>Good for him. Many amateur beekeepers are citydwellers. The only thing I can >pick up in Amsterdam is dog du du. Even decent horses don't exist here anymore. >Richard C.van Ouwerkerk, arts [log in to unmask] >1103 RH AMSTERDAM ZUIDOOST The Netherlands Well that is what bee friends are all about and do I have a deal for you. If you will buy 100 drums of my own good honey, (produced in China) I will include at no additional cost per pound one drum of dried Texas Cow Dung or for 25% discount I will throw in a 50/50 mixture of Texas Cow Dung and new crop Mad Cow Dung just received with a load of Big Mack hamburger from England. Anyone can see that I am only being silly, but one of my best beekeeping friends who has passed along once told me his story of his wonderful experiences exporting honey to Holland that was so good that he made several trips to visit with the Dutch honey importer-exporter in Holland and they became long time friends. John and his new friend developed a fast friendship and bound based on trust because of each other experience doing business with each other over the years and John was just one of those quit reserved men that you find puffing on a pipe or one of Cuba's best sitting next to king's and presidents as advisors. So into the new personal friendship the honey packer exporter confessed how he was in the old days during WW II also a smuggler. John also did his own share of law bending as was necessary to produce large crops in the US and Mexico so that sometimes his bees were not in the state or area that they were allowed to move in and out of at the time and he always seemed to be where the honey flow was best. One night after much good food and no small amount of drink the old Dutchman made John a deal that he could not turn down. From that time on with each load of honey he shipped to Holland he included a drum of nice washed graded river rocks for the same price per pound as the honey. It seems as told to me by John that in this area of Holland reclaimed from the sea there were no rocks, and the authorities did not want any because then enjoyed the fact that no rocks, no broken windows and they were prohibited from importing rocks as rocks, and who would look in a honey drum for hot rocks anyway. ttul Andy- (c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk. --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ Print (P)age (D)ocument (S)omething actually worth readin