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.