The Most Important Part of the Day.

Your Self-Care Practice

So being my first substack , I think it’s best to introduce myself, my name is Traci Mitchell, I am a yogini beekeeping witch Goddess, (I know crazy long title) and my husband Guy (Woodworker, Coach, Permaculture Moto Man) and my friendly cartoon honey bomb named Boomer. We like to spread Joy, Loe and happiness around the world, one blog at a time. We offer fun illustrations each week plus advice on how to take care of yourself, whether its thru a podcast we have found or a new asana posture I have unlocked or good ol’ homestead and food growing tips. Life is too short to not commit to the things you want. So self care tip number one: Know your values and decide how you want to interact with your day because today is all you have, so take a breath in and breathe out and discover you can control the rest.

I want to commit to a writing practice so here I am starting my substack and maybe a long the way I can earn a new community and teach all my new followers a thing or two about how to take care of themselves better.

So, Exciting news, I just finished my book Do Yoga Do You: Elevating Life with Daily Yoga Practice and Self-Care Rituals (coming soon) and Boomer, my cartoon honey bomb is apart of the story and I have decided it best to keep his life and story alive by sharing more about our journey and our purpose. You see, Being that I am a beekeeper of 7 years, Boomer is made out of honey, but he also grows and shares microgreen (knowledge) out of the top of his head, my husband is a woodworker and runs his own company, Carbon Based Designs, based in Denver and we also happen to be pretty good farmers (We ran a microgreens farm from 2018-2020 and also wrote an ebook The Superfood Growers Guide (free on Kindle Unlimited.) We loving teaching others how to grow microgreens and apparently 9 ft ganja plants, just kidding, but not really, if you tuned into our latest podcast episode #91 of High P.E. you may smell what I am talking about.

So as we move forward in time and with this new daily substack, I hope all our followers subscribe to support our efforts and find our content useful. Please comment, like and share and we would love to cater to your self-care, beekeeping, woodworking, microgreens growing and homesteading questions and needs.

The Part about the Bees

Too give you a little taste of what to expect in future Substacks let’s first address the bug in the backyard, my honey bees. To my past, present and future neighbors I apologize I left the harvest honey frames out and caused a feeding robbing frenzy, but I am not sorry my bees are amazing cleaners and will lick up every last drop of honey my human hands and tools didn’t get off the frames. Just kidding, I haven’t harvested any honey this year. However, this did happen a few years ago and it’s a simple remedy, just leave them alone, let them lick up the honey and put the frames away when the sun goes down. It’s usually a 24 hour clean up job, thanks honey bees.  As for feeding your bees simple syrup, PLEASE STOP THIS PRACTICE, especially if you are a backyard beekeeper. My investigations from Rudolph Steiner’s lectures is simple syrup and nectar are just not the same and we are destroying honey bee gut and their immune systems with the act of feeding them a liquid that seems like honey but more like a can of soda.  Biologically nectar and honey are closer to monosaccharides and table sugar/ simple syrup are disaccharides. I am no scientist, but this little bit of logical information intuitively hits me right in the gut and I don’t want to feed my bees simple syrup ever even if their survival depends on it. I don’t want to live in a world where beekeepers don’t leave the honey bees the very food source they created, I want to have a balanced relationship with the honeybees,  if their is an abundance take the offering and if you live in a temperate climate (harvest in spring after they survive the winter, trust me the honey tastes better after it cures over the cold months, but please don’t take all their honey because it’s simply there, and replace their food with simple syrup as the replacement. The honey bee is a magnificent insect and she deserves our respect.  I am excited to share more about how the hive mind operates and how we are way more connected to these insects than you may think.

If you are wondering what the better practice is if you absolutely have to feed bees if they didn’t make honey, I offer my bees, bananas instead of pollen patties (One reason to stop supporting commercial productions and operating habits) and I also offer homemade “honey bee healthy”candy boards instead of simple syrup to a potential starving colony. (I only feed if they are dry). My train of thought is honey bees don’t store hard candy, they do store simple syrup. So as someone wanting pure honey, I don’t want to consider the idea that simple syrup could be in my frames. The candy board is food for survival, the bananas are protein/magnesium supplement for the brood and I consider them resources the bees need if they are needing a boost. I also want to live in an eco-system where I don’t need to offer the bees supplement feeding; however, I will feed according to each hives needs. Another bonus, no simple syrup in my life and beekeeping practices means, less mess, less waste, less cost, and the candy boards can be stored for later use once the flow is back, or spring is back depending on where you live.

Tune in next week and I’ll share more about my experience with feeding bees Super DFM Probiotics and bananas in the fall.

The part about High PE

So my husband Guy and I run a Podcast High Permaculture Entrepreneurs (High P.E. for short) we have done 91 episodes. “Each week”, is the goal but we have been quite stoners about pressing record this year. We are making it a weekly Tuesday AM commitment in Q4 of 2024, so tune in and please like share, subscribe and comment so we can start building a fan base.

We drink some coffee or crack a beer, plus smoke a blunt and share all the happenings of our fun, weird world. We grow backyard weed all summer and we love talking about our entrepreneur endeavors, bees, woodworking, yoga lessons and more from our mouths to your ears. Tune in while ya tune out each week with us. Go listen to Episode #91 9ft Ganja Plant

The Part about Woodworking

So, Guy and I are excited about the micro cutting boards coming out of the woodshop, go buy one in the Etsy shop now for $40. It’s cute, we have had couple date days with each other working on these together. He is the woodworking “master” and I have always considered myself his “su-builder” and I was excited to help and learn how to make these cute little cutting boards. They are perfect for your citrus and quick cutting needs. I have even taken ours hiking for a tiny charcuterie board.

He just delivered a custom live walnut shelf to one of his clients. Click here to request a free quote on your next custom project. He is working on the benches of Adventure van #2 and his fall books are open for custom woodworking projects, we are based in Denver for all your woodworking services and needs.

The Part about Homesteading and Food

DYK? You don’t have to have a piece of land to homestead. And it’s that time of year where you should be reaching out to your local apple tree growers. I have a buddy, Fred, in Arvada, who has a dozen or so Apple Trees on his land and he lets us come pick apples for FREE. I use these free apples to make a couple gallons of ACV for the winter supply and any additional apples I make apple crisps and maybe a pie.  My other neighbor grows lots of other fruits and vegetables in her community garden plot and I park some of my bees in her yard. I trade for my pollination service and once and awhile I walk away with more apples, plums, grapes and I offer her a jar of honey or two. My husband and I grow edible flowers, various lettuce varieties, about 20-40 lbs of tomatoes each year (we use for pizza sauce) and we also grow our own backyard marijuana. One of our plants is 9ft tall that was a self seeder from 2023 backyard weed, lol.

Also, We are excited to be sharing with you each week some microgreens growing tips. The first step to growing microgreens is starting, so go buy our ebook the superfood growers guide or download for free, with kindle unlimited) so you can learn the bascis and then start. My favorite and easiest varieties to grow is Pea Shoots and Sunflowers.

The Self-Care Part

So the most important part, the self care part, have you done any self care today? Seriously, you have two minutes to change your mind. That’s all it takes, 8 breaths in and out, maybe a few more for you to see that you have everything you need. Everything after becomes a luxury.

Your breath will unleash your unlimited potential, so slow down, get still, and use breathing as a tool that elevates you. Our vibrations rise and fall with each aware breath. If we are here to be our best selves, then, let your breath be your guiding force to reach your purpose.

I highly recommend reading and/or listening to this book: LIFE with BREATH: IQ + EQ = NEW YOU by Ed Harrold. Ed will teach and guide you all about your breath in 30 days of various breath-work techniques and routines. This book is for all levels of awareness. A child would need guidance but that’s what you are for.

As we part this week, enjoy a boomer drawing from my book Do Yoga Do You and feel free to download, print out and use it as a notepad.