Best made plans are….

Often just that, best made plans. Sometimes you just need to shuffle on to something else. And why do I mention that today, you ask? Well, our original topic for discussion “the Brain” is being put on hold so we can talk about something else this week (and no, I am not talking about the terribly embarrassing /humiliating NY Yankee loss in the baseball playoffs to the Houston Astro’s, not just a loss to them but a complete sweep, as in 4 wins Astro’s, zero wins Yankees…that kind of loss)! No, not that. What I would like talk about today is the Honey Bee. You know, the good ones. And yes, they do make honey, which honestly doesn’t do a lot for me as I don’t really use it or add it on top of anything, but what they really do is pretty much save this home we know as planet Earth on a daily basis by doing their “pollination” thing and allowing many plants and crops to thrive, which in turn feed us, which in turn keeps us going, etc., etc., etc. Pretty sure you get the point.

So that all said, where am I going with this? Well, it just so happens that we had a little storm come through the other day and low and behold, a large oak tree limb ended up snapping off and falling to the ground. Not the end of the world and I figured I’d just go out after the rain subsided, cut it up and put it aside till I could bring it on down to the recycle/mulch place. Mind you, this was the day after our 3rd Covid booster shots (and we got the flu shot as well) so we certainly were not feeling at our best. At this point and ever since that second overall shot, the day after is typically a little rough so we tend to just build that into the schedule now. Anyway, I digress and when I did eventually get outside to look at the fallen limb, and much to my surprise, the broken end was completely hollowed out (kind of explained why it snapped off the way it did) and inside that end was a very thriving Honey Bee hive with many active workers doing their swarming thing but certainly not being aggressive or anything (of course I didn’t press my luck by getting up in their space and all). As you can probably tell from above, I do have a lot of respect for the Honey Bee and certainly give them a lot of props….but having them live on the front lawn in a downed tree limb was going to pose as a problem, so I did what anyone would do in such a situation, started Googling for Bee handlers, experts, relocation teams, animal control, anything that mentioned Bees! And with the caveat, they needed to be local or this would all be a waste of time. Turns out, good Bee people don’t grow on trees and the first few phone calls never really got me anywhere but I don’t tend to give up on things and actually had little choice here since I was definitely not planning on buying a Bee keeper suit and helmut and dealing with this myself, so….I keep trying. Finally, I did indeed find a Bee Keepers association and this in turn led me to a few names of folks in this end of the state. One of these, George M., while not that local, turned me on to a place called The Bee Barn, with Chuck, who runs this Beekeeping supply store and was local, who gave me the number for Steve, who in fact, does keep his own Bees and was more than willing to help out. And Steve was so knowledgeable about Honey Bees, I honestly felt like I took an entire course on them, mind you, in a very short period of time, for which, I was extremely grateful (and it just increased my respect and admiration for the Honey Bee so yay on all counts)! Anyway, Steve was able to cut the tree limb up, get the main section of hive into one of those Bee hive box things that Beekeepers tend to have and it is currently in the front yard with a small hole on top to allow any and all of this hive to join the rest of the group and then be relocated to a new home. Fingers crossed that they survive this ordeal and go on to greener pastures (couldn’t resist). Even got a bit of honey out of it!

Time to get back to the Pulp Porch and exterior finish out. Believe we’ll be doing an inventory thing next week so will return with todays previously planned blog in two weeks. All for now!