The weekend, another change of plans

Friday was a holiday, so I got to spend the entire day occupied around the farm. Mama and I did a lot of little things, but the most important thing I got done was to treat the bees for Varroa mites. Since Mama and I attended our beekeepers meeting a week ago, I have been more and more certain that I needed to treat the hives, so I ordered the Oxalic Acid to do those required treatments. The power is put into a tool that heats the acid to boiling thus vaporizing the acid and allowing it to circulate through the hive. The acid is harmless to the bees and the honey but deadly to the mites. Oxalic acid is an organic, naturally occurring element found in nuts, vegetables, cocoa and many types of seeds. So, I feel safe using it to treat the hives. To do a full treatment regimen, I will have to repeat the treatment every five days for five consecutive treatments. My next treatment will be done tomorrow evening.

I will need to get some oversight on one of the two hives. The brood boxes are full, so I have to decide whether to split the hive – if a new queen cell is being tended to in that hive – or add an additional brood box to the hive to give the bees more room to expand. Either way, I am good with the outcome. I just need to know which avenue to take for the hive. It has been so windy that I have hesitated to open the hives to check for queen cells that would indicate a swarm is planned. Feeling the wind in the open hive really alarms the bees and I have wanted to avoid that upset.

I spent Saturday with Mama at an event in downtown Decatur. It was interesting to see how the business works in person and to watch Mama interact with passersby. We set up next to a person Mama knew from previous years so there was a good bit of camaraderie through the day and plenty of help setting up and tearing down the display. We discovered early in the day that the lady we posted next to is the mother of one of the ladies I work with. That made the connection even more interesting. We did fairly well in sales, but I do not get the impression that the event was very well attended.

Mama sold about $350 of her stock of nails so it was mostly a recouping of money spent on inventory versus gaining sales for Mama’s advancement in rank, but between this weekend and last weekend, Mama has sold over $600 worth of her stock – which she will now replenish. She has another event this coming weekend which I will not attend with her. I will be needed for set up and breakdown if the canopy is required, but I will not have to stay all day. As for the canopy we purchased, it was exactly what Mama needs for this type of event. It did surprisingly well in the relentless wind through the day. Much better than canopies used by some of the other vendors. The only issue with the canopy is that it is heavy when folded up and packaged. The weight is just about all Mama can handle by herself to load or unload and drag the canopy to the sight to set it up, so when I am available, I will help her getting it put up and taken down.

It was a good thing that I finally took the time to stay with Mama for one of her Color Street events. It gave me a lot of insight into the approaches that work and do not work on the crowd in attendance. It also gave me a better awareness into the limited exposure Color Street yet has within the available market. That reinforces my opinion of just how much growth opportunity this young company still has – and Mama can grow with it if we persist. Being there to help Mama made me realize that each time she does this type of sales event it requires two people. It is far more than she can do by herself. It is not like one person at a time shows up at her booth. They tended to come in groups, which can be a little overwhelming.

I cancelled my vacation for next week. I was invited to participate in the development of a simulator for the Creation Science Museum in Glen Rose, TX, but they are not ready for that to happen. In lieu of the simulator development, I was invited to participate in an archeological dig that is ongoing, but I am not physically able to do that, so I had to back away from the week off entirely. I am a little disappointed, but not overly so. I still am taking off the first week of May to travel with Mama to meet Nate, Cori, and the grandchildren in Pensacola. Hopefully that will happen as planned. As for the week in Glen Rose, I would have had to commute – two hours each way – or stay in a hotel about an hour away. Neither of those options was optimal so it is perhaps better that things worked out as they have. Plus, next week is our Mission’s Conference at church and that travel would have kept me from participating at all in the conference. When I told Pastor about the aborted plans, I think he was relieved to know I would be here for Mission’s Conference.

Maybe I am a little relieved as well.