Birthday Bees!
I have already realized that the topics of
conversation in this blog have gone wildly out of the scope I had originally
imagined. In my first post I listed some possible topics that might show up,
and I don't think a single one has actually been brought up yet…
I have decided that this is not a bad thing. When
I started doing this, I really had no idea what it was going to be, and I think
I have decided that it will be whatever it wants to be. I talk about what I
want. Whether it's how I feel about a subject. Something I've written and want
to share, or just a cool experience that I had. Like the experience I had this
past weekend…
I went to Ontario to see my partner for his
birthday. It was a surprise and he said it was the best birthday present he had
ever got. The reason he was in Ontario is he is currently an apprentice at his
aunt's bee farm. That's right. Bee farm. His aunt keeps bees and makes honey,
bees wax candles and body products. It's all organic, and it's delicious! I got
a chance to help him work on extracting honey from racks of comb. It is a
slippery, sticky process but the end product is very satisfying. After
extracting, we built some new frames for the boxes. These are what the bees
build the honey comb on. The part I liked most about this experience was that I
could just jump right in and try things, and I liked doing it. As much as I was
not a fan of being covered in honey, wax and propolis (bees wax mixed with tree
resin) for hours, the process is fascinating and the end result is delicious! On
my last day there I got to pour some bees wax candles and make bees wax
cosmetic products (ie hand cream and lip balm.) That was my favourite part! I
talked to her about if she had ever considered adding pigment or flavours to
her lip balm, and she has, but the reason she hasn't is that the honey
collecting and extracting is so involved that there hasn't been time to look
into expanding the cosmetic brand yet. She might eventually, but not now.
There has been a lot of articles buzzing (pardon
the pun) around Facebook and Reddit over the past few years, about bee populations dying suddenly. There has been a
bit of a panic in some circles about food shortages because, without bees there
is no food. This is true, and this is why I think an operation like this is
vital to the survival of the world. Not just for the honey production, but
because of the sheer amount of pollination one colony of honey bees can do.
Bees are important and more people should consider bee farming. There are many
different ways to do this, and they don't all have to be as involved as the one
I have described.
Here are a few links about backyard bee keeping: http://outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/citybees.htm
And this is the link to Karen's website: http://beequeen.ca/
On a completely unrelated topic the other
interesting thing I got to do this weekend was washing rocks...Yup...rocks.
Some friends of his aunts are building a cabin on party of their property and
they are using rocks from the excavation
to build the walls. Because you don't really want to be looking at dirty rocks
in your cabin, and mortar/cement doesn't stick to dirt covered rocks, thus they
needed to be washed. There was a big group of us working on the site and
afterwards we had a barbecue. It was a good day! I hadn't realized how much I
miss doing physical work when I've been cashiering for an extended period. I do
get tired after an 8.5 hour shift, but it's a different kind of tired. Doing
physical labour can be very gratifying if you don't have to do it every day.
But standing in one spot for a whole day is really dull. Getting to move around
and do some hard work made me feel really awesome.
So to wrap things up. The weekend was amazing. I
wish I didn't have to leave so soon, but work and school beckoned me back to my
island. Even though it was short and I'm going to miss my partner even more for
the next month, this was one of the most fun weekends I've had in a long time.
I got to learn something new, I got all over muddy, and got to spend time with
some really awesome people.
Well that's all for now.
Cheers
Sláinte
Skol
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