I'm 50 years old,
and I've been married to my husband Jeff for 28 years. I live in Harpswell, Maine with our Rottwiler Otto.
I have been a cosmetologist for 31 years working for salons in Gorham, Portland, Bath and Brunswick,
Maine. In June of 2000 I opened Shear Body Hair Studio & Spa in Bath, where I stayed for 3 years. I moved the salon
to it's present location near Bowdoin College in the summer of 2004 and have worked there for the last 8 years.
I have enjoyed gardening most of my adult life, and over the last 20 years have changed
the landscape all around my home. What was once pretty much barren is now filled with flowers, bushes, fruits & vegetables,
rock collections, birds and whimsical creatures of all sorts. I am the "crazy garden lady" who talks to the plants,
bugs, birds, snakes, worms, you name it. I LOVE nature!
In the spring of 2010 I built my first bee hives and raised what I hoped to be the first of many Honey Bee
colonies. My first year proved to be a very interesting one, as I learned a great deal. One colony is not like another. One
was strong, the other was not, the weaker of the two needed to be re-Queened and supplemented with healthy frames of bees
and brood from my strong hive. It helped very little and ultimately the two colonies were combined in the late fall to give
all the bees a chance at winter survival. And they did. Survive that is. They came through the winter, but were a small and
weak colony. Today (7/13/11) they still struggle and my hope for Honey from that hive is just that, a hope. Now ...
the new colony I started this spring is a different story. It is a healthy and robust colony! I'm counting on 40-50 pounds
of Honey from it. (Please girls, don't let me down). S0 ... if all goes
well, my "girls" honey will be available in September.
The summer of 2009 I was given an opportunity
to sell my home made jams, at Brunswick Variety & Deli (the store next
door to my salon Shear Body Hair Studio & Spa). Over the past 25 years I've gone from making just strawberry jam to
growing my own fruit for over 5 different kinds of jam. Folks from the neighborhoods who go to BVD's also got a chance
to buy some of my homemade needhams, fudge, cookies and pies during the Thanksgiving
and Christmas Holidays.
