Who are you?

[berkshire bee]

Quote. Bobn "See you at NEFFA?
We have been going fo 25 yrs. January is Ralph Page legacy. Our family friends are contra musicians.
I know the tunes and can play slow penny whistle but mostly I play finger style guitar."

Many of the tunes sound nice , and sometimes even better when played slowly. A few that come to mind are Caliope House, Mairi's Wedding, andWissahican Drive (sorry about the spelling)
We've been asked to play NEFFA and came close last year but our schedule never seemed to fit since three of us play with more than one group.
I think we may do it this year coming up. If so, it will probably be with the new band which it seems will be called CoinciDance. We were kind of thrown together to play the Pinewoods Labor Day weekend last year and asked back this year so we decided to try to play together on a more regular basis.

[JIm in Annville]

Well I guess I will out myself. I am 43 years old. I am married to my high school sweetheart for 24 years now. We have two wonderful sons. One is a Junior in College getting ready to start into Doctarate program for chemistry. The other is 15 and a sophmore in high school. We are all devout christians. A little about me. I served in the US Navy for four years of active duty and 8 years in the reserves. I am currently a Federal Corrections officer. Have been for 21 years. Four more and I can retire and really get working on BeeKeeping. I am just getting started Ordered my first two hives. Have helped a older gentelman that lives in the County with his for several years now and am severely hooked.

[NorthALABeeKeep]

I am 50 years old and have been married 20 years to a beautiful redhead. I have been keeping bees about 6 years. My Dad had 3 hives when I was in Elementary school. After I started with bees I learned that my grandfather had bees before I was born. I work at a chemical plant on the Tennessee River in Decatur, Alabama. I am also a captain in the Emergency Response Team at work. I have 15 hive of my own and got the plant where I work to purchase 2 hives. I also teach school childrern about bees and polination with the help of a fellow beek who is retired. Life is good!

[tecumseh]

early next month I will be 59 years old. I was born in west 'by god' virginia at the very western edge of "the washington plantation" to which I have genetic connections.

I began beekeeping when I was 12.... which began as a 4-H project when my mom was a home demonstation agent (at about the same time she and some of her peers operated the very first pilot project for what would become known as head start). since then I have kept bees as a hobby or for commercial concerns in west virginia, florida, mississippi, louisiana, texas and north dakota. if you are old enough to remember folks buying packages of bees from the sears and roebuck catalogue.. well during the mid 1980's I assisted the fellow who had the contract for those... it was also during this phase of my life that I began rearing queens (which was primarily self taught... although thankfully the fellow who I was working for had a very excellent library).

acquired my bs at the university of florida (cum laude), fulfilled my military obligation (us navy) after I graduated, worked as a banker and in industry, got two more degrees just for the fun of it, taught (university and high school), ran a catttle operation (about 125 momma cows), and eventaually ended up here where I built stuff out of iron and wood for quite some time.

kind of wanderd back thru this place when I was approaching 40 and met my very intellectually gifted, very traveled and very beautiful wife. she at one time has spoken fluently 4 langages (not including english), has appear on a national georgraphic tv (hunter and the hunted), very early on worked for one the fellow that won the nobel with frisch (she has actually toured the facitities where frisch did much of his studies) and has appear on the same stage as Jane Goodall (they have not only similar interest but favor each other somewhat and have common friends). after we married I built (did ALL the work myself with the assistance of one other fellow) a very modest house here on the banks of the Brazos River on a couple of lots I had owned for a number of years. this house.... 'the ultimate tree fort' was built very much with my wife's interest in mind. we have one little grey dog (who I think perhaps is an elf) who shares this little house with us.

about 8 years ago I purchased 3 packages from my fairly famous neighbors down the road and was thinking I would rear a few hives as a hobby here at our house. the winter following the spring when I acquired these packages my father died and I decided that I only had a limited amount of time to do the stuff I wanted to do, so I slowly began easing myself out of the construction business (down to one old lady customer) and began building boxes and rearing bees a bit more on a full time bases. I now am owned by 160 hives of bees and this spring will begin producing my first batch of queen using an AI (II if you prefer) queen. I do very much enjoy building stuff in my little shop and the time I get to spend alone 'with the girls' is quite precious and spiritually rewarding (and yes a bit physically challanging from time to time).

tecumseh....the shawnee word means almost literally pather passing in the night and refers directly to a low arching shooting star which appear at the moment of his birth. I have at time spent quite a deal of time on the road or away from home. early on I discovered that having a book along to fill in the time waiting made life all so much better. in midlife (about the time I was commercial beekeeping in texas and north dakota) I stumbled across a historical text on the life of tecumseh. I discover he and I had (as very young men) hunted the same field, fished the same streams and traversed the same mountain. all the time I spent reading this 'historical' text I wonder how could I (having more than a bit of interest in history and most especially american history) have never been exposed to this histoical tecumseh who had live just across the river. some of his persoanl characteristics were quite remarkable and there is a clear suggest that his mind or thinking may have been a bit prophetic in nature.

[albee]

I'm 43 and have been married for 22 years. I think I'll keep her. LOL We have 1 boy and 3 girls.
The boy is going to school for visual journalism at Brooks and is on an internship with NASA. His web page is http://www.devinboldt.com/
The Oldest girl is at EIU going for nursing. The two youngest are in high school.
I started keeping bees 11 years ago with one top bar hive. My son started to work for a commercial beekeeper and he has been a great friend and mentor for me. The oldest girl started to sell honey at the local farmers market. She was 15 when she got her first health permit. Her sisters have joined her and they pushed me to grow. They could sell it faster than the bees could produce it. Then they started to sell for couple of other guys. As they grow so is there business. They have learned so much about marketing and running a business. More markets and more products. The markets and the bees have given me a way to spend quality time with the girls. Middle age men and teenage girls don't have allot in common.
I'm a chiller tech. and travel around doing temporary cooling for a living. Mostly chem plants and pharmaceutical. I was working to go into bees full time when my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is doing great. Her long strait blond hair now is short curly dark brown. Right now just working on enjoying life and watching the kids grow.