Save the Date for 2013 Fill Your Own Bucket Day!

Glacier County Honey Company invites you and yours to join us for our 2nd annual Fill Your Own Bucket Day, at World Headquarters near Babb, Montana, on Saturday, August 10, 2013, from 8am-5pm.  We’ll be giving tours of the honey extracting plant, the hives, the wax rendering process AND selling honey for the lowest price of the year!

Here are the details:

If you bring your own (clean) containers, we’ll fill them with honey for you at a wholesale rate – ONE DAY ONLY, NO EXCEPTIONS.  Please do not show up the day before or the day after (or a month later, as happened last year) and ask us to honor these prices.  We pull all of our employees out of the field and change the setup on our entire extracting process for this one day in order to offer these prices, and that is only feasible for ONE day each summer.  Thank you in advance for understanding.

The price?  We’ll set it around August 1st, when we see what the market price for water white, raw honey is — we’ll announce it here, on our Facebook page, and on Twitter, at that time.  Or you can always email sales@glaciercountyhoney.com, fax 888-451-8669, or call 406-544-2818.

Last year, folks paid $2.65 per pound for containers under 20 pounds, and $2.45 per pound for containers over 20 pounds.  Pricing should be similar for 2013, but again, we’ll announce it by August 1.  There is a 60 pound per person limit, period.  That’s about a 5 gallon bucket’s worth.  If you are a business who needs wholesale honey, please contact us beforehand to discuss pricing, etc.  Fill Your Own Bucket Day is meant for our retail customers, only.

Capped Glacier County Honey in the frame, just waiting to bee extracted.

Frequently asked questions about the honey, answered: yes, the honey is 100% natural, pure, and raw.  Unfiltered, unheated.  The best sweetener for you on earth, and the best tasting to boot.  Our bees are tops, y’all, and our locations in pristine Glacier County can’t be beat.

Ok, those are the details.  Here is the fun: in addition to filling your own buckets, tubs, and jars — we had lots of customers getting ahead of their Christmas gifting with precious Mason jars to fill last year! — you’ll be able to tour the honey extracting plant, meet the bees if you’re interested, see how beeswax is filtered and transformed into candles, ornaments, and the like, and pepper #1 Beekeeper with all your most burning questions.

I’ve got a few for him, too.  Like, when are our kids going to be big enough to help with this event?  Hmmm.

Extracting honey the year we were married, at #1 Beekeeper’s family’s original operation, Chief Mountain Honey Company.  Did you know Chief Mountain Honey’s #1 Beekeeper, Bob Fullerton, is retiring from retail sales, and that Glacier County Honey Company is now handling Chief Mountain Honey’s retail accounts?  Details soon to follow! 

Extracting in the Warehome, which we built the year after we were married to house Glacier County Honey Company.  That’s Neil, one of our employees, above.

Rendering beeswax.

One last thing: wholesale prices mean CASH OR CHECK ONLY.  Please come prepared.

We’ll have all of our retail stock — honey, beeswax, and gifts — available, too.  Credit/debit is fine for those purchases, as long as the internet connection holds.

Directions are here.  Mapquest/Google are not reliable.  Print these before you leave home.  Without a booster, you won’t have cell service near World Headquarters.

Pick out your favorite hike on Glacier National Park’s stunning best/East side and save the date – we look forward to seeing y’all!  Saturday, August 10, 2013.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

May 11, 2013: What We Saw in Glacier National Park

At long last, the road to Many Glacier is not only plowed but open!  As I mentioned in my latest post, last weekend I got the medical go ahead for four days near Babb, the longest I have been home since January.  To say I was thrilled is the understatement of the decade, and I was also protective of my time with Honeydew and Maggie Rose.  I didn’t even tell my best girlfriends in Glacier County that I was eastbound.  I know they understand.

Saturday morning brought sunshine and sparkle, so we headed for our favorite spot: Many Glacier.

After our arrival, we wandered down to the water’s edge, and gazed at Mt. Gould and the Angel Wing.  You can’t see it from this picture, but I wonder about the snowpack in the Grinnell Glacier basin – the Salamander Glacier is already clearly defined, and I feel like it should still look like it’s merged with Grinnell.  Hmm.

We continued our gawking, pausing to admire the Swiftcurrent complex and Mt. Wilbur/the Heavy Shield.  I love the Blackfeet name for Mt. Wilbur, and am bringing it back, people!

The water is gushing out of Swiftcurrent, by the way.

Of course, Maggie Rose wanted to climb all four flights of stairs at the hotel.  Celebrating my 33rd week of pregnancy, I passed on that particular adventure.

“What do you want for Mother’s Day?” Honeydew asked me on the way home.  While I was laughing at this clear admission that he had no plan, I replied, “To see a moose, of course!”

And of course, not thirty seconds later, what did we see on the side of the road?

Hi, buddy.  Those are some nice antlers you’re growing there.  Have a nice summer.  I’ll be back soon, with another baby who will love your backyard, too.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

there’s no place like home

As many of you know, in order to keep Baby Beekeeper #2 safe in utero, I’ve spent the vast majority of the past five months over the on west side of the Divide.  I’m grateful for the opportunity for exceptional health care for myself and our baby, even if occasionally snowed under by “why me?” thoughts.

Happily, the “why me” blues have been few as of late, between the stroke of July-like weather we’ve experienced on both sides of the Divide in the last few weeks, and the fact that this past weekend, my doctors gave me the go ahead for a four day sojourn at the Warehome!  It was longest I’ve been home with Honeydew and Maggie Rose since early January.

And it’s true: there’s no place like home.

I like to think that the first semi load of bees, who arrived home from California on Sunday evening, feel the same way.

The truck arrived unscathed!  And for a few nights we’ll sleep deeply again, unplagued by thoughts of 10 car pileups and other hazards of interstate commerce.  Until the next load is on the road, of course.

The nets come off the trucks …

And with these unseasonably warm temperatures, the bees are hanging out at their entrances and ready to fly!

Honeydew unloads the pallets of bees from the semi via forklift.

The bees will sit in the mega holding yard for a day or two, waiting to be dispersed all over Glacier County, and the borders of Canada and Glacier National Park.

These hives ended up in our home yard, in the Big Field, just east of the Warehome.

Aren’t they gorgeous?

We have another 2 loads of bees to unload later this week, so the truck got right back on the road to California.  Safe travels to Tom, our driver, and our girls.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  Some photo credits to Travis Looney.  All Rights Reserved.

 

rainbow over Chief

I know what it means to my heart.  If you read this blog, I bet it means something to yours, too.

Happy Monday.

2013. Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

May 5, 2013: What We Saw in Glacier National Park

The winds didn’t howl without ceasing, and the snow didn’t fall at anywhere near the rate of winter 2011.  The satellite dish stayed affixed to the roof, as did the stovepipe.  I didn’t have to dig myself out of a ditch once.

But still, winter in Montana is Winter.  And I’m glad to see it go.

Yesterday, Pseudo Sista, Maggie Rose, and I bid winter a fond farewell by walking up the Going-t0-the-Sun Road from Avalanche a few miles.  It was cool in the mountains, and especially in the shade, but we felt downright celebratory as we examined the buds on the trees, the liquid cerulean of thawed McDonald Creek, and the other assorted minutiae of spring.

Arriving at a bend in the road that afforded us a staggering view of the Garden Wall, we observed the massive amounts of snow and ice and sent our warmest thoughts to the road crew faithfully digging out the upper reaches of the Sun Road.

Maggie rode in her stroller at times, pushed it at others, and at one point put her full heart into running pell mell down the center of the Sun Road with her Nat Nat/Pseudo Sista.

Her unbridled energy and enthusiasm cemented spring’s arrival for me – it’s not just about the big melt and warm sun on aging bones and chilled plants.  Spring is about young things.  And as the sun and the road crew chip away at winter’s fingernails, dug so deeply into the high country, I will revel in showing my oldest all the delights of the tiny border between spring and summer in Glacier National Park.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

Glacier County Honey Co. + Hiking for Diabetes

Chances are good that you know someone who is managing diabetes  - it affects 8.3% of the population.

Well, if you didn’t before, now you do.  Please meet T.J. Fallon, an insulin dependent Type 1 Diabetic who plans on hiking about 250 miles in Glacier National Park this summer in an effort to raise awareness about diabetes.  Glacier County Honey Co. is impressed by his mission, so we’re helping to sponsor his cause, and he’ll be hiking with our honey stix.

T.J. is 33 years old and a resident of Kalispell.  He has been successfully managing his diabetes for 18 years now.  If you’d like to learn more about his cause, T.J. has a great website – check it out here.

Good luck, T.J.!  We’ll hope to bump into you on the trails this summer.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  Photo credits to T.J. Fallon.  All Rights Reserved.

 

announcing a new retailer in Great Falls!

Great Falls fans, A Healthy Horizon picked up our honey over the winter!  Their new location at 824 2nd Street South, on Machinery Row, just a block off 10th Ave South, is beautiful.  I felt more zen just walking through with their order.

Here’s a picture they sent me a few weeks ago of our raw honey at their place.

Mmmmm.

Gitchu some.

Hours — Monday through Friday, 9-6.  Call 406-268-8480 for more info.

Also: if you want to read more drivel about how one of us feels about being in small business with the other, Great Falls Tribune writer Jenn Rowell featured Glacier County Honey Co. on her Made in Montana blog yesterday – check it out!

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

 

Seasonal Subterfuge

A guest blog giving y’all a glimpse of Glacier National Park from Brother Dear:

It’s that time of year.

It’s muddy.  Sometimes it feels like spring, but that sensation is camouflaged by 70+ mph winds. snow flurries, and  days below freezing.

But things are coming back to life all the same.  Mom’s flowers are poking up wherever Bingo declined to bed down from the wind.  My hop plants are poking their first green tendrils through the snowdrift by the cabin.  The loons just arrived to retake control of Gretchen’s Mirror from their most hated enemies: every other living thing.  Seriously, they are are very serious about being the only birds on the water.  That’s okay because waking up to the unmistakably haunting and warbly cry of the loons is far superior to walking through clouds of goose poop.

Despite these telltale signs of the slowing evolving spring, there is something missing.  A right of passage every decent Babbylonian anticipates all winter long- an event pined for up till the moment of its inception.  I speak, of course, of the first annual trip to Many Glacier.

Unfortunately, the National Park Service has not yet opened the road.  It is one of my biggest pet peeves that they do not release any useful information regarding the status of opening the road.  It is my understanding that there are internal rules requiring the gates to remain closed until the third weekend of April in order to allow the elk unmolested access to the returning vegetation as they recover from a long winter.  That’s fine (although apparently the elk on Two Dog Flats don’t get such royal treatment).  I walked the road (what is left of the poor thing, anyways) yesterday with three stalwart friends and ran into a fellow who is working on the Many Glacier Hotel.  He informed us (from the warmth of his pickup truck) that the park service was delaying the opening of the road (to us tourons) due to “forecasts of snow” in the next week.  C’mon.  It snows every month of the year here.  Open the gates!  Or give us a date that you will!

Or at least give just me the code.  I won’t share.  Promise.

Update: The road to Many Glacier opened late yesterday afternoon, not long after Brother Dear emailed us this blog.  I thought it was too good not to share, regardless.  And yes, it snowed another 6″ last night near Babb.  See you on the Many Glacier Hotel porch for cocktails soon!

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All rights reserved to Sanford Stone.

 

head ‘em up, move ‘em out: moving bees from California to Montana

Move ‘em on, head ‘em up,

Head ‘em up, move ‘em out, 

Move ‘em on, head ‘em out Rawhide! 

Set ‘em out, ride ‘em in 

Ride ‘em in, let ‘em out, 

Cut ‘em out, ride ‘em in Rawhide. 

Rounding up bees to move from Northern California to Northern Montana isn’t quite like rounding up cows.  But we still like to sing Rawhide! when we’re doing it.

On Friday evening, Honeydew, Travis, and Neil went out to one of the holding yards to “round up” some of our hives, twirling their custom miniature ropes as they approached.

I kid.

It’s best to load bees in the darkness, after they’ve all come home for the day and are gathered around the Queen, answering her questions about the day’s activities.

How did the manzanita nectar taste today, Sally?  Did you pick up any blue pollen, Lita?  Is the peach bloom on track, Dolly?

Perhaps my imagination is too active at times.

At any rate, the crew used the forklift to place the first load of bees on the beds of the flatbed pickups, opened up a vein swiped the VISA for two last tanks of California diesel, and headed north and east at dawn.

They stopped for the night in Jackpot, Nevada, essentially the halfway point between Palo Cedro, California and Babb, Montana, and apparently had a fun evening.  I didn’t ask too many questions about that part of their journey — the name “Jackpot” should tell you all you need to know about this little Nevada border town.

Sunday, they crossed the Montana line with joy, but knew they were driving into a fairly significant spring blizzard.

I ran the winter storm intelligence operation from my laptop, scrutizining weather and road maps and asking our Facebook fans to weigh in on the road conditions the heavily loaded trucks and trailers would soon encounter.  Thank you to everyone who provided intelligence!

They arrived in Browning about 6:30pm, reunited Neil with Pseudo Sista, unloaded the hives onto a foot or so of fresh snow, and arrived near Babb as darkness fell.

I bet those hives are wondering what in the heck happened in the last 48 hours.  It was about 9F near Babb this morning.

Welcome home, girls!

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co..  All Rights Reserved.

 

Maggie Rose: 23 months

As regular readers know, I occasionally use this blog in place of Maggie’s non-existent baby book.  Mother of the year, right here.  No baby book and exploiting my child on the internets, all in one fell swoop!  

Maggie Rose, you are 23 months old.  I cannot believe that you will be 2 next month, but since I am 8 months pregnant, I am thrilled by your upcoming birthday, as it gives me an excuse to bake you a cake!  Pregnant women need cake, Maggie Rose.  You’ll like it, too.

You are huge, over thirty pounds and off all the pediatrician’s charts.  Your size doesn’t always work to your advantage, as people often think you are a lot older than you actually are, and expect quite a bit from you.   You still have porcelain skin, blonde hair, and forget-me-not blue eyes that constantly remind me of your Chuck, and your great-grandmother Ivey.  Despite this obvious resemblance, at times Daddy and I are still mystified by your genetic expression.

It seems that you learn a new word or two every day, but mostly you repeat to me, from morning till night-night, the following:  ”Woof -Woof? Daddy? Woof-Woof? Nan? Woof-Woof? Chuck? Woof-Woof? Nat Nat? Woof-Woof?”  You love your doggy, Maggie Rose, and there is no escaping those genetics.

You love your books, too, whether I am reading them to you or you are sitting quietly, thumbing through them.  It makes me happy to think that you might love reading as I do, the chance to escape daily to places you’ll never go and people you’ll never know.  I think reading is every bit as magical as any ole rabbit popping out of a hat.

This morning, I took you to preschool for the very first time.  You didn’t want me to leave, and you cried.  After dropping you off, I walked into my office, surveyed the piles of paperwork awaiting my attention, and cried, too.  I love to work, and my part of our honey company is something that defines me just as being your mother defines me, but despite my relief at the prospect of five hours of uninterrupted time to work, I was sad.  I know the time that I am the center of your universe is so very short.

But it’s out of love for you, too, baby girl.  I want you to be unafraid of a world without Mama, because I won’t be here forever, and if I continue to make the occasional dumb decision about rivers and mountains, forever might be awfully short, indeed.  I want you to make friends, too.  I am almost 33 and still find there is nothing quite as satisfying as making a new friend; even just the prospect of one cheers me considerably, and makes me feel like a vital part of the human race.  I don’t believe we are ever too old to make new friends or learn new things.  I do believe that making new friends and learning new things keeps us young even when we are very wrinkled and stooped.

So, I hope you learn to enjoy these spring mornings of new hands to hold, new brands of applesauce to taste, new art supplies to mangle.  They’ll pass quickly, and we’ll soon be back in Glacier County, with Daddy, and Brother or Sister, and the bees.

I love you, my little schmoo.

Mama.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.