended to be a bit more regular in posting over the last few weeks, but our honey work this time of year has kept us so busy that my downtime was mostly spent unwinding or trying to sort out the mess the house had become. Recapping from the end of September to these first two weeks of October includes the successful event that was our Annual Cider Social, attended by 60+ people this year, our baby shower, gathering honey and lots of extraction, and making over 100 quarts of applesauce. The Cider Social alone was packed with fun and lots of people we know. Its been going on for 6 years or so now, and has grown a little in popularity and variety each year. The big change this year was that it was Adam and I's first year producing the Cider Doughnuts. The 2 weeks previous to the event involved a lot of test batches of doughnuts, resulting in neither of us actually eating any doughnuts at the social. We did hear, however, that the doughnuts were some of the best many people had eaten. :) 

The next day was our long awaited baby shower. So many people put effort into making it such a beautiful, wonderful event for us. We are truly blessed by all of the love shown by those who came, helped, gave, and those who gave even though they couldn't come. Baby Bee sure is loved already!

In the weeks that passed after the shower, we've been busy collecting the last of the fall crop of honey from our various bee yards. We could never process this much honey so quickly without all of the updates to our processing equipment made this year. New equipment has made a tremendous difference in the speed and ability we have to go through more honey than we've previously ever collected. God has blessed us abundantly with the honey we've gotten this fall, as well as many new accounts with local stores. We are really enjoying all that goes into this family-run business. It requires a lot of devotion and hard work by all, but it is a huge blessing as well. 

This last week while Adam and Jim were out gathering honey supers from bee yards, Gail and I began our annual process of making/canning applesauce. In talking to our good friend/neighbor, we discovered a piece of equipment we didn't even know existed: The Squeezo. Roberta was kind enough to let us borrow the Squeezo this past week, and boy were we amazed! The 130 quarts we did two years ago took us around a week of long days making and canning applesauce. This past week using the Squeezo we made 116 quarts in 2 days! Its amazing what can be accomplished with some hard work and a much better piece of equipment! And yes, for those of you who think we're crazy and wonder what we do with all that applesauce....well we eat it of course! And we share it too :) Plus with Baby Bee on the way, it will be a great pre-pureed food for when he's ready for that!

On the Baby home-front, I have begun weekly appointments during this last month of gestation. The countdown is on people! I had reason to believe that Bee had dropped, so after discussing this with my doctor last week and a "lovely" internal exam, she discovered I was right. Bee is getting in position for birth, head down, though no dilation or anything else yet. They tell me this could last several weeks, but I'm still excited! Its getting so real! We even had our tour of the Women's and Children's Ward last Sunday. The nursery is ready, and I spend a half hour or so reading baby-prep books every night. Nesting you say? Well people that know me know I have organizing OCD anyway, so thats nothing new really, but Baby Prep nesting, yes thats happening.

 Its so hard to be patient. Not going to lie that Adam and I would both be thrilled if this baby boy decided to arrive a little early! We're so excited to meet him! Ok enough rambling. Until next time....

  

Migrating Beekeepers

Time sure does fly when we're busy. It was just 3 days ago that we arrived home, and yet it seems we're already preparing to leave again. Such is the bane of such short trips. I am not complaining, however, because any time we're able to spend at home with family and friends is welcome and appreciated. Even the snow I'm currently watching out my window as I write this is pleasant (don't hate please!). It is quite a change, however, since just last week we were sweating profusely in our layers of bee suits in the upper 70-degree weather.

In the past three weeks that we were south we made up for any time up here spent being a little less productive. The first week found us starting work at 6:00 in the morning unloading tractor trailers of bees coming back from California, spreading them out, and not finishing until 7:00 or later in the evening. After the bees were happily back in their southern homes, our days started a little later, around 9:00, but involved a lot of manual labor from making nucs, lasting until 7, 8, or even 9 at night, since Adam has been doing all the grafting for the queens we've needed for nucs. In the past three weeks alone, while working with our friends Gary and Terry Ford, we've made 700 nucs between their bees and ours. And the nuc orders are still coming in daily! This winter has been extremely hard on overwintered bees up north, so a lot of people are opening up their hives to find out that their beloved bees died of either cold, starvation or both. Its a good feeling to be in the business that we're in, because the world needs bees! With their amazing ability to pollinate the various flowers and trees we enjoy and consume food from, the world would not be the same.

We were also happy to come home for a short while to be able to visit with out beloved dog Winston. I never wrote anything on Facebook or on a previous blog, but just a few days after arriving in SC at the beginning of March, we made an emergency trip home to bring Winston to the vet. Shortly after arriving down there, Winston had an intense seizure. It terrified us. He had never had seizures before, and since he truly is our first child and beloved companion, we wanted to do everything in our power to make him happy and healthy. After visiting the vet and spending a lot of time thinking about it, we realized that Winston is simply not a traveling dog. He is happiest when he is free at home to curl up by the fire, hunt his typical rabbit grounds around the yard, and play with his best buddy Chester. It was a hard decision to make, but one we didn't regret, to leave him with Adam's parents while we returned to bee work in South Carolina. We worried about him a lot less as we knew he was in a loving, familiar home, with all of his favorite things: family, brother, freedom to run, and a warm wood stove to curl up next to. ;) He sure was happy to see us when we got home though! He couldn't stop smiling at us for several minutes!

Brotherly love

Stud

Being home has given me some time to catch up on all the paperwork, mail, and bills I couldn't get to down there. Unfortunately the service where we are is sketchy, so it makes doing internet work challenging. So I probably won't be able to update this again until we get home. We're heading back down at the end of this week and will be down South until the first week in May or so when we bring the bees back home. We'll be very busy making up the rest of nucs during that time, but we'll be balancing it out with some fun trips, like seeing my cousins in Chattanooga on the way down for Easter weekend, and then spending time with family in Florida at the end of April. I'm excited about those little things we get to do because of where our work takes us.

I'll try to update our However Wild Honey page on Facebook over the next couple weeks to show everyone what we're up to with making nucs. Keep up with what we're up to on Facebook, as its a lot easier to post pictures and short status updates that type long blog posts from my phone! Stay warm everyone and I'll pray the warm weather heads north soon!

Dusty Travelers

We've done an awful lot of traveling in the past couple months. Our 15-18 hour hauls back and forth to South Carolina have grown to more than I can count. Some people just can't believe we drive that trip. "How can you drive that far?" "Are you going to keep driving that trip, or will you start flying?" "Isn't it just awful to be in the car for that long?"

I guess some people just enjoy traveling and road trips more than others. As a kid, I spent many long hours in the back of my parents vehicle during our annual trips to Florida and Virginia Beach. I had my bed all made up, complete with pillows, blankets, gameboy, and a host of other activities to keep me busy. I was rarely bored, and loved every minute of it. As an adult I don't get to enjoy the comfort of that "backseat bed," but I still enjoy life on the road. As much hype as there is over flying, I really can't stand waiting in line for boarding passes, waiting in travel lounges, waiting to get on the plain, waiting for baggage claim, and then waiting again for a rental car. By the time you add in the extra hours you spend leaving your house early to arrive at the airport 2 hours prior to departure, finding a parking spot and walking in, and actual flight time, its not really as short as a 2-3 hour flight. Lucky for me I married a husband who likes road trips as much as I do. And we certainly chose an occupation that requires a lot of it.

Typically on the way south we travel during the day. Its easier to start a week of bee work with a fresh nights rest. On the way home, however, our routine has become traveling at night after finishing bee work. It usually begins with a trip to Waffle House, to fuel up on food and coffee. Let me just say that Waffle House has great coffee!

Its not as easy to find good coffee in the south as it is at home, and Waffle House has it! We then take turns driving, Adam usually goes first while I sleep for a few hours, and then when he gets tired we switch.

Everyone has their own techniques that work for keeping them awake on those lonely, quiet miles on the interstate in the middle of the night. The only thing that really works for me is putting earbuds in, blasting Adele and the few other artists I've downloaded on my phone, and head banging enough to make my hair swish nicely, all while Adam sleeps peacefully in the passenger seat.

(People can say what they want about Apple products not matching up with competition lately,

but they've done a darn good job with their earbuds! Its like surround sound stereo 

in my head!)

Having something to munch on always helps too. After a couple hours my head isn't capable of much more banging, the candy I've been sucking on has left a sour taste in my mouth, and sleep threatens to overtake me despite the music still blaring away in my ears. At that point we switch, somewheres around 2-2:30, and I leave Adam to finish the rest of the predawn hours.

What do you use to keep you awake on the road? What's the longest road trip you've ever taken? What is your favorite snack on the road?

Travel Preparations

As I look out my window the wind is billowing clouds of snow off the roof, sending them in cyclones across the yard. The sun is warm, but the weather forecast predicts another night dipping below zero. This winter has found me far less grumpy about such nights, as the house we now live in is more than adequately insulated to withstand such temperatures. While I do still have to get up in the middle of night to put wood in the fire, the wood stove is much easier to maintain than the wood boiler in the other house, thus my nightly routine consists of 5 minutes instead of 45, a welcome change.

This isn't an ordinary Friday afternoon for us, involving merely preparations for the end of week and Sabbath, but also for our trip to South Carolina on Sunday. We'll be going for 2 weeks this time, instead of 1. We're also traveling heavier than usual, as we are taking the truck, trailer, skid steer, and a good deal more food than usual. As the wife of the beekeeping duo we meet up with in South Carolina is staying in NY for this trip, I will be taking on the responsibility of feeding the crew of us (3 adults and 2 very hungry teenage boys). So for those of you wondering if my food service days have gone to waste, I assure you they have not! We are also taking our canine companion for his first time south. We're very excited to not have to be separated from our cuddle buddy for this longer stay! No more shivery nights, as he will likely be lying right between us with his head on the pillow. ;)

It will be a busy and productive couple of weeks down there as we prepare to send the bees to California to pollinate the vast acres of almond orchards. As hard as it was for me to leave the North the first several trips south in the middle of the holiday season, this one is slightly easier, as the holidays are past, and warmer weather is waiting to greet us in the South. :) We'll enjoy it for all of you up here! Still hoping there is snow upon our return home, however, because we have a lot of snowboarding we want to do in February!

Do your best to stay warm Northern friends! We'll send you some sunny rays from the south while we're away!