It’s all about passion!
David Paeth - Founder, President, Sole Staff Member
I don’t remember exactly when it happened, but somewhere around a decade or so ago, for my birthday, my staff gave me a gift basket containing all the items needed to educate one about bees. It had books, trinkets, and a couple of basic tools. I guess that at some point, in a previous staff meeting, I said something about how we would all be more efficient and productive if we took a lesson from honeybees. This happened around my 25th year as a college administrator.
Fortunately, I was able to retire shortly after that at an age young enough to still heft around 60 pound sections of beehives.
My next life passion was beekeeping.
At first, I dabbled. Then, I got involved in the local garden club’s apiary which was a great learning experience. It was pretty much a full-time passion for me when my wife gave me a water bottle that said, “I don’t always talk about bees . . . OK, maybe I do!”
My passion has now grown into multiple bee yards with a lot more hives than I ever imagined. But it is my passion.
First and foremost, this venture is all about the honeybees and pollinators in general. It’s not just titillating news bites . . . pollinators are in trouble. There are multiple more threats today than when I first got started a decade ago. I’ll not go into the details, but suffice to know that I’m doing everything I can to keep happy and healthy pollinators thriving. I’m also able to fulfill my undying need to teach and educate through speaking engagements and seminars.
So I have taken on the project of Sweet Sadie Honey Farm out of a passion for bees. Not so much for the money, but for the passion (but the money certainly helps pay for the passion). I half jokingly state that each year, after I do my books, I made a profit of $12.57 . . . which is really not too far from the truth.
With all my heart I say thank you for supporting pollinators and passions!
So Who Was Sadie?
Sadie was our Golden Retriever and she was a rescue. She came to us as a very scared but very lovable girl. We were told by Love A Golden rescue (great people doing great things in the St. Louis region) that she was a mid-Missouri drive off. That means that for some reason she couldn’t be taken care of anymore, so people drive through the countryside and look for a farm that looks like they may accept a dog. Then, the dog gets kicked out of the vehicle, and they drive off. The hope is that the farmers accept the abandoned dog.
Yea, that’s really sad.
Fortunately, Sadie was turned over to Love A Golden, and we gave her a forever home.
She was maybe three years old, scared of everything, but craving love . . . of which she got a lot.
Over the next ten years she became the most loving and caring dog. She absolutely loved everybody and everybody loved her (except maybe the squirrels on our property).
So why call it Sweet Sadie Honey? Well, she had a special pact with our bees. Something to know about honeybees is that they don’t like any animal that looks like they could tear their hive apart (think bear). Sadie looked like a gold bear. But for some crazy reason, she would be with me on all of my hive visits and never had an issue. I might have taken a few stings or so across the course of a day, but she would sniff the hive entrance, walk around the hives with me, and nothing. They loved her too!
When she passed, I upheld the long-time tradition of “Telling of the Bees”.
For centuries, it is important that when either the beekeeper, or some close family member passes, the bees need to be “told of the passing”. Otherwise, they will recognize the loss and abandon their hive.
Have to admit, it was one of the most difficult “tellings” I’ve ever done.
That’s why it’s Sweet Sadie Honey.
Telling the Bees
But What About Mad Dog?
Ahh, and then there’s Maddie.
Yup, she’s a Covid rescue dog. The minute we met here we knew that we were her forever home . . . but not without challenges!
Before the challenges, it’s important to know that we are her 7th home for this, at the time, two year old dog. Yup, that in itself says “challenge”.
She screamed loyal, loving and caring from the get go. Sound familiar? Same traits as Sadie.
But this one is a whole different set of genetics. Sadie was 100% Red Golden Retriever. Our son bought us a genetic test for Maddie and she is a hodge podge. Mostly Terriers, with more than enough Cattle Dog and Miniature Pincher to make her REALLY interesting.
At two years of her “forever home” she is finally dialing in.
But there is the first two years of behaviors:
-Shadow: Jump across the room!
-Door Bell: I’m ripping someones head OFF!
-Old but new to her friends in the house: Do you mind if I bite your hand?
-Sure I have to poop . . .Why tell you in advance when I have this big house?
-And we could go on and on.
BUT, going into our third year she has become WAY more confident. Loves everyone- but only if they first feed her tons of treats.
She has also done another amazing thing . . . She somehow seems to be channelling Sadie.
It’s not that she’s one with the bees. It’s a long way from that and a story that is probably a great future blog post. But as she gets more and more comfortable and confident, we are discovering that this dog that had to endure six homes before us in her short years is one AMAZING DOG!
So for all of the crazy background issues facing Maddie, how could we not call our Signature Hot Honey anything but . . . Mad Dog Honey!
A great mixture of sweet and hot!
The moment Maddie found out she was going to her “Forever” home
To stay limber, she practices the Downward Dog pose.