Happy Merry Holidays

-Posted by Isaac

Merry Christmas everyone! Or Happy Holidays! Whichever you prefer. I'm so in the dark about the PC nuances and land mines. (Watch out! Oh, don't say that!) Last year, in my innocent stupidity at a farmers market, I wished about ten people "Merry Christmas!" before realizing that almost everyone was responding with "Happy holidays to you!"

This was in Worthington, where I guess you would expect people to be up on the proper Christmas well-wishing. I have since paid more attention to the supposed war on Christmas. You can learn so much from Facebook and talk radio! Haha. Kidding. Looking, listening, speaking, thinking, and looking around some more, I have come to my own conclusion: there is no war on Christmas. Some people are just overly sensitive, but we already knew that. Say whatever you want!

Silly talking heads, Christmas is for kids! It's a big ball of fun and stress and singing and sugar and stories and baby Jesus and gifts and entertainment and family and more stress all crammed into about a week. From my perch, I think the only people who truly enjoy Christmas are children.  

This Christmas we celebrate 13 years in the bees! Jayne gifted me with a hive kit in 2003, forever changing the trajectory of our lives. Forever ruining my aspirations of a lifelong career in "Ski Bum."

We threw an office Christmas party. The staff and their families came to celebrate, but as you can see, a bunch of kids hogged all the good stuff. The punch, the cookies, the cake, the candy. 

I'm just saying... Christmas is for kids.

Kids can make fun from anything. Give them a day off of school and they'll invent it! This week our kids discovered a giant sandbox.

The next project-- We're going to build a lean-to on the west side of the honey house.  The area needed to be raised, so I ordered 80 tons of bank-run fill and spent two fun days skidding around in the Bobcat.

Although it was cold, 80 tons of sandcastle building material is hard to resist.

Eventually the sandcastles got leveled and we needed more entertainment. You have to find something to keep these kids burning all that Christmas sugar.

So we decided to go hiking. We have set a (Mason invented) goal: The Hocking Hills at least once every month. Yesterday filled the December quota.

Deep Thoughts with Isaac: With hiking, with Christmas break, with children, with projects, with life in general...

When you start, the path is uncertain. The Where's, the When's, the Why's, the Whos, the How's will answer themselves in time. A leap of faith is often necessary.

You are sure going to hit some stumbling blocks along the way. Things will get tough.  

But you'll be sure find someone to help you through. (And you can almost bet that that someone is going to be a woman.)

Even when you're off and running again, even when the path is clear, you can still count on that someone to watch your back.

And you really need to get that someone a nice Christmas gift.

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

The Cold and the Clock

-Posted by Isaac

Most of you know that I'm not a fan of the cold. Or Christmas. Or, to be more general, Ohio winters-- the hard nasty wet/cold that chills your bones. The stiff wind. The sleet, the ice. The short, dark days. For me, it all rolls into one big ball of pessimism. Jayne says I've changed, that I'm not the man she married. But this isn't true, I'm the same person I've always been. The difference is, we lived out west. Where winters are different. The cold is different. Out there, it's not something to complain about, it's something to relish. (Powder day! Again!)

But then there is the occasional Ohio surprise. One day this week we awoke to this:

Our first snow! And sun! And the bee work done! 

A beautiful thing.

The day before with the snow just starting, I finished winterizing the last yard...

...and then went for a trail run. Magnificent huge flakes poured silently through the trees.

On Thursday, on the clock again, it was another beautiful winter trail run.

Ok, I'm sorry about this... one unabashed selfie.

(Taken the very instant I had a bright idea.)

Under these conditions, it's impossible to be a pessimist. Even for a grinch like me. When winter sets in, sometimes you just clock out and have some fun. Deserving or not, it's quite a perk to this job. You can simply drop everything and take a run. Or take a nap.

Or grab a sled.

Or build a snowman.

You can quit early to see the lights...

Christmas through the eyes of a two year old. (Did I lose something along the way?)

...or just hang out awhile. But be careful. Don't turn your back!

In the winter, you can work so hard at having fun, it just turns into stupid.

Stupid... on the clock!

It's ok, we've got time for stupid.

But then, I'm talking about my side of things. The bee side.

Jayne and Katie are as busy as ever. The crush of Christmas has yet to let up. Orders are flying out the door. Sometimes I think I should help. Sometimes I actually try. But it's to no avail. I'm mostly just in the way. And to add to this joyous stress, they wanted to throw not one, but two open houses this year. 

The second is actually tomorrow. Come on out if you have the chance! The ladies will help you find some stocking stuffers. Or if you want to talk bees and extractors, I promised I'd hang around.

But that is yet to be seen. You may find me, and you may not. Hey, I'm a busy man!

I may just be busy with a beverage and a hot stove.

Playing with toys.

Or reading a book.

Or taking a nap.

Because it's cold outside!

And I'm on the clock.

Beezy

-Posted by Isaac

November 8th! - Time to get out Da Vote! Time to exercise your civil liberties! Show some democratic muscle! Snap out of your selfish, lazy lives and think of your country for once! It's time once again to utilize your God-given sovereign right as a (possibly legal?) US citizen!

I would highly encourage arriving at the polls early. Considering the long lines and what's at stake for our nation.

What? Huh? It's December 8th? Well I'll be damned....      Who won? Has armageddon started?

I guess it's back to our selfish lazy lives. Here on the bee farm we're transitioning into winter. About this time of year, all the landowners get their sweet reward for providing a location for our little ladies. About 40 "rent honey" trips in all. I've been going around like Santa Claus.

And every other day it seems, Santa makes a trip to the post office. The orders are piling up!

Jayne and Katie have been extremely busy. Packing and shipping-- the name of the game in December.

Both small orders...

and large....

(Well, for a honey order this large, the work falls in back my department.)

For the most part, I try to stay out of the way. And I find things to do that don't involve real work.

This week we got the bulk tank fixed to my finicky specifications- a bigger outlet valve. It was just taking too long to fill those drums.

Look out, Lucky!

And I hauled the last of about 1500 supers out to the bee yards. Last winter I tried this and it proved to be a smart move. Not only does it save on storage space, it's so convenient to have those supers right where they need to be, when they need to be there.

But that time, supering time, is a long way away. So far off in fact, it's hard to even think about spring coming around again. This week, with our first arctic blast, we welcome in Old Nasty. My least favorite of the four. Mr. Winter. It's funny how location can change your outlook. When I lived in Colorado, I loved it.

I don't know about Colorado bees, but I'm pretty sure Ohio bees hate winter as much as I do. One of the many winter-prep tasks involves putting mouse guards in. This year I elected to do a more permanent guard... one I won't have to remove in the spring.

And of course, you've got to worry about winter ventilation. Every hive gets a top spacer.

One thing I'm not worried about is winter feed. Most hives are heavy as lead bricks right now. You can see that they're all getting a sugar patty anyway. They don't need it, but I had already bought the stuff, and they'll come up on warm days and have a taste just for fun. Merry Christmas, bees!

I'm not going to wrap a single hive this winter. Am I gambling with our lovely ladies? Maybe. I'm just not convinced that it helps as much as proclaimed. I mean, I'm sure it does something... but is it worth the trouble? We will soon find out. If I'm wrong, it may well be the first time I've ever been wrong. Hahaha.

Right now they just look so warm and happy. Snug as a bug.

So we'll keep busy and you do the same. But please don't forget your civic responsibilities. Which, at this point, involves responsible complaining about whoever got elected a month ago.

Wax 101

-Posted by Isaac

This is a post to explain our new and improved wax processing. A few weeks ago Jayne was showing off some new candles and linked to an old post that covered the journey of beeswax. I actually read through that post last night, and realized that we do things a little differently now. We've learned some things! Here's the new version.

As you know, the wax is made by the bees. After the bees get the honey dried down below an 18% moisture level, they seal it off with a wax capping. This prevents the dried honey from drawing moisture. They preserve their food, so to speak.

Thank you, Vanna

And you can go right ahead and eat that wax. It won't hurt you. Comb honey, as shown above, used to be the only way honey came. But with the invention of the extractor (honey spinner), the public taste for honey evolved into a preference for liquid, not comb. We like to squeeze our honey out of bottles.

So in order to get to that liquid honey, the delicate wax capping has to be removed.

Below the uncapper pictured is a large hopper that eventually fills with a slurry of wax and honey. The slurry is then pumped up into a big "cappings spinner" which runs the entire day while we're extracting honey.

This machine filters the honey out and dries the wax.

We'll fill that big barrel approximately three times during an extracting season. (Nine or ten times total for the year.)

The wax eventually ends up in the rendering tank. This is set at 180 degrees F.

After only a day or so in the "hot pot" the wax, honey, and sludge have separated.

A little bit of burnt honey comes off the bottom. "Baker's honey."

In the middle is the sludge. After four or five rounds, this builds up to a point where it needs to be scooped out. 

We've found one really good use for this black nasty stuff. It burns like rocket fuel!

On top is what we're after-- the liquid gold.

If you read the post from 2013, and were wondering about the burlap filtering step, we've nixed that idea. It was time consuming and stupid. "KISS," right? It's much easier to simply ladle the wax off the top.

Then pour it through a bucket filter. 55 micron seems to work best... not too fast, not too slow.

Another thing we've learned.--(After years of pounding buckets and breaking buckets.) The hardened wax pops right out if you freeze the molds for a few hours.

Over the course of the season, you can build quite a castle from your bucket molds.

Naturally, we have a queen of the castle.

At this point, cleaned and hardened, you're ready for candles. (Or soaps, salves, lip balms, whatever.)

Above, you can see the many candle molds, and at the back of the table is the double boiler we use to remelt the wax and then pour.

A lot of wax means a lot of candles. Just in time for Christmas.

It ain't meanness y'all, it's just hungry is what I am.

-Posted by Isaac

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! 

Let's go kill a bird!

Last time it was The Who. This week we pay tribute to singer/songwriter Hayes Carll. But more than that, this post is going honor the greatest of American holidays. The one celebrating food, family and football. While all others have gone down the tubes, screwed up with too much religion and consumerism and drinking, during Thanksgiving we stick to what's REAL. We remember our core values. We rehearse what it means to be genuine Red White and Blue.

And by God, I'm going to celebrate!

I've been doing it for over 40 years. And it only gets better. If you are extremely mindful, or just lucky enough reach a state of food nirvana as I have, you too may realize that every day can be Thanksgiving.

But I had a distinct advantage. I grew up with food. My folks were grain farmers and cattle farmers. 

Mom, Apple Pie, and HFCS.

Four of us, myself, my brother and two younger sisters were raised in the dirt. And it seems that we didn't go very far.

We're still food people.

While our friends and classmates all scattered to become doctors, insurance agents, and tax accountants, here we are, still grinding it out on the land.

Our spouses, also raised in the dirt, have joined us.

And if our children hate real jobs as much as the four of us did, maybe they'll someday be rewarded with the same charmed predicament.

(We no longer kill chickens for meat. We kill their progeny.)

Late November is a reverent time. A time to show gratitude for Earth's bounty by filling our stomachs with it. 

"Earth's bounty," as you farm marketers can attest, will take literally hundreds of different forms.

As a business, we've fooled around with many of them. Oh so many! Some ok, some complete failures, some "break evens."

A learning experience, one and all.

The one that stuck was honey bees.

There are so many roads with bees! And we're eternally thankful for the new opportunities that bees present. For the yearly bounty that the bees provide. 

Because after all, we do like to eat.