In a message dated 4/11/00 9:23:48 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] (Ted Hancock)  writes:

> I've been trying to imagine the Shangri-La that some of you have alluded to
>  in which there are no government bureaucrats and we can move hives from
> southern
>  Mexico to northern Canada.  I expect somebody would move 4000 hives in and
>  grab my honey crop, but then I'd be able to truck down and make a fortune
on
>  almond pollination so it would all be fair.  I got a little depressed
> picturing
>  myself some Sunday afternoon staring at a wall in the Hotel California,
> drinking
>  4% beer.  Didn't seem right risking death by traffic accident or a heart
> attack
>  from stress when I could be home lying in my hammock by the creek playing
> with
>  my kids, ignoring my wife and drinking 5% beer.  But then I brightened up
> thinking
>  at least there'd be some point to my life.  I'd be a living testament to
the
>  value of free will and the banishment of bureaucrats.
>
>  10-4, keep on trucking

    I love it, Ted!   You are a gifted writer.

    But the number of private responses I've gotten is an expression of how
frustrated many beekeepers are.  Most of the trucking is for pollination, not
honey, though it's nice to make some honey too.  And pollination operates on
an intense schedule. When the blossoms open, the only death in the family
that counts as an excuse to not be there, is your own.

     Maybe we pollination beekeepers are a bunch of whackos, but few would
put up with being far from home in a cheap motel (or sleeping in the truck),
unless they were convinced that what they do has real value.

     I grew up in agriculture; my parents had a sense of the worth of what
they did; feeding folks is an important job.  And I have seen starving
people.  So, I guess I get on my soapbox easily....

Dave Green
The Pollination Home Page:   http://pollinator.com