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Author Topic: (1st Year) Hillbilly Beekeeper in Western NC  (Read 2782 times)

Offline Card

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(1st Year) Hillbilly Beekeeper in Western NC
« on: August 01, 2008, 10:59:37 pm »
Howdy!

Who: My name is Ken.
Where: I'm a hillbilly (West Virginia) by birth, and live in North Carolina now, at the edge of the high country on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge mountains.
Profession: Occupational Safety & Health
Hobbies: I hunt, fish, hike, and paddle my kayak as much as possible. I also do a lot of outdoor/wildlife photography - usually while hunting, fishing, hiking or paddling. Some people call it being an 'outdoorsman'. I just call it sanity maintenance. 8-)
Why I'm Here: I'm a first-year beekeeper with two healthy hives full of happy girls - so far. I'm also scared to death I'm going to screw something up, which I guess is the real reason why I'm here. This seems like a great place full of friendly people with good information, and I'm excited about participating and (maybe someday) contributing in some way to the beekeeping community.
What Got Me Into Beekeeping: My grandfather was a beekeeper, and I guess I've just always been fascinated with them. I remember sitting on my grandparent's back porch on summer evenings when my grandfather had harvested honey. All the other kids would be eating the comb, and I'd be sitting there studying it and asking my grandfather about how the bees made it. Unfortunately, it wasn't until the last year or so that I've had the room and the environment to be able to get into beekeeping myself.
How I Chose My Member Name: Years ago I worked as a whitewater raft guide on the New and Gauley Rivers up in WV. All guides have nicknames, and through a story much too long to tell, I ended up being called "Wildcard". Over the years it got shortened to 'Card, and that's what I tend to use online to this day.
Linkage: I'm an active Wikipedian, and if you're interested you can check out some of the photographic work I've contributed to the project by looking at my profile and following the website link.

Thanks!
"You will come to learn a great deal if you study the insignificant in depth." - Buckaroo Banzai

Offline pdmattox

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Re: (1st Year) Hillbilly Beekeeper in Western NC
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2008, 11:47:24 pm »
Wow, Welcome to the forum. You have set a new standard for the into of one's self, Very cool.  There are quite a few outdoor-- I mean maintenance men around here. I like to hunt and fish as well. Again welcome to the forum.


Offline Cindi

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Re: (1st Year) Hillbilly Beekeeper in Western NC
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2008, 11:01:31 am »
Ken, excellent intro, good.  Welcome to our forum.  You will do fine with your bees, don't worry too much about messing things up, if you do, the bees will fix it, hee, hee.  This will be a place that will be your guide to learning, telling us your tales and experiences, we are a very interested bunch of people, and we are friendly, you will find that out.  So nice that your Grandfather kept bees and this has instilled that interest of the honeybee within your soul, welcome, and have that most wonderful day, Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline qa33010

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Re: (1st Year) Hillbilly Beekeeper in Western NC
« Reply #3 on: August 04, 2008, 10:31:59 pm »
I'm also scared to death I'm going to screw something up, which I guess is the real reason why I'm here. 

   That's why I first came online and then I realized that I screwed things up.  Now I know I have, am and WILL mess up.  Decided to learn from it and pay attention to what they needed and not what I wanted.  Great folks here, like one of them, Cindi, said!  Enjoy the addiction.
Everyone said it couldn't be done. But he with a chuckle replied, "I won't be one to say it is so, until I give it a try."  So he buckled right in with a trace of a grin.  If he had a worry he hid it and he started to sing as he tackled that thing that couldn't be done, and he did it.  (unknown)