Beans, Bees and "the Big Yee Haw"

I thought I would take this moment to reflect on the joy that all of the beans are in the ground! Yeeeeee Haaaaawwww! They were "officially" done planting beans last weekend...I think it was June 6th. Ted called me on the phone with a big "Yee Haw!" "The big Yee Haw" is a tradition that (as far as I know) started with Ted's dad Jim. Whenever something momentous would happen on the farm (and there are only two events worthy of this distinction...all the crops planted, and all the crops harvested), Jim would get on the two-way radio and give a big "Yee Haw." This was the clue (to whomever happened to be listening) that all was finished. Well, the two-way radios are long gone...they were replaced by the cell phones...but "the big Yee Haw" has remained. Ted has carried on this great tradition and will call me up on the phone and holler in my ear. I love it! Technically, Ted still has sunflowers to plant, but since they will wait and are more of a hobby crop, "the big yee haw" doesn't depend on them.

Now, as far as bees go, our awesome neighbor called us over yesterday afternoon to witness something happening in a sweet gum tree several yards off of his back deck. Honey bees were swarming. It was fascinating.

There were literally so many of them, that their weight was bending the branch.

They kind of looked like a large bunch of grapes...a very odd looking bunch of grapes.


OK, I'm not ashamed to admit it...I was too chicken to get this close (even with my zoom lens) to take this last picture. Ted did it for me. I tried to discourage him: "Honey, you might get stung and drop my camera!" After he assured me that he would never drop my camera, I said: "Oh! OK then! Go ahead!" He got about 8 to 10 feet away (I'm really bad at visual distances) but the bees let him know that that was as close as they wanted him. They would start peeling off and buzzing around in a kind of warning (if bees do such a thing). Nobody got stung. It was a neat experience. (And for the record, had I gotten stung, I assure you that the experience would not have been nearly as neat...for me, anyway!)