Baby steps

-Posted by Isaac

A couple weeks ago I told you I'd try to dig up that old Wittenberg magazine article. Well, I couldn't find it. I know we had a few extra copies, but I guess they're buried somewhere or got thrown away. However, we've got the cover shot framed and on display in the honey house:

It looks like they did that article about eight years ago. Mason is a toddler and Maizy can't be more than a few months old. We were farming side by side with Becky, and I was teaching school 'on the side.' I bet I've walked by that picture a thousand times and never really thought about it. But in this post, we do some reminiscing.

Here's the video that accompanied the article:

Back in September I was asked to speak at a Wittenberg function where they had a panel of maybe ten alumni entrepreneurs sitting in an auditorium and sharing their thoughts about business and creativity and... whatever. Two of the guys who made that video, Bob and Ross (Ha!) were sitting right up there with me.

I was delighted to see that I had missed the memo about panelists wearing formal dress. The men were wearing suits, the ladies were all dressed to kill. I wore jean shorts and tennis shoes. Oops. (And the sad part is, I left home thinking maybe I was looking a little too nice to represent my chosen profession. I mean, I had a collared shirt and I was wearing socks!) 

Oh well. 

After the initial embarrassment wore off I was able to take some of it in. It was engrossing and insightful. An inspiring hour and a half. Especially the question and answer session. Most of the speakers were involved in some form of consulting, so they had highly refined communication skills. (I took care of the "whatever" questions.) 

One theme that I kept hearing was how often everyone on the panel had failed. Over and over, they failed at something, changed, tried a different route, failed again... and those years of striving for something, those many failures and setbacks and scars added up to something that sort of resembled a successful business. 

I took it in. I thought about it on the way home and I've been mulling it over since. It's all about baby steps. Day to day, failure to failure. Baby steps. You've got this overarching goal and you don't know exactly how to go about it, but you sort of work your way there over time. I remember my Grandpa Barnes once saying something to the effect of, you need to do something every day. You don't have to do everything. You don't even need to be successful at it. But you have to do something. 

Baby steps. Grandpa Barnes was a wise man. When I watch that video from eight years ago, I think about where we were with the bees, where we were with the business... where our life was going ... the fact that the honey house didn't even exist... nor two of our future kids... 

How things change. For the better! Despite all the failures. 

One of the present day baby steps I take on a weekly basis is the honey delivery trip to Columbus. I'm not in love this half-day task, but it's one of those many jobs that must be done. (People need their honey!) 

Toothbrush = Honey Deliveries                 Toilet Paper = School Teaching

I grumble about it, the time spent away from the bees and the projects, but it's really not so bad. Driving up there at least gives me a chance to reminisce-- I used to be in a classroom at this morning hour. Teaching science. Years before that, this early hour brought more science, but I was the one getting taught-- Wittenberg geology. And in between those two treacherous waters, I navigated about 27 different jobs and quasi-careers. 

Baby steps.

And the thing is, I'm pretty sure that my experience isn't unique. We each have our own course of baby steps to follow. To fail, to rethink, and to step again.

And just where do you think you're heading? 

How do you like them apples?

-Posted by Isaac

Do you like apples?

We like apples.

This time of year we often see our life revolving around apples. A few weeks ago we had the good fortune of camping out at the Yeary apple orchard in eastern Ohio. It was a beautiful and warm starlit night in the heart of about 100 acres of just-picked apple trees.

Doug Yeary showed us around the place, and the following morning we drove home with about five bushels. Yes, we like our apples!

As you know, we do pollination work for several orchards. About 150 hives get trucked to the blooming trees. This is a springtime thing.

So I can't help but feel partly responsible for the ensuing fall fun and shenanigans.

Fun like the annual apple butter party thrown by our friend Kristen Baughman. Kristen happens to have a boyfriend who is a big apple farmer. His name-- Doug Yeary. So getting the apples is no problem. Is that why she keeps him around?  

It takes an entire day to cook the many bushels of apples into a rich, thick butter.

During which time, we find things to do.

Conscientious Mason removes his glasses before shoving his face into whipped cream.

Lots of food, lots of drink. And for those with a competitive nature... you can make a contest out of anything. I'm happy to report that the adult league pie eating competition was won by yours truly. (That was before the beer. Which fortunately was not a contest. Because I would have lost.)

Kristen's party has become a fall requisite. So much fun, so much entertainment! The more mature adults busy themselves with the apple butter. The kids mostly run wild. Or catch up on the gossip.

By nightfall the hard work of cooking, scooping, and jarring this stuff results in about 130 pints of deliciousness.

Those of us who found non-working things to do can still enjoy the fruits of other's labor. Fresh baked bread rolls are perfect for cleaning the last scraps of apple butter out of that big copper kettle. And perfect for wearing off a buzz.

Kristen lets us sleep it off in her big brick charismatic farmhouse. 

Then she cooks us breakfast.

Of course our groggy kids, weary from their night of debauchery, ignore the eggs, bacon and apple buttered toast. There's still leftover cookies!

They have their father's sweet tooth. And they share their mother's interest for things natural and good. 

One fall a long time ago I fell in love with a lover of apples.

And I got her number too.

How do you like them apples?

Big News

-Posted by Isaac

It was a slow week on the bee farm, mainly spent cleaning extracting equipment and putting mouse guards on the hives. But on the other hand, it was peppered with several big happenings. I'll fill you in.

First, relatively joyous news comes in the form of our second buckwheat crop. This was the last extracted honey of the year. If you'll recall, the first pull of buckwheat in August turned out somewhat brown, not the thick black it should've been. This round was much better.

One of these posts I'll get around to talking about our buckwheat endeavors. But not now.

Secondly, we were surprised this week to find our candles featured in the gift guide section of the far reaching Electric Co-op magazine.

And this happy surprise comes on the heels of another magazine's feature article.

Jayne and I are both Wittenberg alums and the alumni magazine people seem to love what we've got going with the bee business. This is our second feature article in a decade. Or maybe that's just what you get with a small liberal arts school only an hour away. I think I'll go digging for that other article and fill you in... future blog material.

More news- a big arrival. To keep up with the anticipated Christmas rush and the tidal wave of candle orders, we finally shelled out for a real wax melter. This week it arrived in it's full 10-gallon glory.

Maybe one of these days I'll get around to setting it up. Hopefully before Christmas.

Last, and by far the biggest- another arrival! This time in the form of little Arlo James Tilley, eight lbs, three ounces. 

Justin and sister Becky had a baby! Their first, and the newest addition to the Tilley Farmstead labor force. Sorry I don't have a close-up of the little guy, but he's beautiful and healthy, everything in the right place. The happy couple just got home from the hospital yesterday, so no, you won't see them at the Worthington market this week. I'm sure they'll be there soon enough. Becky acts like a tiny delay like having a baby won't even break her stride. Hehe... All I can say is, welcome to the monkey house Becky.

I remember, barely, about ten years ago we had a fledgling little honey business and all the time in the world to make it grow. We had been making one good business decision after another: Let's move to Montana... Let's move home... Let's buy a house... Let's get a real job... Let's quit that job... Let's dump every penny into beehives... Let's get into the farmers market... 

Let's have kids! 

As it turned out, that last one was a horrendous business decision.

In a good way, I mean.

Happy Time

-Posted by Isaac

We're done! We're done! So happy we're done!

It feels like just yesterday we were frolicking amongst the bees, bathing in the warm September sun. Now, on this chilly late October day, we fill drums of beautiful rich goldenrod honey.

Ah, what a life.

September sunshine = October honey. The bees do the alchemy.

Wow! Is this October or June?

They have given us their best, and we need to properly thank our girls.

I finished up pulling the last of the fall honey on Thursday and today marks the last we'll hear the whirl of the extractor in 2017. It took about a month to finish the fall harvest. It's a little slower in the bee yards on this go-round because there is a lot more to it than just pulling honey. Part of it is the 'thanking our girls.' In this post I thought I would show you some of the feeding and in-betweens of the fall harvest.

Normally I feel like I'm about done with the protein when the goldenrod blooms. It's time consuming the expensive. But this year I figured another pound or two couldn't hurt. I had to split the brood boxes anyway to feed sugar syrup.

Instead of buying those expensive pre-made patties, this round I mixed it myself.

 At $90 a bag, the powder still isn't exactly cheap.

We ended up going thorough five bags. This averaged maybe a 1.5 lb patty per hive... bigger hives got more. That's around six pounds since mid-July. Could this be the reason the bees look so strong? I think so.

The mixing took some time, but I was spending a lot of time in the mixing room anyway. Mixing up sugar syrup, that is. 

Most hives were already heavy. If I have to grunt to pull off the top brood box, it's heavy. (Maybe 60-70 lbs of honey.) But the populations were also heavy (see above). It made me feel better to give almost everybody a gallon or two of syrup, whether they needed it or not. Couldn't hurt, right? I checked, and even the heaviest hives were taking down two gallons of syrup in a couple days. They must've found somewhere to put it. This all meant that we went through mountains of sugar in October. To the absolute bliss of Maizy.

At the farmers market I am occasionally asked in an accusatory manner whether we feed our bees. Sometimes it's someone who wants to make sure our beekeeping is 100% natural.

To that, my answer is, "Huh??"

100% All Naturale

Everyone has a different idea of "natural." Modern beekeeping, complete with trucks, trailers, forklifts, extractors and painted rectangular insect-filled boxes all in a row... doesn't seem very natural in my opinion. And finding 'natural' wild honey in Ohio would be a stretch. Did they want me to cut down bee trees??

But even with our modern beekeeping practices, there is nothing we do that would change the goodness of the honey. And maybe that's what some of those feeding questions are about--wondering whether the honey is somehow adulterated. I try to patiently explain that yes, we do feed our bees (We love them!), but no, there is no chance you are going to have sugar syrup in the honey. We feed to get ready for winter... in October... there are no supers on the hives, and there won't be until next April. We've got over six months until the next honey flow.

Like any domestic creature under your care, bees need their basic necessities met. One of those needs would be having enough stored calories to make it through the long winter. Because we can never be sure how long or nasty the winter will be, it's just a good safe insurance policy to give the bees a little more feed... even when they are already surrounded by their own honey. 

And even with that thorough explanation about feeding, I've still had people turn up their nose and walk away. One persnickety lady about a month ago comes to mind. (What? Feeding?? No!!)

(You want your bees to live this winter? Oh, the horror!)

Particularly persnickety... the worst kind. Oh well. Can't please'm all.

The mixing tank holds about sixty gallons and I installed a heater a couple years ago in order to make the syrup thicker. To this mix we add a little of this...

and a little of that...

...all intended to help the bees. The lemon juice breaks the sugar down and aids in digestion. The Pro Health essential oil supplement supposedly helps something in the bees' gut... but it could just be an expensive 'feel good' additive for the beekeeper.

On a good solid day of fall feeding, we'll go through two tank mixes. This means some very early-to-rise mornings. I like to get up and get mixing way before the bees can smell what's happening. 

And that goes for loading supers also. When we're extracting full on, the honey house can quickly fill with empty supers. Three times this October Lafe and I had to fill the truck and trailer, moving it out to the field before daylight.

If it's a warm night, even at the first crack of dawn the bees will be pecking around the honey house. They know that there's something good in there!

By mid-afternoon it's a great big party.

Once the supers have been excitedly cleaned for a couple days, we stack them in the barn. 1700 supers can present a space problem. You can see I'm working on alleviating this problem...

...but for now, we have to work with the space available.

My contractor is just so darn slow. And if you ask me, she seems quite inexperienced and has a rather shoddy crew. I wouldn't recommend Eden Inc.

Ooh, what a lucky man he was

-Posted by Isaac

He had white horses and ladies by the score...

This week we honor the exploits of our five year old, soon-to-be pro soccer player. Bridger finished up the season last Saturday and for a stage worthy moment, stood alone at the awards banquet on Sunday. Although they don't give MVP awards at this age, with an incredible four or five goals kicked per game, we all knew who the likely MVP candidate would've been. (Six or seven goals per game if you ask him about it...)

And we spent the week grooming him for a life of stardom. Coming from simple and lowly beekeeping roots, he needs to adjust to a faster pace and be ready to roll when those big contracts and endorsements come in. An international soccer star is surrounded by beautiful women, drives fast cars,

takes exotic vacations, dines on the finest foods,

and acquires wealth beyond anything his beekeeper father could possibly imagine.

My only hope is that someday he looks back and remembers the little people who once got him to soccer practice.

Little people like his lowly beekeeping dad, still out scraping lids.

Well... I fibbed... that's not lowly Isaac scraping that lid. I had some help this week from the not lowly, but lovely Deedra Testa.

Deedra has a Honeyrun bee yard on her property and sometimes likes to help when I'm there.

It always makes for good conversation, and this time it really did speed things up. I'm still full swing into the fall harvest and it's been a tiny bit slower this year because of an added task. I thought I would see how much beeswax I could garner just from scraping all the lids and top bars. 

It's not like I didn't have to scrape the wax anyway. It's just that now I'm taking the time to collect it-- a little experiment that adds several minutes to each yard. I want to see how much wax it actually amounts to after I'm through with all the hives.

I'll usually fill two of these plastic containers per day.

And so far, so good. With only six yards left, we have rendered three large cakes. I'm guessing about thirty or forty pounds. 

Thank you, soccer star.

So there you go, About 550 hives' worth of scrapings. Is it worth the added time? (Maybe ten to twenty extra minutes every yard.) I think so. That's a lot of candles.