The rest of my trip to GP
Was great, but damn exhausting. I spent one day driving out to High Prairie, to visit an apiary. Rachel and I were surrounded by bees as I conducted the interview. She married into the family and has decided to expand and change the family business by creating honey related body care products for sale. I have some of her lavender honey balm and it's really great. It's in a solid stick so I can easily spread it on my skin.
The following day, I took off for Peace River. On the way to Peace River, I stopped in at a farm to do a story about leaf cutter bees. These bees are necessary for alfalfa pollination. The bees basically make little nests out of leaves and lay their larvae in there as part of their life cycle. Then they fly about and pollinate the alfalfa and lay more larvae. They are smaller than honey bees and don't produce any honey. It was pretty interesting. Then I had to stay in Peace River for several hours before I had my second interview of the day. This interview was with a young couple who have decided to convert their farm into a tree farm. They plant trees as people buy carbon offsets. They've done the work and have a great business plan and a lot of connections to promote their business. It's a neat succession plan.
Since I had to interview them in the evening, this meant that I got back to GP very late at night. Fortunately, my interview was cancelled, so I had a day off and watched Harry Potter 6 and wrote some stories for work.
I then got to eat at the new Chinese food place in GP. They had real Chinese food. Let me repeat- REAL CHINESE FOOD. And dim sum! It was amazing! I would have cried with joy if it had opened while I was living there.
I spent the last three days staying with family friends, which meant I got to cuddle their Yorkshire terrier and spend a lot of time catching up. Laura, the female half of the couple, is a professional artist and she teaches at the college in GP. She is doing a very cool art project about bringing green back to the parking lot. She has created greenhouses in four cars which are placed on a lot in GP. The cars are filled with dirt and native species of plants. It's really quite amazing, and people's reactions to the cars was fun to watch.
On Thursday, I drove back to Edmonton. I was happy to arrive home, but had a ton of work to catch up on when I got back. I'm still shovelling myself out from the pile of work and chores.
The following day, I took off for Peace River. On the way to Peace River, I stopped in at a farm to do a story about leaf cutter bees. These bees are necessary for alfalfa pollination. The bees basically make little nests out of leaves and lay their larvae in there as part of their life cycle. Then they fly about and pollinate the alfalfa and lay more larvae. They are smaller than honey bees and don't produce any honey. It was pretty interesting. Then I had to stay in Peace River for several hours before I had my second interview of the day. This interview was with a young couple who have decided to convert their farm into a tree farm. They plant trees as people buy carbon offsets. They've done the work and have a great business plan and a lot of connections to promote their business. It's a neat succession plan.
Since I had to interview them in the evening, this meant that I got back to GP very late at night. Fortunately, my interview was cancelled, so I had a day off and watched Harry Potter 6 and wrote some stories for work.
I then got to eat at the new Chinese food place in GP. They had real Chinese food. Let me repeat- REAL CHINESE FOOD. And dim sum! It was amazing! I would have cried with joy if it had opened while I was living there.
I spent the last three days staying with family friends, which meant I got to cuddle their Yorkshire terrier and spend a lot of time catching up. Laura, the female half of the couple, is a professional artist and she teaches at the college in GP. She is doing a very cool art project about bringing green back to the parking lot. She has created greenhouses in four cars which are placed on a lot in GP. The cars are filled with dirt and native species of plants. It's really quite amazing, and people's reactions to the cars was fun to watch.
On Thursday, I drove back to Edmonton. I was happy to arrive home, but had a ton of work to catch up on when I got back. I'm still shovelling myself out from the pile of work and chores.