No downturn for us at all. We're adding 3 hives this year, which will make 5. That should just about do it for our back yard. In fact we are expanding our business and see the next couple of years being full of great opportunity.
My advice to everyone who's worrying about the economy is to turn off the television. There's nothing we can do about it. It makes it harder to focus on what we're grateful for and harder to be optimistic for the future, which we all need in strong doses. In fact, getting on my soapbox, I think the news media does us an ENORMOUS disservice by reporting all the terrible and never the good. If it bleeds, it leads, right? It's a continuous groin kick in our collective consciousness. There is so much negative being broadcast our way, and that's why I believe so many people are unhappy. It's a habit to complain and blame and gripe and I truly believe the news helps foster that behavior.
I don't intend to sound glib or to mean I am discounting the economic state we're in, because I know so many people are losing jobs and are in serious financial distress, but I can't think of one way the constant barrage of news about of failing banks and job losses serves me. So I just don't play, and life seems to be working pretty well.