Ho Ho Ho

-Posted by Isaac

Ah, January. Time to relax a little. For you and us both... now that the fat-cat retailers and beekeepers have all your money. So hide that credit card and give us a break, will ya?!

As you can imagine, December is a busy time for honey, soap and candles. As stocking stuffers, they stay around a lot longer then Snickers bars, and quite possibly hold a bit more meaning. A thoughtful gift is what I'm saying. The markets were busy as well as the grocery stores.

Anyway, we hope you had a fun and fulfilling break. Here are a few pictures from our wonderful drawn out Christmas:

The tree-- easy for us these last few years. When we moved back to Ohio I planted 50 or 60 of these small pines for a future windbreak. They have yet to pan out as much of a wind stopper, but they're perfect for Christmas. 

Bridger only lost a few fingers on his first go at the chainsaw. Not bad!

Our honey crew is somewhat hit or miss during the holidays, so, needing help, I gave the kids a try at labeling:

As you can see, Mason will make a decent hand in the honey house...
...and Maizy gets a bright shining letter of recommendation sent to our honey competitors.

 Christmas day:

...and look who's first to the tree.

Mason can now be fearless around those bad attitude bees.

The freakish day-after-Christmas snow storm kind of caught us by surprise. I was only about half way done feeding fondant patties to the lighter hives.

It's nice to see snow stay around longer than a day.

But it wasn't so enjoyable on my way up to the last market of the year.
I skidded the honey-laden sleigh right through a fence! Forty minutes of cutting wires from underneath, revving back and forth, wallowing around in the dark put me back up on the road... a little worse for the wear.
Missed the early morning grocery store deliveries, but I still made it to the Worthington Market on time, by God! It was fun telling some of you my about my dashing and daring adventure.

Don't worry, the honey was fine. Although the bodies in the trunk were a bit jostled.

The snow is still around and we're taking full advantage of it.

The kids provide Jayne and I with plenty of exercise.

"Maizy" rhymes with what?

Crown Hill golf course, six miles south of us, is home to thirty-some of our hives. It also has some big, rich sledding hills.
We've had three exciting afternoons on this one. As you might guess, there were a few tears.

No chair lifts? What's up with that?

We hope you had a fantastic break. Thank you for making 2012 an awesome and pivotal year for us. We'll try to avoid that auld lang syne theme and remember our old acquaintances, our valued customers, our business ideals... where we were and where we're going. Thanks for supporting us.
And if I forget your name at some 2013 market, asking again for the third or forth time, please forgive me. I'm an idiot! That's all I can say... not an excuse, just a fact. Don't rub it in!

-Isaac