So, when Alex first came to me and said that he wanted to have bee hives in our backyard I was quite skeptical. Ever since getting stung in the neck many times at the cabin I have been scared of any flying, stinging creature. But knowing that he was very interested I went along for the ride.
I have only suited up once and gone into the bee yard for the hive checks but instead usually I just let him do what he needs to do and help as I can. Well, I think that things are about to change…
We were able to pick up most of our extracting supplies out in North Carolina while Alex was attending the EAS conference. This meant that we would be able to start extracting our honey and getting it ready to bottle. Now this to me seemed exciting!
On Friday night we took five test frames and I got to uncap them using the master uncapping knife. I think Alex only got to do one side because I was having so much fun that I wouldn’t give him his new toy back (although I did offer a few times).
Then last night we decided to try out our new extractor. So we set it up with the first four frames and gave it a whirl. The aroma of honey was heavenly and it was actually fun to spin the crank and know that when you opened the lid there would be honey in the bottom.
We are now in the process of filtering all of the honey so that we can bottle it and have our first small harvest of honey. The major harvest will come in a month or so and I can’t wait.
I also ordered a soap making kit so that I can try making my own soap with all of the wax that we will have.
So the lesson learned is that beekeeping isn’t all that bad…as long as Alex takes care of the outside hive part and I’ll take care of the inside honey extraction and soap making!
Roger Miller's King of the Road played on the tape deck. My sister, Meghann, was asleep in the passenger seat. We were shooting across Montana, heading for Oregon and the left-coast. It was August 2000. I was just 19; Meghann was 22 and she had recently finished her undergraduate degree. She wanted to take a trip before starting graduate school in the fall. The trip was one of a few I took as a teenager, and it cemented my love of road trips.
We seem to have arrived in Boone, NC, with all pieces intact. No photos, yet, but, with hope...soon. A recap of the trip here: we left Proctor, MN, on Friday, after work. We arrived at MJ's sister's in River Falls, WI. The next day, we called it quits for the driving in Lafayette, IN. We did the swanky thing of staying in Walmart #1543's parking lot along with a few eighteen wheelers; lot lizards were of no bother to us. The next morning, we headed out - south bound and loaded down - as my cousin would say.
