I’m not sure if I shared this before with anyone outside of my family, but when I was little, I was a bit of a mad scientist. Growing up in the country with nothing to do and neighbors who lived a few acres away made me a creative kid by default. Couple that creativity with an entrepreneurial spirit and ta-da trouble in the form of liquid messes and missing bathroom products. Mom’s shampoo was always the go-to fragrance for my concoctions—perfume, shaving cream, bath gel—and dad’s foot powder made an excellent thickening agent. Grandma would find tiny glass bottles at the flea markets, and I’d go around the neighborhood to our five or six neighbors, selling my potions.
At the end of the day, I’d walk away with a few bucks, and then hand it over to Grandma so she could purchase bottles for me again. It was a vicious cycle—the overhead was killing me. Eventually, Mom and Dad bankrupted my business. I was convinced that the neighbors were devastated, but I guess that’s what happens when your family unwittingly invests in your business and you’re nine years old.
Keeping that spirit alive today, I wanted to build a space for Darlington where she could learn about business and fan the flames of creativity. Yes, she’s only three and a half months old, but it’s never too early for teaching opportunities!
Toward the back of the property are a few old, dilapidated barns. The ones that couldn’t be saved were torn down and salvaged for their materials, and the rest of the barns will be reimagined for special projects. The biggest barn, the prize jewel of them all, was the perfect choice for Darlington’s Bee Barn.
It was important to try and keep the integrity and character of the barn, so I had a metal frame built within the structure of the barn. Because of the tornados and rainstorms that often travel through this area, the framework needed to be strong enough to withstand the elements.
Once the structure was secured, the beehives were brought in.
March through April is a great time of year to relocate bees, and our bees were brought in April. We were excited to see if they’d like the ranch.
July is the perfect time to harvest. Being that we just relocated the bees, we were curious to see how much honey we’d get this first go-around. Amazingly, the property yielded a whopping 200 bottles of honey!
And now, I’m so excited to share our honey with friends and family! That includes you, Model Behaviors readers! These bottles are the perfect size and made just in time for Christmas. So Darlington has decided to give away one of her bottles of honey. To enter, log in with either your email or your Facebook profile and fill out the form below. Anyone can enter, but you get extra chances to win by joining our mailing list.
This giveaway is open in the US and internationally. Must be 14 or older to enter. It ends on Wednesday, October 14, at 11:59 p.m., Central Time. A winner will be chosen at random and announced on this page on Thursday, October 15. We’ll contact the winner by email. Winner will have 72 hours to respond. If there is no response, a new winner will be chosen.
Let us know in the comments what you would eat with your honey! Good luck to everyone who enters. And don’t forget to check in again next month for our next DIY Ranch Design Series.
Oh goodness, now I must try this!