This is not the post that was scheduled for tonight. Can I tell you why in my most exasperated and annoyed voice? It’s because hurricanes have no manners! No consideration for anyone’s plans or time lines. Do you hear that Debbie? You are an ill-mannered force of nature that completely messed up our back to school plans!
[aside: Lest I be an ill-mannered lout as well, let me take a minute to remove my tongue from my cheek. I’d like to express the very real gratitude I feel that hurricanes only cause stuff to be canceled out of caution and flood our property to a “don’t go walk without your boots level.” They never actually damage anything or cause real heartache. We’ve done enough hurricane clean up service projects for me to fully own how much “shifted school days” is a first world problem. I’ll take it over rebuilding my house.]

[back to shaking my fist at Debbie]

Today was supposed to be a First Day of School post, but we got an email Tuesday evening stating that because of the hurricane, school wouldn’t start until Monday the 12th. Corra’s Birthday. She had feelings about that, I can tell you. But here we are 4 days past the bad news and it’s fine. We all managed to re-calibrate and are pumped for Monday. One week from tonight I’ll tell you all about the first week of school. Then all about Corra’s birthday.

Today I’ll swap in a post I’m very excited about…Our first real Honey Harvest (with capital H’s because it’s a big deal). Last time we got honey it was because our hives died and that’s a terribly sad reason to have honey. This year our hive was so strong coming out of winter that they filled a honey super in early spring and a few more frames by the beginning of this month. But let me tell you all about it…

Phase one is getting the frames away from the bees. They do not go softly into that good night…yeah, no, that honey is theirs and they are fixing to fight you for it. Some brilliant bee keeper invented fume boards with a bee-safe, if not bee-friendly, spray that you spritz on the underside then put on the top of the honey super. The bees hate the smell so they move deeper into the hive, leaving the honey frames free to be snatched. The first time I did this, it was a disaster. I used way too much spray and my timing was just bad. It was an hour of extra battle that left me and probably 30,000 bees crankier than was necessary. This last time round, I learned and did things way better and it was delightfully calm and easy. Once the frames are in the house, the stickiness begins.

First you uncap the honey. Bees cover full cells with a layer of wax to indicate that the honey is done and ready for eating. It protects the honey indefinitely. We use a heated knife so that the comb stays intact and we can give it back to our bees the next season to re-use. Neil is way better at it than I am because he is patient enough to go super slow. Once both sides of the frame are un-capped they go into our extractor which uses centrifugal force to fling the honey out of the cells. Then we open the tap and get the honey. We still have to strain it and harvest the wax. But then the raw honey is put into sterilized jars where it will keep and keep until we yum it up. We got 11 quarts in the spring and another 4 quarts last week. Not too shabby for our first real honey harvest!

My favorite thing was comparing spring honey, which is like liquid gold to summer honey which is a more classic honey color. Both taste really light and floral, and I love them.