The calm hum of the bee yard, which is very loud and first and gradually fades into the background

The insignificance you feel around thousands of bees going about their day-to-day

Finding the queen at first glance on the first frame in a hive, and the quiet confidence that comes from that. Then, in the very next hive, spending a full 15 minutes going through every single frame to find the queen and feeling humbled. You can never get too comfortable beekeeping. 

Looking up and realizing the whole yard of 64 hives is done and that, somehow, a full hour has passed in the blink of an eye. 

Coming home after a long day of sweaty work to mow my grandma’s grass until the sun comes down. Feeling a part of something bigger in the family. 

Taking lunch into the field and sitting down in some grass with the crew talking about life. 

Watching the river of honey flow by at the bottom of the extracting line

Wondering how frames can be so impossibly full and heavy with honey

Sorting frames and cleaning them for the next year, knowing that it is the next year (and the next year and the next year) that counts

The optimism that next year will always be the biggest year yet, and that everything is always falling into place