Earth Day – April 22nd – Howards' Hives and Honey

Do you celebrate Earth Day? If you know our family, we’ll look for any reason to celebrate. Earth Day is a fun one because it can be so simple. It seems fitting that we brought our first two nucs of bees home right around Earth Day last year. Prior to bees we might make a dirt cake to enjoy, go camping for the weekend, plant a tree, do an Earth Day craft, watch the Lorax or another nature/educational show. Earth Day is a great day to get outdoors – take a hike, go fishing (look up the free fishing days in your state – they might be coming up), visit a park (did you know all 4^th graders get a free National Parks Pass https://www.nationalparks.org/our-work/campaigns-initiatives/every-kid-outdoors), take pictures of spring flowers, pick up litter, put out a bird feeder. Invite nature into your life and appreciate the miracles that we tend to look past on a daily basis. It’s also a good time to remind ourselves to not leave the water running, turn off the lights and other electronics when not in use. Remember that saying “reduce, reuse, recycle”? Maybe take the day to reconsider the use of weed killers on your spring yard, dig out those reusable grocery bags, or give some thought to a garden and/or compost pile. There are so many practical options when it comes to celebrating Earth Day.

Shortly after Earth Day comes Arbor Day…April 29th. If you didn’t plant a tree for Earth Day you have a second opportunity in honor of Arbor Day. Sometimes it’s fun to order seedlings and distribute to others in celebration of Earth Day or Arbor Day (https://mdc.mo.gov/trees-plants/tree-seedlings/order-seedlings). If you are interested, you can research organizations that are dedicated to the cause…you can volunteer and/or get involved. Your local zoo or botanical garden might also host fun events for Earth Day that you could check out. Some have a lot of fun with options through their local conservation department…for example, putting together a stream team (https://mostreamteam.org). A little research and you will find there are often volunteer opportunities or free educational programs to participate in. Here in Missouri you can sign up for free educational magazines for yourself (https://mdc.mo.gov/magazines/missouri-conservationist) and kids (https://mdc.mo.gov/magazines/xplor). With so many options there’s something for everyone!

Since getting our bees we have fun sending out a little note each Earth Day with seed packets in it.