Beekeeping 101 and 102

During a conversation with Miss Effie this summer, I mentioned something about our bees and doing a hive check. This reminded her that Zan Asha of Bronx Bees would be coming at the end of September to do bee classes. I asked her to keep me posted on the details so that Mr. and I could take the classes. She explained that she didn’t know anything more than the date, as she didn’t have a location in mind…so I volunteered our home and hives (in an effort of full disclosure and in true student teacher’s pet fashion, this should actually read…I threw my arm in the air, jumped up and down and said, “Pick me, pick me!”) And she graciously accepted my invitation.

Fast forward to this past Saturday…our home was transformed into the site for Beekeeping 101 and Beekeeping 102 classes.

The Queen Bee leading her students to the hive.

Unfortunately, the temperature hovered barely above 55 degrees and the clouds stayed nearby for most of the day, so opening the hives was kept to a minimum. When they were able to open one of the hives, the bees responded with their disapproval and quickly accomplished what they set out to do…the beekeepers retreated.

Weather aside, the day was extremely fun and educational. When asked about the class, I heard one attendee say, “Zan is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about bees. I think she could have taught for three days and still had something to say about them.”

It was so amazing to hear so much about bees and to meet other area (near and far) beekeepers.

Thanks Miss Effie and Zan!

1st Day of School – Stay in Town or Go Home?

Today is Bug’s 1^st day of pre-school – sniff, sniff. We both did better than I thought we would. Tears welled up in the back of my eyes, but she was solid. Doodle, on the other hand, was a little upset. Upset may be the wrong word – lonely. Her friend, big sister and playmate was not by her side and she was very worried we would forget to pick her up.

Pre-school is three mornings a week from 9:00 – 11:30…in town and we live in the country. I’ve been planning stressing about what I was going to do. I couldn’t justify driving home and there are only so many errands a person can run, especially since we’ve lived in the country for seven years and we’re used to only coming to town a couple times a week. So what to do in the meantime?

Today, I ran my one errand and it was 9:24. Hmmm? We drove to a local restaurant armed with crayons and a coloring book for Doodle and my infamous to do list. But I can’t just park at a booth without buying something, so the to the very nice and understanding waitress, “I’ll have coffee, she’ll have apple juice and we’d like to have a cinnamon roll to share.” Cinnamon roll is good. The bill came…$6.92 and with a tip, let’s just figure $10.

Time is at a standstill. This is not working. So I ponder…

Gas is currently $3.75/gallon. From our front door to pre-school is roughly 30 miles round trip. Car gets approximately 20 MPG. That comes to $5.63 roundtrip.

If I leave school at 9:05, I can be home between 9:20 and 9:25. I would need to leave home to go pick her up by 11:10. This would give me a little over an hour and a half at home to get things done. I can’t believe it but it would be $4.37 cheaper for me to drive home instead of sitting at a restaurant thinking about my lengthy to do list.

As silly and impractical that I once thought it was to come home, it’s all in the math. Now, it’s 10:35 and she doesn’t get finished until 11:30. The cinnamon roll is gone, this post is finished and we wait…

Scoot over Doodle, let’s color…tomorrow we’re going home.

Quotes and Observations

"Everyday is like Easter when you have chickens."

~Mr.

(And sometimes you really do have to look under, over, behind to find them.)