Busy Bees

Life has been picking up speed around here--not just for the bees...and the chickens...and the garden...but for us as well.  We're all pretty darn busy. Days seems long with work and life and "farming" as Teri calls it.  As cliche' as it sounds, the rhythm of our life has changed since embarking on some of our sustainability efforts.  We get up at 5:45 in the morning, tending to the critters, getting coffee and breakfast and shuffling ourselves out the door by 6:45 am. Lately, we've somehow managed to even get a load of laundry hung up on the line before leaving for work!

We both work full days, often followed by a trip to the grocery store, an errand, a board meeting, an event, or some other post-work obligation, getting ourselves home as soon as possible to tend to the critters, water the garden, and manage whatever other chores are on the docket.  I know...typical and rather dullish, eh?  We are exactly like a zillion other folks! I do think there is a different tempo that owes itself entirely to the season, however--it is late Spring and there is much to do.

I'm finding the bees to be a grand guide and a marvelous metaphor for life.  Their commitment and work ethic are rather inspirational, but they are also completely led by the seasons. Right now, they are building comb, gathering pollen, tending young, and, yes, making honey!  Our weekly check into the hive dazzles us with the 7-day accomplishments of several thousand bees.  Those girls can work!The whirring buzz that comes from the bee box starts as early as we do and there are determined little foragers venturing in and out of the entrance until dusk.  Pretty darn studly!

I could not predict how impressed I'd be by bee operations.  I mean, I knew I wanted to give the whole beekeeper thing a hearty go, but I didn't know I'd become completely enamoured, entranced, obsessed, and smitten by the actions of our bee colony.  I love the sound of the hive, the warm honey smell that permeates from our home-made box, the site of our bees foraging nectar and pollen throughout the garden.  I even caught myself lifting up a tiny, furry bee from a blade of grass this past weekend.  She was obviously in the final moments of her life--stumbling, disoriented, unable to fly and yet I couldn't take my eyes off her perfection in miniature.  She had been born somewhere else--a pioneer who'd settled here and worked up to her last trip from the newly-built hive and I was absolutely oozing with appreciation. This old gal was going to die with her boots on and I couldn't help but hope that I will be so lucky.

So, yes, things are busy around here--every day is a new adventure in how-much-can-we-get-done and yet, at the end of the day, when the sun sets and we lock up the chickens and tuck ourselves into bed, I sigh a big 'ole Spring loving sigh.  I love this time of year!