I [Heart] My Life: Guest Posts

May 29, 2014

Making Sense of the Nonsensical

It goes without saying, I'm not the only one heartbroken over my dad's cancer diagnosis. He has a whole community grieving now, but more than that, I have two younger brothers. We've been through a heck of a lot together, and I cannot imagine facing any of this without them. Today I'm posting, with his permission, a letter my youngest brother, Kyle, wrote to our family recently. ~April

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Life is not fair.

Growing up I heard these four words often. When my soccer team lost. When my brother got to do what he wanted and I was left behind. When I had to dress nicely for holidays when I would have much rather run a-muck in the woods. Whenever disappointment came knocking and things didn’t go my way. “But, why?” I would ask. “Repeat after me,” Dad would say, “Life is not fair.”

Even now I hear the words every day. Still in my Dad’s calm, soft spoken way, only now they are generally in my head. Thoughts, echoes from years gone by, the words are just as true today as they ever were. There are many things beyond my control that conjure up these words, but more often than not the reason I am thinking them is cancer. Dad’s cancer.

Dad’s Cancer. The very words are hard to write, harder still to speak. My Dad has cancer. How can it be? This man that almost never took a sick day. This man that lead his volunteer fire department for 30 plus years. This man that has been an everyday hero to so many in our community, a symbol of strength and leadership. This man that embodies hard work and self-discipline who worked long weeks for a major worldwide corporation for years and still found the energy to run a successful small business and farm on the side. Who provided for our family despite ups and downs at work and at home. Who taught me that if you work hard enough anything is possible, as well as the importance of taking time to enjoy yourself every now and again. This man who battled back from a bleed in his brain, and the resulting brain surgery. Who fought to talk clearly again, function normally when the doctors were not sure if he ever would. This man who survived a grand-mal seizure less than a year ago and was unresponsive in the hospital for nearly a week. Who refused to lie idly in the hospital and got scolded by the nurses for wandering the halls. This man that has never been known to drink more than one beer in a sitting, who has hiked nearly every day of his life, who has done everything they say to do to live a long and healthy life, this man has cancer? How can it be?

Yet I know how. I know the answer before I even ask the question. Life is not fair. The words play and replay in my head, haunting me with their simple truth.

Even now in the face of all this, Dad is working hard, showing us what strength is. Never touting his accomplishments, just quietly teaching us what to do when life gets hard. He is undergoing Chemotherapy, poisoning himself in an attempt to slow the growth and spread of the cancer. He is buying time for us. Time to spend together, time to tie up loose ends and make things right. Time to see to unfinished business. And time for us to make our peace with it. How much time do we get, nobody knows. We are hoping if Dad continues his track record of being an outstanding, resilient, tough SOB, we’ll get a year or more.

And yet more time, that’s all we want. More time for family, for love and friendship and togetherness.

My Dad has cancer and life is not fair.

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Kyle Johnson and his wife Whitney are incredibly talented, which includes both being
professional foresters. They recently left a big garden, 20 chickens, 3 honeybee hives, and a handful of fruit trees in landlocked Montana to move closer to both Kyle and Whitney's families. Like fish out of water (moose out of the forest?), they are now getting their bearings in the coastal rainforest of Coos Bay, Oregon. You can read about their Big Sky adventures on their blog: The Birds and the Bees. From hunting and butchering venison, to canning and preserving garden vegetables, to beekeeping and chicken farming, with a little responsible forestry thrown in on occasion, it's a great read. Take a moment and check it out! (Also, Kyle was a guest blogger here a year ago where he wrote about beekeeping in an urban environment.)

Also, check out Whitney's hand made jewelry and all natural lip balms at her website Montana Wild Designs.

Posted at 02:07 PM in From Patient to Caregiver, Guest Posts | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 17, 2013

Bees in the City: 4 Steps for Getting Started With Beekeeping

Today we have the second part to yesterday's guest post from my brother, Kyle, who is both a tremendous writer (The Birds and the Bees) but also a bee-keeping hobbyist in Montana. Kyle is here this week to answer some questions about beekeeping -- and to ignite the fires of inspiration! Enjoy! ~April

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Bees in the City, Part 1: Are You Ready for a New Hobby?

Part 2: 4 Steps for Getting Started With Beekeeping

Step 1: Get some bees.

There are a couple of ways to aquire honey bees. You can buy them or you can collect a swarm.

I was lucky enough to have a swarm come to me, but that doesn’t happen very often. If you’ve come to know a few beekeepers in your area, they are probably your best source for bees. Talk to them and see if any are willing to sell you a colony, or if they are splitting a colony they might sell you a nucleus hive. A nucleus or “nuc” is essentially half of a hive with frames, brood and bees. They may even be willing to sell you a few bee boxes and take you along to collect a swarm.

Personally I prefer collecting swarms to any other option. Mainly because it’s the cheapest option and starting beekeeping is not cheap. Note, you can expect to drop a couple hundred dollars on supplies even before you’re ready for bees. Also, by collecting a swarm you know you are getting locally adapted bees from a colony that is healthy and productive. Finally, the act of catching a swarm and bringing home bees is hugely rewarding. If these options don’t work out, you can research bee suppliers in your area and order bees. They will arrive in a package in the spring time ready to be housed in a hive.

Step 2: Meet and talk to beekeepers in your area.

Step 3: Read.

READ READ READ. Beekeeping is a complex undertaking with far too many nuances for me to describe in detail here. Pick up some books, take a class and talk bees with people you meet. You’ll be amazed at the places it will take you and the people you’ll meet. I know I have been.

This brings me to my last point for this post:

Step 4: Know your local laws and ordinances regarding beekeeping, before you get started.

Unless you don’t mind being an “underground beekeeper”, doing a little homework before hand could keep you from getting into trouble. And don’t forget to talk to your neighbors. A brief chat about honey bees before there is a swarm in their backyard tree will go a long way, and may keep them from reaching for the can of Raid.

The bottom line is, if you want to keep honey bees, just do it. Jump in with both feet, and don’t be afraid to get dirty (and stung). That’s what I did, and it’s been a great experience!

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Kyle Johnson and wife Whitney are professional Foresters in Northwest Montana. They are avid hunters and gatherers, with a big garden, 20 chickens, 3 honey bee hives, a handful of fruit trees and two dogs on their mini farm in a very small town. Life is good for Kyle and Whitney with lots going on everyday. On their blog: The Birds and the Bees they enjoy writing about all their adventures from hunting and butchering venison, to canning and preserving garden vegetables, to beekeeping and chicken farming, with a little responsible forestry thrown in on occasion. Take a moment and check it out!

Also, check out Whitney's hand made jewelry and all natural lip balms at her web site Montana Wild Designs. Whitney's feather earrings feature hand-died feathers collected from our chicken flock (with no harm to the chickens), and all of the lip balms are made from our own beeswax! Enjoy!

Posted at 06:42 AM in Guest Posts | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 16, 2013

Guest Post: Bees in the City

It is with great joy I bring you a guest post today (my first ever!). This comes from my brother, Kyle, who is both a tremendous writer (The Birds and the Bees) but also a bee-keeping hobbyist in Montana. I know many of my friends are interested in learning how they might be able to keep bees in their own backyards. To this end, Kyle is here this week to answer some questions -- and ignite the fires of inspiration! Enjoy! ~April

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Bees in the City, Part 1: Are You Ready for a New Hobby?

Are you interested in getting more fruit and veggies from your garden this year?

Are you interested in the role pollinators play in our environment and food supply?

Do you like honey and love the idea of producing your own?

Have you heard of Colony Collapse Disorder and want to do something to help the plight of the honey bee?

In this rotten economy, maybe you’re simply looking for a hobby that can double as a home business...

No matter why you’re interested in beekeeping, one thing is for sure: you’re not alone. And as it turns out, that’s a very good thing.

Beekeeping is an adventure... and an education.

Crazy as it sounds, (at least at first) keeping bees in the urban environment is actually a better option than having bees in a strictly agricultural location.

For many farmers today the pressures to produce are so high they must rely on a wide array of chemicals to control the many pests that threaten their crops. Even farmers that market spray-free produce may be using crops that are genetically altered to kill pests on contact. While there are many chemicals at use in the urban environment as well, chances are they are not as highly concentrated. Also, large farms are monocultures meaning all the plants are the same age and species, and all bloom at the same time. This leaves the bees with nothing to eat except for that 2 -3 week window when a crop is blooming. In contrast, in the urban environment gardens and yards are blooming all season long, or possibly all year long depending on your climate. This gives the honey bees a vast array of blooms to harvest nectar from.

Since I first got started nearly two years ago, keeping honey bees has changed the way I look at many things from the food we eat, to the changing of the seasons, to chemical use and our local community.

Agriculture in the US today is nearly entirely dependent on the honey bee, which is not even a native species. It is said, one in every three bites of food on the average American’s dinner plate was made possible by the honey bee (and beekeepers).

The honey bee (Apis mellifera) originated in Europe and came to the Americas with the colonists along with many of the foods we commonly eat. There are something like 4000 native pollinators in the US also, but none produce honey. And while they do pollinate certain crops, they do not generally do so in enough numbers to support an agricultural operation.

While beekeeping was common on farms in the past, the shift away from family farms to corporate operations, and the population movement from rural to urban has led to a decrease in small scale beekeeping. Beekeeping, like farming shifted away from family based operations to large scale production based operations. However in recent years with the growing interest in eating locally and community based agriculture, many people are now becoming interested in beekeeping, and not just in rural areas. Urban beekeepers are becoming very active in our country and “Bees in the City” is a common topic for many town hall meetings and online discussion boards.

One of the great things about beekeeping is that it attracts people from all walks of life for any number of reasons.

In fact, the single best piece of advice I can give somebody interested in honey bees: meet a beekeeper and become friends. Join a beekeeping club, take a class, go to the farmer’s market and chat with a honey vendor. Having a beekeeping mentor will be invaluable if you decide that you want to take the plunge and get into honey bees.

Why is knowing a beekeeper so important? For several reasons: First off, honey bees are stinging insects. For many, being surrounded by tens of thousands of flying, buzzing insects with stingers is a very unhappy experience. No matter how much you may want to like honey bees, the only way to actually know if you can handle bees is to experience working a hive. Once you suit up and open a hive with the bees flying up and filling the air, chances are you’ll either love it or hate it. Either way you’ll know if you’re ready for the second fact of beekeeping: If you keep bees, you will get stung.

It’s a good idea to know if you are allergic before putting yourself this position. You’re new beekeeping buddy may not be happy if they have to take you to the hospital in the middle of a hive inspection. Let me take a moment to say that swelling, itching and discomfort around a sting are normal and not an emergency. For me stings are generally gone by the next day, but everybody reacts a little differently. Some people are extremely allergic to bee stings. Trouble breathing, light-headedness and extreme swelling are not to be taken lightly.

If you’re not uber-allergic and you don’t mind flying stinging insects, you’re ready to consider beekeeping. Tune in tomorrow for "4 Steps for Getting Started With Beekeeping."

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