Happy Day!

It’s a happy day here…yep…the bees are gone!

I always want to sing: “Ding, dong the bees are gone…la la la la la la lalalaaaaa”. I need to make up some more words so I can really do it.

Anyway, the bees left last night – well, they were taken out by The Bee Man. To be clear, they didn’t just leave on their own. Daisie and I went for a walk on our normal route today, and there seem to be no stragglers buzzing around.

That’s good. Stragglers tend to be fusty…fusty=stings!

Of course, the fact that the bees are gone also speaks to another fact…Harvest is very near.

And it’s raining…poo! 0.4 inch last night. Too much in my estimation, unless it stops raining right now, and doesn’t rain again until harvest is over…Then we would think this was a “dumb good rain”, as the Likkel Farmers used to say. If it stopped now, the rain would make for some lovely big berries for our early pickings. A few more days of this will likely make for some old berries turning to moldy berries…Just don’t like to start out that way.

But we’ll see…some predictions are for light precip for the next few days. That wouldn’t be so bad. If we could just know when it will stop, so we can decide when to start! That will be the big decision of the week…Oh the drama!

I told The Farmer this morning: “I NEED to know when we are going to start picking!” [high eyebrow emphasis]

His reply: “I need to know when it will stop raining, and then I will tell you.”

TOUCHÉ!

I’m desperate to know when, because, though I have my entire crew hired, this week I can’t get all of them in the same place at the same time. We don’t usually start picking this early in June, so they had stuff scheduled. I will need to call in some subs – but for which day? And will they be available if I don’t know until the day before?

I am highly motivated to be fully staffed because when we are not, I must work on the machine…Me – the sub of last resort.

I’m getting too old for that. Or at least I’d like to be…kinda. Or maybe I’d rather not be so old that working on the machine is so uncomfortable. Indeed, that would be more accurate.

But neither option is available, so I may be out there livin’ the dream – owning our own business – making it happen with my own two hands…and sore back…and feet…

It will be a good way to get the season started…a reminder of how grateful I am for a good crew…

Until then, I will be Desperately Seeking Subs!