Junior Trinity Miles spends most of her free time enjoying the world around her. She spends her time outside of school gardening, reading and watching Animal Planet. However, one of Miles’ hobbies is quite different than most high schoolers. Last spring, Miles and her family took up beekeeping, and she’s loved it ever since.

Miles and her family have one colony of bees, and the hive is a box that, according to Miles, “looks like a long bird home.” They also plan to get more beehives in the future.

Miles plans to eventually sell the honey her family’s bees produce, but plans to wait a few years for her colony to grow to be able to produce a larger, more reliable amount for packaging and selling.

The bees also help with the pollination of Miles’ garden, where she grows tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, watermelon, jalapenos, pumpkins and green beans.

“We have the bees mostly just to harvest honey, but they help pollinate the garden,” Miles said.

Miles goes out to the back of her six acres of property in Olathe once a month to check on the colony and has yet to be stung.

The Miles family has also started focusing on eating a natural and local diet, in which the food is fresh and healthy.

“We are trying to make a self-reliant lifestyle, trying to spend less on groceries and eating local,” Miles said.

Her family also owns chickens that lay fresh eggs that they use to cook and bake with.

Along her new healthy eating lifestyle, Miles has a new look. Many people have noticed Miles’ bold new haircut, which is buzzed short. Miles cut off her long thick hair on Feb. 23 of this year.

“I shaved my head because I got a bad haircut,” Miles said. “I have always had long hair that I could tuck behind my ears, so I just wanted something new. I never did anything with my hair other than put it in a ponytail.”

Miles plans to donate the approximate 11 inches of her hair to a charity that makes wigs for patients who have lost their hair due to illness.