-Posted by Isaac

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Forgive me.

I would never really insult you, our wonderful blog readers, seekers of truth and light. At least not at Christmas. I saw this card at Wholly Craft yesterday and had to laugh. But just in case you are a filthy animal, they sell many many bars of gorgeous Honeyrun Farm soap. Handcrafted for all your hygiene needs.

Wholly Craft was one of many stops yesterday on my weekly Columbus deliveries. And to my utter delight, my dad said he wanted to come along.

It was a good day for company. We hit twelve stops, big and small, and had a record day on the gallons. Over thirty went out to the various restaurants, breweries, and smoothie shops. So thanks for not only buying local, thanks also for encouraging the places you patronize to use local honey. More and more businesses are starting to get on the bus. The localism wave, I mean. It really does make a difference in your own community. Thank you! But you already knew that, didn’t you? I’m just preaching to the choir on this blog.

It was fun to see Dad look over the different businesses and think about the economics of it all. Every time we’d get back in the van, he had a barrage of questions. The few of you who may be lucky enough to know my father can testify that he’s pretty good with numbers. And you also know that he loves to probe into your personal finances. Not in a nosey way. More of a curious and jokey way.

But two can play at that. Knowing Dad, and anticipating the questions that were sure to come, I couldn’t help but inflate my figures just a little. I could see the pride slowly start to radiate from him as the day wore on. Sitting next to his millionaire son, helping with deliveries. What a thrill! By the time I’d treated him to a Whole Foods ‘business’ lunch, I could see the ‘atta-boy’ just beaming in his eyes. “Don’t worry about it, Dad. I got this…”

It was a proud and quiet ride home. (In the beat up old van with duct tape holding the front bumper together.)

What else can we talk about? How about Santa’s workshop.

Starting about mid November, this ugly little shop serves a big and beautiful purpose.

Every morning, about daylight, I get the wood stove fired up. At 8am the elves arrive and start in on their various tasks.

All in the hopes of bringing springtime joy to the good little boys and girls of Honeyrun Farm. (Mainly girls)

Above on the right, you can see the wall of dead-out boxes that we’ve scraped and prepped. These will be spread far and wide, filled with life by the end of April. It’s looking like we’ll have just over one hundred hive bodies to fill. This is, if the winter isn’t too rough on us.

Below is the mountain of nucs we have yet to assemble.

Thankfully Christmas isn’t our deadline. April is still a long way off.

Nonetheless, with the nice weather this week, Santa’s workshop stayed busy into the night. Long hours were spent dipping lids (paraffin for waterproofing and warp prevention). And when the dipping started to get tedious, you could look into building frames and assembling boxes.

500 nuc boxes mean 2500 frames. The work can get a bit repetitious in the winter.

But you know, sometimes repetition is exactly what you need. You’re getting something done, you don’t have to think hard, you just let your mind wander. It’s a relaxing daily respite in this warm little workshop. Almost a vacation. Away from the Christmas stress, away from the tension and strain and annoyances I have so thoroughly ranted about in years past.

I know, it all changes next week. No longer will I be able to hide in my workshop building toys for good little girls.

Reality deals a heavy blow.

Yes, it’s about to get real.

And yes, Eden, there is a Santa Claus…