Ooops... Where did that month go?

I feel like I've been away from blogging for such a long time. Life has been full, Spring has sprung and everything needs to be done at once. I feel guilty sitting here tapping on the laptop when I should be doing so many other things, but this is my relaxation therapy, and today I need it.
The weeds will wait, the sourdough loaf is in the wood oven, that batch of cauliflower pickles will just have to wait, the cheese milk warming on the side of the stove will have to wait.
The important morning things have all been done, poultry all fed and watered, cows moved into a new paddock, the dogs have their bones, some meat is out of the freezer to defrost for dinner tonight, the Farm-gate stall opened, stocked up and ready for another day. A coffee now, and a scribble on the laptop is what I need.
To my blogging friends, apologies for being silent lately. I haven't been reading blog posts either, so my comments have been missing from your blog posts too. There aren't enough hours in the day.
We are working through each task, and it feels so good to tick off more new achievements. Some new experiences too, the unknown, which always feel daunting, but oh so liberating when it all comes off.
Ha! I had always imagined that life would be slowing down a bit at sixty, there would be no more big challenges, I'd be looking back, not forward. How wrong I was.

 A couple of months ago I wrote about our newest venture of offering bee hives for rental
 Brian made up three new bee boxes that we planned to use for the rental hives because we didn't ever intend to move any of our group of twelve hives. They are our base hives, our bread and butter, not to be divided and moved about.
Within a week of writing that blog, and sharing it onto various Facebook pages, all three Rental hives were reserved, deposits paid, and eager families were awaiting delivery.

 Sheralee and her two children organized a surprise Father's Day delivery for the Dad  in their family. Greg was a little speechless when we turned up early on Saturday morning with a bee box on the ute.

Brett and Danielle discussed the possibility of bee keeping before Danielle ordered a hive delivery for his birthday the weekend before.

Dan, who's father had kept bees on their farm when he was a young lad, was gobsmacked when his hive arrived early on Father's Day.
Truly, we had a taste of what it must feel like to be a florist, delivering lovely boxes of surprise to unsuspecting recipients.
During the next twelve months, Brian will visit each family's hive regularly, taking a spare bee suit for the person who wants to learn about beekeeping. After a year of working with their hive under Brian's guidance, they will have the confidence and skills to own and maintain a bee hive.
Some of the hives are booked up for next year already by folks who were not quite fast enough this time around. Time doesn't permit us to rent out more than three hives, we need to maintain our own hives too, plus run a farm.
It seems there are so many people out there who want to learn how to maintain their own bee hive but don't know how to get started. We know this now, after sharing my last blog post about the Bee-keeping Workshop on various Facebook pages.
Within three days that workshop was fully booked with nine people, to allow maximum interaction for each attendee.
More inquiries were coming in rapidly so there was an opportunity  to run another workshop on the following weekend.
So much for that quiet life I was talking about at the top of this post!
 I can now add  Head of Marketing, Functions Coordinator, Head Caterer, Assistant Facilitator to my other roles. Oh and "boss of cleaning up and getting ready for two functions in two weeks" should be in there somewhere too. How nice it will be to have the shearing shed (AKA Function Centre) all cleaned up and decked out with tables and chairs.
Not so exciting is my role of cleaning the outside loo! :(

Back to chopping up cauliflowers, onions, carrots and celery from the garden to make another batch of pickles.
The timer has sounded, the bread is ready.
Cheers and thanks for visiting. :) XX