Upon starting my position as the Apiculture Research and Extension Associate with Kentucky State University, the amount of challenges I would face operating and providing the services of KSU's Mobile Autoclave, (a mobile autoclave used to sterilize bee equipment), quickly became evident.  A unique, physically demanding and popular service provided for Kentucky beekeepers, the autoclave would require quite a bit of maintenance before being operational and road-ready due to sitting for such a long period of time and being exposed to the elements.  Additionally, it would take a considerable amount of time to educate myself on the processes for acquiring supplies and equipment in order to just begin providing this service that had idled over the past several years for various reasons.  Regardless of the strife that would be, I immediately began making repairs and performing maintenance on the mobile autoclave with the intentions of resurrecting this service and improving such to a level that it had yet to experience since its development.  

     "One step forward...two steps back..." appeared to be the mantra that I began operating by with my diligence to reestablish KSU's Mobile Autoclave service.  For, every small victory was met with the discovery of multiple issues, all the while continuously draining the full tank of optimism I had roughly maintained at the start of this journey.  Approximately a month after my entry, I had learned that the autoclave was developed, designed and constructed using Kentucky Agriculture Development Funds, totaling an estimated $83,000 to complete.   “$83,000?” I thought to myself while tossing some random numbers within my head among the hysteria that is a direct product of managing this service.   With each cycle that is completed using the autoclave, an average value of $2200 worth of bee equipment can be successfully sterilized.  Within 6 months, could John Haney actually sterilize a value amount of bee equipment totaling more than the costs associated with building the mobile autoclave? Considering all matters up to this point in my short term with KSU, my confidence would take a tremendous beating before this goal could actually be achieved.

     Late in the evening of January 5^th, 2020, exactly six months and three days since I began my journey with Kentucky State University, I removed the last deep hive body from the autoclave for that particular event.  While traveling home, my curiosity began to peak in regards to the dollar amount of bee equipment that had been sterilized within the time frame since I had accepted the position as KSU’s Apiculture Research and Extension Associate.  Was this it?   Was there a chance that I actually surpassed the $83,000 goal?  Upon arriving home and prior to nursing the exhaustion from operating the autoclave for this event, I began calculating the total value of bee equipment that had been sterilized.   When combined with the comprehensive total, it was discovered that a grand total of $91,680 worth of bee equipment had been sterilized since my start, surpassing the value of the mobile autoclave.  In summary, regardless of the challenges experienced, the KSU Mobile Autoclave service had been resurrected after a significant length of downtime, has successfully sterilized a total value of bee equipment surpassing the value of construction of the autoclave in six months and has directly contributed to the ever increasing challenge of the prevention of bee diseases.