Friday, September 5, 2014

New Beginnings and New Homes

The planting has begun! The recent rain has allowed the farmers to begin growing again. We planted green beans, tomatoes, chives, peppers, bok choy and beets. It was good, grueling work. 

Burning dry plant material for fertilizer

We're praying that the rain comes back so that the fruits of our labor can be harvested! The bok choy has already started to germinate- surely a good sign! It truly is amazing how well things grow in the soil here. We actually had to weed out things like taro and papaya trees. 

We've also been doing a good amount of work trying to expand one of the upper apiaries. A few days ago, we transported bees from the home apiary up there at night. For me, a mere neophyte when it comes to all things bee related, it was pretty tense! During the day, we bees from several hives into two foot hives so that they would fit in the car. When the sun set, that's when the fun started. It's dark, so you have to use the flashlight to see what your doing but the bees are very attracted to the white light. They fly towards it and then cling to you until they find an opportunity to sting you. We smoked the hives so that all the bees would fly into them and then wrapped them up with a sheet so that they wouldn't come out and sting us on the bumpy car ride to their new home. It was a pretty quick process and I think pretty thrilling at least for my easily excitable personality. 

The following morning, we brought the larger hives up to the apiary and transferred the bees from the two foot hives into these. 

The car was packed so Ann and I got to know each other a bit more intimately

Altogether, it went pretty smoothly. Hopefully the bees adjust to their new home quickly. 

We built hive stands so that more hives can be brought up there and this morning, planted them in the ground. It was an excellent workout and I still feel those good old endorphins pumping! And tonight we will be transporting more bees! 

I can't believe it's already been four weeks. Craziness! I find myself already cataloging all I will miss about this colorful, crazy island. There is much to be sure and I hope to explore even more in these next two weeks. 

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