April 11, 2011
When I wrote about the storied family Highchair, I mentioned that there were no pictures of Brother Dear — Glacier County Honey’s Assistant in Chief — in it, because he was such a lap child.
But look at that face. How could you ever say no?
2011. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.
November 22, 2010
Thirty five years ago today, my parents were married at the prettiest little church in the world, Fair Haven, near Millen, Georgia.
On that day they stood and repeated their vows in front of family and close friends, they could not know that thirty five years later, they would celebrate their anniversary with Montana drivers licenses in their wallets. I’d love to say, “what a long, strange trip it’s been,” but they’re not Grateful Dead fans.
Mr. and Mrs. Stone are more Gladys Knight & the Pips kind of folks. In honor of their anniversary, I’m posting the lyrics to “their song,” along with some of my favorite pictures of them.
You’re The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me
I’ve had my share of life’s ups and downs
But fate’s been kind, the downs have been few
I guess you could say that I’ve been lucky
Well, I guess you could say that it’s all because of youIf anyone should ever write my life story
For whatever reason there might be
Ooh, you’ll be there between each line of pain and glory
‘Cause you’re the best thing that ever happened to me
Ah, you’re the best thing that ever happened to meOh, there have been times when times were hard
But always somehow I made it, I made it through
‘Cause for every moment that I’ve spent hurting
There was a moment that I spent, ah, just loving youIf anyone should ever write my life story
For whatever reason there might be
Oh, you’ll be there between each line of pain and glory
‘Cause you’re the best thing that ever happened to me
Oh, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me
I know, you’re the best thing, oh, that ever happened to me
Hillhouse, December 2008, below zero temps.
St. Simons Island, Georgia, 2005.
Sunset at The Lodge, St. Simons Island, Georgia, 2005.
Chatmoss Ball, Martinsville, Virginia, 2006.
Dawson Pass, Glacier National Park, Montana, 2007.
Above Babb Flats, Montana, 2005.
Red Meadow Lake, near Polebridge, Montana, 2005.
Colorado River Trip, Grand Canyon, 2004.
Post Floral Park, at Comeau Pass, Glacier National Park, Montana, 2007 – only ten miles to go at 5pm!
And this, my favorite picture of them, in the judge’s stand at the Polebridge 4th of July parade. Polebridge, Montana, 2005.
Mom and Dad, here’s to 35 more!
2010. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.
November 8, 2010
I’ve been running around like a maniac for the last week – the holiday season is officially upon the Glacier County Honey Company, and we thank you for your support! Our first year in the retail honey/beeswax business has been beyond our wildest dreams, and it’s the greatest ride of my life. Although it’s only the second week of November, orders for beeswax Christmas ornaments, honey stocking stuffers, and gorgeous pinecone candles fill my inbox daily.
Yesterday, I worked in the warehouse all day, melting wax, filtering wax, pouring wax, and packing up honey. As I worked, I turned my I-pod to my Christmas music playlist, much to Honeydew’s dismay. Since Howard’s death, I’ve had a hard time with Christmas, compounded by the fact that a few years after he died, the woman who had been my mother’s best friend and a second mother to me, passed away at Christmastime. So often to me, Christmas is an empty seat at the dinner table, that gift you wish you could buy and wrap and watch be unwrapped.
But despite the grief that will always taint Christmastime for me, its music never fails to lift my heart, and I enjoy it far longer than the average person. My I-pod is stocked with the quiet instrumentals of Bela Fleck picking away at a banjo version of Jingle Bells, the average Joe vocals of Alabama longing to spend Christmas in Dixie, the soaring synthesizer of Manehim Steamroller on O Holy Night, the crystalline soprano of Dolly Parton lamenting a Hard Candy Christmas, and the spectacular vocals of Mariah Carey, who I really only enjoy when she’s singing All I Want For Christmas Is You. I have been known to listen to the occasional Christmas song in July, just because I miss them.
As I worked yesterday, my thoughts turned to Christmases before I knew grief, and I remembered the fall Sissy and Grandma Betty came to see us at Blackstone Farms. We always took a trip to town to visit the Tultex outlet, back in the days when we’d never heard of NAFTA and Martinsville, Virginia, was the sweatshirt producing capital of the world. Sissy and Grandma Betty and my mom always bought the place out. Sweatshirts bored the boys and I to tears, but when Sissy gave me the Christmas sweatshirt dress she’d made for me, one that matched those she’d also made for herself, my cousin Brooke, and my mom, my opinion changed. Sweatshirt dresses! Oh, the ’80s. It was a very merry Christmas down on the big farm, in Georgia.
Above, my cousin Brooke, me, Brother Dear, and Howard, pose on Grandma Betty’s doorstep, on our way to Fair Haven for church. To sing beautiful Christmas music, I’m sure.
2010. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.
November 1, 2010
Yesterday, we discussed how we packed up our bees and sent ’em south to California for the winter. Several pictures of Brother Dear and Honeydew, cautiously walking around on top of three pallets of bee hives on the flatbed of a semi, at least twenty feet off the ground, led to several emails to me today. How do they get down? the emails asked.
Very good question.
Brother Dear will demonstrate. Therefore, his mother should cease reading this blog. Thank you, mother.
I rather inexpertly drove the forklift over to the semi and raised the forks to collect Honeydew and lower him to the ground. I did not do a very good job. In fact, Brother Dear will give his version here:
“It was utterly macabre.”
As a result, Honeydew took over control of the forklift from me and raised the forks and then thrust them over the top of the semi and the hives for Brother Dear to climb onto. See, above picture.
Honeydew then retracted the forks to lower Brother Dear safely to the ground. I don’t think OSHA or our insurance provider would have been too impressed by Brother Dear’s antics on the way to the wonderful, solid Earth, but they amused me greatly as I snapped away.
As he approached the good, solid Earth, Brother Dear then gave me a goofy hand gesture which I interpreted to mean: hey, aren’t you glad you and Honeydew played by the rules and paid into Worker’s Comp for the 4th quarter?
And then Brother Dear stepped off the forks onto the welcoming Earth and we all went to breakfast, while Chuck and the bees went to California.
And that’s how you dismount a flatbed semi loaded three hives high.
2010. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.
October 11, 2010
Napoleon Bonaparte famously said that an army marches on its stomach. I think beekeepers do, too.
Extracting honey, which we are doing this month, is a hot, sticky, and very labor intensive process. Moving heavy stacks of honey-laden frames around a warehouse is hard work, even with the help of a forklift, hand truck and pallet jack.
It’s the kind of work that makes a guy (or gal) hungry, which is where I come in: I run the chuckwagon for Glacier County Honey Company.
Even when we are really busy or too tired to cook, take out is not an option. From our headquarters near Babb, it is over an hour’s drive to McDonald’s for an Egg McMuffin. Picking up a bucket of KFC would involve a 200 mile round trip. Clearly, cooking for ourselves is the only solution. So when I took on the task of meal planning, grocery shopping and cooking for our busy extracting season, my GCHC co-workers dubbed my job running the chuckwagon.
The invention of the chuckwagon is attributed to Charles Goodnight, a Texas rancher who introduced the concept in 1866. “Chuck” was slang term for food, the kind of food served to men who drove cattle on long trail drives. The cooks who ran those early chuckwagons relied on easily preserved items like beans, salted meats, coffee and sourdough biscuits.
In one of my favorite movies, “The Cowboys,” John Wayne advises his newly-hired trail cook to prepare food that is “hot, brown and plenty of it.” Good advice, though personally I cannot subsist solely on brown or white food. I crave fresh vegetables, seasonal fruits and fresh fish and I want those I love to eat well, too. Before I left the city last week en route to Babb, I made stops at two grocery stores, Costco, a produce stand, and a local meat market. Consequently, this week we’ve eaten raspberries and Greek yogurt for breakfast, shrimp salad for lunch, and fresh grilled Coho salmon and corn on the cob for dinner. On days when we’re too busy to take a real lunch break, I deliver sandwiches to the warehouse. That’s how I learned that Brother Dear likes his on artisanal bread with thinly sliced onions and spicy brown mustard; Honeydew likes Miracle Whip on his Wonder Bread; Charlie takes his meat and cheese straight up with no condiments, etc. Somedays it’s hard to keep it all straight!
I’ve had the luxury of a well-stocked kitchen, including a microwave, gas grill and Crock-Pot, unlike those early cooks who relied on dutch ovens. But true to tradition, by mid-week I opted to serve some comfort food: hamburger steaks with my mother-in-law’s recipe for brown rice casserole; fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy; smoked beef brisket with mac’ n’cheese and baked beans. Yes, that’s all “hot, brown and plenty of it!”
Cinnamon rolls are pretty popular around here in the mornings, especially with Honeydew.
This is one of our most requested recipes:
Best-in-the -West Baked Beans
1 pound bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 pound ground beef (we use buffalo or elk but then, we live in Montana!)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup barbeque sauce
4 TBS molasses
4 TBS prepared yellow mustard
1 TSP chili powder
1/2 TSP salt
1/2 TSP pepper
1 16-ounce can pork and beans, undrained
1 16-ounce can green lima beans, undrained
1 16-ounce can kidney beans, undrained
In a large heavy skillet, brown bacon, onion and ground beef. Drain. Add ketchup, barbeque sauce, molasses, mustard, chili powder, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add all beans. Mix again. Pour mixture into greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Glacier County Honey thinks that Mom has the most important job of all, and that no one could be better at it – thank you for keeping the Chuckwagon running so that we can keep the honey flowing! Lest y’all be fooled, though, Mom is also very good at keeping the honey flowing. She gets the MVP award this month.
2010. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.
September 19, 2010
Mom is our guest blogger today.
Like most Americans, for me last week’s September 11 anniversary brought back a flood of memories. I was working out at the Y when I heard the news, and my family was scattered: my husband, Charlie, was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with his mother; daughter Courtney was in her senior year at UGA, in Athens; and son Sanford was a freshman at Washington & Lee, in Lexington, Virgina. We were all frightened and outraged by the terrorists’ actions.
But our youngest son, Howard, was particularly upset by 9/11. A high school junior, he spent that awful day watching TV news coverage with his classmates. He was shocked that our nation’s security could be so easily breached and concerned that the terrorists would strike again.
Normally, Howard’s world revolved around basketball, soccer, Scouts and school. He was 6’3”, a green-eyed, dishwater blonde who loved sports and having fun. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was a week short of his 17th birthday and starting to visit colleges. He hadn’t really given his future much thought, but after seeing our nation’s response to the fall of the towers, he began mulling a career in law enforcement.
A good student, in the spring of his senior year Howard was offered scholarships to two small liberal arts colleges in Virginia Just when his Dad and I thought he was ready to decide between the two, Howard asked if he might make one final college visit to the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss, as it is affectionately called, is located in Oxford, a 12 hour drive from our home, and has a political science/criminal justice major that Howard thought could be a stepping stone to law school and eventually his ultimate goal, the FBI. The visit went well and the beautiful southern co-eds Howard met on campus probably influenced his decision as much as the sought-after course of study.
During his freshman year at Ole Miss, Howard aced history and political science and made the Dean’s List both semesters. He played intramural sports, lifted weights and loved to hike. He was a happy 19 year old who appeared to be well on his way to a bright future. But then, one week into his sophomore year, Howard’s fraternity house burned down, taking his life and that of two other young men. Howard was three weeks shy of 20 when he died.
Now when I hear Kenny Chesney’s song “Who You’d Be Today,” I can‘t help but be wistful for what might have been.
Sunny days seem to hurt the most
I wear the pain like a heavy coat
I feel you everywhere I go
I see your smile, I see your face
I hear you laughing in the rain
Still can’t believe you’re gone
It ain’t fair you died too young
Like a story that had just begun
The death tore the pages all away
God knows how I miss you
All the hell that I’ve been through
Just knowing no one could take your place
Sometimes I wonder who you’d be today
Would you see the world?
Would you chase your dreams?
Settle down with a family?
I wonder, what would you name your babies?
Some days the sky’s so blue
I feel like I can talk to you
And I know it might sound crazy …
As your Mom, I can’t stop thinking about who you’d be today. Happy 26th birthday, Howard.
2010. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.
September 1, 2010
When we were young, Mom and Dad wouldn’t let the boys and I ride on our neighbor’s 4 wheeler: too dangerous.
Flash forward thirty years:
Have I mentioned how open minded my mother is?
2010. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.
August 26, 2010
Men building warehouses must be fed, often and early.
Or at least, that’s our excuse this summer … though truth be told, every summer, our meals tend to be a little over the top, as we nightly try to sample all of summer’s bounty on our plates. But anyway you look at it, keeping the chuck wagon running, as Mom calls it, is a full time job. This summer, Mom’s been gone a lot, setting up her new home in Whitefish, and so I’ve been left to deal with the chuck wagon mostly on my own. Pseudo Sister, Brother Dear, Honeydew, and even Darling Summer Help have all taken their turn at Celebrity Guest Chef, and they’ve all cooked up fabulous meals, but for the most part, the chuck wagon has been mine this summer. My general style is to cook up a big meal with lots of sides on Night 1, and serve leftovers for lunch and dinner at least the next day, sometimes the next couple of days. That style can lead to some fairly hilarious pairings.
Last night, Mom came over from Whitefish bearing sushi and spring rolls, which we promptly added to the buffet of leftover sliced peaches, steamed green beans, meatloaf, caesar salad, smoked salmon, creamed corn, mashed cauliflower, and grapes. I added my sushi to my salad plate. Honeydew, on the other hand, came up with this delectable combination:
Spring rolls, sushi, caesar salad, marinated shrimp, creamed corn, and meatloaf. I suppose this is what happens when Whitefish and Babb collide.
2010. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.
August 17, 2010
Mom and Dad are frugal folks. They don’t buy lots of toys or name brand shampoo. They save for stuff that matters, that they really want, and they’ve taught Brother Dear and I to do the same.
So, a couple of years ago, when Mom and Dad started talking about buying a hot tub for Hillhouse, I dismissed their animated chatter and thorough research as fluff. And a year or two after that, when I arrived home on a dark June evening to see pulsing light throbbing from the back patio, I was flabbergasted. There they were, happily bobbing about in their brand spankin’ new hot tub, complete with multi colored light show. Very Playboy Mansion. Very out of character for them.
Fast forward to present time: they love that hot tub. It is good for aches and pains. It is excellent for star gazing. It is conducive to deep sleep, post-tubbing.
It is lots of fun. But on the day they brought it home, I had not an inkling of the level of maintenance required for its proper care. Of course there is the constant testing of pH and calcium hardness and chlorine levels. There is the twice yearly draining, scrubbing, and refilling. And, as I’ve learned since the hot tub came to live on our patio, for optimum hot tub performance, hot tubbers should shower off without using soap before entering its pristine waters, and they should not wear bathing suits that have been laundered with soap. Otherwise, this happens:
Foam! Honeydew likes to scoop it out of the tub and fling it into the air. Normally, this would not be blog-post-worthy, but I liked how the pictures turned out.
Hard to tell the cotton ball clouds from the foam he’s flinging around. Honeydew can make anything fun. Your turn to scrub toilets, honey.
2010. Glacier County Honey Co. All Rights Reserved.
August 16, 2010
Warehouse construction continues. Darling Summer Help can now add Electrician to his ever-growing resume. Brother Dear can add slavedriver/community organizer, err, Fearless Leader to his. I don’t know exactly how Honeydew and I thought we were going to put up this warehouse without Brother Dear and both of our dads’ direction, but suffice it to say, we’ve been mighty grateful for the help this week.
Here, Brother Dear leads the way on the wiring project. Dad taught him to wire a couple of years back, and now, after putting the Shack, the Tack Barn, and the Cabin under his belt, he is a wiring whiz! Thank goodness, as no one else in Glacier County seems to be.
Dad brings plenty of wiring experience to this project, too – after all, he gave Brother Dear his start! Here, Dad is installing the boxes that outlets and light switches will be housed in. They look like this before the outlet or switch goes in:
Under Brother Dear’s sharp eyes, Darling Summer Help and the forklift are running wire from the box to the back rooms.
On Sunday, Brother Dear had me marking where the outlets should go in the future kitchen/employee break room. I got to use a speed square, which I thought was cool. First straight lines I’ve ever drawn!
I also left helpful comments with my Sharpie for the contractors, who presumably hate me. I would hate me. But I hate life without windows more.
Mom kept the warehouse site sparkling!
Mr. Cain supervised. No one supervises more efficiently than Mr. Cain.
Today, the work continued, as it must, though I had to go into Cut Bank to do some lawyerin’. When I arrived home at ten till seven, I found Darling Husband, Darling Summer Help, and Darling Brother Dear just knocking off for the day. They were perched as high as they could be, up on some scaffolding on the top floor/decking/storage area of the warehouse, reviewing the events of the day.
Scaring their wife/sister/employer to death.
They scoffed at me, pointing out the fabulous view, which they claimed was relaxing …
And then returned to the task of hydrating themselves … after all, as they told me, it was hot today.
Thanks to everyone who’s helping to make Warehouse No. 2 an attainable dream and less of a nightmare. We appreciate you!
2010. Glacier County Honey Co. Some photo credits to Brother Dear. All Rights Reserved.
Glacier County Honey Co. 