The Golden Season

-Posted by Isaac

Best time of year in my opinion. The golden time.

For a while we had absolutely perfect weather. If Ohio was like this year-round, I'd have much more trouble finding something to complain about. (And I just don't know what I would do with all the extra time.)

What a wonderful string of late September days we happened upon. The goldenrod came on in full brilliance...

And I became very much a recluse in the bees.

The pollen traps went on...

 

And a month later they came off.

In between, we collected a freezer full of beautiful goldenrod / ragweed / aster pollen.

Gorgeous stuff. And this year, more of it then ever.

So much in fact, we were comfortable asking Whole Foods if they would like to sell it.

Yes! 

(You can find it at the Dublin store right now. Lane Ave. coming soon.)

Strong hives pull in a lot of pollen. And the hives are incredible right now.

Better bees then I've ever seen this time of year.

Of course strong hives also make a decent crop of fall honey.

Buckets and buckets!

And we're still at it. 

Mr. Blair has seen a month of long hard hours in the honey house.

(Without a single complaint I might add. Love that guy.)

Some of the honey has yet to be capped off.

Wax during the goldenrod season has a unique yellow tint.

But that's ok. We just fire up the drying room and get the moisture down to where it should be.
It makes for a hot time in the extracting room. I mean pure hellish drudgery.
Hey, Mr. Blair... not my problem!

I spend my days in the bees!

The last yard I pulled, I was visited by some curious bovine onlookers.
..."EAT MOR CHIKIN!"

"EAT MOR HUNY!"

"EAT MOR PUMKIN!"

"EAT MOR POLIN!"

So the busy days busied on. Beautiful weather one day after another after another. It felt like we lived on the Carolina coast.

Then, finally, came the rotten stuff. The rain and the cold.

So we high tailed it to the Carolina coast.

Ha Ha!
Yes, a vacation thrown in, right in the middle of our fall harvest made for some interesting complications. But we managed to endure through it.
And the kids were so sad to be out of school.

Beautiful beaches.
Beautiful babes.

Of course we had our obligatory share of mini golf. This was a first for the kids and they loved it. Not the golf so much, but all the other fun challenges you can invent with a golf ball.
Here's Bridger and the water chute:

And while we're on the subject of fun distractions, let me leave you with one last snapshot. We just returned from the Bob Evans Farm Festival in Rio Grande. The grand finale was a concert by Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. 

On the right is Ralph Stanley on stage in front of about a thousand admiring eyes:

On the left are the wonderful Barnes children.

Log rolling down the hill.