Bee Life Pt. 2

My friends! Only a week and a half has passed since my last posting, but it feels like I've been here much longer. The family and I have developed a really great dynamic that makes my living situation as comfortable as could be desired. I'm feeling quite at home here, and the parents both seem to like me.

In the last week I've learned as much, if not more, as I did my first week. This time, though, it's been even better since I've felt accepted enough to offer my own feedback now and then. I don't always, since I know I'm still a beginner, but it feels good to know that I can speak up. B has encouraged me to do so, actually, saying that it helps strengthen our communication. The fact that anyone has to encourage me to talk more must seem surprising, but I'm actually pretty quiet here. B told me I'm "hard to read" which I don't think I've ever had anyone tell me before. He also says I'm intimidating. That I'm more familiar hearing.

I've been doing a lot of gardening. When I moved here I neglected to tell them that I have somewhat of a black thumb and tend to kill any plant I come in contact with. I figured that it can't be something I'm born with, that I can overcome it, so I kept silent. As of yesterday I've successfully planted two entire gardens. It took me three or four days, but I estimate I planted 100+ plants by hand, not counting the sunflowers I sowed in another field. After B taught me how to work the drip line system, I also spent a lot of time working on that (which is why the gardening took so long). For those of you who don't know, a drip line system is a series of plastic hoses set up to a central water line. We install small emitters up and down the hose alongside the plants so that when we turn on the main line (or set the timer up to turn on twice a day, like we did), all the plants get watered at once. Here's a sample picture that I didn't draw (don't sue me, Internet).

I've never planted a garden before, and I assumed it was pretty self explanatory.It was a bit harder, or maybe just more arduous, than I'd planned on. We had to dig up all the previous plants that were there that hadn't worked out, so that was three rows of space we cleared up. Then of course we had to use the rototiller on the whole thing to de-weed everything. After that I planted row upon row of plants myself. If all goes well, in two or three months we'll be able to start eating fresh veggies that I grew myself! 

Whenever I garden, I get really excited at the idea that everything in life comes from little to nothing. These tiny seeds, anywhere from the size of a comma to a dime holds within them the ability to grow into something life sustaining. It just blows my mind. 

In addition to gardening, I've spent several various days with our bees! We picked them up last week from where they'd been for the past few months. I've been stung a total of five times. Currently my left eye is swollen halfway shut due to the sting I received on my left temple yesterday. Other than that, all my stings have reacted quite well. That's another thing that amazes me - the size of a bees' stinger is hair thin, but it hurts like a bitch. We dissected a couple bees last week so B could show me their anatomy, and it's incredible how sharp their stings are! They're also barbed, which helps them lodge into the skin. When you get a chance, you should definitely Google it. Every part of the bee is so perfectly and amazingly designed, I can't get over it.

I can get into what exactly I'm learning to do with the bees (answer: everything there is to learn) later, but I want to talk about our swarm calls first. When bees relocate, they travel in a swarm (around their queen, of course). They rest often because a queen bee is unaccustomed to flying long distances. When they do this, they temporarily hang out in places like branches, roofs, or wherever they land. Meanwhile, they send scouts out to look for a new home to build their next hive. When this happens near someone's house, the owner's first reaction is usually to call pest control. Well B has set it up with all the local pest control businesses to call him in this situation instead of eliminating the bees (they are so important to our ecosystem, guys!) and then he goes and removes the swarm himself. He charges a small removal fee and we get to keep the bees. We study them to see how healthy they are and if we can use them in our own hives. In the last week (swarms start in the spring) we've responded to two swarm calls. Both of them were about 45-55 minutes away, but the bees we got out of the deal are doing really well here with us now. It's one of my favorite parts of life here. When we're out there, we get a chance to educate people about the bees. This is crucial, because once someone's interest is sparked they're less likely to kill any future bees they might find on their property. Awareness is key! Always. 

Among everything I've done recently, here are some of the highlights:

~ I got to pull honey from frames for the first time. This involves uncapping the honey with a hot knife, putting it into this metal spinning machine to basically shoot the honey out of the frame cells, then double straining it. B says I should tell all my friends that I make good honey. Obviously I can't take all the credit, since the bees did most of the work, but I'll take it. 

~ The 21 month old has gotten to the point of hugging my legs when she sees me. The way she pronounces my name is pretty unintelligible, or I'd try to type it out for you, but the fact that she tries is pretty sweet.

~ I was sent on my first bee mission by myself! Two of our hives are down the road at a friend's. We took the queen out of one of the hives recently because she was getting too old, so B sent me to check out how the hive was doing without her/ if the bees were making a new queen. I was pretty excited that he trusted me enough to send me out on my own.

~ B says we'll build a hive for my very own that we keep separate from the other hives so I can learn more that way. He didn't go into too much detail, but I'm pretty excited.

I'm just loving my life here. For those of you who didn't see my Facebook status, it looks like I'll be staying here up until possibly July. I can hardly fathom how much more there is to learn, but I'm so excited and blessed to be here. I love and miss you all! 

Busy as a Bee

Friends! I'm here, I'm alive, I'm happy. I have so much to tell you all and plenty of time to tell it, so here we go. I've already done so much in such a short time that I feel like I've been gone for several weeks, not just the one.

I arrived in Wilton, CA safe and sound Sunday evening after spending the weekend in San Francisco/ Sacramento with Darin. We had a great drive down from Washington, making a couple detours along the way. I dropped him off at the bus station in Sacramento on Sunday and made the half hour drive to Wilton to meet my host family and move my things in. I'm staying in a motor home right next to their house. It's cozy, has electricity, and is close enough to access the Wi-Fi. 

Monday - We jumped right into the thick of things. I was up at 7:20 and ready to go immediately. After eating breakfast and sitting around while everyone woke up, I realized B hadn't been kidding when he said we'd normally be out the door "ideally" by 8. He actually meant it would be ideal, cuz it's only happened once this week. 

We headed over to his father-in-law's for Burn Day. This involved lots of carting heavy and not-so-heavy things into a pile and making a huge ass fire. We hung out and watched it burn for about four hours. While we were there, the father-in-law let me try out his quad. I told them I'd never driven one before, and they decided the best way to learn would be to just jump right on. Ever since then, I get to drive B's quad whenever I want, or whenever he sends me to get things with it.

After all that burning, we had lunch and rest time before getting to the heart of the day. There were 6 guinea fowl on the property that had been sent here for a time. I don't remember why. If you've never seen a guinea fowl, here. They're like a mix between a turkey and a vulture. They're ugly, loud, and hilarious. B & D call them watchdogs, because whenever they see something at all out of the ordinary they shriek their little heads off. However they'd decided to roost under the roof beams near the backyard (and quite close to my trailer), which left bird droppings all along the back patio. They had to go. 

In order to get rid of these unfortunate looking creatures, B and I had to prepare a temporary shelter in one of the pastures. Since they can fly, the shelter was in a small sty looking thing. Mostly we just put a fence in front of it and nailed chicken wire around the window openings. We expected we'd have to spend the afternoon chasing the birds around, but they blessedly had all decided to take that moment to waltz into the chicken yard. This cut our chasing time exponentially. B walked into the yard, grabbed a bird, and handed it to me upside down. I carried it like that across the pasture and shoved it into the little room we'd left in the window opening. It was probably one of the strangest things I've ever done. We did that with five of them. The sixth one freaked out and flew away, so we had to wait an hour until it had calmed down before we could catch it.

We spent the rest of afternoon filling up tires and doing other miscellaneous tasks until we had time to drop the fowl off at a nearby (see: within half an hour's distance) farm that teaches science to kids during the summer. 

Bee fact #1: All worker bees are female.

Tuesday - I slept in an extra 15 minutes since I still wasn't sure how early I should be up. B and I spent the morning playing with girls while D went out. Then B brought out Missy (the horse), tied her to a tree, and showed me how to groom her. I'd never groomed a horse before. It took about an hour, and then I walked her around. I didn't ride her, I just walked her around. The idea is that one day we'll be comfortable enough with each other that I'll be able to ride her. 

After lunch, I spent a couple hours peeling oranges by hand. I also spent 20 minutes using his oxygen-acetylene torch. Sometimes he just walks up and asks if I want to try something. I always say yes, because that's obviously what I'm here for. I did terribly at it, but I didn't burn myself or anyone else, so...that's a plus.

I blended said oranges and spent another hour or so straining the juice through a paint straining bag. It took forfucking ever, guys. I was out in the garage all night (or till 7).

Bee fact #2: Male bees don't have a proboscis or a sting.

Wednesday - This was a pretty low key day labor wise. We spent the morning collecting branches and debris from around the gardens and orchards so we could eventually mow the areas. The oldest girl and I drove them to the burn pile on the quad (they let me drive their 3 year old on a quad already!)

Then B asked if I wanted to go for a ride on the motorcycle. I assumed this meant we were running some quick errands, but what actually happened is we spent the next four hours on the bike. We went to a bee supply store in Sacramento, then another in Woodland. We didn't get home till about an hour before dinner. 

But! After dinner we got to finish the marmalade! It was a bit messy, but I was pretty proud. I'd never canned anything before! I would also like to mention that it's delicious.

That night we had a storm. The lightening and thunder were right outside the window to my trailer. I was delighted by it, but I knew it would make farm life more difficult the next day.

Bee fact #3: A queen mates with up to 20+ drones.

Thursday - This was a day that tested my patience. Despite the rain, I mowed the garden. The mower and my boots kept sinking into the 6-8 inches of mud. I was irritated, which started to show. Eventually he had me mow the orchard which is on a slant of a hill, so the rain didn't sink in as much, and I used the riding mower. 

Afterwards we headed to the local high school where B was asked to do a presentation about bees to two of the agriculture classes. I'm really amazed at the difference in classes over here. They have a floral arrangement club, and their FFA (Future Farmers of America) has a ton of people involved. I'm pretty sure ours had six. 

I had just met a few of the bees the day before for the first time. His normal hives are out at pollination at another farm. This means he rents out his hives to farms and orchards so his bees can pollinate everything. Then he collects them when they're done. Due to recent rains, however, the orchards are too muddy to drive through to pick up his bees. He's been very distraught about it.

Bee fact #4: Bees have four wax-producing glands under their abdomens. They effin make the wax!

Friday - On this day I vacuumed chicken shit out of the chicken coop. This is a real thing. B has a system where his Shop-Vac is outside the coop and the hose runs through a hole in the wall. I vacuumed out each 

stall, scraped them out, then vacuumed again. I also scraped, swept, and vacuumed the cement floor. Then I refilled all the stalls with fresh wood shavings. We use the chicken feces and soiled wood shavings as manure for the garden. It was a disgusting job, but that coop looked damn good when I was finished. Considering I collect and eat the farm fresh eggs almost every day, I'm glad I could make sure the chicken's environment was clean and comfortable.

Afterwards I did a lot of weeding using a hand operated rototiller, an action hoe, a handheld hoe...I'm kinda sore everyday and today especially.

Bee fact #5: Worker bees carry pollen on their hind legs in an area called the pollen baskets.

Saturday - Today we drove to Rancho Cordova where B taught a 6.5 hour class on beekeeping. I had registered for it a couple weeks ago, so I participated. It was nice to be around other adults, even if I only spoke to one or two of them. We were up at 7 to pack up and drive there, but we got doughnuts on the way. That always helps an early morning. After an early dinner, I've had the rest of the evening off. 

There it is. Those are the major tasks I've completed this week. In my spare time (either lunch/ siesta break or after dinner) I usually go talk to the goats and horse so they get used to me, or I hang out with the girls. We like to take walks to the mailbox down the long driveway or collect eggs from the coop. I also do a lot of dishes to help out, and I try to keep all of my areas clean. Well...my motor home isn't super clean, but that's my personal space.

Bee fact #6: The earliest records of beekeeping was in Cairo, Egypt back in 2400 BC

I have many more thoughts to share, but this entry has already been exhaustingly long enough. In my next post, I'd like to share with you how I feel about all of this. I have a lot of thoughts about what I'm doing, how I'm interacting with the family, how they seem to respond to me, etc. I obviously miss you guys quite a bit, but I'm so thrilled to be here. Every day I just thank God for giving me this opportunity and I ask Him to help me make it matter. I don't want to just be doing this for me, I want to make an impact. 

Thanks for all being super supportive and wonderful! I love you all.

Travel Prequel

Despite the fact that 2013 was unquestionably one of the best years of my life, it became apparent to me halfway through that I was in desperate need of a change of scenery. A variety of small personal problems combined with several months of self growth made me start to question if it was wise of me to continue living in Everett indefinitely. Without going into detail, in the end it was the person that I wanted to be around the most that actually unknowingly convinced me it was time for me to go. He asked if I'd ever heard of WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and told me he thought I'd really enjoy it. Within days I'd looked into it and began embarking on the journey that has led me to where I am now.

After many months of making preparations (something rare for me - I'm much more of a spontaneous girl) and taking a month long vacation, I decided to skip my original intended destination (Maine) and find one that made me feel more comfortable. In about 8 hours I'll be driving to Wilton, California where I'll be staying for a month (give or take) on a farm with a family I've never met. I'm looking forward to it more than you could imagine, and I can't wait to share all my experiences with you along the way. While a month is a brief amount of time, I have no plans for the next several months with the exception of hopefully Burning Man. If I can make it happen, and I have no doubt that I can, I'd like to hop from farm to farm learning as much as I can about agriculture and what it means to be in touch with this incredible Earth we call home. 

I will keep everyone posted as often as I can.