Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Una Vita Dolce



Una vita dolce is Italian for "a sweet life". I took three semesters of Italian when I returned to school a few years ago, and I'm going to use it!

Of course now that I've used up one of the four phrases I remember, I'll have to pace myself, but the sweet life reference has never been more prevalent here than it was a few days ago.







Our two older GK's Allana (14) and Wesley (10)  helped us harvest this years honey and at the end of the day we had 160 pounds of the golden post-nectar liquid. Most of it ended up in bottles and pails but a fair amount is still stuck to parts of the floor, and as my daughter-in-law Tab discovered yesterday, on the seat of one of our kitchen chairs. 

What a sticky mess.

We have to harvest it inside where the bees won't follow us. They are a bit possessive of their hard work. It makes our work area, the 21 foot diameter Looney Bin, a bit crowded but workable. 



We were thrilled that our hives did so well since many of our neighboring bee keepers in the county have lost some or all of their hives due to pesticide spraying by conventional farmers, hive mites, malnutrition or queen bee failure. (Sure, blame it on the mama bee, how typical)



Fortunately, our bees thrived this year. We attribute it to the fact we did not harvest honey last year leaving the bees with plenty of food for winter. Plus I planted tons of bee-loving annuals for the bees to party in and I kept birdbaths, bowls filled with water. We made it easy for our bees to stay home instead of having to fly all over the county to get the nutrition they needed.

We also keep our hives on the center of our property in an area of high weeds and tall trees, all of which act as filters should one of the neighbor farmers get a bit heavy handed with their chemical spraying. This combo of food , water and shelter paid off well in that we'll have plenty of honey for our own needs and extra to sell, which always helps with The Poor Farm's budget.


The other huge benefit of this years harvest was working side by side with our GK's and later, with our middle son Jason who dropped by and was recruited to help. (You would think people would learn not to "drop by" as it often ends in extra work for them.) Allana is our true bee whisperer and started working side by side with Keith back when she was 6. 




Now, three bee suits later, she is just enamored with the bees as she was that first summer. Her favorite thing to do is crouch down next to the buzzing hive and lay her head against it. "I love to hear them talking" she says. Her ten year old brother Wesley just expressed an interest this year so he is a new apprentice for us. 

Both kids stuck with us the entire four hours it took to move the honey laden frames from hive supers to the back of pickup, from pickup into house and into the honey spinner, from spinner into buckets and from buckets into bottles. Truly, we had honey spattered over most of the kitchen surfaces and we did more finger licking than Colonel Sanders himself.

Una giornata fantastica!







25 comments:

  1. What lovely dark golden goodness! Glad that you have grandkids who are interested in all you do on the farm (wish we our grands were interested in our farm).

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    1. Their interest waxes and wanes as teen interests do. But I'm happy to have them whenever they feel like coming out. We also have three new GK's all 3 and under so a new group to indoctrinate, I mean educate. :)

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  2. wow....i would love to have bees but i am super allergic. what a wonderful activity to have the family participate in!

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    1. As a retired RN I've seen those awful reactions and feel bad for those who must be so cautious around the flying (and other) insects. We do keep an Epi-pen on the farm just in case but so far, so good.

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  3. Golden nectar indeed. You did good by your bees and they done good for you. Now THAT's a partnership. Yummy yummy.

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    1. 90% of the credit goes to the bees and the rest really goes to Keith who manages them so well. I just threw a bunch of flower seeds in the ground.

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  4. Sweetness for the end of the summer. Enjoy that heavenly bounty!

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  5. Wow! All of you, grands and bees did good this year! Now, I am hungry for honey. We try to buy local honey because it is believed to help with plant allergies. I am reading a book that might interest you - "Letters from Honey Hill - A Woman's View of Homesteading 1914 - 1931." by Cecilia Hennel Hendricks. A young couple takes a homestead in Northwest Wyoming and get into the business of keeping bees and producing honey.

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    Replies
    1. That sounds like a fantastic book. Going to look for it right now. Thanks so much

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  6. I'm sure I've mentioned before, but I really regret not having been a Beekeeper.

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    Replies
    1. You would've been a grand one I believe. They are the most amazing creatures.

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  7. WOW! I love this. Hard work with rich rewards.

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  8. As a honey fan, I can well appreciate all the hard work both by Keith, the bees and your young harvesters. Seems you did all the right things the oast couple of years and now have a sweet payoff, Donna.

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    1. Now I must work harder to eliminate as much cane sugar from our recipes and replace with honey.The bees deserve a few cupcakes.

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  9. Sweet! ;) Glad your honey bees made it through the winter. They may be small, but are some of the most important livestock a property owner, could keep. Here's to more successful harvests in the future, and pop-in's from family.

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    1. We are so lucky to have our four kids and six GK's all within 15 minutes of us. On the other hand we, the parents , are within 15 minutes of THEM. They may not see it as so lucky.

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  10. Wish I was closer to you, that looks delicious!

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. .... on the seat of one of our kitchen chairs.... lol ...all very well for me to laugh, I didn't sit on the chair.
    I applaud everyone on TPF for fostering the bees. They work so hard, hardly ever complain and provide all the goodness which we know as honey.
    I can't wait to have a good look at the photos on something bigger than my tiny phone screen.
    Alphie

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    Replies
    1. Definitely look at the bottled honey on the big screen. Biggest bang for your buck.

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  13. I read lots about bees since I would love a hive or two. My idea was to plant so many flowers that my bees did not have to go far for nectar and get into poison. I loved every word and picture of this post! And, I read it twice.

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