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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter September 2006 |
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Greetings from the President of the IHPA Dear Honey Producers, I am sitting at the computer at 10:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 22nd trying to write an article that makes sense. The Iowa State Fair is over, but the getting back to normal by being able to walk through the garage, honey house and our home is far from over! There are boxes and piles of items all over the place around here. If I could only take at least one more day off from work to put things away, it would be great. People stop me to ask how the fair went, if I got to see lots of the fair and if I was recovered from it. How fast should I recover? I haven’t even had a whole day at home yet. Mike and I got home around 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning. The alarm at 5:30 was not a welcomed sound. I got Mike off to work and headed back to Des Moines after I unloaded the car. We unloaded the back of the pick-up when we got home and the front when Mike went to work. I finished things in Des Moines, went back home and started to unload the camper. Tuesday was work as usual and a Farmers’ market. I am ready to go on a real vacation to get rested up. Most people think that I just finished a vacation. If the Iowa State Fair is a vacation for me, I don’t want to take a vacation. I didn’t even get to see most of the attractions this year. We had some days with too few workers to even get to eat at a decent time. The unofficial accounting is complete with our sales up from last year. Now, I need to get to work on the bills and the official numbers. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that our net sales will be up also. THANK YOU to all of you who did come to the fair to work in the IHPA sales booth. This is a member driven organization and it takes everyone working together to make things happen. It was a busy time but the weather wasn’t nearly as warm as it has been in the past. There were a few days with the humidity high, but overall the fair was relatively uneventful for us. It was a great relief when the water to make the lemonade started to run faster. When the opportunity presents itself to you, make sure you visit with both candidates for the Secretary of Agriculture position. We need to make it known to both candidates the importance of the Apiary Division in the Agriculture department. Please help us elect a candidate that will work with us and for us, the Iowa Beekeeping industry. We are a necessary and very important part of the agricultural segment of Iowa. If you are unsure of what to say to them, look at our website to get the key points of the importance of the honey bee in Iowa. The candidates are Denise O’Brien and Bill Northey. Look at their websites also. We need to really let everyone know that we are needed in the economy of Iowa and need a department and a state apiarist. Contact me if you have any questions. We haven’t had time to get all of our honey off yet. The golden rod is starting to bloom here and we just keep getting more rain. I know it is needed, but the garden is sprouting weeds faster than we can keep them gone. We usually plan to take off the honey supers on Labor Day week-end. The state fair just puts everything on hold around here. It appears to be a good crop for us. Hope all of you are experiencing the same. Remember to put the Annual meeting on your schedule. Pat has a great line-up of speakers again for us. November 17th and 18th in Marshalltown promises to be a great learning experience. Don’t forget to enter names to Ellie Johnson for the awards presented at the banquet. Shawn was able to be home for two weeks right before the State Fair. He is scheduled to be back to Fort Sill in October or November. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that he will get to come then. He said the weather was really “warm” in Iraq and Kuwait. It was great to see him. Enjoy the great fall weather and remember that September is National Honey month. Do a radio spot, advertise in the local paper or do a promotion to let people know that you are in the area. Let’s let people and candidates know we exist. Sincerely, Donna Brahms, IHPA President
The Buzz Newsletter Submissions Please send submissions, classified ads, and photos
to Alex W. Ebert by email to TheBuzz@ABuzzAboutBees.com The Buzz is a monthly newsletter published by the Iowa Honey Producers Association which is an affiliate of the Iowa State Horticultural Society. IHPA Membership is only $10 annually. To join IHPA and receive your complimentary member subscription to The Buzz Newsletter, please contact:
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