Busy Busy Busy

Well it has been kind of crazy around here in a nut house kind of way. We opened the farm on April 27th for picking. We had been picking them for a few days prior to that just so that none would go bad before we were ready to open. Those we were selling at Farmer's Markets and to restaraunts. But before we knew it the field was slap full of berries ready to pick. So we had to open and we did so without the market being finished. We borrowed my father-in-laws tent and set up under it for sales. So far it has worked pretty well. We did have to give the tent back for one weekend and were able to buy one from a friend. This tent didn't even make it 24 hours before the monsoon type winds coming off the hill picked it up and put it into the back of Jeff's truck. The wind mangled the framing under the canopy. It was a total loss. So we went to Lowe's and bought another one. Jeff was determined that this one would not blow away. He bought these tie down things that looked like something you would tie a mobile home down with. The tent is now attached to those and each post has a bag of rocks wrapped around them just in case the tie downs that are 1/2 way to China don't work. It has held its place for over a week now.
I purchased some hanging baskets from Green Haven to help draw some attention to the stand and everyone keeps trying to buy them from me. Jeff picks at me because i won't sell them.
We have been working 7am-7 pm since we opened the field. We were able to get a contract with the Fresh Markets in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham, and Greensboro. This has been great for us. The only drawbacks are they place the order the day before they want it and then Jeff has to get up at 3am the day of delivery to get everything loaded up and delivered. I went on the first delivery and then figured out I can't do that again. It was just waaay too much to do that and then go back and work the farm until closing.

This adorable little girl is Mikayla. She is my cousin's daughter and this was her second trip to the strawberry farm. She has learned quickly where the berries are and kept pulling her memaw to go back to the field each time her hand got empty.

Another shot of Mikayla. As you can see by the look of her shirt she has already had a few berries. In this one she is "two-fisting" it. Her memaw had cleaned her face and hands prior to the picture taking. She was covered all over in juice before that.
In the background you can see the strawberry field with another family out there picking. It was a really busy weekend and we had tons of families wanting to pick their own. We also had the girls, Veronica and Marta, in the field picking for the sale table and it was hard for them to keep up.

Robin had taken this picture on the same day as the ones of Mikayla. It was an incredibly hot day. I believe it was 92 degrees that day. She went to check their water pans and saw this and had to take pictures of it. She called Mr. Godfrey and he said this was normal for them to be draped to the outside of the hive. It is a way for them to cool. Underneath the very bottom of the hive you can see them look like they are almost draped out of the hive. They are actually clinging to each other.

All of the bees you see are flapping their wings to try to get cool and to send cool air into the hive.

Just another shot of the bees. Mikayla's parents' home has 3 beehives in the walls. Robin and Mr. Godfrey went out to check it out to see if they could help. They have built hives behind the siding on the house. One of the hives goes from the floor level to the ceiling level and is about 3 feet wide. The one above the basement door has gotten so big and heavy that the comb is coming through the ceiling in the basement. Robin and Mr. Godfrey are thinking they can get them out. They said if they could get a piece of the honey and comb and place into another hive that they set up the bees will go to it. At this point, Mikayla's mom and dad are willing to try anything. They really didn't want to have to exterminate but were getting close to having to do just that. Robin had been having a hard time finding bees to put into her hive so this works out perfectly.
We have sort of gotten into a groove at the farm so hopefully I will be able to blog a little bit more and post more pictures. I am definitely planningon carrying the camera with me this weekend. We are planning on being very busy because it is Mother's Day weekend and Carthage is also having the Buggy Festival too. So there should be a lot of traffic out our way.