Just happy to be here

-Posted by Isaac

What a load of crap, this weather.

Tis the season… let the complaining begin. For some reason, this year seems a bit worse than usual. I can tell it’s pretty bad when I actually look forward to my weekly Columbus deliveries. I know, some of you have to look at that awful gray mess of traffic every day, and I feel for you. I really do. I don’t know how you go on.

I guess it just makes our rare sunny day that much sweeter.

With the rain and the cold I’m now volunteering almost daily to take big bags of packages to the post office. Just to be warm and dry for a while. Just to feel some kind of purpose on another non-beekeeping day. I can zone out, I can reminisce, I can plan projects, or better yet, I can listen to a podcast. Of late, Joe Rogan and Bill Burr have been parting the clouds. Sam Harris, if I really want to think. And I’m open to suggestions… it’s looking like a long winter.

So did you have a good Thanksgiving? Judging from last week’s heavy grocery store orders, I think quite a few of you basted that turkey and covered those bread rolls with local honey. And believe you me, you’re better for it— having that bottle of golden nectar within arm’s reach— A sure fire way to impress your holiday guests. Trust me on this, it’s a clear sign of intelligence. A mark of culture. A touch of class. A dash of grace. A note of refinement. A stroke of finesse. A kiss of elegance. And of course a conversation piece, as you already know. Regaling your guests with your seemingly infinite knowledge of the natural world… You are wise beyond your years.

And what about the big game? Did you catch the game?

Yes, we sure did. And this year it definitely lived up to the hype, didn’t it? What a rivalry! What a clash of the titans! At one point, red in the face and screaming, it almost came to blows. They had an intense argument over the technicalities. As the official ref, I had to step in and explain that there’s really no difference between P-I-G and C-O-W. You’re still out in three misses. No reason to fight about it.

What a battle! What a weekend! And on a side note, flipping sports, we saw Ohio State beat Michigan.

Again.

For whatever reason, the kids just don’t see what the big deal is. However, they do like explaining why we can’t use the letter M when talking about Xichigan. They learned this in school. And they thought it was important to retain. I’m glad some things are sticking.

Between rainy days, we find things to do.

And we try to beautify the place wherever we go.

Here we have a beautiful dumpster ornament.

And here, Eden models a beautiful hive ornament.

The past two weeks, when it’s dry enough, my little princess has joined me in collecting hives. We’ve amassed quite a few.

We’ll be taking these girls into the apples next April. I’ve learned that it’s much easier to have them all in one place when that call comes, rather than running around at night, fighting the mud in the spring. Plus, it’s easier to take care of them here at home.

Eden entertains herself with my phone while I pick up pallets.

Sometimes I’m just amazed at what she’s able to capture.

If that ain’t fine art, I don’t know what is.

Between yards, we enjoy the fruits (and nuts) of her genius.

Having spent years in sunny Colorado, I sometimes wonder what I’m doing here. Then when I think back I realize, even surrounded by those beautiful mountains, I probably complained at least as much if not more. It was just about different subjects. Not the weather. I found other things— things of my own making. Loneliness and moneyless and general aimlessness probably topped the list. And when I think hard about it, maybe I should count myself lucky that the Ohio weather sits on top of the complaint list these days. What’s a rainy day now and then? One or two or six in a row? Who cares? At least I have a purpose. At least I have a good job.

And you really can’t beat the good company.

Come visit us! Holiday Open House Dec. 1st and 2nd

-posted by Jayne

It’s been a week of WORK here at Honeyrun Farm. For some, more than others. I came down with a nasty virus on Monday and was on the couch until Wednesday evening. Eden got to spend some time beekeeping with dad. I think she enjoyed herself.

Queen of the hive

Katie and Kristen kept the honey house going, filling a large order for corporate gifts:

Today I’d like to take the opportunity to invite you to our honey house for our annual Open House, Dec. 1st (9-6) and 2nd (12-6). For more info- see our facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1208394122641290/

Just like years past, we will be turning our honey house into a retail space. We’ll work around extractors, wax spinners, buckets and barrels to create a shopping area where you can sample honey, view gift baskets and candles, or even create your own custom gift basket if you’d like.

Our employee Katie has a nice collection of holiday decorations she loans out to us to help give the honey house into a fun, festive atmosphere.

I remember when I was a kid, sometimes my parents would take us to an open house because they were giving out free hot dogs. It was usually a farm implement shop, hardware store, or something of that sort. I was always amazed… free hot dogs… really… free?! Well, we’re gonna top the free hot dog and give away free cookies, hot cider, and even have a few raffle prizes we’ll be giving away throughout the weekend. I promise I will not judge you if you only show up for the free cookies. Hope to see you there!

Transition time

-Posted by Isaac

Well, we did the pumpkin thing,

and we did the trick-or-treat thing…

In fact, many trick-or-treat things.

Remember when Halloween consisted of just one glorious evening of walking around town? Maybe you’d spend a few hours (not days!) fretting over a costume. Remember the good old days when it was short and sweet? And made for kids? I know I sound like a grouch, but this business of adult Halloween parties, school candy parties, and no less than three or four kids events is complete BS. It takes a full week! What a bunch of crap.

In so many ways, I feel like my parents’ generation had it easy. I mean, compared to what we have to go through. In holidays, in sports, in politics, in school… in their three TV channels and two newspapers and two genders… in their wall hanging dial phones, no internet, limited fast food choices and 55 mph speed limit… they had it easy! It really makes me wonder.

What will little Arlo be complaining about at 42?

Your guess is as good as mine.

As I write, a cold, hard 22 degree wind whips and screams. There’s ice on the doorstep and the eggs are soon to crack unless I get out there. Winter has arrived.

The wood stove whistles in the next room. We are definitely transitioning. Jayne is on her early Saturday trip to the Worthington Market. Two weeks ago they moved inside, but poor poor sister Becky is still outside at Clintonville. Hope she bundles that baby.

As usual, I’ve got the kids. And as usual, for November, we’ll probably jump into cutting firewood.

We’ve been at it for at least a month. Saturday afternoons. I’ve got to say, I’m impressed with how enthused they get. In about an hour we can do a full load. In another hour, it’s all on the porch. And they stay happy the entire time. Apparently nobody has explained that this is work.

On Wednesday, as the kids were moving another load onto the porch, I took the opportunity to check the election results. The real results. As in, who’s ticked off, who’s happy, who’s pleasantly surprised, who’s talking trash, and who’s moving to Canada. Yes, this can all be done through Facebook.

I came across useful data in the form of a pie chart:

According to Jayne, this is something I need to keep in mind as we move toward 2020.

But that’s a long way off. And in the meantime, we’ve got a lot to do.

As you can imagine, there isn’t much in the way of bee work with this weather. The girls are hopefully fat and happy and clustered for a long winter’s nap. I haven’t peeked in a hive for over two weeks and I’m suffering withdraw. Fortunately I have the wax to keep me busy.

All the cappings are now being rendered into blocks. This is an involved process.

A process with certain perks.

If you’re at all interested in this wax processing, I explained some things in a blog post back in 2016: Wax 101

I can do just a few blocks every day, and I need to hustle along because the candle orders are picking up.

Here is where you find the real work, and the real transition into winter. Pouring and wicking candles, making soaps, salves, lip balms. Packing honey, arranging gift sets…

Jayne, Katie, Kristen and Petyn run around on the many daily tasks.

Lafe and I try to stay out of the way… just keep the floor clean the the wax blocks coming.

The orders come streaming in and we know that the stream will soon become a river. The river will swell into an ocean about a month from now. Everyone wants their holiday beeswax candles.

I guess it’s just something that goes hand in hand with the season.

No, not that. We’re past that spooky season.

I’m talking about the truly scary one. The one where we all go insane.

And on the side, wish for world peace.

Until next time, as Bridger would say, “Peace brother.”

carpe diem

-Posted by Isaac

This week I’ve got a couple videos for you. One at the beginning, one at the end. In the first, Maizy practices her bucket filling:

Yes, we’re completely finished with the fall honey. And it feels good.

The last few frames have to be pushed through because there’s nothing coming from behind.

Every year I have a pretend race with the grain farmers. Who will finish first? Judging from the amount of corn still standing in the fields, I’m guessing we beat most of them. My brother Justin ran the combine late into the night and finished his last field an hour before the rain this morning.

Now we both enjoy our respective tasks. As he moves grain from field to semi truck to grain bins to elevator, we move honey from hives to barrels to bottling tanks to grocery stores.

And at the honey house there’s a lot of shifting. A couple big loads of supers go out and into storage…

…the very next day, a big load of bottling supplies gets moved in.

While the farmers start thinking about Florida, we start thinking about the Christmas rush.

But before anything can really be accomplished, the place needs a good cleaning. All the equipment, the pumps, the lines, the tanks and the floors. This takes at least a week.

But the honey harvest is finished and the pressure is off. The cleaning could take a month for all I care. It gives a small feeling of accomplishment to clean just one thing then move on to something else, something different. Whatever the day has in store. There’s no rush here. In fact, it could be something totally unrelated.

Like one day this week- Jayne and I were invited to hobnob with the politicos. Someone must’ve been reading this blog and pegged me for the radical leftist that I am. We were invited to a small gathering, listening to Beth Workman and her endeavors in running for an Ohio House seat here in District 92. Workman is a Democrat.

A Democrat! Would this little soiree be dictated by mob rule? Violence? The activist screaming of snowflake/hipster/entitled millennial mobsters? Driving there, I anticipated we’d soon be smoking joints and burning flags, donning the pussyhats, staging protests, reading up on Marx.

You can imagine my utter dismay in finding only quiet and reasonable middle-aged people. They served us Texas sheet cake and there was a lot of yammering about education and health care. Certainly not the Democrats of Fox News lore. Is this really what Democrats are about? Education and health care?? What a complete and total disappointment. What a letdown. (It wasn’t even pot Texas sheet cake.)

Hey Beth Workman, how ’bout we work on a real solution for society’s ills?…

Another day of slacking this week- Kristen Baughman’s famous apple butter party.

I blogged about this last year, and just a few weeks ago Jayne did a bit about Kristen’s business- Curly Girl Farm.

Kristen’s party gets a star on the calendar. In recent years it has become one of those ‘must attend’ events. She and Doug, her apple farmer boyfriend, take about nine bushels of apples and turn them into sauce. Then on the big day, they light the fires, hang the big copper kettle, add a bunch of sugar and grab a bunch of help. The cauldron needs continually stirred for about eight hours.

(But there’s still time to check Facebook.)

During those eight hours, we eat and drink and play.

Plenty of entertainment for the children.

But it’s not all play. Once the apple butter gets jarred up, everyone must grab a freshly baked roll and help clean the big kettle. My kind of cleaning.

It’s a satisfying task. As I filled my already bursting stomach, I couldn’t help but recognize that same feeling of accomplishment I get after cleaning the extractor or honey sump. A job well done.

The usual reward for our accomplishment is more food and more beer. But this year, compliments of Doug and via some deer hunters from Maine, we were treated to something special:

An awesome day followed by a gut buster evening. Carpe Diem.

Ok, your second promised video- Jayne and Kristen at the head of the line.

Finished!

-Posted by Isaac

Well… finished pulling honey… not finished extracting.

October is such a blur. Cool mornings, sunny days and busy, busy. Yard after yard, it’s a rush to finish up with the bees. Why the rush? Because we’ve got to get the girls ready for winter long before winter gets here. The first step is taking off the fall honey.

When I pull into a yard, it looks like this:

Some time later, honey pulled, honey loaded, bees fed, bees treated, brood inspected… it looks like this:

About the only thing that’s really noticeable is that top super is gone. And we hope that super is filled with honey.

This year, most of them were.

The goldenrod was good to us. And not only with the honey. The bees brought in more goldenrod pollen than ever this year. Every other day I’d make the collecting rounds- four pollen yards.

Sometimes I had company.

Eden serves as insightful conversationalist / entertainment / sideshow / taste tester / inspector / quality control. Much like my little girl, goldenrod pollen is just brilliant.

And so too, goldenrod honey. You probably noticed how the bright yellow wax jumps out at you.

Of the three, the fall is my favorite honey pull. What an awesome day job… I get to pop lids all day and see that! It’s still a surprise every time. Put’s me a good mood and keeps me there… which is rare… I can’t help but smile and mumble, “Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about…”

We still had a frame of spring honey in a display case. Here you can see the difference— Spring on the left, fall on the right.

And the resulting honey:

In more ways than one, goldenrod colors the season. What a wonderful weed!

Another fall wonder— pumpkins!

Circleville’s big extravaganza comes to us every year in late October. It’s a good calendar marker for being finished with the fall honey. If I can beat the Pumpkin Show, we’re in good shape with the bees. This year, just by coincidence, I pulled the last yard on Friday morning and had a chance to check out the craziness that afternoon.

Could there be a better place to celebrate being finished? Especially if you’re hungry??

I don’t think so.

A quiet celebration— We took our Texas tenderloin and pizza and fries and hot dogs and pulled pork and noodles and stromboli and pumpkin pie and elephant ear to an alley away from the hordes.

Then it was back into the fray.

But don’t worry, we were careful to separate our recyclables and put all that food garbage out of sight where it belongs.