Scott and Lowell

We're doing our damnedest to prep the hive for our first winter and several times a week I have stress dreams about our bees. They are weak, we think, but we're doing everything we can to help them out. I say we think because this is our first time to see them prep for cold weather, and, for all we know, everything is happening how it's supposed to. What do know for sure, though, is that we have varroa mites and a couple of other issues we're combating.

My point is this: I'm off topic and should talk about the photo. I've had a lifetime of incidental knowledge of beekeeping and have never go after getting my own experiential knowledge until this year. Sadly, the bulk of this time has been without my late grandfather. His giving spirit lives on through a guy he mentored, Scott. And Steph and Jill and I have benefitted from him generously giving his time and knowledge to us as we pester him about probably really basic questions.

As a tiny way of trying to say thanks, I went up to help them do their late summer extraction and grabbed a couple of shots while I was there. I'd planned on shooting way more, but there was far too much work to be done.

This is Scott in the front and his bee business partner Lowell in the background. This is after we'd finished the work we could actually do that day.

Beekeeping is pretty awesome, despite the occasional sting.