Ouch

Last Tuesday I was out working with my bees, mainly seeing if their honey was getting ready to harvest. I was taking longer than I usually do and squatting down to straighten out one of the hives and I felt something on my ankle. I thought it was a stick or branch poking, but it happened again. As I got up it happened again and I walked away and pulled up my pant leg to find that there were quite a few bees on the side of my ankle. I brushed them away and went back to finish what I was doing and felt two more bites. I looked again and there were a few more on the front of my ankle. I brushed these away and closed up my hives and then went in to look at the damage.

Somewhere between six and ten bees stung my ankle and although it was a little painful and warm I kept about all the things I wanted to do. I was fine until the next day at work. After standing for about 4 hours my ankle started to balloon. It got so bad that blisters formed and started to pop. I really can't leave my job with out closing the store so I finally got a hold of my doctor who told called a prescription in. Within a few hours the swelling was getting better and by the next day was almost gone.

I considered taking a picture to post here, but it's pretty gross looking. All of this got me thinking more about what is in this venom that causes such a bad reaction. I have come to learn that their venom is made up of a variety of enzymes. These then begin to break down the tissues and cause massive inflammation. A true allergy to these stings is not common which is fortunate for me. I think many people have problems getting a similar sting in the neck or face and this same swelling causes the throat to close.

It just is facinating to think that that this terrible venom is made from flowers - nectar and pollen only. That's all they eat! What else could it be made from? While I was reading more about this on the internet - there is a whole school of medicine that uses bee venom to treat disease. Mainly that of inflammation - arthritis, joint problems, etc. A college profes

sor I had told me about this for the first time about 10 years ago. I don't think there are many doctors advocating taking a bee to sting a joint, but it seems that some how this venom is collected and then injected directly into the joint to be treated which someway helps to treat the pain.

Those little bees are amazing creatures. They work non-stop when they have food. When they don't they reduce their numbers so that they won't starve and even in climates as harsh as MN they are able to survive the winters without hibernating.

My doctor asked me if I was still going to keep bees. She has a son who keeps bees and has never had such a problem. I told her that I would just need to take a little extra care to protect myself. I am going to get a full bee suit for next year and try to protect my bees a little better. One of the reasons I think I got attacked like I did is partly due to the skunks who were having their way with my bees for a few weeks.

Skunks apparently like to eat bees and when they do this they really put a hive in defensive mode so they are much quicker to respond to any disruption. I am their helper - giving them a nice home to live in and feeding them if they happen to run out of food if it is a tough winter, but anyone that disturbes that hive is an enemy to them and they protect their home very efficently!

Just so you know - the picture of the bee hive at the top was taken after one of the hives swarmed. I didn't do that to them and wouldn't have went within 10 feet of that mess. I am so looking forward to the honey this fall, I tasted some of it after getting stung and it is very light and delicate. Much more flavor full than the clover honey you find in the stores.

Common sense

I read a book yesterday titled "Common Sense" by Glenn Beck. I just picked it up for something to read at work when it was slow. I ended up reading the whole thing yesterday. It was a book inspired by the Thomas Paine pamphlet of the same name.

In it he discusses in detail the decline of the United States and how similar things are becoming now compared to the way things were two hundred and thirty three years ago. What jumped out to me is that the very warnings that our Founding Fathers told us would ruin this country are now happening. One of the most glaring points he drives home is how our politicians have created their own class that is above the law. He points out problems mainly in the last eight years.

The excesses created by the government, the insane legislation and the terrible conduct by our leaders. The hipocrasy has never been more extreme. I could sit here and write and sum up everything the book said, but I am not as gifted with words and statistics to even try.

I keep writing and deleting what I have written. I'm not sure where to start or where to end. I think just about every semi-conscious person in this country is aware that our government officials (the higher up ones and not all of them, but most of them) lie, cheat and steal from us. I'm not being judgemental, just merely stating fact. How many of them don't pay their taxes and have gotten more than the IRS to give them a stern warning? How many of them fly on private jets to conferences on global warming?

This country every day gets filled more and more with half-truths. To me this is so much more dangerous than outright lies. The only way to see through them is to question their action and look what the consequence would be if they did nothing or the opposite. Generally this helps to see through the smoke and mirrors they put up. Companies will fail if you don't give them money, the economy will struggle if banks fail, people will have a hard time getting loans if the banks fail. These are all truths - plain and simple. What makes them half-truth is the other side of the argument. When giant companies fail there are generally many, many small companies that will jump in and take over and get a chance that they never had, the economy had good years and bad - sort of like someone exhaling and it is is normal for things to go up and down, if we don't have access to easy money then maybe we will start to realize that material things aren't everything and we will get away from this country of bigger and better.

Ask questions, debate and vote with your heart. The truth is out there it makes more sense than anything a politician will tell you. There are few things more powerful and more important in this world than the truth and it is something I will spend the rest of my life looking for.

Secrets, Secrets hurt someone

I have had the a little line from "the office" in my head for the last week, so I think it's time to write a little about it. I have more questions that I need to get down more than anything. I have been reading for the last year or so about secret societies, mystical things and noticed especially in the past week that my life has revolved around secrets. The question that has been stuck in my head is why do things have to be secret?

Why were thousands of books destroyed and/or hidden in the last 2000 years. In terms of ancient mysteries, secret societies and such it seems to be from the viewpoint of people who write that are interested in those times and peoples that groups of other people didn't agree with what they were doing so they just destroyed everything they could find that wasn't in line with their own thoughts.

With secrets in general most of the time people who hear them have a difficult time keeping them to themselves.

With personal secrets kept in ones own heart they have the power to drive people to insanity if they are not shared. If they aren't shared it also seems that at some point in the future people who do things in secret generally get outed or those secrets become public for everyone to see. I've found this to be true in my life and discoved this "secret" in a painful fashion.

So why are the secrets of some so well kept, while other secrets become public knowledge? Why did so many of the people around me have to find out about all the secrets I had? Is it the quality of the secret that determines the outcome?

Why have secrets then, why can't everything be public knowledge? I sort of know the answer to that one. If more than a few people knew about my interest in secrets societies and ancient mystery teachings I have a strong feeling that I would be looked down on or at least judged for my thoughts. Since my identity here is only know to a few people who know me well enough to know that I have a hunger for the truth of matters I can reveal some of these things without worrying too much about what they think of me.

There I go creating another secret...

This world tends to be so backward sometimes. What is considered to be public knowledge many times is not the full truth. What is secret a lot of the times is the truth. If the American public fully understood what has happened to their contries economy and why I think there would be a revolutionary war. Instead there is a bunch of half-truth which is just as bad as a lie.

It's my belief that half-truth is a much more dangerous, damaging beast compared to an outright, bald-faced lie. What is interesting is that people who conceal truth by telling a half-truth are lying to themselves.

What all of this means to me I can't really say right now, but it is an important thing and something that I need to work out.