cow pollinater
Well-known member
My wife and I went to see a neighbor who has had a series of strokes and doesn't have much time left. I waited out front and chatted with his family as I knew him well enough to know that he would be fine with my wife seeing him in weakness but not me as he was kind of a recluse but she had taken him meals fairly regularly for a number of years and my relationship with him was always him approaching me about farm stuff even though I've known him literally all of my life.
Earlier in life he had been a commercial beekeeper at a time when it was more of a labor of love than it was profitable. When he and I did talk we discussed bees a lot as I'm also a beekeeper but not on his scale in either the bees or the knowledge.
His place is organized. Not really tidy or clean but everything in place. He lives in an older home that sits on ten acres of farm ground that hasn't been farmed in a decade. The filaree, fiddleneck, and mustard grow right up to the back porch and wrap around to the front side and have even taken over part of the driveway and they're all in full bloom.
I sat there on the mule while I waited watching the bees crawling all over the "weeds" in his front yard. I could hear them coming and going. I saw cordovans, some regular italians, some darker carni type bees and I was watching where they were all going when they left with a load of pollen and kind of had it figured out which bees were headed which way. I saw my bees and another neighbors bees and some commercial bees coming from somewhere south of me. I had the commercial bees figured as being from an almond block about a mile away. I kind of forgot where I was and why I was there for a while.
My wife came out with his daughter and they were chatting and the daughter was saying that he had to be lonely just sitting there by himself all the time watching the weeds grow but that's what he said he wanted so they let him do it.
I thought to myself then that lonely is just a matter of perspective.
Earlier in life he had been a commercial beekeeper at a time when it was more of a labor of love than it was profitable. When he and I did talk we discussed bees a lot as I'm also a beekeeper but not on his scale in either the bees or the knowledge.
His place is organized. Not really tidy or clean but everything in place. He lives in an older home that sits on ten acres of farm ground that hasn't been farmed in a decade. The filaree, fiddleneck, and mustard grow right up to the back porch and wrap around to the front side and have even taken over part of the driveway and they're all in full bloom.
I sat there on the mule while I waited watching the bees crawling all over the "weeds" in his front yard. I could hear them coming and going. I saw cordovans, some regular italians, some darker carni type bees and I was watching where they were all going when they left with a load of pollen and kind of had it figured out which bees were headed which way. I saw my bees and another neighbors bees and some commercial bees coming from somewhere south of me. I had the commercial bees figured as being from an almond block about a mile away. I kind of forgot where I was and why I was there for a while.
My wife came out with his daughter and they were chatting and the daughter was saying that he had to be lonely just sitting there by himself all the time watching the weeds grow but that's what he said he wanted so they let him do it.
I thought to myself then that lonely is just a matter of perspective.