Another Big Day on the farm was Bee robbing day! Bee keeping, hog raising, fence mending, and barn roof repairing were the purview of my step grandfather, John McDonald whom I affectionately called Mister Mack.. I was always with him during any of these assignments, sometimes a big help, other times more of an aggravation I suppose. I was about ten, he was near about 70. We were real close. Well when the big day came, the preparatory work got underway such as getting the big dish pans and mason jars cleaned and ready. Mine and Mister Macks smokers had to be loaded with rags and tested. Approaching the hives made me more than just a little anxious I have to admit. I swear I believe the bees knew I was intimidated by them. Mister Mack calmly went about removing the racks from the Supers and placing them in a large dish pan. The racks are what contained the beautiful combs of golden honey. He was hardly bothered by the bees, me, I kept my smoker puffing like a freight train! We carried the racks to the house where we (mostly Miss Mack and Aunt Nita) used large butcher knives to cut the honey out of the racks and put it into the jars. The honey looked so good in the jars you were sure you could eat at least a quart all at once! Like at hog killing there was usually quite a bit of stress during the whole process. An awful lot of it came from my Aunt Nita (pronounced Needer.) Lordy she was a bossy, abrasive woman!! I couldnt stand her for very long. She was constantly barking out orders like a drill seargent! They always tried to do the bee robbing and hog killing without her knowing about it. But somehow she usually found out and showed up ready to do her neighborly duty. Ha! The good news was when it was all over there was a several jars of delicious honey to enjoy on those cold mornings on a biscuit with some good home made butter! ............,And a cup of Miss Macks strong coffee! There was no percolator or certainly no Mister Coffee machine. It was a simple pot that she boiled coffee and water in. There was always plenty of coffee grounds in the bottom of your cup when you finished off a cup! Real mans coffee I reckon, like the cowboys drank! ;-) Thanks to my wonderful stepdad, Luther McDonald, I got to be a part of it all!!
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:16:07 +0000
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