Coming Down the Home Stretch

I am now a bee school graduate! We had our last class last weekend. I missed the graduation picnic though. I'll have to pick up my certificate at the meeting later this month.
Now what? I have an appointment to harvest honey but not until September 8 which is a bummer. We're supposed to do it by mid-August so that the bees can start getting ready for winter by topping off their honey stores in the lower two boxes. I can take off the honey supers now (sounds like lots of fun when it's almost 100 degrees!) but then I have to deal with storing 8 or 9 supers and keeping them away from critters that want the honey. Where? How? I have no idea. The shed isn't airtight enough to use. Stay tuned to hear what happens!
In the meantime, I got the crazy idea of entering the state fair in the bees and honey category. My honey won't be ready in time so I'm going to try making honey caramels. The family is having fun trying the experimental recipes.

The Bees Went Shopping?

Who would've known beekeeping was such a spendy hobby? They didn't mention that in bee school. In addition to frequent trips to the bee store, we decided that there was too much bee gear (and stray bees) in the garage so now we have a new shed! It was pre-built and delivered on a truck. Pretty exciting. Plus, it just made the back 40 a lot more scenic! We'll also use it to store things like the snowblower, law mower, sleds and the like so the garage will be less crowded. Right?