Friday - Feb. 23, 2024 - A man and 1,000 bees

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Good morning!

I usually write the “Flashback Fridays” section in the last newsletter of every week. And some days (like today) I come across the greatest little anecdotes that get preserved on paper. Who knows whether John's parents laughed about it at the time. But 74 years later, John himself was happy to share the story— and one imagines he did so with a smile on his face.

– Grace

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NEWS

A man and his 1,000 bees

Loren Muth knows bees aren’t pets. He doesn’t go around trying to pet the bees that lurk on the flowers in his yard or mourn their deaths each and every year.

And with 1,000 of the little things buzzing around his yard, he certainly doesn’t know all their names. But if they’re not quite pets, the insects Muth calls his “little guys” also are far from strangers. 

Muth owns their homes and helps ensure they have enough food. In return, the bees do their own share of work and keep his ever-growing garden, well, continually growing.

“They’re like little independent winged cats,” Muth said. “They do their own thing. I’m here to make sure they’ve got a nice place to live and if they want to come around me then they can.”

A dozen years ago, as he sought to bring life back to his home’s mostly vacant yard, Muth bought his first mason bee “house” from an online listing.

Today, those bees—or, rather, their descendants—help Muth grow a range of vegetables and fruits, and keep his grocery bills down. They’ve also helped bring a dose of nature back to his Chilliwack neighbourhood, while being seemingly perfect, unstinging yardmates.

• On the weekend, Muth will speak about his bees at a workshop at Minter Gardens in Chilliwack. Today, Tyler talks to Muth about sharing his property with his many tiny gardeners.

Related

Need to Know

🏠️ BC’s new budget included several new housing initiatives, including a tax break for first time buyers and a home-flipping tax [Global]

🍻 KPU beer students have released a new Czech-style dark lager [Langley Advance Times]; We profiled the KPU beer school in 2021 [FVC]

💵 New money for cancer care and funding for seniors were part of BC’s 2024 budget [Global]

🏂️ Sasquatch Mountain ski resort is planning to re-open on Feb. 29 [Sasquatch Mountain/Facebook]

🎭️ A Hope vandal’s colourful mask helped the community identify him to police [Hope Standard]

🥋 Abbotsford is sending a team of Judo athletes to the BC Winter Games [Abbotsford News]

📺️ A reality TV star shopped at the Winners in Abbotsford [Abbotsford News]

🥗 A new restaurant is planned for Chilliwack's main downtown street [Fraser Valley Today]

🚔️ A closing garage door pinned a suspect’s car during a police chase [Langley Advance Times]

📄 Mission is adjusting its new secondary suite policy [Mission Record]

🎣 BC’s biggest sporting trade show will return to Abbotsford this spring [Abbotsford News]

🔥 An online fundraiser seeks to help a family of seven that lost their Chilliwack home to fire earlier this week [Chilliwack Progress]

The Agenda

Mission’s most popular councillor won’t seek provincial seat

One of the valley’s most popular local politicians says he won’t be running in this fall’s provincial election.

Mission Coun. Jag Gill told The Current that both the BC United and BC Conservative parties had approached him to run, but that he had declined to do so. Gill was just 23 in 2018 when he topped Mission’s council polls on his first run for office. In 2022, Gill ran away with the council vote; nearly three-quarters of all voters cast a ballot for Gill. By the time all ballots were counted, Gill had received nearly 5,000 votes, nearly 2,000 more than the second-highest vote-getter. 

The opposition parties would have been hoping Gill would run in the Abbotsford-Mission riding, which is currently held by NDP MLA (and BC’s Agriculture Minister) Pam Alexis. Alexis will be hard to beat come the fall given provincial polling numbers, and the way the borders of her riding have been redrawn.

Gill’s vote tallies suggested he might have a better shot than anyone to seize her seat. But Gill told The Current that he thinks he can make more of a difference serving at the municipal level.

“For me, I’m dedicated locally to our community and fixing our foundation so I have no plans of running at this time either provincially or federally.”

We’ll have a preview of the races to come in Abbotsford-Mission and other central Fraser Valley ridings next week. Last week, we previewed the coming races in Chilliwack.

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💾 Flashback Friday

The SS Reliance, pictured here at Yale in 1878, proved to be one of the most successful steamers on the Fraser River during the gold rush. The sternwheeler was launched from Victoria under Captain William Irving in 1868 to plenty of fanfare.

During the celebrations after the steamer’s launch, Captain Irving’s eight-year-old son, John, “imbibed freely” of the champagne on offer and had to be carried home sick by his father’s quartermaster. His mother, worried, called the doctor. The physician quickly figured out what was wrong with the small boy. But John, telling this story to a historian more than 70 years later, said the doctor never told Mrs. Irving the reason for her son’s misadventure.

🗓 Things to do

🎻 Quartet concert: The Rose Gellert String Quartet will perform at the Langley Community Music School on Friday, Feb. 23. Details and tickets online.

🐝 Bees! Minter Gardens in Chilliwack is holding a class on welcoming mason bees to your garden this spring on Saturday, Feb. 24. Details online.

🫀 Heart health fundraiser: Step Up 4 Cardiac Health, a fundraiser for the cardiac unit at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital, challenges participants to climb the stairs at the Abbotsford Centre on Sunday, Feb. 25. Details online.

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