World's Sweetest Honey Capper Ever!!

He is sweeter than any honey you ever tasted!

You are going to love how he checks his work.

Just whistle while you work!

Here's a logical, okay, creative
method for boxing honey.

Both Seamus' focus and his cleanliness are impressive!



His happy heart blesses me and I was reminded of several appropriate verses.

. . . and a little child shall lead them. Isaiah 11:6

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Psalm 100:2

A merry heart is good medicine. Proverbs 17:22

Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.
Proverbs 20:11

Reporting Unbiased Test Results

This was an unsolicited endorsement—I promise you!

So What Could I Say? .

Here's the deal. My grandkids have figured out that I have a blog. They come up with ideas of things for me to post. I can't really blame them. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

What's a Grandma to do?

The paragraph above was my disclaimer. I am posting two such requests.

The first is a cheer co-written and co-directed and acted by our two girls and their conscripted co-hort buddy Seamus. I will just call it, Honey Cheer.




This next one was much much longer but I needed to edit so that it would post. I was given the title for posting . . . Hale's Lego Battle.




Okay, I am speechless. I am sure you are also.

Tricia Visits the Bee Yard

A Documentary
In a Six-part Mini-Mini-Series

Episode 1: Learning the Language

Episode 2: Fingering the Frame

Episode 3: The Nauseating Truth about Honey

Episode 4: Numbers Talk

Episode 5: Plan of Escape

Episode 6: A Final Hum Hymn



No participants in these reality videos
have previous acting experience
and they were not coached.

Credits

Beekeeper Bob as Himself
Tricia as Herself

Videographer and Producer

Additional credits
to anyone that actually viewed these videos.
You deserve a jar of honey!

Wouldn’t you just know it?

My sisters came for a short visit.

We ate dinner on Sunday evening at our home, ate popcorn, and watched a movie.

We walked at the park.

We had a fantastic breakfast with dear friends.

We visited four bee yards and tasted fresh honey from the comb, shopped at a bookstore and toured inside and out my former and much loved Chicago bungalow home.

We went to Ravinia—along with two dear friends and about a million other people—on a cold evening—settled five lawn chairs and a cooler onto a plot of grass large enough for two lawn chairs—among some drunk and loud talking attendees—got a brief peek of a monitor showing the singer—and went home early.

However, the weather was fantastic. We ate well, slept well, had good conversations, watched the hummingbird and laughed. There ought to be a highlight in there somewhere, don’t you think? One other thing happened. At 8:00 a.m., workmen came to work on the afore mentioned honey problem. I confessed to the sisters the whole sordid story.

While hugging our good-bys, Sister Lou mentioned that her highlight of the visit was getting to see and hear the honey disaster story. She reminded me with a smirk—because my mother is not here and it is the matriarch’s job— “You must slow down. Your disasters happen because you are in too much of a hurry.”

I love my sisters. I even like my sisters. They are wonderful comrades and confidents and friends. They really do far fewer stupid things than I. It does get embarrassing when they see firsthand another Big Woops!

As I worked with some students on their cinquain poetry today, I thought of my own.

Houseguests
Watching, “Why?”-ing
Smugly smiling and advising.
There’s no hiding!
Sisters

A Holy Life is one tough assignment!

At least once a year, I do something stupid having to do with hubby’s beekeeping hobby. This was last year's story. I suppose it is time to tell this year's story, although I had hoped to just skip it.

First, I must give a bit of background information. All honey granulates, or crystallizes eventually. Honey that has granulated has not gone bad. Raw local honey contains active natural enzymes and antioxidants and has inherent anti-fungal properties. Granulating does not effect quality but quality can be diminished if honey is not brought back to a liquid state properly. Pure honey can be preserved indefinitely but it must be heated at low temperatures to preserve all of the healthy properties of honey.

We have an oven that has a low warm setting. When our honey begins to crystallize, we warm our oven and let honey sit in it for about an hour or so and then turn the oven off. Even when the oven is on, the jars are never too warm to hold in my hand. That is how I choose to safely bring our honey back to a liquid state. Okay, that is all for the tutorial.

On June 5, I noticed that we had some honey that was beginning to crystallize. I was in a hurry but before I left for an errand, I decided to quickly get my honey in the oven and start to warm it. I know that I was running a bit late and I was hurrying. My eye was also bothering me and I did not have my contact in my left eye. However, I still do not know exactly what I did wrong.

I arrived home about an hour and a half later. As I pulled into the garage, I smelled burned honey and realized something was very wrong. I ran into the kitchen and saw honey leaking onto the floor. Everything happened quickly. I did not even look at the oven setting but quickly pushed the cancel button. I threw open the oven door and saw the bottles had broken, the lids had melted or blown up. I cannot think of words to describe the HUGE mess! I can only assume that I put the oven on Broil instead of on Warm. The thoughts raced through my head in seconds, immediately upon entering the kitchen, I thought, “Oh, no! I have ruined our hard wood floor and our stove!”

I needed to leave for the airport in 45 minutes to go pick up my hubby from a business trip to bring him home. I FLEW into action! The short story is that I got the floor cleaned up and the outside of the oven so that it was barely visible as one entered the room and went to pick up my beekeeper hubby.

As a travel weary Bob got into the car, he said with a sigh, “I sure do love you, Babe.”

I blanched and said, “It’s a good thing!”

As I told him the story, my very dear, good husband laughed. Seriously, he did! Am I blessed or what?

Well, I scrubbed and washed with vinegar and did the best that I could on the oven and then asked Bob if he thought it would be okay if I ran the “Self-clean” cycle on the oven. We agreed to give it a try. The first half hour was without incident and so hubby got on a conference call in his office and I ran out to do a couple more errands.

I was only gone for a few minutes when my cell phone rang and Bob said, “Where are you? Every smoke alarm in the house is going off!”

I hurried home. BTW, there were about 50 people on Bob’s conference call and many did not know that he was running the conference call from our house. When the alarms went off, the phone was on “speaker phone” and Bob calmly said, “Excuse me a minute, we have alarms going off in the office. Let me go check that out and I will be right back,” which is when he called me. After several minutes we disengaged all of the detectors (the smoke alarms and one of the carbon monoxide detectors) and opened doors and windows. Bob returned to his conference call explaining a “false alarm.”

The oven cleaned up well and looked good—inside and out—the house aired out and finally I could chuckle—a tiny bit over the experience.

We had guests three weeks later. One morning, our carbon monoxide detector went off at 5:30 a.m. We had to wake our guests and send them and their toddler and baby outside while the fire department came and checked out our carbon monoxide detector. No carbon monoxide was found in the house but the alarm had probably been damaged by the smoke three weeks earlier and just gave out at that inopportune time when we had guests.


Unfortunately that was not the end. On July 25th, I noticed a puddle of honey on our basement ping pong table. I cleaned it up and washed the boards above it and replaced a ceiling tile.

Sadly we were not done yet. Within a few weeks there was more honey so I rigged up an aluminum pan under the ceiling tiles to catch the dripping honey and emptied it from time to time. Surely, I thought it would dry up eventually.

But it did not. In mid August, we began getting honey drips from several more new areas. When I realized that, I decided the problem was too big for me to handle and again called on my hubby’s help.

So today, while my sisters looked on, two wonderful carpenters came over to move the oven, replace some flooring and deal with my honey disaster. They said, they have been called on for some odd jobs but this was a first for them.

Tonight, I’d like to say, “All is well! The honey saga is ended.”

But it is not. Some honey is underneath the hard wood floors. The carpenters believe that they have most of it cleaned up but have drilled a few holes in the basement ceiling above the tiles to let the rest of the honey drain out. I heard one man muttering about feeling so sticky it was if he had bathed in honey. I could completely empathize!

We will put up another aluminum pan. The honey seems to be in one localized area. A box of new ceiling tiles has been ordered.

My husband still smiles at me and he tells me he loves me. He is not an ordinary beekeeper, he is a Real Keeper!

One of the carpenters today quoted Gary Thomas from the book the Sacred Marriage, “What if God’s primary intent for your marriage isn’t to make you happy, but holy?”

I am thinking that Bob is sure getting holy. Poor guy, he had no idea that he was signing up for that thirteen years ago!

Bon Appetit Chez Dave

Tonight my sisters and I watched the movie, Julie and Julia. We loved it! The movie reminded me of my gourmet friends.

My friend, Michele, before 9-11, used to take her large chef's knife with her when she traveled because she loved to cook and never knew when and where there might be some chopping, slicing, or dicing opportunities. She was good and she was wickedly fast!

The passionate love of fine food and preparing and handling the food is foreign to me but romantic. I can't quite grasp it. Happily for me, I have friends that do get it and who on occasion encourage me to pleasure my palate by introducing me and educating me to the very best cuisine. Such was one experience recently.

It started with this beautiful couple and their stunning and elegant wedding. I told your that this subject is romantic.

And I must show you the Maid of Honor, gorgeous Rachel, (yes, who owns a horse,) because then you can observe the black and white with red accent color theme because this is about presentation as well as taste.

The colors were also carried out by Missy's Aunt Nancy and Aunt MaryBeth's attire as they sang a sweet duet.


Because I had a small part in helping with the wedding, my hubby and I received this invitation from the parents of the bride (gourmet chef and chief helper) and the brand new couple (striking and proficient servers) . . .


And when we arrived for our outdoor dinner party, the table was set like this . . .

The first course was a plated appetizer:

Poached Chilean Sea Bass,
Shallot & Shrimp Ravioli,
Pistachio Heirloom Tomato Sauce

and
96 Corton Charlemagne, white burgundy

We thought that was the main course.

It was so incredibly delicious!

And then came the Second Course

Salad

Oh, dear, I cannot remember anything about the dressing

and types of lettuce but as you can imagine, it was sweet and tangy and crunchy perfect!

Accompanied by

Dave's Homemade Potato Rolls

and
Whipped Honey Butter

I must stop right now and say, "Yum!"

Then came [Drum Roll]

The Main Course

Roast Beef Tenderloin
Veal Stock Cognac Reduction sauce
Grilled Asparagus
Truffled Gruyere and aged Cheddar Mac & Cheese

And let me tell you nothing like this melt in your mouth dish should ever have such a common name as
mac & cheese!
Plus
02 Lewis Cabernet Sauvignon

Dessert

Chocolate Mousse & Raspberry Cream Dacqouise

YUMMMMM!

Port – different styles

And once more . . . YUMMMMM!

The wines were chosen with care

As well as the ports—a brand new experience for me and one that would take some time for me to develop a taste and proper appreciation— but it was interesting to see how the port tasted vastly different swirled with a bit of chocolate mousse in my mouth.

Bon Appetit Chez Dave . . . that's what I call
Mastering the Art of Fine Cooking!