06/03/2026
sore, exhausted, and tired!
Not quite sure if it’s that I cut my 100th acre of hay in the last 8 days today all on far from air ride old tractor seats.
OR it might have something to do with this… today I took a half day from work because we had so much hay to bale today, but as I was leaving work at noon my wife called saying some one needed a shipment of semen on a stallion, could I run home before going to the field to rake.
We have it pretty well streamlined these days so fig it would not interfere with timing enough to say no. heres where the afternoon takes a very unexpected and rather interesting turn…
As I was walking him back to the stallion field I pass my sister-in-law and dad staring up at a tree with all sorts of bizarre contraptions laying around. She goes there is a swarm of bees up on that branch waaayyy up there! I took a quick gander as I listened to a plethora of a bit far fetched but possible scheme’s . Now it kinda looked like one you chalk up to well sure it would be nice but some things just are not going to happen. So I walk the stud home and come back past with Full intent to go rake hay. But I could just tell they were about to try some less then successful looking idea that would take them far to long.
so when I am short or behind on time I can get a bit ahh hyper focused/directest path to task completion. So I take another quick look and said meh I will just climb her knock it into a bucket and lower it on a string. Seems pretty simple and fast. I have captured a few swarms before, mostly sting free and fairly un eventful.
Now this might be where my lack of time really kinda dug it’s lil claws in a bit and had me just scamper up the tree with out a whole lot of, once said bees are in bucket maybe you should be a bit more prepared for potential consequences… as i quickly bat down my sister inlaws offer for a bee hat and gloves, as i am already 10’ up the tree, having spent enough time climbing in trees I wanted nothing extra to get me caught or interfere with my movements….
I will preface this decision with, over my life I have been stung by about every flying thing that goes buzz i have come across, some once some a bunch of times together. So I knew I was not allergic and honestly get very mild reactions to them. So fig it’s really no big deal If a few bees get upset.
After a rather expected fairly brisk ascent I was quietly perched out on a branch a lil bit sketchily but well in my personal realm of comfort. Now as I lay flat out on this small branch with one hand holding a bucket under the swarm 6” in front of my face as I am resting glancing with my chest on the branch as I hold on with my legs. that’s the exact point at which the first shred of hmmm is this actually a good idea crosses my mind. but let’s be honest I had things to do and was in No mood to not succeed.
So the first un foreseen hurdle was when gazing up from rather far below it looked like a small pile of bees. But NOW! Mear inches away with a bucket kinda awkwardly held under the rather real faces of hundreds maybe thousands of moving buzzing bees, it was at least twice as wide as the 5 gal bucket mouth. i Knew i had better get the queen in the bucket or I absolutely did not want to be up in the tree. so as I kinda balanced on my chest I used my other hand to start ahh well pushing, just straight up high fiving a very dense very heavy pile of bees as I scraped the bottom of the branch from me away from my chin with the bucket.
This is where the world all of a sudden sped up and slowed down at the exact same time! It was almost an Out of body experience. As I watched each angry bee face turn and stare right at me in slow motion, I also in very real time remember feeling more pin pricks than you could comprehend in instant succession All around my hair line… My vision seemed slow motion but my right hand was moving in warp speed, I swatted a few times then smacked the branch real hard and thought I saw a golf ball size cluster still holding on the underside. so I just palm it and push it right down in the bucket.
at that exact moment I realized the error of my haste. Task was complete! My brain said ok time to move to the next pressing matter. Oddly enough though raking hay was NOT front and center. time all of a sudden returned to reality and first task was lower bucket to ground instantly. Fallowed by ahhhh! cant Fail now don’t just drop it… as soon as it was on the ground instincts instantly took over. I was descending the tree purely by feel and mostly with My legs as I was frantically swatting my head and arms. I am not sure which i Was more running from, the over whelming sensation of stings or the deafening sound of buzzing of untold amounts of furious buzzing lunatics stuck crawling through my messy hair knowing each one was undoubtedly going to find its mark…
Now as the video will show the instant I hit the ground in a bit overly dramatic kinda cartoonish even motion, I rather frantically darted from the vicinity, Down the lane across the road and ended up with my head upside down rather awkwardly perched in a stream for how long I do not know. It felt as though I had just been wearing a crown of stinging bees. And the best option was drowning them. Plus the cold water felt amazing.
with The world a bit upside down as I kinda head stranded in the stream, my first thoughts were hmm I wonder if this will make my soreness go away! Bee stings are supposed to be used to fight joint pain and bring healing… 2nd was to ponder if maybe it will make my hair grow super fast for a while! my Sister in law eventually tracked me down and helped me pick loads of stingers out of my hands arms and head. As well as pluck ohh so many bees of verying lifelessness out of my wet hair….
never fear I decided it prob best practice to hang around for a short time till I saw one of the stings on my arm go down drastically, though I have had a few stings before I thought it best to not get to far from people with what I am guessing to be well over. 50+ stings mostly on my head and hands. But it was fairly Quick short lived excitement and I was off down the rd to rake bale and eventually cut my 100th acre of hay in 8 days before dark…
As I lay on the couch huddled in my coat kinda shaking at Midnight I am really not sure if it’s from hunger, sunburn, bee stings, or way to many hrs bouncing around a tractor seat. But I am ready for what ever tomorrow brings! Be it a bit more boring or some how even more thrilling than today’s chance escapades…
Video clip.
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPABMHG9A9VNJgFyPZmWhMlsPuHmH--A4VvTtRaqebxUpsOmQ3qsRd0a0TpStsOew/photo/AF1QipPf9h-QIjg4vbMjrzzVbR7pHUUZ9jb7k7_pd-ny?key=eUw2MmtKYmdRY3hoeGtjN3VNMTlaUmJfRGV5S1lB
