Honey, anyone?

My husband. You gotta love him.

When he gets an idea in his mind, nothing, and I mean nothing, will change it.

His latest escapade: beehives.

Chris has allergies. It never fails. Every year his sinus' get plugged, his nose gets runny, his eyes get watery and the sneezing is never ending. Someone told him that the best thing for allergies is local honey. This is where the "honey mission" began.

He searched high and low for local honey. It took him months. When he finally did find some, it was very expensive, but to him, worth every penny.

The wheels in his head began to turn: why can't I produce my own honey?

"Cora, I'm going to be a beekeeper!!"

This is when the research took over. Trying to find a way to purchase a beehive was no easy task. Until he spoke to Shannon. Gotta love her, too.

Evidently Shannon knew a guy who was really into honey. Had his own beehives, harvested his own honey, even made honey products such as lipgloss.

"His name is Jay," Shannon said. "And here is his number."

Chris called Jay. Jay hooked him up. And now Chris and Jay are best friends.

Chris was like a kid on Christmas morning when he brought his beehives home. If I can't find Chris to tell him dinner is ready, all I have to do is go look by the beehives. There he will be, sitting in his chair just watching the bees fly around.

Being the caretaker of two beehives is no easy task. First of all, you have to have the right equipment. Hives, frames, the proper bee suit, honey extractor. Then you have to have lots of knowledge. How the bees work, how to extract the honey, when the bees are most active and when you should just leave them alone.

Now, let me expand on that.

Chris can't leave his bees alone. He will put on his bee suit and check on them. Just to see how they are doing. I have told him numerous times to just leave them alone and let them work. But he won't listen to me.

Sometimes, he goes out there with no protection. When he does this, he runs the risk of getting stung. This has happened on three occassions:
1. He got stung on his stomach.
2. He got stung in his nose. Yes, you read that right, IN his nose.
3. This recent stung was the best one of all: on his eyebrow. Needless to say, in a quick 3 minutes, his entire eye was swollen shut.

My husband. You gotta love him.