It’s Summers Time!

CHICKENS, WINTER, A BIT ABOUT ENGLAND

Another completed year here at Bee Culture. It’s hard to believe. We’ve had a good year and hope that you have too.

We’ve had our bumps, but we continue to be small and mighty and get the job done. Bee Culture and BEEKeeping continue to grow in numbers of subscribers and we thank you all for your loyalty.

Here in Northeast Ohio we’ve had just a taste of Winter – one morning last week just a coating of snow on the car. Otherwise not bad yet. The chickens are ready. We did the Fall cleaning and closed the windows, hooked up the handy gadget that keeps the water from freezing and connected the warming lights. The young ones have not seen snow yet. I don’t know if chickens have memories – do the older girls remember the snow.  They still enjoy being outside, no matter how cold it gets.

We actually had some exciting weather last Sunday night – first weekend in November. Tornadoes bounced all around us. I think the weather bureau finally acknowledged 10 of them. Kim and I had actually been tucked inside all day trying to catch up from being gone for almost two weeks. We didn’t even have the tv on. As I was getting dinner ready, the wind was suddenly really loud, so we turned on the weather and there was the very excited local weather guy telling everyone to pay close attention. Of course, now they can actually zero in on your street and tell you minute by minute how close the tornado is.

We had some rather large limbs down in our yard, but no damage. A lot of folks had down trees, power lines and went without power for awhile. Our Amanda, who lives in the next town over from Medina went 27 hours without power. It was pretty cold that night.

Our trip to England was wonderful. We had a great time. It’s always a little stressful getting ready for a trip like this – long flights, how do we pack, there’s so much to do here at home. But once we got there and got over the jet lag the rest of the trip was wonderful.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to spend the day with our very good friend, Peter Smith. We’ve known Peter for about 15 years we figured. It was an adventure to get to Peter – a taxi and three trains. Turns out it was Peter’s birthday, so it made for an even better day. He turned 87 that day.

Kim spoke at the National Honey Show and then a few nights later at the Lincolnshire Beekeepers Association. Next month, we’ll have more about the National Honey Show and the rest of our trip.

A lot of people pass through our lives that we just kind of take for granted. Special people that we don’t necessarily have an intimate relationship with, but we consider them a friend. We see them several times a year at all of the big bee meetings – ABF, Tri-County in Wooster, Ohio, WAS, HAS, EAS. For 20+ years we’ve known them and just kind of assume that they’ll always be around. Then things change – for whatever reason. They leave their job, which is your connection with them, either by their own choice or maybe not. And you realize you might never see that person again. Because your connection was all of those bee meetings. You don’t live close to each other and they probably won’t be at any more beekeeping meetings. A good friend of ours recently made that change and we’ll miss her.

As we write this we are just about to celebrate Thanksgiving, quickly followed by the whole Christmas Season. I love this time of year, being with kids, friends and just enjoying time together. My main goal is always to keep things simple, and concentrate on the people. Each year our holiday tables are a little different. There have been a few years where it was just Kim and I, sometimes the one local son, Grant is with us and there have been years where the table was surrounded – full and cozy. We try to make sure no one spends the holiday alone, so we check on friends and encourage our children to invite any one that might need a family to be with.

I hope that you all have a simple, stress free holiday season, that you are able to put aside your worries and concerns for a little while and enjoy your friends and family.

A special thank you to Amanda and Jean here at Bee Culture. These two ladies are delightful and support Kim and I in everything we do. We couldn’t do our jobs without them. Thank you ladies.

We’ll see you in 2018.