Written to This Desert Life by Counting Crows
There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know. The keeping of bees, for instance.
- Henry David Thoreau
Seven months to the day of publishing Bees in my Bonnet, my ode to suffering 100+ bee stings back in March, I made my inaugural debut as Fazenda Alheim's new bee caretaker, together with our energy-bomb of a neighbor, Izilda, this time clothed in an Ultra Breeze® beekeeping suit, a ventilated and sting-resistant beekeeping suit and gloves, courtesy of my sister Paula, who doubles as my personal shopper (non-pejorative). The work, which took a couple of hours, and involved checking each bee box and even rebuilding an empty bee box with bees from a particularly robust box, was very interesting, though hardly peaceful, as Lone described it. Boxes 11-20 have recovered well since Izilda last visited, and the bees were quite aggressive. In total, I suffered only a handful of stings, primarily when I bent my arm and the suit clung too closely to my bicep. I will also have to remember to wear a ski cap next time in order to avoid the protective hat touching the nape of my neck when I bend over to inspect the boxes. Considering that each box can contain as many as 100,000 bees, we were surrounded by approx. 2 million bees…awe-inspiring and almost incomprehensible, but also pretty cool. Izilda and I will return on October 30th to harvest six-eight boxes of golden honey. Yummy!
I would have liked to take pics of my debut as Fazenda Alfheim's beekeeper in residence, but given that my hands were otherwise occupied, not to mention about twice their natural size and half their natural nimbleness owing to my protective gloves, you will have to settle for this YouTube reference (part 1 & 2).
On a related note, the massive amount of sugar cane, which Esben planted on pasture 3, together with our workers, of course, is growing well, providing us with a natural option for feeding the bees next winter if feed proves limited for whatever reason. We figured this out when we noticed that a handful of bees descends each morning on the feed troughs where we feed Mausolus and the ladies a tasty blend of shredded sugar cane and napier or elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) after milking (not Mausolus, of course…that would be more than a little awkward).
In addition to my amazing bee suit and gloves, my sister Paula also recently sent me 1 lb of Ethos tea, a blend of Organic Fair Trade Chamomile, Organic Fair Trade South African Rooibos, Organic Mint and Organic Honeybush, from my favorite online tea shop, Art of Tea. Can't wait to try it as it combines three of my favorite teas: chamomile, mint and rooibos.
In that same package Paula also sent me a couple of pieces for our replacement ice cream maker (to replace the one whose motor burned out when persons who shall remain nameless, a bit like Lord Voldemort, plugged the brand new 110 volt machine into a 220 volt plug). The whole process is like something out of a John le Carré spy novel (I will receive the complete ice cream maker over 3-4 shipments). She also included the coolest little pig pen drive with another couple of hundred photos from the Hesketh family reunion, including our own special Welcome to Rio de Janeiro for our Canadian and American guests -all of whom decided to skip the Marvelous City this time around- replete with our very own nearly two meter tall Christ the Redeemer, aka Johannes, Joho, Chicken Boy and Bro. Needless to say, you had to have been there...
And while our extended family returned to their respective homes, general direction north, Jeff (caught here scarfing some delicious Fazenda Alfheim piglet prepared by Suzanna) and Suzanna returned to Brazil to work for a couple of years! Yeah! Lone met them first on a Friday, September 30th, and then we all went to dinner the next day, Saturday, at Rodeio (always good…and, yes, Johannes, Esben and Pelle, that's why my job is SO MUCH BETTER than yours…SO MUCH BETTER!), followed by a marvelous free concert on Sunday at Sala São Paulo. An altogether spectacular weekend. Best of all, Jeff and Suzanna will join us at Fazenda Alfheim for Christmas 2011!
Ronja Rövardotter, our house cat, has taken to advanced exploration and challenging far larger mammals than dumb (Negão), dumber (Muninn) and dumbest (Layla…sorry, Melissa).
My various body parts appear to be recovering well from surgery, particularly my clavicle. That said my doc has told me not to expect a full recovery before the six-month mark, but I have begun exercising gently on an elliptical cross-trainer. In a word: encouraging.
On Monday, Lone departed for Denmark, where she will spend 18 days visiting family, including our boys, who will make a weeklong cameo, this time accompanied by her new iPod Touch, on which I installed Skype and SkypeAccess. Should be fun.
Finally, I wanted to share the following two videos of George Carlin: the first, The American Dream, a raw, uncensored routine dealing with the suddenly-again-topical theme of class warfare. The second, Modern Man, a cleaned-up-for-network-television, four-minute routine of pure genius that has to be seen to be believed. Both are must-see TV.
