WHAT A (satur) DAY.

holy moly today was fun. okay yesterday was fun, too. ok FINE, this whole last fifteen days has been incredible. we have been learning, and growing (things as well as our brains), and eating (like queens), and laughing (Tamlyn + her family are hilarious and so much fun to be around). did I mention the food we’ve been eating? Tamlyn is a FREAKING SELF-MADE chef. this woman has GOT IT GOING ON in both the kitchen and her entire freaking house (I mean, please tell me you’ve stalked her Instagram account). did you know she’s being featured in the Schoolhouse blog? Schoolhouse is a designer’s haven of home decor and products. TRENDY AF is all I can say. and if that wasn’t amazing enough, she ASKED ME to take the images to be USED in that said blog. so you might see my name in small print, if I’m lucky. SAY WHAT. I just died a little. not just because of the credit, but BECAUSE I GOT TO DO THIS AT ALL. I mean, I like me some home decor, after all, I’m a FIRM BELIEVER in your home being your haven, and looking and FEELING like a place you want to spend the majority of your time in. so witnessing her beautiful craft in person, and being able to HIGHLIGHT my craft by highlighting hers? I mean, that’s some kind of mind=blown type shit we’re talking. MAGICAL STUFF MY PEOPLE.

so back to how today went. wanna hear about it?

so we started our day off like we normally do – up and at ‘em by about 6:15am to let the barn cats out, wake the hens up and feed the four massively hungry cows. then we get to enjoy some coffee while we generally gaze at the heavenly view that is our backdrop 24/7 this summer. today Tamlyn, from equal parts scratch and IN HER HEAD, whipped up some gluten and dairy-free lemon + blueberry muffin bread with a coconut sugar crumble on top. it was so good we polished off the whole loaf in one sitting. I MEAN REALLY. you just wait, I’ve been stalking her and jotting down some of her most incredible recipes. she’s going to be sharing them on her Instagram page, so keep your eyes peeled. watch mine, too, because you know I’m all over sharing THAT in my stories!

then we spent majority of the day meal prepping in the kitchen – cutting and slicing veggies for snacking and cooking, and tending to the garden. I got to pop in my headphones and listen to a little Audible (y’all need to read/listen to Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. SO FREAKING FRACKING AMAZING), dink around in the garden, and soak up the 68º sunshiny, cool breezy day….

then towards the end of the day, their friend Zoren came over to give us a lesson in beekeeping. did you know that there are around 60,000-70,000 bees living on the same ten acres we’re living on? did you know that I borderline freak out when a bee even comes remotely near me? yeah, that’s been a fun little lesson in letting your fears go. OK back the bees….

LONG STORY EVEN LONGER: I learned so freaking much about honeybees today. I learned how they mate, what a queen bee does, how worker bees are ALL FEMALE, how male bees’ only role is too mate (ha). and how to FREAKING HARVEST THEIR HONEY! DID YOU READ THAT? HOW TO HARVEST BEE HONEY.

I’m going to leave the rest of the story in PHOTOS instead of words. take a peek below to get a glimpse of how amazing today was. of how incredible bees are. of how freaking gorgeous this farm is…

why yes, yes that is a baby rattlesnake. that sweet kiddo pictured? knows more about reptiles than I know about naked chickens as pets.

I will never not freak out when I take my camera in front of the beautiful and infamous Bonnie Mae. she is one gorgeous beast of a woman and I kinda feel like maybe she digs me too. never mind that’s probably only because I literally bring her life-sustaining meals twice a day.

hawk feathers! how gorgeous!

Zoren extracting the frame of honey. bees are clearly still attached.

Scott and Zoren are brushing the bees from the rack, after carefully shaking the most of them off, first.

once all the racks will full honey are pulled, they put the hives/houses back together. they have 6 hives here on the farm. that is roughly 60,000 bees at any given time.

REALLY COOL AND ALSO VERY NERDY TIDBIT FOR YOU: all hives have a queen and that queen looks and acts differently than the rest of the hive, aka the worker bees. she ONLY eats royal jelly, where are the worker bees eat a mixture of pollen and honey to keep on keepin’ on. if a worker bee gets into the house of another hive, they will kill her. each bee instinctively knows which hives is their own. HOW FREAKING RAD IS THAT. also also, to geek out even a little more, each bee instinctively knows what their ROLE IN LIFE IS. like, each day has a different duty and they just know what the fuck they’re supposed to be doing. I mean, I wonder if worker bees want to start a motivational podcast to teach me how to figure out what the fuck *I* should be doing with my life everyday. 

NOW THE FUN PART. gettin’ dat honey. first things first, you have you carefully pick off the beeswax cover that seals the honey into the comb.

next,  you add the rack into a giant spinner, and spin the honey out.

here’s a big pile of the wax!

now your honey is harvested! time to strain, store and ENJOY! we all tasted the honey, and you’ve we’re convinced it’s the best tasting honey on the planet. I mean, WHAT an appreciation now that I know how much work goes into this (mostly for the bees, but also for the humans!)

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! learning about bees and how absolutely incredible they are was such an awesome experience! I can’t wait to continue to learn more each day! definitely watch for more blogs or Instagram posts coming with ideas and recipes on how we use the honey this summer @ the farm!

we ended our day with burgers on the grill, and an early bedtime. what a perfect saturday in california.

xo, a