My wife, the thief…

I know, all of you that know my wife personally, and value her friendship enough to endure following that link she posts on her Facebook wall bringing you here to my blog every once in a while, are thinking to yourself, “there is no way that she stole anything”. She did and I have photographic evidence. My wife is a thief!! We shall begin our tale at the beginning though so that you have a full understanding of the crime.

About a week ago the beekeeper’s wife, who blogs daily at Glacier County Honey Co., posted a notice that they were going to have a photo contest.

“Glacier County Honey Company announces the 2010 Spring Has Sprung photo contest!  Beginning Sunday, March 28, post your most darlin’ pictures of your tots,* your pets, and others that you love with their Glacier County Honey on our Facebook page – you’ll have to become our Fan to do this, if you’re not already!  Contest will end on Saturday, April 10, at 6pm mountain time, so you can get your Easter shots in!”

The beekeeper’s wife is married to my littlest brother and they together have begun that transformation where when you find something you absolutely love, you start inhaling everything about your passion and embrace it as not only a job or career but as a way of life. They have started becoming everything “bees”. I grew up in a “beekeeping family” and so knowing that frame of mind or ‘passion’, I should be able to  give an entry that would appeal to them and that mindset.

I started to think about how to incorporate my girls, honey and a passion for beekeeping into a picture. I have tons of beekeeping photos and the first thing that came to mind was, “little beekeepers” but coming up with miniature bee-suits would be a hassle and besides, all we ever did when we were little was duct-tape our pants into our boots and wear mittens and a vial, it doesn’t make for a very good “cute” picture. Besides, as you can see we already have that picture. So I chewed on different ideas for a few days until it came to me, I rushed to find my wife and proclaimed, “I’ve got it! Do we still have that baby bee costume?” she responded without as much enthusiasm, “yes, it’s in the closet why? do you want to use it for the photo contest?”  “YES!”

My idea: “Why does Glacier County Honey have the sweetest honey?, Because they have the cutest bees!” So now all I needed was a few props. Throw a nipple on a honey bear, a baby in a bee costume and put her in a bee hive… where the heck am I going to get a bee hive? So now we come to the part where my wife steals a beehive. Yup, you read that right, she stole a beehive! I might be a little to blame because I got her so excited about getting some cute pictures of our girls, that her reasoning went out the window.

That is a picture of a “stolen” beehive. I asked her to stop at the local beekeeper’s warehouse here in Yakima and “ask to borrow a hive”. When she came home from her errands she had this silly grin on her face and happily proclaimed that she had acquired a beehive for the pictures we wanted to take. When I asked her if the local beekeeper had given her a hard time about why she needed to borrow a hive, she turned slightly red and told me that “there wasn’t actually anyone at the warehouse when I went there.”

“I can’t believe it, you stole a beehive?”

“I left him a note with our phone number and let him know that I would bring it back when we were done with it!”

“What! you can’t do that with someone you don’t know, you can only borrow stuff with a note from friends or family!”

Here’s how the crime unfolded. My wife arrived at the warehouse to find that the local beekeeper sold honey on an “honor system”. There’s a box full of honey jars and a jar for money. So she sat there looking at a stack of beehives, contemplating. For 20 min she sat there trying to decide if it would be alright to “borrow” a beehive, finally she decided that if the beekeeper was trusting enough to sell honey on an honor system then he wouldn’t mind lending a hive out for an hour for a photo shoot. She left our address and phone number in the jar and “borrowed” a hive.

We spent an hour taking photos of our two girls in the hive. The results of which I am sure will win the photo contest (<— self promotion) After which, I printed two of our favorite shots and sent her back to the warehouse and unknowing lender of the beehive with the “stolen property” and our gratitude. Upon her return she proudly informed me that she had spent a half hour visiting with our new beekeeper friend who loved and now displays pictures of our “baby bees” in his workshop and has informed us that when ever we need beekeeping props, we are welcome to “borrow” anytime. Without which we would not be able to get these…

Tagged: beehive, beekeepers, bees, glacier county honey, photo

Posted in: Family, Personal