Mid-June 2014

Re-Education
Three, perhaps four weeks ago I made a commitment to put about 60 hours into some online education re-freshing.  During my 27-year gig I was responsible for all information technology for a seventy-five year old firm that did about $750 million in business each year.  It was a lot of work and ate up most of my time.  About seven years ago we started a "lean process improvement" program.  Based on the work at Honda that revolutionized the manner in which companies measured defects, implemented rapid change and brought superior products and services to customers it was also a challenge.  During my three year tenure we made many improvements and were able to change the product delivery process dramatically...and improve sales and profits.

Early work at Motorola plays into this space in approaches to defect reduction that fall under the moniker of Six Sigma.  My commitment was to re-visit some of the Six Sigma foundations and write an article for publication blending Six Sigma, Lean Process Improvement, Information Technology (my strong experience) and commercial construction.

I need to get back on track on this effort.

Beekeeping
One of my reader commented that beekeeping is interesting.  That is correct.  I've been a beekeeper for 49 years and I still learn new things.  At the risk of turning this into a beekeeping book I'll abstain from visiting all my favorite topics.  But....I will talk about a farmer friend of mine.  He milked cows for many years, spending quality time with his 200 cows twice a day.  As he added a milking parlor and an addition to his barn to add 100 cows and go to three-times-a-day milking his adult son said "I'm tired of this and walked away."  My friend sold the cows, a sad day for any dairyman.  The upside to the story is that he, too, found beekeeping interesting, and now has several hundred colonies and sells his honey in more than 100 retail outlets including regional and national firms.  He's 74 and spends most of his time in the same barn that held his dairy career.  I have two favorite questions and answers.  "How did you get the cow smell out of the barn?"  "I washed it until it did not smell."  "Beekeeping is a lot of work.  Did you know that?"  "You've never milked 200 cows have you?"

We chat every month or so on his farm.  Lady the farm dog no longer barks at me and runs to get some attention.  His sweet wife waves and me and shows me her flowers.  We talk about bees, our apple trees, changing weather patterns, his longhorn cattle, the importance of honesty, hard work and humor, a lot of things really, all standing in a barn that no longer smells like cows.  Two weeks ago his brother died unexpectedly.  We talked of life and of unexpected death and then I gave this new friend of just a few years a hug.  I have relatives I've never hugged.  Beekeeping has been good for both of us.