We are incredibly pleased to announce the arrival of our second born, Howard Stone Fullerton, earlier this week .  Howard weighed 8 lbs, 3.5 ounces and was 20.5″ long at birth, with a whopping 14.5″ noggin!  He is lovely in every way, but most  importantly, he was born with 290,000 platelets — well above the healthy minimum  – and without any indication of an intracranial hemorrhage or other bleed from the neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia that he triumphed over during his gestation and delivery.

To say that Honeydew and I are relieved is the understatement of the decade.  For the first time since I suspected I was pregnant, I am able to breathe deeply.  I am considering tattooing 290k on my forehead.  One day soon, I think I will write about Howard’s gestation for my fellow NAIT parents, but for now, we are spending most of our time in the NICU with Howard, where his platelet levels continue to be observed.  Holding him is the highlight of my life, just as holding Maggie Rose in the NICU was.  All of my happy receptors are almost filled: when Maggie Rose can meet Howard after his release from the NICU, we may keel over from the delight of it all.

Howard is named for my brother, Howard Hillhouse Stone, who died three weeks shy of his 20th birthday in a house fire at the University of Mississippi.  Nearly nine years have passed, and yet there are still days when I nearly pick up the phone to call him.  He is part of my life every day, and though Honeydew never knew Howard, he has been the head cheerleader for naming our son after my brother, even on days when I wasn’t sure I was emotionally ready to do so.  Giving me the courage to name our son for my beloved brother is the most amazing gift, and I am a lucky wife and mother to have Honeydew as my partner in my life.

My brother Howard was an even keeled person, quick to laugh, slow to judge, “cheerful in all weathers,” as Captain Call famously said of Deets.  He was named in part for my maternal uncle and grandfather, Virgil Howard Black Sr. and Jr., both kind and gentle farmers, and good men who taught me so much about what I think of as the “real world:” agriculture, family, dirt, and sunshine.

Howard’s middle name, Stone, is an equal nod to my paternal heritage and to Honeydew’s paternal heritage.  His grandmother, Elinor, was the youngest of six Stone sisters before she became a Fullerton, and she raised three handsome and accomplished sons, one of whom is my father-in-law, Robert Stone Fullerton.  I am a Stone by birth, and am proud to bestow my maiden name as my son’s middle name.

Howard means guardian or sheep herder.

Thank you all so much for your many well wishes and kind regards.  Our baby beekeeper is one lucky boy, in so many ways.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

Last week, to celebrate the last days of her reign, Baby Beekeeper took to the fields with Daddy for the first time, wearing a precious pink daisy printed bee suit her Grandma Sarah made for her 2nd birthday.  I could not believe that Daddy wanted to take her to work with him, as we were/are in the midst of potty training.  And in general, the attention span and patience of a 2 year old is famed, and for all the wrong reasons.  And bees sting.  And etc.

But Daddy is quite a guy.  And Baby Beekeeper is quite a gal.  And off they went, while I “baby mooned” with my mom, shopping for “antiques” (i.e. junk furniture for Baby Beekeeper’s new Big Girl Room), getting ahead of paperwork, stocking the freezer, setting up the nursery and doing all those last minute baby things massively pregnant women suddenly find imperative to accomplish.  Biology is a beautifully mysterious thing.  Hilarious texts from Daddy as the week wore on included: “being Mommy is hard.”  Thank you for providing a patch of calm before the storm, Honeydew.  Much appreciated.

Anyway, here are a few shots of Maggie Rose’s first day as a working gal.  She’s yet to be stung and can eat her weight in honey straight from the comb.

Arriving in the bee yard.

Helping Uncle T.

Very busy and important.

First lessons in hive tool-ery.

Is it lunch time yet?

She helped catch her first swarm, too.

We’re mighty proud of our girl.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

This spring, Bob decided to retire from the retail aspect of Chief Mountain Honey — though never from beekeeping! — and he passed the Chief Mountain retail torch to us.  We are so proud to offer honey under the label that Honeydew grew up with, a label that has enjoyed a 30+ year relationship with the folks who flock to Glacier National Park in the summertime and the folks who live here year round, too.

Under the Chief Mountain Honey label, we offer 12oz honeybears, 1# squeeze skeps, 2.5# tubs, and 5# tubs.  All of these containers are available for purchase at www.glaciercountyhoney.com, along with our Glacier County Honey stix, 8oz, 1#, 3#, and 5# squeeze bottles, and 12# and 35# buckets.

Chief Mountain Honey is also available all over Glacier County and Glacier National Park.  Please look for our “new” label at Thronson’s in Babb; the Leaning Tree and Two Sisters near Babb; Johnson’s and Park Cafe in St. Mary; Faught’s, IGA, and Glacier Family Foods in Browning; Albertson’s in Cut Bank; Glacier Park Trading Post in East Glacier; and more!   A complete list of our retailers is available here.

Here’s to the next generation!

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

Dandelions.  If you need a reason to leave them undisturbed in your yard, tell your neighbors how tasty the bees find them in late spring.  A very important food source for the girls!

Beekeeping is not like any other profession in this way: if we beekeepers are not quick enough to expand the size of our hives by adding what are called “supers” (the boxes that sit on top of the existing 2 boxes that make up the hive — they are called supers because they are for the storage of superfluous honey), our workers will say Sayonara and hit the trail.  There will be no meeting called for their union, or for upper management, to discuss the situation and its solutions.  They will simply round up their Queen and head for a roomier tree trunk to call home, i.e. they will swarm.

What this means for us: when Honeydew determines that the time is right for “supering” the hives, he doesn’t mean when the crew gets caught up on the candle pouring and the hive painting and the oil changing.  He means right then, and he intends to work until the work is done.  Beekeepers’ hours ain’t bankers’ hours.

So Honeydew and the crew spent the end of last week and half the weekend supering the hives.  And they look mighty purty now, all supered up, and so filled with promise.

May it be a good honey year.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

And Maggie loves to check on “her” bees.  She’s got a great bzzzzzzzzzzzzz noise, too.

While we were inspecting the gals on Sunday morning, we saw a worker hauling a huge load of bright red pollen.  Now, what in the world do y’all suppose that could be from?  It seems as though everything over here is currently in bloom, so it’s hard to say, but it sure makes for a pretty picture.

The bees bring pollen back to the hive, using pockets on the sides of their legs that Honeydew and I like to call their chaps.  The technical term is pollen basket.  According to Karl von Frisch, it takes a honeybee between 3 and 18 minutes to fill her basket.

On a related-only-in-the-craziness-of-my-mind-note, have y’all heard the new Pistol Annies song, Loved By A Workin’ Man?  This shot of Honeydew’s hands, endlessly abused in beekeeping, brings it to mind.  It’s a simple song that people who enjoy making fun of country music will probably have endless fun with, but it resonates with this country girl.

Other interesting observations from Sunday morning … they’re starting to make honey!

Uncapped:

Capped!

All of the equipment in this hive is brand new (some of our stuff is about 40 years old) and it’s been amazing to watch the bees create all that gorgeous wax comb – they start from scratch with new frames.

The queen lays her eggs in parts of the comb.  The workers store honey in some areas, and pollen in others.

See the pollen, stored in the comb?

The bees secrete flakes of beeswax from a special glands in their abdomens in order to form the hexagonal comb — hexagons being nature’s perfect, space saving shape, of course.  Researchers have estimated that bees have to fly about 150,000 miles — or about six times around the Earth! — to produce one little ole pound of beeswax.  In doing so, they’ll eat about eight times as much honey by mass.  What does that mean for beekeepers?  Roughly, for every 10 pounds of honey we harvest, we harvest about a pound of wax.

I never get tired of learning about bees.  Hope y’all feel the same way.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

Columbia Falls, Montana: May 23, 2013

Happily, the snow blew itself out before the weekend began, and I snuck off to Babb for my last pre-Dos Ittles sojourn.  The weather was sublime.  I’ll try not to rub it in verbally, but I will share a few of my favorite shots of Maggie learning about summertime.

Putting in our first garden at the Warehome.  

The topsoil looks promising, we’ll see what the weather holds for us … but it’s easy to be optimistic this time of year.

Like the farmers we are, Honeydew and I bubble over with enthusiasm about the potential of this year’s honey crop this time of year, every year.  THIS is the YEAR, we say to each other!

And it could be, y’all.  Collectively, our bees look better than they ever have, thanks to endless hours of painstakingly detailed work by Honeydew and the crew.  Moisture levels are good so far.  We’ve had some heat.  You never know.  As my Pa Pa would say, “there ain’t never been a normal year yet,” as far as farming goes.  This year could be off the charts in a good way.  I think that sort of optimism is pretty essential to life in agriculture.  By August, we’ll probably be singing a tale of averages, or woe, but for now optimism feels mighty fine.

Hello, Many Glacier!

Glacier County’s nod to Ireland doesn’t last long, but its verdancy fills up all the green color receptors in my retinas in a most happy manner.

Walking the swamp road to go check on her bees.

Fearless.

Honeydew and I will not be able to give Maggie Rose everything, but space and freedom to run will not be a problem.  Sometimes I’m amazed by how far away from us she will go by herself.  And then I look in the mirror, and at Honeydew, and think, No, no, Miss Independence is no stranger to us.

Checking on the Home Bee Yard.  

Despite the abundance of dandelions — a favorite snack for bees this time of year — the girls were feeling feisty on this gorgeous Sunday morning, so Maggie and I kept more of a distance than we normally do.  I have this thing about wearing sandals whenever the weather allows in Montana, so I was foolishly walking mostly barefoot through a field filled with dandelions, and bees working those dandelions, so of course I got stung right in the arch of my foot.  Dumb.  Don’t do as I do.

Mighty Chief, keeping watch over Gretchen’s Mirror and its resident loons.

We heard the loons screaming at “every other living thing,” as Brother Dear puts it, many times over the course of the long weekend.  Honeydew sometimes call the loons bullies, but I love to hear their silvery call, the sound of the wilderness, which I’ve expounded on many times before.

Walking, talking.

We’re about 95% certain we saw a juvenile red headed pileated woodpecker on our walk.  Very cool, as neither of us thought the species inhabited our part of the world.  Maggie Rose has sharp eyes, like her daddy and her Nan.

There!

May you always be on the lookout for the new, Mags.

Hope y’all had a nice long weekend.  We worked during most of the weekend, and felt privileged to be able to do so.  Our hats, as always, are off to all those who’ve served and are serving, so that we may keep our bees and our baby on an international border in peace.  Thank you.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

The toddlers liked it.

The adults liked it.

The adults who mixed it with cheap Cook’s champagne REALLY liked it.

Here’s the recipe:

4 cups of lemon juice — I squeezed my own because I wanted to make lemon infused vinegar with the peels, but I don’t think there’s any shame in using bottled lemon juice

2 cups of Glacier County Honey

6 cups water

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Heat the honey and the water in a pot so that the honey will fully emulsify.  If you spray your measuring cup with PAM or something similar, it will be much easier to measure the honey.  Once the honey-water is combined, add it to the lemon juice.  I used some old chunk honey that had crystallized, so it had quite a bit of wax in it.  As a result, I poured the honey-water combination through a strainer before marrying with the lemon juice in order to get the wax out.  I like the wax, but toddlers can be so picky …

Chill the lemonade or add ice cubes and then adjust the water ratio.  I probably added another 4 cups, but everyone’s got a different “lemonade tooth.”  And tasting is half the fun.

It ain’t rocket science, but it’s mighty tasty, and looks pretty with a few lemon slices floating in it.

Thanks to my sweet mother-in-law for the beautiful skep drink server!

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

Precious shirt courtesy of my cousin’s embroidery shop, Buggy Boo’s.

Or she would, if she could get her nose out of the honey lemonade I made for the party.  It was a hit with toddlers and adults alike, and I’ll post the recipe soon.  More than one adult was caught mixing it with the cheap champagne bar we set up as part of the celebration.  Because, y’all know, that’s how we roll near Babb: whether it’s a wedding reception or a 2 year old’s birthday party, any reason to eat prime rib and set up the bar is generally good enough for us!

Maggie’s Chuck built her a water table for her hose and all of her toys, and the weather warmed enough that she and her toddler companions were able to play with it.  Several hours later, the sun disappeared and Pseudo Sista decided that shivering Maggie Rose needed a hot shower and some warm clothes, but that didn’t keep Maggie from staying friendly with the mud puddles.  I think it was the best day of her life.

Maggie Rose, on the off chance you go back and read this online diary I’ve kept about our family, I want you to know that one cliche about parenthood is true: although you’re “only” two years old today, it is already hard for me to remember my life before you — and I had a very full life before you arrived in it, as I hope you will whether or not you have children.  But now it seems like you have always been with me, and I can’t imagine life without you.  It’s not all sunshine and daisies – your tantrums are not sources of joy for your Daddy and I – and there are moments when I really wish I could accept that last minute dinner invitation, or run down to Missoula to the Farmer’s Market with my Hot Buns, or hop a last minute flight to the beach.  It would be lying to claim otherwise.

I recommend a serve-yourself, decorate-it-yourself-cupcake-bar, if you’re a lazy Mom like me who doesn’t care much about a mess.  Or the fact that my 2 year old may or may not have eaten five cupcakes over the course of the afternoon.  The cupcake bar was Pseudo Sista’s project: well done!  Delicious fun — the kiddos loved it.

But dinner parties and childless flights aside, each morning I start my day with your sweet, sleepy smile, as I part the blinds and reveal the amazing bird’s nest that your hair nightly transforms itself into.  And there’s the delight in introducing you to the pleasures of fried shrimp, coconut anything, and honey straight out of the hive.  And the wonder in your eyes when you noticed the moon for the first time, low on the afternoon horizon as the sun blazed.  And the pride on your generally dirty face when you grasped the concept of puzzles, and spoons, and how to drive the Cozy Coupe that Big Mama rescued from the dump.

A birthday wish from your Uncle How.  How I wish you could meet.

Maggie, until your birth, I spent so much of my life as a Big Picture person, which is not a bad thing.  I’m one who likes plans and goals and big decisions.  But these last two years of minutiae, examining lilac blossoms and honeybees and pebbles and tiny toes with you, has been a wildly beautiful time for me.  Thank you, Maggie Rose.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.   Some photo credits to Nancy Stone and Dawn Rauscher.  All Rights Reserved.

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.

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.