This is my son Jake and our dog. Jake recently accompanied me in my bee mobile, better known as a dodge caravan, or thefamily hauler, or even the swagger wagon if you are Austin Powers. It has brought my family to multiple grocery stores, college visits and family fun road trips. It has even helped uswith moving our kids out into college dorms. An exciting, but sad day for us, now empty nesters.
Between all those family activities, it has been my wife’s car that will be forever ingrained with her touches, like the slightly torn seat edging from her “bedazzled jeans studs” or the plethora of air freshener pouches scattered throughout cabin to combat the sweaty and gross smells of children from sporting events … and lets not forget the radio station presets that I have no idea of how to change, but that’s okay, I have no gripe about having a variety of radio stations as long as there isn’t one set on smooth jazz. Who listens to that stuff? And now, the last leg of the van will serve as my Bee Mobile in which I’m already starting to add my own touches, such as the sweet smell of honey fames and sticky propolis on the doorhandles. I ask you, can you all relate?
A couple weeks ago my son came in for the weekend. It’s a rare occurrence, and even rarer when his weekend isn’t filled with catching up with his friends from the neighborhood. With thet emps in the 60’s, I wanted to break into the hives for the first big inspection of the year and also to prep them for the upcoming season, which included adding queen excluders, supers and culling out old frames, which we will talk about tonight. I asked Jake if he could give his old man a helping hand and I was delightfully surprised when he said yes. We loaded the Bee Mobile with enough supers to give 2 to each of the hive … about 20 or so, along with the variety of beekeeping tools.
We made 1 stop on our way out, a pine tree at the Target parking lot for needles to feed the smokers. How long will it take he asked? I said only a couple hours. I was way too optimistinc. 5 hours, 12 hives , 3 locations, and 2 strawberry shakes later, we were finally done. The remaining hives at my last apiary will just have to be tackled another day since the day was getting long and I was just plain too tired.
I heard a quote from a recent movie that I love, “No great idea ever happened without a dream.” Was beekeeping a dream for me, or is it even a great idea? How about for all of you? For me, I would say yes to some degree, but to have a small business was more of the dream … perhaps to sell a few bottles of honey, or even someday open up a honey shop like one of our members did in Lisle. Just like his willingness on that Saturday to help me in the hives, Jake volunteered at home with taking this beekeeping business idea on by building me an online store. He apparently did it right. Searching for honey in my area within google putsme near the top of the listings. Our little bee business was born. Thanks Jake, once again.
It was really nice to have him join me on that 60 degree day. Hesaved me hours of time, and strain on my back, but it was so much more than that. For a change, I had more of a companion other than my trusty Bee Mobile and those wifey preset stations. Instead of the airways being filled with DJ banter and overplayed tunes, it was filled with whatever conversation came to mind between us … along with the low rumble of the Bee Mobile’s failing exhaust system. Yes, we added a few more found memories to the old van, as well as few more clicks to the odometer, thanks Jake and beekeeping.