Have you ever heard the quote:
“Don’t judge an experience to be good or bad. Instead, ask ‘Is it INTERESTING?'”
Hello there! My name is Ana, and I enthusiastically look forward to sharing my new hobby of beekeeping at “Looney Tunes Farmette” (as my family nicknamed our property), here in mountainous North Carolina. I’ve lived here since 2020 with my husband, and we currently have two ducks (Lil Quacker and Dewy), Obi the cat, two beehives, and a lot of wildlife. We own a small property with woods, a creek, a 35’x 35’ pond, and a garden area. Every single day has something funny or interesting to relate.
I did not grow up around bee husbandry, but being raised in the Colorado mountains and having nature play many roles in my life, it only seems natural that I would become a beekeeper one day.
I grew up in an animated, God-fearing family where respect for elders and doing daily chores was expected out of young ones. Lessons were learned the simple way, nature’s way, or even the hard way (for those of us with a stubborn streak). We shared the mountains with bear, cougar, and fox. I read books and wrote stories instead of watching tv. We cooked from scratch, not boxed foods. We went wood-cutting in the summer and chopped wood in the winter for the wood stove. And we lived at a time when traditional Mexican restaurants were all the new rage, and smothered beef burritos became my favorite food. These seemingly random facts would build into my adventurous spirit and, in some way, motivate me with later life decisions.
I love learning and the apprentice/mentor roles! I’m a “hands-on” person who fancies the doing, not just watching, even if it means risking looking like an idiot at times. I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned, either to educate others from my experiences or at least give a hearty laugh and make someone feel better. I find fulfillment as a student, a teacher, or a healer, and many of my roles in life reflect that.
Because of that (and a high likelihood of ADHD), I have held many types of jobs from teacher (everything from fitness and cycling to the Bible and language), apprentice (coffee brewing- way before the Starbucks days, pottery making, Spanish language, nutrition, mountain biking, WFR (Wilderness First Responder), banking, and haircutting- to name just a few) to “therapist” for my many soul-sisters.
Where I’ve lived
I was born in Denver, Colorado and spent most of my time in the mountains. We lived for a decade in Bolivia, South America, surrounded by the Andes, or living in the “foothills” of the Andes. Since the nineties, I have visited family on the Space Coast in Florida, and during an eight-year period, we also lived there part-time . Now, we reside next to the Great Smoky Mountains. Our life has been filled with adventures, countless stories, and amazing people.
I’m an avid lover of nature, being interested in plants, herbs, vitamins, and more. I am happiest out-doors enjoying work, animals, and everything nature has to offer. That being said, my favorite place to sleep is in a warm comfortable bed (I’m kind of a “princess and the pea” type of sleeper). Our years in Colorado included a variety of winter sports like skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, and tubing. In warmer months, you could find us engaging in activities on two wheels—such as dirt bikes, sport bikes, mountain bikes, and road bikes (I have yet to try a unicycle). We also love hiking, camping, rock climbing, and mountaineering.
(For a decade I really enjoyed competing in various mountain bike competitions (like 24 Hours of Moab) on the Sport level, which included studies of nutrition (thanks, mom, for depriving me of sugar as a kid). For training- and for fun- we did epic mountain bike and road bike rides in Colorado’s Western Slope region, and frequent 50-75 mile rides from my house in the Roaring Fork Valley. We learned endurance through our riding experiences- hot days over 100 degrees, riding in snow or mud, riding through cactus fields and getting numerous punctures, taking wrong turns and spending hours to find our way back, night rides, bonking at 12 or 13 thousand feet. And boy howdy- we had tough friends because as you can imagine, no one got sympathy if they whined or cried, haha!)
On to Bolivia
Since childhood, without actually realizing it, I was interested in the Spanish-speaking culture since I had friendships with Latinos (as Colorado is close to the Mexico border). Learning Spanish was a natural progression. In 2010, after numerous years of speaking Spanish, my husband and I decided to relocate to Bolivia, South America, as volunteer Bible instructors (something we had previously done in English for numerous years). We jumped headfirst into a new culture in a 3rd world country. Every single thing was different! From smells, sights, tastes, and sounds to customs and norms- nothing was done the same as in the US. It’s all very exciting and interesting. But you do get days when suddenly you can’t take it anymore and feel very homesick. If you push through, these “down” days pass, and life is interesting again.
We explored the country “old world style”, no cushy easy experience here! Travel is most often done by bus, and frequently overnight. The buses generally aren’t heated or air conditioned, smell rough, don’t have bathrooms, and break down regularly. Did you ever watch the 1984 film, Romancing the Stone? It’s pretty much the same bus experience that Joan has while traveling in Colombia. Time has stood still in some of these countries, and travel is unique and venturesome to the visitor (albeit normal and common to the local). You pack EVERYTHING you may need for all types of weather during your trip. But these led to some of our wildest adventures.
We climbed several tall mountains in those years, including 20,000 ft Huayna Potosi in the Andes near La Paz. I will have you know that I made it, but it was my personal Mt Everest. I won’t be doing that again, lol. I get bad high-altitude sickness (yes, even though I was born in the Mile High City). My daring husband went on to climb a few others that were 21,000 ft.
An epic bike race I did was UP the famous Death Road (Yolosa la Cumbre), which starts at 3500 feet and ends somewhere around 15,000 ft in 39 miles. It was inspiring to see cyclists from around the world, both professional and amateur, receiving support from all the teams.
We also did bike pack and camping trips, and traveled on the Inca trail several times. We visited Lake Titicaca, which is rich in history and culture dating back to Inca times. In Bolivia, there is very little private property, and if you see a point you want to hike to, you just respectfully go for it. If you get stuck somewhere, you find a road and hitch a ride with any passing vehicle that will stop (including large dump trucks filled with sand or rocks). It’s a wild world!
One huge help was meeting other international volunteers like ourselves whom we instantly had much in common with. And the humble Bolivians are such a hearty people with resilient personalities. They laugh easily, and we learned so much about appreciating the simplest things- something we all should learn to do, eh?
While we lived in Bolivia, we supported ourselves by returning to Florida to work for 3 months a year. We had a small condo three minutes’ walk to the beach, and so while I’m a mountain girl, I also love the beach life! I loved sea-turtle nesting season and watching for hatchlings, learning to surf, paddle boarding, daily looking for dolphins or manatees, and just appreciating a quick dip in ocean waves or chilling to Jimmy Buffet after a day of work.
Back to US Soil
In 2020, after living for 10 years in Bolivia, we decided to move back to the USA. We bought the aforementioned property online, never seeing it in person, and were pleased to find that it had a lot of potential. We figured, “if we could live in a 3rd world country, we could return to the US and adjust just fine,” -which we did. But, for the first time in our adventurous lives, we had a piece of property (just under 1 acre) to care for. This led to me raising two 6-day-old ducklings, adopting a couple of abandoned kittens, remodeling a cabin on our property (and subsequently listing it on Airbnb), and learning how to care for a duck/fish pond. AND, I acquired a beehive! This starts another soothing, yet bold adventure!
So my intent for this blog, along with PerfectBee and other beekeepers, is to share engaging and informative experiences, thoughts, successes, and failures particular to beekeeping. While I may not have years of experience, I am ready to learn and grow in this journey. I have learned that challenges and difficult situations, whether self-imposed or forced upon us, help us grow and change, ultimately making us better people. May the insights of this blog help your journey to be more interesting, hopeful, and happy!
