Egidio is always checking Craigslist. He actually has his phone set up to receive an alert when something he is looking for gets posted. I didn’t even know you could do that.

So we were looking for a used honey extractor. We wanted a good one since we plan to expand the Apiary dramatically in the Spring.

There were a few posted, but the one that caught our eye came with lots of accessories. I had Egidio call the guy since he is better at the whole Craigslist thing than I am. It was a man named George who had retired from farming after 70 years of raising cattle and bees. He and Egidio had a very lengthy conversation…. and I mean lengthy!

That weekend we drove to Georges house in Massachusetts to get the extractor. Little did we know we had found ourselves a new friend.

George and his wife live on a meticulously maintained farm. George had some very serious health issues the year before that forced him to retire from the only life he had ever known. We found ourselves spending hours talking to George about his farm, the cattle, the bees, his equipment, his children and his new life now that he was retired. George is genuinely a kind soul.

That day, we bought his bee equipment, he even threw in a bunch of bee keeping supplies. We have gone back to see George and his wife and we plan to see them again. They will be joining us for dinner at our farm in the very near future. George wants to see what we have gotten ourselves into. George has decades of farming experience and stories to tell…. and we need all the advice we can get. You can’t put a price on that kind of friendship.