Isabella and Opa, two kindred spirits. Grandfather and granddaughter. Whenever they’re together there are giggles aplenty, and my dad’s hearty guffaw whenever she says/does something especially hilarious.

My dad is a beekeeper in his spare time, and it’s only natural that Isabella now wants to tag along. So for her fifth birthday this past June, she received her very own beekeeping suit. She was thrilled- “Now I can keep bees like Opa!”

A few days ago on a Sunday afternoon, we got her into her suit and ready for action. Here we are, folks, the youngest HazMat worker the world has ever seen! I keep wanting to shout “23-19! 23-19!” every time I look at this photo (Monster’s Inc. anyone?).

The silver and yellow thing below is called a smoker- you puff smoke into the entrance of the hive before opening it up to make the bees thing the hive is in danger. They’ll retreat to the honey storage chambers and drink as much of the thick golden liquid as their stomachs can hold, which makes them much more docile and less likely to get upset about the intrusion on a beekeeper.

See those white-capped cells and the liquid in the open cells next to them? That’s honey!

Isabella getting a bit trigger-happy with the smoker…

All in a day’s work.

Happy Wednesday!